Game Maker
Game Maker (GM) is a game creator with a wide extension of features. It is a popular choice at MFGG and has surpassed the Clickteam products as the most popular game-making program. The latest: GM: Studio can export not only to Windows, but also to Mac, Ubuntu, Windows 8 apps, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, HTML5 and more.
Description
Game Maker runs off its own specific script, called the Game Maker Language (GML). GML is a variable-based script system similar to Java (but lacking much of the advanced syntax), which allows users to use built-in variables, as well as create their own. There is an alternative method of programming, consisting of "Drag-and-Drop" icons. While simpler to use, DnD is usually much more limited than strict GML, and its use is typically discouraged
Game Maker uses "resources," "objects," and "events" to create games. The resources include sprites, sounds, backgrounds, paths, scripts, fonts, and time lines. Game Maker is essentially a program that uses a coding language with several functions and "setting variables" to use the resources and execute different actions. While Game Maker does include built-in collision and speed functions, some advanced Game Maker users do not use them because they may interfere with their current scripts.
Objects in the game move about the rooms based on their x and y variables and execute code in events to perform actions. For example, the create event is executed when the object is created, the step event executes every frame, and the draw event is a block of code that draws the object every frame. While Game Maker does include key-press, key-release, and key-hold events, many advanced users prefer the keyboard_check() function since it gives more control on the order in which things are checked.
The most recent version of Game Maker is Studio, which not only includes more export options, but also includes shaders, physics and built in OGG support. In addition to this, games made in Studio have a much faster startup time, and they run much faster overall. Studio has a free version called Standard, which includes a "Made with GameMaker Studio splash screen on startup. Standard includes everything that legacy versions of GameMaker includes, minus the obsolete functions. Professional adds additional functionality to Studio, and Master Collection gets you all the export options for a hefty price.
Legacy Versions
Legacy versions of Game Maker were free, with an optional registered version. The registered version allows for more features, including particles and limited 3D games.
Legacy versions of Game Maker are often criticized for being slower than game makers such as the Clickteam products. This is because Game Maker doesn't actually compile games, but creates an encrypted executable with the game code and a game player. This can cause severe lag, and also sometimes makes it difficult to achieve even a standard frame rate of 60 FPS. As well as game speed, people used to argue that because of this Game Maker games can be decompiled and games made in Game Maker are unprotected. Today there are utilities that protect GM games from being decompiled using standard decompilers, though. An increasingly-cited flaw is GM's relative lack of multiplatform support, and its ever-rising registration fees despite GM's lack of particularly innovative new features in recent updates. These problems have been taken care of in Studio.
For easier use, legacy Game Maker can run in "Simple Mode" instead of "Advanced Mode." Simple Mode leaves out more advanced settings, such as the Script resource, and is intended for use by new users that do not have prior knowledge of coding or GML. Advanced Mode consists of the same outline as Simple Mode, though it has more programming choices to choose from to fine-tune your game. Advanced Mode is intended for experienced users. This feature was removed in Studio.
Game Maker is currently owned by YoYo Games, which also made a new license agreement for GM7. This license was misunderstood, and people thought YoYo Games owns rights to any characters you invent. This was generally looked upon as scandalous, so for a while many people stuck to older Game Maker versions. The license agreement was later corrected. A small minority of GM users continue to use older versions because of compatibility issues with older PCs. As of mid-2014, there were still more MFGGers using GM 8.x than GM Studio, despite the free version of Studio containing more features than GM8 Pro.
See Also
- Clickteam
- Klik & Play
- Click & Create
- The Games Factory
- Multimedia Fusion
- Game Maker Guidelines
- File Types
