05/10/2008, 03:46 AM
Okay, following on from the previous thread, wee've done some talking, now wee need to get some action :P
What wee will use to make the game
I've had a look around, and have decided to stick with Game Maker, due to it being simple, and people here being familiar with it. There will be a slight modification in that the sprites, backgrounds and sounds will be stored in external files rather than the main project file (allows easier distribution).
I think wee'll be using Game Maker 6 (rather than 7) for various reasons (okay, mainly easier to "register" 6 than 7 [for the actual game release, I'll probably purchase a license, but I see no reason why everyone should purchase one]).
Obviously this change will have some minor effects - I'll stick up a demonstration some time later (once I find out why Game Maker isn't dynamically loading background music for me). The project will probably be hosted on an SVN server, which I'll show you how to use (it's pretty easy).
EDIT: here's a demo of the concept of file splitting
[attachment=2173]
It's in Game Maker 6 format. If anyone wants me to upload the Game Maker 6 demo, just say so.
What wee should work on now
General concepts, such as:
- What the first level/room should be like
- Have a starting story clip?
- Game design (top-down view VS "orthogonal" view? etc)
- Characters
- Story
- Type of interaction
What wee will use to make the game
I've had a look around, and have decided to stick with Game Maker, due to it being simple, and people here being familiar with it. There will be a slight modification in that the sprites, backgrounds and sounds will be stored in external files rather than the main project file (allows easier distribution).
I think wee'll be using Game Maker 6 (rather than 7) for various reasons (okay, mainly easier to "register" 6 than 7 [for the actual game release, I'll probably purchase a license, but I see no reason why everyone should purchase one]).
Obviously this change will have some minor effects - I'll stick up a demonstration some time later (once I find out why Game Maker isn't dynamically loading background music for me). The project will probably be hosted on an SVN server, which I'll show you how to use (it's pretty easy).
EDIT: here's a demo of the concept of file splitting
[attachment=2173]
It's in Game Maker 6 format. If anyone wants me to upload the Game Maker 6 demo, just say so.
Spoiler for details on the above:
As you can see, the sprites, sounds and backgrounds have been taken out of the .gm6 file and placed into subfolders containing the stuff; you'll notice that the total size is slightly larger (155KB [split] vs 105KB [combined]), though I partially suspect this due to how Game Maker is saving the .gm6 file).
How does this work? I've written an initialization script which will load the objects in the respective folders into the sprites/sounds in the game. A few points to keep in mind (I'll add more later on):
- the files must be placed under the correct folders
- the sprites/sounds/backgrounds must exist in the .gm6 project, however should contain no data
- a problem with blank sprites is that it may be hard to place objects in the room design view; a work around I guess is to set all the sprites with a small/LQ image so that you can tell where things go
- in the above example, I've stuck the initialization code in the room's creation code. A thing about this » objects are initialized before the room in Game Maker, thus I've had to take out the "play sound" command in a creation event, and stick it after the initialization code has run. This shouldn't be too much of an issue with the real game, since this initialization can be run on the menu screen.
How does this work? I've written an initialization script which will load the objects in the respective folders into the sprites/sounds in the game. A few points to keep in mind (I'll add more later on):
- the files must be placed under the correct folders
- the sprites/sounds/backgrounds must exist in the .gm6 project, however should contain no data
- a problem with blank sprites is that it may be hard to place objects in the room design view; a work around I guess is to set all the sprites with a small/LQ image so that you can tell where things go
- in the above example, I've stuck the initialization code in the room's creation code. A thing about this » objects are initialized before the room in Game Maker, thus I've had to take out the "play sound" command in a creation event, and stick it after the initialization code has run. This shouldn't be too much of an issue with the real game, since this initialization can be run on the menu screen.
General concepts, such as:
- What the first level/room should be like
- Have a starting story clip?
- Game design (top-down view VS "orthogonal" view? etc)
- Characters
- Story
- Type of interaction