The Game Maker’s Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners

The Game Maker’s Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners

by Jacob Habgood, Mark Overmars
Released July 2006
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781590596159

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Book description

The Game Makers Apprentice shows you how to create nine exciting games using the wildly popular Game Maker game creation tool. This book covers a range of genres, including action, adventure, and puzzle games complete with professional quality sound effects and visuals. It discusses game design theory and features practical examples of how this can be applied to developing games that are more fun to play.

Game Maker allows games to be created using a simple drag-and-drop interface, so you don’t need to have any prior coding experience. It includes an optional programming language for adding advanced features to your games, when you feel ready to do so. You can obtain more information by visiting book.gamemaker.nl.

The authors include the creator of the Game Maker tool and a former professional game programmer, so you’ll glean understanding from their expertise. The book also includes supplementary materials (on Apress.com) containing Game Maker software and all of the game projects that are created in the book—plus a host of professional-quality graphics and sound effects that you can use in your own games.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Praise for The Game Maker’s Apprentice
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Dedication 1
  7. Contents at a Glance
  8. Contents
  9. Foreword
  10. About the Authors
  11. About the Technical Reviewer
  12. About the Illustrator
  13. Acknowledgments
  14. Introduction
  15. PART 1 Getting Started
    1. CHAPTER 1 Welcome to Game Maker
      1. Installing the Software
      2. Registration
      3. The Global User Interface
      4. Running a Game
      5. How to Get More Information
      6. What’s Next?
    2. CHAPTER 2 Your First Game: Devilishly Easy
      1. Designing the Game: Evil Clutches
      2. Sprites
      3. Objects
        1. The Boss Object
        2. Events and Actions
        3. The Dragon Object
      4. Rooms
      5. Save and Run
      6. Instances and Objects
      7. Demons, Baby Dragons, and Fireballs
        1. The Fireball Object
        2. The Demon Object
        3. Summoning Demons
        4. The Baby Dragon Object
      8. Backgrounds and Sounds
        1. A Background Image
        2. Background Music
        3. Sound Effects
      9. Congratulations
  16. PART 2 Action Games
    1. CHAPTER 3 More Actions: A Galaxy of Possibilities
      1. Designing the Game: Galactic Mail
      2. Sprites and Sounds
      3. Moons and Asteroids
      4. Flying Around
      5. Winning and Losing
        1. An Explosion
        2. Scores
        3. Levels
      6. Finishing Touches
        1. A Title Screen
        2. Winning the Game
        3. Adding Some Visual Variety
        4. Help Information
      7. Congratulations
    2. CHAPTER 4 Target the Player: It ’ s Fun Being Squished
      1. Designing the Game: Lazarus
      2. An Animated Character
      3. A Test Environment
      4. Falling Boxes
      5. Finishing Touches
        1. No Way Out!
        2. Adding a Goal
        3. Starting a Level
        4. Sounds, Backgrounds, and Help
        5. Levels
      6. Congratulations
    3. CHAPTER 5 Game Design: Interactive Challenges
      1. What Makes a Good Game?
        1. Game Mechanics
      2. Interactive Challenges
        1. Game Genres
      3. Challenges
        1. Difficulty
        2. Goals
        3. Rewards
        4. Subgoals
      4. Interactivity
        1. Choices and Control
        2. Control Overload!
        3. Unfair Punishment
        4. Audio Feedback
      5. Summary
  17. PART 3 Level Design
    1. CHAPTER 6 Inheriting Events: Mother of Pearl
      1. Designing the Game: Super Rainbow Reef
      2. A Game Framework
        1. The Front-End
        2. The Completion Screen
      3. Bouncing Starfish
      4. Biglegs
      5. Parent Power
      6. Lives
      7. Blocks
        1. Normal Blocks
        2. Solid Blocks
        3. Special Blocks
      8. Polishing the Game
        1. Sound Effects
        2. Saving Games and Quitting
        3. A Slower Start
        4. Creating the Levels
      9. Congratulations
    2. CHAPTER 7 Maze Games: More Cute Things in Peril
      1. Designing the Game: Koalabr8
      2. The Basic Maze
        1. The Game Framework
        2. A Moving Character
      3. Save the Koala
      4. Creating Hazards
      5. Tiles
      6. Adding Additional Hazards
        1. Locks and Switches
        2. A Detonator
        3. Rocks
      7. Finishing the Game
      8. Congratulations
    3. CHAPTER 8 Game Design: Levels and Features
      1. Selecting Features
        1. Pie in the Sky
        2. Do You Have That in Blue?
        3. Starting an Arms Race
        4. One-Trick Ponies
        5. Emerging with More Than You Expected
      2. Designing Levels
        1. The Game Maker’s Apprentice
        2. Learning Curves
        3. Difficulty Curves
      3. Saving the Day
      4. Applying It All
        1. Features
        2. Emerging Springs
        3. Training Missions
        4. Dividing Levels
      5. Summary
  18. PART 4 Multiplayer Games
    1. CHAPTER 9 Cooperative Games: Flying Planes
      1. Designing the Game: Wingman Sam
      2. Variables and Properties
      3. The Illusion of Motion
      4. Flying Planes
      5. Enemies and Weapons
      6. Dealing with Damage
      7. Time Lines
      8. More Enemies
      9. End Boss
      10. Finishing Touches
      11. Congratulations
    2. CHAPTER 10 Competitive Games: Playing Fair with Tanks
      1. Designing the Game: Tank War
      2. Playing with Tanks
      3. Firing Shells
      4. Secondary Weapons
      5. Views
      6. Congratulations
    3. CHAPTER 11 Game Design: Balance in Multiplayer Games
      1. Competition and Cooperation
        1. Independent Competition
        2. Dependent Competition
        3. Independent Cooperation
        4. Dependent Cooperation
        5. Mix and Match
      2. Balanced Beginnings
        1. Equivalent Characters
        2. Balancing Differences
      3. Balanced Choice
        1. Weighting Choices
        2. Cyclic Relationships
      4. Balanced Computer Opponents
        1. Artificial Stupidity
      5. Summary
  19. PART 5 Enemies and Intelligence
    1. CHAPTER 12 GML: Become a Programmer
      1. Hello World
      2. Variables
      3. Functions
      4. Conditional Statements
      5. Repeating Things
      6. Arrays
      7. Dealing with Other Instances
      8. Scripts As Functions
      9. Debugging Programs
      10. Congratulations
    2. CHAPTER 13 Clever Computers: Playing Tic-Tac-Toe
      1. Designing the Game: Tic-Tac-Toe
      2. The Playing Field
      3. Let the Computer Play
      4. A Clever Computer Opponent
      5. Adaptive Gameplay
      6. Congratulations
    3. CHAPTER 14 Intelligent Behavior: Animating the Dead
      1. Designing the Game: Pyramid Panic
      2. The Basic Framework
      3. Creating the Maze and the Explorer
      4. Expanding Our Horizons
      5. Reactive Behavior
      6. Time for Treasure!
      7. Movable Blocks
      8. Rule-Based Behavior
        1. Walking Around
        2. Moving Toward the Explorer
      9. Dealing with States
        1. Scarabs
      10. Let There Be Light
      11. Looking to the Future
    4. CHAPTER 15 Final Words
      1. Creating Resources
        1. Artwork: The GIMP
        2. Music: Anvil Studio
        3. Sound Effects: Audacity
      2. The Game Maker Community
      3. Good Luck
  20. Bibliography
  21. Index
  22. License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: The Game Maker’s Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners
  • Author(s): Jacob Habgood, Mark Overmars
  • Release date: July 2006
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781590596159