🧙‍♂️Beginners

Find your way in Game Maker with core tutorial videos and hands-on activities to learn about building a physical world and applying logic.

Basic Tutorial Videos

Use these videos to learn about navigating Game Maker, blocks and assets, and logic or try a hands-on activity below.

Hands-on Activities to Learn Fast

These activities are sequenced to help you learn the core functionalities of Game Maker, and will help you learn workflows to make great Experiences!

Once you've learned the basics, see other helpful Resources to create your own projects.

1. ▶️ Learn Play/Test Mode Camera & Controls

This is an EASY activity anyone can do, which will teach you how to create a new game and move the camera and your avatar in Game Maker. You will learn additional controls for the camera in Build mode and how to place blocks in the next activity.

Start

  • Launch Game Client OR

  • Launch Game Maker, create a 1x1 Experience and press TAB to begin Play mode

2. 🏗️ Learn Build Mode Camera & Block Controls

This is an EASY activity anyone can do, and will show you the controls needed to navigate while building in Game Maker and terraform with blocks. Once you know how to navigate and build with blocks, you'll be ready to place and manipulate objects in Activity 3.

Launch Game Maker

  • Open the Experience created in Activity 1 or start a new one

3. 📐 Place & Position Assets

This is an EASY activity anyone can do. It will introduce asset placement and movement in the Game Maker to build a scene.

Launch Game Maker

  • Open or create an Experience.

4. 🤺 Customize Object Behaviours with Tags

This is a MEDIUM difficulty activity using simple behaviours to create custom interactions between objects.

This activity will explore some behaviors that use AI decision making. They are programmed to detect and respond in certain ways to other objects that have specific tags, or identifiers. Tags are included when a behaviour is added to an object to make it easy to build objects that are ready to interact.

Launch Game Maker

  • Open or create an Experience.

5. ✉️ Create Object Cause & Effect with Messages

This is a MEDIUM difficulty activity using behaviours and components to create simple logic systems with objects.

This activity will help you learn the basics of communication in Game Maker using messages to create cause and effect.

Launch Game Maker

  • Open or create an Experience and move to an area with empty space.

  • Let's turn the grid off and focus on logic.

Some behaviors and components are only available as [MP], which means they are multiplayer synchronized. For this activity, choose [MP] only when a [SP] option isn't available.

Designing gameplay with [SP] and [MP] logic will be explored later.

6. Integrate Quests with Object Logic

This is a MEDIUM difficulty activity using Quests and objects linked to them.

This activity will help you learn to guide players through your gameplay with the Objectives system UI and icons to help players find quest objects like NPCs, collectable objects, and more.

What are Quests?

Located in the Objectives system, Quests are used to guide players through your game's story, geography, game mechanics, and more with a sleek user interface. Objects in the game world can be linked to quests so they're easier to find.

A quest may be triggered and completed only one time.

Launch Game Maker

  • Open the Experience from the previous activity to reuse some of its logic.

To track individual player progression in single and multiplayer games, [SP] behaviors and components must be used to send messages to the Objectives system.

[MP] logic works like [SP] logic in singleplayer games.

7. ⚙️ Add Repeatable Game Mechanics with Rules

This is a MEDIUM difficulty activity using Game Rules with object logic.

This activity will help you learn the basics of the Game Rules system and how to apply it for more engaging game mechanics that can be used repeatedly. This unlocks more gameplay varieties and a custom player HUD.

STAY ORGANISED IN GAME MAKER

  • Group rules into rulesets any way you like.

  • Group objects in the hierarchy using folders.

  • Find messages sent and received with the Message Inspector in the Debug menu.

  • Manage messages used in your Experience in the Settings menu.

What are Rules?

The Game Rules system is a visual scripting tool located in the Gameplay menu.

It allows you to set, use, and change values such as numbers, text, time, and true/false values for your gameplay needs and control what appears on the player HUD, or heads up display.

Launch Game Maker

  • Open the Experience from the previous activity to reuse some of its logic.

8. 👥 Design Logic for Multiplayer Games

This is a ADVANCED difficulty activity to learn about setting up logic layers for multiplayer games, which combines logic individual players experience and synchronized logic all players experience.

How Does Multiplayer Work?

Two Logic Layers

Multiplayer Experiences synchronize data across all players, such as object motion.

However, not all logic needs to be Synchronized [MP] for all players. To improve gameplay performance, some logic can be managed on the individual, or Client [SP], layer.

When adding logic to an object, you can see a dropdown filter for these communication layers.

Launch Game Maker

  • Open the Experience from the previous activity to reuse some of its logic.


Resources

🟦Learn Creator Basics

Find comprehensive details on Game Maker

Boost performance with best practices

Add game polish with useful logic schemas

See recommendations by Experience type

Learn how to compete to win SAND

Community

Livestreams

Follow along and ask questions during our Livestreams, available on Twitch. Subscribe to receive notifications for when we go live!

Discord

Join Discord

  • Ask for help (English) in the Game Maker Community Channel

  • File a ticket for a technical issue in the Game Maker Support Channel

  • Find channels in other languages

  • How to join and claim roles

  • Basics to navigate Discord

  • Resources to stay safe on Discord and report issues

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