Top 5 Game-Maker Wishlist

TENTATIVE AREA

This page records a poll of known Game-Maker authors for whom contact information is available.

The question: If Game-Maker were to have received one last update, what are the top five features or fixes you would ask for?

Responses

EJR Tairne/A-J Games:

1. Fixed idle sequences (maybe a choice of five idle sequences, A-E, with A being overall default; on completion, any animation sequence can be set to default to any of the five idle sequences).
2. Grant monsters the same abilities as characters (optionally affected by, and affect, BBL properties; HP and special counters; different sizes; different animations; ability to birth other monsters).
3. Fixed scrolling (several options: keep centered, auto-scroll, screen-by-screen).
4. Improved music support (MIDI, .MOD).
5. On-screen stats (with some options about what to display, where, and how).

Just below the cut:

6. I always wanted customizable in-game text fields. RPGs and adventure games are somewhat tricker without dialog.

Matthew Groves:

I probably would have answered differently 15 years ago, but I think a scripting language (a custom language like with ZZT or even something like Lua) would have been very handy, and would have resulted in a larger variety of game types.

If you had asked me when I was 15, I would have probably said that I wanted to make a CD-ROM sized game, so the ability to include and use large assets like voice tracks, background music, video, etc.

Josh Turcotte:

I don't really even know anymore, it's been so long since I had any interaction with it; certainly larger creature sprites would have been nice, but I remember nothing more.

James W. Morris:

1. The ability to construct multi-tile non-player sprites
2. The ability to print text to the screen, and define when and where it would appear
3. The ability to assign hit point values to non-player sprites
4. The ability to define a player HUD with tweakable parameters such as health bar, currency/points earned, inventory item selected, etc.
5. Lite scripting functionality that allows tiles to listen for particular events, and respond with an action.

Sylvain Martin/PPP Team:

1. Editable music,
2. separate background (at least 1 parallax layer) and
3. clipping of monsters when they approach borders are the definite things I think that will lack forever. Then, I would put
4. gravity-sensible monsters and possibly
5. hitpoints for monsters.

CarsonCity314:

If Game-Maker had been updated, there are several features I'd have wanted:

1. A set of options for screen scrolling so creators could better choose where they wanted their character to be on the screen.
2. Better collision behavior with solid monsters (so that they would be more solid than bouncy)
3. A better state system for characters, so you can have branching behavior trees (eg. when on the ground, the keys have these effects; when in the air, the keys have these other effects). 6 and 7 are related to this.
4. More options for enemy movement, so you wouldn't need to have monsters die and get replaced to change movement behavior.
5. A buffer area for off-screen animated tiles, so you wouldn't be left with artifacts

Below the cut:

6. Standing animations for different character facings.

7. Some options between "no momentum" and "momentum" for character movement, and some options between "gravity" and "no gravity." I was somehow never successful at replicating jumping behavior from other 2d games like Commander Keen (jumping was either too stiff or permitted multi-jumping.

8. I'd also have liked a way for monsters to interact with map tiles, but I gather that would have required very substantive changes. This would be #1 or #2 otherwise.

T3 Software:

1. Fix the scrolling.
2. Support for MOD (S3M, XM, MOD) music.
3. States for monsters/characters to allow more complex design, e.g. player character stays in one state until it hits the ground.
4. Item pickup on contact.
5. Larger monster support.

Alan Caudel:

I asked a couple of friends who used to use Game-Maker as well. These are some of the top things we could think of.

If Game-Maker were to have received one last update, the top five features or fixes I would ask for:

1. Multi-block monsters/Characters bigger than 2 blocks.
2. Character transformations (like Mario picks up a mushroom and gets big)
3. Monsters affected by gravity/background (not just floating in the air)
4. Jumping on monsters like Mario.
5. More interactive environments (Hitting bricks, question blocks, moving platforms)

Bonus!

6. Ability to export to .swf (to be usable on sites like Kongregate.com)

Tyler Pantella:

1. inventory objects could be dropped to create land tiles
2. needed multiplayer functionality
3. the function of items could have been expanded a bit

Chris Laviolette:

1. Collision masks. If not in the Block editor for all 3 types, or as a 4th block type, then at least in the Character editor with "bounding box", pixel-precision, and mask offset options.
2. More options for screen-scrolling; threshold, centering, stop & restart, whatever.
3. Compatibility with Wave sounds (or at least a built-in .wav to .voc converter), MIDI, and tracker music.
4. In-game dialogue boxes. Multiple choice responses for the adventure game designers! It'd probably be best as a new GM "component" with triggers tied to Background Block properties, used on a per-room basis in the Integrator.
5. Gravity forces exclusive to certain Character and Monster states/movements.

Honourable mentions:

6. Character actions for button combinations.

7. Vector-based movement animations for characters.

8. Resource compiling, so the lay user can't read your ending .txt or sample the audio.

9. Save/Load option to make players reload at the beginning of their current level rather than the exact moment.

Jeremy LaMar:

1. Monsters need to be able to spawn other monsters!
2. a HUD to display health, lives, etc. would be nice... a bit annoying to go into the menu every time.
3. Hitpoints for monsters would also be nice... it'd make designing boss monsters a lot easier.
4. Programmable objects like in ZZT or MZX would definitely open up a lot of options and allow for a greater variety of game types.
5. MP3's for the music. The older formats are definitely dated.

Stats

************ Improved monsters (size, properties, abilities, behaviors)

***** Improved music (format support and/or editor)

**** Improved scrolling

*** Improved idle sequences/state system

*** Improved inventory/item system (item pickup, organization, use)

*** Customizable HUD

*** Enhanced/more advanced environmental interaction (as in Mario -- bricks, [?] blocks)

** Some kind of optional scripting functionality

** Fix edge-of-screen problems (monsters, animations)

** Improved multimedia support (large video or audio clips)

** In-game text field support

* Multiple background layers (scrolling or transparency)

* Improved monster collision ("bounciness")

* Character transformations (as in Mario)

* Some mechanism to allow jumping on monsters (as in Mario)

* Multiplayer functionality

* Improved character collision