Our first game will be quite simple.  It isn't even really a game yet, but it will become one. I have made the game and you can try it and make some changes to it.

Getting Started

First we will have a ball that bounces around a room.  Download the example game here. (Game Maker 7.0 version)

Open it up in Game Maker and click on the green play button on the toolbar to run it. As you can see the game doesn't do much yet, it just has a ball that bounces around.  Try looking at how it is made and changing some things.  Don't worry about 'breaking' it.  Just download another copy if you mess it up!

If you click on the icon, you can see a video of  each set of instructions. Some of the videos are quite long, but you can watch part of a video, then pause it to complete the steps in Game Maker.  The videos have play controls at the bottom.

Activity 1: Add some more blocks to the room We will start off by looking at how to add objects into the room. (Click the Eye icon to watch the videos) Open the room by double clicking the room name Select a Wall object to add Click in the room to add a wall block.  (Right click to remove any you don't want) Run your game to see how it is different. Activity 2: Change the Background colour of the room Click on the Backgrounds tab. Choose a colour. Run your game to see how it is different. Activity 3: Make the Ball Move Faster or Slower Double click to open the properties for the ball. Double click to open the action for the Create event. Change the value for speed. Run your game to see how it is different.

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Time to add in a Score

Download the game again by clicking here.  This time scoring has been added in.

An event has been added for when the player clicks on the ball.

When the player clicks the score is increased by 1 and a sound is played.

Activity 4:  Change the Sound Double click to open the sndScore properties. Load a different sound and click OK Activity 5: Make the Score Change by 5 Double click to open the properties for the Ball object . Double click to open the Left Pressed Event Double click to open the 'Set the Score' action Change the amount the score goes up to 5. Activity 6: What Does Relative Mean? (It's not your aunty!) Open the 'Set the Score' action again Untick Relative.  What difference does it make?

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Add in Game Information

Double click on Game Information

Add in some instructions to tell the player how to play the game.

This page has been produced by Margaret Meijers.  Questions or feedback may be directed by email to mmeijers at ictmindtools.net

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
Attribution should include the statement: "This has been adapted from a resource originally created by Margaret Meijers at http://ictmindtools.net"