Official Fangame Help Topic

From you experienced fangame/game makers, which program would you suggest using for a 2D (but complex) sidescroller?

alright…

if you want to test if you actually want to create a certain type of game, and see it in action fast use gamemaker to preview your game.

if you want it to run fast, and be really good, i would use either C++, application, or visual basic maybe.

This discussion asks the same question you ask, in which I answered: http://z3.invisionfree.com/MP2D/index.php?showtopic=1318

I wouldnt be so discouraged by Destroyer F’s frustration with GM 6.1, its true, GM is terrible at memory management but the benefits of ease and speed of creation outweigh the downfalls in memory problems IMO. Theres ways around the memory problems if you’re “anal” enough about your programming, but it can be very difficult.

But nowadays almost everyone has a fast computer anyway … its just up to you to figure out the limitations so you dont go overboard.

here.Game

My problem is this. I wanted the space ship to shoot a laser, but only 3 shots per second, but if I press the space bar too fast it stops shooting all together. Please have a look at this game.

Hows this: Ship_assault-Modifiedbytenka.Gm6.Zip by Bigupload.Com

um…use the step event (with variables and such), or use timers.

also, file corrupt

Wasnt corrupt when I downloaded it … or are you talking about the one I posted?

a 3 round burst?

If you want a high framerate with many amazing special graphic-warping, lighting, and smoke effects, or ragdoll physics, or anything a whole lot more complex than a regular 2-D Metroid game, Game Maker is not for you, and you’ll want to use something generally thought of as better than Game Maker (C++, C, Visual C++, along with OpenGL or DirectX, etc.–there are still tons of choices, and I can’t help you there).

If you’re going for a sidescroller at about the same complexity as a regular 2-D Metroid game, with probably 30 fps and standard graphics (relative to, say, most GameBoy Advance or SNES games), Game Maker should probably be your choice. It does have some memory issues like what DF has run into, but using external files would solve it unless you’re really against letting people edit your sprites. If so, it still isn’t that much of an obstacle if you pay very close attention to it from the very start. Objects are what cause the most trouble anyway, so try to keep as little objects as you can (one or a few objects to control everything in a room/the game preferably) if you’re worried about it.

Edit: Oh, yeah, and it’s stickied now. Since I’m sure this’ll get very popular and we don’t want any clones coming up.

very well said. and tenka, i was talking about your download.

Oh … umm you realise its a zip file you need to extract right? I didnt realise it when I was uploading it, but BigUpload.com automatically zips it up for you. In any case I downloaded from the link I posted and extracted it and it worked fine.

Well, it won’t be that complex. It won’t have lighting or anything extreme like that, but it will be reasonably big (lots of blocks, enemies, etc.), the sprites will be rendered models (so there’s going to be alot of colors involved as well as many frames for animation), and the speed must be fast. Would GameMaker do that for me?

same here. Ummm a 3 round burst won’t be good enough tenka sorry, it glitches.

um…tell me what you want, and ill make an example for you czar :smiley:

and it depends gold leader, i mean, if you use things wisely (re-using tiles, being very effecient with code) you could make it on gamemaker.

here is what i would do if i already knew gamemaker (i do, but im not making the game so…)

make the game in gamemaker.

see how is runs

if i am unsatisfied with running, and the game seems AWESOME, i would remake it on something better.

gamemaker is very fast for deciding what you want the game to be like.

I thought thats what you wanted…

Thats what i want. But not a 3 round burst. then one tenka gave me, it shoots more then 3 shots per second i can tell you that much.

Edit: no it has to go like this:

a shot
0.333 second later
another shot
0.333 second later
another shot
etc.

Oh, so you want 1 shot per burst, but if you keep pressing fire after 3 shots it delays? … thats even easier to do, ill post another 1 in a sec.

If the blocks are very small, it may be a bit of an issue, but 16x16 tiles or larger in a 640 by 480 resolution (though that’s pushing it with the resolution) would probably be fine. Object amounts are fine in GM as long as there aren’t too many on the screen at once, since there are ways to ignore different parts of objects outside the screen. With colors, GM does either 16-bit or 32-bit, and I have never really noticed a difference in speed between them. By speed, do you mean fast as in 60 FPS or 30 FPS but with fast-moving objects? The difference between the two is usually how smooth things move, not how fast they actually go.

I’d say just use Game Maker.

after every shot there should be a 1/3 of a second between every shot.

simple, make a variable, use it in the step event, in which after you press, the variable resets to zero, and every step (depending on how many steps you have per second) restores the value to its maximum value (make sure to limit it), and you can only fire when it is at maximum value.