⚂ Who smiles with quiet defiance.
I've released my online multiplayer mod for Nuclear Throne just a bit over two weeks ago. That was interesting. I had since received a plenty of feedback, bug reports, and feature requests. Today I've released what can be considered a major public update, and this is a small average-sized post about interesting things in it.
Over time, I have witnessed a particular scenario a few too many times:
Having spent far too much time arguing with people and explaining how to use version control, I have decided to make a blog post that would cover a few things on the matter:
While this tutorial is oriented on GameMaker: Studio users, it can also be easily applied for other tools.
Continue reading
A GIF of the interactive demo seen later in this post.
Questions about the algorithms related to isometric grids are not uncommon. In fact, they are a little more common than you could expect them to be, given the relative simplicity of things.
So I have decided to write a little blog post on the two things important here:
In action
A little while ago, I was asked about what would be a good approach to creating an effect for a top-down game where coins would fly out of a smashed object. Not recalling any tutorials on the matter, I've made an example of this exact thing, and this is a post detailing everything related to such an effect.
Continue readingAs you may know, GameMaker Language has a Pascal-like "with" structure:
with (value) { code }
but it's not exactly like the Pascal version. In GameMaker, it can take an instance:
var bullet = instance_create(x, y, obj_bullet); with (bullet) direction = 180;
or an object type (and will apply the expression to each instance of it):
with (obj_bullet) instance_destroy();
This can be rather handy under the multiple circumstances.
However, initially the same block can not be applied to multiple values, and that's less handy.
Sometimes you can cheat by applying the expression to a shared "parent" type of objects, but that is not always the case (and can have side effects if there are more object types meeting the condition).
So let's consider your options for applying a piece of code to all instances of several types: }
Continue reading
(or see by yourself here)
Someone on forums has asked if there's an example/extension that would allow to display a logo or image alongside with the loading bar in HTML5 module of GameMaker: Studio, and I did just that.
Continue reading
Click to launch the HTML5 version of the game
First, take a look at the above link. There's score, 7 tetriminos, slowly growing difficulty - standard things for a Tetris game. The catch? There isn't a single line of code. Nor a single variable. It's all done in GameMaker's "drag & drop" visual scripting.
The story of how this even happened is like so - yesterday was another day when my internet connection disappeared for half of the day without any logical reason whatsoever. As I look at the top of my now-static TweetDeck timeline, and notice this bunch of tweets from Vlambeer's Rami Ismail. While you can generally agree with points outlined, few things could have had better clarification:
Difficulty depends not only on developer's coding skills, but also on the tools used.
For example, making a "space invaders" game in most modern tools with built-in memory management, collisions, and function sets is easy enough, but should you go lower level... storing invader information in an array? Storing and moving around dynamically created player and invader bullets?? Programming trajectories and destructible defenses??? Not as much careless fun as you may have envisioned. Pong may seem suddenly simpler with base requirements of just a bunch of variables and inverting ball x/y velocity for bounces.
Additionally, certain tools are best suited for certain task. For example, it is easy to make a turn-based puzzle game in PuzzleScript (hence the name) due to the way engine is based on "rule" definitions. Making a platformer game in PuzzleScript, however, is a much harder feat. It isn't, by no means, impossible, but requires more planning than it would take with a "platformer-centric" engine.
To not make it all look like a rant or a opinion piece, the rest of this post is about creative use of tools - particularly, making the aforementioned Tetris in GameMaker without a single line of code or variable.
Continue reading
Click to open in new tab
Yesterday I've made an interactive mock-up of "Extra Ordinary" comic #337. I think it carries the point pretty well. A link to the comic is available from the page (view after page to avoid a micro-spoiler). This blog post, on other hand, covers a few technical/process details, just in case you're curious.
Continue reading
Debugging games can be fun! Or not fun. Depends on what your definition of "fun" is.
Either way, starting with GameMaker: Studio, GameMaker has a proper debugger with breakpoints, step-by-step execution, watches, profiling, and other conveniences.
There is also an Output panel,
to which you can write messages using show_debug_message.
This can be preferable if you need to inspect order of execution or are in a hurry -
after all, throwing a quick look on the panel is fast.
You know what's not fast though? Using show_debug_message to do so.
If you are using GameMaker: Studio and find default dark theme to be odd, you probably have already switched to lighter "GM8" theme via File - Preferences dialogue.
But, alas, switching to "GM8" theme does not change code editor color scheme, and you still get the default dark gray-orange theme in middle of your light-colored IDE.
So I thought that it would make sense to publish a GM8-esque color scheme that I've made and am using locally for a while now.
This color scheme follows GM8 style closely, with few exceptions like displaying resource names in teal instead of yellow (which grants higher contrast and generally looks better).
To import a color scheme, go to File - Preferences - Scripts and Code, click Import button, and pick the obtained file.
It is hard to make a large post about thing as small, so here's the file:
Alternatively, file' contents (to be saved as gm8x.col and imported into GMS):
<Colours> <Color0>0</Color0> <Color1>8388608</Color1> <Color2>16711680</Color2> <Color3>32768</Color3> <Color4>128</Color4> <Color5>128</Color5> <Color6>128</Color6> <Color7>8388736</Color7> <Color8>11171870</Color8> <Color9>16777215</Color9> <Color10>14744314</Color10> <Color11>10512464</Color11> <Color12>5988454</Color12> <Color13>16120058</Color13> <Color14>255</Color14> <Color15>2633011</Color15> <Color16>11913437</Color16> </Colours>
Have fun!