Mac OSX Need Help with Game Maker Studio 2

[TamWin45]

Hello,

My son created a game and we cannot get it to run. When we try, the screen goes black. Is there anyone out there I can hire to help us figure out how to get the game to run?

 

[Nocturne]

Hello! No need to hire anyone at the moment... you have a whole forum of helpful and knowledgeable people to get it sorted first! Now, some questions... Did the game run fine before? If it did, do you know what (if anything) was changed when it started showing the black screen? Also, is the issue that the game is running but you just don't see anything, or does the game run, go black and then freeze? Does the output window at the bottom of GMS show any errors at all (it may even be further up in the output info, it may not be right at the end)?

 

[TamWin45]

No it doesn’t show any errors and it just doesn’t work when I try and run it. I’m not sure if I have the right codes or not because it doesn’t say no errors codes or anything. The game just won’t run in general.

 

[Nocturne]

Hmmm.... It's very difficult to help without more information. I'm afraid "it just doesn't work" is not the same as "it runs but the screen is black", so you need to be a little more precise... Have you tried using the GM debugger and adding a breakpoint at the very start of the game then stepping through the code to see what's actually happening? This can often tell you where the issue is (for example, if there's an infinite loop that is preventing the game from running). Really, it would be a big help if you could give us as much information as possible, like what kind of game it is, how it's structured, what objects you have, what platform you're running on and targeting, what version and runtime are you using, etc... The more information you can give the more help we can give!

 

[TamWin45]

When I try to run the maze game I get a black screen. I can see the game at first but when I try to run it, the screen is black. Yes, I’ve used the debugger and added instances and codes for the game. I do not get any error codes. I am using iOS. I used a wall object and my sprite is a ghost.

 

[Roldy]

When I try to run the maze game I get a black screen. I can see the game at first but when I try to run it, the screen is black. Yes, I’ve used the debugger and added instances and codes for the game. I do not get any error codes. I am using iOS. I used a wall object and my sprite is a ghost.

Hi. You say you are 'using iOS.' Does the game run when you build for Windows or MacOS? Or do deploying to those platforms have problems as well? It will be helpful to know if it is just deploying to the iOS platform that is the problem or if the project has problems with all platforms.

I would suggest looking at the Demos that are available. When you first open GMS2 the start page has a section for Demos that you can download and run.

Try using those first to verify you development environment is setup correctly. I just loaded the Arena Shooter demo and hit F5 and it ran on Windows.

Can you do the same? Will the demo deploy and run on iOS?

If the Demo will not run either then most likely there is some problem with the development environment.

When was the last time your game has worked properly? Has it ever worked properly?

 

[TamWin45]

Hmmm.... It's very difficult to help without more information. I'm afraid "it just doesn't work" is not the same as "it runs but the screen is black", so you need to be a little more precise... Have you tried using the GM debugger and adding a breakpoint at the very start of the game then stepping through the code to see what's actually happening? This can often tell you where the issue is (for example, if there's an infinite loop that is preventing the game from running). Really, it would be a big help if you could give us as much information as possible, like what kind of game it is, how it's structured, what objects you have, what platform you're running on and targeting, what version and runtime are you using, etc... The more information you can give the more help we can give!

Hi. You say you are 'using iOS.' Does the game run when you build for Windows or MacOS? Or do deploying to those platforms have problems as well? It will be helpful to know if it is just deploying to the iOS platform that is the problem or if the project has problems with all platforms.

I would suggest looking at the Demos that are available. When you first open GMS2 the start page has a section for Demos that you can download and run.

Try using those first to verify you development environment is setup correctly. I just loaded the Arena Shooter demo and hit F5 and it ran on Windows.

Can you do the same? Will the demo deploy and run on iOS?

If the Demo will not run either then most likely there is some problem with the development environment.

When was the last time your game has worked properly? Has it ever worked properly?

Hello,

I cannot download the demo. It says cannot access marketplace, try again later.

I have never been able to get the game to run. Not sure what I did wrong.

 

[Roldy]

Hello,

I cannot download the demo. It says cannot access marketplace, try again later.

I have never been able to get the game to run. Not sure what I did wrong.

It sounds like you may be having multiple problems.

But the most significant problem at the moment is your inability to communicate. The questions I asked were not rhetorical.

If you want help, then the people that are going to help you need information, and you are the only one that can supply that information.

If you want people to spend their time helping you, then you will need to spend your time helping them by following their suggestions and then supplying clear and complete responses detailing the results of those suggestions and answers to their questions. If there is a step or suggestion you don't understand, then ask for clarification.

It won't be any different if you have hired someone unless you want them to come to your home.

You are a crucial part of the process. You need to be a faithful liaison, an active go between, in order to facilitate a resolution.

Good luck.

 

[TamWin45]

It sounds like you may be having multiple problems.

But the most significant problem at the moment is your inability to communicate. The questions I asked were not rhetorical.

If you want help, then the people that are going to help you need information, and you are the only one that can supply that information.

If you want people to spend their time helping you, then you will need to spend your time helping them by following their suggestions and then supplying clear and complete responses detailing the results of those suggestions and answers to their questions. If there is a step or suggestion you don't understand, then ask for clarification.

It won't be any different if you have hired someone unless you want them to come to your home.

You are a crucial part of the process. You need to be a faithful liaison, an active go between, in order to facilitate a resolution.

Good luck.

Thank you for your response and help. I am not technical or game savvy and am merely relating information to you my high school age son is providing. So please forgive my ignorance on this subject. Again, I appreciate your time!

 

[SnortySnoopy]

Hello,

I cannot download the demo. It says cannot access marketplace, try again later.

I have never been able to get the game to run. Not sure what I did wrong.

If your son have difficulties downloading the demo file from marketplace, tell him to login from Firefox browser, the marketplace is accessible from yoyogames.com also. Many people have issues downloading using Google Chrome, myself included.

Or if you want from GMS2 IDE, try temporarily changing the default browser on your pc to Firefox.

 

[Roldy]

Thank you for your response and help. I am not technical or game savvy and am merely relating information to you my high school age son is providing. So please forgive my ignorance on this subject. Again, I appreciate your time!

One suggestion I would give is to have your son do this instead of you.

Being able to find information and documentation, ask questions, and communicate with people like we are doing on this forum is just as much a part of development as knowing a programming language or operating a software tool.

He should be the one learning this now, even if he doesn't end up wanting to be a software or game developer. It is an invaluable skill. Additionally, any sort of development usually entails a lot of frustration and trial and error. It is a non-stop part of the process, and best to embrace it earlier rather than later.

But to continue with the problem, the idea from my original response is that you want to eliminate as many variables as possible to the problem.

• If you are trying to deploy to an iOS device. Stop, and first try and deploy to your Windows/Mac PC that is currently running GMS2. Once that works then try to tackle deploying to iOS.
• Try building and running a Demo project to determine if your project is the problem or if the development environment in general is the problem.
• Make a brand new project with nothing in it except a single room, with a single object displaying a single sprite. Will that build and deploy successfully.

Each step helps narrow down if the problem is your specific project, or the build environment, or GMS2, or a specific platform.

Good luck.

 

[TamWin45]

If your son have difficulties downloading the demo file from marketplace, tell him to login from Firefox browser, the marketplace is accessible from yoyogames.com also. Many people have issues downloading using Google Chrome, myself included.

Or if you want from GMS2 IDE, try temporarily changing the default browser on your pc to Firefox.

Thank you. The demo worked in Firefox. He decided to start over and rebuild his game. Hopefully, it runs this time.

 

[Roldy]

Thank you. The demo worked in Firefox. He decided to start over and rebuild his game. Hopefully, it runs this time.

One bit of advice for him is to do small changes and then run the game and test it. The tighter the iteration loop the easier it is to detect, understand and fix problems. It is likely he originally did a lot of work and then noticed the problems. But so much work had been done it was difficult for him to isolate the exact cause of the problems. Making small changes and seeing the results immediately makes the causes of errors and bugs more apparent.

For both a single individual and large teams this is a fundamental part of development. Make a change, test that it works, fix any problems, continue until it works... essentially; make a change, then hit F5 and see if it runs or if any errors occur.

This is best coupled with functional decomposition; a fundamental strategy for software development as well as general problem solving: break the problem into a set of smaller problems, break those smaller problems down even further into small task or additional small problems.

The smaller the task and problems ,the tighter and quicker the development loop.

Good Luck.