Quick Questions

Some self-promotion, but I'm proud of it

Hi! We are making Cosmic Séance, a game about interpreting the visions of cosmic gods who don't lie, but don't speak plainly either. Featuring:

• Talk to cosmic entities
• Your sanity as a limited resource
• Vision board to organize your thoughts
• No jump scares or fast-paced action
• Only your mind against the abyss.

In short: Ask some questions, get visions, lose your mind. Try again.

Trailer on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lJaJJgIMxKY
The demo is out now, we'd love it if you gave it a try! Thanks!

Knowing that you can technically do both GML and DND is making me question why more games don't use a mixture of the two?

If you could do both, why not use DND to write the simpler pieces of code in a project to save time or effort?

I'm very new to Gamemaker so if there's some sort of major reason why people tend to stick to either GML or DND it would soothe my question riddled brain to know

My sprite mushes wherever I move

I downloaded an engine (SF2D Engine) that was made in GameMaker 8.2 along with the engine itself to go with it. GameMaker 8.0 is the first video game engine I ever learned so I didn't think it would be too hard.

But I'm having trouble just drawing basic text to the screen. Right now I'm trying to make an indicator that displays "Quitting..." as you hold the Esc key before the game shuts down. It displays fine on the title screen but anywhere else requires the responsible object to be at the exact depth of 2000. And even then it is partially obscured by HUD elements. During battles it doesn't show up at all.

I've tried setting its depth to -99999 (which causes the text to stop displaying in the overworld entirely, same as any non 2000 depth), checking the depth of the background (couldn't find it in GameMaker 8.2's remade room editor but I don't think that's the issue anyway), and double-checking that my object is persistent (which it is), but beyond that, this is such a specific and strange bug that I just have no idea what there is left to test.

Could it possibly be a problem with SF2D Engine or, god forbid GameMaker 8.2 itself? What on earth could cause this to happen? I'm at a complete and utter loss. What's left that I haven't thought of yet? Thanks.

I am doing the Car Parking Game tutorial from the Game Maker channel. I was in the sounds section and to fix the play audio issue the instance of the parked car is supposed to be replaced with the crashed car when you collide with it. However this error pops up.

I tried tinkering with it, but to now avail.

How do fix it? Thank you in advance :)

Side Note: The tutorial in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1AHWio8opI&t=2425s

I'm making a tiny item catching game for my first game practice, but I'm stuck with pausing the objects. After reading some tutorials and posts, I made the pause controllable by global.pause (bool), and it works for the character, but not for my objects.

I tried a few different things with it, but this is one the closest I could figure out:

if (global.pause == false) {
dropped = instance_create_layer(irandom(safe_x), 0, "Instances", _items)

dropped.direction = 270;
dropped.speed = _base_speed + (global.player_score * 0.1);

} else {
dropped.speed = 0;
}

But there's two problems:

1. It stops only one object, so if there's two object on the screen, the others sill fall
   
2. after resuming the game, the object that stopped is still stuck. I assume I have to manually change the speed in that case back to my value, but I'm a bit stumped on how to do it right

Hi guys, some friends and I made a small company and are developing a ttrpg. We are about to have physical copies hit shelves in a few months. We have professional art for the book, but we are looking at our next few projects. One of which is a video game version of the ttrpg. We would want it to be widely available for audiances with some small multiplayer, so mobile would likely be the platform. We also like the idea of an isometric camera angle for the game.

The main thing we are hung up on is the art style of the character avatar. We plan on using art from the book as well as a few new pieces from the same artist for dialog portraits or loading screen illustrations.

We have been bouncing around the idea of 64bit pixel art, 64bit voxel art, or 3d low poly. We want players to be able to rotate the camera/map, which then means we are needing to plan for 3d anyway. Another aspect we want is character/item customization. While some organisms/items you can play as will have some set traits. I think its really cool when people can customize pieces of the world.

TLDR

Our dev team needs an art style that will look good on different mobile devices. Gives the players the ability to redesign their character/items from the ground up. Able to rotate the map from an isometric camera angle.

Thanks for your help.

To all the developers who know how to make video games easily using GameMaker,
As a young beginner, I’d really like to know how you learned to make games. How long did it take you? Is the language difficult to learn, or do you eventually get used to it? Did you use any particular methods to learn?
I genuinely want to make video game development my career, and I’d really love to hear about the journeys of people who have managed to get where I hope to be one day.
Thank you to everyone who takes the time to reply!

I wanna know what's the average cost to create a city building game like farthest frontier foundation or manor lords.

Not by yourself. But with hired coders etc . ..

Hello everyone, I'm a complete beginner at coding. When I play my project, the sprite animation is all weird. It's as if the first frame of the animation is on a lower layer behind the other frames. Can anyone help me fix this? I've tried restarting the program, it didn't work.

i had been at this for two days now.

i had been following this youtube tutorial for make a 2d game and so far i get past part 1 without much issues but my issue is now that on part 2 is that can't jump off ground but i can jump and unlimited amount of times as long as i don't tough the ground

here is the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bHbydefA8c&list=PL14Yj-e2sgzxXOwdMYC0IDuG9m-VHEMW2&index=2

here is the code i have setup atm

​//Get inputs

GetControls()

//x Movement

//Direction

moveDir = rightkey - leftkey;

//Get xspd

xspd = moveDir * moveSpd;

//x collision

var _subPixel = .5;

if place_meeting ( x + xspd, y, Obj_ground )

{

//Scoot up to wall precisely 

var _pixelCheck = _subPixel \* sign(xspd);

while !place_meeting ( x + _pixelCheck, y, Obj_ground )

{

    x += _pixelCheck;

}

//Set xspd to zero to "collide"

xspd = 0;

}

//Move

x += xspd;

//Y Movement

//Gravity

yspd += grav;





//reset//perpare jumping variables

if onGround

{

    JumpCount = 0;

} else {

    //if the player is in the air make sure they can't do a extra jump 

if JumpCount == 0 { JumpCount = 1; };

}







//Jump



if jumpkeybuffered && JumpCount < JumpMax

{

    //Reset the buffer

    jumpkeybuffered = false;

    jumpkeybufferTimer = 0;



    //Increase the number of perfored  jumps

    JumpCount++;



    //Set the jump hold timer

     JumpHoldTimer = JumpHoldFrames;



}

//jump based on the timer/holding the button

if jumpkeybufferTimer > 0

{



//Constantly set the yspd to be jumping speed

yspd = jspd;

    //Count the timer

     JumpHoldTimer--;

}





//Y Collision and movement 

// cap falling speed

    if yspd > termVel { yspd = termVel; };





//Collision

var _subPixel = .5;

if place_meeting(x, y + yspd, Obj_ground )

{

    //scoot up to wall preciselty

    var _pixelCheck = _subPixel \* sign(yspd);

    while !place_meeting( x, y + _pixelCheck, Obj_ground )

    {

        y += _pixelCheck;

    }



    //Set yspd to 0 to collide

    yspd = 0;

}



//Set if i'm on the ground

if yspd >= 0 && place_meeting( x, y+1, Obj_ground )

{

    onGround = true;

} else {

    onGround = false;

}   



//Move 

y += yspd;>!&#x200B;!<

can anyone please help me solve this issue

Hey friends! I'm making a little platform shooter and I want to improve the water graphics. I've tried making bow spray and it looks better but I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on really great water graphics. https://youtu.be/aiUtbTPZJ8Q?si=jZCbNdhq_CYY_F-U

I checked out the /GameDev subreddit yesterday, and there were a number of posts that talked about how AI is allowing people to make complex games in a day, as opposed to the few years that it would have previously taken. And whilst some people are obviously celebrating this "trend", those who have spent years in learning and honing their craft are obviously a tad worried - if only because of the erosion of their "sweat equity" and life's work.

I sympathize... I truly do... Because whilst there are those who have real desire in learning the necessary skills and doing the hard work, there are others who just want the end result for "free" (ie minimal cost and time investment).

I am not one of those people who thinks that AI should be enabling the lone common man to "own the big corporations" - if it means that they don't respect basic copyright laws, or even doing any of the real hard work that can get them to a level where they can get a job or make a meaningful contribution and impact on society -both fiscally and culturally. And I certainly don't want recomps/decomps to affect the companies ability to earn revenue (and pay their workers) from past releases.

I want to make my own indie game... A 2D vertical shmup... And I realize that if I am going to devote 1 hour to learning and developing the game using GameMaker... It's going to take me 5 years.

A lot of people are arguing that AI will be at a stage where it can make fully fledged indie (and possibly even AA) games in half that time.

So where does that leave indie game creators... As well as those who want to learn indie game development... Including software development tools like GameMaker?

And more importantly... What impact will AI have on the human psyche when (as a species) we have always been goal driven, with some wanting to truly take the time to achieve "mastery" in a domain - thus standing out from their peers (whilst earning prestige, honour, and recognition in their field and wider society)?

I was following a tutorial on youtuber on how to use gamemaker to make a platformer game but after i added some more code an error message that says

############################################################################################

ERROR in action number 1

of Step Event0 for object oPlayer:

Variable oPlayer.Keyboard_check(100005, -2147483648) not set before reading it.

at gml_Object_oPlayer_Step_0 (line 2) - if Keyboard_check(vk_left)

############################################################################################

gml_Object_oPlayer_Step_0 (line 2)

Does anyone know what that means?

I'm reposting my issue after it got took down for not being descriptive enough. and I'm trying to check the what keyboard_string says after pressing enter with.

if (keyboard_check_pressed(vk_enter))

    `{`

        `if (keyboard_string = "execute Story.exe")`

        `{`

count = 0;

texttodraw = "works";

        `}`

    `}`

and it just returns nothing i'm using LTS 2026 on windows btw

help!! i am trying to make some buttons with different modifiers to choose between, and i tried to make text elements for each modifier, but i cannot for the life of me change the color of the text from white. here is my script that i'm using. i'm 95% sure the text is displaying, but it's just white on my white background.

function modifierChoice(){
for(var i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
instance_create_layer(100, 80 + 220*i, "modifiers", oBox);

draw_set_colour(c_black);

if(random(1) < 0.2) {
var n = irandom(array_length(oModifiers.commonModifiers) - 1);
text = layer_text_create("modifierText", 150, 200 + 220*i, mainFont, oModifiers.commonModifiers[n]);
title = layer_text_create("modifierText", 150, 100 + 220*i, titleFont, oModifiers.commonModifierTitles[n]);

layer_text_framew(text, 500);
layer_text_frameh(text, 100);
layer_text_wrapmode(text, textwrap_default);

} else {
var n = irandom(array_length(oModifiers.rareModifiers) - 1);
text = layer_text_create("modifierText", 150, 200 + 220*i, mainFont, oModifiers.rareModifiers[n]);
title = layer_text_create("modifierText", 150, 100 + 220*i, titleFont, oModifiers.rareModifierTitles[n]);
layer_text_framew(title, 500);
layer_text_frameh(title, 100);
layer_text_wrapmode(title, textwrap_default);
}






}
}

Hello,

I have a pause feature in my game that works via a pause controller object, that pauses the game with this code when a certain key is pressed:

pause = true;
instance_deactivate_all(true);
pausesurf = surface_create(resw,resh);
surface_set_target(pausesurf);
draw_surface(application_surface,0,0);
surface_reset_target();
if (buffer_exists(pausesurfbuffer)) buffer_delete(pausesurfbuffer);
pausesurfbuffer = buffer_create(resw * resh * 4, buffer_fixed, 1)
buffer_get_surface(pausesurfbuffer,pausesurf,0)
alarm_set(0,10)
pausefade = 1

It works, but for some reason, the pause controller object cannot play sounds. Every other object except that controller is deactivated, so it should be able to play sounds? Or is it due to some other line of code, I don't think I understand how sounds work exactly.

Hello.

I was wondering if there is a way to change the code in my development version but not for the final export. for example having a level editor button. It is annoying to having to manually remove all developer tools for each export version and then adding them back in for me to continue working... I am also a bit scared of forgetting bunch of unintended leftovers.

Thank you for your time.

The game name is Sonic the Hedgehog: Shattered Emerald, which uses Orbinaut Framework 2 in GameMaker for the physics. I still need programmers for a lot of other elements because this is far from a standard Sonic fan game. There will be crazy levels, bosses, menus, and more! I need someone who has lots of experience with GML and/or Orbinaut. For more on the game, I have a GDD here with almost every detail: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Erl3ZXY_LsKihz4JJkcrmAIPP5wgnXLb/view

I couldn't figure something out and didn't see a forum with a similar question, so I did something I would usually criticize someone else for doing. I asked Gemini. WAIT! I didn't copy any code! I didn't even look at whatever code it generated! I just read the explanation for what I did wrong and fixed it myself. Is this the right way to use AI, or should I have just scoured the manual?

I feel like either everyone is gonna understand or I'm about to get crucified.

Hi everyone!

I'm working on an Undertale fan game called Undertale Blue, and I'm looking for people who might be interested in collaborating on the project!

I already have the main story, characters, and ideas planned out, but unfortunately, I'm not very experienced with GameMaker yet. That's why I'm hoping to find some programmers who could help bring the game to life. I'm also looking for composers who might be interested in creating original music for the project.

The story follows Nicole and her brother as they travel through the Underground, exploring a different perspective on the events and lore of Undertale. The story also explores the background of the Integrity SOUL and offers an explanation for its darker side.

I'm currently looking for:

• Programmers familiar with GameMaker.
• Composers interested in making original music.
• Anyone passionate about Undertale who would like to collaborate!

This is a fan project, and I'm looking for people who genuinely enjoy the idea and would like to help develop it together. If you're interested or have any questions, feel free to comment or send me an e mail.

Thanks for reading!

Hi! I'm currently working on a videogame (duh, im on r/gamemaker), and I was wondering, how do you guys find play testers to test your game?

I'm making a simple platforming-styled game where you aim and shoot yourself into the air from clouds, where you try to make it to the finish line, which is most of the time at the top of the level.

It has a fully functional level editor (and in the future will allow you to share your levels by copying the data onto your clipboard and sending that to your friend).

The problem is, not many of my friends are into this type of game. I've noticed many of my friends that I usually ask to play-test this game are not used to the falling and losing a lot of progress type gameplay (for example in geometry dash you die and lose a lot of progress, other similar games include like getting over it or jump king). But honestly it's way less frustrating then those games since the levels are significantly shorter (because those games are 1 big level).

I do have a community server for the music I produce, but I'm afraid that if I give those people access to my game I'm going to have to credit all of them, even if they don't give any feedback, or even if they never even started the game, since I wouldn't know if they even played the game.

Should I make a system or something to reward finding bugs/issues and if you find at least 1 you get creddited as a play-tester? (imo this sounds like a bad and complicated system, and i also like seeing how people play the game since that says a lot about the game design in the game).

If you have any tips please help me out.

Someone asked me to add some screenshots so here are some

Hi!

I'm developing an educational puzzle game aimed at children. The main goal is to teach concepts such as shopping, budget planning, and analyzing shopping lists in an intuitive way.

I had to take a few weeks off from development because of my college exams, and now I'm getting back to the project. I'd like to share how I've structured my system so far and ask for suggestions on the most recommended next steps in terms of architecture and code, since GML is still pretty new to me.

First, I need to explain the idea behind the kits. Basically, they all contain the same products and brands, but the quantities, prices, and discounts vary. The idea is to add replayability by giving children different shopping experiences when they replay the same mission.

For example, Kit 1 would be the balanced option, with reasonable market prices and no discounts. Kit 2 would have higher prices for dairy products but discounts on meat. The other kits would follow the same logic, varying prices and discounts to make each shopping experience a little different.

What I'd like to do is make the game switch to a different kit whenever the game restarts or the child decides to replay the level. For now, I plan to implement four kits, but I'd like to add more in the future.

My question is how to structure this system in a GameMaker script. I need to store the data for each kit and make the game select the appropriate kit whenever a new run starts.

Initially, I thought about choosing a kit randomly, but I'm worried that with only four kits, the child might play with Kit 1, restart the level, and end up getting the same kit again. So, I was wondering if it would be better to implement a system that cycles through the kits or otherwise prevents consecutive repeats.

How would you recommend implementing this system? Would it be better to use random selection with no consecutive repeats or rotate through the kits in order? And how could I organize each kit's data in a script to make it easier to add new kits in the future?

(Sorry for the wall of text! I'm not sure which tutorial would help me with this...)

Hi everyone I’m new to game development and I’ve been trying to make a Rhythm Game for my school project via game maker. I’ve been trying everything to make an actual chart for my games but it doesn’t really match up to the song. I’m getting pretty upset about it as my group members are depending on me. Can anyone help me out?