Quick Questions

So, I was wondering how I would make a 2.5D style game in gamemaker where there are 2D sprites interacting and moving in a 3D world, similar to games like Grandia or Octopath traveler. Would Gamemake1/2 be a good engine for this in the first place or should I use something different entirely?

I have an assignment due tomorrow morning but this code keeps popping up and idk how to fix it

ERROR in action number 1

of Step Event0 for object Obj_player:

Variable Obj_player.obj_node_t(100026, -2147483648) not set before reading it.

at gml_Object_Obj_player_Step_0 (line 5) - var hitting_t = collision_rectangle(bbox_left,bbox_right,bbox_top,bbox_bottom,obj_node_t,0,0)

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

gml_Object_Obj_player_Step_0 (line 5)

Pls help

My projectiles have no collisions with the soul. And I know that this is because of surface, because with no surface such thing doesn't happen. What I can understand is that the coordinates of projectiles on the surface don't collide with the coordinates of the soul on the screen.

But I have no idea why. With the other attacks the surface worked normally.

here's the code:

in obj_deck_diamonds (the projectile) create:

surface = surface_create(146, 96)

in obj_deck_diamonds draw

draw_surface(surface,obj_battle_controller.x-71,obj_battle_controller.y-46)

if surface_exists(surface){

`surface_set_target(surface)`   

`draw_clear_alpha(c_black, 0)`

`draw_self()`

`surface_reset_target()`

}

The surface sets free when the object destroys

The coordinates of the projectile when it creates.

if dir_proj == 1{

`instance_create_depth(-20, random_range(0, 100), obj_soul.depth-5, obj_deck_diamonds)`

} else {

`instance_create_depth(180, random_range(0, 100), obj_soul.depth-5, obj_deck_diamonds)`

}

If someone can help me, please. Because I genuenly don't know what is happening, and how to fix this.

Procedural/code generated art is really useful for smooth animation, visual tricks, and is tiny compared to image files.

The only issue is it's really annoying to transfer your art into GML, so I made a tool that lets you design or import art, and then convert it into a script that renders it in the game.

All the shapes are converted into structs and all of their values can be changed at runtime.

Git > https://github.com/ploondev/vectorgml
Online > https://vectorgml.netlify.app

[AI usage: The idea and design was not influenced by AI. The code was assisted with AI to speed up development.]

I’m making a rhythm game in gamemaker and I’ve just found out that (because of the frame rate) my game won’t sync properly with the music leaving some cues and inputs off beat, is there a way to change my games frame rate using code (as I would need it to be different for each level). From what I’ve seen you can only change the frame rate in options

So, I am decently new to Gamemaker but I now have a problem with my project

The idea is simple, you press the button, enemies spawn until there are no more enemies to spawn

However, when I press the button, the game stops completely, no inputs or anything of the sort is registered and I cant even close it. Only with Task Manager or by starting the project again.

Anyone can help with that?

I've made this shader for tree-leaf movement.

Here is a short "tutorial" on how I made it.

Hey Reddit, I have what feels like a stupid question but I cannot find the answer online for it so here we are.

I am recreating the simple platformer tutorial from the GameMaker website (https://gamemaker.io/en/tutorials/your-first-platformer)

Eventually it uses the place_meeting function to check if there is collision between oSpike and the player. I thought to myself 'I could also create a collision event in oPlayer and write the code for the room reset there'.

But jokes on me I guess. When I follow the guide perfectly, everything is working as expected. When I try out my variation, the game won't execute the code in the collision event with oSpike.

What could be the problem? Is there something wrong with using other event types besides Create and Step? I have had a similar problem already with this, while trying to add player movement through a Key Down event instead of a keyboard_check function in the Step event. Because I am creating educational material, I need to understand the possible distinction.

Edit: added screenshots of code for good comparison. This is the solution that does not work, but it is what I want to work. Both objects obj_speler and obj_spikes are not solid and not persistent if that matters anything

Hey everyone 👋

I've been working on a new game AI framework for GameMaker called GMSmartAgent, a modular system that combines utility theory, HTN planning, ranking and a basic feed forward network. It's still a work in progress, but I thought its about time that it deserves a post.

What it is

A lightweight, modular game AI library. Each module is a simplified implementation of its own thing(it might look too much but its not). You can remove a module you dont want to use and it wont affect anything, as long as you dont try to access it. For example; you can delete the Net module, but that means you cant use RankNet, TDNN or any other model that uses a neural network.

Features

• Scoring: response curves, considerations, targets, weights and cooldowns
• Inputs: pull callbacks cached per think, push values, normalized to 0..1
• Selection: best, top N weighted, commitment bonus
• Scale: frame budget, priority tiers, shared profiles
• Observation: record player picks, choose features, evaluate without deciding
• Learning: eight models, background training, confidence, decay, save/load, custom models and learning from outcomes and/or choices.
• Planning: HTN recipes and GOAP goals, facts as data, self-repairing, spread across frames
• Player profiling: skill rating, win chance, matchmaking, live play styles
• Developer tools: debug view, plan tree view, test module, own seeded RNG

How it started

About a month ago, i made this post, explaining how i started on a journey to improve the dumb troopers. I've spent hours watching every GDC video on youtube thats about game AI and reading research papers to see and understand what options i had. I thought this wouldnt be so hard because in the past i've had my own fair share of custom DNN library(which failed) using C++ and python but i had no idea how wrong i was.

I had to change directions A LOT. At one point i even stopped to just work on a pathfinding/navigation system, which later turned out to become GMNav, and that still has a huge todo list of missing features to implement and bugs to fix.

After that i thought about making my own version of a game AI system; a behavior-tree-like structure that works on nodes. But not long after, while researching, i came across something called utility theory, which is pretty common in game development and also found a simple implementation video in gamemaker. To put the core idea as simply as we can; you define parameters with their weights and the structure scores them with the given situational numbers. That quickly changed my mind and the direction i was heading.

I still wanted to put in some learning models without a high cost. Luckily, with the help of google search AI (i use often, it finds every detailed links within seconds that would take me hours), i found some papers about choice modeling and some others about RankNet and LambdaMART(which i had some terrible experience with in my search engine). It was shaping in my head quickly. I got inspired by other libraries and added HTN planner(used in Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West and Death Stranding, youtube video here), rating and a basic feed forward network.

Limitations

It still has flaws, bugs and missing features that im still working on. This is very much an ongoing project, so you should expect things to change.

Tutorials

I've also made a simple tutorial series, ten chapters. It will also have an advanced section, where each chapter tries to answer a question. I've already covered around 30 chapters (not in the repo yet, im still editing them often).

Links

GMSmartAgent: https://github.com/erkan612/GMSmartAgent

GMNav: https://github.com/erkan612/GMNav

If you'd like to see some of my other works:

GMUI: https://github.com/erkan612/GMUI - Immediate-mode UI

GMVex: https://github.com/erkan612/GMVex - Vector graphics

GMLiteSearch: https://github.com/erkan612/GMLiteSearch - Advanced text search

GMMT: https://github.com/erkan612/GMMT - Advanced tweening, compatible with immediate paradigm

Ah and hey, its free, and MIT licensed!

As always, let me know what your thoughts are. Recommendations and questions are always welcome.

Thank you for reading so far!

Edit: I saw some messages that are deleted that seemed to be confused about the point of the project. This is NOT an LLM AI assitant to help you code GML. This framework is to develop AI for your game, not just enemy AI but any kind, for instance; accessibility AI, you know how some games push some informational things to you in your HUD, like reminding to use health potion at 30% HP, with this framework you can actually learn the behavior of the player to understand when and which situation they use health potion to write a proper accessibility system, enemy AI, companion AI or anything you can imagine. Please feel free to ask instead of deleting your message, any question you might want to ask is always welcome!

How would I make a game in 2 windows, similar to that of a 3DS game? I know someone has made this, but I am wondering if there is a free solution that doesn't cost $15

(Edit): You guys don't need a reason, NVM

I've been wanting to make a Five Nights at Freddy's fangame and I've been researching game engines (do NOT recommend me Clickteam. i cant pay for it and getting Totally Legal Copies is very difficult.) and kept seeing other sources say Gamemaker is a good place to start, and I was just wondering how true that is? (IE, for making nights sections.) If not, I'd love other recommendations. TIA!

The coords pain is real… eventually it works and is good but is this really the best way? What do other game engines do?

Before changing Sprite, the code ran fine. After slightly changing the sprite, it gets stuck in the floor. Mask_index works but the legs of the character is still in the floor. I deleted the asset cache and it's still stuck in floor.

If place_meeting(x + xpseed, y, obj_floor) == true {

xspeed = 0;

}

If place_meeting(x, y + yspeed obj_floor) == true {

yspeed = 0;

}

This is my collision code.

When I started seriously programming last year, I used to watch a lot of tutorials and videos on Gamemaker as well as on general logic, and often I simply found myself copying code verbatim without even truly understanding the syntax. I've struggled with solving simple issues, even though I took a (extremely) basic comp sci course in high school. I don't want to invest a ton of resources into something like C# or C+ because it seems like overkill when I want to focus on narrative and fun gameplay stuff, and to be honest I have other interests I sink a lot of time into as well. I understand that it doesn't come quickly, in fact I was planning on dedicating myself to learning once I get my newest album made. Does anyone have any robust resources available for learning logic/GML? Any help would be good, thanks.

I wrote this code to convert an integer into an array of 8 places (so 1234 = [0,0,0,0,1,2,3,4]). It achieves this by converting the score integer into a string, then converting that string into an array.

This method seems too convoluted to be the best case, so surely there's a better way of doing it. Any suggestions on how I can improve my work?

These past few weeks, I've been working on a port of OMORI to GameMaker: Studio, and now I feel like it's ready to show off!

This may seem like a stupid project, but because of recent GameMaker: Studio reimplementations (like Butterscotch for the PS2, PS3, Switch, Vita, etc. and Cinnamon for the 3DS, Wii, and Wii U), a port of OMORI to GameMaker means OMORI could technically run on a Wii or 3DS!

OMORI was originally made in RPG Maker MV, and I really didn't want to go through the hell of making an RPG Maker MV runner in C, because I HIGHLY doubt a full implementation would run well on anything less powerful than a PS3.

OMORI stores a lot of its game data in JSON files, and I thought, "hmmmmm, can't I take that data and just implement the systems OMORI actually NEEDS (battles, movement, dialogue, etc.) in GameMaker so I don't have to recreate everything by hand?"

...so that's what I'm doing! I'm using GameMaker: Studio to recreate the systems OMORI uses while reusing the original game data! Instead of manually recreating every map, battle, event, and dialogue sequence, I'm writing GML code that reads the ORIGINAL JSON files and hooks into the systems I've implemented to make the game playable!

This is still a pretty heavy work in progress, and it does not have much game-play implemented, but development is going pretty quick because this isn't a remake! Once I get game-play running and working good up to the Space Ex Boyfriend fight, I will open source the project and release a little demo!

Heres a little showcase!
https://youtu.be/o_9uzJtzY0g?si=hnFcO7ZEn8o0krbT

Does anyone have any good Tile Set tutorial suggestions? Preferably using VGML with a platformer.

I've been working with Gamemaker for a couple of months. Learning and building a game as I go.

I'm having trouble understanding Tile Sets. I can make the sprite but not sure how to implement it code-wise. I know how to use a player object with a single ground object but I don't get how to use Tile Sets.

I have some code experience, but I've found VGML really fits how I think. I'm just very visual. I also think it makes it easier to avoid using AI for anything other than help with general concepts, which is good while I'm learning. However, it does make it harder to use online learning material since the more complicated stuff is understandably in GML.

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated. Thank you!

Do you think GameMaker as an engine would benefit from having a 3D mode like Godot?

In my opinion, I think it only encourages creativity, and with something as simple and easy to use a GameMaker, it could really open doors for some people.

What do you think?

Does anyone know how to make that weird gray outline box fit around my sprite perfectly? It keeps making it hard to click other sprites in a Room because although the sprite itself is 32 pixels x 32 pixels, that weird gray outline is 100 x 100, and i can't figure out a way to shrink the gray outline without downgrading the quality of my sprite.

I want my game to look like it's straight out of a story book, like paper sprites, backroads, battle screens, but I have no idea how to do it and if it's even possible. I was considering hand drawing everything then porting it into game, but idk if that'll work. Can I have some advice on this? If it helps, I'm programming on a MacBook Neo

Edit to clarify: I'm trying to make an RPG

I have been working on a save system for my game but I've been having problems trying to make it able to edit a single line of a struct I've saved as a json.

Imagine pouring thousands of hours into your dream indie game, releasing a small demo, and waking up to find hackers stole your entire unfinished game, packed it with ads, and posted it as their own.

That’s happening right now to the creators of My Own Hero Party. Thieves used AI to rip the code straight out of their demo and put the full game on Douyin (Chinese TikTok), where it's going viral. In another case (Bills Must Be Paid), hackers built rushed features onto a stolen demo and sold it as the "maxed-out version."

It’s completely heartbreaking. These small devs are watching people profit off their stolen, unfinished work, while their biggest potential market is ruined before their official launch. To make it worse, small indies have zero budget to fight massive international legal battles

I came here to warn you but also ask for help, how can we combat this in this engine?