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GMTech 12: The Review

GameMakerTech Issue 12 was released on May 29th – for details and to download click here.

Following the much improved magazine design introduced for issue 11 GameMaker Tech was looking the slickest of all GameMaker magazines. However I think that this, the second issue to have this new layout, is more important as it will better reflect the progress made at GameMaker Tech.

The template for this issue is the same as the previous issue, and as before it looks clean and fresh. The cover, as I feel is so often the case with GameMaker magazines, could be better. There is no major headline advertising a particular article or exclusive but I screenshot which I assume is from the Spirits of Metropolis game. Obviously the cover is not as important in a print magazine though, and is really a minor irritant in what is, once again, a well-written issue that covers a wide range of topics.

I thought the “Starting a Team” article by RedChu was rather brief as although it covered some good points it appeared to miss out issues such as communication between team members and team motivation – however I then realised that this was only part 1 so I look forward to reading the next installment in GameMaker Tech 13.

Tom Russell from Russell’s Quarterly [issue 1 | issue 2] has a talkative piece on the importance that good sound effects can have in improving the overall apperance of your games.

ESA has an interesting game development article about Retro Games and more specifically how to make a game appear “Old School” through the use of graphics, sound and gameplay techniques commonly found in older computer games.

I am not particularly knowledgeable about the technical side of GameMaker so I will pass by the articles by bendodge, Timothy Sassone, gmjab and Schyler as well as the tutorials from Calle Ekdahl’s gmtutorials.com.

Pixel Art is back! After its absence last issue I am pleased to see the reintroduction of another high quality pixel art tutorial by RoboBOT on how to create an animated running man – something which is present in varying degrees (or at least should be!) in a large number of games.

For gamers there is an insight into and preview of the new Spirits of Metropolis puzzle game by Mr. Chubigans as well as insights into a couple more games.

When it comes to the previews and reviews section I am a bit confused. Both seem to follow the same format, and both include links to download the game so I am unsure how/why two separate categories were used to separate the games.

YoYo’s apparently-disappearing-into-thin-air Ancient Civilisation Competition is still yet to announce its results but Timoi & Nal take a look at some of their favourite entries into the competition – their highest rated entries getting just 3/5, but this the kind of article I like to see.

The ways in which several games utilise the excellent GMPhysics DLL are briefly examined however there appears to be no link mentioned between this on page 44 and the interview with the DLL’s creator, Chris Giles, on page 23 which mystifies me.

All in all this is an excellent publication with a clutter-free design and high quality content from a variety of writers covering a wide-range of topics that will be of interest to Game Maker users.

What do you think?

4 Comments

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  1. Timoi, I meant I like the way that you looked at a number of creations briefly rather than concentrating on just reviewing one game. Also I think it is nice to read what people think about some of the entrants in the competition before the results come out (if they ever do!).

  2. Thanks from me as well for the review. It may seem odd me and NAL chose those games to review, but they were the most interesting looking ones when we started the article, which was a while ago now. By the way, you say you like the kind of article it was, what exactly about it did you like?

    I did the best GMPhysics games as a sort of follow on from from the interview, but as the reviews weren’t exactly exclusive, they were moved to a different section.

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Game Maker Tech Issue 12

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