In this third-of-a-series post, I go over existing issues in GameMaker's data structure functions (some of which you might not have been aware of), and how to fix them.
Continue readingPolling additional mouse buttons
Computer mice these days tend to have additional buttons on sides/ and people periodically wonder whether they need to do anything particular to poll these buttons.
Continue readingA summary of my GameMaker assets
Featured
This post serves as a collection of descriptions and links to various GameMaker-related assets and extensions that I have published over time.
Back when publishing it in 2017, I thought it was longer than expected, but it had since grown about twice in size. At least the blog has that "navigation" sidebar now.
Also should answer the "how do I support your work" question that some readers have.
Continue readingOn GameMaker game decompilation
It seems that questions about whether (and if so, to what extent) GameMaker: Studio and GameMaker Studio 2 games can be decompiled are being asked at a constant pace, and yet there are still no resources to clear up these questions. So I've decided to make a small post on the matter.
(originally published in May 2015, updated in 2019)
Continue readingFAQ: On name, avatar, and [other] Yal
Auto-adjusting screen area on Wacom tablets
(mouseover/click to play GIF)
Script in action. See: Full-sized version; that wallpaper
If you have a display-less Wacom tablet (Wacom One/Intuos/etc.) and a large enough monitor (or monitors), mapping screen space to tablet can be a bit bothersome. But that can be fixed.
Continue readingA small guide on writing interpreters, part 2
label hello: select dialog("Hello! What would you like to do?") { option "Count to 5": for (var i = 1; i <= 5; i = i + 1) { wait(1); trace(i + "!"); } return 1; option "Nothing": jump yousure; } label yousure: select dialog("You sure?") { option "Yes": trace("Well then,"); return 0; option "No": jump hello; }
Example of supported syntax
As some might remember, earlier this year I have published a small guide on writing interpreters, which went over the process of implementing a basic interpreter capable of evaluating expressions consisting of numbers, operators, and variables.
This continuation of the guide further expands upon concept, outlining how to support calls, statements, and branching - enough for a small scripting language.
Continue readingGameMaker: Checking whether a string is a valid number
Some things are numbers, some aren't
GameMaker Studio 2.2.2 released few days ago, bringing, among improvements, "GML consistency", which changes how automatic type conversion works in corner cases.
A little less known thing, together with that it also changed how GameMaker's string-to-number conversion function (real) works, having it throw an error if your string is definitely not a number.
A slight inconvenience, given that there is not a function to check if a string is a number before attempting conversion.
But, of course, that can be fixed.
Continue readingIntroducing: Caveblazers Together!
My online multiplayer mod for Caveblazers was released last week[1]!
You can download it via Steam
for free if you own the game.
This is a post about how that went.
Continue readingFAQ: Things I made with Haxe
Recently someone pointed out that they never knew that GMEdit was made in Haxe, and that you often don't even know that something was made in Haxe. Which is a pretty good point - for instance, you might suspect that a lot of things that I do have some parts of them written in Haxe, but never exact.
So, as for my activities, I looked over the local projects and formed a semi-comprehensive list of which of my works to date were made in Haxe, and to what extent (excluding ones still under non-disclosure agreements, obviously).
Also includes an opening on why I like Haxe anyway.
Continue reading