DS Gamer Maker 1.0

[Update 1, Update 2, Update 3]

DS Game Maker is built off of XtenDS, which a tool for creating games for the DS. It seems like the same development people are involved with both, but it’s a new name with some new features:

• You can now customize the grid feature [color, spacing, and font].
• The compiler now has a log file for debugging.
• You can upload your completed game their site so that others can download and enjoy your work.
• The registered version is US$10 rather than $5.

The documentation is somewhat cleaned up with better organization and some added details [like the graphic information], but it still needs a good tutorial for beginners, as well as more detail about each action.

This isn’t quite a tool for non-programmers, but it’s close. Since it is compatible with XtenDS, you might visit the XtenDS forums for tutorials, resources, tips, etc. because, even though there is a new DS Game Maker forum, the old one has a lot of good information. I’m finding one frustration in the sprite limitations: I want to add environmental objects larger than 32×32, but DS Game Maker doesn’t allow it.

Overall, DS Game Maker is a pretty good product, one that is much easier for game making hobbyists like myself to use and create DS games.

One thing the beginner might have is with the graphics. One useful tool is mappy, a free tile mapmaker that you can use to create backgrounds. And tiles? You can get them along with some sprites here. Perhaps at some point, I can pull together some of the free stuff I’ve found for creating a game and some basics for using them.

One of these days, I need to commit myself to creating and completing a game.

Update 1: Although everything installed okay, I had problems getting things to compile. Apparently, so are other folks according to the site’s troubleshooting forum. I’ll keep an eye for suggested solutions, although it could be a problem with the required tools. You need to download the latest version of DS Game Maker, which has been fixed, and see update 2.

Update 2: Indeed, it seems that the problem is with the tools, as a couple of people found that they needed to uninstall [and then completely delete all of the palib and devkit files] and reinstall the required tools [and folks pointed to the downloads in this post].

Just to clarify, this seems to be a safe order:

1. Install .NET 3.5 or later.
2. Reboot as needed.
3. Install Devkit Pro to the default location [c:\devkitpro]. The folder names cannot have spaces.
4. Download and extract palib.
5. Copy the extracted folders [palib\, palibexamples\, palib templates\] to c:\devkitpro.So, you should see c:\devkitpro\palib\ c:\devkitpro\palibexamples\, and c:\devkitpro\palib templates\.
6. Delete the devkitARM\ directory in c:\devkitpro.
7. Download and extract the Devkit ARM 21 downgrade. The folder must be extracted to c:\devkitpro.You should now see c:\devkitpro\devkitARM\.
8. Add a user environment variable [not system] named PAPATH [all caps] that has a value of /c/devkitPro/palib/
   • in Windows XP
   • Windows Vista: the same as XP, but to see the System Properties window, you’ll need to click Change Settings under the Computer Name, domain, and workgroup settings heading.
9. Reboot as needed.
10. In C:\devkitPro\PAlibExamples\Text\Normal\HelloWorld, run build.bat.A DOS window appears. If you see errors, go no further. Try uninstalling and completely deleting all the installed files [so that you have no C:\devkitPro\. Then reinstall again. Users have said that they've had to install the libraries a couple of times to get them to work together. This is a palib and devkit pro compatibility issue. [I'm running into the current problem that c:\devkitpro\msys\lib\arm7 does not exist.]
11. Install DS Game Maker.

Update 3: It all worked fine after I added an environment variable for PAlib, so I added step 8.