| 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. |
