Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The GameMaker debugger
GameMaker actually has a debugger built into it that runs alongside the game as it's being
tested. To run a game in debug mode, click on the red test play button instead of the green
one .
When running the game in this mode, the game will start as normal. The difference is that
the GameMaker debugger will also start and automatically connect to your game.
The debugger will look something like this:
Using the debugger window, we can see pretty much everything the game is doing.
We can also see the source code of the game when it runs and add break points on the fly.
A break point is a point where the game will pause on a certain line. These are often seen,
for example, after medium to large changes during a game so that the programmer can see
the result clearly. We can have the game step through the code and watch as each line is ex-
ecuted.
If the source code is not already showing, click on the gray close button at the top-right
corner of the current form to close it
.
Then, right-click anywhere on the now blank screen and choose
Source
from the drop-
down list that appears. With the source form open, you should now see some source code
from the game that is running:
