Gm Tech Magazine :: Issue Fifteen

2 | WELCOME

CONTENTS FEATURES

WELCOME READERS!

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MTech Magazine has a very new look; hopefully you will like it. We realised that as we have no plans to print and deliver issues it would be best to fully utilise the electronic format with landscape pages. Last time we checked, there weren't many portrait monitors out there. We hope that with the change to a landscape page orientation we will be able to create issues even more graphically pleasing and continue to provide great conent for your reading pleasure. Along with changing the page orientation we have also made a few changes to the editorial WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

team, Tim who started as our Wiki editor and then moved up to researcher, is now Assistant Editor – he has done a lot of work on this issue in the hope of bringing it out on time just as gmjab regularly did when he was Editor. You can read about the major changes on the next page. Have a look through this issue begin to get a feel of the many changes that we have put in, and enjoy the content that everyone in the team has worked hard on for the last couple of months. Then, post your opinions in the GMC Topic, the GMTech Forum or even email us at [email protected]. gamez93 (GMTech Owner)

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CHANGE LOG / TEAM GMTECH EDUCATION UNDERCOVER BOSS BATTLES SETTING REALISTIC GOALS USING DATA STRUCTURES MAKING A CLEVER CONTROL SYSTEM HOW YOYO GAMES CAN HELP FORGOTTEN GAMES A LETTER FROM MARK OVERMARS [EXCLUSIVE] ——————————————————————

REVIEWS 16 18 19 20 21 23 24

SPIRITS OF METROPOLIS [EXCLUSIVE] DUNGEON CHAOS ADRENALINE ASSASSIN BLUE RENCARA GREENTECH COMPETITION 04 ROUND UP ——————————————————————

EXTRA 28 31 34 37 38

INTERVIEW WITH: CLIFF HARRIS [EXCLUSIVE] DEVELOPMENT OF: ELEMENTS OF ESCAPE GM CLASSICS - SANDBOX OF GOD FEEDBACK / WORTH A LOOK CLOSING ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

3 | WELCOME

TEAM GMTECH

CHANGE LOG

Editors

A list of the many changes We've made so many changes to the magazine that we simply can't wait to tell you all about them!

Bookmarks

gamez93 Timoi

Background Layer

As you can see on the left (if you use Adobe Reader), we now have PDF bookmarks to each article to improve navigation.

However, if you still experience some lag (or prefer a white background) you can turn off the background by clicking on the layers tab to the left and deactivating the background.

Less Lag

Exclusives

Issue 14 was blighted by some rather horrible lag, so we've worked hard to eliminate it, resulting in what should be a much smoother scrolling experience.

Vector Graphics

To decrease the file size and retain an extremely smooth look, most backgrounds and decorative boxes are now vector graphics.

Open Source

We've switched to the open source DTP software Scribus and we've used GIMP and Inkscape for the raster and vector graphics respectively. In fact, even the font for the writing you're reading is open source!

New Team Members

A lot of shuffling around has been done to the team, including Tim as editor and several new fantastic writers who all hope to write content that you will enjoy. WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

Exclusives are now mixed in with similar articles instead of in their own category, we hope this improves the flow of the magazine.

Reviews

The review system that we used to have where we ranked it in three sections and then gave an average has now been changed, we have removed the final overall score as we felt that just reading the review along with the ranking of sound, graphics, gameplay and originality are enough to gauge a good opinion on the game.

GM Classics

To highlight some of the best GM games from the past to make sure they're never forgotten, we have a new regular feature. It'll include information about the game, it's development, and what made it stand out at the time. The news column will return next issue.

Writers

MnemonicPunk RhysAndrews Tom Russell MegonNoel SkinnyEddy

Reviewers

NAL Xantheil (Alexander Earl) Broxter Mazimadu (Obinna Emelumadu)

Proofreader Bendodge

Special Thanks To Mark Overmars Mr.Chubigans Cliff Harris Matrebatre

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4 | FEATURES

EDUCATION UNDERCOVER

Education in games is flying in under the radar, thanks to MegonNoel

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ost gamers cringe at the very mention of “educational games”. Yet many of the most popular games available today are filled with educational game play, be it a math pattern code to get into a secured base, investigations and riddle solving to open up secondary missions, or mini games involving word scrambles, math or trivia. Additionally, countless games set in real world time periods can’t help but to incorporate real world history and accurate character biographies. So why do these games enjoy such success while those games designed to promote learning and interactive education are left dust-covered and lonely on the store shelves, doomed to be disappointments even to their designers? The answer to this mystery is threefold; it involves subtlety, immersion, and just a hint of trickery. For the scope of this article, trickery simply means not promoting your educational game as such. In the world of gaming if you so much as breathe the word “education” your project is dead in the water. Instead, consider promoting it by using a collaborative genre; rarely anymore does a game fall under a singular genre so if your game is an educational RPG simply promote it as an RPG and let the role playing fans experience the game in their own way. If you WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

find that the structure of your game doesn’t allow for an alternate genre, try simply marketing it as a ‘puzzle’ game. The puzzle genre is a generously encompassing theme and includes many titles that deal in strategy, logic, and education. Subtlety in your educational elements can also help make them a success. The path to knowledge should be an invisible one, lest we become reluctant to follow it. In other words, when people don’t realize they’re learning they’re far more receptive to it. Peppering the game with academic elements, rather than making it directly educational can break up the game play and create a subtle and enjoyable experience. As you play some of your favorite adventure or role playing games, look for places where they used this technique; popular places for these elements are mini games, areas that need to be unlocked, secret areas, or mysteries to be solve. Once you open your eyes to them you may be surprised at how often you find them. Lastly is the element of immersion. Every game maker and game player knows the importance of immersion in a game, but in the world of educational games immersion becomes a unique ally. Get the player to pay attention to other things, like beating the clock, finding a special item, or dodging projectiles as they play and your need to rely

on subtlety all but disappears. For instance, one of my own favorite computer games involves using tiles to spell out different words. By listening to the instructions it’s ridiculously obvious that the game is educational, but while playing the game you barely notice that you are, in fact, gaining knowledge and broadening your vocabulary. By forcing players to immerse themselves deep into the gameplay you have successfully distracted them from any of their a priori judgments, and you significantly reduced the chances of them becoming tired or bored with the game. Education is a noble goal, and the idea of making learning into a fun and interactive experience for children and adults is a brilliant idea; unfortunately, it’s a brilliant idea that has yet to be fully perfected or properly marketed. Education often makes us think of school, which in turn makes our eyes glaze over and our minds to wander. In order to avoid this, smart game makers have decided that it’s better to say nothing at all, promoting only those elements that have already proven popular and letting the rest of the game speak for itself. ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

5 | FEATURES

BOSS BATTLES

MnemonicPunk tells you how to make your games' bosses truly terrifying

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ith a quick slash of his whip Juste Belmont releases a horde of zombies from their suffering, barely flinching to avoid their desperate efforts to sap your precious hit points out of your body. You pick up the pace, finish off some demons along the way, just to come screeching to a halt. It's only a door, nothing more. But a familiar door. Tightly grasping your controller you enter the room just to see your worst fears come true. It's Dracula, the very lord of darkness himself. What appears to be a normal man quickly grows to the size of one,

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no two screens full of pain and bonecrushing brutality.

But what makes boss encounters what they are? What makes a boss different from any other battle in the game? To answer this question we're going to take an in-depth look at some typical bosses and see what makes them unique, memorable and challenging.

For the boss itself there are several popular ways to make them appear menacing: It will either be the size of a house and equipped with more guns than the whole of Texas or it's a calm, soothing enemy – sometimes even ridiculously cute - that skillfully deflects or dodges even the most sophisticated of your attacks. No matter which one you choose make sure your boss makes a superior impression.

Whenever you encounter a boss in a good game, you can tell this is going to be one tough guy to take down. Most games give lots of visual cues to an upcoming boss encounter, long before actually showing the enemy on screen. Shoot-em-ups will show bold, red "WARNING" captions, sidescrolling platformers take control of the camera and center them on a certain, locked area in a painfully slow manner and roleplaying games drop a savepoint right before the evil demon lord. You'll know what you're up to and you'll feel the tension building.

Like the visual aspects the sound plays it's part in every boss encounter as well. Some of the best soundtracks in videogame history were composed to make such fights feel truely epic: Metal Gear Solid's "Duel", "Still more Fighting" in Final Fantasy 7 and the whole Castlevania boss BGM shebang. For one they will make players feel the heat of the battle but they also provide a rhythm for the player to act on. There's no need for a boss battle music to be loud or fast, it can be a simple piano piece or – see Final Fantasy for numerous examples of this – a choir of human voices. They send one message: You. Are. In. Trouble.

Every gamer has memories of moments like this, whether it's the screensized spaceships of Gradius, the intense rolling Eggman encounters in Sonic the Hedgehog or the bulletspewing evils that Contra throws at you at the end of each stage: Bosses. You know 'em, you love 'em.

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6 | FEATURES Continued: Boss Battles But what good is an enemy that looks and sounds superior if it just isn't right. So you will have to give your boss some additional thought. In twitchy games like shoot-em-ups or platformers, good bosses employ differing attack patterns. They'll do one out of three to five attacks that can be distinguished from the first frames on. Those attacks are usually dangerous enough to shave a huge chunk off your HP or instantly kill you but can easily be countered or avoided if you recognize them early enough. Roleplaying and tactical games usually feature tank-style bosses. They can take some serious damage and dish out massive attacks that might even instantly kill some of your characters. As any other enemy your boss has not only incredible strength but also some weaknesses. Be it a weak spot right below

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it's trigger finger, a bad resistance against certain elements or just the fact that it only has 2 minutes left to live. Whatever it is make sure it is hard to attack or at least gives the impression of it being difficult to fight against. A common question is why bosses should be strong but have distinct weaknesses. Why not make them strong without weaknesses at all? Wouldn't that make the player feel way cooler? No, it won't. Hunting for that one weak spot or weaving through that one open hole in the curtain fire of a bosses vulcan machine gun will make you feel truely epic. Doing endless amounts of tick-damage doesn't. Now picture one of your favorite bosses from any game. What comes to mind? The fight itself and... right, the moment you beat it down. The instant a boss finally collapses after what appears to be a neverending battle is one of the most satisfactory moments a video game can give and will even make the most

avid gamer sit back and let out a sigh of relief. You won, against all odds. This is the moment when you as a player feel truely awesome, unlike the battle itself this can be a little hard to achieve. Many games let their bosses vanish in screen-filling explosions, or have a certain "signature hit“. You know how the screen flashes white for a moment when you deal the final hit to a boss in almost any Final Fantasy? Or the truely awesome finisher animations of God of War and recent Prince of Persia iterations? Be creative here, there's no norm to adhere to. Some games finish their bosses off with Quick Time Event (QTE) sequences, others throw special effects as if there was no tomorrow but they all have one thing in common; you'll instantly know it's over.

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7 | FEATURES

SETTING REALISTIC GOALS

and think about the idea you have, and make sure that these conditions are met:

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The game is going to be enjoyable to make. To be able to see progress as you develop your project and get excited about your accomplishments throughout is a great motivator.

RhysAndrews warns against the dangers of aiming too high ’ve started over 100 Game Maker projects in the past 10 years (wow, has it really been that long?). And yet, you’re only going to find no more than 10 hanging around the pages of the GMC and YoYo Games. It was only recently that I realised that I was badly prioritising the wrong activities for projects that didn’t last more than one evening's development before failing to excite me any longer. Or worse still, I would devote many sleepless nights to a huge concept of which came to a crashing halt once I discovered the obstacles I couldn’t climb, and I would be left feeling unrewarded. If you’re serious about creating games or tools for the community with Game Maker, you can’t just dive into development. At least I can’t – I do not generate my own motivation; I need fuel. You need to be sure that what you’re creating complements the ‘S.M.A.R.T’ goal system, which is something I was taught in business studies at school. This is the ‘S.M.A.R.T’ goal setting system: • • • • •

Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time

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Now I’m not usually a fan of these ‘personal development’ structures, with setting goals in life and doing yoga and all that hippy stuff – but I think this is relevant to game design and programming (and we all know how much more important that is than planning a healthy lifestyle!). The first natural part of creating a game is the idea. Whether it just comes to you, or you develop it over time, or you arrogantly steal it like many commercial companies, your idea needs to be backed up by some form of lasting motivation. For me and game design, it usually comes down to these three: • Money • Community Reputation • Fun to Develop Most of you are going to be creating games for free – either because you want to support free indie gaming, or because you don’t think your game can cut it for earning bucks. So you’re left with community reputation, and ‘fun to develop’. Generally, if you’re just starting out with Game Maker and you’re just using it because it’s fun, setting goals and planning your project isn’t all that important – because no matter what you do, you’re developing your skills and eventually you’ll be ready to get serious. In other words, we’re really left with “Community Reputation”, perhaps mixed with the joy of developing the game. It is hence very important to meditate

You really like the idea and think it will be worth the time and effort. The concept might be appealing to you at first, but you might discover down the track that you’re not getting much out of all the time you’re putting into it, or that you don’t like the idea so much after all (they tend to die on you). The game is actually measureable/achievable/realistic (they all go hand in hand) – Don’t be arrogant and start putting together your own Elder Scrolls V with next gen graphics just because you have a really good idea. Sometimes it’s hard but you need to throw out any ideas that can’t be done, else they’ll just distract you from the more feasible concepts. If you’re becoming frustrated by the number of games you just can’t be bothered completing like I was once, then it’s time for you to start planning and designing your games a bit more sophisticatedly. If not, then you’re either still developing your skills or you’re one of the lucky few like 2DCube that just spews out awesome game after awesome game, without too much need to meditate on your actions (how I envy people like that...). ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

8 | FEATURES

USING DATA STRUCTURES - PART 1 Learn how to structure your data with RhysAndrews

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’m surprised at the number of GM developers I’ve come across who don’t actually know anything about data structures and have never used them. They’re not hard at all to get into; perhaps people just assume arrays are the only way to go. So today I’m going to teach you how to use data structures – well, lists.

What are data structures? In Game Maker data structures are glorified arrays. Using functions prefixed with ds, you can perform advanced functions and queries to the arrays, making them, in many senses, handier than normal arrays. Game Maker offers 6 ‘flavours’ of data structures, each with its own way of handling values: • • • • • •

Lists Grids Stacks Queues Maps Priority Queues

Unfortunately, not all the useful functions that are available for lists and grids exist for the other structure types. Time and time again I’ve tried to use a priority structure for, say, an in-game scoreboard and then become frustrated with the lack of functionality. And so, like I mentioned earlier, I will only go into detail for lists, because they're the most powerful, and if you really want to, you can make a list perform functions that the other types are designed for.

DS Lists

picture the list visually – the top row’s index is 0, the second's is 1, and so on. In short, data lists are just like 1-dimensional arrays (myarray[0]) except that there are functions that can be used to sort and query the values. Creating a data structure is very simple. Simply assign a variable to the ds_xxx_create() function, which returns an ID for that structure: mydatalist = ds_list_create(); This applies to all structure types, except for grids which require width and height as arguments. After you’ve created the list, you need to enter the returned variable (in this case, ‘mydatalist’) as the first argument for all ds_list functions. Now we’re going to add some data to the list: ds_list_add(mydatalist,"Hello"); ds_list_add(mydatalist,"Hello Again"); This function, ds_list_add, simply adds a value to the bottom of the list. As the list was empty beforehand, “Hello” is at the very top of the list (so its index is ‘0’), and “Hello Again” is at the very bottom of the list (so its index is ‘1’). If we continued to add more data, “Hello” and “Hello Again” would stay in the same indexes, because the new data would simply be added to new indexes (2, 3, 4, and so on). However, if we use ds_list_insert, things start to get a little more interesting... ds_list_insert(mydatalist,1,"Goodbye"); Notice that with this function, we supply a number as the second argument and the data as the third. This ‘1’ is the index in which we want to insert our data. So instead of “Goodbye” being added to the bottom of the list (with the index ‘2’), it is being inserted in between “Hello Again” and “Hello”.

Data lists are simple 1-dimensional arrays. They can store a list of values, all of which are given their own indexes. It’s good to try and WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

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9 | FEATURES Continued: Using Data Structures

the value isn’t found, it’ll return -1.

Here’s the visual:

Now that we can enter and manipulate data in a data list, the final functions can be used to remove data, make some other general queries, and destroy the list entirely:

0 – “Hello” 1 – “Goodbye” 2 – “Hello Again” Every value above where data is being inserted stays in the same index, while everything underneath where the data is being inserted is shifted down one. “Hello Again” is now index 2, where it was once index 1. You can also use these functions to add data in various ways: ds_list_replace(mydatalist,0,"Hello World!"); //Replaces the data at value 0 with the new data - i.e "Hello" will become "Hello World!" ds_list_copy(mydatalist,mynewdatalist); //Copies all the data from mydatalist into another list, i.e mynewdatalist. Well, we can store data in neat ways, but what use is it to us without some advanced methods of querying the data? oldestmessage = ds_list_find_value(mydatalist,0); positionofgoodbye = ds_list_find_index(mydatalist,"Goodbye"); These two functions allow us to find the value of an index, or the index of a value. Ds_list_find_value is a function that returns the data stored in a given index (in the second argument). So here, oldestmessage will return “Hello!”. This is good if you want to use data lists as a chat message box – you want to draw the newest message first, then draw older messages as you go up. Ds_list_find_index is a function that returns the index in which a certain value is stored. By entering “Goodbye” it will return the number 1, because that is the index in which “Goodbye” is stored. If WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

ds_list_clear(mydatalist); //Removes all data from the list ds_list_delete(mydatalist,2); //Removes the data stored in index 2 - values underneath it get shifted up. ds_list_destroy(mydatalist); //Destroys the list forever. It's good to use this so you don't waste memory. isempty = ds_list_empty(mydatalist); //RETURNS whether the list is empty or not (true or false). thestring = ds_list_write(mydatalist); //This writes all the data in the list to a 'string'. You can use the next function to read it and slipstream it into another list. ds_list_read(mydatalist,thestring); //Stores the data stored in 'thestring' as written by ds_list_write into mydatalist. ds_list_shuffle(mydatalist); //Shuffles your data so that they all have a new (random) index. size = ds_list_size(mydatalist); //Returns a number of how many indexes there are in the list. ds_list_sort(mydatalist,true); //Sorts number values in ascending order. Use 'false' to sort in descending order. Make sure you check out Part 2 of this article which will appear in the next issue of GMTech and will feature a case study using data structures. ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

10 | FEATURES

MAKING A CLEVER CONTROL SYSTEM This is ground control to major MnemonicPunk

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n the early days of gaming things were pretty basic compared to today's standards. The first videogames had simplistic graphics, sparse sound effects and control sets that didn't require much more than the arrow keys and sometimes a button to fire your gun. Still, with all those limitations in place those games were impressively immersive for that time. Kids would spend most of their afternoon in the arcade to play Space Invaders. One of the main reasons for this is the 'pick up and play' nature that made this game more accessible than many games today. You can do almost anything in video games from running around armed to the teeth and blasting the hell out of enemies, commanding huge armies of orcs and elves with a single mouse-click to calmly floating through underwater worlds in form of a dolphin. But the third dimension posed a serious problem to developers all over the world, trying to squeeze their typical 6 button layout into 3D games. Until Nintendo solved the problem, that is. With the invention of the analog stick, the N64 was the first gaming console to truly allow gamers a 3D gaming experience without the drawbacks that other simple controls inevitably posed for this type of games. Mario 64 was a great game, not only WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

because it had great looks and awesome level design. It allowed you to move around in 3D without ever thinking about it. Years passed and the analog stick became the defacto standard for any control schemes. Games clinged to that and introduced a few more buttons for every console generation to make up for the increase in complexity of controls and possible ingame actions. Graphics got better, sound improved a lot but controls were still stuck in the last millenium. Once again, Nintendo stepped up and solved the problem for the console world: With the introduction of the Nintendo DS and Wii, suddenly everyone wanted a piece of the 'innovation in controls' cake and tried to reinvent control schemes that hadn't changed for years to fit to the unique capabilities of the touchscreen and motion recognition. Suddenly, even your grandfather was able to challenge you to a quick game of bowling or golf. The magic keywords here are 'immersion' and 'simplicity'. If you play a game without ever worrying about the controls, you don't steer the character. You are the character. The moment you have to stop and think 'How do I make my character do this?', the control designer has clearly failed. People play games to experience adventure, fun and thrill in a world different than their own. Reading instruction manuals on how to

control your alter-ego certainly isn't part of that and will break the illusion. You don't want that. So, take a moment, look at your recent games or maybe the one you are currently developing and ask yourself 'Can I control this game without reading instructions first?' If you can't, redo your controls. Players won't spend 30 minutes reading instruction booklets. They'll turn away and play another game. Simple as that. Depending on your game genre, the very nature of your controls may be totally different. In general, there are 3 major types of games control:

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11 | FEATURES Continued: Making A Clever Control System Twitch games:

These require blazing fast reactions to onscreen events. You control your character's movement directly by manipulating his position or movement speed. Effective controls in this genre usually employ 2 or 3 axes of movement and a set of actions that can be unleashed without making your character stop first. The controls aim to integrate with the gameflow and encourage you to keep on moving. Popular examples include the Mario games, space shooters like R-Type and Gradius, first and third person shooters like Unreal Torunament and fighting games like Tekken or Virtua Fighter.

Laid-back games:

As close as this sounds to casual games, it isn't. Laid-back games are games that may have a stunningly huge set of possible actions but give you lots of time to choose your path of action from that. The controls resemble this idea by not tieing actions directly to button presses but rather making a button trigger a certain part of this list. The controls often regard themselves as a hub to the game actions, bringing up deeper menus or question prompts as a reaction to key presses. Be warned, though. This kind of control can be hard to do correctly, often games make navigating menus a real hassle by not thinking them through first. Typical laidback games are roleplaying games like WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

Final Fantasy or Baldur's Gate, point and click adventures along the lines of Monkey Island or Sam&Max, turn-based games including Final Fantasy Tactics or Advance Wars and a large part of the realtime strategy genre (think Warcraft, Starcraft and Command & Conquer).

Casual games:

Now this is a huge control genre on it's own. Instead of letting you manipulate your character directly, you will instead move

around an ingame representation of your controller. Sometimes as simple as a graphical mouse cursor, sometimes a hand that lets you grab and move things in the game world. Often complemented by a story integration, this type of control has some real potential for immersion. Typical games in this genre are puzzle games (Bejeweled, Puzzle Quest, Picross and Sudoku), minigame collections, card and board games (Poker, Solitaire, Chess) and innovative reinventions of controls that were originally one of the other genres. Games like „The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass“ deserve a special mention at this point as they successfully reinvent a twitch game's controls in a casual way. You actually play Link's little fairy in this game, Link following her wherever you point on screen. To make your game control naturally, you'll have to give your control scheme some thought. Before even considering the button layout, try to put the different actions you can perform into sentences. Really, write those down on a sheet of paper or in your preferred word processor. Compare them, what do they have in common? Do you really need all of those or can your character perform some of the moves on his own? Can you group some of them with a single phrase? Where can you replace a set of distinct actions with a context-sensitive action? That done, come up with a layout of actions. Find common keywords for all the different things you can do in your game and tie them ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

12 | FEATURES Continued: Making A Clever Control System

to as few buttons or mouse moves as you can. The huge advantage of using Game Maker is that you can quickly protoype any control scheme you can come up with, even the crazy ideas. Play around, try things you find interesting and finally choose what fits your game the most. Don't dismiss any ideas because they're unusual, they may be just the thing you're looking for! Even if you cool new control scheme makes sense to yourself, let others try it. Don't explain anything to them, just tell them what their goal in the game is. If they can sit down and just start playing you've done a good job. But if your tester has to ask for the controls, you should rethink. This may sound less important than it actually is. Lots of control schemes I thought to be intuitive turned out quite awful when presented to someone not involved in making the game in question. So don't rely on your own opinion, let others testdrive your ideas as well. WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

Whichever control scheme your game has, your player only has 2 hands and usually only 3-4 fingers to control. Separate movement controls to one hand and actions to the other. If using keyboard control, plan for some space to rest your hands on each side of the keyboard and make sure either side doesn't require more than one or two fingers at once. Gamepad controls are even more restrictive, you'll usually only have 2 thumbs to plan for, plus an additional 2 index fingers that can only trigger one single button if the pad has shoulder buttons. That's not a lot and your duty as a game developer is to consider that. By the way, does your keyboard have a key for the 'ä' symbol? The 'ß'? No? Mine has. Never ever use those keys in your games as they will break the controls for international players! General 'safe keys' are the Ctrl, Alt, Space, Shift and arrow keys. Using Z and X as main keys is not an option either: Many keyboards around the world are not QWERTY but QWERTZ, placing the Z up there instead of next to the X. If your player must press it, he will have to do an uncomfortable stretch and avoid pressing that button at all cost because of this. Also, don't rely on the right Ctrl, Alt, Shift or the Numblock being present as notebooks and laptops usually lack those. Having freely configurable keys is always desirable as that will allow your player to make the controls his own, no matter which input devices he has.

Speaking of which: Your player will probably have a mouse. Laptops don't have one and a touchpad will never replace it for most types of control but it is generally safe to assume your player has the ability to play with a mouse. When using the mouse as a controller for your game, there are 2 main ways of properly implementing it: Either use it as a pointer to let your player point at ingame elements and interact with them by clicking. This type of mouse control is used for most things like aiming a gun, commanding units in a strategy game or aligning the pieces of a puzzle at their right spots. The other way of using the mouse is much less common but has gained some more attention with the introduction of the Wii: Make mouse motions control your game. A quick flick to the left or right can make your character run, flicking upwards makes him jump and the down direction initiates a midair attack, for example. This avenue of controls hasn't been thoroughly explored on the PC so far but the possibilities are endless. Mouse motion controls are extremely hard to get right but they really add to the immersion of games. Directly translating movements into ingame actions is a good thing if done right and a pain if done wrong. Now that you've got your control scheme planned, put it into your game. If you can play without ever controlling consciously: Congratulations, you have done a great job. In any other case: Back to the drawing board.

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13 | FEATURES

WHAT YOYO CAN DO TO HELP FORGOTTEN GAMES AND DISCOURAGED DESIGNERS Tom Russell on why YoYo Games needs more randomness

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've always been a voracious reader. Fiction, non-fiction, comics, poetry, prose, baubles and high art alike. The problem, of course, with having such a wide-ranging taste is that, when faced with a little of everything and having no particular proclivities one way or another, a sort of paralysis sets in. That's why I loved the card catalogue. On a given trip to the library, I could walk up to that sturdy wooden structure, slide open a drawer at random, and pull out a card, any card. And whatever book was on that card, I would go and fetch it and give it a read. Sometimes it was a good book and sometimes it was a great book and sometimes it was awful and I put it right back on the shelf. But I probably never would have found that book or given it a second look if it hadn't been for that card catalogue. Anyone who has been in a library recently, however,

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knows that card catalogues are rapidly becoming extinct. My own library switched over to a computer catalogue years and years ago, utilizing the old index cards for scrap paper. Certainly it's more "modern" and the records better kept, but you can't just select an item at random. In order to come across a book with a computer catalogue, you need to do a specific search for a subject, an author, or a title. I discovered some of my favourite books and authors and ideas the old way. The new way might be more "modern", but it is more likely to cause that paralysis. Sometimes I will spend long tense minutes staring at the screen, the blank search fields taunting my impotence. I sometimes have the same experience with the Internet. I love to learn about new things but unless I type in a specific web address or search, I can't just learn something at random. Or, at least, I couldn't before Wikipedia came along. Wikipedia has a "Random Article" button. Click it and, as expected, a completely random article will pop up on your screen. It could be good, great, or terrible, but usually it's something I wouldn't come across if not

for that button. It's the closest thing a website has to the old card catalogue system that I found so edifying and wondrous. Since we're now commencing this article's eighth paragraph, you're probably wondering why, precisely, you're reading this in Game Maker Technology Magazine. Or, perhaps, you've figured it out already. Perhaps you yourself have pulled up the YoYo Games main page and felt yourself overcome with a similar paralysis: you don't have a particular genre in mind, you just want to play a game, any game, something you haven't played before. Perhaps you have made a game that didn't attract attention when it was first made available weeks or months before. It's fallen off the Most Recent page, and since few games climb up from under-100-plays obscurity into the Most Played, Highest Rated, or Staff Picks categories, it's likely to languish, unloved, for all eternity, like a book that never got on the best-seller list. Just as a card catalogue can unite a reader with a forgotten book or author, a "Random Game" button on the YoYo front page could unite a player with a forgotten game. And if that button wasn't totally one hundred percent random -- if, for example, it only drew on games more than two or three ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

14 | FEATURES Continued: What YoYo Games Can Do To Help... months old that didn't make it into any of the Most Played, Highest Rated, et al. categories- it would help those games and game creators who really have been forgotten. Now, some of these games might be good, some even might be great, and -- let's face it -- a lot of them might be terrible. (There's a reason why some games become popular and top-rated in the first place: they're good.) But the addition of such a button at least opens those worthy-but-overlooked games up to prospective players instead of burying them dozens of pages down. The most popular games don't need any help getting people to play, rate, and discuss them; if a game is on one of the top lists, they're more likely to be played, which means they're more likely to be on the list, which means they're more likely to be played: it's a cycle that makes it harder and harder for some games to garner attention. In conclusion, a random game button would be beneficial to players who have already exhausted the top-rated and most-popular lists, to game creators who might be encouraged by feedback given on a sixmonth-old game, and to YoYo itself, which requires customer good-will if they are to achieve their goal of becoming a YouTube for games.

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ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

15 | FEATURES

A LETTER FROM MARK OVERMARS

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An open letter from the creator of Game Maker

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t seems that it is still not clear to some people what is the relation between YoYo Games, Game Maker, and me. So I thought I'd write this letter to get this clear. First the formal part. YoYo Games got the exclusive distribution and exploitation rights for the Game Maker software from me. YoYo Games is solely responsible for distributing and developing the software in return I became one of the owners of YoYo Games. The other owners put a considerable amount of money in the company while I provided the Game Maker software. I am one of the directors of YoYo Games and I am closely involved in the running of the

company. All decisions are made between Sandy Duncan (the CEO), me, and the other directors of YoYo Games. In general we always agree on the decisions. This involves the further development of Game Maker, the changes to the website, and the business opportunities. I weekly discuss all these issues with Sandy so we work together very closely and in a very pleasant atmosphere. I no longer work on developing Game Maker. I simply do not have the time for that anymore. Had YoYo Games not happened development would most likely have come to a halt, YoYo Games however took over the development and hired a well-known game developer for this task. This will considerably improve the professionalism of the software. Up to now two major pieces of work are underway and are almost finished. An Apple Mac version of Game Maker has largely been finished. Secondly, the runner part of Game Maker is being rewritten in C++ and is going through beta testing. This will initially not increase the functionality of Game Maker but it will make it easier to port Game Maker to other platforms and it might lead to some performance improvements. As a next step we will redo the maker part, extend the features, and give the program a facelift. But that will still take a considerable amount of time.

my focus in YoYo Games more towards establishing better relations with the community of developers. This is most visible from the Glog that I am now regularly writing on. Also I am pushing hard on improving the new wiki and I encourage everybody to contribute. It should become the prime source of information for all users of Game Maker. A next step will be to improve the resources section of the website. The developers of games using Game Maker are the most important users for YoYo Games and we will work hard to improve the assistance we offer. I really look forward to the coming year. You can expect many important changes and improvements. This should give you as developers more support, better ways to distribute your games, and possibly even ways to make money with your work. Please keep creating these wonderful games.

Mark Overmars YoYo Games Director

During the past few months I have shifted WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

16 | REVIEWS

SPIRITS OF METROPOLIS Developer : Mr.Chubigans Reviewer : NAL Type : Commercial - $19.99

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or those of you that read GMTech Magazine already, and have done for the last few issues, you may be aware that I previewed Spirits of Metropolis in its early stages. In the preview, I mentioned that it showed potential but was a little repetitive. Well, now I have my mitts on a copy of the full game and will bring you the verdict for the whole game. For those unaware of the premise, I'll go over it. Mr Chubigans made Spirits of Metropolis with the intent of making a match-three puzzle game not conforming to usual standards (most people know that no match-three game is truly different from any other). In Spirits of Metropolis, you are presented with a grid, a timer and a coloured cursor. Clicking on one of the gems in the grid changes its colour to that of the cursor, then the cursor takes a different colour. WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

Download The idea of this is that, when you're ready, you begin a chain reaction, starting from a central gem (that cannot be colourised). Gems non-diagonally surrounding this central one begin to light up, and also light similarly-coloured gems next to them. For every third lit gem of a colour chain, an explosion occurs, setting off more adjacent chains. It sounds, and initially is, rather complicated, but a thorough tutorial before you're let loose on the main game modes has you understanding the idea fairly quickly.

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people familiar with Mr Chubigans' newer games, though. The graphics are stunning, everything fits together brilliantly, and the atmosphere is great - a blend of ambience and graphical effects gives the game a real feel of serenity, even when you're up against the clock. Okay, onto the game itself. As

previously stated, Spirits of Metropolis is Mr Chubigan's take on the match-three genre. Games in this genre are generally rather addictive, allow you to develop your own play strategies, and get progressively harder. This game is no different, although where most matchthree games include death by an over-filling of whatever you're matching three of (think Bust-a-

Once the tutorial is set, you're presented with a pretty title screen that allows you to begin a "Journey" (story mode), play a "Puzzle Challenge", make your own level, view medals etc. Before I begin commenting on the gameplay itself, I'd like to mention how consistently professional the game seems. This won't be a surprise to ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

17 | REVIEWS Continued: Spirits Of Metropolis Move where the balls you're firing at keep gaining rows from the top and there's a limit line at the bottom), Spirits of Metropolis is purely up-against-the-clock action. If you're a puzzle fan, you'll feel right at home when playing this, though, since for all the ways it tries to be different, it's essentially still a puzzle game. As you progress through the game, time limits get stricter, chains get harder to make, and white gems seemingly become rarer (these allow you to select any colour from the six SoM uses). Of the modes, Journey takes you into a series of constellations,

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where each star represents a level. In levels, your aim is to get a set number of points before time runs out. Points are obtained by lighting gems up; multipliers can be obtained by "exploding" the third in a chain of coloured gems. If the number of points is not achieved when all chains finish, and there is still time left on the clock, you are allowed to return to colourising the board and starting the chain again to add onto the score. The process can be, and often needs to be, repeated until time runs out. Puzzle is slightly different. In this mode, you can work your way through over 50 different puzzles. These have different goals, for example clearing the board in one chain, and are usually more restricted in such aspects as the colours you can change gems into. This mode also contains a level editor/creator, in which you can... well, guess. The level editor is a decent tool, although there's little need to make your own levels, what

with the game itself containing so many. This is a good mode for the thinker. To the relief of time-limit dislikers there's a mode, dubbed "endurance", in which there's no time limit, but instead you're limited to the number of colour changes you can make to gems. The gameplay, as a whole and to my relief, is better than the first build I played, mainly due to the extra modes. They make the lifespan of the game much longer than if it were just Journey, and unlike the extra modes you often find in matchthree games, they don't feel tacked on. As said earlier in this review, the graphics are amazing, for many different reasons. Some items, such as the gems, because of their excellent spriting, other aspects because of the graphical effects (I can't help but adore the explosions when you hit the third gem in a chain). What pushes the graphics from "good" to "professional" is that they are so busy, yet never feel cluttered. Take a closer look at the background, you'll notice stuff like a cityscape and the stars.

I only found one glitch - in level editor, when I tried changing the settings for the level, it added gems to the level underneath. Other than that, the game appears to be glitch-free. Since there's a demo of the game on its official website, http://www.spiritsofmetropolis.co m/ , it's better that you form your own opinion of whether you want to buy the game. If you're a puzzle lover though, I'd highly recommend you buy the game and prepare for several hours of frantic yet somehow relaxed colourisation of a board full of gems and resulting explosions of colour. If you're NOT a puzzle lover, though, it's probably best to steer clear. As good as the game is, it's unlikely to convert anybody.

Gameplay: Graphics: Sound: Originality:

8/10 10/10 9/10 7/10 ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

18 | REVIEWS

DUNGEON CHAOS Developer : Jo-Remi Reviewer : Mazimadu Type : Completed

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any people wonder why video games are addictive. The truth is that most of us return because of the challenge, whether it be a difficult boss that needs beating or a brainteasing puzzle. Dungeon Chaos is indeed a difficult game, having the player control two players at once. It is an interesting concept, but does multitasking make for a satisfying experience or does it make the player feel like he is doing too much? The story involves a brother/sister duo called Ceil and Monique, who get warped by their possessed evil brother to another dimension. This prompts them to take up arms which happen to be sold in said dimension, and fight their way through several difficult levels of endlessly spawning enemies. Dugeon Chaos features a great simple pixel art style with well animated sprites and tiles. WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

Download Weapons and items have a good feel to them and give off nice sounds and special effects. The lack of music is a shame. A good score could have really spiced things up. The controls are tight and responsive and have a good feel. Playing the game in single player can be quite a blast, since each stage has a set number of enemies that spawn constantly. The challenge isn't the enemies

themselves, but the fact that they spawn in a very unpredictable nature, making them difficult to avoid. Combine the fact that the player has a very limited jump and that stages have limited space, and it becomes apparent that destroying enemies as fast as you can is the only way to survive. Doing so can be addictive, but all this is (initially) hindered by the inclusion of a 2nd player. The inclusion of a second character feels a little tacked on. The movements are mapped to ASWD instead of the arrow keys and Q is shoot. This is kind of annoying because it is difficult to move, jump, and shoot simultaneously with such a setup. This is made more tedious because there is another character that needs to be controlled. The game is set to 2 players by default. Since most GM games

are single player, it confuses the player into thinking that it is a puzzle co-op game, where both characters are used to solve puzzles. I played half the game until I realized that I could change it to single player. The game also lacks unlockables and achievements, robbing it of some much needed replay value. At it’s core Dungeon Chaos is a competent platform shooter. Despite having tight controls and a decent (albeit poorly implemented) 2 player setup, it is hampered by low replay value and repetition. If controlling two players simultaneously is your thing, then check out this game, even if the experience doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

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5/10 7.5/10 6.5/10 6/10 ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

19 | REVIEWS

ADRENALINE Developer : Bryan(BrainWare) and OpticalLiam Reviewer : Alexander Earl Type : Work In Progress

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he creators of Adrenaline describe the game as "fast paced online multiplayer deathmatch and CTF featuring assault rifles, submachine guns, lasers, grenades, mines, miniguns" and I couldn't disagree with that statement at all. Adrenaline is one of those great games that only ever seem to appear every few months. Despite the fact the game is still in beta stages the gameplay is a blast, the graphics a pleasure and the music is just plush.

The HUD and other graphics for players as well as all the objects in the various maps were really superb, unlike most games you can change the colour of your player to any colour you want using the colour wheel. There were a wide weapons good weapons for you to choose from however it was a shame that some of the gunfire didn’t look very realistic. All in all, the graphics were quite good, simple yet effective. The sound-effects were okay, with effects for gunfire and frags etc.

Once you are logged in and start the game and you are greeted with a mean looking menu from there the game just keeps getting better, you enter the game mode and start blasting your way through the players filling them with lead, while picking up bonuses on your way and follow guerrilla warfare to wreck your opponents into debris.

The game play does really provide you with the jerk of adrenaline the name promises. There were loads of maps for you to try out in single player mode (where the enemies were unfortunately a little buggy) or multiplayer which was several shades better than most other games, the gameplay incorporates all the features you would need in a top-down

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shooter (some guns, frags) and more (power-ups/ bonuses). Within a few minutes of play you really get into the game, involved in tactics to shoot down the opponents and win the match. I also appreciate the fact that tactics and strategy takes precedence over skill with keys/mouse. With only ten minutes of game play under your belt (to get used to the keys) and extra terrestrial intelligence, you could become invincible. You can hide in places waiting for your opponent to show up (though the map may spoil the fun there) or sneak behind a players who aren’t guarding their back, and make the hunter the hunted. Also, you could use your grenades if you come face to face with the opponent, instead of just exchanging fire. I didn’t experience any kind of lag, which is a must in any online GM game, but hardly implemented. All the weapons have their pros and cons: you could use a SMG when going face to face, and use rocket

launcher when attacking from behind. In short, effective strategy will get you to the top in this game, which is really cool. However, the game wasn’t all pros - chatting could have been made easier, for example you can’t really chat except inbetween two matches. Also, players should be able to customise their ‘warrior’ more than just a colour cahnge. If I would have to describe this game in one word, I’d say (even if it’s not a word already in existence): Unexitable.

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8/10 8/10 7/10 6/10 ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

20 | REVIEWS

ASSASSIN BLUE Developer : Banov Reviewer : Mazimadu Type : Completed

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ne of the dreams of most game designers is to make a game that gets played by a large number of people and gathers a cult following. Unfortunately, most game makers never finish their projects, either because of poor planning, the difficulties of programming or just a lack of time. This is a reality most rookies face the first time they attempt to make an “epic” video game. For this reason, it is very rare to find a game that doesn’t venture

Download past mini-game potential. Rarer still is it to find a game that even approaches Seiklus quality. But when a game like that ever does get made, it puts all our knowledge of video game design to the test, proving that a single person can make something that rivals a commercial product (which usually take teams of people to produce). Nowhere is this more apparent than in Assassin Blue. With its tight game play, brilliant design and surprisingly high replay value, Assassin Blue is a game that has many things going for it. Assassin Blue puts the player in control of an assassin for hire who is sent on periodic extermination missions by an enigmatic figure. Initially the missions are pretty straight forward, but once a character called Red becomes your partner

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the missions begin following an increasingly questionable path, with one having the player kill an innocent man and his family. The story is far more engaging than most mainstream video games' as it tackles themes such as justice, morality and vengeance without becoming too mellowdramatic or heavy handed. This makes playing the game a very engaging experience that many will remember, even as they sleep. Assassin blue is a game that presents itself very well. The graphics of the game don't seem very impressive initially, but do in later levels. Its unique handdrawn style stands out with many well-animated characters and a good use of Game Maker effects. If not for its graphical style, it could easily be passed off as a Nintendo DS game. The controls are tight and very responsive, with 2 keys for attacking and 1 for blocking. The game has quick-time events, similar to Resident Evil 4. These primarily advance the game's plot; so missing them has no penalty. The relatively small arsenal succeeds in keeping the combat focused. Levels contain numerous trinkets, such as

targets that are scattered throughout the level. Destroying these earns points which can be spent on new moves and extra content, all found in a store available after beating one of the game's many bosses. This gives the Assassin Blue a surprising amount of replay value, providing more incentive to play after the games completion. Even from a commercial stand point, this game has many things going for it. It has a story that is well thought out, tight controls, and appeal for both hardcore and casual players. It is quite simply a shining example of how a video game should be made and nails everything it does. I highly recommend that everyone play this game. No one will be disappointed.

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9/10 8/10 8.5/10 9/10 ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

21 | REVIEWS

RENCARA Developer : Gamerhippo7 Reviewer : Mazimadu Type : Completed

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amerhippo7 has had a consistent track record of making games with simple yet colorfully vibrant graphics, simple to execute gameplay and really simple boss fights. Rencara is a departure from the type of games hippo makes, most of which have primarily been platformers. Is hippos latest game be something special, or is it something a little too familiar?

Download Rencara follows in the vein of oldschool shooters of yore like 1945 in which a massive space station called the "Star Cannon" appears out of nowhere and starts destroying planets. It turns out that the evil Emperor Astral Darkly is trying to take over the solar system and naturally, you and a group of ships are sent out to subdue Darkly and restore order to the system. The story, while being pretty basic and irrelevant, adds a nice touch and helps keep the player motivated. However, the story can be disabled if the player wishes. The graphics, like all if Gamerhippo7's, are hand drawn graphics that are very colorful and pleasant to look at. The bosses are the highlight of the game, taking up half the screen and able to spew dozens of bullets at a time. The music also was composed by hippo, giving the game a

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very charming retro feeling. The gameplay of Rencara is as basic as a shooter can get. The player is able to select one of 3 ships, each with its own strengths, weaknesses and special attacks. Also, destroyed enemy ships release shrapnel that is able to recharge your shield. This comes in handy because the number of enemies on screen can fluctuate from a couple of weaker ones to dozens of harder ones in seconds. This is sort of the game's charm because the difficulty curve here is near perfect. Too bad the same can't be said about the bosses. Normally hippo bosses are easy, too easy in fact. Here, however, they are just as punishing as early NES bosses, where the careful scaling of stage difficulty becomes irrelevant as bosses turn a simple shoot-emup into a bullet hell. Luckily, this is no Kairuga. Your shield proves its worth at these moments, and with sharp gaming skills, one can easily slug through them and feel good at the end of the day.

In all, Hippo made a successful jump to side scrolling, delivering a game with a great deal of challenge with excellent pacing. Many may see it as a very cutelooking game with gameplay reminiscent of classic games like Radiant Silvergun. Personally, we see it as a "How to Make a Good Shooter" that should teach newbies a thing or two about game design. Gamerhippo7 should keep up the good work; we can't wait to see what he does next.

Gameplay: Graphics: Sound: Originality:

9/10 7/10 8/10 6/10 ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

22 | REVIEWS

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ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

23 | REVIEWS

GREENTECH Developer : Mr.Chubigans Reviewer : Alexander Earl Type : Completed

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reenTech is a green game, both literally and actually. It’s an RTS where you have to guide pollution, by controlling the wind direction, from factories to air cleansing centers and to do so accumulate ‘pollution’, increase or decrease wind speed and change the direction of wind. Sounds boring, right? But it isn’t. Instead it’s quite addictive, and a source of hours of fun, as you close factories and do your good deed(s?) of the day. With the villain being, the dangerous Mr. Pollution who threatens the Earth, you

Download would surely enjoy this funfilled game. I loved the graphics style, it is matrix style green. The HUD, menu, and everything else you could lay your eyes on was green. You may find that nice, but it hurt my eyes to find everything so green. Perhaps, it was overdone a bit. Perhaps it could be mixed with black and white. Perhaps that would look better, perhaps not. Color scheme aside, the graphics were well made. Not the best and surely not the worst. All in all, the graphics are umm… green! The sounds are pretty nice. The background music is pretty nice. Not much to write about the sound, they were the kind you would expect from a good game. The game play was definitely the best part of the game! The game started with a compulsory tutorial which made you familiar with the game, which was appreciable. I love RTS’s because of their simple controls and

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GreenTech is true to its genre. You could use the mouse to control all the actions. The wind direction could be controlled by simply pointing the mouse in the right direction, the speed could be increased or decreased with a click of button and accumulating could be done by simply moving the mouse to and fro. The controls are simple yet effective. Instead of assigning keyboard keys scattered all over the keyboard, as many games do, the controls were assigned keeping in mind user’s comfort. The controls may be simple but the game was not. Complex strategies (using accumulating, wind direction and wind speed)

were what really kept me hooked on to it more hours. Most of the games made with Game Maker are of the play and throw type. You play it for a day (like many games), or for a few weeks (like sapphire tears), but there are some games to which you could always come back to, to escape from the complex games on gaming consoles. And GreenTech is one of them!

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8/10 6/10 7/10 10/10 ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

24 | REVIEWS

COMPETITION 04 ROUND-UP Broxter reviews 4 games for Comp04

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here were quite a few entries to the latest YoYo Games competition which was titled 'Save the Planet', once again large amounts of cash prizes were on offer and once again we saw entries posted in the first few days of the competition being announced. As the competition went on more games were posted in the hope of winning the top prizes. I was faced with a

hard task, I to do a round-up of entries that I felt were some of the best, there are plenty out there that I didn't mention but are still good and a few that were mentioned by YoYo Games as a winner or as a runner-up as you saw on page 22. A full list of entries can be found here, try them out and enjoy.

Round-up Reviews

Some may argue that the general quality of games seems to be slightly lower than any competition before. This could just be there personally opinion as quite a few games were entered and quite a few were really good. Here is my round-up;

ChimpVenture by drazzke & The Berryster

This fine-looking platformer puts the player in control of a well sprited chimp who has the unfortunate job of preventing humans from over-polluting the WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

atmosphere. Collecting bananas on the way and being led by some sort of rabbit, the player faces many challenges and different environments, as well as four bosses from a total of twenty levels. Right from the classy introduction, you can tell that this game is going to be above average. The professionalism is visible as soon as the game begins. Sadly, though, the gameplay doesn’t really match the quality of the presentation; the chimp is sometimes unnecessarily frustrating to control and this can lead to many unfair deaths. The AI seems a bit unfinished, too; the enemies often get stuck or act strangely, though this could be because drazzke wanted to make the AI as realistic and unpredictable as possible.

The presentation is generally very slick and realistic and the level design is fairly well thought out. He has done well to make most of the graphics match the style. However, I do have a gripe about the chimp’s look; the walking animation doesn’t realistically match the speed of the chimp, making it look like he’s skating on ice made out of grass. Though, that is only a small fault. If you despise annoying music, then you’ll have your speakers turned down as soon as this game begins. ChimpVenture features some of the most annoying music ever! The repetitiveness of the audio is relentless - if you play on it for

Graphically, ChimpVenture is one of the best around. It’s easy to see that the graphical designer, The Berryster (drazzke’s brother) is very talented. ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

25 | REVIEWS Continued: Competition04 Round Up long enough, your ears will start crying out in pain! But fortunately, the music does vary depending on the level environment. Sound effects are few and far between, but they fit well. Download

Northland by James Games

Northland is a cute platform maze exploration game, where a certain ‘Mr. Penguin’ sees a public service announcement on TV. He realises he needs to do something about global warming and so his journey begins. The

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main objective of the game is to collect all 500 coins, in order to raise awareness of global warming. But that’s not all – other objects must be collected so that they can be swapped for other objects and coins with the range of NPCs in the game. This idea arguably makes the game last longer and makes it a better experience. The game includes a nice variety of things to keep you amused for a while. The game is presented impeccably – it’s so simplistic, but so effective and polished. The game certainly doesn’t look like someone’s first published game, but it is. The platforming physics are conventional, but enjoyable and it’s not too frustrating to move around in Northland. The game is very well refined; there seemed to be no gameplay glitches at all. One downside is that the game can sometimes feel empty or

boring, with the absence of enemies and action, but any fans of Seiklus and An Untitled Story should be impressed. The graphics in this game appear very cutely, that’s for sure. They remind me of the graphics that jw is known for. It’s all very simple, but the sprites are look very clean and they’re nice and consistent. Something I really like is the subtle snowing effect that isn’t annoying. It falls at the general pace of the game, which is a nice touch. Sound-wise, the game feels very refreshing. The background music goes at just the right tempo and is so soothing that you don’t really notice it that much. I reckon this is the key to having music that doesn’t annoy the players – quite rare, in GameMaker games. The sound effects also follow the atmospheric style nicely. Download

The Eyeballs 2 by EasyBeak

This sequel to the game that received an honourable mention in the previous competition takes on a different aspect this time. Instead of dodging things and slowly trudging your way to victory, you solve puzzles, similar to those seen in YoYo Games competition hit, Visit 2. This came after a number of responses to the original game, saying that it was boring and there was nothing really new to do in the latter stages. I still feel that the game could do with a bit more action, but this game seems to be intended to be played as a way to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. This change in direction for the game, though, doesn’t mean that the Eyeballs’ motives are any ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

26 | REVIEWS Continued: Competition04 Round-up different; the main aim is still to save the rest of the green Eyeballs from the grasp of the blue Eyeballs’ king. As I’ve already outlined, the main focus of the game lies in puzzle solving. It’s not long before you really have to think about the puzzles and how to solve them; the game includes a number of rules and different objects that do different things, meaning that any level designers would be able to do some magic stuff with it. The game does actually contain a pretty decent level editor, but it’s only unlockable when the player has finished all forty levels; a bit

tight if you ask me, but I guess this does give the player extra drive to complete the game. The graphics are very similar to those of the original Eyeballs game, but they’re slightly more polished. The sequel takes use of some of the particle effects in GameMaker, too. One thing I’m going to whinge about it is the mask of the player. Using a square sprite mask on the circular eyeball makes it look like it’s floating in the middle of the air, when moving to edge of a platform. This really just ruins the look sometimes, in my opinion, but I can’t think of anything else EasyBeak could’ve done to rectify this, without giving more troubles. Personally, I liked the background music. The soft atmospherical feel to it really goes well with the game and its relaxing appearance. Also, I thought the sound effects were nice, as they felt as soft as the background music. Download

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Teka Teki by RhysAndrews

The creator of the popular game, Caveman Craig, had a lot to follow. He came up with Teka Teki, a Tetris-style puzzle game, where the player lines up endangered animals with their foods to destroy groups of blocks, rather than just creating horizontal lines. Although this is heavily reliant on the idea of Tetris, it still has a unique take on it. The game slowly but surely progresses and becomes a lot more difficult, adding in numerous variants of blocks that

do different things to intervene with the players progress. There are a good number of these blocks, adding a good deal of much needed variation into the game. In my opinion, the game starts too slow and this may deter some impatient players from the game. It takes quite a while before the screen gets halffilled with blocks, but when it does, things can get tricky! RhysAndrews has, as usual, found a great artist to make his game look terrific. Without the good-looking graphics and the very well drawn background, you might say that the game wouldn’t be as fun to play; no one really likes to look at average graphics. All of the sprites go well together and it appears that much care has been taken to make the game look good. The music in the game is good and goes fairly well with the theme, while not getting too repetitive or annoying. The sound effects are very appropriate to a Tetris-styled game and they vary nicely, to offer a more enjoyable feel to Teka Teki. Download

ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

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INTERVIEW WITH: CLIFF HARRIS

GMTECH EXCLU SIVE

He's the man behind some of the best indie games of recent times Positech games is a one man company run by Cliff Harris that has consistently released excellent and orginal games since 1997. His games have had coverage in established PC gaming magazines and have recieved scores that rival multi-million pound development studio's games. [GMT] Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into gaming? [CLIFF] I started programming games on the ZX81 computer back in 1981, but only as a hobby. I did a degree in Economics, then had a series of strange jobs. I was a boat builder for many years, and also played in a few bands and taught guitar playing, then I ended up in IT and doing tech support for trading floors on the UK stock market. From there I ended up getting a job in the mainstream game industry. Genre wise, I used to play pretty much everything, RPGs, RTS, Flight sims, the whole lot. These days I tend to play just RTS, simulation games and the odd FPS, especially WW2 ones. [GMT] What were your thoughts about going from the secure world of working for companies like WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

'Elixir' and 'Maxis' to working for yourself? [CLIFF] I didn't find it as scary as most people do because in the past I'd worked for myself as an IT contractor and a guitar teacher, so there was no sudden fear of not having a regular salary. I taught myself to program by writing entire games, so I didn't doubt that I could do the whole thing. My CV to get a games job was screenshots of about 5 games I'd made entirely myself, and had demos of on my website, so I already had lots of experience of doing every part of a full game. [GMT] You have released a handful of games, fewer than 10 over the last 11 years, what is the reason behind the gap between releases? [CLIFF] I do have a ton of games that I never finished. Plus my games change quite a lot during development. The new game I'm currently working on has no similarity at all to how it was originally designed. If you are cloning another game, or just making minor tweaks to an established genre, then you can get a game done much quicker, but if you want to actually innovate, you waste a lot of time on dead ends, which is why they take that much longer to get finished.

[GMT] Over the last 11 years there were no doubt plenty on bumps in the road and hits to your armour so what were they and how did you survive them to keep you going for so long as an one man development company? [CLIFF] I've done some bad games, and some good games that didn't sell. I made two racing games that people enjoyed but never bought. I made a really bad minesweeper clone that was just a waste of time, and I made a game that I really like called planetary defense, which also sells fairly badly in comparison to the rest. I've also made some business mistakes, been ripped off by publishers, had one huge worldfamous games publisher threaten to sue me into bankruptcy, wasted time on pointless flamewars, and made all sorts of mistakes. I spent thousands of dollars on

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too badly if the latest game isn't a blockbuster. It still can be very scary though, because not only did you spend a year, you probably spent thousands or tens of thousands on artwork, musicians and artists to make the game. It's a huge scary gamble. Would you gamble a years’ salary?

artwork for a game I never finished at one point. I'll finish it one day... [GMT] Many developers who read our magazine are worried about their game getting reproduced without their permission. You don’t use any form of DRM for your game, what is your reasoning behind that? [CLIFF] I do not understand the mentality of people who go out of their way to try and put developers out of business. It's not only illegal, rude, unethical and disgraceful behaviour, but it’s also incredibly shortsighted and self defeating. If you find a new local cafe that sells amazing cakes, you tell everyone about the great cakes. What you don't do is to break into the cake store and steal everything so the cake store goes out of business. If you do, there are no cakes next week. I just don't see how people can't grasp that concept. I think the main objective to prevent piracy is to punish uploaders and hosters. I think DRM is useless and suing downloaders is a waste of money, but by all means arrest and imprison the jerks who run warez and illegal torrent sites. Those guys make a living from the hard work of everyone else, and they should be the targets of anti-piracy measures. [GMT] The release of your games is something very important especially as if it goes horribly wrong you spent the last year or so working on a game that doesn't actually make you much money. WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

Do you make games and decide that you will release it in December as you want it Christmas base, or is it make the game and then look at the calender and work out a date? [CLIFF] No, I just release the game when it’s finished. That often seems to coincide with the month before Christmas but it's total coincidence. I'm looking likely to release the next game slightly earlier. I make games that have a lot of depth, and tend to keep selling over the long term, which means I don't have to panic

[GMT] Once the game is ready for release, you have the Press Release ready, the website up and you start selling what is going through your mind, what are your hopes and what are your fears? [CLIFF] Ideally the game sells better than the last one. It's always depressing until it's at least broken even on the artwork, advertising and sound costs. The big fear is that the game just bombs and you make no money at all. There is also a big fear that you shipped a game with a really bad bug in it, although being online it's pretty easy to patch things. [GMT] When making selling a game, the big question is when do you admit defeat, and say that the game isn't selling as well as you wished and you should cut it down from your originally $20 valuation to $10? [CLIFF] I don't make games that I think are $8 or $10 games. I always try to have a really good idea and execution that I think people will play again and again, and would provide a lot of entertainment. If a game of ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

30 | EXTRA Continued: Interview With Cliff Harris mine isn't selling well on release, it's probably got some design error or balancing error, or I need to fix a bad bug or add a feature. The easiest and also the worst way to compensate for that problem is to drop the price, but that never works. I'm trying to entertain people. If I pay money to see a stand-up comedian, and he isn't funny, but he then lowers the price, I still won't find him funny. I don't get why people think lowering the price is the solution. If someone thinks Democracy 2 is overpriced, they aren't the target market. That's a game that can take several days playing just to get a decent feel for how to play properly. If you aren't interested enough in the concept to play

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more than 5 hours, then it's probably not the game for you. When you look at it in terms of cost per hour played, any video game worth playing must be worth $10 minimum. That’s less than a pizza you eat in 20 minutes. [GMT] You didn't start out as a game developer, you went through 3 career changes over 20 years before landing your dream job - your own game making company - what advice do you have for others thinking about making the leap into game development? [CLIFF] Just do it. Lots of people in your current job will think you are mad but just ignore them. I remember telling my boss at Elixir that I used to nail boats together for a living, thinking that I was the only one who had changed careers big time. It turned out he used to manage an abattoir. Gaming is generally a merit-based system. Nobody cares much about your age, ethnicity, social class, gender or anything except how good you are at what you do. That means anyone can do it if they study really hard and know how to work. I've employed contractors online without knowing even what country they lived in.

[GMT] There are so many jobs that are floating around in the game industry and so many rumours about hard deadlines and spending hours in hot rooms surrounding by computers just programming or designing nonstop. What really goes on and happens during the game development process, is it a kid’s dream or is just a nightmare? [CLIFF] That stuff really happens to other people. I never, ever, in five years of mainstream development worked through the night. I've worked till pretty late a few times, but I didn't routinely stay late or work weekends. It's a total myth perpetuated by poor managers that programmers can work more than nine hours a day and be productive. Imagine taking an IQ test all day, from 10am to 8pm. Imagine how tired you are at 8pm, and remember that with C++ a single mistyped character can cause a random crash bug that takes a week to find. What idiot would make coders work past that time limit? Yet amazingly people do, and sadly, lots of coders just put up with it. Working in game dev can be the most awesome thing ever. I had some fantastic times when I worked at Elixir and Lionhead. You just have to make managers understand that it's actually counterproductive to work too many hours. The industry really needs to learn that.

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DEVELOPMENT OF: ELEMENTS OF ESCAPE The story of how Flak3r's game was made

O

ctober 15th, 2007. That was the day I started on what would become the year-long game development journey that was Elements Of Escape. In the game's four iterations, I have learnt an enormous amount, which I've decided to share with you through this article.

environment. After critically evaluating that idea and deciding that it was not feasible in the competition's timespan (one month), I managed to boil everything down into the idea of having the fire character shoot fire and the ice character make ice blocks that could be walked on.

The Beginning

Now it was time to actually make the game. In the first three weeks of the competition, I used the Game Maker platform tutorial to make an engine. In the last week of the competition, I did everything else. Unfortunately, this led to problems with length, bugginess, resource pack music and sound, and unintuitive controls.

On that day of October 15th, I found out about a contest hosted by two Game Maker Magazines (MarkUp and GMTech) called “The Game Maker Race”. Its theme was “fire and ice”. I decided that it was about time I released a game, after nearly three years of game development, and that this competition was the perfect motivation to do so. After talking with a friend about what to make the game about and how to implement the competition's theme, I hit on the idea of having a fire-related and an ice-related character co-operate with each other in order to finish levels. I made it a platformer, because that's what I envisioned when I thought about what the game was going to be. My original plan for Elements Of Escape was for it to be a realistic, detailed game that bogged down the player with powers and ways in which to interact with the WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

Version 1

Fortunately for me, the wonderful people at NAG Online and 64Digits pointed out a number of flaws in the game, and I was able to whip it into some kind of shape before the competition's due date. The game's one merit was that, for some reason that completely escaped me, people actually found it FUN. There were many complaints about the hideous graphics, but small touches like the changing text smileys drawn on the characters' faces managed to distill those a bit. Unfortunately, Elements Of Escape got no further in The Game Maker Race than the second round. It was knocked out by Mount

Contradiction, a game with better graphics. I was somewhat put out by this, but soon decided that it didn't really matter.

Version 2

Around Christmas 2007, I was approached by fellow game developer, ESA of 64Digits. He PMed me to say how much he had enjoyed Elements Of Escape, and how sad it was that the graphics let the game down. But that's not all the PM was about. ESA had liked my game so much, that he had taken the time to make a selection of replacement graphics for it, and even composed a track of background music to replace the game's annoying Sonic The Hedgehog soundtrack. Needless to say, I was absolutely ecstatic about this, and thanked ESA repeatedly. There should be more people in the world like him. Anyway, with a number of new graphics in tow, I set to work on a new version of Elements Of Escape with renewed vigour and enthusiasm, vowing to make it as enjoyable ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

32 | EXTRA Continued: Development of Elements of Escape and professional as I could. However, there were some things I overlooked. Things that would plague the game long into the future. What were these things? Engine bugs. Little, almost insignificant problems with the game that could render it unplayable. I was so busy implementing the new graphics and making everything look good, that I forgot to make everything work good... *ahem* well. Even so, Version 2 was met with praise and raised my average ratings from 60 and 70 percent to 80 percent. But I was to be constantly reminded of those little bugs. One person had issues with the characters getting stuck moving platforms and ice blocks, another had issues with not being able to place ice blocks in certain places, and I myself was always annoyed by the way the

characters jerked down a few pixels when hitting the ceiling.

Version 3

My main goal in V3 was to give the game a level editor, because I knew that its longevity would really improve if I added one, and because level design is not a task that I relish, and adding an editor would mean that players wouldn't have to depend on my new versions for more gameplay once they were done with the ten levels I had made. An enormous mistake I made with this version was in Level 8. Having been too lazy to test all the game's levels after implementing some engine fixes (making the movement smoother and removing the aforementioned ceiling bug, having finally figured out how to), I had overlooked a glitch that made the level impossible. Worse still, I dismissed complaints as people not being able to play the game, and didn't bother to even look at the problem. When I finally DID get around to it, it was too late to fix it, as I had already deleted all of the game's levels from the source file to make new ones for the next version. I kicked myself for it and am still very ashamed of it, but there's nothing that can be done to fix it.

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Version 4

After YoYo Games announced that their third competition's theme was to be co-operation, I realized that Elements Of Escape would be perfect for the competition and set to work planning a new version. After reading people's comments and a particularly insightful review of the game in issue 3 of Russell's Quarterly (rquarterly.blogspot.com), I had a good idea of the direction I wanted to take the game in. I wanted to make it more challenging, maybe even a little puzzling, even though the premise of creating and destroying blocks didn't allow for much puzzlement on the player's part (as explained in the aforementioned review). But before I even started on the new levels and features, I did something I should have done a long time ago: I fixed the game ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

33 | EXTRA Continued: Development of Elements of Escape engine. Armed with an array of platforming examples, platforming tutorials, and a greater level of experience than what I had had when I first put the engine together, I completely redid it all and fixed every little bug that people had ever complained about – at least, to my knowledge. I'm about 90% sure that all the levels in V4 work perfectly, or at least near-perfectly. I even took extra time, delaying my planned release time by a few hours, in order to test the game, as annoying as it was for an overworked developer who just wanted to be done with the thing he had devoted his last two weeks to. Of course, V4 is in no way perfect. The waterpipes are cursed with some minor graphical bugs that I can't seem to fix, and there are probably some other bugs that I don't even know about. But this time, I pledge to try my hardest to fix these problems, and ensure an enjoyable for the player, because that's what really matters. Aside from the aforementioned bug(s), I'm satisfied with V4. I've finally fixed the game's many engine bugs, and I've made the game everything I originally intended it to be. It's taken a while, but I've done it. However, there's always room for improvement, as I learnt in the months following V4's release.

What I've Learnt

Graphics are actually quite important. I didn't WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

think people would care about Elements Of Escape V1's bad graphics, which looked fine to me. I was wrong. If the game had had graphics with more time put into them in the first place, it probably would've done a lot better in The GM Race. People want stories. My philosophy has always been this: “If the gameplay doesn't ask for a story, don't bother with one, because it will waste the player's time, and feel tacked-on.” I absolutely hate tacked-on afterthought stories, and didn't think anyone would mind that my game had none. Unfortunately, people did mind, and the lack of story will always be seen as one of Elements Of Escape's weak points. But then again, you can't please everyone. Level design, graphics, coding, etc... none of that will matter if a game isn't properly tested. I learnt this the hard way with V3. Testing may be a pain, but it has to be done. Listen to

feedback about bugs. Even if you think a bug is too small to worry about, at least try to fix it. There's no better way to put players off playing your game than to leave millions of bugs in it. Make your own sound effects. I did this with V4, and I have to say the new sounds are a huge improvement from the old ones (poor quality resource pack clips). The new sounds also add a huge amount of humour to the game, or at least I think so. I often start it up and kill one of the characters just to hear the death sound effect. If your game's good, but has bad graphics/coding/music, you just need to put it out in the right places, and maybe someone will take pity on you and lend a hand. I know it worked for me. Most important of all, games are not once-off things. You cannot release a game into the wild and expect everything to go smoothly. You need to advertise, listen to feedback, and constantly improve the game, else it's not going anywhere. Think of commercial developers; they release patches, provide technical support, and even release expansions and deluxe versions long after the game's first release. Releasing a game is not the same as finishing it. As a sidenote to the previous point: always make sure your players know what and where the newest version of your game is. So that's the story of Elements Of Escape. I hope you enjoyed reading through it, and I hope you learnt something that you can apply to your own projects. Download ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

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GM CLASSICS

S A N D B O X O F GO D E

very game has its inspirations, and for Sandbox of God it was a flash game called GROW: “Basically you started with your own planet, and had an assortment of weird objects...one was a block, another was a sphere, and it would be just random objects that could potentially turn into creatures, if you played the game right. It wasn’t logical at all. I used GROW as my foundation and came up with a pretty different game entirely”. What it ended up being was a game where you start with an planet inhabited by only a few humans and you are equipped with an an assortment of godly powers with which to use. They range from making it rain to striking the ground with a meteor. Depending on what you do and in a certain order can lead to vastly different outcomes both to what the planet will look like and how your population will act. For example, if you strike the ground with a meteor then make it rain, a small lake will form. Amazingly for such a freeform game, every event and trigger was hardcoded into the game, “not how I’d do it today, but five years ago, that’s all I knew. And the stupid thing was I had it all in my head.”. As any developer will tell you, one of the most difficult aspects in creating a game, is to WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

make sure that when you change one aspect of the game it doesn't accidentally break another part. “If I did the volcano a different way, then the mountain creation might not work, and in turn the river might not work...it was a stack of dominoes ready to topple”. To keep everything together and to release a game with so many scenarios yet with so few bugs was a remarkable achievement. As if mentally balancing all of that wasn't difficult enough, the entire game doesn't use any GML code, quite astonishingly its all made using just the Drag & Drop icons available in Game Maker 5! Not surprisingly Mr.Chubigans admits that “making SOG was not fun...not really fun at all. But the payoff was worth it...my goodness, it was worth it. But in terms of design? It was more work than play...there were only 11 rooms, which

didn’t allow for very much freedom.”. However, the advantage of being a young naïve developer is that you tend not to worry about the boring things, like “giving the game a Hollywood soundtrack (literally taken from Hollywood movies) without paying for it.”. Since becoming a commercial developer Mr.Chubigans now has to pay out in the region of $70 for a soundtrack in each of the games he makes. Certainly a change from “just surfing Wal-Mart.com and grabbing any sound sample I liked“. Releasing a WIP demo is normally very good, but releasing a demo which had no gameplay, and only some screenshots and text explaining what the game was going to end up like is definitely not! “I think the thread ended up having to be locked on the GMC. It was pretty embarrassing, and a bad start for the game. I dunno why I did that. What was I thinking?”. That wasn't the only error of judgement during development, while testing a beta ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

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S A N D B O X O F GO D 2 ?

Countinued: Sandbox Of God version nobody could get the 'oil derrick' event to happen even when told the exact steps to take, “I thought they were crazy until I realized it was a glitch in the game. So instead of admitting I made a mistake, I told everyone they obviously have a defective download and to redownload the game...after I had put up a 'fixed' version, of course, unbeknownst to the beta testers. Sheesh, what a cocky game dev I was back then eh?' So after months of hard work, it was on October 27th 2004 that Sandbox of God was released on the GMC and instantly became a hit. Its amazing to think it now, but this was a time when GM games were only ever

known to the then small GM community and it was one of the first games to gain fame outside it. Nowadays there are dozens of amazingly high quality games played by thousands of people who have never even heard of Game Maker, which is mostly due to yoyogames.com providing an excellent platform to distribute games.

There have been several failed 'attempts' at a sequel to Sandbox of God with the most high profile being a pairing with FredFredrickson for the second YYG competition. "I think Fred just had way too much on his plate to do the dozens more sprites I had asked for. It’s a tough project to work on for the both of us.". Mr.Chubigans also made an

Even today, its possibly one of the only games to have made such an impact that an unofficial user guide was made for it, detailing how to get every event in the game. “The funny thing is I played the game a few weeks ago for the first time in years, and had forgotten the chain of events and solutions for the game. I had to actually find the user guide to get the volcano in my own game“. The most subtle legacy is that the same cursor used in Sandbox of God reappears in most of Mr.Chubigans' games, “it looks nice and why change it anyways?”. What sort of reaction would the game have got if it was released today? Compared to Iji, Lost

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entry for the recent 'Save The Planet' competition (which went on to win the top prize) but says "making a game like my recent greenTech game vs making a sequel to Sandbox of God is like making an awesome off-road go-kart that can do anything vs making a model train that only works on the tracks."

Snowmen, or Caveman Craig, the graphics are admittedly a little lacking, but as Mr.Chubigans says: “really the game seems to be proof that it’s all about the gameplay...as far as freeware goes, at least”. It may have been a pained development, but to Mr.Chubigans it was completely worth the end product. “It’s been a real privilege to see people enjoy the game so much, and I hope to bring that same kind of response to the inevitable sequel. Thanks everyone for all the support!”. Download

What are your classics? If you have a particular game you'd like us to feature here (must have been first released at least over 2 years ago), you can get in touch with us in the usual ways (email/forums/PMs). ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

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FEEDBACK

Timoi answers messages from the forums "Since GMT has remained an E-mag for a long time and I've heard that it's probably going to stay that way for awhile. My suggestion then is to deck it out! Acrobat Pro can do a lot of cool things that no one ever takes note of: User Reviews/Comments, Forms that send info directly to a server, Realtime 3D objects displays, Movies, Sounds, etc." - Edge (from the GMTech forum) This is an idea which I want to embrace. After you made this suggestion I did some research into making PDFs more interactive. One the best ways is through the use of javascript. There was the idea of putting in a little feedback form at the end of the magazine to allow readers to easily send messages to us, that hasn't made it into this issue but it may be in future ones. However, we have added the ability to turn off the background images and added PDF bookmarks. Some of the more advanced features, such as 3D objects and movies, do increase the file size quite considerably so it's unlikely we'll be using those. You can get involved in discussions about GMTech on our forums: GMTECH MAGAZINE FORUMS WWW.GAMEMAKERTECH.INFO

WORTH A LOOK

Matrebatre tells us about his 3D model making program

M

odel Creator for Game Maker’ is a 3D modeling program created with Game Maker, that enables the creation of 3D models for Game Maker. It is designed to be a simple alternative for professional modeling programs, which are often very hard to learn and are never fully compatible with GM. Often you have to use convertors or loading scripts to use the models in Game Maker, and as a consequence some elements (ea. materials) might be changed or ignored because of noncompatibility issues . Professional modeling programs also tend to create models that consist of way too many triangles for use in Game Maker. Model Creator however is much easier to learn, and is perfectly compatible with GM. The program can save and load models using the Game Maker model file format. As a consequence, models created with the program can be loaded directly in Game Maker using the d3d_model_load function. The program can also import OBJ models. Comparable to most professional modeling programs, Model Creator enables the use of multiple ‘views’ that can be used independently. In Model Creator there are two views, as such you can create a model in

the first view while evaluating the result in the second view. Most of the modeling is done manually, by using the draw and edit tools, but the program also supports a number of transformations. Models can be created by defining triangles individually, or alternatively by modifying and combining basic shapes (ea. spheres, cylinders). The program focuses mainly on low-poly modeling, which is ideal for Game Maker models. It supports all aspects of models in Game Maker except lines and points, because these are rarely used in games. The program also supports GM’s basic shapes. Furthermore both vertex colouring and texture mapping can be applied, both techniques can even be used simultaneously. Texture maps can be created directly in Model Creator, using a special view type. The program also automatically generates normal vectors, and it enables the user to enter a threshold value to create smooth normals on curved surfaces. Download Get In Touch Have you made a new Game Maker related website, forum, or even a useful application, and want to write about it in this column? Then get in touch with us by posting on our forum. ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009

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BE PART OF GMT

LEGAL STUFF

Join The Team

GMTech Magazine is happy to correct any published errors. If you spot any mistakes and would like to alert the editors to it, send a message to [email protected] outlining the error, including the correct information.

Becoming a part of the GMTech team is easy. You just need to be a good writer and competent with GM. Simply make a topic in the Join The Team forum and we'll set you a little a test. Once accepted, you can be proud of the fact that you're part of the longest running Game Maker magazine. Join The Team

Freelance

You don't have to be a staff member to get your writings into GMTech. You just need to post that you have written an article for us on the GMT forums, then we'll get in touch with you. As long as it's of a high quality we'll put it into the next issue. This is a great way to contribute without having to commit to the team or if you have less time to spend writing. Submit An Article

Website

You can download and read all of our issues from our website, as well as find out more information about GMTech. News about GMTech is always posted there first. www.gamemakertech.info

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Copyright

The Game Maker Technology Magazine is licensed under Creative Commons license. This means you are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work. This work is for NonCommercial use only. You are NOT allowed to alter, modify or build upon the work contained in the magazine.

We will endeavour to correct any published errors as quickly as possible. Thanks

Closing

I'd very much like to thank everyone that's been involved in this issue. The writers have made many superb contributions and I'm sure they will continue to do so in all subsequent issues. A special mention should go to our proofreader Bendodge, he has done a fantastic job checking the issue and helping polish it up to perfection.

ISSUE 16 Coming soon...

I hope you enjoyed this issue and I hope that you can spare a few minutes of your time to tell us what you think of the magazine. Every time we recieve a positive comment it really gives us all a huge boost, we also welcome constructive criticism to enable us to keep on improving. Tim (aka Timoi) Assistant Editor ISSUE 15 - MARCH 2009