Difference between revisions of "Game-Maker"

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[[File:GMboxfront.png|thumb|250px|Recreatonal Software Designs' Game-Maker]]  
 
[[File:GMboxfront.png|thumb|250px|Recreatonal Software Designs' Game-Maker]]  
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[[File:CYOGWGM!-front.png|thumb|250px|Microforum's CYOG with GameMaker!]]
  
 
'''[[Game-Maker]]''' (aka '''''RSD Game-Maker'''''; not to be mistaken for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kitchen Garry Kitchen's GameMaker], [http://alstaffieri.com/ Al Staffieri Jr.]'s GameMaker, or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Overmars Mark Overmars]' Game Maker) is a DOS-based suite of game design tools, produced between 1991 and 1995 by the Amherst, New Hampshire based [[Recreational Software Designs]] and sold through direct mail in the US by [[KD Software]]. Game-Maker also was sold under various names by licensed distributors in the UK, Korea, and other territories including '''Captain GameMaker''' (Screen Entertainment, UK) and '''Create Your Own Games With GameMaker!''' (Microforum, Canada).
 
'''[[Game-Maker]]''' (aka '''''RSD Game-Maker'''''; not to be mistaken for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kitchen Garry Kitchen's GameMaker], [http://alstaffieri.com/ Al Staffieri Jr.]'s GameMaker, or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Overmars Mark Overmars]' Game Maker) is a DOS-based suite of game design tools, produced between 1991 and 1995 by the Amherst, New Hampshire based [[Recreational Software Designs]] and sold through direct mail in the US by [[KD Software]]. Game-Maker also was sold under various names by licensed distributors in the UK, Korea, and other territories including '''Captain GameMaker''' (Screen Entertainment, UK) and '''Create Your Own Games With GameMaker!''' (Microforum, Canada).
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Primary distribution for Game-Maker was through [[Advertising|advertisements]] in the back of PC and game magazines such as ''Computer Gaming World'' and ''VideoGames & Computer Entertainment''. At release Game-Maker was priced at $89, and shipped on 5.25" diskette with seven or eight demonstration or tutorial games. Later releases were less expensive, and shipped on [[:Category:Game-Maker_3.0_CD|CD-ROM]] with dozens of sample games and a large selection of extra tools and resources.
  
 
Game-Maker is the first general-purpose graphical game creation system for DOS-based PCs. Although there are earlier consumer-targeted design environments, notably for the Commodore 64, Game-Maker is the first to cast a wide net and allow for any genre, within the vague boundary of character-centric aspirational design. Which is to say, it lends itself to action-adventure games and shooters; falling block puzzles, text adventures, or pinball games? Not so much.  
 
Game-Maker is the first general-purpose graphical game creation system for DOS-based PCs. Although there are earlier consumer-targeted design environments, notably for the Commodore 64, Game-Maker is the first to cast a wide net and allow for any genre, within the vague boundary of character-centric aspirational design. Which is to say, it lends itself to action-adventure games and shooters; falling block puzzles, text adventures, or pinball games? Not so much.  
  
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In the pre-Web era Game-Maker was revolutionary not just in concept, but in interface and engine technology. Its intuitive fully mouse-driven graphical interface still stands out from contemporary game creation systems, making the design process almost a game unto itself. With its stubborn focus on visual, object-based design, Game-Maker allowed users to jump right in and design games of nearly unlimited scale.  
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In the pre-Web era Game-Maker was revolutionary not just in concept, but in interface and engine technology. In an era where full-screen EGA or windowed, choppy VGA graphics were the norm, Game-Maker employed smooth full-screen four-way VGA scrolling. When other games were just beginning to get on-board with AdLib cards, Game-Maker supported not just Yamaha FM music but digital Sound Blaster sound.
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More importantly, Game-Maker's intuitive fully mouse-driven graphical interface still stands out from contemporary game creation systems, making the design process almost a game unto itself. With its stubborn focus on visual, object-based design, Game-Maker allowed users to jump right in and design games of nearly unlimited scale. While the software has its limits and its eccentricities, in the midst of the [[Shareware]] boom there was little else of the kind.
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After some consultation with the user base, on July 12 2014 original coder Andy Stone released the Game-Maker 3.0 [https://github.com/gandrewstone/GameMaker/blob/master/LICENSE source code] on GitHub, under the MIT license.
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 +
= Structure =
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[[File:wrapper.png|thumb|300px|Game-Maker 3.0: the text-mode design menu]]
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Game-Maker consists of a text-mode wrapper, tying together a collection of WYSIWYG design tools. The tools produce proprietary resources that are compiled together and parsed with RSD's custom '''XFERPLAY''' game engine. The design tools include:
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* '''[[Palette Designer]]''' - for designing and editing custom 256-color .PAL palette files (for sprites, color #255 is clear)
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* '''[[Block Designer]]''' - for designing 20x20 pixel .BBL background tiles and .CBL/.MBL animation frames for characters and monsters
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* '''[[Character Maker]]''' - for animating and sequencing .CHR character sprites
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* '''[[Monster Maker]]''' - for animating and sequencing .MON "monster" (i.e., non-player) sprites
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* '''[[Map Maker]]''' - for designing 100x100 tile .MAP files (10 screens tall; 6-1/4 screens across)
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* '''[[Graphics Image Reader]]''' - for importing visuals from .GIF files, produced with external painting programs
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* '''[[Sound Designer]]''' - for designing PC speaker .SND files, assigning Sound Blaster .VOC samples, and formatting .CMF music files
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* '''[[Integrator]]''' - for compiling and organizing resources together into a playable .GAM file
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Game-Maker involves no scripting language; all design tools use a mouse-driven 320x200 VGA display, with a shared logic and visual theme. Users draw background tiles pixel by pixel in an enlarged window, and can pull tiles from the palette to arrange in a "sandbox" area. A further menu allows users to set physical properties—solidity, gravity, animation, various counter values—for each block. The user draws maps by pulling blocks from the palette and painting with them using simple paintbrush, line, shape, and fill tools.
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Characters can have up to 15 keyboard commands, plus idle, death, and injury animations. They can hold an inventory and money, earn score, gain and lose hit points and lives, and track several counters—often used for keys and similar functions. Monsters have simple animations and movements, and can also change behavior in response to the player.
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Playable games can be exported complete with a portable version of the XFERPLAY engine, sound drivers, and configuration files. All games record high scores and (in later versions) attract mode replays. All games also feature instant save and load, and support standard PC joysticks.
  
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In an era where full-screen EGA or windowed, choppy VGA graphics were the norm, Game-Maker employed smooth full-screen four-way VGA scrolling. When other games were just beginning to get on-board with AdLib cards, Game-Maker supported not just Yamaha FM music but digital Sound Blaster sound.
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In later versions of the software, games also can incorporate several outside formats including ASCII text data, CompuServe .GIF files, and [[Autodesk Animator]] .FLI animations into multimedia presentations during menus and between levels. Although Game-Maker includes no tools for developing these files, the formats are standardized enough to allow the user a choice of standalone utilities. In addition, image data produced with outside programs such as [[Deluxe Paint]] is easily imported and split into background tiles or sprites.
  
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There are some strict technical and conceptual barriers, which became more limiting as time went on, but in the midst of the [[Shareware]] boom there was little else of the kind.
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Basically the program consists of two basic elements: the design tools, which mostly are used to produce graphical and sound resources; and the executable game engine, which parses those user-provided resources to present the player a functioning interface.
  
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Primary distribution for Game-Maker was through advertisements in the back of PC and game magazines such as ''Computer Gaming World'' and ''VideoGames & Computer Entertainment''. At release Game-Maker was priced at $89, and shipped on 5.25" diskette with seven or eight demonstration or tutorial games. Later releases were less expensive, and shipped on [[CD-ROM]] with dozens of sample games and a large selection of extra tools and resources.
+
It's sort of a brilliant charade; from the program’s perspective all of the important information that makes a game unique — visuals, sound, controls, rules, design, structure — is simple window dressing, to call in and process like so many documents. And design is nearly that easy. In essence Game-Maker is a blank game, plus the easy user-targeted mod tools to fill in the blanks. It's as if ''Lode Runner'' didn't just come with a level editor, but came without any default sprites or tiles or maps, or behaviors. Except that's not quite right, as Game-Maker also includes a wealth of demo material, a mix of public domain resources and graphics and sounds designed by the lead programmer and his immediate family.
  
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== History ==
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=== Game engine ===
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[[File:StarAvenger4.gif|thumb|300px|The default title menu]]
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Through RSD's proprietary XFERPLAY engine, all Game-Maker games run in 256-color full-screen VGA, at an eccentric 312x196 resolution (switching to the more standard 320x200 for menu screens). Game-Maker games are also distinguished by their eccentric 20x20 tile and sprite size (as opposed to the more standard 8x8 or 16/16 dimensions), populating a standard 100x100 tile (2000x2000 pixel) map size. Transition between scenes is achieved through a slow fade to or from black.
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All games share a common interface, with a menu screen offering six options: '''Play''', '''Read Instructions''', '''Read Storyline''', '''See Credits''', '''See Highest Scores''', and '''Quit'''. Pressing F2 brings up an inventory screen, while F5 and F6 bring up save and load screens. Although most of these menus can be customized with .GIF backgrounds, their basic layout, labeling, and content are constant across all games.
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All games track player score, and display a high score table upon the game's end (whether through completion or failure). Later versions of Game-Maker allow multimedia sequences between levels, including .GIF images, .FLI animations, and ASCII text files.
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The engine allows one player at a time, with the screen automatically scrolling in any of the four cardinal directions when the character comes within 1/3 screen width or height of the screen's edge. All Game-Maker games lack an on-screen display (of hit points, score, lives, etc.), though much of this information can be tracked in the inventory screen.
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=== Requirements ===
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{| style="color:black;"
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|
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* 80286 CPU or higher
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* VGA display
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* 512kB memory
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|
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* Hard Drive
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* Mouse
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* MS-DOS 4.01 or later
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|
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* OPTIONAL: Joystick
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* OPTIONAL: Sound Blaster compatible sound card
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* OPTIONAL: Windows 3.x
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|}
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= History =
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[[File:Blockdesign10.gif|thumb|300px|Block Designer v1.0]]
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Game-Maker developed from a series of modification tools for a top-down competitive maze game called ''[[Labyrinth]]'', designed by Andrew Stone in January [[1991]]. Although the engine is different, ''Labyrinth'' shared code and file formats with the later [[Xferplay|XFERPLAY]] engine and graphical resources with several later first-party games.
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: Graphically it was 320x200 8-bit (like Game-Maker). It split the screen in half, putting two players’ top-down views of the maze side-by-side on the screen. [...] Every time someone trod over the grass, it would droop and get a little more brown until after about ten times there was a clearly defined brown path. [...] To make all these subtle grass changes, I needed a block editor. So, BLOCEDIT was born.
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Whereas ''Labyrinth'' grew out of Andrew's interest in ''NetHack'' and Piers Anthony novels, one of Andrew's first goals was to expand his tools and engine to permit [[side-scrolling]] [[action-adventure]] games. "In fact, making [[Nebula|something like ''Metroid'']] was sort of the bar I set myself for version 1.0.  Which is why I added the secret passage features, and gravity, early on."
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In July 1991 Andrew and his father G. Oliver Stone incorporated [[Recreational Software Designs]] to pursue Game-Maker as a business venture—with Oliver as president and Andrew as CEO. Through Oliver's business acumen RSD made deals with [[KD Software]] and [[GameLynk]] to distribute Game-Maker and host its [[BBSes|online community]]. Through [[1992]]-[[1994]] RSD placed a series of full-sized [[Advertisement|ads]] (and some smaller sizes) in major computer magazines, and in 1994 they sub-leased a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.
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At the time of Game-Maker's release the software was revolutionary both in concept and technology; although there were earlier game creation systems, Game-Maker was the first general-purpose graphical GCS for the dominant DOS/Windows-based PC. Throughout the design process Andrew was adamant that Game-Maker's tools remain entirely visual, involving absolutely no programming from the end user. Its engine also supported full-screen four-way VGA scrolling, and later full-screen double buffered redraws, well before these were the standard.
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Several updates followed over the next three years, adding Sound Blaster support, improving the design interface, and refining the game engine—yet many features kept being pushed back. Although his brother Oliver Jr. spent a summer on the project, and wrote the code for the [[Sound Designer|sound]] and [[Monster Maker|Monster editor]], Andrew handled the bulk of the coding and updates — a task that, thanks to the lack of standardized drivers or libraries at that time, became all-encompassing and difficult to maintain. Over the software's lifetime Andrew found himself so "waylaid by video driver and [engine] problems" that he was unable to focus as much as he wanted on adding and refining features.
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By the mid-1990s the advent of 3D video cards and the introduction of Windows 95 meant that to keep up with the marketplace Game-Maker would need great changes both in concept and in coding. Furthermore the continued lack of standardization meant a large investment in coding ever more complicated drivers and libraries—work that would be thrown away as soon as standards were established. Despite plans for a radical professional-quality update, RSD ceased support for Game-Maker around [[1995]].
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In a 2011 interview Andrew mused about Game-Maker, stating that by his own principles he was surprised he hadn't released the source code years earlier.
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: Yeah, you know I should have OSSed a long time ago as I am a proponent of open source.  At first there was the possibility that I might jump back into it.  And later the fear that whatever startup company I worked for at the time would try to claim it.  But upon mature reflection I think that is impossible.
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Later, on July 1st 2014, Andrew posted to the Game-Maker Facebook page, [https://www.facebook.com/RSD.Game.Maker/posts/628980880532313 asking for community input] on releasing the code. On July 12th he posted the Game-Maker 3.0 source to GitHub, under the MIT license, suggesting that although people were free to use the code how they liked, "if there is interest in preserving the old games you guys made then porting Game-Maker to modern OSes is the first step."
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== Release history ==
  
 
[[File:GMboxback.png|thumb|250px|Packaging copy]]
 
[[File:GMboxback.png|thumb|250px|Packaging copy]]
  
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Game Maker was first released in 1991. Over the years and several versions, Game-Maker grew more sophisticated and polished. The bugs were minimized. It began to support Sound Blaster cards, and .fli animations. It became possible to build bigger, more complex games, and to truss up your old games with nicer wrappers. The final release was version 3.0, which went out on CD — a major, impressive move at the time -- in late 1994.  
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Game Maker was first released in 1991. Over the years and several versions, Game-Maker grew more sophisticated and polished. The bugs were minimized. Stuff was gradually added. Sound Blaster support, most significantly. .FLI support. Transitions between levels. Intro became more elaborate. More media was supported on all the menu items.  
  
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After that final release, RSD kind of dissolved. From what I recall, the brothers went off to college. Which in retrospect would suggest that they developed Game-Maker and held down its development cycle while still in high school themselves. Maybe I’m misremembering; they might have been undergrads. The way I remember it, they stopped development when they went off to school, leaving their father to see the business off. Last I heard, they still intended to develop Game-Maker during breaks. I guess that never happened, though. And today, despite the once-thriving design community, you can hardly find a thing about the program. There isn’t even a Wikipedia entry, whereas there is an individual Wiki page for each of Johnny Depp’s toes. [citation needed]
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The menu backgrounds became clear. The config menu was added. All the tools became a little beveled and prettier to look at. Monster and Character collisions were adjusted. At some point it was changed so only the clear bits of monsters and the clear bits of characters counted against each other.  
  
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=== Version history ===
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At some point it came so that monsters could add to a character's stats instead of just injure a character, opening up the door for contact pick-up items. I think more blocks were allowed in a single .CBL or .MBL file. I think animations got a bit longer. Scrolling was constantly being tweaked. Lots of little tweaks; a few huge changes and additions.
  
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Stuff was gradually added. Sound Blaster support, most significantly. .FLI support. Transitions between levels. Intro became more elaborate. More media was supported on all the menu items. The menu backgrounds became clear. The config menu was added. All the tools became a little beveled and prettier to look at. Monster and Character collisions were adjusted. At some point it was changed so only the clear bits of monsters and the clear bits of characters counted against each other. At some point it came so that monsters could add to a character's stats instead of just injure a character, opening up the door for contact pick-up items. I think more blocks were allowed in a single .CBL or .MBL file. I think animations got a bit longer. Scrolling was constantly being tweaked. Lots of little tweaks; a few huge changes and additions.
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It became possible to build bigger, more complex games, and to truss up your old games with nicer wrappers. The final release was version 3.0, which went out on CD — a major, impressive move at the time -- in late 1994.  
  
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==== Version 1.0 released c1991 ====
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=== Version 1.0 released c1991 ===
  
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==== Version 1.02 released April 2, 1992 ====
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Includes one 1.44 MB microfloppy disk containing the full set of RSD tools plus the games ''[[Sample]]'', ''[[Terrain]]'', ''[[Houses]]'', ''[[Animation]]'', ''[[Pipemare]]'', ''[[Nebula]]'', and ''[[Penguin Pete]]''. Also included, beginning in version 1.02, is a separate diskette containing the '''[[GameLynk]]''' game ''[[Barracuda: Secret Mission 1]]''. All 1.X iterations of Game-Maker include a square-bound 75-page user manual and several leaflets about the use of the software. Later versions (1.04, 1.05) also include leaflets explaining recent changes and updating the user manual.
  
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[[File:Manual-front.png|thumb|250px|Manual (front)]]
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=== Version 1.02 released April 2, 1992 ===
  
 
Additions and improvements:
 
Additions and improvements:
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* Monsters without picture blocks now permitted
 
* Monsters without picture blocks now permitted
  
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==== Version 1.04 released November, 1992 ====
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=== Version 1.04 released November, 1992 ===
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[[File:Manual-front.png|thumb|250px|Manual (front)]]
  
 
Additions and improvements:
 
Additions and improvements:
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* Two-block-tall characters now fully collide with monsters and solid blocks.
 
* Two-block-tall characters now fully collide with monsters and solid blocks.
  
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==== Version 1.05 released February, 1993 ====
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=== Version 1.05 released February, 1993 ===
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[[File:Manual-back.png|thumb|250px|Manual (back)]]
 
  
 
Additions and improvements:
 
Additions and improvements:
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* Improved Windows 3.1 support
 
* Improved Windows 3.1 support
 
   
 
   
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==== Version 1.05b released c1993 ====
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=== Version 1.05b released March 10, 1993 ===
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==== Version 2.0 released August 20, 1993 ====
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Minor update to acknowledge a crash bug when both a .GIF image and .CMF music are used on a game's title screen, and to suggest a temporary workaround.
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=== Version 2.0 released August 20, 1993 ===
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[[File:Blockdesign.png|thumb|300px|An improved design interface made its debut in Game-Maker 2.0.]]
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Includes both 1.2 MB floppy and 1.44 MB microfloppy disks containing the full set of RSD tools plus the games ''[[Tutor]]'' (a replacement for ''Animation''), ''Sample'', ''Terrain'', ''Houses'', ''Pipemare'', ''Nebula'', and ''Penguin Pete''. Both versions 2.0 and 2.02 include a square-bound 94-page user manual and several leaflets about the use of the software. The latter version also includes a leaflet explaining recent changes and updating the user manual.
  
 
Additions and improvements:
 
Additions and improvements:
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* Improved gameware (upgraded [[Demo games]])
 
* Improved gameware (upgraded [[Demo games]])
  
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==== Version 2.02 released December 5, 1993 ====
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==== Demo versions ====
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==== Version 3.0 released c1994 ====
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==== Windows Menu Supplemental Disk released December 16, 1994 ====
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* A slideshow demo of Game-Maker 2.0 was released for online distribution, bundled with ''[[A-J's Quest]]'' v2.0. (See [[#Downloads|Downloads]], below.)
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=== Version 2.02 released December 5, 1993 ===
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Minor update to acknowledge and provide workarounds for several bugs, including the persistent problem with .CMF music and title screens in transferred games.
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=== Version 3.0 released c1994 ===
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[[File:GM30CD-ROM.png|thumb|250px|The Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM]]
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Version 3.0 -- the final version of Game-Maker -- was released in several configurations, including a three-microfloppy (1.44 MB) version and the definitive CD-ROM edition -- which itself was released in several variations and under several names, in various territories around the world.
  
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== Structure ==
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* The three-microfloppy package contains the full set of RSD tools, the in-house developed games ''Tutor'', ''Sample'', and ''Nebula'', and three licensed games developed by the independent designer '''[[A-J Games]]''': ''[[Zark]]'', ''[[The Patchwork Heart]]'', and ''[[Peach the Lobster]]''. Both first-party packages of version 3.0 include a square-bound 104-page user manual and several leaflets about the use of the software.
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* The CD-ROM package includes the contents of the floppy package, plus first-party games ''Pipemare'', ''Penguin Pete'', ''Houses'', and ''Terrain''; A-J Games productions ''[[Glubada Pond]]'', ''[[Crullo: Adventures of a Donut]]'', ''[[Cireneg's Rings]]'', and ''[[Linear Volume]]''; two games by '''[[Sheldon Chase]]''' of KD Software, ''[[Woman Warrior and the Outer Limits]]'' and ''[[Woman Warrior and the Attack from Below]]''; and the GameLynk game ''Barracuda: Secret Mission 1''. In addition, the CD-ROM includes a large collection of images, sounds, music, animations, and gameware elements, and a Shareware directory holding demo versions of fourteen games by various independent designers.
  
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[[File:wrapper.png|thumb|300px|The text-mode menu wrapper]]
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* '''Create Your Own Games With GameMaker!''': In 1995, the Canadian company Microforum rebranded and repackaged the CD-ROM version of Game-Maker 3.0 for release to a worldwide market. This version includes a spiral-bound user manual. The disc contents are the same as the original RSD release.
  
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The program consists of two basic elements: the Game-Maker package itself, which consists of a bunch of design utilities tied together with a text mode wrapper, and the actual executable file that functions as the actual “game”, which calls upon user-specified graphical and sound and design elements to give itself a face. The package also includes with a wealth of demo material, most of it designed by the lead programmer and his brother; some of it public domain material, gathered from who-knows-where.
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The full list of updates is very lengthy, and is TBC.
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the tools.  
 
  
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In retrospect it's kind of brilliant; from the program’s perspective all of the important information that makes a game unique — visuals, sound, controls, rules, design, structure — is simple window dressing, to call in and process like so many documents. And design is nearly that easy.
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==== Demo versions ====
  
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=== Palette Designer ===
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[[File:CDRToday.png|thumb|250px|CD-ROM Today - The Disc! #12]]
  
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: ''See: [[Palette Designer]]''
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* As with the previous major update, RSD released a slideshow demo of Game-Maker 3.0. This demo was jury rigged into [[Game-Maker Demo|the intro of]] ''Peach the Lobster'', and also was distributed online. (See [[#Downloads|Downloads]], below.)
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* In turn, this adapted version of ''Peach the Lobster'' was included in a full working demo of Game-Maker 3.0, for online distribution. (See [[#Downloads|Downloads]], below.) In this demo, saving is disabled. In addition to the Game-Maker program, an extensive "README" directory filled with ASCII text documentation (dated March 1995), and the aforementioned ''Peach''/Slideshow combo, this demo includes the following games:
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** ''[[Crullo: Adventures of a Donut]]'' (with added cutscenes)
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** ''[[The Patchwork Heart]]''
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** ''[[Zark]]''
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* This full demo of Game-Maker 3.0 was then released with the June 1995 issue of ''CD-ROM Today'', on its cover disk ("The Disc! #12").
  
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=== Block Designer ===
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=== Windows Menu Supplemental Disk released December 16, 1994 ===
  
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: ''See: [[Block Designer]]''
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This extra disc includes some tools to smooth over the operation of Game-Maker under Windows 3.x. As detailed in an included text file named README.1ST:
  
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=== Monster Maker ===
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: This disk supplements your Game-Maker V3.0 CD-ROM. It contains the Game-Maker Windows menu system, a number of FLI files, and some patches to two games.
  
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[[File:GM30CD-ROM.png|thumb|250px|The Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM]]
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The two games to receive updates (mostly small menu adjustments) are ''[[Tutor]]'' and ''[[Zark]]''. The .FLI animations mostly consists of the words "GAME-MAKER" spinning and rotating on a black background.
  
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: ''See: [[Monster Maker]]''
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= Game distribution =
  
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=== Map Maker ===
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[[File:Gamelynk.png|thumb|300px|Shareware warning, in ''Barracuda: Secret Mission 1'']]
  
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: ''See: [[Map Maker]]''
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During Game-Maker's lifetime, users could distribute their games through the [[Gamelynk]] (aka Night Owl, later Frontline) [[BBSes|BBS]] in Kennebunkport, Maine or through the (swiftly abandoned) [[:Category:Game-Maker_Exchange|Game-Maker Exchange]] program — an infrequent mailing to registered users, compiling submitted games to a floppy disc with occasional commentary from RSD president G. Oliver Stone. Additionally, the [[:Category: Game-Maker_3.0_CD|Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM]] was filled with user-generated [[shareware]], [[freeware]], and [[demo games]].
  
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=== Character Maker ===
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Many user-generated games also wound up on public bulletin boards, and thereby found wide distribution and eventual salvation on shovelware CD-ROMS. RSD's initial terms of use were rather restrictive. To quote from a pamphlet titled "Distributing Your GAME-MAKER Games" and dated May 9, 1993:
  
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: ''See: [[Character Maker]]''
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: Under your Game-Maker license agreement, you may distribute any game you create to up to ten people and your gameware to any number of people. You may not distribute the Game-Maker design tools, but you may include Game-Maker's gameware (picture blocks, monsters, characters, sounds, etc) along with your games or gameware.
  
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=== Graphics Image Reader ===
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: Commercial distribution of games is not covered by your license agreement and such distribution requires a commercial distribution license, since games contain valuable software owned by Recreational Software Designs. Several methods that you can use to commercially distribute your games are explained below. Write to RSD to obtain a commercial distribution license.
  
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: ''See: [[Graphics Image Reader]]''
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The pamphlet goes on to detail standalone games, promotional games, and shareware and BBS distribution. For standalone games (which is to say, games that are meant as an end unto themselves), RSD asks a royalty of $500 for the first 200 games sold or distributed, then a small fee for each subsequent copy. The higher the number, the smaller the fee. For promotional software (distributed as part of a promotional kit), RSD asks $1000 for the first 1000 copies and then smaller fees for every copy up to 25,000. Beyond that, RSD asks no additional charge.
  
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=== Sound Designer ===
+
Shareware and BBS distribution is a curious case. Although RSD prohibits free distribution, the license does allow a loophole for shareware so long as the author requests the user to pay a minimum registration or license fee of $5.00, then makes a quarterly payment of 10% of all collected fees. These restrictions were rarely enforced; as a June 15, 1993 pamphlet titled "Distributing Games" suggests, freeware games were common and tolerated despite the license agreement:
  
−
: ''See: [[Sound Designer]]''
+
: We decided not to establish the "GAME-MAKER EXCHANGE" due to early lack of response, although lately the requests for such an exchange have been increasing quite a bit. Instead, we will distribute games via the Gamelynk BBS. You can use this BBS to freely distribute your games (Freeware or Shareware), or you can have the BBS restrict the down line loading or the shipment of your games to a customer until a payment via credit card is made.
 +
 
 +
: '''To distribute a game via Shareware, simply place a text file statement along with your files letting the user know your terms.''' You can find example statements in any Shareware product. '''For Freeware, include a statement that says that you own the product but will allow others to distribute it freely, or even that users can incorporate your work into their games.'''
  
−
=== Integrator ===
+
: If you choose to distribute your games via retail sales, Mark Janelle, owner of the Gamelynk BBS will pay you a royalty on every game sold via the BBS. If RSD and\or our distributer [sic], KD Software, sell your game, we will also pay you a royalty. We will work with you and the GameLynk Entertainment BBS to set prices and royalty percentages for specific games. We will insure that all games are priced fairly relative to each other. We may also package multiple games together into game packages. You retain the rights to your games.
  
−
: ''See: [[Integrator]]''
+
: If you have additional ideas or requests about distributing your games, don't hesitate to write us or to communicate via the BBS with Mark Janelle.
  
−
=== Xferplay ===
+
== Open format ==
  
−
: ''See: [[Xferplay]]''
+
[[File:GM-AD_1992-10.png|thumb|250px|RSD's first full-page color ad for Game-Maker]]  
  
−
== Limitations ==
+
Despite the limitations on distribution, Game-Maker's design format is notoriously open. From its outset Game-Maker was designed as a collaborative tool, with the intent that users not only trade design tips but pick apart and freely sample from each other's work. A series of full-page magazine ads, run in the early 1990s, spends nearly as many words selling Game-Maker as a modification tool, along the lines of Galoob's Game Genie accessory, as it does describing the software's design features, promising that users can "modify and enhance Game-Maker games". "Is a game too easy? Increase the speed. Too boring? Add danger, sounds and monsters. Too plain? Dress up the graphics, add animation. Too short? Add new levels."
  
−
[[File:CDRToday.png|thumb|250px|CD-ROM Today - The Disc! #12]]
+
This "remix" philosophy stems partly from the Stones' own collaborative family dynamic, and — as with the insistence on an entirely visual, code-free interface — partly from concern about overwhelming the end user. "[W]e realized that it would be pretty hard for a ten to twelve-year-old to do it all himself so there were practical considerations."
 +
 
 +
To that end Game-Maker games are distributed as an unprotected bundle of resource files, both specialized (i.e., Game-Maker's unique graphic and animation formats) and common (including CompuServe .GIF, Creative .VOC, Autodesk .FLI, and ASCII text files), making it a simple task to identify and edit most Game-Maker games. The decision was a defiant one on the part of programmer G. Andrew Stone, who argued that any user concerned about protecting, rather than sharing, his work should take on that burden himself.
 +
 
 +
: I deliberately (in fact I remember an argument about it) made no effort to protect a game's content -- anyone could load up anyone else's game in the editors. My feeling was that if you were sophisticated enough to build a game that really needed protection, you could wrap it in your own encrypted .zip file or something.
  
−
What may have killed Game-Maker in the end was a certain lack of flexibility to the main program on which all the resources hinged. Although by the final release the scrolling had improved tremendously, the screen’s tracking of on-screen avatars was always strange at best. The character never quite stayed centered; the screen would move in fits and jerks. Sprites flickered and disappeared at the edges of screen, and had real problems with collision.
+
As it happens, one of the earliest games distributed with Game-Maker was GameLynk's ''[[Barracuda: Secret Mission 1]]'', a user-derived project that is most distinguished by its presentation whereby its file structure is hidden by [[LHarc]] compression and the portable Deluxe Paint Animation player is tacked onto the Game-Maker executable to provide intro and exit animations.
  
−
By 1995, several features also began to sting for their absence. The only supported music format was weird and proprietary; there was no custom music editor, and it was difficult to convert anything to the required format. The inventory system was very limited, as was control mapping. If you wanted to allow a character to jump up, left, and right, you had to assign each animation a different key. Characters and monsters could only be of a certain size, and the interaction amongst all in-game elements was never quite flexible enough.
+
= Limitations =
  
−
There were other issues of professionalism and tidiness. Every Game-Maker game had essentially the same title menu, with the same options in the same typeface. Also, rather than archiving and compressing content, the exporting tool merely dumped resource files into a directory, for end users and hackers to pick over at will. If you had a written epilogue in a text file, it simply copied the text file into the target directory, for anyone to read.
+
[[File:VisualComposer.png|300px|thumb|AdLib Visual Composer, the missing link for FM music sequencing]]
  
−
Still, even the big problems and omissions are tiny compared to the improvements that Game-Maker had seen over its short history. And even in its final form — heck, even in its earliest forms — Game-Maker was a welcoming, powerful, and rather brilliant design tool, well deserving a place in indie game history.
+
Through its history several aspects of Game-Maker's engine, design interface, and feature set have experienced scrutiny from its user base.
  
−
== Distribution ==
+
One of Game-Maker's more opaque qualities is its exclusive use of Creative's proprietary .VOC and [[.CMF]] sound and music formats, and its absence of integrated design tools for those formats (or recommendations as to external tools), leaving users to work out [[AdLib_Visual_Composer|their own solutions]] — or [[Stock_tracks|often not]].
  
−
[[File:CYOGWGM!-front.png|thumb|250px|Microforum's CYOG with GameMaker! (front)]]
+
The use of .CMF was a last-minute decision; Andy had been working on a .MOD-style tracker format, but development was indefinitely delayed. As a temporary measure his brother Ollie plugged in code provided by Creative Labs.
  
−
: ''See: [[Availability]]''
+
: I got waylaid by video driver and XFERPLAY [game engine] problems.  The music was going to be completely dropped, but then my brother pulled this free code up and made it work!
  
−
=== Game distribution ===
+
Other common frustrations include a lack of multi-key mapping for character behaviors, such as pressing Z + a directional arrow to jump in the direction pressed (a problem stemming from a lack of standardized keyboard electrical layouts at that time); the extreme simplicity of monster behaviors (partially due to a desire to eliminate programming from the design tools); a lack of persistent flags for game events (partially due to memory constraints); and the lack of on-screen displays for health, lives, and other counters).
  
−
: ''Also see: [[Business models]]''
+
: I just felt that the full screen greatly increased the game quality. I guess I just hated staring at the action through a fifteen-inch monitor already when playing video games. I mean, try it in real life.  Get a big piece of cardboard, cut a fifteen-inch square in it, and then walk around your house with it held at arm’s length for a day.
  
−
RSD made available user-generated games through several official channels, including [[Mark A. Janelle]]'s [[:Category:Frontline_BBS|Gamelynk/Frontline BBS]], a disk mailing program called the [[:Game-Maker_Exchange|Game-Maker Exchange]], and occasionally through downloadable demos and pack-in disks. Additionally, the [[:Category: Game-Maker_3.0_CD|Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM]] was filled with user-generated [[shareware]], [[freeware]], and [[demo games]].  
+
Although by the final release the scrolling had improved tremendously, the screen’s tracking of on-screen avatars was always strange at best. Sprites flickered and disappeared at the edges of screen, and had real problems with collision. The inventory system was very limited. Characters and monsters could only be of a certain size, and the interaction amongst all in-game elements was never quite flexible enough.
  
−
A pamphlet titled "Distributing Games" and dated June 15, 1993 describes the fluid nature of RSD's plans:
+
[[Monster Maker|Monsters]] are a particular point of contention. Compared to characters, monsters have only limited interaction with their environments. For instance, monsters are not affected by gravity or other physics—and have no contextual AI to speak of, aside from a limited awareness of the character. Monsters also lack variable counters, such as hit points. Instead each monster (including NPCs, character shots, and some kinds of power-up) has a fixed "power level" between 0 and 255, and a collision between unequal monsters is resolved by destroying the weaker monster. The engine therefore does not lend itself to graduated damage (i.e., sword 1 does twice the damage as sword 2). Rather, collisions are all binary; either a weapon works, or it doesn't.
  
−
: We decided not to establish the "GAME-MAKER EXCHANGE" due to early lack of response, although lately the requests for such an exchange have been increasing quite a bit. Instead, we will distribute games via the Gamelynk BBS. You can use this BBS to freely distribute your games (Freeware or Shareware), or you can have the BBS restrict the down line loading or the shipment of your games to a customer until a payment via credit card is made.
+
== Workarounds ==
  
−
: To distribute a game via Shareware, simply place a text file statement along with your files letting the user know your terms. You can find example statements in any Shareware product. For Freeware, include a statement that says that you own the product but will allow others to distribute it freely, or even that users can incorporate your work into their games.  
+
For advanced users, many of the engine's limitations have workarounds. One can approximate gravity's effect on a monster by defining a heavy diagonal path; the monster will move horizontally until it reaches a ledge, at which point it will fall until it hits the ground again. Similarly, although monsters lack hit counters, the user can create chains of identical (or successively injured-looking) monsters to approximate the same effect.
  
−
: If you choose to distribute your games via retail sales, Mark Janelle, owner of the Gamelynk BBS will pay you a royalty on every game sold via the BBS. If RSD and\or our distributer [sic], KD Software, sell your game, we will also pay you a royalty. We will work with you and the GameLynk Entertainment BBS to set prices and royalty percentages for specific games. We will insure that all games are priced fairly relative to each other. We may also package multiple games together into game packages. You retain the rights to your games.  
+
In later years users have found ways to subvert or play along with the system's properties to achieve effects, mechanisms, and even genres unaccounted for in the engine's basic features—including extensive [[:Category:In-game_cinematics|in-engine cutscenes]], boss sequences, AM2-style [[:Category:Forced perspective|sprite scalers]], [[RPG]]-style battles, [[:Category:False scrolling|parallax scrolling]], [[:Category:Shooting_galleries|shooting galleries]], and [[:Category:Destructible_terrain|destructible terrain]].
  
−
: If you have additional ideas or requests about distributing your games, don't hesitate to write us or to communicate via the BBS with Mark Janelle.
+
= Influence =
  
−
[[File:CYOGWGM!-back.png|thumb|250px|Microforum's CYOG with GameMaker! (back)]]  
+
As one of the first complete game design suites for IBM-based PCs, and the only one devoted to action games during the early '90s Shareware boom, Game-Maker "anticipated the thriving indie game community we have today with countless game engines, web sites and indie game companies." Several of its users went on to later note in indie or commercial game development, such as renowned ''Seiklus'' author [[cly5m]], ''Slender: The Eight Pages'' designer [[Mark Hadley]], ''Liight'' programmer [[Roland Ludlam]], ''Warhammer Online'' background artist [[Justin Meisse]], and ''Bionic Commando'' associate producer [[James W. Morris]].
  
−
Many user-generated games also wound up on public [[BBSes|bulletin boards]], and thereby found wide distribution and eventual salvation on shovelware CD-ROMS. RSD's initial terms of use were rather restrictive. To quote from a pamphlet titled "Distributing Your GAME-MAKER Games" and dated May 9, 1993:
+
Some games produced with RSD's tools, such as [[Jeremy LaMar]]'s ''[[Blinky 2|Blinky]]'' series, have become cult favorites. Others, like ''[[A-J's Quest]]'', ''[[Die Blarney!]]'', and [[Matt Bell]]'s ''[[Paper Airplane]]'', reached a wide circulation during the 1990s Shareware boom, appearing on many CD compilations. Game-Maker seems also to have made an impression in the Benelux, with references in various academic papers, coverage in the largest game magazine in the region, and dissection by [[:Category:PPP Team|the local demoscene]].
  
−
: Under your Game-Maker license agreement, you may distribute any game you create to up to ten people and your [[gameware]] to any number of people. You may not distribute the Game-Maker design tools, but you may include Game-Maker's gameware (picture blocks, monsters, characters, sounds, etc) along with your games or gameware.
+
== Notable games ==
  
−
: Commercial distribution of games is not covered by your license agreement and such distribution requires a commercial distribution license, since games contain valuable software owned by Recreational Software Designs. Several methods that you can use to commercially distribute your games are explained below. Write to RSD to obtain a commercial distribution license.
+
[[File:Pipemare.png|thumb|300px|G. Oliver Stone's iconic demo game, ''Pipemare'']]
  
−
The pamphlet goes on to detail standalone games, promotional games, and shareware and BBS distribution. For standalone games (which is to say, games that are meant as an end unto themselves), RSD asks a royalty of $500 for the first 200 games sold or distributed, then a small fee for each subsequent copy. The higher the number, the smaller the fee. For promotional software (distributed as part of a promotional kit), RSD asks $1000 for the first 1000 copies and then smaller fees for every copy up to 25,000. Beyond that, RSD asks no additional charge.
+
: ''Also see: [[:Category:Feature games]]''
  
−
Shareware and BBS distribution is a curious case. Although RSD prohibits free distribution, the license does allow a loophole for shareware so long as the author requests the user to pay a minimum registration or license fee of $5.00, then makes a quarterly payment of 10% of all collected fees. These restrictions were rarely enforced; as the "Distributing Games" pamphlet suggests, freeware games were common and tolerated despite the license agreement.
+
* '''''[[A-J's Quest]]''''' ([[A-J Games]], [[1992]]) — A widely distributed side-scrolling platformer that was also incorporated into an early slideshow demo of Game-Maker.
 +
* '''''[[Barracuda]]''''' ([[GameLynk]], 1992) — An action simulation game, involving deep sea diving. The shareware episode, distributed on a separate floppy disk with early versions of Game-Maker, incorporates external functions such as LHarc auto-compression and the portable [[Deluxe Paint]] Animation player, into the game's presentation.
 +
* '''''[[Blinky 2]]''''' ([[Jeremy LaMar]], [[1994]]) — A top-down action game inspired by ''The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past''. Through its distribution on AOL Kids, ''Blinky 2'' and its sequel achieved a small cult status.
 +
* '''''[[Blinky 3]]''''' (Jeremy LaMar, [[1995]]) — A side-scrolling platformer featuring multiple characters and a branching level structure. Of the two distributed ''Blinky'' games, ''Blinky 3'' has received the bulk of attention.
 +
* '''''[[Nebula]]''''' ([[RSD]], [[1991]]) — Game-Maker programmer Andy Stone's ''Metroid''-influenced action-adventure platformer, that was always first to demonstrate any new features to the software.
 +
* '''''[[Parsec Man 3D]]''''' ([[Mark Hadley]], 1994) — A minimalist free-floating/platform shooter by ''Slender: The Eight Pages'' designer Mark Hadley, that uses red/cyan anaglyphic 3D glasses to add both atmosphere and functional design. ''Parsec Man'' was also distributed on the Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM.
 +
* '''''[[Paper Airplane]]''''' ([[Matt Bell]], [[1993]]) — A side-scrolling strategic action game with puzzle-solving elements; perhaps the most widely distributed Game-Maker game.
 +
* '''''[[Peach the Lobster]]''''' (A-J Games, 1994) — A ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' influenced side-scrolling platformer that was incorporated into a late-era slideshow demo of Game-Maker.
 +
* '''''[[Pipemare]]''''' (RSD, 1991) — G. Oliver Stone's top-down action maze game, which provides much of the iconography for the Game-Maker software and packaging.
 +
* '''''[[Sample]]''''' (RSD, 1991) — Joan Stone's simple 3/4 view adventure game that formed the basis for dozens of user-created games.
  
−
==== Community ====
+
= Links =
  
−
: ''Also see: [[Community]]''
+
=== Sites ===
  
−
(Discuss Andy Stone's ideas about collaborative creativity and how they feed into the way that Game-Maker is designed and marketed.)
+
* '''[https://github.com/gandrewstone/GameMaker Game-Maker 3.0 Source Code]''' (GitHub)
 +
* '''[http://effluviaofascatteredmind.blogspot.com/2011/06/rsd-gamemaker.html RSD GameMaker (EoaSM)]''' -- Overview by Game-Maker programmer G. Andrew Stone
 +
* [https://www.facebook.com/RSD.Game.Maker Game-Maker facebook page]
 +
* [https://twitter.com/RSDGameMaker RSD Game-Maker Twitter feed]
 +
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19970329135635/http://www.microforum.com/products/utility/create/Default.htm Microforum's GameMaker site] (archive.org)
  
−
== Links ==
+
=== Interviews / Articles ===
  
−
* '''[http://effluviaofascatteredmind.blogspot.com/2011/06/rsd-gamemaker.html RSD GameMaker (EoaSM)]'''
+
* [http://www.autofish.net/video_games/creation/rsd_game-maker/index.html RSD Game-Maker (autofish.net)] -- Overview by [[cly5m]]
−
* [http://sylvainhb.blogspot.com/p/rsd-game-maker.html My RSD Game-Maker Years (Bilou HomeBrew)]
+
* [http://www.mazeguy.net/blobs.html Mazeguy.net] -- Overview by [[Mike Perrucci]]
−
* [http://www.mazeguy.net/blobs.html Mazeguy.net]
+
* [http://sylvainhb.blogspot.com/p/rsd-game-maker.html My RSD Game-Maker Years (Bilou HomeBrew)] -- Overview by Sylvain Martin of [[PPP Team]]
−
* [http://www.autofish.net/video_games/creation/rsd_game-maker/index.html RSD Game-Maker (autofish.net)]
+
* [http://www.diygamer.com/2010/04/original-gamemaker/ The Original Game-Maker] (DIYGamer)
−
* [http://www.diygamer.com/2010/04/original-gamemaker/ The Original Game-Maker (DIYGamer)]
 
−
* [http://demu.org/resource-details/1865 Demu entry]
 
−
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game-Maker Game-Maker (Wikipedia)]
 
 
* [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EJRTairne/20130504/176610/The_Making_and_Unmaking_of_a_GameMaker_Maker.php The Making and Unmaking of a Game-Maker Maker] (Gamasutra)
 
* [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EJRTairne/20130504/176610/The_Making_and_Unmaking_of_a_GameMaker_Maker.php The Making and Unmaking of a Game-Maker Maker] (Gamasutra)
 
** [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EJRTairne/20130512/192139/Bonus_Time_with_Andy_Stone.php Bonus Time with Andrew Stone] (Gamasutra)
 
** [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EJRTairne/20130512/192139/Bonus_Time_with_Andy_Stone.php Bonus Time with Andrew Stone] (Gamasutra)
 
** [http://gamasutra.com/blogs/EJRTairne/20140202/192182/Infoboxes.php The Game-Maker Story: Infoboxes] (Gamasutra)
 
** [http://gamasutra.com/blogs/EJRTairne/20140202/192182/Infoboxes.php The Game-Maker Story: Infoboxes] (Gamasutra)
−
* [http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=36382&type=software Game-Maker (Personal Computer Museum)]
+
* [http://gamasutra.com/blogs/EJRTairne/20140713/220934/The_Democracy_of_Touch_GameMaker_and_a_New_Beginning.php The Democracy of Touch: Game-Maker and a New Beginning] (Gamasutra)
 +
 
 +
=== Listings ===
 +
 
 +
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game-Maker Game-Maker] (Wikipedia)
 +
* [http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=36382&type=software Game-Maker] (Personal Computer Museum)
 +
* [http://creatools.gameclassification.com/EN/creatools/32-RSD-Game-Maker/index.html Game-Maker] (Game Creation Tools Classification)
 +
* [http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Game-Maker_(DOS) Game-Maker] (Videogame Music Preservation Foundation)
 +
* [https://archive.org/details/GameMaker_1020 Game-Maker 3.0 demo] (archive.org)
 +
* [http://demu.org/resource/GameMaker_1020 Game-Maker 3.0 demo] (demu.org)
 +
* [http://wiki.selectbutton.net/software:game-maker Game-Maker] (wiki.selectbutton.net)
 +
* [http://gamecreationtools.tumblr.com/post/105346269209/a-video-featuring-recreational-software-designs Game Creation Tools post]
 +
 
 +
=== Misc. links ===
 +
* [[:Category:Recreational Software Designs]]
 +
* [[User:AndrewStone|Andrew Stone's user page]]
 
* '''[http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/java/gm30.php Test ''Game-Maker 3.0'' online]''' (Note: You cannot save, import, or export files.)
 
* '''[http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/java/gm30.php Test ''Game-Maker 3.0'' online]''' (Note: You cannot save, import, or export files.)
  
−
==Downloads==
+
= Downloads =
  
 +
* [http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/downloads/gm20demo.zip Game-Maker 2.0 Slideshow + ''A-J's Quest''] (443.5 kB)
 +
* [http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/downloads/demo.zip Game-Maker 3.0 Slideshow + ''Peach the Lobster''] (1.3 MB)
 +
* [http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/downloads/gamemakr.zip Game-Maker 3.0 Demonstration Software] (870.6 kB)
 
* '''[http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/downloads/RSD-GM30.zip Full Game-Maker 3.0 Demo Package]''' (6.9 MB)
 
* '''[http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/downloads/RSD-GM30.zip Full Game-Maker 3.0 Demo Package]''' (6.9 MB)
−
* [http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/downloads/gamemakr.zip Game-Maker 3.0 Demonstration Software] (870.6 kB)
 
−
* [http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/downloads/demo.zip Game-Maker 3.0 Slideshow + ''Peach the Lobster''] (1.3 MB)
 
−
* [http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/downloads/gm20demo.zip Game-Maker 2.0 Slideshow + ''A-J's Quest''] (443.5 kB)
 
  
 
[[Category: Information]]
 
[[Category: Information]]
 +
[[Category: Formats_and_Tools]]
 
[[Category: First-party tools]]
 
[[Category: First-party tools]]
 +
[[Category: G. Andrew Stone]]
 
[[Category: Recreational Software Designs]]
 
[[Category: Recreational Software Designs]]
 +
[[Category: CD-ROM Today - Disc 12]]
 +
[[Category: 1991]]
 +
[[Category: DIYGamer]]

Latest revision as of 05:18, 6 August 2017

Recreatonal Software Designs' Game-Maker
Microforum's CYOG with GameMaker!

Game-Maker (aka RSD Game-Maker; not to be mistaken for Garry Kitchen's GameMaker, Al Staffieri Jr.'s GameMaker, or Mark Overmars' Game Maker) is a DOS-based suite of game design tools, produced between 1991 and 1995 by the Amherst, New Hampshire based Recreational Software Designs and sold through direct mail in the US by KD Software. Game-Maker also was sold under various names by licensed distributors in the UK, Korea, and other territories including Captain GameMaker (Screen Entertainment, UK) and Create Your Own Games With GameMaker! (Microforum, Canada).

Primary distribution for Game-Maker was through advertisements in the back of PC and game magazines such as Computer Gaming World and VideoGames & Computer Entertainment. At release Game-Maker was priced at $89, and shipped on 5.25" diskette with seven or eight demonstration or tutorial games. Later releases were less expensive, and shipped on CD-ROM with dozens of sample games and a large selection of extra tools and resources.

Game-Maker is the first general-purpose graphical game creation system for DOS-based PCs. Although there are earlier consumer-targeted design environments, notably for the Commodore 64, Game-Maker is the first to cast a wide net and allow for any genre, within the vague boundary of character-centric aspirational design. Which is to say, it lends itself to action-adventure games and shooters; falling block puzzles, text adventures, or pinball games? Not so much.

In the pre-Web era Game-Maker was revolutionary not just in concept, but in interface and engine technology. In an era where full-screen EGA or windowed, choppy VGA graphics were the norm, Game-Maker employed smooth full-screen four-way VGA scrolling. When other games were just beginning to get on-board with AdLib cards, Game-Maker supported not just Yamaha FM music but digital Sound Blaster sound.

More importantly, Game-Maker's intuitive fully mouse-driven graphical interface still stands out from contemporary game creation systems, making the design process almost a game unto itself. With its stubborn focus on visual, object-based design, Game-Maker allowed users to jump right in and design games of nearly unlimited scale. While the software has its limits and its eccentricities, in the midst of the Shareware boom there was little else of the kind.

After some consultation with the user base, on July 12 2014 original coder Andy Stone released the Game-Maker 3.0 source code on GitHub, under the MIT license.

Structure

Game-Maker 3.0: the text-mode design menu

Game-Maker consists of a text-mode wrapper, tying together a collection of WYSIWYG design tools. The tools produce proprietary resources that are compiled together and parsed with RSD's custom XFERPLAY game engine. The design tools include:

  • Palette Designer - for designing and editing custom 256-color .PAL palette files (for sprites, color #255 is clear)
  • Block Designer - for designing 20x20 pixel .BBL background tiles and .CBL/.MBL animation frames for characters and monsters
  • Character Maker - for animating and sequencing .CHR character sprites
  • Monster Maker - for animating and sequencing .MON "monster" (i.e., non-player) sprites
  • Map Maker - for designing 100x100 tile .MAP files (10 screens tall; 6-1/4 screens across)
  • Graphics Image Reader - for importing visuals from .GIF files, produced with external painting programs
  • Sound Designer - for designing PC speaker .SND files, assigning Sound Blaster .VOC samples, and formatting .CMF music files
  • Integrator - for compiling and organizing resources together into a playable .GAM file

Game-Maker involves no scripting language; all design tools use a mouse-driven 320x200 VGA display, with a shared logic and visual theme. Users draw background tiles pixel by pixel in an enlarged window, and can pull tiles from the palette to arrange in a "sandbox" area. A further menu allows users to set physical properties—solidity, gravity, animation, various counter values—for each block. The user draws maps by pulling blocks from the palette and painting with them using simple paintbrush, line, shape, and fill tools.

Characters can have up to 15 keyboard commands, plus idle, death, and injury animations. They can hold an inventory and money, earn score, gain and lose hit points and lives, and track several counters—often used for keys and similar functions. Monsters have simple animations and movements, and can also change behavior in response to the player.

Playable games can be exported complete with a portable version of the XFERPLAY engine, sound drivers, and configuration files. All games record high scores and (in later versions) attract mode replays. All games also feature instant save and load, and support standard PC joysticks.

In later versions of the software, games also can incorporate several outside formats including ASCII text data, CompuServe .GIF files, and Autodesk Animator .FLI animations into multimedia presentations during menus and between levels. Although Game-Maker includes no tools for developing these files, the formats are standardized enough to allow the user a choice of standalone utilities. In addition, image data produced with outside programs such as Deluxe Paint is easily imported and split into background tiles or sprites.

Basically the program consists of two basic elements: the design tools, which mostly are used to produce graphical and sound resources; and the executable game engine, which parses those user-provided resources to present the player a functioning interface.

It's sort of a brilliant charade; from the program’s perspective all of the important information that makes a game unique — visuals, sound, controls, rules, design, structure — is simple window dressing, to call in and process like so many documents. And design is nearly that easy. In essence Game-Maker is a blank game, plus the easy user-targeted mod tools to fill in the blanks. It's as if Lode Runner didn't just come with a level editor, but came without any default sprites or tiles or maps, or behaviors. Except that's not quite right, as Game-Maker also includes a wealth of demo material, a mix of public domain resources and graphics and sounds designed by the lead programmer and his immediate family.

Game engine

The default title menu

Through RSD's proprietary XFERPLAY engine, all Game-Maker games run in 256-color full-screen VGA, at an eccentric 312x196 resolution (switching to the more standard 320x200 for menu screens). Game-Maker games are also distinguished by their eccentric 20x20 tile and sprite size (as opposed to the more standard 8x8 or 16/16 dimensions), populating a standard 100x100 tile (2000x2000 pixel) map size. Transition between scenes is achieved through a slow fade to or from black.

All games share a common interface, with a menu screen offering six options: Play, Read Instructions, Read Storyline, See Credits, See Highest Scores, and Quit. Pressing F2 brings up an inventory screen, while F5 and F6 bring up save and load screens. Although most of these menus can be customized with .GIF backgrounds, their basic layout, labeling, and content are constant across all games.

All games track player score, and display a high score table upon the game's end (whether through completion or failure). Later versions of Game-Maker allow multimedia sequences between levels, including .GIF images, .FLI animations, and ASCII text files.

The engine allows one player at a time, with the screen automatically scrolling in any of the four cardinal directions when the character comes within 1/3 screen width or height of the screen's edge. All Game-Maker games lack an on-screen display (of hit points, score, lives, etc.), though much of this information can be tracked in the inventory screen.

Requirements

  • 80286 CPU or higher
  • VGA display
  • 512kB memory
  • Hard Drive
  • Mouse
  • MS-DOS 4.01 or later
  • OPTIONAL: Joystick
  • OPTIONAL: Sound Blaster compatible sound card
  • OPTIONAL: Windows 3.x

History

Block Designer v1.0

Game-Maker developed from a series of modification tools for a top-down competitive maze game called Labyrinth, designed by Andrew Stone in January 1991. Although the engine is different, Labyrinth shared code and file formats with the later XFERPLAY engine and graphical resources with several later first-party games.

Graphically it was 320x200 8-bit (like Game-Maker). It split the screen in half, putting two players’ top-down views of the maze side-by-side on the screen. [...] Every time someone trod over the grass, it would droop and get a little more brown until after about ten times there was a clearly defined brown path. [...] To make all these subtle grass changes, I needed a block editor. So, BLOCEDIT was born.

Whereas Labyrinth grew out of Andrew's interest in NetHack and Piers Anthony novels, one of Andrew's first goals was to expand his tools and engine to permit side-scrolling action-adventure games. "In fact, making something like Metroid was sort of the bar I set myself for version 1.0. Which is why I added the secret passage features, and gravity, early on."

In July 1991 Andrew and his father G. Oliver Stone incorporated Recreational Software Designs to pursue Game-Maker as a business venture—with Oliver as president and Andrew as CEO. Through Oliver's business acumen RSD made deals with KD Software and GameLynk to distribute Game-Maker and host its online community. Through 1992-1994 RSD placed a series of full-sized ads (and some smaller sizes) in major computer magazines, and in 1994 they sub-leased a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.

At the time of Game-Maker's release the software was revolutionary both in concept and technology; although there were earlier game creation systems, Game-Maker was the first general-purpose graphical GCS for the dominant DOS/Windows-based PC. Throughout the design process Andrew was adamant that Game-Maker's tools remain entirely visual, involving absolutely no programming from the end user. Its engine also supported full-screen four-way VGA scrolling, and later full-screen double buffered redraws, well before these were the standard.

Several updates followed over the next three years, adding Sound Blaster support, improving the design interface, and refining the game engine—yet many features kept being pushed back. Although his brother Oliver Jr. spent a summer on the project, and wrote the code for the sound and Monster editor, Andrew handled the bulk of the coding and updates — a task that, thanks to the lack of standardized drivers or libraries at that time, became all-encompassing and difficult to maintain. Over the software's lifetime Andrew found himself so "waylaid by video driver and [engine] problems" that he was unable to focus as much as he wanted on adding and refining features.

By the mid-1990s the advent of 3D video cards and the introduction of Windows 95 meant that to keep up with the marketplace Game-Maker would need great changes both in concept and in coding. Furthermore the continued lack of standardization meant a large investment in coding ever more complicated drivers and libraries—work that would be thrown away as soon as standards were established. Despite plans for a radical professional-quality update, RSD ceased support for Game-Maker around 1995.

In a 2011 interview Andrew mused about Game-Maker, stating that by his own principles he was surprised he hadn't released the source code years earlier.

Yeah, you know I should have OSSed a long time ago as I am a proponent of open source. At first there was the possibility that I might jump back into it. And later the fear that whatever startup company I worked for at the time would try to claim it. But upon mature reflection I think that is impossible.

Later, on July 1st 2014, Andrew posted to the Game-Maker Facebook page, asking for community input on releasing the code. On July 12th he posted the Game-Maker 3.0 source to GitHub, under the MIT license, suggesting that although people were free to use the code how they liked, "if there is interest in preserving the old games you guys made then porting Game-Maker to modern OSes is the first step."

Release history

Packaging copy

Game Maker was first released in 1991. Over the years and several versions, Game-Maker grew more sophisticated and polished. The bugs were minimized. Stuff was gradually added. Sound Blaster support, most significantly. .FLI support. Transitions between levels. Intro became more elaborate. More media was supported on all the menu items.

The menu backgrounds became clear. The config menu was added. All the tools became a little beveled and prettier to look at. Monster and Character collisions were adjusted. At some point it was changed so only the clear bits of monsters and the clear bits of characters counted against each other.

At some point it came so that monsters could add to a character's stats instead of just injure a character, opening up the door for contact pick-up items. I think more blocks were allowed in a single .CBL or .MBL file. I think animations got a bit longer. Scrolling was constantly being tweaked. Lots of little tweaks; a few huge changes and additions.

It became possible to build bigger, more complex games, and to truss up your old games with nicer wrappers. The final release was version 3.0, which went out on CD — a major, impressive move at the time -- in late 1994.

Version 1.0 released c1991

Includes one 1.44 MB microfloppy disk containing the full set of RSD tools plus the games Sample, Terrain, Houses, Animation, Pipemare, Nebula, and Penguin Pete. Also included, beginning in version 1.02, is a separate diskette containing the GameLynk game Barracuda: Secret Mission 1. All 1.X iterations of Game-Maker include a square-bound 75-page user manual and several leaflets about the use of the software. Later versions (1.04, 1.05) also include leaflets explaining recent changes and updating the user manual.

Version 1.02 released April 2, 1992

Additions and improvements:

  • Control of screen scrolling
  • Addition of "Glide" gravity settings
  • Special counters cannot be lowered beyond zero
  • Addition of "Monster Dies" sound
  • Monsters without picture blocks now permitted

Version 1.04 released November, 1992

Manual (front)

Additions and improvements:

  • Addition of high level editing tools
  • Two-block-tall characters now fully collide with monsters and solid blocks.

Version 1.05 released February, 1993

Additions and improvements:

  • Addition of CMF Music
  • Addition of monster death sounds
  • Special counter improvements (cannot decrease past zero)
  • Ability to set multiple shots per keystroke
  • Addition of Auto Repeat/Once-per-Keystroke character sequences
  • Improved collision for taller characters
  • More organized default palette
  • Improved visual user interface (Block Designer, Map Maker)
  • Improved error messages
  • Addition of control over scrolling direction
  • Throttled screen scrolling speed
  • Addition of joystick toggling
  • Improved SVGA support
  • Improved Windows 3.1 support

Version 1.05b released March 10, 1993

Minor update to acknowledge a crash bug when both a .GIF image and .CMF music are used on a game's title screen, and to suggest a temporary workaround.

Version 2.0 released August 20, 1993

An improved design interface made its debut in Game-Maker 2.0.

Includes both 1.2 MB floppy and 1.44 MB microfloppy disks containing the full set of RSD tools plus the games Tutor (a replacement for Animation), Sample, Terrain, Houses, Pipemare, Nebula, and Penguin Pete. Both versions 2.0 and 2.02 include a square-bound 94-page user manual and several leaflets about the use of the software. The latter version also includes a leaflet explaining recent changes and updating the user manual.

Additions and improvements:

  • All tools are redesigned with new interface and better functionality
  • Block designer now displays animation
  • Addition of the game configuration screen
  • Addition of digitized sound effects
  • Character motion expanded to include glide and acceleration
  • Sprite flickering eliminated
  • Smoother scrolling of in-game scenes
  • Scrolling matches the speed of the character
  • Top scrolling speed now limited
  • Scrolling lets the player look more than a half-screen ahead in the direction of travel
  • Improved gameware (upgraded Demo games)

Demo versions

  • A slideshow demo of Game-Maker 2.0 was released for online distribution, bundled with A-J's Quest v2.0. (See Downloads, below.)

Version 2.02 released December 5, 1993

Minor update to acknowledge and provide workarounds for several bugs, including the persistent problem with .CMF music and title screens in transferred games.

Version 3.0 released c1994

The Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM

Version 3.0 -- the final version of Game-Maker -- was released in several configurations, including a three-microfloppy (1.44 MB) version and the definitive CD-ROM edition -- which itself was released in several variations and under several names, in various territories around the world.

  • Create Your Own Games With GameMaker!: In 1995, the Canadian company Microforum rebranded and repackaged the CD-ROM version of Game-Maker 3.0 for release to a worldwide market. This version includes a spiral-bound user manual. The disc contents are the same as the original RSD release.

The full list of updates is very lengthy, and is TBC.

Demo versions

CD-ROM Today - The Disc! #12
  • As with the previous major update, RSD released a slideshow demo of Game-Maker 3.0. This demo was jury rigged into the intro of Peach the Lobster, and also was distributed online. (See Downloads, below.)
  • In turn, this adapted version of Peach the Lobster was included in a full working demo of Game-Maker 3.0, for online distribution. (See Downloads, below.) In this demo, saving is disabled. In addition to the Game-Maker program, an extensive "README" directory filled with ASCII text documentation (dated March 1995), and the aforementioned Peach/Slideshow combo, this demo includes the following games:
  • This full demo of Game-Maker 3.0 was then released with the June 1995 issue of CD-ROM Today, on its cover disk ("The Disc! #12").

Windows Menu Supplemental Disk released December 16, 1994

This extra disc includes some tools to smooth over the operation of Game-Maker under Windows 3.x. As detailed in an included text file named README.1ST:

This disk supplements your Game-Maker V3.0 CD-ROM. It contains the Game-Maker Windows menu system, a number of FLI files, and some patches to two games.

The two games to receive updates (mostly small menu adjustments) are Tutor and Zark. The .FLI animations mostly consists of the words "GAME-MAKER" spinning and rotating on a black background.

Game distribution

Shareware warning, in Barracuda: Secret Mission 1

During Game-Maker's lifetime, users could distribute their games through the Gamelynk (aka Night Owl, later Frontline) BBS in Kennebunkport, Maine or through the (swiftly abandoned) Game-Maker Exchange program — an infrequent mailing to registered users, compiling submitted games to a floppy disc with occasional commentary from RSD president G. Oliver Stone. Additionally, the Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM was filled with user-generated shareware, freeware, and demo games.

Many user-generated games also wound up on public bulletin boards, and thereby found wide distribution and eventual salvation on shovelware CD-ROMS. RSD's initial terms of use were rather restrictive. To quote from a pamphlet titled "Distributing Your GAME-MAKER Games" and dated May 9, 1993:

Under your Game-Maker license agreement, you may distribute any game you create to up to ten people and your gameware to any number of people. You may not distribute the Game-Maker design tools, but you may include Game-Maker's gameware (picture blocks, monsters, characters, sounds, etc) along with your games or gameware.
Commercial distribution of games is not covered by your license agreement and such distribution requires a commercial distribution license, since games contain valuable software owned by Recreational Software Designs. Several methods that you can use to commercially distribute your games are explained below. Write to RSD to obtain a commercial distribution license.

The pamphlet goes on to detail standalone games, promotional games, and shareware and BBS distribution. For standalone games (which is to say, games that are meant as an end unto themselves), RSD asks a royalty of $500 for the first 200 games sold or distributed, then a small fee for each subsequent copy. The higher the number, the smaller the fee. For promotional software (distributed as part of a promotional kit), RSD asks $1000 for the first 1000 copies and then smaller fees for every copy up to 25,000. Beyond that, RSD asks no additional charge.

Shareware and BBS distribution is a curious case. Although RSD prohibits free distribution, the license does allow a loophole for shareware so long as the author requests the user to pay a minimum registration or license fee of $5.00, then makes a quarterly payment of 10% of all collected fees. These restrictions were rarely enforced; as a June 15, 1993 pamphlet titled "Distributing Games" suggests, freeware games were common and tolerated despite the license agreement:

We decided not to establish the "GAME-MAKER EXCHANGE" due to early lack of response, although lately the requests for such an exchange have been increasing quite a bit. Instead, we will distribute games via the Gamelynk BBS. You can use this BBS to freely distribute your games (Freeware or Shareware), or you can have the BBS restrict the down line loading or the shipment of your games to a customer until a payment via credit card is made.
To distribute a game via Shareware, simply place a text file statement along with your files letting the user know your terms. You can find example statements in any Shareware product. For Freeware, include a statement that says that you own the product but will allow others to distribute it freely, or even that users can incorporate your work into their games.
If you choose to distribute your games via retail sales, Mark Janelle, owner of the Gamelynk BBS will pay you a royalty on every game sold via the BBS. If RSD and\or our distributer [sic], KD Software, sell your game, we will also pay you a royalty. We will work with you and the GameLynk Entertainment BBS to set prices and royalty percentages for specific games. We will insure that all games are priced fairly relative to each other. We may also package multiple games together into game packages. You retain the rights to your games.
If you have additional ideas or requests about distributing your games, don't hesitate to write us or to communicate via the BBS with Mark Janelle.

Open format

RSD's first full-page color ad for Game-Maker

Despite the limitations on distribution, Game-Maker's design format is notoriously open. From its outset Game-Maker was designed as a collaborative tool, with the intent that users not only trade design tips but pick apart and freely sample from each other's work. A series of full-page magazine ads, run in the early 1990s, spends nearly as many words selling Game-Maker as a modification tool, along the lines of Galoob's Game Genie accessory, as it does describing the software's design features, promising that users can "modify and enhance Game-Maker games". "Is a game too easy? Increase the speed. Too boring? Add danger, sounds and monsters. Too plain? Dress up the graphics, add animation. Too short? Add new levels."

This "remix" philosophy stems partly from the Stones' own collaborative family dynamic, and — as with the insistence on an entirely visual, code-free interface — partly from concern about overwhelming the end user. "[W]e realized that it would be pretty hard for a ten to twelve-year-old to do it all himself so there were practical considerations."

To that end Game-Maker games are distributed as an unprotected bundle of resource files, both specialized (i.e., Game-Maker's unique graphic and animation formats) and common (including CompuServe .GIF, Creative .VOC, Autodesk .FLI, and ASCII text files), making it a simple task to identify and edit most Game-Maker games. The decision was a defiant one on the part of programmer G. Andrew Stone, who argued that any user concerned about protecting, rather than sharing, his work should take on that burden himself.

I deliberately (in fact I remember an argument about it) made no effort to protect a game's content -- anyone could load up anyone else's game in the editors. My feeling was that if you were sophisticated enough to build a game that really needed protection, you could wrap it in your own encrypted .zip file or something.

As it happens, one of the earliest games distributed with Game-Maker was GameLynk's Barracuda: Secret Mission 1, a user-derived project that is most distinguished by its presentation whereby its file structure is hidden by LHarc compression and the portable Deluxe Paint Animation player is tacked onto the Game-Maker executable to provide intro and exit animations.

Limitations

AdLib Visual Composer, the missing link for FM music sequencing

Through its history several aspects of Game-Maker's engine, design interface, and feature set have experienced scrutiny from its user base.

One of Game-Maker's more opaque qualities is its exclusive use of Creative's proprietary .VOC and .CMF sound and music formats, and its absence of integrated design tools for those formats (or recommendations as to external tools), leaving users to work out their own solutions — or often not.

The use of .CMF was a last-minute decision; Andy had been working on a .MOD-style tracker format, but development was indefinitely delayed. As a temporary measure his brother Ollie plugged in code provided by Creative Labs.

I got waylaid by video driver and XFERPLAY [game engine] problems. The music was going to be completely dropped, but then my brother pulled this free code up and made it work!

Other common frustrations include a lack of multi-key mapping for character behaviors, such as pressing Z + a directional arrow to jump in the direction pressed (a problem stemming from a lack of standardized keyboard electrical layouts at that time); the extreme simplicity of monster behaviors (partially due to a desire to eliminate programming from the design tools); a lack of persistent flags for game events (partially due to memory constraints); and the lack of on-screen displays for health, lives, and other counters).

I just felt that the full screen greatly increased the game quality. I guess I just hated staring at the action through a fifteen-inch monitor already when playing video games. I mean, try it in real life. Get a big piece of cardboard, cut a fifteen-inch square in it, and then walk around your house with it held at arm’s length for a day.

Although by the final release the scrolling had improved tremendously, the screen’s tracking of on-screen avatars was always strange at best. Sprites flickered and disappeared at the edges of screen, and had real problems with collision. The inventory system was very limited. Characters and monsters could only be of a certain size, and the interaction amongst all in-game elements was never quite flexible enough.

Monsters are a particular point of contention. Compared to characters, monsters have only limited interaction with their environments. For instance, monsters are not affected by gravity or other physics—and have no contextual AI to speak of, aside from a limited awareness of the character. Monsters also lack variable counters, such as hit points. Instead each monster (including NPCs, character shots, and some kinds of power-up) has a fixed "power level" between 0 and 255, and a collision between unequal monsters is resolved by destroying the weaker monster. The engine therefore does not lend itself to graduated damage (i.e., sword 1 does twice the damage as sword 2). Rather, collisions are all binary; either a weapon works, or it doesn't.

Workarounds

For advanced users, many of the engine's limitations have workarounds. One can approximate gravity's effect on a monster by defining a heavy diagonal path; the monster will move horizontally until it reaches a ledge, at which point it will fall until it hits the ground again. Similarly, although monsters lack hit counters, the user can create chains of identical (or successively injured-looking) monsters to approximate the same effect.

In later years users have found ways to subvert or play along with the system's properties to achieve effects, mechanisms, and even genres unaccounted for in the engine's basic features—including extensive in-engine cutscenes, boss sequences, AM2-style sprite scalers, RPG-style battles, parallax scrolling, shooting galleries, and destructible terrain.

Influence

As one of the first complete game design suites for IBM-based PCs, and the only one devoted to action games during the early '90s Shareware boom, Game-Maker "anticipated the thriving indie game community we have today with countless game engines, web sites and indie game companies." Several of its users went on to later note in indie or commercial game development, such as renowned Seiklus author cly5m, Slender: The Eight Pages designer Mark Hadley, Liight programmer Roland Ludlam, Warhammer Online background artist Justin Meisse, and Bionic Commando associate producer James W. Morris.

Some games produced with RSD's tools, such as Jeremy LaMar's Blinky series, have become cult favorites. Others, like A-J's Quest, Die Blarney!, and Matt Bell's Paper Airplane, reached a wide circulation during the 1990s Shareware boom, appearing on many CD compilations. Game-Maker seems also to have made an impression in the Benelux, with references in various academic papers, coverage in the largest game magazine in the region, and dissection by the local demoscene.

Notable games

G. Oliver Stone's iconic demo game, Pipemare
Also see: Category:Feature games
  • A-J's Quest (A-J Games, 1992) — A widely distributed side-scrolling platformer that was also incorporated into an early slideshow demo of Game-Maker.
  • Barracuda (GameLynk, 1992) — An action simulation game, involving deep sea diving. The shareware episode, distributed on a separate floppy disk with early versions of Game-Maker, incorporates external functions such as LHarc auto-compression and the portable Deluxe Paint Animation player, into the game's presentation.
  • Blinky 2 (Jeremy LaMar, 1994) — A top-down action game inspired by The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Through its distribution on AOL Kids, Blinky 2 and its sequel achieved a small cult status.
  • Blinky 3 (Jeremy LaMar, 1995) — A side-scrolling platformer featuring multiple characters and a branching level structure. Of the two distributed Blinky games, Blinky 3 has received the bulk of attention.
  • Nebula (RSD, 1991) — Game-Maker programmer Andy Stone's Metroid-influenced action-adventure platformer, that was always first to demonstrate any new features to the software.
  • Parsec Man 3D (Mark Hadley, 1994) — A minimalist free-floating/platform shooter by Slender: The Eight Pages designer Mark Hadley, that uses red/cyan anaglyphic 3D glasses to add both atmosphere and functional design. Parsec Man was also distributed on the Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM.
  • Paper Airplane (Matt Bell, 1993) — A side-scrolling strategic action game with puzzle-solving elements; perhaps the most widely distributed Game-Maker game.
  • Peach the Lobster (A-J Games, 1994) — A Sonic the Hedgehog influenced side-scrolling platformer that was incorporated into a late-era slideshow demo of Game-Maker.
  • Pipemare (RSD, 1991) — G. Oliver Stone's top-down action maze game, which provides much of the iconography for the Game-Maker software and packaging.
  • Sample (RSD, 1991) — Joan Stone's simple 3/4 view adventure game that formed the basis for dozens of user-created games.

Links

Sites

Interviews / Articles

Listings

Misc. links

Downloads

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