Design Your Own Game

Action Game Maker comes with four plug-ins: Platformer, Action RPG, Shooter, and Demo. These can be combined freely to create games for single players. The plug-ins can be combined in one game, making it possible to create a hybrid game such as an action RPG on the worldmap, and a platformer in dungeons.

Samples of plug-in screens

Jumping Action Game

Action RPG

Shooting Game

Demo

The following screen resolutions are available. Games can also be made in high-resolution and wide screen modes.

Image Data

BMP and PNG files can be read. Transparency zones can be defined with alpha channels or violet (R255, G0, B255). There are no size restrictions on displayed objects (such as heroes or enemy characters), making it possible to use images in a variety of sizes.

Audio Data

WAV and AIF files can be read. It is also possible to use files with embedded loop commands made using specific applications (such as Yamaha's Wave Editor TWE).

Indie Game Maker has a variety of editors for primarily creating the following elements of games.

The canvas is the element that forms the game's stage--its map. Like RPG Maker, the canvas is assembled using tiles that form the map. The canvas consists of four layers, on each layer tiles and gadgets can be placed. Scroll speed of layers can be set individually for simulating 3D scrolling and other visual effects. On the game screen, menu items are placed on a separate layer in front of the canvas. A background layer can be placed behind the canvas as well.

Tiles

Each tile can be set to allow or forbid pass-throughs in four directions independently. They can also be set to inflict damage or change types upon contact. It's also possible to make tiles change over set intervals to animate them. Tiles are available in seven sizes: 8 x 8, 16 x 16, 32 x 32, 64 x 64, 128 x 128, 256 x 256, and 512 x 512 pixels.

Links

This feature is used for instantly warping a gadget from a specific location on the canvas to another. Links between two locations can be easily made just by specifying the origin and the destination locations. It is possible to assign conditions for allowing warping, as well as making one-way links.

Camera

The camera is used for controlling scrolling. Courses can be specified for making forced scrolling effects. The camera can also be set to track a specific gadget, such as the player's character.

Courses

Gadgets can be made to travel a specific path on the canvas easily using visual cues. In addition to linear courses, gadgets can be set to travel on curved or circular courses.

Animation is used for rendering the graphics of any object displayed on-screen. A single animation can be rendered with multiple actions and display orientations. For example, the player's animation can be set to display the character gadget facing right or left for the action "stop." Likewise, the character can be made to face certain directions for the action "walk." The actions defined for the character are switched using the gadget's motion programs.

Graphics

Graphics can be set one frame at a time. The display duration of a frame can be set in 1/100-second intervals. Graphics can be rendered with user-defined parameters such as scaling, rotation, and transparency.

Collision Detection

Collision detection can be set within a square-wave range of an object per frame. There are three types of collision detection settings, one for determining contact with another gadget, one for determining contact with a tile, and another one that inflicts damage upon contact.

Connection Points

When a gadget appears, it is possible to designate another gadget to appear together with the original at a specific point of connection. For example, connection points can be used in shooting games to mark the release point of fire from guns.

Gadgets are used to render the motions of objects that appear in the game such as the PC and enemies. Motions to be rendered include attacks, jumps, etc. For each gadget, actions such as "standby" and "move" are rendered using individual motion programs. For example, consider the gadget "player." The motion program "standby" defines what animations and what motions should be displayed when the player is at a standstill. The conditions for switching from the motion program "standby" to "move" can be redefined.

Graphics

Motion programs define the actions of gadgets. A motion program can be set with elements such as movement direction and speed. Other actions can be assigned such as shooting and displaying messages. Every gadget can be assigned multiple motion programs. These motions programs can be switched under specific conditions to make the gadget perform complex actions.

Types of Movement

Gadgets can be made to move in a basic linear manner. They can also be given inertia using accelerated movement. With accelerated movement, a moving gadget will not stop as soon as the direction pad is released. This kind of realistic motion can be easily created by setting the values for initial speed, acceleration, and deceleration. Jumping motions for platformers can be given smooth, natural arcs just by setting the initial speed and gravity.

Types of Projectiles

Gadgets can be set to fire projectiles (which are themselves different gadgets) in a variety of ways. A single gadget can be set to fire three types of projectiles.

Menu screens can be made easily and customized much like those displayed when equipping characters in an RPG. Menus are also used for making character health gauges and score displays that are shown on the play screen. The title screen, pause screen, and other elements are also made this way.

Items

Items that are displayed in menus and in-game are prepared here. Items can be set to become active as soon they are acquired or added to a player's inventory for later use.

Cursor Groups

Selectable paths in menus are made by grouping selectable items, etc., then assigning a selection cursor to each group. It is also possible to make multilayer menus that open a new menu when a certain item is selected.

The sequence of how various plug-in settings are processed in-game can be set visually using the flow editor. It is possible to set conditions for switching processing streams to different plug-ins.

Fonts displayed within games can be made entirely from the ground up. There is also a function for searching and displaying all letters used in a game. It enables quick identification of letters that are needed on the font table.

Standard Player (Windows + DirectX)

This is the standard output format that will operate on Windows. A dedicated player software is available for download, so people who do not have a copy of Action Game Maker can play the created games.

Microsoft XNA Template

A game can be exported as a Microsoft XNA Framework-compatible source file. This file can be processed with XNA Game Studio 3.0 to create an executable file that operates on Xbox 360 systems and so on.

*To use an output source file, Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions and XNA Game Studio 3.0 are required. The output source file is to be used with the user assuming full responsibility for it. Enterbrain, Inc., cannot answer any inquiries related to the usage of Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions or XNA Game Studio 3.0.

SWF Output Using Adobe Flex SDK

Games can also be output as SWF format files that can be played using Adobe Flash Player. To output data in this format, Java SE Development Kit and Adobe Flex SDK must be installed in advance.

*Games written out in this format are not guaranteed to work as well as on the standard player software. There may be restrictions on processing speed and the number of displayable gadgets. Also, this format is not compatible with WAV and AIF format audio files, so music and sound effects will not be playable. (It is possible to work around this by preparing MP3 files with the same names as the WAV/AIF files, then specifying the use of these MP3 files when outputting in this format.)

• *Hardware must be DirectX9.0c-compatible.