The makers of the official Incredible Hulk game for the Nintendo DS have revealed that they made a prototype of the game using YoYo Games’ GameMaker software.
In a four page article on the game development website Gamasutra developers Fizz Factor give an insight into the development process of the game.
Interestingly Fizz Factor is a subsidiary of Foundation 9 Entertainment who also own Sumo-Digital – the developers responsible for future versions of GameMaker.
“Our lead designer was an avid user of GameMaker, a PC-based game engine embraced by developers and hobbyists alike. As the engineers were adapting our engine to support fully destructible environments, our designers prototyped out each Hulk level in GameMaker.
Using simple sprites we created or nabbed from other games, we laid out each level, enemy AI and the player package, resulting in a great testing ground for gameplay.
To emulate the DS controller experience, we used a PlayStation 2 controller for its D-pad and four input buttons. (Hulk had limited touchpad gameplay. For other titles employing more touchpad, we’ve used a Wacom tablet and the PS2 D-pad to emulate the DS input with GameMaker prototypes.)
Using these methods, prototyping levels was quick — a level came online in GameMaker in two to three days — and had tangible payoffs in pre-production and early production.”
– GamaSutra.com
[in fact, we actually used gm6.1 – so YoYo Games isn’t really even connected. all mark o. all the way. 😉 ]
the article does a wonderful job of articulating our dev process. good stuff.
regarding:
“Interestingly Fizz Factor is a subsidiary of Foundation 9 Entertainment who also own Sumo-Digital – the developers responsible for future versions of GameMaker.”
we actually weren’t acquired by f9 until long after prototyping and development began. so, there is absolutely no connection at all between sumo-digital and the fact that we prototyped using the gm engine/tool set. in fact, i’ve used gm on pretty much every single commercial game project that i’ve lead for years (and will very likely continue to do so f o r e v e r).
Yes it is VERY powerful. Not only is it powerful on its own, but the fact that you can use DLLs and extensions allows for instant expandability in a very simple environment. Mark Overmars did great work with this one.
Awesome. I am suprised though. I’m suscribed to Gamastra, but this didn’t come in my daily e-mail. Oh well.
Thanks for this Phil though. 🙂
-Matt
It does actually happen more often, most publishers don’t discuss that though.
While most people still see Game Maker as a fun child toy it’s a very powerful tool and it’s being used for lots of different things.
Nice find! That was a great read! Awesome to see stuff like this happening. I’m surprised that it doesn’t happen more often.
-Elmernite