Several months ago, I tried an earlier version of DS Game Maker. It was good, but just getting through the installation was a pain. A couple of nights ago, I splurged and bought a license to view the whole feature set. And man, I was greatly impressed. Version 2.4 seems much easier to use [because of familiarity?] than v1.0.
I made a cruddy little non-game, and I spent far, far more time working the graphics than adding the controls to move the sprite and add collision effects. There are a few nits with the app; for example, I wished that I could copy and paste actions that were frequently reused. [Perhaps this is my ignorance of programming . . . I almost wished I could create a function with different actions, such as playing a sound, change a variable, and move a sprite, and then call that function each time rather all the individual actions.] Yet, this is a very good tool for creating homebrew, although you should have some basic idea of programming.
James has a great tool in DS Game Maker. You will have to make use of the forums on the DS Game Maker website to get help, but there are good posts there already, as well as this nice sprite overview. If not, James and others are pretty responsive. And version 3.0 is in development, so this app bears watching.
I’m now wishing I had an idea for a little DS game. Even so, I’m having a hard time putting DS Game Maker down.
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8 comments ↓
Being the type of coder who “can” do the whole DS thing, I’ve not really been following this app’s development.
But, judging from the screenshot above, it doesn’t look anywhere near as “Baby Steps!” as I assumed it would.
It’s good to see that it’s taking bits of “Click’n'Play” (nngh) and mixing it with more realistic programming logic, and commands, and things.
Cool stuff.
(mini rant about him charging for it, but there’s a fair amount of work here, so I guess he deserves it)
oh, you could start with a retro remake i guess. better yet with a strategical one. or something with a political point. or zombies. or a snatcher-esque menu driven adventure. or sokoban ds.
ok. i’ll stop now.
Jayenkai: There’s a free version available, but it has about half the actions, is limited to lower res graphics, and has a watermark.
Actually, you reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Hopefully, it’s something you’ll benefit from.
gnome: yes, those are ideas.
One game dev site I enjoy is Danc’s Lost Garden, partly for the free graphics but also for the gaming prototype challenges he has.
hmmm… that’s a truly intriguing one… oh, and did you know one of the top rated retro remakes of the latest compo was a DS game?
I’ve been swamped with work, but I have an idea that I’m starting work on . . . a humorous remake.
Hello folks, developer here.. You put: “I almost wished I could create a function with different actions” – This is currently implemented in the downloadable version, but it is BETA. I have fine tuned it and it works great in my pre-release version here. They’re called ‘Inheritable Rooms’. You just use the Switch Room action to an inheritable room and it calls the actions of it.
– James
thanks, James. I just discovered the feature a couple of days ago and hadn’t fully explored it, but I think it would take care of the things I had in mind.
Also, I’ve been playing with DS Game Maker a bit [although not as much as I'd like], and I’m more impressed with it. I’m no programmer, but I hacked around with Neverwinter Nights a bit. Plus, guys like James, eldude, and others are very good about answering questions on the forums.
Trust me you need to get Ds Game Maker. I dont have a card so I cant buy it but I really would like to. V.3 is going to pwn so badly.
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