Boxes & Circles Don’t Make Good Characters
Creating a walking cycle (or even just requesting one) is apparently too much for some people. Instead we end up seeing endless amounts of games that substite legitimate character design with colored gliding boxes and rolling balls. Sure, at first it was cute controlling a cube with eyes. But this is 2012; I think after years of lazy character development, those offenders can try a little harder at some actual graphical work. By all means, if a sphere or box is a legitimate part of your game design, go for it. Just be warned, its easy to tell when a feature was considered, and when it was slapped together.

Default Resources
A default load screen and default icons are really offputting. They are designed as placeholders that can later be changed, and nothing more.
As much as we all love the program, you’ve failed your job as a game designer if you haven’t solidly masked that its made in Game Maker. Its another case of graphical laziness. Developing an icon only takes minutes with a free tool like GIMP. And the loading bar can be turned off if you really can’t be bothered whipping a custom one up. The same goes for GM dialogues– don’t use the default messages unless you want to tell the world you are incapable of creating popup windows.
Be sure not to use default sprites either. They are there for initial experimenting with GM. No project worth sharing has ever been made with default sprites and backgrounds.

Windowed Mode
There is a time and place for using full screen, and it isn’t utilized as much as it should be. There is no problem in using windowed mode. Its easier to work with, and depending what kind of game you make it may be the best option for you. I am currently working on an exploration game, and windowed mode is what works best for me. But in the Game Maker world there are a lot of games, especially 3D works, that missed the opportunity to go full screen. It only takes a few lines of code to adjust room sizes or views to any resolution, and adjusting GUI elements to sit correctly on any screen is a matter of simple X and Y positioning.
We really need to embrace full screen more. It will make your game appear more professional, and the end user will appreciate a more immersive experience (its hard to ‘get into’ a game in windowed mode, being constantly reminded you are looking at a computer screen).

Psuedo-Companies
There is a strange obsession with creating game companies in the GMC. New users are often guilty of this more than anyone else. You don’t need to create a logo, or a business name, or assemble a team of people you’ll never end up using (seek help only when you need it, team requests should be used sparingly). Don’t create a phoney website for a non-existent unregistered gaming company. Don’t put fake trademarks on your software (protip: trademarks aren’t free, so stop with the TM symbols). If you want an identity associated with your work, use your username or your real name. Or how about linking to a YouTube channel where you can post videos of your game when its out?
In a nutshell, splash screens and bogus company names don’t make you look credible. Since most people abandon their GM projects and teams, its best to leave any “business” details for later– and only if you plan to stick to it and produce more software. And if you want to protect your work legally and freely, copyright can instantly be applied to your work. You can also use a free Creative Commons license, if your game is freeware or opensource. As for trademarks, you don’t need them.

Short Stories
As indie developers, we have to do all the work ourselves. Sound, graphics, programming, design, and everything inbetween. And we all strive to finish our game and get it out there for the public to see. Sadly the one area that often suffers for this is the game storyline. Its typical for a GM project to feature an unsatisfyingly small amount of levels, or even have an unfinished storyline. It doesn’t matter how good everything else in the game is if the duration of play is only ten minutes.
It is hard to get people to download and play your game, and you get one chance to make an impression. Do you think they will come back to play the update after you finish the storyline a month later? Yeah, keep dreaming.
The flip side to this is having a long storyline that sucks; this isn’t a problem for GM games usually, but its worth putting that warning out there anyway.

Don’t fall into the crowded depressing world of cheap Game Maker creation flops. Tools like Game Maker make it easy to do a bad job. Its takes a good job to reach an audience of players. Its easy to cut corners; its not to create a decent game in an over-saturated indie world.

5 Game Maker Cliches to Avoid is taken from: GameMaker Blog

It is a sad truth. Many Game Maker users will announce tonnes of new games, applications, and concepts in their time at the GMC, but so many of those projects will never see it to the end of their development.

Rest assured, many of us are guilty of abandoning projects. Even I have trashed a lot of promising ideas because I got lazy.

Sometimes its as simple as apathy or disinterest in our games when we hit nasty bugs or technical flaws. Fortunately there are ways of commiting to your Game Maker projects. So to avoid joining the (overcrowded) graveyard of games that were never to be, here are some tips that helped keep me on track for some of my past and present game developments.

Know What You Are Doing
It is tempting to open Game Maker straight away after coming up with a new game idea. This is a pointless practice.

Game Maker should be viewed as your workshop; craftsmen don’t often whip out a blank piece of wood and create a perfect artform out of nothing. You need to have an idea of what needs to be done, or better yet, a plan of some sort (even if it is loose, just know what you are doing). If you don’t have a goal or aim for this session of programming, you are going to waste time getting nothing practical done.

Some of us have success when we randomly chip away at our games. It is healthy to let our ideas naturally flow as we work. But  games are a technical business that needs to be as perfect as possible from start to finish. Practical efforts come first, if you have any ideas while working you can write them down and revisit them later.

Remember, you are creating a game for an audience of end users. Good luck trying to accurately create a good interface, a solid story, and great levels (or maps for the sandbox folks) if you don’t have any focus on what needs to be done. It doesn’t work like that.

Take Your Time
What is with the rush? In the excitement of coming up with a new game, we can sometimes work ourselves into the ground by spending too much time on our projects.

Pace yourself. It is very easy to lose interest on a game project if you spend too much time on it. Break your work clusters into blocks of time, such as twenty minutes every couple of hours. If that doesn’t appeal to you, seperate development time by individual features on a to-do list (for example, stopping for an hour after you complete the debugging of the main character).

If you work on your game for too long at once, you will get bored. By breaking your programming sessions up, not only does it give you a chance to reconsider your priorities on what work needs to be done, but it lets you refresh your mind and get excited about returning to the project.

Work on Something Else
Every so often you may hit a wall. Perhaps you can’t solve a bug, or maybe you are getting tired of working on an AI script?

Never forget that programming is just one aspect of your game. Spend some time working on sprites, new level designs, or background music. If multimedia work isn’t up your alley, why not try coming up with new ideas using a pen and paper (this can be really refreshing if you spend all day at the computer, trust me).

If you don’t feel like working on something new in the game, you can always revisit what you have already worked on and refine it further. Or you can look at other games or opensource examples at the GMC for inspiration on your own game.

Beta testing is okay too, but I’m sure we can all agree there is a fine line between testing your game and procrastinating. If you find yourself bouncing the main character around the screen mindlessly, it might be time to take a break.

WIP is Suicide
Releasing a ‘work in progress’ version or your game is the worst thing you can ever do. It is the kiss of death. Nobody wants to see a half baked version of your game.

As some wise programmer once told me, “… most of our drive is from releasing our work; once you do that, your motivation dies”.

This is all too true. We are pushed to work on our projects by the prospect of releasing them and getting response. ‘Work in progress’ games are always from people who are too impatient to wait for that time to come.

Ever played a WIP where there are no features beyond a moving main character, and there is only a single room? You don’t want to be that guy. And if you were that guy, we forgive you, just never do it again. Ever.

While on the subject of releasing game details too early, let me also warn you away from uploading banners for your signature that prematurely advertise your game. Unless you are nearing a release, there is no practical reason to do this, and it can contribute to a fall in motivation too. There is something about releasing bits of work to the public that can really cut people’s desire to see the job through, ironically.

Now or Never? Nonsense.
If you still don’t feel a love for your game, and feel like you want to delete it and have a clean slate to work with, stop right this instant!

Just because you don’t want to work on the game now doesn’t mean you never can. Put it in a safe place (but not out of sight, or it’ll get buried) and take a few weeks off. If you are anything like me, you will see it one morning and get excited about working on it again. Hell, sometimes I’ve even revisited games after months of waiting and burned through development with them.

One last nuggest of advice is to make a bi-weekly backup of your game. I take a copy of my game every three weeks or so and stick it in a folder in my documents (or before and after I do major changes to my game). This lets me rollback my work if I ever screw something up and can’t recall what I did. Also, it helps avoid accidental deletion of a game project; now that is a real way to kill motivation permanently.

Apathy with programming projects isn’t discriminative of Game Maker either. Whether you are programming a game, making a website, or developing an iOS app with Cocoa, such intensive and sometimes complex work grinds on us sometimes. That is just how it is.

In the end, it comes down to you. Ride out the temptation of laziness and see your work through.

5 Ways to Avoid Vaporware is taken from: GameMaker Blog

I for one saw nothing but another opportunity for Game Maker Studio to be delayed when I saw this announcement. And I don’t believe I am alone in this point of view. Aside from Studio, YoYo are already having to deal with PC spin-offs of GM, such as the HTML5 edition. And lets not disregard the ol’ faithful Standard edition.

If we all sit back and take a moment to recall Game Maker history, there was a time when a port to Mac was the “big plan of the future”. It had Macintosh users purched on the edges of their seats, regularly looking for news of the release. And then out of nowhere a good year or more after the announcement, out plopped a half backed, outdated port for Mac that left few impressed. GM4Mac has grown to be a little better over time, but it still needs work, and fast. So why exactly are YoYo trying to cover more platforms when they haven’t refined their last endeavor?

YoYo may feel that this approach equals more cash. Hopefully this isn’t their thinking.

Mac users take up a significantly bigger market share than Linux does, and there is arguably more opportunity for exposure when creating games for OSX. Apple also has a distribution system making the process a whole lot more enticing. However GM4Mac hasn’t been received as well as many may have expected. So how will a Linux port do, in a “niche” community, that is filled with freeware indulging cheapskates (myself included)? Not so well I feel. I believe a Linux port, assuming it comes out  in 2012, will be a flop (though if the Mac development history is anything to go by, we won’t be seeing a port to Linux for quite some time).

In saying this, an eventual port to Linux is welcomed. But is now really the right time? Probably not.

I sometimes wonder if YoYo is getting a bit carried away with their plans for extending the GM product range. The concepts seem good enough, but why does it feel like everything is being rushed and has to happen all at once? Even from an enduser’s perspective, its getting messy. Or at least it feels that way.

Though lets be fair to YoYo and their plans for Linux for just one moment. Sure, while we selfish Windows users may have to stretch our patience further when it comes to updates (unless YoYo becomes neglectful and caves into updating for PC more often than other ports) it is hard to not be a little excited about the port. After all, unlike the Mac edition, everyone will be able to test the Linux port when the time comes, since its a free OS accessible to anybody. Though one can’t help but feel this is a pointless exercise in covering more ground with operating systems.

Maybe the accessibility of Linux to the existing PC user base will be the secret weapon the Linux port needs to outdo the response that GM4Mac received.

Time will have to settle this one, but for now, it might not hurt to get your Ubuntu discs in order (or OpenSuse if you care to look past your doorstep– gotta love that green lizard).

Comment: Why the Linux Port Will Flop is taken from: GameMaker Blog

A 3rd-party Game Maker iOS compiler will be finished and released to public (56% of respondents thought this would occur in 2011)
This particular statement originated off the back of the GameMaker iOS decompiler project.  In December 2010, just before predictions were made, two GameMaker users developed software which could turn iPhone apps developed using GameMaker into an editable GMK file.  Shortly after the prediction poll started a video was released showing the reverse – a GameMaker created game running on iOS using YoYo Games’ technology but without their authorisation. Days later the project was dropped following a cease and desist notice from YoYo Games and nothing has been heard since.

There has been some work on getting Enigma games running on iOS but I can’t find a latest status update on this. Darkflow also promises to make your GameMaker games playable on iPhone but has not yet been released.

C++ runner available in standard Game Maker distribution (44%)
In March Sandy wasn’t sure whether the games YoYo plan to publish to PC would use the current Delphi, or a new C++, runner.  Posting on the YoYo Games blog in May he stated that Game Maker Studio Edition will provide access to C++ runners for various platforms.

When this question was phrased GameMaker Standard did not exist (it was called Pro) so the wording does not relate to this particular version of GameMaker, just a distribution accessible to the average GameMaker user.  When Studio is released its associated fee and extra features will mean that it is far from “standard” so this prediction does not look like being met.

More regular updates to be made to Game Maker (44%)
This has most certainly happened. One of the key changes introduced in GameMaker 8.1 was the addition of an automatic updater which enables YoYo Games to push out updates to the software to users regularly without GameMaker users needing to visit the website and download a new version directly.

The development team of Mike and Russell have been taking full advantage of the benefits the Game Maker updater provides. The current latest version of GameMaker for PC is 8.1.106 and numerous bugs have been fixed since 8.1′s debut as can be seen from the changelog.  Judging from comments on the GMC and the changelog progress on the Mac version appears to be slower but I cannot verify this.

Additional restrictions introduced to free PC version of Game Maker (36%)
This has already happened and very nearly to a substantial degree.  The free/Lite version of the GameMaker 8.1 beta originally had the ability to export games as executable .exe files disabled. Quickly abandoned, a limit of a maximum of 10-minutes play time on Lite created was then mooted before the ability to create executables was once again added in.

An additional restriction however is that games created using GameMaker 8.1 Lite must display a “created with GameMaker” logo in a corner of the screen at all times. As well as this GameMaker advert now shows when the game is closed. Plans to restrict the improved room editor to upgraded users only were also scrapped. See: Full details on final 8.1 Lite restrictions.

A new Game Maker interface (27%)
Following improvements to the GameMaker sprite editor in version 8.0, 8.1 saw improvements to the room editor and script editor but the main IDE interface remains the same.

An official self-publishing solution for mobile distribution available (19%)
GameMaker Studio was announced.  YoYo Games “don’t expect to ship [GameMaker Studio] with a rich feature set” in 2011. It is possible that a HTML5 version will be released this year. [^]

YoYo Games “to have published more than 500 games” (17%)
The number of different titles published is less than 20 and however you count publishing (separate versions for each platform) the number of released games is nowhere near 500, in fact it is nearer to a tenth of that figure.

It appears that instead of opening their “store” to user submitted games YoYo Games now favour on working on GameMaker Studio, which will let purchasers publish their own games to mobile platforms, and working with YoYo Games Studios and approaching other respected GameMaker developers to produce portable games.

And there are still six months to go…

2011 Game Maker Predictions: 6 Months On is taken from: GameMaker Blog

In order to do this, I went to the YoYo Games site to find a cross section of zombie games to play, and hopefully find some good ones. As I visited the site, one thing hit me immediately – the sheer number of zombie games! A quick search for ‘zombies’ turned up 34 pages of results – compared with only 18 pages for ‘aliens’.

With all these zombie games there’s only one presented in the YoYo Games spotlight – designed to attract attention to great or unique games for people to play. Okay, onto the first game!

Zombies by Jimmynator

What better place to start than with the spotlight game? ‘Zombies’ is created by Jimmynator, and I was quite confident to see a quality game with some unique elements, befitting its spotlight position. The screenshots look decent and the game apparently supports 2 players, which sounds fun. From previous experience, multiplayer would be pretty cool and somewhat innovative for a Game Maker game.

As the introduction rolls I’m pretty impressed as it looks a bit professional and cool. However, that feeling is quickly dashed by a show_message popping up. It asks me for my name and I stare at it for a second. Usually spotlight games are of high quality, but using a show_message is commonly criticised for being lazy. It doesn’t even have a custom skin. Is this really the first experience you want your players to receive?

Moving on, I note the number of options on the main menu, seeing that it has trophies and statistics, which is good. I start up the game proper and am instantly somewhat deflated. The graphics are full of gradient usage and are very generic and dull. The room I’m standing in is massive and yet empty of pretty much anything. There are wooden blocks stationed about the place that zombies attempt to break into. Why they aren’t windows I have no idea. I am also presented with no help, which is a little annoying.

It takes a while to figure out two things: reload is space, for no reason, and that you can shoot through the wood blocks without damaging them. Both of these are pretty important but aren’t explained. There’s no way to change the key bindings, either. This is pretty frustrating.

But it doesn’t stop there – there’s a sound that loops every 4 seconds or so that is possibly the most annoying sound effect created by mankind. I assume it’s a zombie but I can only guess it’s ripped from something, as within it I can also hear a police siren. To reiterate: a police siren goes off every 4 seconds the game lasts for. Way to make your game playable.

With all that said, from a mechanics point of view, the difficulty is solid. I felt somewhat challenged and this gradually built up. The speed zombies are a little fast for what they are, however.

The biggest flaw in the game is how difficult some of the mechanics are to grasp – for example, there’s a turret you can place which greatly helps you in killing the zombies. But, there’s no on screen feedback that you can place it. You just have to dig into the help file (which very few players will do) to learn you can press ‘t’ for a turret. How about a symbol on the screen next to the ammo, which could show you had a turret to place down. Also, nowhere in the help file or games does it say how you can buy weapons. Want to know what bizarre key it is? It’s left control.

Remember earlier how I said the difficulty was OK? It’s broken by about the 5th level. You enter a room with a turret in, and you never have to leave. In fact opening more doors is worse, because it lets more enemies in. The turret is the best weapon in the game. It has no ammo, no overheat problems. Nothing. You can shoot in any direction at a high rate of fire. So the player feels no desire to explore or find more content, gradually build up their weapons to fight the hardest enemies. They can just sit in a room.

The path finding is equally dreadful. Zombies continually run up and down the walls outside the building while you stand around inside, doing nothing. It’s also worth pointing out how big and at the same time, how empty the building you’re in is. What the hell was it before the zombies came anyway?

I die, and notice there’s a custom skin for the show_message now – why wasn’t that there when it asked me for my name?

I try playing another level, but it’s almost identical to the first one, except the room now has a bed in it. The trophies are very samey, the stats are OK but don’t record much and it turns out the 2 player is split screen, which I imagine is fun if you enjoy the actual game, which I don’t.

The online high score system doesn’t seem to be working either.

After a search I found the game topic at the GMC.  It’s quite remarkable. The author gets extremely annoyed when people complain about the control system, and this happens several times. However, they don’t try and fix this within the game, instead they get kind of angry.

I started this article to learn more about Zombie Top Down Shooter (ZTDS) games. So what have I learnt from ‘Zombies’? Keep tight control of balancing. Make sure your core game is solid before adding other features like trophies and high score systems (that don’t work). The game features no story and no information on your character, which hurts the enjoyment of the game. The game does feature some special zombies that make you slightly change your tactics, which is good.

The more I play this game, the more I feel drained. This is the best ZTDS? It is the spotlight overall. While the game on YoYo is rated 4 stars I’d probably give it 2 stars. Let’s move on to the next game.

Zombie Terrorists by cocoreysa

I think this is the kind of game people think of when they see “ZTDS” – broken and unpolished. It has a lot of the flaws that ‘Zombies’ did, but manages to do even worse. By the way if you’re wondering about the game, I believe it’s a reference to a common rumour that was around before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s launch – that it would contain a zombie mode. But because Infinity Ward’s games took place in the modern day, the Nazis would be replaced by terrorists. This was later proven to be absolute nonsense.

The first thing that I noted was the UI, which takes up about a 1/3 of the screen. This is further hampered by the fact that the screen size is so small, which makes it difficult to see things coming, and react to them.

When starting the game there are some options which you can choose from, but none of them have any explanation as to what they do. They all seem to be directly ripped from Call of Duty, as well. For example, kill streaks? How would that work? Once you die, you finish the game, so getting 1,435 kills in a row isn’t really that skilful.

The other very noticeable bit of the game is that zombies appear from thin air, sometimes right in front of you. They also disappear into thin air when the arbitrary ‘round’ is over. This is confusing and odd. Why do this? It has no advantage over any other spawning system, and just makes it look unprofessional.

There are a lot of options (pistol only, kill streaks etc.) but the core game is frustrating, bizarre and extremely repetitive. Zombies appear out of thin air, and disappear again when the ‘round’ is over.

Hitting the escape key immediately exits the game, which is annoying when I want to pause it or just go back to the menu.

A plus point is that the game features 5 different maps to play, but there’s no difference in gameplay between them. The ‘city’ map is especially poor – the flickering street lights strained my eyes, and they shone through buildings for no reason. Some maps feature buildings which are 2D and you can enter, whereas others feature ones which were ‘2.5D’ and you couldn’t enter, which was annoying.

There is limb damage in terrorist zombies, but it’s only aesthetic. So if you blow their legs off, zombies still run at the same pace, which is ridiculous. The muzzle effect is a Game Maker standard effect, which looks awful. The path finding is even worse than ‘Zombies’. The fog makes it difficult to see a lot of the game because it covers everything up.

So what was there to learn from Terrorists Zombies? Well, like ‘Zombies’ it includes relatively arcade-like style gameplay. The zombies are easy to kill and there’s lots of blood and gore. In my WIP game zombies require many more shots to take down. Upon playing these, I’m loathe to say that they have it better. It’s just more fun to kill more zombies with fewer shots to each. In addition, I need to make sure the screen is large enough to see things coming, and make sure zombies don’t just appear from nowhere.

This is honestly a very poor game, and it shocks me that it has been rated 4 stars. Is this really all it takes to make a game which is considered popular by the YoYo Community? I want to strive to make something a lot better.

Blood Bath 2 Unlucky by petrik09

To be honest I wasn’t expecting much after the disasters that had come before, but Wow!  As I dropped into the first level of this game I realised I was having fun!

The graphics are 3D, but it’s still done in a top down-ish style. The 3D has animations, lighting and different models for different weapons. This really adds to the appeal of the game and makes it instantly more interesting and attractive.

Weapons are bought, and the shop type system is easily accessible at the top of the screen. The balancing on the weapons is good, and each one feels distinctly different in handling.

At the start of the level it directed me towards some help, where I actually learnt about the game, as opposed to some of the other games where the help is non-existent.

The sight of customization options lifted my heart, and I wasn’t disappointed. There are a couple of attachments and equipment which can be purchased. These are great, they easily add depth and advancement to the game. It helps to give the player some amount of choice as well – buy the attachment for this gun or to save up for another. I’d like to see this system extended, because at the moment you can get the final weapon quite early on.

There are some barrels to explode, which means you can actually interact with the environment in this game, which is a really good start. This could be expanded – having a bunch of explosive barrels doesn’t really make sense in a park.

The shooting system is enjoyable, despite a low number of guns. The impact of your weapon feels good, and there’s a bit of limb damage – occasionally you’ll only blow their heads off. The feel of a shooting system is vital in a shooting game. This is why many people argue about whether they prefer Killzone over Call of Duty – in Killzone the controls are quite ‘floaty’ but this allows for more graphical effects, and is less demanding on new players. However, Call of Duty’s system is very precise.

The sound was good. It was used minimally, and added to the game well. The weapon effects sounded excellent, and the sound definitely added to the games appeal.

Now, the game isn’t perfect – the graphics need a bit of tune up as some of the models look poor, for example, the zombie model could have been improved. It could use a few more guns and equipment for extra variety. I wonder about the replayability – there are three maps, but they’re all very similar. In addition it’s tough to see where your money is, which causes problems when you’re trying to buy things.

It honestly shocks me this is rated 4 stars, the same as the previous game. In this case I think it’s worth 3.5 stars, but some extra content could easily boost this up to a 4.

As I play this game, my faith in the ZTDS genre is restored. The addition of 3D graphics clearly boosts the enjoyment of the game. But it’s not just about graphics – easily accessible customization, clear help files, good difficulty. The solid foundations are here for a fantastic game, and I can see that potential clearly shining through.

Wrap Up

After playing those games I’ve seen the highs and lows of the ZTDS genre. But the elements I want to include in my zombie game clearly shine through:

Polish, polish and then polish some more. I had always considered this before, but you never polish enough. What do I mean by this? Play your game. Is that piece of the UI slightly too big? Make it smaller. Zombies slightly too hard? Weaken their attacks or the amount of them. It’s easy to think ‘That’s fine’ or ‘Nobody will see that’. But people will, and they’ll appreciate the extra effort you go to improve it.

Graphics. You might get the impression that I only like 3D graphics from this article. It’s not true. But 2.5D or 3D systems add so much more to immersive nature of the game. If you do 2D graphics, then great, I won’t criticize you for it. Just make sure the effects are good and that you get a proper artist or learn from some tutorials. Just ask in the Art forum of the GMC.

Mechanics. Zombies are being used as a crutch for poor game design. By all means use zombies, but think about previous systems. Don’t copy from World at War. Think about why World at War was fun and apply those concepts. Special zombies add a lot to gameplay, so think carefully about including them.

Sound. Use sound minimally, don’t try and force it on players. Don’t loop music or sound effects, and if you have a zombie sound effect for death, try including a couple of slightly different ones instead of just one. Allow sound volume to be lowered or turned off completely.

This post was written by Sondar. You can follow me on Twitter or see my website and blog. I’m working on more articles and some tutorials, so favourite it and check back regularly!

An exploration of Game Maker Zombie Top Down Shooter Games is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Michael Mercado has released an early version of an open source alternative to the built in Game Maker room editor, GMare.

Written in C# the editor features a zoom, tile fill and many other tile features.

Admittedly this would have been much more useful if it was released months or even years back, given that internal testing of the improved room editor to be present in Game Maker 8.1 has already begun, but it is an improvement over what is currently available in Game Maker 8.

GMC discussion on usage

GMare – Open Source Game Maker Room Editor is taken from: GameMaker Blog

There are so many different potential players of your game and it can be hard to make your game suit different tastes.  Here I examine two broad gamer definitions that can be expand into many more.

Hardcore Gamers
You can always pick one out of a group of people; they eat, sleep, dream, and talk game experience. One thing and one thing only is what hardcore gamers believe – The Game Is The Life.  These people want to have the most out of your game; every penny they pay has got to be worth it. Hundreds of hours spent on one game are what they want, extra secret quests, weapons, areas – you name it.

The more times they can replay to get the highest score on the toughest level, the most unlocks, the more easter eggs they can find the happier they are. If your game doesn’t have different levels of difficulty or another way to make it more challenging you should add this.

It could mean creating sub quests, secret areas or items, anything that does not have to be used for the main game.  This way they can spend extra time on these and you can make them incredibly challenging.  It doesn’t matter to your average gamer whether or not they are accomplished or not but with these hardcore gamers are able to meet the challenge with out leaving the main game.

Include easter eggs in your game to encourage hardcore gamers to return and replay your game to find that one thing they missed or get another higher then previously outrageous high score.  They might want to go back and find another area. If a hardcore plays for replay value and not some easter egg, they may be quite happy with your game play and that is always a plus to the developer.

Detail Detail Detail! This is incredibly important to any game that hopes to please a hardcore gamer. Your character had better be more than a stickman walking around a world made with lines and circles. You have to be more than simple graphics and calculations and colors. They want to feel as though they are playing the game as the character. Be the character. Would you like to live in Stick guy world or Super Mario World? Allowing them to customize their character is even better but can be confusing for many people if it is right at the beginning.

Numbers. Hardcore gamers will eat these things up like a vending machine and quarters. If you are done with your game and before you release it, send a beta out and have some friends fill out a questionnaire. Use the beta testers to discover which tips or hints a player might want to know. Use all of this data and maybe some of your own tips and tricks to add in and create a game guide, or a game manual.

Hardcore gamers want:

• Extended Hours of Gameplay
• Re-playability
• High Levels of Customization
• Side Quests and Missions
• Branches off the main tree of gameplay and story
• Extreme Levels of Gameplay

Casual Gamers
Whether this is the flag football in the backyard or weekend halo nights everyone is, at some point, a casual gamer.  For a casual gamer games are what they are: games.  Nice distractions from life that allow a player to train, fight, and live their electronic alter ego.

Simplicity is all they need. Detail is nice for the eye but too much can turn them away. The game has to be welcoming and simple at the beginning. If they have to raid castle Macindaw 5 times over and the level is 30 minutes of playing each time and there aren’t any save points or it’s just the first level they may be discouraged and return, throw away, or shove into some desolate folder on the hard drive your hard labor on your game. Nobody wants that, so remember: Simplicity.

If they don’t get rewards for their efforts they will turn into the unhappy puppy that won’t do anything for you. So give them frequent rewards and advancements. Give them save points or tokens or some other form of reward or unlockables. Don’t have some cloak and dagger system of goals and objectives. Casuals are not hardcores who will spend hours searching through the world of your game looking for the one person who can help them out. If you absolutely have to put this in don’t make it costly. If they find the person in the deepest corner of your game’s hell, don’t make the non-playable character demand money or something that the player will have to give up that has value.  Balance the challenge with the reward and the effort.

Effort + price to pay = reward

Or ideally

Effort + price to pay < reward

Casual Players do not want overly extensive game play. Over about 100 hours will not suit very many players. Casual gamers may also want re-playability. The best type of replay is one where the player enjoyed the story/game play etc. if they are replaying for Easter eggs; you can categorize them under Hardcore or maybe somewhere in between. Casual players are just your everyday person.

Remember, Casual Gamers want:

• Simplicity
• Easy Going Story and Game-play
• Replayability
• Non-extensive Gameplay
• A main story line

Conclusion:
Try to keep both gamer types in mind while designing your games. Add side stories so hardcore gamers can pursuer them while casual can take the regular road and provide different difficulties of game play for the player. Hope you liked my input to the gaming world – have fun designing your game for both audiences.

Photo credit: 52:10:Gaming [modified] by Graham Campbell (cc).

Designing for Hardcore Gamers and Casual Gamers is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Along with the new game being planned, several GMCG leaders have stepped down. The following leaders have resigned from their positions:

• Rusky, Programming Leader
• Opacus, Graphics Leader
• monocledsardine, Sound Leader

The GMCG has been criticized from the very beginning and disagreements, collaboration issues and other problems seem to have finally surfaced. With over a years worth of work thrown away people may think twice about contributing to a new project that may end up being trashed as well. The lack of replies on the announcement from Takagi could indicate that people have already lost interest in the project.

GMCG Project Scrapped – Leaders Step Down and Smaller Game Planned is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Game Maker for Mac has been in development on and off for over two years with the first video showing progress released in February 2008 and testing commencing in November of the same year.

Game Maker for Mac out “by July” is taken from: GameMaker Blog

The first thing posted on the group is a video showing one of the competition 5 runners up, Pixelry by EvelendGames.

This is a new build on the official devkit, and as such has taken a little backwards step. There is currently no audio, and we have some sorting issues with instances. We also have texturing issues with the UVs being out by 1 texel in most places. -YoYo Games

Like YoYo Games Ltd? is taken from: GameMaker Blog