3D Games made with Game Maker

The two sub-forums we have dedicated to games are places to start as there are 3D games there. I've got my FPS I've been working on for quite some time but there's nothing available to check out on it.

There's a vast amount of complete and incomplete games given how far back 3D functionality goes. Is there something specifically enticing about a 3D game you want to see so we can narrow down our searches instead of making this thread a random catalogue?
 
Nothing specific.
Just want to see what people and game maker can do. Cause I've seen a lot of brilliant 2d games, but hardly an 3d stuff. But i know it's possible, since the drafts on youtube I saw were pretty awesome.
 

Tulloch

Member

Pretty sure most people have seen this video here. Its out of date (2015) but a project that I'm still progressing through. I'd love to get a new video up soon. I'm pretty excited to share it one day! You can skip through the intro screen, its stupidly long.

Edit: Watching the video again is strange. It's kind of boring. :D

Edit 2: I posted a gif a while back, anyone by any chance have it? It's a long shot, but I made the mistake of saving my only copy on my now defunct website.

Edit 3: Aha, found it.

 
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Bingdom

Googledom
I used to work on a 3D game.

You can see it here

Stopped because it was quite an ambitious project and I was lacking art skills at the time. (A few things looked ok, but I chose poorly for the palette).
 
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M

MishMash

Guest
Ooh, a 3D bragging thread O:? Hold my beer.


Have worked on quite a few 3D projects, but got more interested in actually creating effects and small tech demo's rather than building fully complete games. This is mainly because it is difficult to acquire assets which look good for free. You can create some rather impressive looking scenes if you pull enough things together. If I had access to some really nice assets, specifically created levels etc; I'd be pretty excited to see what could be made. As it stands however, GM isn't the most practical platform for 3D development, if you want to actually make a game, however it is pretty good if you actually want to understand how 3D programming works. Proper 3D engine's do all the heavy lifting for you, so there's little need to understand the pipeline in enough depth. When you have to do everything from scratch, like you do with GM, it gives you an appreciation for how these things work. From the things I learned in GM, I was able to create this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXUcj-AIQ24 - It's a 3D Rasterizer written from scratch in C++ (So not using directX or OpenGL or any existing graphics API) and directly interfacing with the GPU using OpenCL. All of that was as a result of the methods and techniques I had to learn to achieve advanced 3D in GM :)!
 
Thanks, you guys. That's what I wanted to see.
Of course I don't browse through the 949,184,643,161,946,18 threads in the 'made with gm' forum and click every single one hope that it's a 3D game.. So it was easier to create this thread. Thanks
 

TheSnidr

Heavy metal viking dentist
GMC Elder
Funny how the 3D peeps use this topic to plug their own unfinished games xD

...

I'll do that too. Here's my first 3D project from way back in 2012:

For the GMC jam #12 I made a simple game called Doomshark. It got popular on Youtube (I've lost count of the youtube videos about it o.o). Here's one Let's Play of the game (not by me):
 

Tulloch

Member
I do apologize for forgetting anyone, but If;
MishMash, TheSnidr, Slayer64, xor, orange, (and a small handful I can't remember) could only just join forces for a single project, -- er well, it would probably be a super tech demo-- but to make an asset or a game. You guys would be golden.

;)
 

Tulloch

Member
I'm glad I'm not on that list because I am a terrible at working in teams (I'd take the gameplay department, though).
Well shoot, how'd I forget you?
I knew I shouldn't have created a list, I always leave people out.

Although it was more of a silly idea, it tickles my brain at the thought of you guys working together.
 
0

0.Bytes

Guest
Loved this topic, I always knew that there were some 3d games made with GM out there, good to know !
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I've made a whole bunch of 3D projects!

A 3D engine with a built-in level editor:
This project started out back in the GM8 days, and I recently revived it to salvage the level editor code specifically (ripping out and replacing most of the in-game stuff with better versions using the new features, like vertex buffers and a new shader pipeline)

An F-Zero clone with an unique jump mechanic:
(it's based on a racing engine that's also available, but there's a pretty big leap in technology so you'll get disappointed if you buy that)

There's also an FPS engine and a walking simulator I made with it, a 3D raft infinite runner and some other misc things, but I'll try to keep the shameless self-promotion to a minimum.
 
Dude this is the BEST of GameMaker I have EVER SEEN!

How'd you do it? It's so amazing-- And so similar to the actual game!

I love it so much :0
Thankyou so much! Well first of all it was a challenge between 2 friends. He made his own version which was a doom pixil art version while i was trying to go for a 1:1 demake.

so I thought I would answer some questions ive had in the past about the game.

1. It was made in game maker 8.1 not the latest studio version, it was made due to a friend and I playing halo CE: Anniversary and my friend said to me, you know we could probably make this in Unity, and I said Screw that I could make it in game maker. He went onto say that I was crazy to consider Game Maker: Studio for a 3d project so I took it one further and said you know what lets make it even harder and use the old now completely unsupported game maker 8.1, I won the bet against him as you can tell :)

2. The reason the game only has 2 weapons is cause i literally pushed game maker 8.1 to the BREAKING point, you also have to remember game maker is a 2D game engine not a 3D one like unity or unreal, the game engine is only capable of around 800 mb of memory being allocated to it at any time. what this means is every 3d model in the game uses up a substantial amount of memory, and each frame of animation is a new model, this is the only way to do animation in game maker as it doesn't support bone structures and why would it being a 2d engine. as you can guess each frame of animation quickly burns through that memory, this includes the animations for the weapons and enemies. So for pistol and assault rifle you have an attack animation with like 4 frames of animation. you have the melee animation with like 12 frames, reload, ect ect. now repeat that with the assault rifle.... the elites and ALL of their animations, grunts, marines, crewmen.... its also why captain keys is so low in detail in his face, it is because i actually had to reduce the amount of detail he had in order for game maker to actually compile the game and not throw an "Out of memory" exception error and crash, and squeezing that final escape pod level required me to basically unload ANY 3d models not necessary. It is also why there isn't that much sound variety with what the marines say it all came down to memory usage. So that's why there are no covenant weapons because i literally hit a wall that I could not get around. I was quite sad cause I intended to add EVERYTHING in this level to my remake. However that being said i could probably optimize it a little more and you have given me motivation to look over the project again and see if i can free up some more memory :)

3., why the screen goes black and enemies appear on the 2nd floor of the game after the stairs, well game maker has a single 2d level editor, and i realized how impossible it would be to make the next floor ontop of the one I just made, so it transitions to a new level and unloads all the previous level geometry to save memory.

4. How long did this take? 4 or so months of work :) and it got me a job as a game designer at a large game company in Australia
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
I used to play with Game Maker. I don't exactly call it games, I call it experiences. The following projects are a little poorly done, but they helped me to have more knowledge in this world, learning new things.

Most of my 3D games were made on Game Maker 8 (Yes, 2009):

They were never released, 2 of them were published on an old site of mine, but it was not a big deal, they were all just a hobby. Most of the textures and sounds resources were downloaded from somewhere, in addition to the 3D models, few I made or modified.



2012 (December) - Pac Man Test

Made in Game Maker 8.0.
This was literally my first 3D game, and in it I learned to use GML and what are variables, before I had only made a simple 2D game using Drag and Drop, after I saw that Game Maker 8 supported 3D I couldn't resist.






2013 (October) - Fake Emulator Library

Made in Game Maker 8.0.
I made a fake emulator, in fact it is a place, or library, where you can save all the games and run them to play.






2014 (August) - Tank Destroyer

Made in Game Maker 8.0.
My second 3D game. At that time I liked the game World Of Tanks and as I had a habit of imitating the games I saw, I tried to make a similar.






2015 (January) - Kelton City

Made in Game Maker 8.0.
The famous GTA. I always liked the GTA series and as it was no different, so I weakly tried to do my lol (believe me, I started the same project from scratch 3 times, but I missed the old projects).








2015 (May) - Race Cars Park

Made in Game Maker 8.0.
It was an attempt at a racing game that could work if the physics were not horrible and the 3D models in general, textures and graphics were not so badly worked, it even has a level editor, but the project was discontinued.








2016 (June) - Hidden Attack

Made in Game Maker 8.1.
I've always liked the Call Of Duty series. An inspiration came to me to make an FPS game after playing Call Of Duty Finest Hour, but I ended up stopping because of the great work I was doing and was going to do, lack of textures, 3D models and among other things ... All models 3D were made in Model Creator (the one made by Mart Beart, I can't write his name lol)
But it wasn't that bad if you compare it to games from 2004 or earlier.










2016 (March) - Medieval World

Made in Game Maker 8.0.
I was starting to get addicted to Minecraft and Ace of Spades, so I decided to make my own, since I downloaded a Minecraft engine on that old platform sandbox.yoyogames and tried to modify it, only it involved a lot of math and I was still a little inexperienced.





2016 (September) - Aquatic Invasion

Made in Game Maker 8.0.
It was just a simple and experimental project in which I had an idea of making an aquatic 3D game but it didn't work because of my little skill in 3D, with assets, textures and inspiration.






2016 (March) - Super Mario Big Island

Made in Game Maker 8.0.
I've always been a fan of the Super Mario franchise, so I tried to make a remake of Super Mario 64, which was really an experimental project.
I was thinking about releasing it someday, but I was unmotivated when I saw that Nintendo could sue Mario clones...












2018 (July)

Made in Game Maker Studio 1.4.
This game was never released, although it was a little good, the codes were poorly made and I discouraged the project because I didn't know how to draw pixel arts





Other experimental projects:
Projects that were literally tests.

2016 (January) - Tank Wars (LAN Game)

Made in Game Maker Studio 1.4.
Just an attempt to make a LAN and 3D game.




2018 (April) - Just Beat

Made in Game Maker Studio 1.4.
A media player that has a 3D view of a stage with speakers and lights that move with the rhythm of the music using the FFT algorithm




2018 (August) - Experimental Mario Kart

Made in Game Maker Studio 1.4.
Using Box2D physics with 3D world.

Video



2015 (May) - Track Deisgner

Made in Game Maker 8.
Track Editor for the Race Cars Park game.



Conclusion (2020)

After I started using Game Maker Studio 2, I lost the desire to make 3D games and really started doing 2D projects. So far I have done many other projects that are not 3D but are just experience. I did some simple testing programs, and after so much learning I launched the Foxey Platform Engine this year (2020), I intend to do a new project soon.
All of these projects, although done poorly, served as a learning experience, almost all were just for hobby, I always loved being a programmer. I already tested Unity in 2014 and I found it a bit advanced for my age and I ended up giving up, I intend to use it again one day.

I am happy to be able to share my 8 years of experience with Game Maker. :)


Full Gallery ( unfortunately I was limited to insert 10 images :/ )
 
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Bart

WiseBart
I guess I'll add my 3D pet project here, too:

It went from GM8 over Studio 1.4 to Studio 2.
Currently more or less on hold for months though I hope to continue work on it soon.
 
I guess while im still on this thread...
Here is an attempt at a low poly 3d rts that i lost due to hdd loss :(


A year or two after I got motivation to make a remake of command and conquer generals (
) which I abandoned and converted into a 3d halo rts which is on casual development on the "whenever I feel like it basis"

Here is a stress test of it with 5000 units on the map and at 6500 polys per vehicle. The awesome lighting is bought to us by the awesome @lolslayer thanks mate :) with a day night cycle!! ps. The black holes in the ground are simply me testing the transparency on the terrain. Also take note that the wheels of each vehicle turn correctly and has simulated springy suspension famous from the halo warthog. Ive tried quite hard to make them feel like warthogs when they move and not just a 4 wheel drive ute haha.


And like all good rts games here is some base building in the engine.


Its still bare bones but uses my super optimized "spider" pathfinding fully integrated multiplayer and a lobby to make join game, set map starting positions ect as well as army team color ect lile all AAA rts engines. I spent ALOT of time optimizing the code and it runs pretty optimized on my laptop :)

Now like the 100 other projects ive started and never finished... i just need to finish it lol.

Hope you guys like it!
 
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Momoro

Member
Thankyou so much! Well first of all it was a challenge between 2 friends. He made his own version which was a doom pixil art version while i was trying to go for a 1:1 demake.

so I thought I would answer some questions ive had in the past about the game.

1. It was made in game maker 8.1 not the latest studio version, it was made due to a friend and I playing halo CE: Anniversary and my friend said to me, you know we could probably make this in Unity, and I said Screw that I could make it in game maker. He went onto say that I was crazy to consider Game Maker: Studio for a 3d project so I took it one further and said you know what lets make it even harder and use the old now completely unsupported game maker 8.1, I won the bet against him as you can tell :)

2. The reason the game only has 2 weapons is cause i literally pushed game maker 8.1 to the BREAKING point, you also have to remember game maker is a 2D game engine not a 3D one like unity or unreal, the game engine is only capable of around 800 mb of memory being allocated to it at any time. what this means is every 3d model in the game uses up a substantial amount of memory, and each frame of animation is a new model, this is the only way to do animation in game maker as it doesn't support bone structures and why would it being a 2d engine. as you can guess each frame of animation quickly burns through that memory, this includes the animations for the weapons and enemies. So for pistol and assault rifle you have an attack animation with like 4 frames of animation. you have the melee animation with like 12 frames, reload, ect ect. now repeat that with the assault rifle.... the elites and ALL of their animations, grunts, marines, crewmen.... its also why captain keys is so low in detail in his face, it is because i actually had to reduce the amount of detail he had in order for game maker to actually compile the game and not throw an "Out of memory" exception error and crash, and squeezing that final escape pod level required me to basically unload ANY 3d models not necessary. It is also why there isn't that much sound variety with what the marines say it all came down to memory usage. So that's why there are no covenant weapons because i literally hit a wall that I could not get around. I was quite sad cause I intended to add EVERYTHING in this level to my remake. However that being said i could probably optimize it a little more and you have given me motivation to look over the project again and see if i can free up some more memory :)

3., why the screen goes black and enemies appear on the 2nd floor of the game after the stairs, well game maker has a single 2d level editor, and i realized how impossible it would be to make the next floor ontop of the one I just made, so it transitions to a new level and unloads all the previous level geometry to save memory.

4. How long did this take? 4 or so months of work :) and it got me a job as a game designer at a large game company in Australia
Hmm! A job as a Game Designer? Score! That's great!

I'm literally playing the game right now and they're pretty much the same :D (Halo:CE Anniversary vs. your GameMaker Remake)

I see why it got you a job ;) keep it up!
 
Older thread, I know, but I really like what I'm seeing and I hope there are more people out there using Game Maker for 3D. I myself have hundreds of little Game Maker tech demos but I would really like to show a few more "significant" ones (by that I mean ones that aren't like a static player that has nothing to do). Here are some if you are interested!

Games from 2008 (Game Maker 6.1)

After renting an old Game Maker book in late 2007, I started developing games for the second time in my life. The first time was in 2005 using a little Dutch tool that no one alive remembers probably.

Anyway, the game was simple. You are driving a car and you need to collect a number of packages and destroy a number of enemies in order to win. I uploaded version 1.0 to YoYoGames somewhere in 2008, while also making promises of a newer version that unfortunately never got released. The game did have collisions, a working "shooting" system which allows you to destroy your enemies, a working package/enemy counter which I thought was revolutionary back then and an end screen for when you've finally won.


Graphically speaking, this isn't close to any 2008 that came out that year. I mean GTA IV, CoD World at War and Crysis even a year earlier were already released, but here came the little red car that changed my own future. And that is what matters in the end ;)

Many thanks to YouTube content creasors such as The Sivart and BanthyStudios for teaching me the ropes of 3D Game Maker development. If it weren't for them, I probably wouldn't have made any 3D games in Game Maker at all.

Games from 2011 (Game Maker 6.1)
I took a long break from game development between 2009 and 2011. I was focusing heavily on high school and didn't have much time at all. I did make a flight simulator but I seriously can't find the file anymore so taking screenshots is actually really difficult at this time.

Anyway! FPS Testing Grounds! Like Call of Duty 4 with better graphics. This game was heavily inspired by Modern Warfare. I even called this room something like rm_charlie_dont_surf or something similar :p

It was made using Game Maker 6.1 and uploaded to YoYoGames as well. The game's development really taught me a lot about shadows, weapons, 3D environments and EVEN being able to walk up a set of stairs. YES! A real set of stairs. I had never done anything like it, but hey, this game had it. The shadows were done using a black floor with a slight z-offset. I then used draw_set_alpha(0.7) or something to create the shadowy look. Do the shadows project onto the blades of grass as well? No. They use a different, darkened texture when they are touching a shadow object!

Another thing the game actually had was limited ammo with reloading! I am no math genius and certainly wasn't one back then, so I cut some corners and just removed 30 bullets from the player's inventory every time they reload. I mean that's kind of what happens right?

Games from 2012 (Game Maker 8)

Between 2008 and 2012 I made a bunch of stationary first person shooter games, flight simulators and 2D racing games. I really wanted to quit using Game Maker for 3D games as I felt that it wasn't powerful enough. Especially after playing something like Dead Island or Far Cry 3 that same year. One day I felt like making another 3D game after upgrading to Game Maker 8 in 2012. The engine was improved in so many ways that I felt like trying something again. This is how Apocalypse came to existance. A very simple FPS game without enemies. Without hesitation I showed to all my classmates, friends and family. Of course, looking back it doesn't look impressive whatsoever, especially for 2012, but for the first time I used some new things, such as:
  • Game Maker's 3D lighting system
  • OBJ files for 3D models
  • 3D vegetation as seen in the screenshot
  • Lens flares (albeit basic ones)
  • Decals such as blood and cracks in the concrete
I was astonished by how much better Game Maker 8 was for 3D as opposed to 6.1. Mind you I still love 6.1 for what it taught me back then, but GM8 was the way to go from then on for sure.

Games from 2013 (Game Maker 8)

Super low-res screenshot o_O Sorry about that. I took the screenshots using the WayBackMachine to gain access to the old sandbox. This was when I started to figure out blend modes, fake 3D shadows, directional lighting, ambient occlusion and other cool stuffs. I still hadn't touched a single shader in my life (not that Game Maker 8 directly supported them anyway). This was a year before I switched over to Studio for the first time. I really liked what I made and even posted a couple of YouTube videos on it back in the day. It was basically XIII but made with Game Maker.

I remember getting really butthurt and immature when someone decompiled the game and improved some of the graphics. I still feel the shame to this day. I'm glad I am no longer the 15-year-old I was back then jeez.

After this I would go on to develop a couple of horror games, more shooters and other stuff as well, so if you haven't fallen asleep while reading through the thread yet; good luck, because there is more!


Really sorry about the low-res screenshot. The WaybackMachine had a few leftover thumbnails and that's all I could find for now. This was a 3D racing game in which I kind of figured out how to make drifting physics. More importantly, I now found out how to make car sounds. Using the SuperSound DLL made by Fupoco, I was able to change the pitch of my engine sounds, creating a pretty cool sounding 3D car. I also uploaded a playable version to YoYoGames, complete with an unskippable fake loading screen borrowed from The Last of Us :D

I also used d3d_transform_* tricks to make the tires move as well. I was inspired by jamecrowley's (in my opinion) legendary video where they show a fully 3D racing game made with Game Maker 8. I wanted to do something similar. Give it a watch! It's old but still really impressive in my opinion!

Games from 2014 (Game Maker 8 and Studio)

Crazy how quickly time flies. I remember making this version of a game called Parkwatcher (not sure why I chose that name) because the original demo gained a lot of attention over the past few months. It was decently popular on YouTube for whatever reason so I decided that the main game should be a true masterpiece.

Well it wasn't really. It looked a lot better than my previous games as I finally figured out how to use the lighting in interesting ways, how to make lens flares disappear behind walls, how to add particles, better ambient occlusion and actual enemies. It was a big improvement over my previous games but it just lacked a bit in atmosphere, sound design, gameplay and of course graphics. We are still talking Game Maker here ;)

Games from 2016
After finally leaving high school, I had more time for Game Maker development. I didn't do too much in 2015, but I DID make a lot more games in 2016.


Four was an escape room type game in which you are given cryptic hints and puzzles you need to solve in order to escape. The game featured fake 3D reflections, different lighting moods, a somewhat nicer environment than before, actual puzzles and a story as well. Solving the first puzzle would open up a part of the floor and reveal a hidden swimming pool with another puzzle.


Just Another Day was the dumbest games of all time. You play as a police officer roaming a cartoony mall, looking for criminal scum to arrest. I was going to implement a system where you could arrest old ladies and simple shoppers instead of actual shoplifters and robbers, but I didn't know what style I was going to use, so I eventually scrapped it. The game had the Postal 2 mall music in the background as well. The game wasn't going to have any lethal weaponry as that would in my opinion ruin the whole goofy atmosphere, but I still liked the graphics at least a little bit :)


My first ever "photorealistic" game in the sense that I actually used real life photos to recreate my grandparents' house, which is one important tip I want to give you while developing realistic stuff like houses, forests and other environments:

USE REFERENCE PICTURES WHEREVER YOU CAN!

It's easy to forget just how important reference images actually are! While the game may not look as amazing as I thought it did in 2016, I still really liked how it used fake cubemapping, shadows, ambient occlusion and a real house layout to help elevate the "real" factor.

Fast forward to 2020/2021
Really. This post has been going on for way longer than I expected and wanted. I completely skipped a ton of games to get to where I am today. Unfortunately I can't upload any more images, but I do have a little video with some of my more recent projects on my channel.

These are the projects I wanted to show. I have hundreds more, but I don't want the post to become boring and repetitive. If you have any questions let me know and I'll try to be of help.
 
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