Requirements for Maze Game

1. Character moves using arrow keys

2. Character stops when colliding with wall

3. Character collects Treasures and gains points

4. Character collides with Door to move from room to room

5. Points are displayed 

6. Health Bar drawn

7. Character increases health by picking up hearts

8. Splash start room created

9. 10 rooms are created

10. Character can shoot to destroy monsters

11. 5 different monsters are created

12. Monsters reduced Health

13. Boss monster moves 

14. Boss monster shoots

15. Boss monster has health

Extra credit

1. Character can drop Bombs

2. Monster that comes alive when it gets close to you

3. Movable blocks 

4. Monster Generators

Sprite Creation

Pre-made

Make your own

Step 2

Add Sprites for wall, character and treasure.

• • Click on Add Sprite Icon  looks like a red pac man

  • Click load sprite and find the wall sprite.

  • Name the sprite sWall.

  • Repeat this process for your character and diamond.

Notes on sprites, sprites should start with "s",

 Sprites can be found on the Internet I use 32x32 or 64x64 sprites. Game Maker also comes with some sprites in the tutorial section. 

Sites to find character sprites

http://opengameart.org/

You can also draw your own sprites using Game Maker Image Editor you can create some nice pixel art characters

Step 4

Create first room

• • Right click on the Rooms folder and select Create Room.

  • Change the Snap x and Snap y to 32 since we are using 32x32 sprites for our game.

  • Select the wall object and draw a perimeter wall around your room.

  • Select your character object and place it in your room.

  • When adding the wall hold down Ctrl+Shift to add paint the walls in room instead of one at a time

Step 5

Character moves using arrow keys

Make your character move

We will now "code" using drag and drop to make your character move.

The object properties contains Events and Actions areas

Events

An event is a trigger, in other words it will trigger actions.

The game waits or listens for Events to take place. Example: the game is waiting for you to press the left arrow key or the game waits for your character to collide with a wall.

Actions

Actions are what you want the game to do when an Event takes place. Example: you press the left arrow key you character moves left or your character collides with a wall your character will stop moving.

• • Go to your characters object

  • Add a Keyboard event for Left, Right, Up and Down

  • Drag the Move Fixed into the actions

  • Select the correct direction that corresponds to your keyboard event

  • Select speed of 5 and make sure relative is NOT checked

  • Add a No Key Keyboard event

  • Drag in Move Fixed and select the middle no movement action. This will allow your character to stop when no key is pressed.

Step 6

Add character to room and test game

• • Double click on your first room to open it.

  • Add your character to your room

  • Click on the Run the Game button to test character movement

  • Press escape to exit the game

Step 7

Character stops when colliding with wall

Character moves through walls

• • Now you need to stop your character from being able to walk through walls

  • Open your character object

  • Add a Collision Event with the wall

  • Add a Move fixed  action and select stop

Step 8

How to Make a Door

Create door to go to next room 

• • Find a door sprite.

  • Create a door object

  • Now go back to your persons object give it a collision event with your door.

  • Drag a check next room action into collision event then a "Go to next room action"

  • Place the door in your first room

Step 9 

Create a 2nd room

• • Right click on your first room and select duplicate.

  • Modify room 2 by adding more walls.

  • Test game to see if you can get to room two by reaching door.

Step 10 

How to Collect Treasure for Points

 Collect Treasure to gain points

• • Open room 2 and place a diamond in it

  • Open your character object and add a collision event with the diamond.

  • Drag the Set score action into the collision event give it 25 points and check relative. By checking relative the 25 points are added to the point total

  • Drag the destroy Instance into the collision event and select other so the diamond will disappear once your character collides with it

  • Repeat this collision event for all the different types of objects you wish to collect for points.

.

Step 11 

Create a splash start room 

A splash screen is the first room that starts your game this serves several purposes.

• • It is a place to initialize or declare your global variables

  • It is a nice way to make your game look professional

  • It gives you options before you start a game like loading a previous game, high scores and credits.

1. Right click on your room folder and create a new room.

   1. Name the room rm_start

2. Now we create an object named oStart

• 1. Add a create Event

  2. Add a set health to 100 and a set score to 0 actions

  3. Add a Next room action third

  4. Add this object to rm_start (This object does not have a sprite)

  5. Make sure your rm_start is the top room so that when the game start you enter it first

Step 12

How to Display Points and Health

Open your Character

• Add a Draw Event with a draw self action 

  • Draw Health Bar check relative 

  • Add a Draw Draw Event with the following actions:

    • Set color to white

    • Draw Rectangle filled

    • Set color to black

    • Draw Score

The Draw rectangle should have these settings

The Draw Health bar should have these settings

 Step 13

Restart Game when HP runs out

 Restart game when HP runs out

• • Open your character

  • Add a event 

  • No More health

  • Add these actions

  • Show High Score

  • Restart Game

  Step 14

How to Increase Health

Make your character increase health by collecting hearts

• • Create an Object with a heart sprite.

  • Go to your persons object and add a collision event with the health object.

  • Drag a destroy instance of other into the collision event.

  • Drag the Set health action into the collision event and give it a value of 100 

 Step 15

How to Make Rooms

Make 10 or more progressively harder rooms

• • Make 10 levels start very simple with only a door in the first room.

  • Room 2 will introduce 1 treasure.

  • Room 3 will have a monster.

  • Continue to design rooms with more and more challenges and rewards.

  • Name each room by going to the settings tab in your room

  • Add a name and a caption that describes your rooms

  • You can change the background of each room if you like.

Hint: Once you make one room you can duplicate it by right clicking on your room and select Duplicate. This will save time since you won't have to redraw the perimeter walls of your rooms or put in your controller, door or character.

You can make rooms larger by going to the settings tab and changing the height and width.

 Step 16 

Room Backgrounds

Room design is next. We will start with a background. A background is used as the ground you walk on. So you need to decide if you want a desert, grassland, mountains, ice or whatever. I have several to choose from here.

• 1. Right click on the background folder and add a background image from one of the above name is bg_grass.

  2. Open your room folder and go to the background tab

  3. Select the background to use for your room

 Step 17

Adding Fog to a Room

Adding fog or mist to your room is easy.

• 1. Save the mist image from above the image is there just hard to see

  2. Create a background of the mist

  3. Go to your room and select the background tab

  4. Click on Background 1

  5. Choose the mist as the background

  6. Select visible when room starts and foreground image so it will be on top of everything else

  7. Select 1 for Hor. Speed and Vert. Speed this will make the fog slowly move adding to the visual effect.

 Step 18

Adding Tiles to Room

Now we will use tiles to make your rooms look better to do this we will use tile sets. Tile sets are similar to backgrounds except they are split up into individual pictures from the background.

• 1. To create a tileset right click on the background folder and create a background

  2. Select use as tileset you then have to match the tile size with the tile set most are either 16x16 32x32 or 64x64

  3. We will use this as an example

This tile set can be used for stone paths in your world. It will be split up into 32x32 tiles these tiles all fit together seamlessly to create nice path

To place a tile in your room go to the tiles tab then select the tile you wish to place in your room and place it. Continue to place tiles to make your room look nice. You will have to add many tilesets to get the variation you want. You can look on the Internet for many more tilesets.

You should place some of the following types of tiles in each of your rooms:

• • Trees

  • Paths

  • Flowers

  • Rocks

  • Buildings

  • Stumps

  • Fences

  • Signs

  • Etc

Here is good free resource for tiles

http://kenney.nl/assets

 Step 19 

How to Make your Character Shoot

You need to be able to defend your self from monsters. So you will throw rocks.

• 1. Create a round sprite for your rock 16x16 in size or choose something to throw like a knife or fruit (You can edit the size of any sprite by choosing edit, transform, stretch)

• 1. Add a Other Views Outside View 0 Event 

  2. Add a destroy Instance of Self action

 Step 21

How to Make Monsters

Monster #1 Side to Side 

The easiest monster to make is a side-to-side moving. It simply patrols back and forth.

• 1. Create a sprite for your statue use this one if you want 

  2. Call this sStatue

  3. Create an object for this sprite and call it oStatue

  4. Now add a Create Event and add a Move Fixed action select right and left and give it a speed of 2

  5. Add a collision event with the oWall give it a reverse horizontal action. 

 Step 22

Monster #2 Up and Down

Another easy monster to make is a up/down moving. 

• 1. Create a sprite for your skeleton use this one if you want 

  2. Call this sSkeleton

  3. Create an object for this sprite and call it oSkeleton

  4. Now add a Create Event and add a Move Fixed action select up and down and give it a speed of 3

  5. Add a collision event with the oWall give it a reverse vertical action. 

 Step 23 

Monster #3 Moves Diagonally

One type of monster is one that moves diagonally. This monsters erratic movement makes it hard to sneak past in tight corridors.

• 1. Create a sprite for your spider use this one if you want

  2. Call this sSpider

  3. Create an object for this sprite and call it oSpider

     1. 1. Now add a Create Event and add a Move Fixed action select the 4 corner movements and give it a speed of 4

        2. Add a collision event with the oWall give it a bounce action.

 Step 24

Monster #4 Randomly through Maze

Now we will make an object that will move randomly through your maze you can never guess which way this monster will go making it hard to predict a safe path to the door.

• 1. Create a sprite for your bat use this one if you want

  2. Call this sBat

1. Create an object for this sprite and call it oBat

2. Now add a Create Event and add a Move Fixed action select the left right up and down directions and give it a speed of 5

3. Add a collision event with the oWall add move fixed action and select the same for directions.

4. Every time this monster hits a wall it will randomly choose one of the 4 directions to travel next.

 Step 25 

Monster #5 Chases you through Walls

The ghost can travel through wall but it slows down whenever it hits a wall. It can sense where you are located so it is always trying to get to you.

• 1. Create a sprite for your ghost use this one if you want name it sGhost

  2. Now create an object for your ghost name it oGhost

  3. Give is a Step step event

  4. Drag the Check Collision action into the step event check relative

  5. Drag a Move Toward action and for the x value type your characters name with a .x after it do the same for y but put a .y after your characters name

  6. select .5 speed

  7. Drag in an Else Action

  8. Drag in a Move Toward action and give the x and y values the same as the other Move Toward action

  9. select 3 speed

 Step 26 

Make Monsters Hurt you

We want the monsters to hurt you so open your characters object

• 1. Open your characters object add a collision event with the monster and drag a set health action give it a value of -10 and check relative (you can make the monster take away different amounts of health)

  2. Now drag in a destroy instance and select other so the monster will disappear

You need to add this for all the monsters that can hurt you

 Step 27 

Make Rocks Hurt Monsters

Your rocks need to destroy the monsters here's how we do it

• 1. Open your monster objects and add the following to all of them.

  2. Add collision event with oRock

  3. Add a Set Score Action and set score to 25 and check relative.

  4. Add a destroy instance of self  

  5. Add a destroy instance of other  

 Step 28 

How to Make Boss Monster

We want to create a Boss Monster that moves, shoots and has health

If you want to use a moving sprite for your boss use the below image if not find another sprite for your boss.

If you want to make your boss sprite move you can use the sprite above and follow the instructions below.

This type of picture is called an XP style sheet because it contains 4 poses. 

Game maker does not automatically use the XP style sheet we have to convert it to 4 different poses

• 1. Click on Add Sprite Icon click load sprite and then select Edit Sprite

  2. Select File Create from Strip and load your character.

  3. Number of images and number of rows is 4

  4. Image width is found by dividing the total width of the tile sheet by 4 so the green dragon is 384/4 so each should be 96

  5. Image height should be 96 as well since the image is 384 px x 384 px

  6. Click OK

  7. If your character has a colored background select Image Erase a color to make it transparent.

  8. Save this as the correct pose name sBossD, sBossU, sBossR, sBossL

  9. To get the second pose change the vertical pixel offset to 96 for pose 2 when the dragon is facing left.

 Step 30 

Make Boss Shoot

We want your boss to fight back we can use this sprite for the fireball 

• 1. Now lets make your boss shoot to do this we need a boss bullet

  2. Find a boss bullet sprite and make it into an object I will use a fireball sprite

  3. In your boss bullet Create a collision event with the wall that destroys boss bullet

  4. Create another collision event with your character that takes away a life and restarts the room just like the other monster collisions

  5. Now we need to make your boss shoot the fireball

     1. Add a Step step event to your boss

     2. Add a create moving instance to your Step Event

     3. Set object to boss bullet speed to 20 and check relative

     4. Type 270 for the direction 

        • By the way game maker handles directions using degrees of a circle so 270 is down 0 is right 90 is up 180 is left.

     5. This will make your monster shoot an endless stream of bullets so we need to make the firing random as well

     6. To do this add a Test chance action to your monsters step event and give it a value of 30

Step 31 

Draw Health Bar for Boss

Now we want to draw a health bar on the boss

• 1. Add a create event for your boss

  2. Add a set variable name it HP action and give it a value of 100 don't check relative

  3. Add a Draw Event to your boss

  4. Add a draw variable action name HP x=0 y=-32

Step 32 

Make Rock hurt Boss

Now we want your rock to hurt the boss

• 1. In your boss object Add a collision event with the rock

  2. Add a destroy instance of other

  3. Add a set variable  give it a value of -5 and check relative

  4. Now add a test variable hp to the step event text in less than 0

1. Add a bracket

   1. Add a destroy instance of self

   2. Add a set score and give it 1000 points check relative

   3. Add a closing bracket

Step 33

Make Boss Sprite Change as direction changes

We want the sprite of the boss to correspond with the direction traveling. To do this we will use a in game variable called direction

• 1. Go to the Draw event of you boss and add a test variable

  2. variable = direction

  3. value = 180

  4. operations equal to

  5. Now add a draw sprite and select the BossL sprite since 180 is the left direction

  6. Now add another test variable this time with a direction of 0

  7. Now add a draw sprite and select the sBossR sprite since 0 is the right direction

 EXTRA CREDIT DIRECTIONS

Extra credit

• 1. Character can drop Bombs

1. Monster that comes alive when it gets close to you

   1. Movable blocks 

   2. Monster Generators

 How to Make Bombs

Create Bombs to destroy Monsters or Walls

• • Find a sprite for a bomb and an explosion and create objects for them.

Make Explosion kill Monsters

• • Open your monster objects and add the following to all of them.

  • Add collision event with explosion

  • Drag the Set Score Action and give it some points and check relative.

  • Drag destroy instance of self into the action 

Make your Character place bombs to destroy enemies

• • Open character object

  • Create a Key Press Event

  • Select the B key (or any other key you want to use to drop the bomb)

  • Drag the Create Instance Actioninto the event and select bomb as your object check relative

Monster that comes alive and chases you when you get to close

Movable blocks

We want to create blocks that can be pushed by your character. This will allow you to design puzzle rooms. The blocks need to have the following attributes.

• 1. Push-able left, right, up and down

Here are the directions:

• 1. Create a sprite and object for your push-able block.

     1. Make the block solid

  2. Add a Step step Event to the Push Block

• • 1. Add an Execute Code action and copy the following code.

Text Box

if (place_meeting(x-5,y,oPlayer) &&keyboard_check(vk_right))

{

x+=5; 

}

if (place_meeting(x+5,y,oPlayer) && keyboard_check(vk_left))

{

x-=5;

}

if (place_meeting(x,y-5,oPlayer) && keyboard_check(vk_down))

{

y+=5;

}

if (place_meeting(x,y+5,oPlayer) && keyboard_check(vk_up))

{

y-=5;

}

In the code make sure the speed and the check are the same speed that your character moves or the block speed will not match your players speed

Now we need to make the block stop if it collides with a wall or another push-able block

Add Collision events for each block  

• • Add a Move fixed  action and select stop for each collision event

Monster generators

• • Making a monster generator is a cool way to make lots of monsters in a room

  • Make an object for your monster generator call it oMonstergen

  • Add a create event to it

  • Drag in a Set Alarm action and give it 60 steps, 30 seconds = 1 second so this generator will produce a new monster every 2 seconds

  • Now add an Alarm event and drag in two actions

  • Create instance of oGhost check relative this is the monster it generates

  • Now drag in a set alarm and give it 60 steps this will restart the alarm