GameMaker Camp at Jardine Middle School June 2014

short url for this page: http://tinyurl.com/Gamemaker2014

Overview

The GameMaker camp was/is a Middle School summer day camp. The camp is organized such that there are 5 groups of students each day, up to 20 in each group, and each group has 1 hour of GameMaker Camp per day. Camp is 4 days, total. Doing the math, each student has 4 hours of Gamemaker instruction and workshop, total.

Gamemaker 8.1 with additional resources and installer

Day 1

Materials and Setup

• Sharpies and masking tape for labeling flash drives
• copies of Day 1 handout

As students come in

• Turn on computers, log in, stick in flash drive
• Play game on projected computer

Introductions and Logistics

• Sean, Mr. Milne

Rules of the Game

• Class is divided into:
  • Lecture: introduction of new ideas
  • Workshop
• During lecture:
  • Computers are closed
  • No talking
  • Raise your hand if you have a question
• During workshop:
  • Help each other, but don't type on each others' computers.
  • If you need help, stay in your seat and raise your hand

Flash Drives

• put your name on them
• save everything there
• There's an installer for Gamemaker and a bunch of extra resources
• if you have a computer at home, you can work at home! (no Internet required)
• Copy the installer to the flash drive

First Game

close computers

Elements of a Game

brainstorm what elements we find in a game

Essential

• image (sprite)
• rules for image (object)
  • event -> action
• room

Optional

• score
• sound
  • events (bullet sounds)
  • background music

Catch the Clown

Description

• sprite moves around in a room on the screen
• if we click on the sprite, we get a point

Files

• File:GamemakerJardineMiddleSchool2014Day1.odt
• File:GamemakerJardineMiddleSchool2014Day1.pdf

Day 2

Review

Overall

1. Sprite
   1. Name
   2. Image
2. Object
   1. Name
   2. Sprite
   3. Rules
      1. if Event -> Action
3. Room
   1. Contains all of the objects

Specific

• 2 Sprites:
  • Main Character
  • Wall
• 2 Objects
  • Rules for main character

Workshop

Recreate the "Catch the Clown" game from yesterday

Bells and Whistles

• Alarm
  • Gamemaker Steps
• Sound Effects
• Background music
• Multiple sprites
• Penalties
• Changing the sprite show we got it, delay, reset position

Moving your own character

• Make our main sprite a bad guy (eventually)
• Setting up the arrow keys to make the character move
• Avoiding collisions with walls
  • Questions and blocks
• What happens when we hit a bad guy?
• Are there good guys?
• Shooting
  • Using variables

Day 3

Maze Games

• Use attached sheet as a guide
• Introduce the "check condition" (if) statement
• Show how to draw your own sprites
• Show animation

Attached Files

• File:GamemakerJardineMiddleSchool2014MazeGames.odt
• File:GamemakerJardineMiddleSchool2014MazeGames.pdf

Day 4

Possible Things to Cover

• Lives
• Enemies
• Coins
• Timer
• Treasure Chest
• Control object

== Make a room for lo

Score based on time

• Create event: set the score
• Set an alarm to decrease the score by 10 each second

Attached Files

• File:GamemakerJardineMiddleSchool2014WinLoseScore.odt
• File:GamemakerJardineMiddleSchool2014WinLoseScore.pdf