The Game Maker's Companion [Paperback]

Jacob Habgood (Author), Nana Nielsen (Author), Martin Rijks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2010

The Game Maker’s Companion is the long-awaited sequel to The Game Maker’s Apprentice. This book picks up where the last book left off, advancing your game development journey with some seriously impressive gaming projects. This time you’ll learn how to make professional-quality platform games with solid collision detection and slick control mechanisms and you’ll get acquainted with a long-lost icon of platform gaming history on the way.

You’ll go on to discover techniques to add depth and believability to the characters and stories in your games, including The Monomyth, cut scene storyboarding, and character archetypes. This culminates in the creation of an original atmospheric platform-adventure which will take your GML programming skills to new heights. There’s even a handy reference section at the back of the book which will be invaluable for adding common features to your own games.

With contributions from four games industry professionals and a highly respected member of the Game Maker community, The Game Maker’s Companion is another labor of love that will give you even more hours of enjoyment than the original. If you already own Game Maker, then you really must own this book as well.

What you’ll learn

• Learn the fundamentals of how to create platform games with nature’s first platform game character: Fishpod.
• Discover how to recreate the classic 90’s platform game Zool (Ninja of the Nth Dimension) entirely using drag-and-drop programming.
• Learn how to extend and improve upon the drag-and-drop functionality of Game Maker using GML scripts.
• Follow the design of the atmospheric platform-adventure game Shadows on Deck from original concept to a completed vertical slice of gameplay.
• See how professional designers create engaging storylines with believable characters.
• Learn how to modify the Shadows on Deck artwork to include in your own games.
• Experience a practical journey into game development which has been unparalleled since The Game Maker’s Apprentice.
• Gain access to professional game resources from Shadows on Deck which you are free to use in your own Game Maker games.

Who this book is for

This book is for The Game Maker’s Apprentice readers, along with other game developers in general.

Table of Contents

1. Greetings, Game Maker
2. Platform Beginnings: An Idea with Legs
3. Zool: Taking It to the Nth Dimension
4. Empowerment: Sliding Ninjas
5. Krool’s Forces: Sweetening the Challenge
6. Fighting Talk: The Empower Strikes Back
7. Game Design: “Shadows on Deck”
8. Storytelling in Theory
9. Storytelling Applied
10. Of Mice and Pen: Pirate Art
11. GML: From Ninja to Pirate
12. Rogues’ Rendezvous: Vertically Sliced
13. The Story Begins
14. Feature Reference
15. Rogues’ Rendezvous: Dialogue

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jacob's career in the games industry spans fourteen years, but he has been programming games as an amateur and professional now for a quarter of a century. During this time he has worked on over a dozen published games for all the major console platforms, including as the lead programmer of the cult British game, Hogs of War. He has programmed, designed and project-managed titles for publishers like Gremlin, Infogrames, Atari, Disney and Konami and he truly knows the meaning of the word "crunch".
Somehow he also found time to study a Ph.D. in the psychology of learning and has a passion for most things that connect video games and learning (including a whole lot of research involving zombies: zombiedivision.co.uk). This passion also extends to teaching game development, which he practices in his position as Senior Lecturer in Game Development at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (October 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430228261
• ISBN-13: 978-1430228264
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A long awaited and well deserved sequel ! October 23, 2010

By Alexander Aris

Format:Paperback

This eagerly awaited sequel was pre-ordered by myself in November 2009 and I am so glad the that time has come around to its now release date. The Game Maker's Companion touches on mostly platform games, but covers a more detailed approach giving an understandable breakdown of each step.

The main Games include : Fishpod, Zool ( Commodore Amiga fame ) and Shadows on the Deck ( fantastic ).

As well as covering Drag and Drop actions, GML ( Game Maker Language ) is covered in more detail throughout, which gives a more direct way of achieving results.

The book also has plenty of diagrams, screenshots and great artwork, which brings each associated page and chapter to life. What is even more special, is a section about story telling and how to apply it into your own games.

My favourite section of the book, is Chapter 14 : Feature Reference. This has great little routines that can be added to your own Games and Projects : 360 Degree Movement / Shooting, Cheat Codes, Countdown Clock, Homing Missiles, Mini-Map, Pausing the Game, Scrolling Text ( Horizontal / Vertical ) and many more. Each routine is in GML, but is straight forward to understand and use. This is one of the great 14 chapters to read and absorb.

An added bonus with the Book, is a CD with all the examples from The Game Maker's Companion, which also includes Game Maker 8 to get you started.

Overall, this is a well deserved follow up to The Game Maker's Apprentice, for which I could possibly see a third book covering even more styles of game design and routines. Perhaps the 3D aspects of Game Maker ?

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! November 14, 2010

By driskell

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is all that I wanted, after owning the previous book (Apprentice). It continues with the more advanced features of Game Maker precisely where the other book left off. There is very little rehashing of the material from the previous book and it moves (inevitably) into much more detailed use of GML game maker language. This was expected. It is noticeably thicker than the previous (almost but not quite twice as thick) and contains a reference section at the back of the book in an almost toolbox-like utility for incorporation into your own games. If you bought the first one (and liked it all), don't think, just buy the second. You wont regret it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Game Maker Hit October 13, 2010

By G. Poschman

Format:Paperback

I purchased the e book for this title for two reasons, first it was available immediately. When I purchased "The Game Makers Apprentice", I discovered that having the e book had many advantages. I could have the book open on my computer to create the games while learning about game design and development. It allowed me to copy and paste code rather than type it, as I am a miserable typist.

I am happy to say the "The Companion" took over in a sense where "The Apprentice" left off. I learned a fair amount about game design and development from "The Apprentice", but I wanted more in depth information of a specific genre. The platform games is is simple enough to begin with and yet it can be complex enough to allow a learner to evolve into a developer. "The Companion" handled this beautifully.

It uses the same game development instruction style as "The Apprentice" with perhaps a little more in depth explanation. This is not a short coming for "The Apprentice", its primary function was to ace as an introduction into game development and "Game Maker", which it succeeded in doing extremely well.

"The Companion" is broken into 3 sections each of which is dedicated to a specific platform game. As with "The Apprentice" the initial game is simple and is used to get across the basics of the game genre and development for this type of game.

The second section takes a classic game within the genre and adapts it to "Game Maker". It is the second evolutionary step in the complexity of the game genre and game development and design. It also lets the user work with an existing game that he or she may already be familiar with.

The third section introduces integrating story telling within the game development and design. This takes game development into a new level where the player becomes part of a developing story and participates within the story itself. The authors explore in greater detail this integration and provide a detailed road map on how to accomplish this transformation in game development.

Whether you are a novice game developer, or a seasoned professional, whether you intend to use "Game Maker" or some other development engine this book will give you marvelous insight into game development and design that in not just specific to platform games.