Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Why do we use GameMaker in our video games

MARK OVERMARS HomePage.
  GameMaker is created by MARK OVERMARS.
He is one of the initiators of the Center for Advanced Gaming and Simulation (AGS).
AGS is a leading edge research center that advances the state-of-the-art in gaming, simulation and virtual reality.
He is also one of the founders of the Utrecht Platform for Game Education and Research .
For many years he has taught courses on computer game design at Utrecht University, and has given lectures on game design to many types of people (high school kids,teachers, researchers, and politicians)

GameMaker provides a simple environment that allows complete beginners to quickly start building games, using an icon-based system . This drag-and-drop programming technic provides an easy way to learn about game development and allows to create complete games without any programming knowledge 
The following video is intended to show you Drag and Drop system .
..

To see list of my gamemaker lessons , click here .
You can make platform games, first-person shooters, third-person shooters, massive multiplayer online games, and simulation games .
Many commercial games have been made with GameMaker, including Cute Knight, Fatal Hearts, Immortal Defense, and Caveman Craig.

Game Maker also provides the Game Maker Language (GML), which makes it such a powerful tool to create artificial intelligence in games.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

1-downloading and installing GameMaker

Before starting the download and installation of Game Maker, I suggest two things :
- The first is to see the plan of our work , click here , If you have not done before.
- The second is why we choose Game Maker for ourl lessons, click here .
Now you can download the Windows version of GameMaker 8  by clicking  here  .
To download the Mac version click here.
Publisher's website is here: http://www.yoyogames.com
After downloading the file, you will begin to install it  , on your computer,by double clicking on the file GameMaker-Install-8.1.exe
I propose the following images to help you during the installation process.





If there is no problem during this procedure, I congratulate you ..
Now you will find the program shortcut (as usual) in windows
start menu

This version is suffis for our current work, so simply close the following window.
When you need  more advanced options, such as the creation of 3D games, you can upgrade the program .

the tool for creating video games is now installed on your computer, we will start soon our game development and  discover this amazing  program ability .

Monday, June 13, 2011

flavour of creating video games

  Playing video games is fun. But it is actually more fun to design your own video games and let other people play them .
Want to make your own video games for free in simple and quick steps ?
Do you dream of making your own simulationl games and learning games for your children or students  ?
 .
YES...?
so I am here to share with you my experiences and help you to achieve your dream .My technics  are effective to convince you  that it's super easy for you to make your video games and share them with your friends. 
The following posts will explain , with pictures and videos , all  technics for
creating a 2D video game .
when your skills are good enough in 2d games we  can move into the world of 3d games creation.
 .
"Theory without Practice is Idle, Practice without Theory is Blind" (Ancient Chinese Proverb) ..
My practical approach will give you the motivation you need to learn video games theory .
There is no need to program in C++ or other programming language .
An intuitive and easy to use drag-and-drop interface allows us to create our own games very quickly.
We begin with the following steps but I can change over time as I receive your comments and emails , So remember to email me your suggestions and comment this blog posts  .
.
A- first tool :GameMaker v8 

   GameMaker is a free 2D and 3D software with a drag-and-drop approach.
  Topics for future posts :
  3-guided tour (first & simple example) .
  4-become familiar with the user interface .
  5-use of a game resources (your second example) .
  6- interaction with the player(events & actions) .
.
 Here comes the serious work ! (Mastering the Fundamentals of GameMaker    
   7-Sprites (animations like cartoons)
  8-Sounds (background music & Sound effects)
  9-Backgrounds (images for the gaming scene)
  10- Objects (things that move on the stage)
  11-Rooms (Spaces in which the game takes place)
  12-Events (indicate that something has happened)
  13-Actions (Responses to events)
  14-...comming soon and According to your comments.
   .
  .
 
B- Second tool :    Audacity

    It's a free digital audio editor and recording application .
   How to use Audacity to prepare audio resources for GameMaker ?.
   Working steps are comming soon ...

C- third tool :     GIMP 2.6 

 It's free image manipulating program  .   
Although GameMaker has an integrated picture and animation editor, with GIMP we can prepare amazing background,images and animations resources for GameMaker .
Working steps are comming soon ...
.
D- educational games.
Educational games and simulation games  are effective in motivating students to learn and allow them  to explore processes that they could not work directly with in real life .
So All l that we will study during GameMaker lessons will help us to create all sorts of games, but we will focus our efforts on learning games .
.
we'll discuss the relationship between games and education and how to integrate games into classrooms to assist our students in their learning.
Secondly, we'll discuss how to encourage our children and students to create their own games and develop their creativity.
.
To improve your skills on these tools you will find videos and books in this blog .
In the next post i'll begin the first step that's downloading and installing GameMaker.

.