Feature Reference - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 341

C H A P T E R 14
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Feature Reference

This is a good time to congratulate yourself.
You've hopped your way through a game that couldn't have been set in earlier times, you
gave Zool his extravaganza of super moves, and you've battled to shape Flynn's epic quest to find
his mother and a fabled treasure. Along the way, you've learned about platform game mechanics,
the tricks of the art trade, and the principles behind the power of storytelling.
Fuelled by the sugar rush you got from recreating Zool 's Sweet World, you've probably
already started a project of your own. You've drafted the storyline, penned down character
descriptions and dialogues, and drawn the first sketches of your artwork. You are now spending
most of your time developing in Game Maker, where you are mixing everything together in a
tightly knit game.
But as you add features to your game, you'll sometimes find yourself stuck for solutions.
How, for example, can you link several rooms together in your epic Role-Playing Game? How do
you create a mini-map? How do you make scrolling credits, cheat codes, smoke trails, and
patrolling enemies, how do you move and shoot in a particular direction?
These and a selection of other questions are answered by this reference section through an
alphabetically ordered list of features. Step by step, we'll explain how to add a certain feature to
your game. Each feature starts with a simple example file with the resources set up for you so that
you can try out the steps for yourself. This way, you can test a feature before implementing it into
your own game.
To keep things simple, we've used drag-and-drop actions where we can, but where things get
a little bit more complicated, we've had to use the Game Maker Language (GML) as well. If your
GML knowledge is a bit rusty, then you can refer to the final chapters of The Game Maker's
Apprentice to refresh your memory—but rest assured we've added explanations where required.

■ Tip Don't limit yourself to our instructions—sometimes, you'll find that the best solution depends on

how you've made your game. Our suggestions are just a few out of many solutions. Trying things out for
yourself is one of the best ways to master Game Maker!

We hope that you have purchased the Pro edition of Game Maker by now, as it is essential to
some of the features in this reference. However, in case you don't have it, then we've marked
features that require the Pro version with the symbol shown in Figure 14-1, so that you can skip
them.