Game Maker Blog » Resources

Popular 39dll now available as 39dylib on Mac

Philip Gamble — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:06:18 +0000

Luke Graham’s long standing popular 39dll, which enables Game Maker programs to access HTTP sockets, has been successfully ported from Windows to Mac so that its features can be used within Game Maker 7 for Mac.

The PC version is used by a large proportion of multiplayer Game Maker games and those that make use of online functionality.

Uriel Griffin’s Mac version of 39dll, named 39dylib, is available to download at the GMC and he says the source code will be released soon.

YoYo Games Resource Sharing: Dismal

Philip Gamble — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:06:00 +0000

There have been a number of comments in reply to YoYo’s post about GameSpark, in which they endorse the video tutorials and game resource store on offer, critical of YoYo’s decision to support the third-party commercial store.

When Mark Overmars announced that he was partnering with YoYo Games for the future development of Game Maker one of the things he said that YoYo Games would be working on was a system for sharing resources. Yoyogames.com does include a very basic resource upload, browse and search function but it really is not, nor has it ever been, fit for purpose.

The search box is below the fold, lots of ripped resources are present, there aren’t even previews or screenshots of resources. In the 3 years since the resources section of the site went live there have not been any visible improvements and the rating system has long been broken.

There are numerous third-party sites that list Game Maker resources, but these are never going to be able to attract the levels of support that a well implemented official resource sharing mechanism would. Stencyl has the integrated StencylForge resource sharing area whilst Unity has its Asset Store. Game Maker has a neglected list.

Good games do not necessarily have to boast amazing graphics but I can’t see how making the sharing of game resources, libraries and tutorials easier could hinder the quality of games uploaded to YoYoGames.com

YoYo Games Resource Sharing: Dismal is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Mike Deroche’s DLLs

Philip Gamble — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:30:25 +0000

We haven’t mentioned any sites offering Game Maker resources for a long time as the vast majority of these projects are mediocre at best and quickly turn into a collection of broken links to a puny amount of files. Once in a while I stumble across a real gem though. Mike Deroche‘s personal site is one of them.

Mike makes available for download the 24 DLLs he has created for use with Game Maker on a beautifully designed yet entirely functional website. You may struggle to find a use for some of them such as a DLL that controls the keyboard lights for Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock but others are far more practical including the OnTop DLL which forces the game window to the top of the window order and the NetRead DLL which makes it easy to retrieve data from the Internet.

Mike Deroche’s DLLs is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Unofficial fix for YoYo Games’ InstantPlay in Firefox 3.5

Philip Gamble — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:33:52 +0000

Earlier today Mozilla released version 3.5 of Firefox. As I write YoYo Games instant play is not compatible with this version due to the ‘maxVersion‘ value YYG have placed within the plugin.

The Mozilla Developer Center states in its documentation:

“minVersion and maxVersion should specify the range of versions of the application you have tested with. In particular you should never specify a maxVersion that is larger than the currently available version of the application since you do not know what API and UI changes are just around the corner. With compatibility updating it is not necessary to release a whole new version of the extension just to increase its maxVersion.”

Therefore YoYo Games followed the advice provided when choosing their maxVersion value.

When version 3 of FireFox was released it took almost a month for YoYo Games to release an official solution. A similar problem occurred when Firefox 3.0.1 was released and Chronic quickly provided a solution. If you follow that solution and set maxValue to “3.*” the plugin functions in Firefox version 3.5.

You can download a pre-modified version of the extension here.

Unofficial fix for YoYo Games’ InstantPlay in Firefox 3.5 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Don’t make games in four hours if you stink!

Philip Gamble — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:27:07 +0000

Jonatan Söderström, perhaps better known as Cactus, creator of games including Ad Nauseam 2 and Clean Asia recently gave a lecture (using Game Maker) on “Four-Hour Games Design” at the Independent Games Summit.

TIGSource has an rather nice article about the presentation and as I wasn’t there I will guide you that way if you are interested.

Video of the presentation (with rather poor sound at times) has been posted on YouTube and is embedded below. You’ll want to skip to about 2 minutes 15 seconds unless you want to see Jonatan’s volume control fail.

The next page has the rest of the presentation in video form.

Don’t make games in four hours if you stink! is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Add your location to a world map of GMC members

Philip Gamble — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:30:34 +0000

James Rhodes of GM-Resources.com has created a map on which GMC forum members can indicate their geographic location.

You may like to add yourself or see what other users are from your neck of the woods, although the service has only just started so very few members are currently plotted.

Game Maker does have a global reach but the GMC, as you would expect, appears to be most popular in predominately English speaking countries and in the Netherlands where the software originated. I am pleased to see that James Rhodes has taken on board many of my suggestions regarding his idea. Details of non-English Game Maker Community alternatives can be found here.

Add your location to a world map of GMC members is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Russell’s Quarterly 5

tuntis — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:24:13 +0000

The praised Russell’s Quarterly written by Tom Russell returns with a new issue full of quality content spanning to 67 pages “absolutely jam-packed with interesting, thought-provoking, and above all, useful content”. Sounds interesting, as always.

Design-wise, Quarterly seems to be taking on a (slightly) more richer selection of colors and design in general. Check it out.

Russell’s Quarterly 5 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Boss Battles with Russell

Philip Gamble — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:38:11 +0000

Tom Russell has released the fourth edition of his quarterly game development magazine, subtitled “Boss Battles”.

The pdf is free to download (left click only, 3.1 MB) and contains 90 pages of articles, features and game reviews and even a 13-page short story.

Boss Battles with Russell is taken from: GameMaker Blog

G3D Effects Libary

Danny — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:41:11 +0000

A promising new website, the G3d 3d Effects Database, has been launched. This innovative site hosts an array of different 3D Effects created by various artists/coders for GameMaker. It currently features just a little over ten effects but from the look of this site I can imagine this number will grow at a rapid rate. The response from members at the GMC has been positive.

My personal favorite effect is the ‘Explosion with Shrapnel’ effect (right). The only thing this site needs is a real domain (rather than the overused uni.cc)

G3D Effects Libary is taken from: GameMaker Blog

GM Obfuscator

tuntis — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:34:29 +0000

And the decompiler drama continues. This time with a GM Obfuscator, which obviously obfuscates Game Maker files.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t prevent decompilation. But anybody who will decompile your game will have a hard time making sense out of it.

What’s your opinion?

GM Obfuscator is taken from: GameMaker Blog