GameMaker Camp at Jardine Middle School June 2014

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

Overview

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

Students should feel free to contact John after the camp is over for any questions or help they want with Gamemaker.

Resources

As of Summer 2014 the older Gamemaker 8.1 is more powerful, less limited and easier to use than the newer Gamemaker Studio. Below is a zip file of Gamemaker 8.1, some excellent tutorials, additional sprites, backgrounds, and music for games. This zip file includes all the materials used in the Gamemaker camp as well as an installer and instructions for installing:

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

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

Day 4

Brainstorm of Things to Cover

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

Going on with Gamemaker

  • Website for the class
  • Gamemaker Tutorials
  • Example games
  • The Yoyogames Sandbox
    • Tutorials
    • More resources

Winning, Losing, and Scoring

Attached Files

Reflection

  • Perhaps make handouts instead of trying to lecture?
  • Use the screenshots from the tutorials for the handouts
  • Understanding x,y coordinates is challenging --- perhaps a handout can help with this?
  • Absolute vs. relative is confusing for score as well as coordinates
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