The Game Maker's Companion (Technology in Action)

Game Maker 8 makes it easy to create simple games. The problem is when you want to go deeper, perhaps even write some real code! This is where many young developers lose interest. This book shows you how to take the next step. However, it's not just about learning new features, or even just learning to write GML scripts. This book aims to teach you how to start thinking like a real developer - how to structure, organize and plan your game. The budding developer is introduced to properly naming variables, using constants (no magic numbers!), and especially how to create an object hierarchy to represent the various states of the actors in your game. At times it can be slow going, but with persistence and patience, the person who completes this book will learn more than just Game Maker, but also take a big step towards being a true developer, being able to structure code and resources in way that suits larger endeavors. There were a few mistakes here and there in the book, but takes these as challenges, not obstacles. As a professional developer (Java, C++, .NET, SQL), I can heartily affirm the goal of this book. It can make the difference between a hacker who scrabbles together something, and a long-term developer who is capable of working with others on larger projects.Oh, and the samples projects are fun! They give immediate feedback to your learning that is both pleasing to the eye and fun. One word of caution, though. You should either read the first book in the series ( The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners (Book & CD) ), or have a significant experience with creating games in Game Maker. As an alternative to Game Maker experience, it would also suffice to have significant experience in other programming tools. I would at the minimum recommend going through the various tutorials available with Game Maker before attempting this book.Additionally, I would also recommend that you obtain a Pro license to Game Maker 8 if you are going to work through this book. There is a version of Game Maker 8 on the included CD, and the activation in done through the program itself. It is very inexpensive, and well worth the cost.One caveat: I first obtained this book online via O'Relly's Safari online books. This book is of no practical use without the examples on the CD. I was not able to find a site to download the examples, even at the publisher's site. In my case, I bought a copy of the book for my son, so I copied the examples off of the CD. Perhaps there is a way to get the examples if you buy a digital copy, but I would check this out first. I would highly recommend the author/publisher provide a way for digital users, such as Safari users, to download the examples. I have filed a "bug" report about this at the Apress site.

Not a fan of this book.. Love the first one ( almost all the pages a worn from its use) But this one has a lot of drop down examples in it.. and very little scripting..Got the book used, it was in great shape, even had the cd still in the sleeve and unopened..

I really enjoy this book and find that it completes the learning experience for Game Maker programming. However, this should be the third book that you get, not the first. Getting Started with Game Maker is a better introduction to the program and provides you with a solid foundation on which to build. The next book you should get is The Game Maker's Apprentice. It begins with programming simpler games and providing you with excellent examples of different types of games that you can make. After this, you can truly benefit from The Game Maker's Companion. These games are more complicated and introduce concepts that are not in the other books. For me this is the logical progression and can truly turn you into an expert in Game Maker.

I only had the book for a few weeks and just finished the first game, but from that experience and reading a little further on, it is obvious that the book is well organized and covers a lot of topics and techniques. Although the first game is pretty simple, it covers very pertinent topics that can ruin a game, if you are not aware of the pitfalls, like object missing each other with collision detection, or an the proper way to get an object to walk on a surface. The major part of the book is a role playing game, and while I have not gotten to it yet, it seems it moves away from the drag-and-drop method of coding, to directly programming with GML (GameMaker Language), which is exactly what I was looking for. I am preparing to use the game engine in my high school computer classes.

It more than met my expectations. It clarified many of my questions. I can't say enough praise for the people at GameMaker. They have done a great service for nonGeeks not proficient in computer coding and opened the world of game making to us also. We are now only limited by our imagination.If we can imagine it, we can make it. As a retired schoolteacher of Reading recovering from a stroke, I am currently developing games for use in helping students with reading problems to improve their reading skills. , .Game Maker had provided me with hours of fun and enjoyment and a way to feel of some potential value to others.The series of Game Maker books were invaluable in meeting that goal..

Loved this franchise ever since it's infancy years ago, when I attended a course in the Netherlands.These books are a fantastic way to get to indy game development, and flow into coding, through gml. the fact you can export so flawlessly to various platforms makes it a powerfull entry.the books are great step by step walk throughs of examples which get you going. recomended for kids or adults who want to get into the meditation practice of building games.

I am already learning so much beyond the previous book. My one disappointment is that the focus is on the Pro Version of the software, and I am using the Lite version, so needing to do some research to make even the first game work. There is an attempt to explain both Pro and Lite, but parts of the text seem to be missing so the explanations are incomplete. I am relying on things I learned either on my own or from outside sources regarding earlier versions of GM.

I learned so much about many diffrent things, and it was really cool when I discovered about new things I have never heard about. Not just about game design but also about other games they mention in the book. The book covers diffrent tricks on how to do more advanced programming, and I have really used this book when I make my own games. I have used Game Maker for a really long time but it isn't until now that I really wanted to do something with my games, thanks to this book I have been inspired to do great things with Game Maker. You can play my games at jonnil.weebly.com-Jonathan Nilsson

basic but good for complete beginners

Perfect

El contenido de este libro, aunque centrado exclusivamente en la creación de juegos tipo "plataforma", resulta de gran utilidad para alcanzar un entendimiento completo del desarrollo de juegos en general y de Game Maker en particular. A través de tres ejemplos (el primero meramente introductorio) exhaustivos se nos muestran técnicas y procesos para la realización de juegos de nivel profesional.

well written book but its outdated with current version of GameMaker, I wish the authors would release a updated book who would get along the current version of Gamemaker.