An MMORPG, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, is an ambitious project often jumped in to by people who do not have sufficient experience of using Game Maker or programming in general.

The set of tutorials available on the website is designed to teach the creation of a 2-dimensional Game Maker MMORPG making use of the popular 39DLL networking sockets library.

True Valhalla has first-hand experience in developing for the genre with his Myriad Online project recently passing a year of development time. News that the first beta version of the game is currently expected to be released at the end of 2012 or start of 2013 indicates the kind of commitment and dedication that will be required to complete such a game, even with the availability of resources such as How to Make An MMORPG.

The Warrior’s Path, which had the added complication of being 3D, was a rare example of a long running Game Maker MMORPG project. However it was never released as the project was abandoned which the developers attributed to speed issues with Game Maker. Much more workable were the 2-dimensional Stick Online and Realm of Past Worlds, two Game Maker MMORPG projects which successfully reached release but both appear to no longer be supported by their developers.

The website starts off assuming no knowledge whatsoever with section available entitled “What is Game Maker?” which then takes you through the basics of using the software and GML. Whilst this will obviously be of benefit to programmers who are not familiar with using Game Maker this may encourage a few too many in the “I have no programming knowledge whatsoever but I want to make a MMORPG” category to jump in and quickly become confused. To mitigate this there are about 20 pages or so before reaching the “Getting Started” section appears, this should demonstrate both the complexity of such a project and the the level of detail that has been provided in the tutorial.

The material is presented in a clean and consistent fashion with function names highlighted, sufficient screenshot and is accompanied by well commented downloadable examples. Arrows at the bottom of each page link to the next section in the tutorial or you can choose to access a particular page directly from a contents listing.

Colour coded and documented GML

The site doesn’t just throw code at you either, there are good explanations behind everything that is taught, such as this introduction to the concept of a client-server model and how it will work for a MMORPG.

Once networking has been taught you aren’t abandoned either, there are additional articles on common misconceptions (perhaps the thought was that incorporating this into the main tutorial would scare people off!), funding a game, security issues and on how best to deal with malicious users.

The site has been online for about 9 months and despite the amount of material available it is far from complete as a quick look at the examples download page will show. Future additions will include platform movement, AI, combat and inventories. From this list of exclusions it is clear that the guide doesn’t currently teach you absolutely everything you need to know about creating a MMORPG in Game Maker however the basics of using 39DLL to create a working networked game are covered.

Over the coming months and years this could develop into a comprehensive tutorial for everything Game Maker MMOPRG related and would be a good link to post in response to the overly-ambitious MMORPG as a first game attempts that crop up at GMC.

Visit www.HowToMakeAnMMORPG.com

How to Make a MMORPG in Game Maker is taken from: GameMaker Blog

The site claims to offer “Everything you need to make a game” and along with the teaching side also has a resource store where you can purchase sprites and backgrounds for your game for either personal (~$1.75) or commercial (~$17.50) use.

Each lesson consists of well over an hour of video tutorials, all the resources you need to make a game and some short ‘how to’ guides. It’s not just lessons though. ‘Customise game’ features suggest additions and modifications that can be added to the taught games along with some hints as to how to go about implementing them. ‘Extended Learning’ offers suggestions as to what you might want to do next with sample code where appropriate and finally a Quiz asks multiple choice questions about Game Maker and the reasons behind aspects of the created game.

There are currently six Game Maker ‘courses’ available, which in reality are detailed tutorials since they only teach one game, starting with novice level 2D maze and platform game courses and then quickly advancing to a 3D racing game, maze, arena and scrolling shooters. All the courses have video tutorials available for both Game Maker 8 and Game Maker 7 (for Mac). For the intermediate and advanced courses the Pro version of Game Maker is required.

Sample Course Content (Click to enlarge)

The individual pricing is set at $20 for the earlier and $30 for more advanced courses. Access to all six courses is $50 for a year. Wisely the course aims to sell to parents, schools and summer camps rather than children themselves though it will be interesting to see how GameSpark plan to get the product it front of these people. There is a free trial which will enable free access the first five lessons of the 2D Maze tutorial.

I haven’t had the time to work my way through a course so can’t vouch for the accuracy of the material but since the tutorials are presented in video format nothing should be missed out or overlooked. Some do see a bit regimental “do this, do that!” often with a very brief (if any) explanation as to why an action is being performed. Telling us how to spell each resource name letter by letter – T.E.D.I.O.U.S!

The courses have obviously been under development for a while as the second beta version of Game Maker 8 is used in at least some videos.

Comparisons will inevitably be made with freely available video tutorials and Jacob Habgood’s books.   A detailed  help system with comprehensive coverage of potential issues you may encounter when working on each game helps make GameSpark package far more useful than any series of free online Game Maker video tutorials I have seen.

A notice omission is the presence of partial (or even complete) editable .GMK files for the taught games. Though given the educational targeting for the courses this makes sense.

Verdict: The best Game Maker video series though the cost is likely to put most people off.  If I had to choose between a annual GameSpark subscription and a book I would probably opt for the book.  I think for something this in-depth the videos would quickly get boring though for use in education the videos would probably come out on top.

GameSpark Game Maker Video Courses is taken from: GameMaker Blog

The hosts featured in this Minisode are Host-A, UpUrLoad, and My GM Host. Each website is ranked based on Ease of Use, Layout and Limitations and are scored on a 5 star basis. The video featured some good footage of each contestant and ranked each host fairly.

The rankings will not be revealed here, but anyone can go and watch the show on the GMVision Website to see the complete reviews and final rankings.

GMVision’s Second Minisode Published is taken from: GameMaker Blog

The recently published Getting Started with Game Maker by Jerry Lee Ford [read our interview with Jerry] aims to introduce Game Maker and teach basic game development and programming principles.

The book is divided into three sections.  In the first Ford provides an overview of the Game Maker IDE to help the reader get a feel for the software they will be using.  The second part of the book teaches development using Game Maker’s drag-and-drop functionality through the creation of  four games, whilst the final section introduces coding in Game Maker Language culminating in the production of a space invaders clone.

Written for use with Game Maker 7 Getting Started with Game Maker positions itself at a level prior to The Game Maker’s Apprentice with the book Mark Overmars co-authored being recommended as “a good next step for beginning Game Maker developers”.

The book is written assuming the reader has no prior game making knowledge and emphasises the ability to be able to create games without having to learn a programming language heavily in the opening chapter.

The vast majority of examples can be completed with the free (Lite) version of Game Maker although Pro is needed for some of the topics covered towards the end of the book.  Ford says upgrading is “well worth” $20 (the current upgrade cost is actually $25).

Super Pong game from Getting started with Game Maker

Whereas other books or tutorials may feature practical instructions from the offset Getting Started with Game Maker provides a thorough introduction to the different areas of Game Maker before commencing any game creation.  This may be frustrating for those wanting to dive straight into making games but I believe this format is more beneficial allowing game development to progress more rapidly once the necessary basics have been explained.

After the first section each chapter starts by introducing new elements of Game Maker or a game design topic and culminates in the production of a game.  For example in chapter 3 Ford discusses the merits of using power-ups and difficulty settings within your game to maintain user interest and the GML section includes an introduction to the areas of iteration and selection.

Working through the games taught threw up some unexpected problems as right from the very outset (a simple Bouncing Balls program) instructions were missing.  In this instance it was the omission of a step to add a background image to the room but unfortunately this wasn’t a one off.  Perhaps this could be overlooked had it of occurred later on in the book but in the opening chapters of a book aimed at total beginners this is likely to confuse and irritate readers.

Each game is created following a seemingly untouchable pattern.  First import all resources used in the game, second create and program the objects and finally place objects in rooms.  This is unrealistic particularly with the complete lack of mid-creation testing which should surely be encouraged and is only touched up on in the final chapter.

There are a few generalisations towards the start of the first section, such as stating that in Game Maker 30 steps equates to one second and that sprites have transparent backgrounds, however full explanations of these are given later on.

“Tricks” boxes throughout  the book contain useful shortcuts which can make your programming more efficient and some of them were certainly new to me.   The promised series of ‘challenges’ at the end of each chapter never materialised which I found disappointing.

Of the games taught three are two-player games presumably this is to make creation more interesting as you can play the finished games with a friend or family member.  I was quite surprised however to see that neither a platform game or a maze game were included as these both leave lots of room for extension as opposed to the fairly narrow scope of the specific arcade games.

Throughout images are given for reference consisting mainly of clearly annotated screenshots of the Game Maker IDE but there are also a few diagrams to illustrate concepts and 7 pages of easy to use reference tables for all of Game Maker’s drag-and-drop actions.

Good naming practise is taught with all objects, scripts and sprites being given suitable prefixes to avoid confusion when coding and all Game Maker Language code is fully commented to explain the intended actions.

On a couple of occasions I spotted a younger sibling (who is aware of but does not use Game Maker) flicking through the book and he seemed pretty interested in the arcade style games taught throughout the book even though I beat him at them!  The language used should ensure that the book is understood by children as all technical words are explained when they are introduced and there is also an online glossary.

As well as teaching game creation the book also explains how to use the YoYo Games website to distribute finished projects and an appendix provides details of websites providing further information about Game Maker.

The resources needed are either included with the Game Maker 7 download or are available from the publisher’s website [download here] where both the graphics required, the source code for the completed games and appendices can be found.

Verdict:  A good all-round introduction to using Game Maker to create games from the basics of drag-and-drop through to GML.  The topics covered at the start of each chapter can easily be transferred to programming in other languages.  Seems a shame that the book was released when it was.  A couple of months later and it could have been released for use with Game Maker 8 and would probably receive more attention as well as ensuring it is correct for the version most people will be using.
ISBN: 1-59863-882-3
Pages: 318.  Black and white.

Buy it: Amazon.com (US) $26.49, Amazon.co.uk £18.99

Nice to see the successful GMTech getting a mention in an Appendix

Book Review: Getting Started with Game Maker by Jerry Lee Ford is taken from: GameMaker Blog

But wait, hold your horses – do you think that our good friend Nate is responsible for this? The explanation to this seemingly miraculous event is simple: he had outside help from somebody insane enough to help him.

So, here’s some bits from the stuff HCG wrote, without further ado:

As  you all may  know,  I am  currently  learning  Java and C++. This may be a surprise to you all but C++ and Java’s syntax closely  resembles  the syntax  for GML.

Oh my god!

I am sick and tired of new games on YoYo and the GMC. Why may you ask? Well I meant, not all of them. A good amount of them. There are many users posting games that have been called: “Unnamed Platformer,” “Unnamed RPG”, “Unnamed TDS”. Why make a game, without a name? How about you get a name  for  the game before the  release?

I still don’t know what “Adbarlian Castles” means…

When you call a game Unnamed,  it makes it seem like its an example/tutorial edit.

Your games have names – and they still seem like example/tutorial edits!

Wowza! There are now 2 interview gm sites. I recall last issue, we spoke of the 1st one.

In a very positive light indeed.

Review for “Coredase” – if I can read this horrible font right:

Finally, a game that strays away from all the violence and harmful nature.

Sounds like a decent review so far…

…I gave this game an overall rating of 6 stars not only because he’s my friend, but because this game is truly a masterpiece.

Once again, the Prodigy Game Magazine presents unbiased opinions (as if reviewing their own games wasn’t enough). Hey – it’s what they he promised us with issue 1:

“We are not politically correct at all. We give out intense news, previews, and reviews.”

Intense, indeed!

The rest of the magazine is the usual stuff: interview, another review… a few typos there and there. Somewhat readable.

The world is coming to an end.

Prodigy Game Magazine becomes a semi-decent publication is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Changeable gravitational fields are the only real difference from a classic game of breakout and its many clones.  There are a variety of different block types, some which are stronger than others, and power-ups including lasers, extra lives and extended bat length.

With 4 difficulty modes and 25 levels Awesome Ball is strangely addictive, and also popular.  The game has a 4-star rating at YoYo and has received praise such as “one of the best brick breaking games I’ve ever played” and “probably the greatest brick-breaking game”.  After reading those opinions you might be expecting a fully-flourished and smoothly implemented game with well-designed graphics, however there are couple of issues that taint this view.  

Firstly the graphics are very basic.  In a game like this you would expect simple graphics, however I was disappointed with some of the graphics – particularly the powerups, where the type of bonus was not always identifiable until it had been collected.  

When running the game you are not prompted to select a difficulty setting, but you must first configure this or the game will not run – an annoyance that occurs each time you want to start a new game.  You are also unable to use the QWERTY characters on your keyboard to enter your name on the highscores table, and instead must use the up and down arrows to scroll through the available letters and then press Enter before moving on to configure the next letter in your name.

That said, despite these minor irritants, this is a good fun arcade-style game that adds a twist to the classic.

Review: Awesome Ball – Breakout with a twist is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Black and Blue - GMC topic and download link

A surprisingly addictive arcade game where all you can do is shoot! You have to avoid sets of blocks that move towards you from all sides of the screen. Sounds simple? – you can’t fly around the only way of moving is from the backthrust generated by firing your gun.

Points are awarded both for staying alive and destroying the moving blocks, but get hit and you will loose health. Should you get pushed off the edge of the screen, either from a moving block or backthrust, you will die.

The background music fits the arcade style of the game and the lack of repeated sound effects every-time you shoot is a blessing. Use of limited graphics in this game is extremely effective as the game still has a good number of animated effects despite the imposed limitations.

Controls: Mouse cursor to aim, left click to shoot.

My highscore: 1889

The Bonsh - WHFF download link

In The Bonsh you control a red stickman who you must guide through several rooms of platforms clinging to the walls and jumping to avoid obstacles. Dangers include spikes and rising and falling blocks which can crush you. As all the terrain in the game is blue it is sometimes hard to distinguish what is a danger and what is not.

The game rooms frequently vibrate a small amount giving the effect that your screen is wobbling which was irritating and may hurt your eyes if you play for more than a couple of minutes.

Whilst particle effects are used in some of the situations where your character dies I feel the overall implementation of graphics here was far more basic than in Black and Blue which really used the limited graphics colour scheme to full effect through animation.

Controls: Arrow keys to move the stickman. Instructions are given within the game.

Abstractoid - GMC topic and download link

“You are a triangle. You have been programmed to destroy anything in your path. And you will do it well…” is the strap-line for this extremely fast-paced arcade shooter.

Diving from one side of the screen to the other whilst shooting four enemy types is what you will do for the entirety of this game. Using your shield, provided you have enough energy, gives you a brief respite – just long enough to move somewhere safer and start all over again.

Particles seem to be somewhat overused, with small black boxes exploding across the screen everytime you hit an enemy which adds to the distraction caused by a constantly spinning and scrolling background.

The game also seems to be just too hard from such an early stage, and no scoring mechanism is included – two more facts that taint my experience when playing Abstractoid.

Controls are given in the game, use ‘Z’ to select “Play” to start.

TIA Limited Gfx Competition Entries is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Doodle balls, a game created by Stubbjax02 yesterday, is in the beta stages–though it is rather difficult to tell!

The graphics are superb, and the sounds are indeed brilliantly done, plus the gameplay is rather addicting – even though the only mode available is easy.

You’re a ball that draws a line behind wherever you go, with a spark chasing you. The ball is guided by the mouse cursor, however it has a curve, in that it does not go in the exact path that the mouse is going in. Rather, it meanders and slides around in a frustrating way. I often found myself trapped, the ball bouncing back and forth between two corner blocks, desperate to get the last coin for the coveted extra life! This may seem like an easy-going game, but there is one small problem: There is a small spark of Absolute Death following your line!

All is not lost, though, for a variety of powerups (and, unfortunately, powerdowns) are available. One such powerup is the “red coin”, which lowers the timer by five seconds. Once the timer reaches zero, you win the level. One of the powerdowns is a red ball that follows you, though not exactly in a straight line, and it’s very slow. If you hit said red ball, you slow down, while the spark continues to chase you! Luckily, this effect lasts for only about five seconds.

The slew of sound effects are OK. The ball shatter sound (which occurs when the spark touches you, or you touch a red ball) is rather realistic. There is, unfortunately, no music though the sound effects are varied, and almost every event has one.

I was surprised by how polished the graphics look. Buttons are nice, the walls are clearly identifiable and look amazing. I don’t know why, but the ball’s line is even nice looking–you can make art with it! The spark looks pretty darn good, though I suspect it’s a particle and not actually a sprite.

There is a level editor available, though loading into the game is not functional yet. Using the level editor is as simple as click to select your object, and click around the level to make it! You can also have multiple balls, and make some nice-looking, er, “art”, if you can call it that.

All in all it’s a great game, and it’s still in the 0.08 beta stage! If this is only a fraction of what the finished game will look like, i’m sold! I give this game an eight out of ten.

Review: Doodle Balls – artistic fun? is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Download GMM Issue 4 (pdf, 3.4MB)

Unlike issue 3 in which the considerably improved quality of content was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the new design, issue 4 has a unique layout so hopefully this time around people will be more interested in the writing.

Although Game Maker Magazine have not made their circulation figures available publically they do have a graph (on page 3) showing the how the number of downloads per issue has grown which confirms the magazine is getting a larger readership. With no issues from GameMaker Tech or MarkUp recently it looks like now is GMM’s best opportunity to become a well established and popular GameMaker publication.

Contentwise there is a large variety with articles from Broxter about different methods of promoting your GameMaker creations, reviews of 6 games created in GameMaker and a bizzare 3 pages of cheats for Karoshi 2.

The information about a huge number of so called ‘Anti-Decompiler’ programs is sadly lacking in one respect – it does not provide any information on how effective each method will be. Whilst I am aware that no method is 100% secure I am sure that many of the people who read this article would want to know that kind of information.

The History of Game Maker (“GMM pointlessly go through the main stages in its development”,) is something we have seen many times before in GameMaker magzines since it is effectively a copy and paste job from the information avaliable on the YoYoGames website.

Also included in this 39 page issue is information on the benefits of upgrading to the Pro version of GameMaker, user opinions on why GM6 has remained so popular *cough* cracks *cough*, several code-heavy tutorials and an interview with Tom Grochowiak the creator of Magi (reviewed in issue 2).

There is even an apology to Game Maker Tech on page 3.

Out of context quote of the issue: “Have you been rejected by GMTech and MarkUp? Well, if you have, then apply for a place in the team for our magazine, as we will accept anyone…”

• Game Maker Magazine Issue 3

Game Maker Magazine Issue 4 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

I first reviewed the original service back in October of last year when writing for Issue 9 of the MarkUp game development magazine.

Put simply the site contains everything you need to create a global online highscore table for any game created in GameMaker. It handles both submitting and retrieving highscores, and everything is hosted for free for you.

The latest version, Vex K, includes the facility to show an online highscore table within a GameMaker game itself, instead of requiring access from a web browser.

The original Vitarsi Vex online highscore service currently hosts more than 270 highscore tables free of charge.

If you want to create a worldwide highscore table for your game and don’t have your own webspace, Vitarsi Vex K is my recommendation.

• Mark Overmar’s announcement in October last year that YoYo Games will create their own online highscore table service appears to have come to nothing despite Mark stating that the service would be introduced “pretty soon”.

GameMaker highscores with Vex K is taken from: GameMaker Blog