Production

Production of the game and recording

I am creating a 2D Platform gmae in Game Maker 8.1. It's gameplay is similar to Super Mario Bros (it has obstacles like moving enemies, trampolines and falling platforms). You play as a ginger cat in a city. The aim of the game is to reach the end of each level as well as scoring some points from collectable objects and defeating enemies.



Screenshot of my game. My character (Jake) is standing on a falling platform.

For creating a 2d platformer where you can jump up and down, you have to set gravity, I did all these commands with the help of the 2D platformer tutorial you can download from the Yoyo Games website. Other features, like falling platforms I created using my own techniques.




These are the commands for the Falling platform when it comes in contact with Jake. The gravity and speed it's going to fall is set, when the object leaves the game room, it returns to it's starting postition.

I created tiles which are similar to backgorunds. They only serve a visual purpose in the fame (the floor graphics you see in the screenshot are tiles. For Jake to stand on it and not fall through I created an invisible solid object which goes over these tiles in the Room editor. Jake can stand on solid objects.

I created another object which is a trampoline. When Jake jumps onto it, he bounces high up in the air. To do this, when the the trampoline collides with Jake, it sets Jake to move in the vertical direction (which makes him automatically bounce) and I set the vertical speed to 15 (this will determine how high he bounces up).


Screenshot of Jake bouncing from the trampoline.

A platform game wouldn't be very challenging without enemies. I added basic enemies into the game which move side to side. If Jake touches them, the level restarts. To make the enemies move back and forth, I set a path for them.

The Path I use for the enemy on the ground.

Game enemies shown in Game Maker's room editor.

Another feature which makes this game challenging is when you fall of a ledge, the game restarts from the beginning. I created a total of 3 levels for the game. Overall, I'm rather happy with it. The music I made was satisfying enough but I didn't get to put in sound effects. I rushed some of the graphics too. But I feel as if I made a short but fun game which is even a little challenging (the third level in particular).