The Game-Maker Archive: Samples and Demos

May 30, 2010

by Eric-Jon Rössel Tairne

Recreational Software Designs’ Game-Maker didn’t just throw its users in cold with its development tools and game engine; packed with the core software was a wealth of sample material, largely composed by the programmers, Gregory Stone and Oliver, Jr. Fair enough, this material was a starting place for many, perhaps most, users’ first games.

Yet as simple and illustrative as the material was, it often was more compelling than the end games derived from it. So in effect, in purchasing Game-Maker users bought themselves a collection of rather neat little games and then the tools to rip them apart and rebuild the games in their own image — in concept not all that different from some indie games you’ll see these days, if a bit more elaborate in the toolset.

It would be constructive to peruse these games if just to provide context for of our past discussion (such as last week’s The Descent), and to provide basis for future commentary. Again, though, some of these games are darned good. All of them are charming, and by definition they’re all amongst the most original Game-Maker games you’ll find.

There are seven basic demo games. Three of them are overt tutorials (one of them named Tutor); four are complete and deliberate games of some sort, and the origin of the most of the materials used in those tutorials. It’s those that we’ll be going over here.

Pipemare

The Game-Maker box is scattered with genuinely intriguing snapshots of potential games; between ordering the software and receiving it and figuring out how to use it, I used to gaze at the box and wonder how those games were supposed to work. I was reminded of floppy disks full of old shareware, or wandering into an arcade and marvelling at all the novel games, with their unusual mechanics and art styles, that I might never see again.

One of the key pictures was of the tile editor, and the tiles on display were from Pipemare. This game is the definitive Game-Maker game; it’s the sort of game that the software was made to facilitate. Furthermore, it’s the origin of most of RSD’s iconography, from the main character sprite to the pointy-headed monsters.

Pipemare is a top-down exploration maze action game thing; you play as a happy ball with four feet that rotate around the circumference like a walking machine. If you pick up a hamburger, you get fat. If you pick up a hat, you wear it. You can shoot lasers and drop bombs. You avoid or destroy monsters, pick up treasures, fix leaky pipes, and search for the exit. Everywhere you explore, you disturb the water — making it easy to see where you’ve already been. It comes off a bit like a disjointed early Commodore or Amiga response to Pac-Man.

The game is colorful, distinctive, well-drawn. It’s short; only a couple of levels. And yet it exudes atmosphere and charisma in a way that few end-user games ever managed. Frankly, I’d love to see a remake for the Nintendo DS — perhaps with a level editor.

Sample

The game is well-named. It is basically a final lesson in combining all of the elements you’ve learned in the tutorials into a functional game. And indeed, it’s a simple game; it all takes place on a single map, and its elements don’t really cohere all that well — and yet it’s fascinating and evocative, and its influence on end-user games approaches infinite.

Sample is an attempt at an action-adventure exploration game, using a two-block-tall character. The effort is hampered by an awkward sense of perspective and the inability in Game-Maker to set foreground objects, for the character to walk behind. So when you walk into, say, the top of a tree or the top of your house, you bang your shins on it instead of just walking past, partially obscured from the camera.

And yet the sense of space, and the use of space, are both charming and clever. Within that one map you will find several mazes, swamps, forests, traps, gardens, and a sort of a village. For such a small area, there seems no end of surprises to find or new areas to lurk around in. And as the game takes place all on one map, there’s never any loading. It’s all one seamless adventure — and one that may take a while to complete.

It is significant that the background tiles pop up again, in some form, in nearly every Game-Maker game made. Furthermore, find me a game with a two-block-tale male protagonist, and I’ll find you a sprite edit of our protagonist here.

Nebula

Of the sample games, Nebula is both the best and the most consistently upgraded of the bunch. Whenever a new version of Game-Maker appeared, with new features, it was Nebula that leaped to incorporate and demonstrate those features — leading to some significant changes and additions to its design.

Nebula is a completely original game, and every bit of it serves to illustrate how to make a proper platformer with this toolset that isn’t really built for that kind of a game. The visuals are stylish and stylized, and just plain well-designed. When you touch ceiling spikes, they start to drip with fluid the color of your protagonist. The geometrical patterns in the background tiles break up the normal sense of repetition, and there’s a comprehensible sense of level design at work. There are two difficulty modes; in the easy mode, tricky chasms are bridged by tenuous platforms. And just in case you lose your way, energetic green arrows keep you moving.

Significantly, the game’s three major levels use the exact same tileset; the only difference is the palette. In level two, green and blue are swapped; in level three, red becomes prominent. There’s an overworld connecting the three levels, with its own character animations and its own controls. Monsters behave regularly and predictably, and largely fit the game’s environments. The only thing I can say against Nebula is that when RSD added Sound Blaster support, the game acquired a scathing bell sample. Whenever you get one of the most important collecting items in the game, that bell rings out — tempting me to just skip the items altogether.

Nebula has more to teach about game design than all of the other demo games put together. And certainly more than I learned, back in the day.

Penguin Pete

This game is wholly credited to Joan Stone, of unknown relation to Gregory and Oliver, Jr. Their mother? Sister? A spouse, maybe? She was also responsible for many of the monsters in the above games.

Whereas Nebula is the strongest game of the bunch, Penguin Pete is the most ambitious. It’s a large game, consisting of several maze levels linked from a complex and dangerous overworld. The protagonist has more moves than the game effectively accounts for, suggesting an even more ambitious design that was slightly cut down.

The main view is of a large ice field; ice islands are connected by a maze of shifting, submerging bridges. Walruses, bears, wolves hassle our penguin; each requires a certain kind of attack to defeat. None is clearly signaled, meaning a bit of fumbling trial and error. There is the occasional hole in the snow; hop in, and search for a chunk of demolished submarine. Some of the mazes are overhead-view; some are simple platformers; one is an underwater level.

The game is harder than it needs to be, and a little too complex for its premise. One of the great things about Nebula is its simplicity. There’s practically nothing extraneous to it. Some of Pete’s moves don’t even work all that well. I commend Joan for trying a Mario-style hop attack, but it should have been cut — as should have the jumping moves in overhead-view levels.

Still, hey, there are a ton of neat ideas in here. I love the level progression, and the mazes that involve blindly burrowing into the snow are a bit of genius. They’re simple, and that’s why they work so well. The game is also attractive and, as with the other sample games, endearing.

Putting it to the test

As in a couple of past columns, I have included the sample games here for posterity. Play them in DOSBox or the like, and compare to some past games such as The Descent and Orb. You will see how much debt is owed to the Stone brothers, not just for the game engine and tools but for the raw design and practical elements.

[Read all of our Game-Maker Archive editorials]