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

[Azurelore Korrigan]:

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.

James Faux/Eclypse Games:

1. Multiplayer - after the first character dies, have the GM have a second character set which is the second player start the game. Keep going until one person beats the game, or, by changing an option, make it one player can win, then the other player can continue by himself until he finishes the game as well. Or have 2 character sets going at one time! Show where each player will start on the map, and let them play from there! (This would be great for street-fighting games!) Also this is a BIG step for GM, but just an idea, to be able to create a 2 player game (the game HAS to be set for 2 players for this to work) over the modem, one player having one character set, the other having the 2nd character set. OR, they could choose their character set (for maybe a modem street fighting game) first to play as a certain character set.
2. Improved monsters - Monsters that are able to fire would be nice. Actually, I think that the monster edit should be almost the same as the Character Edit. You'd be able to make his idle movements, HURT sequence, death sequence, etc. Instead of having to make one monster birth to another to show 'Hit Points', I'd like to see maybe an amount of energy they have before they die. Along with the 'hurt' idea, maybe having a hurt .Voc or if you add .Wav, file when they get hit they go "Uuuh!" and when they die they go "AAAAAH!". You know what I mean? Also, every monster should have his/her/its own sound effects. For example, if you make a bridge that is made up of monsters that you can stand on, that when you stand on them, they move down and up, like a real bridge, they would make their own sound...not AAAH. That would be funny, but if the game is serious, the monsters should have their own sound for everything.
3. Larger sprites - I'm thinking not 1x1, not 1x2, maybe a maximum of 10x10 blocks. Yes, that's right. GM characters are too wimpy for a Street Fighting game. I thought of a SF game called Munchkin Fighter (like the Dunkin Donut guys ... real small. You know who I'm talking about?) where they fight. Whoopie. The only thing that made me discontinue this idea is that there was no 2 player option. The above goes the same for monsters. We want BIG bosses and BIG bad guys. I made a snake-type monster with many monsters put together..didn't do very well, but it was the best I could do at the time.
4. On-screen status - Have the GM be able to place on-screen status of the character set currently playing. Have it so you can create a status block (maybe .SBL and .STA filenames), so you can create life bars, energy bars, etc. A lot of people don't like using the function key for that. (I am one of them. =[ )
5. Text support - I can't say this enough times. For RPG, we need TEXT in our games. I worked on one, but without text, you didn't know what to do. Also, being able to change the main menu. Having a big great VGA screen, then having this little wimpy menu kinda makes my stomach ache. I think that the fonts and where it's positioned should be able to be edited to whatever the GM user likes. Make the selections further apart, more space between letters, change the cursor to something else...an arrow, perhaps.

Below the cut:

6. Animation improvements - I've noticed the .Fli loading isn't very good, and when it is a large .Fli file, it is choppy. I suggest you try to insert the Autodesk Animator .Fli Player (Public Domain). With a .Fli file using the AAPLAY.EXE, it is extremely smooth. If you can't do the above .Fli, then try to make it so on faster computers that can take the animation, the GM uses the speed given to that .Fli, instead of going haywire. Also I thought that having a .Fli file going on for the menu would 'loop' so it looks constantly animated, if you wanted fire to burn while they choose from the main menu.

7. More sound support - Yes, .Voc is good, however, being able to play .Wav as well gives your GM more compatibility with sound files. It's not exactly a BIG requirement, but it's something you might wanna add just for the heck of it.

8. Improved file export - I was a little angry at how the filenames were made. Some people like to goof around alot, and were able to recognize .MAP, .BBL, etc. files. What they did is they copied higher levels over the previous .MAP files to take a sneak peak into the later parts of the game. That's a good trick, but I'd rather be able to rename the filenames to, oh, I dunno, GRAFX001.DAT to make it look more 'advanced' than it looks. That goes for .GIF too. Just as long as the file format is correct, GM users should be able to make it whatever they want, so people don't look at .Flis and .Gifs for endings.

9. Parallax scrolling - The games were fun with 3.0 and all, but not having secondary scrolling kinda looked Nintendoish. Not that I don't like Nintendo. I mean SNES - ever see those multi-layered backgrounds? One goes faster than another is what I'm saying. Have the GM user be able to define a background .MAP file or .GIF file that constantly loops, and goes slower than the main game itself, so it looks 3D-ish.

Stats

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

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

**** Improved scrolling

**** Customizable HUD

*** Improved idle sequences/state system

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

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

*** In-game text field support

** Some kind of optional scripting functionality

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

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

** Multiplayer functionality

* 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)

* Improved character collision

* Larger character sprites