wanted.....General game making steps help and tips.

[teamrocketboyz]

Hello all, ive been using game maker for a few months now and was a complete beginner to start off with, im planning on next year really knuckling down and trying to produce a quality product. but first i have a few questions.

as im very new and still at basic level what would you guys recommend i do until jan.

do a few tutorials from the GM website? read the manual completely? any recommended books?

or do i simply just spend that time on creating a quality idea?

also how do you guys go about making a game from scratch, say i have an idea for a platformer would you create the player and nail his movement, then create blocks,floors,enemies etc but not actually make the levels just the objects and then once all of that is complete and you have all the objects you then go about making the levels and creating the rooms, or do you create each aspect as you go.
normally i create player,create bullets, create floor, create platforms, build level, oh i need a rock falling so i create that, oh i need a tree there so i create that. this can lead to me never really finishing a project but spending days on it and going nowhere, i would really like to shake that mentality.

plus i never create scripts i normally just code straight into the object meaning that i forget what ive done easily and if i want a code from a previous creation then i have to open that project and copy the code and then paste the code into my new project, ive seen a few users here who scripteverything and save them as seperate script so if they want to make an object randomly fall from the sky then they just load up a script. this to me seems like the better option but as i dont do that myself then im not sure.

any help will be much appreciated.

 

[Hyomoto]

Something that people who first start coding almost inevitably run into as their projects expand is realizing just how much code goes into a game. GM especially makes a lot of tasks exceptionally easy. You can have a character moving around and shooting at things in a few minutes. But let me ask you this: how do you handle saving? How do you make a menu? How should the player inventory be tracked? How should you handle music playing? Mouse control?

A couple of years ago I sat down and mostly worked on really, really mundane tasks like those. Amusingly the code I wrote those years ago still finds it's way into my projects because I learned a lot about how a project can be structured, how to isolate ideas from one another, etc... So my recommendation is pick an idea, whatever it may be, and just try to build it. Look at other simple games and try to replicate what they do. Something I do fairly often is build Tetris clones. I've made four of them so far, and each one is different. Why? Well, Tetris is a simple game and you know how it should be played and what it looks like: so how do you make it "work"? This is the type of practical training on building interlocking systems that will help you out when you finally decide to try your hand at actually finishing a project.

Programming is all about breaking down ideas into systems, and the figuring out how those systems will work. And the best way to get good at that is to actually try. GM comes with a manual so yeah, read that. Look over it, get an idea for it's contents and don't be afraid to reference it whenever you have a question, but then taking that and trying to apply it to a concept is a whole other exercise. And don't forget to have fun!

 

[teamrocketboyz]

"Something that people who first start coding almost inevitably run into as their projects expand is realizing just how much code goes into a game. GM especially makes a lot of tasks exceptionally easy. You can have a character moving around and shooting at things in a few minutes. But let me ask you this: how do you handle saving? How do you make a menu? How should the player inventory be tracked? How should you handle music playing? Mouse control?"

All very valid points but as for having a character moving and shooting in minutes you have got to be kidding me i cant even animate a character using draw properly. as for saving i havent a clue, menu i can do a very basic menu, inventory i have never really attempted. i know the amount of work that goes into creating a game, ive been playing them for over 20 years and always wonder when im ingame how on earth they managed to do that.

its not much to look at but this is my first ever "completed" project for a rough idea is just how basic i am at GML haha

 

[zendraw]

heres a tip that i find essential for coding. store data, call data, calculate only when actually needed.
example: in 3d you first load all the models that your going to use, then you simply draw them in as meny instances as youo want.
store dialogue, info, types, categories, coordinates and pretty much anything into scripts with a switch statement which then you just call.
if you do a certain calculation more then 1-2 times, store it in a temporary variable, and then just use the variable. for instance in draw events i regularly store view_wview/2 in a temporary variable.
examples are meny, but the basic principle is this, store data, call data. i hear minecraft does exactly that, saves the terrain into a file dynamically which then it loads.

-minimize logic.

 

[teamrocketboyz]

heres a tip that i find essential for coding. store data, call data, calculate only when actually needed.
example: in 3d you first load all the models that your going to use, then you simply draw them in as meny instances as youo want.
store dialogue, info, types, categories, coordinates and pretty much anything into scripts with a switch statement which then you just call.
if you do a certain calculation more then 1-2 times, store it in a temporary variable, and then just use the variable. for instance in draw events i regularly store view_wview/2 in a temporary variable.
examples are meny, but the basic principle is this, store data, call data. i hear minecraft does exactly that, saves the terrain into a file dynamically which then it loads.

-minimize logic.

thats post alone proved im not ready to start a big project, i didnt understand many things. call data? switch statement? view_wview/2. ARGHHHHHH

 

[poliver]

i suggest just make sure your really comfortable with basics of programming in gml. (if/else/switch/while/for/repeat, comparisons, variable types, scope, parenting, basic math operations, data structures etc.) basically how to work with expressions, statements, program flow.
you can create any kind of simpler game just by using this functionality.

learn how to use scripts. don't use them just as a 'code containers' for pasting chunks of code. scripts are functions and can take in a value/process a value/and return a different value depending on processing. scripts can be overloaded(can take in different type of value(string/float). scripts can be used to modify the value that they take in as well(passing arguments by reference).

then read through the manual and the built in functions that GM has, do this at least once. dont need to learn them but kinda knowing that they exist will help you later.

work on smaller projects/prototypes/just ideas.
cause if you start on something bigger you end up rewriting your code multiple times as you learn how to do 'that one thing' better over and over.

also its much quicker to learn by making smaller demos.
bigger projects are pretty much same thing but deal with more data, are like multiple demos combined(extra time spend making them work together) and you'll also have to deal with a mountain of content creation with doesnt relate to getting better at programming(game/level design, art etc.).

 

[zendraw]

you have a calculation 2+2 that you do meny times in a single event, ok?
to prevent calculating the same 2+2 100 times, you store it in a variable: var i=2+2; then you simply use i, not 2+2;
i=2+2 is storing data, in this case in a variable.
draw_text(x, y, i); is calling data, in this case, from a variable.

but there are other ways to store data. in data structure, save file, array, resourses, local variables, temporary variables, gloal variables, scripts. pretty much in anything.

for instance you have an instance that you want to destroy when it reaches its last image_index.
in create event: time=image_number;
in step event: time-=image_speed;
if (!time) {instance_destroy()};

for the script example you create a script resourse and in that script write
switch (argument0)
{
case 0://return this;
case 1://return this;
case 2://return this;
default://otherwise do this break;
}

so the script holds a number of options, and when you call the script you put some value in the argument part and it returns somthing. like if you have 3 options for a drink. 0=cola 1=soda 2=lemonade. and you have 3 buttons, button 1 drops you a cola, button 2 drops u a soda and button 3 drops you a blessing.

 

[Hyomoto]

thats post alone proved im not ready to start a big project, i didnt understand many things. call data? switch statement? view_wview/2. ARGHHHHHH

Honestly your project looks highly competent. Sure, it's not complex but it doesn't seem to be poorly constructed or anything. That said, that's why my advice is what it is. Try to recreate Minesweeper, or a ball that bounces, the status menu from Final Fantasy VII or a rain effect. The simple act of doing is learning, and in these examples you know what the final product should look like or do which means you don't have to worry about figuring out game mechanics or designing art, instead you can just focus on the mechanics of it. Challenging yourself is key. The most important thing is don't worry so much about perfection or completion, again the act of simply doing is what matters and when you know what your end result should be it gives you a clear goal to work towards.

@Fel666 has a lot of videos that you might find helpful in that he covers a lot of basics like state machines. I think he gets out into the weeds in some of his videos but it's definitely a good resource to give you at least a starting point for asking questions or finding topics you want to learn about.

 

[poliver]

i think you're at the stage where you've picked up some knowledge but have gaps of knowledge that stop you from using that knowledge to its full potential.
this is the hardest part, cause you still feel like you can't create exactly what you want and have no idea how much learning you need to do to get better.

just keep learning new things one at a time, and you will get better.
eventually you'll feel that things are happening and you won't need to learn blindly anymore, instead you'll be able to clearly know what to learn next.

 

[Guest User]

plus i never create scripts i normally just code straight into the object meaning that i forget what ive done easily and . . .

ok so maybe this will help but the way i use scripts is for code that you have to write over and over that is otherwise "mundane" code which just does something like a regular GML function, such as random(); or clamp();.

Spoiler: Example 1

/// @description top(value, min, max);
/// @function top
/// @param value
/// @param min
/// @param max
if(argument[0] < argument[1]) { return argument[2]; }
else if(argument[0] > argument[2]) { return argument[1]; }
else { return argument[0]; }

all this does is wrap a value and it's used a lot in many, many things. why write it over and over again in all those places y'know?

you can also use them to shorten the amount of typing you have to do. for example...

Spoiler: Example 1

cut down on typing stuff that never changes/things you don't need by turning this

draw_sprite_ext(x, y, 0, 1, 1, 0, YELLOW, 1);

into this

draw_sprite_color(x, y, 0, YELLOW);

with

/// @function draw_sprite_color
/// @arg sprite_index
/// @arg image_index
/// @arg x
/// @arg y
/// @arg color
draw_sprite_ext(argument[0], argument[1], argument[2], argument[3], 1, 1, 0, argument[4], 1);

which is just me being lazy but it does help remove clutter and unimportant values from sight.

Spoiler: Example 2

turn a bunch of crud into a much nicer, sleeker, more compact form of crud...

/// @function init_entity
/// @arg entity_id
/// @arg entity_name
/// @arg STR
/// @arg DEX
/// @arg INT
/// @arg PRS
/// @arg MAL
event_inherited();

// PART: Properties
    entity_id = argument[0];
    entity_name = argument[1];
  
// PART: Stats
    array_stat[stat.str] = argument[stat.str + 2];
    array_stat[stat.dex] = argument[stat.dex + 2];
    array_stat[stat.int] = argument[stat.int + 2];
    array_stat[stat.prs] = argument[stat.prs + 2];
    array_stat[stat.mal] = argument[stat.mal + 2];
    init_stats();
  
    stat_clearance = 1;
  
// PART: Status
    toggle_bleeding = FALSE;
    toggle_burning = FALSE;
  
// PART: Mechanics
    color_light = WHITE;
    alarm[0] = stat_walkspeed;

into

init_entity(1, "Security Boy", range(6, 9), range(6, 8), 1, 1, 1);

this way if i want to change the name of the variable "color_light" i no longer have to either 1) use Search & Replace or 2) go to every single NPC's Create Event and change it manually. i can just edit this script and be done.

so, imo, scripts shouldn't make it harder to read and write your code but easier by removing redundancy, minimizing the tediousness of when several objects have the same code that needs to be kept the same, etc.. and that's why even though i too write pretty much all my code in the object event it is still worth learning and using scripts because it can make reading the code left in those events a lot less cluttered and easier to tweak. just something to try maybe

 

[Smiechu]

Another aspect from my perspective...

Almost 50% of the time making my game is simply sitting with pencil and paper, and cracking things down to basic things, systems, algorithms, logics, schematics, lists, sketches... all without any code at all...

Superior coding capabilities will get you nowhere without the basic idea what and how you would like to do...

Get thigs working on sheet of paper, step by step... think about alternative solutions... if you see that some schemes are repeating than you know you should do it as a script later...

When you are so prepared and the logic and idea is already layed down, than writing in GMS is just a formality, and you have clear head to concentrate on writing a clean and organized code...
(and findig bugs and crackig why the damn code is not working )

 

[JackTurbo]

Another aspect from my perspective...

Almost 50% of the time making my game is simply sitting with pencil and paper, and cracking things down to basic things, systems, algorithms, logics, schematics, lists, sketches... all without any code at all...

Superior coding capabilities will get you nowhere without the basic idea what and how you would like to do...

Get thigs working on sheet of paper, step by step... think about alternative solutions... if you see that some schemes are repeating than you know you should do it as a script later...

When you are so prepared and the logic and idea is already layed down, than writing in GMS is just a formality, and you have clear head to concentrate on writing a clean and organized code...
(and findig bugs and crackig why the damn code is not working )

+1 for this.

I've often sat down and "just coded" a complex system only to return to the project a week later and be aghast at the crazy illegible spaghetti monster that I made.

While everytime I've sat down and thought things through (maybe even sketching a flow diagram or similar), I've created a much more elegant and scaleable solution/system.

 

[teamrocketboyz]

Another aspect from my perspective...

Almost 50% of the time making my game is simply sitting with pencil and paper, and cracking things down to basic things, systems, algorithms, logics, schematics, lists, sketches... all without any code at all...

Superior coding capabilities will get you nowhere without the basic idea what and how you would like to do...

Get thigs working on sheet of paper, step by step... think about alternative solutions... if you see that some schemes are repeating than you know you should do it as a script later...

When you are so prepared and the logic and idea is already layed down, than writing in GMS is just a formality, and you have clear head to concentrate on writing a clean and organized code...
(and findig bugs and crackig why the damn code is not working )

this is an idea that i do already and its a great one that i suggest anyone that doesnt do it should. i have a spare note pad sat on my desk at work for any ideas that may just randomly appear out of nowhere.

 

[zendraw]

Another aspect from my perspective...

Almost 50% of the time making my game is simply sitting with pencil and paper, and cracking things down to basic things, systems, algorithms, logics, schematics, lists, sketches... all without any code at all...

Superior coding capabilities will get you nowhere without the basic idea what and how you would like to do...

Get thigs working on sheet of paper, step by step... think about alternative solutions... if you see that some schemes are repeating than you know you should do it as a script later...

When you are so prepared and the logic and idea is already layed down, than writing in GMS is just a formality, and you have clear head to concentrate on writing a clean and organized code...
(and findig bugs and crackig why the damn code is not working )

do you have superior coding capabilities to know that they will get you nowhere?...
and how are you to be creative in programming if its just a formality?
dont mistake your comfort zone as a good place to send people to. its bad, he wont learn anything that way.

 

[Smiechu]

do you have superior coding capabilities to know that they will get you nowhere?...
and how are you to be creative in programming if its just a formality?
dont mistake your comfort zone as a good place to send people to. its bad, he wont learn anything that way.

What I was trying to simply say is that coding without any idea or a plan what you want to do, makes no sense, and in most cases you end up with some kind of buggy Frankenstein which you have no idea why and how it works...

+ this creative process can be done without a computer, i.e. when you're on your way on the bus, train or on the toilet

Of course you need to now the language, and it's possibilities... but there has to be a balance...

 

[zendraw]

for creative process i meant in programming, like the way you use the functions and stuff tha the engine offers you so you dont end up making somthing that destroys your pc. or making an effect that benefits the game. for instance i figured a way to pause the game leaving the scene visible while also deactivating all instances without coding anything. this is somthing you get while programming, not while u plan things on paper, paper doesnt show you your options or possabilities nor it gives you a chanse to randomly cause an effect. and this about the pause i got by chanse.

 

[Hyomoto]

What I was trying to simply say is that coding without any idea or a plan what you want to do, makes no sense, and in most cases you end up with some kind of buggy Frankenstein which you have no idea why and how it works...

+ this creative process can be done without a computer, i.e. when you're on your way on the bus, train or on the toilet

Of course you need to now the language, and it's possibilities... but there has to be a balance...

I usually lie face down on the floor, motionless. Why that is my thinking pose I cannot say, but if you find me in that pose I'm either thinking or dead.

 

[Smiechu]

for creative process i meant in programming, like the way you use the functions and stuff tha the engine offers you so you dont end up making somthing that destroys your pc. or making an effect that benefits the game. for instance i figured a way to pause the game leaving the scene visible while also deactivating all instances without coding anything. this is somthing you get while programming, not while u plan things on paper, paper doesnt show you your options or possabilities nor it gives you a chanse to randomly cause an effect. and this about the pause i got by chanse.

Did I said you should be not coding at all? I just said that this creative planning should be one of the things in focus... In my case it takes almost half of the time spent on game development, and becouse I don't have to do that while by my computer at home, I can spend double the time every day! Than when I finnaly get coding, I'm not wasting my time on other things than coding...

 

[MishMash]

Main tip I can give is that you shouldn't necessarily feel pressured by large projects. It can be fun to dive into a really ambitious project, however more often than not, for beginners, the reality is most of these projects will get dropped. This is simply because large projects take a LONG time to make, even longer if you factor in the learning/mistakes you will inevitably make along the way.

The best thing you can be doing if you want to get good quickly is to experiment with lots of different ideas and smaller projects. There are many hard parts of game development, however for beginners, most of the difficulty you should be worried about is with regard to the programming, logic and project organisation itself. This is something that you can only gain from experience and in a way, starting lots of small projects is a really great way to get going. For example, one day you might feel like making a platformer, and get the basics working, the next day you may want to make a top down shooter with a levelling system. Every time you develop a new system, whether it be for AI, physics, inventories; You will gain valuable experience that will help you piece together more games in the future.

One thing I see a lot of developers doing is not tackling the things they are stuck on and just spending a lot of time either redesigning levels, or fiddling with graphics/tweaking (Kind of like the things you described with the "simple" tasks that needed doing). This can be fine if you find that fun, but if you really want to learn quickly, it's all about analysing what you want to achieve, breaking down a problem into logical stages/steps (So for a platformer, start with horizontal motion, then move onto thinking about the mathematics behind gravity simulation. Once you have this, you can start to understand why jumping works, understanding the logic behind collision checks etc.

Every time you fight over a hurdle, it will make you better and more resilliant to project failure in the future. Far too many people start long projects and hit a hurdle and then waste time dodging the main problems and opting to waste time on the easier aspects. So on that note, I'd suggest just trying out a lot of things, but putting in some strong effort to really try and understand everything you are doing.

At this point, I wouldn't really worry about the specific ideas themselves, as you may not be able to achieve what you want to. Alternatively, if you do love game design and find it interesting, then you can still think about these things, then perhaps try making a "small" part of that idea to learn how to go about doing it. The other important thing to note is that you shouldn't get demoralized by failure, failure is a large part of the learning process and will make you a far more affluent programmer/developer moving forward!

Creating games from scratch is all about being strategic with how you progress. As a general rule, when working on any project, it should be modular. This means that the addition/removal of features does not break the rest of the game, as everything should be self-contained. This means that you program things in such a way that an enemy is not necessarily 100% dependent on something else existing in a level, and you shouldn't need certain objects to make other objects work correctly (unless they are part of the same feature). Programming like this is mostly just down to how you organise your code, and if you do things in this way, it means that the order in which you do things really shouldn't matter, and that you can choose to do things in the order that you want. Another note is that its best to gradually build things up over time. Rather than spending ages writing perfect player movement before anything else is done, start off simple, then incrementally improve it as time goes on. This is important as you want to get an idea of how that movement may interact with other things before you over-engineer it. Similarly, creating an overly complicated AI shooting pattern might seem like a great idea, however it might end up only working in really specific scenarios (so that could then limit your level design options). More importantly, you may have wasted time making a system more complicated, only to find you have to redo it once you realise it doesn't support a feature you later wanted (I've done this more times than I can remember :S!)

 

[zendraw]

Did I said you should be not coding at all? I just said that this creative planning should be one of the things in focus... In my case it takes almost half of the time spent on game development, and becouse I don't have to do that while by my computer at home, I can spend double the time every day! Than when I finnaly get coding, I'm not wasting my time on other things than coding...

do you not understand what im sayng? im sayng its bad to for learning and creativity to code in your comfort zone, that zone that you establish with 'codin' on paper. having a plan is one thing, writing 'what to dos' is another, and there is nothing creative about it...

 

[Smiechu]

do you not understand what im sayng? im sayng its bad to for learning and creativity to code in your comfort zone, that zone that you establish with 'codin' on paper. having a plan is one thing, writing 'what to dos' is another, and there is nothing creative about it...

Yeah sorry... but I am so long out of my comfort zone, that this uncomfort zone has become my comfort zone

 

[zendraw]

theres aways somthing new out there dont give up hope

 

[teamrocketboyz]

Now now fellas no need to argue

There's some really top quality posts in here guys thank you all. I have a few small projects in the go and have tried a few variants, top down shooter, top down avoidance, platformer, platform shooter, top down soccer, menus, sounds, tilesets.

What I struggle with is animations, and paths and I'm yet to figure out how to implement a single particle.

I quite like the idea above about a simple task like making it rain in a game and k spent a few hours at work running through how I would do that in a game, I came to the conclusion that objects would be far too CPU intensive and realised I may need particles, plus I toyed with a single large animated sprite sheet but realised that wouldn't look great at all. I really want to try and create a realistic looking rainfall in game and maybe post a small video of it here what do you guys think?

 

[Hyomoto]

I think that's a fine idea.

 

[teamrocketboyz]

Then I will try create something tomorrow as a small project. But if it takes me a full day just to make it rain on screen then I'm going to be disappointed.

Mind you I did spend 7 hours staring at my code and scratching my noggin only to ask a question on here and have my code fixed in under 5 minute's........... But hey ho I tried to do it myself.

 

[zendraw]

ha, dont be discouraged that you put alot of time in somthing, it shows your into what your doing, well as long as its not procrastinating your talking about.
i once spend a whole day working on a main menu without thinking how much things i finished, and it was alot of fun and i really enjoyed what i made. it was very dynamic, and had a very good feeling about it.

 

[teamrocketboyz]

Ive started my new project and ran into something i have never seen in the whole 3 months of using this engine, I spent 3 hours working and saved the project, when i went to close the program a box appeared mentioning that assets have changed and asking me whether i wanted to reload or save. (obviously i chose save) and this reset my project back to 3 hours previous. all my work was lost (asset wise) and even worse i was left with a game that wouldnt even run at all as all the code was asking for the assets to be present.

Can anybody tell me why this occured and what the reload option does. thank you all.

 

[chamaeleon]

Ive started my new project and ran into something i have never seen in the whole 3 months of using this engine, I spent 3 hours working and saved the project, when i went to close the program a box appeared mentioning that assets have changed and asking me whether i wanted to reload or save. (obviously i chose save) and this reset my project back to 3 hours previous. all my work was lost (asset wise) and even worse i was left with a game that wouldnt even run at all as all the code was asking for the assets to be present.

Can anybody tell me why this occured and what the reload option does. thank you all.

Does your project reside in a directory that is also under the control of OneDrive or Dropbox or similar services? Synchronization between cloud and your computer could in theory mess up the content, I imagine.

 

[teamrocketboyz]

Nope not at all, I don't ever use cloud on any devices.

Maybe I had gms open twice by mistake I'm not sure, would that cause that box to appear?

 

[teamrocketboyz]

Just when I thought I had a great idea I realise just how much its basically super meat boy, the platforming, the character similarities, almost the story.

How do you guys come about new ideas as well as character design, I hear simple is best but when your character is that simple he is practically a square where do you turn to then, I feel like everything I think of has been done, I've gamed So much growing up that even my "new" ideas are rehashes of old games and I don't realise until later on when I figure it out.

 

[Gerald Tyler]

How do you guys come about new ideas as well as character design, I hear simple is best but when your character is that simple he is practically a square where do you turn to then, I feel like everything I think of has been done, I've gamed So much growing up that even my "new" ideas are rehashes of old games and I don't realise until later on when I figure it out.

Without getting too much into the character design of my own game (Super proud of the characters, working on them for months now), here are some basics:

Start with what you want your game to explore and what you want your players to FEEL. These will inform the core of the characters you want to make. For example, my game explores dysfunctional codependent relationships, the inability to let go of the past, fear of death / death acceptance, and struggling with the pain of forcing yourself to go one more day in hopes of a better tomorrow. This informs my characters personalities, backstories, and motivations. I use the game as a way to cope with my own struggles in life (Next Thursday is the 7 year anniversary of my wife's death), so I'm very much writing my characters largely (But not completely of course) on my own experiences. Write what you know...because trying to write what you don't know leads to subpar work.

Give the characters different playstyles and personalities. A "Thief" character should play completely differently from a "Knight" in combat, but just as importantly (Maybe more so) they should be different OUT of combat as well. The Knight behaves with honor, the Thief has no problem lying to get what he wants, etc. Imagine how jarring it would be for a supposedly "Good" Knight character to be cruel in the story, or backstab people in combat. You want a cohesive experience between the mechanics and the story.

Give your characters a "Character Flaw" and a "Vice." "Perfect" characters aren't relatable. People struggle on a daily basis in their lives, they can only empathize with the plight of somebody else who struggles.

Give each character a "Motivation" and ensure that in EVERY (Yes, EVERY ONE) scene with that character, their motivation is met. It doesn't make sense for your character to want X, but in one of the scenes take an action which is the opposite of what they're supposed to want. Note, that you need to take their TRUE motive into account, they may have a hidden motive that the player doesn't see until later.

Give your characters some shades of grey. Nobody is truly good, we're all imperfect humans. Nobody is truly evil either. Think of Magneto in Xmen: First Class, and how his tragic childhood led him to the villainous conclusions he draws as an adult. We may not agree with him, but we can see how and why he thinks as he does. We're able to empathize with this would-be mass murderer.

So you see, being a "Square" doesn't really matter. A good character really isn't based on their appearance, it's based on their actions and what they make us feel.
Note that these are all what I have learned doing this as a hobby, I am by no means a professional writer or character developer. Cheers.

 

[teamrocketboyz]

Thank you very much Gerald, some great nuggets of information there. so far you have all been great and i feel like im confident enough to give this a real go.

Im just putting the feelers out by asking this, but how many people would be interested in testing out a very small sample of the basic concept. (just the tutorial level) and give me some feedback as to the controls, functions etc?

its not really begun yet but all feedback is a bonus.

 

[teamrocketboyz]

I know this isnt the place to be showing a project off but this is a very quick look into what i have done so far (platforming coding is hard) its slowly coming along and im not sure whether this is "the project" i should be looking to take forward into next year. but i do have a nice little idea story wise.

Here is 2 new game mechanics created today, the first is a down force stomp used to fall faster and reach higher areas when done onto a spring, and the second mechanic is swimmable water complete with splashes and air bubbles.

 

[teamrocketboyz]

Thank you so much for all the help guys. i have created a thread below with a playable demo of the project so far, please let me know what you think.

https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.p...ct-planning-to-work-on-for-over-a-year.37411/