The Game Maker's Apprentice

Game Development for Beginners

By: Jacob Habgood, Mark Overmars

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CD-ROM | 28 July 2006

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340 Pages

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22.86 x 17.78 x 1.91

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

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

The authors include the creator of the Game Maker tool and a former professional game programmer, so you'll glean understanding from their expertise.

Industry Reviews

From the reviews:

"The desire to create computer games attracts many young people to computing. This book meets the needs of this group of readers and students very well. It is also a fine introduction to the making of computer games for the experienced software developer who always wondered how games were made. ... There are excellent software development lessons that can be learned using this book ... . the book provides a superb introduction to programming as well as to game construction." (Anthony J. Duben, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (5), May, 2008)

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Non-Fiction Computing & I.T.Digital Lifestyle & Online World: Consumer & User Guides Computer Games & Online Games Strategy Guides Computer Programming & Software Development Software Engineering Games Development & Programming

Foreword	p. xiv
About the Authors	p. xvi
About the Technical Reviewer	p. xvii
About the Illustrator	p. xviii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Introduction	p. xx
Getting Started
Welcome to Game Maker	p. 3
Installing the Software	p. 3
Registration	p. 5
The Global User Interface	p. 6
Running a Game	p. 6
How to Get More Information	p. 8
What's Next?	p. 8
Your First Game: Devilishly Easy	p. 9
Designing the Game: Evil Clutches	p. 9
Sprites	p. 10
Objects	p. 13
The Boss Object	p. 13
Events and Actions	p. 14
The Dragon Object	p. 18
Rooms	p. 20
Save and Run	p. 22
Instances and Objects	p. 24
Demons, Baby Dragons, and Fireballs	p. 24
The Fireball Object	p. 24
The Demon Object	p. 27
Summoning Demons	p. 30
The Baby Dragon Object	p. 31
Backgrounds and Sounds	p. 33
A Background Image	p. 33
Background Music	p. 34
Sound Effects	p. 35
Congratulations	p. 36
Action Games
More Actions: A Galaxy of Possibilities	p. 41
Designing the Game: Galactic Mail	p. 41
Sprites and Sounds	p. 42
Moons and Asteroids	p. 45
Flying Around	p. 50
Winning and Losing	p. 56
An Explosion	p. 56
Scores	p. 57
Levels	p. 58
Finishing Touches	p. 60
A Title Screen	p. 60
Winning the Game	p. 61
Adding Some Visual Variety	p. 62
Help Information	p. 62
Congratulations	p. 63
Target the Player: It's Fun Being Squished	p. 65
Designing the Game: Lazarus	p. 65
An Animated Character	p. 66
A Test Environment	p. 72
Falling Boxes	p. 73
Finishing Touches	p. 78
No Way Out!	p. 78
Adding a Goal	p. 79
Starting a Level	p. 80
Sounds, Backgrounds, and Help	p. 81
Levels	p. 82
Congratulations	p. 83
Game Design: Interactive Challenges	p. 85
What Makes a Good Game?	p. 85
Game Mechanics	p. 86
Interactive Challenges	p. 87
Game Genres	p. 87
Challenges	p. 88
Difficulty	p. 88
Goals	p. 89
Rewards	p. 90
Subgoals	p. 92
Interactivity	p. 92
Choices and Control	p. 93
Control Overload!	p. 93
Unfair Punishment	p. 94
Audio Feedback	p. 95
Summary	p. 96
Level Design
Inheriting Events: Mother of Pearl	p. 101
Designing the Game: Super Rainbow Reef	p. 101
A Game Framework	p. 103
The Front-End	p. 103
The Completion Screen	p. 106
Bouncing Starfish	p. 107
Biglegs	p. 113
Parent Power	p. 116
Lives	p. 117
Blocks	p. 120
Normal Blocks	p. 120
Solid Blocks	p. 120
Special Blocks	p. 121
Polishing the Game	p. 123
Sound Effects	p. 123
Saving Games and Quitting	p. 123
A Slower Start	p. 124
Creating the Levels	p. 125
Congratulations	p. 126
Maze Games: More Cute Things in Peril	p. 127
Designing the Game: Koalabr8	p. 127
The Basic Maze	p. 128
The Game Framework	p. 129
A Moving Character	p. 131
Save the Koala	p. 136
Creating Hazards	p. 137
Tiles	p. 140
Adding Additional Hazards	p. 143
Locks and Switches	p. 143
A Detonator	p. 144
Rocks	p. 145
Finishing the Game	p. 147
Congratulations	p. 148
Game Design: Levels and Features	p. 149
Selecting Features	p. 149
Pie in the Sky	p. 150
Do You Have That in Blue?	p. 151
Starting an Arms Race	p. 152
One-Trick Ponies	p. 152
Emerging with More Than You Expected	p. 153
Designing Levels	p. 154
The Game Maker's Apprentice	p. 155
Learning Curves	p. 156
Difficulty Curves	p. 158
Saving the Day	p. 160
Applying It All	p. 160
Features	p. 160
Emerging Springs	p. 161
Training Missions	p. 161
Dividing Levels	p. 162
Summary	p. 163
Multiplayer Games
Cooperative Games: Flying Planes	p. 169
Designing the Game: Wingman Sam	p. 169
Variables and Properties	p. 170
The Illusion of Motion	p. 173
Flying Planes	p. 174
Enemies and Weapons	p. 176
Dealing with Damage	p. 179
Time Lines	p. 182
More Enemies	p. 184
End Boss	p. 186
Finishing Touches	p. 188
Congratulations	p. 189
Competitive Games: Playing Fair with Tanks	p. 191
Designing the Game: Tank War	p. 191
Playing with Tanks	p. 192
Firing Shells	p. 195
Secondary Weapons	p. 199
Views	p. 205
Congratulations	p. 210
Game Design: Balance in Multiplayer Games	p. 211
Competition and Cooperation	p. 211
Independent Competition	p. 211
Dependent Competition	p. 212
Independent Cooperation	p. 213
Dependent Cooperation	p. 213
Mix and Match	p. 213
Balanced Beginnings	p. 214
Equivalent Characters	p. 214
Balancing Differences	p. 214
Balanced Choice	p. 218
Weighting Choices	p. 218
Cyclic Relationships	p. 218
Balanced Computer Opponents	p. 220
Artificial Stupidity	p. 220
Summary	p. 221
Enemies and Intelligence
GML: Become a Programmer	p. 225
Hello World	p. 226
Variables	p. 228
Functions	p. 230
Conditional Statements	p. 232
Repeating Things	p. 234
Arrays	p. 237
Dealing with Other Instances	p. 239
Scripts As Functions	p. 240
Debugging Programs	p. 242
Congratulations	p. 244
Clever Computers: Playing Tic-Tac-Toe	p. 245
Designing the Game: Tic-Tac-Toe	p. 245
The Playing Field	p. 246
Let the Computer Play	p. 251
A Clever Computer Opponent	p. 254
Adaptive Gameplay	p. 256
Congratulations	p. 257
Intelligent Behavior: Animating the Dead	p. 259
Designing the Game: Pyramid Panic	p. 259
The Basic Framework	p. 260
Creating the Maze and the Explorer	p. 263
Expanding Our Horizons	p. 265
Reactive Behavior	p. 267
Time for Treasure!	p. 269
Movable Blocks	p. 270
Rule-Based Behavior	p. 271
Walking Around	p. 273
Moving Toward the Explorer	p. 275
Dealing with States	p. 277
Scarabs	p. 280
Let There Be Light	p. 284
Looking to the Future	p. 289
Final Words	p. 291
Creating Resources	p. 291
Artwork: The GIMP	p. 291
Music: Anvil Studio	p. 292
Sound Effects: Audacity	p. 294
The Game Maker Community	p. 294
Note to Teachers	p. 295
Good Luck	p. 296
Bibliography	p. 297
Index	p. 299
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

The Game Maker's Apprentice

Game Development for Beginners

At a Glance

CD-ROM

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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