Mike Bailey's "Learning Game Maker" Page

http://cs.oregonstate.edu/~mjb/gamemaker

Latest update: December 11, 2010

Game Maker Notes

• Mike's Game Maker notes (one slide per page)

• Mike's Game Maker notes (two slides per page)

• Mike's Game Maker notes (six slides per page)

  These notes include some material on how to do Particle Systems and 3D in Game Maker. They are at the end, although you need to have the "Pro" version of Game Maker in order to use Particle Systems or 3D.

• An alphabetized list of actions and what tab to find them under
  This is handy -- it's just one sheet -- print it out and keep it close by.

• A list of GameMaker script functions, properties, and names
  This is also handy.

  ---

  We did a simple ecological simulation using Game Maker.

• Here are the notes.

• Here is the Game Maker file.

  ---

• YoYo Games's 292-page PDF notes This is long, but really, really good. It's best used, not by reading it cover-to-cover, but by PDF-searching for Event and Action names that you want to understand better.

  ---

• The list of 3D function calls in Game Maker.
  (This is not finished yet, but it should still be useful...)

• The GameMaker scripting language WikiPedia page

• A GameMaker wiki list of script functions

  ---

• Mike's "hamburger-bouncer" game from the notes

• Mike's "hamburger-attacker" game from the notes

• Mike's "hamburger-chaser" game from the notes

• Mike's "projectile motion" simulation from the notes

• Mike's "ecological" simulation from the notes

• A "3D rotating cube" program from the notes

Books

1. Jacob Habgood and Mark Overmars, The Game Maker's Apprentice, Apress, 2006.

   This is a really good reference book. It sells for $26 through Amazon. Click here to get to it.

2. Jerry Lee Ford, Getting Started with Game Maker, 2009.

   This book is good. I don't like it as much as The Game Maker's Apprentice. But, it is aimed at a lower level, and thus might be better for beginners.
   It sells for $24 through Amazon. Click here to get to it.

Game Maker Technology Magazine

http://gamemakertech.info

Game Maker version 8

Click here to get a list of new features in version 8 over version 7.

Oregon Game Project Challenge

• The 2011 Oregon Game Programming Challenge (OGPC) will b eheld on April 20, 2011 at Chemeketa Community College in Salem. Stary tuned for details.

• The 2010 Oregon Game Project Challenge (OGPC) was held Saturday, May 1, 2010. The web site for the competition is here.
  Here are the judges scoring sheets for 2010.

• Click here to get the 2009 Oregon Game Project Challenge coaching guide (one slide per page)

• Click here to get the 2009 Oregon Game Project Challenge coaching guide (two slides per page)

Other Game Programming Resources

• GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) a free program to manipulate images: http://www.gimp.org/ This is really handy!

• Royality free music: http://www.incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free

• Audacity, a free audio editor: http://audacity.sourceforge.net

• Microsoft Xbox Game Creator's Club: http://creators.xna.com/en-US

Other Stuff

Here's something else fun: Go to Mike's SketchUp page