DUCK VS BEAVERS Lane Community College Table of Contents SECTION 0 OVERVIEW... 2 SECTION 1 RESOURCES... 3 SECTION 2 PLAYING THE GAME... 4 SECTION 3 UNDERSTANDING THE MENU SCREEN... 5 SECTION 3 PARALLAX BACKGROUND SCROLLING... 7 SECTION 3 COMPLETING THE GAME... Error! Bookmark not defined. Updated: 8 February 2017
PING GameMaker Studio Assignment CIS 125G 2 2 SECTION 0 OVERVIEW In this game you will be creating a platform game called Duck vs Beavers. This assignment will introduce the following concepts: Game Design Elements The Design Document Parallax Scrolling Intro Menu and Help Screen GameMaker Elements Nothing new The large majority of the game is completed for you, but you will be creating all the Events and Actions needed for the Duck. This assignment will also require you to use your skills to complete the Events and Actions needed for the Duck object using the knowledge you have gained in the course. You will need to understand: How to move an object How to give Variables a value How to change a Variables value How to change a Variables value using the Relative option How to make Decisions How to play Sounds How to remove instances from the game
PING GameMaker Studio Assignment CIS 125G 3 SECTION 1 RESOURCES In order to get started you will need to gather resources to build and understand the game. In Moodle download the following files: Duck_vs_Beavers.gmz Duck_vs_Beavers_Demo.exe Duck vs Beavers Design Guide
PING GameMaker Studio Assignment CIS 125G 4 SECTION 2 PLAYING THE GAME Open and run the Duck vs Beavers Demo file. You will see the following: Click on the Help button to view the Help Screen and then Press the Play button to begin the game. The objective is to collect enough leaves and twigs to build a nest before the beavers chase you off.
PING GameMaker Studio Assignment CIS 125G 5 SECTION 3 USING THE DESIGN GUIDE To build this game you will using the Duck vs Beavers Design Guide. A Design Guide is a document created by a team of game developers to help keep them on track during the build of the game. For this game the Design Guide has already been created for you and you will use it to assist you in completing the last portion of the game, the Duck object. Read completely through the Design Guide prior to completing the Duck object. The guide has a description of how to build the Duck object in section 4.0, but it is not a tutorial. You will need to use the skills you have gained up to this point to translate the descriptions into the proper Events and Actions needed to make the Duck work correctly.
PING GameMaker Studio Assignment CIS 125G 6 SECTION 4 UNDERSTANDING THE MENU SCREEN Adding a menu screen to a game really adds a professional touch and adding one is a really easy process. The Menu screen is composed of a forest background and then is overlaid with several objects: Most of the objects are just there for show, but the objects with Click in their name have Events and Actions added to them. For instance, obj_start_click has the following Event and Action: When the left mouse button is pressed on top of obj_start_click the game moves to rm_play. Each of the other Click objects work in the same manner. The Help screen works similarly
PING GameMaker Studio Assignment CIS 125G 7 SECTION 5 PARALLAX BACKGROUND SCROLLING Having a single background that scrolls, like in Vacuum Marauders, adds depth to a game, but is limited. In Duck vs Beavers a new technique is introduced called parallax scrolling. What is parallax scrolling? Instead of a formal definition, imagine you are in a car driving down a through the Arizona desert looking out your side window. The objects closest to you (the cactus) would move by you very quickly, while the mountains in the background would move by very slowly. This effect can be simulated in a Video game by using 2 or more background images and then adding events and actions to properly scroll the background in the right direction with the right speed. This is accomplished in this game within obj_controller in the Step event with these Actions: When the game is in rm_play, we set the speed of the mountain_background at 1/10 th of the Ducks speed. So when the duck is moving the background is also moving, when it stops the background stops moving as well.
PING GameMaker Studio Assignment CIS 125G 8 SECTION 6 MAKING THE GAME YOURS Making the game yours is worth 25% of the points of the assignment. You have several different paths to follow to meet this requirement: PROGRAMMING. This path is for students who interested in the Programming path of game design. Some ideas are: o Change the Duck to move using the mouse instead of the keyboard o Create power-ups o Show the next items dropping from the duck after it is hit o Create other obstacles the Duck must avoid GRAPHIC DESIGN. This path is for students who are interested in the Graphical path of game design. Some ideas are: o Create new sprite images. o Create backgrounds for the rooms SOUND DESIGN. This path is for students who are interested in the Audio path of game design. Some ideas are: o Create new sound effects for Beaver throwing, Mud Hitting, Items collected, etc. o Create a background sound-track NARRATIVE DESIGN. This path is for students who are interested in the Narrative (or story telling) path of game design. Some ideas are: o Create a backstory for the game o Create dialog appropriate for the characters in the game. o Create a background sound-track LEVEL DESIGN. This path is for students who are interested in the Level Design path of game design. Some ideas are: o Create a Tutorial level for the players to ease them into the game o Create several levels that get increasingly harder as you play You can use multiple paths to make the game yours if you like. You might also notice that some of the ideas mentioned above talk about doing things that haven t been discussed in this tutorial. You can learn how to do these things by researching the topic at the GameMaker Studio documentation website: docs.yoyogames.com, or by talking with your instructor.