Game-Maker

From The Game-Maker Archive
Jump to navigationJump to search
Recreatonal Software Designs' Game-Maker

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.

History

Packaging copy

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.

Release history

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 1.04, 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

Manual (front)

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

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

Manual (back)

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 c1993

Release info TBC.

Version 2.0 released August 20, 1993

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)

Version 2.02 released December 5, 1993

Release info TBC.

Version 3.0 released c1994

Version 3.0 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.

  • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.

Windows Menu Supplemental Disk released December 16, 1994

Structure

The text-mode menu wrapper

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. the tools.

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.

Palette Designer

See: Palette Designer

Block Designer

See: Block Designer

Monster Maker

The Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM
See: Monster Maker

Map Maker

See: Map Maker

Character Maker

See: Character Maker

Graphics Image Reader

See: Graphics Image Reader

Sound Designer

See: Sound Designer

Integrator

See: Integrator

Xferplay

See: Xferplay

Limitations

CD-ROM Today - The Disc! #12

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.

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.

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.

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.

Distribution

Microforum's CYOG with GameMaker! (front)
See: Availability

Game distribution

Also see: Business models

RSD made available user-generated games through several official channels, including Mark A. Janelle's Gamelynk/Frontline BBS, a disk mailing program called the Game-Maker Exchange, and occasionally through downloadable demos and pack-in disks. Additionally, the Game-Maker 3.0 CD-ROM was filled with user-generated shareware, freeware, and demo games.

A pamphlet titled "Distributing Games" and dated June 15, 1993 describes the fluid nature of RSD's plans:

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.
Microforum's CYOG with GameMaker! (back)

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 the "Distributing Games" pamphlet suggests, freeware games were common and tolerated despite the license agreement.

Community

Also see: Community

(Discuss Andy Stone's ideas about collaborative creativity and how they feed into the way that Game-Maker is designed and marketed.)

Links

Downloads

Retrieved from "https://aderack.com/game-maker/index.php?title=Game-Maker&oldid=15448"