| Game-Maker | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Recreational Software Designs |
| Publisher(s) | KD Software |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
| Release date(s) | 1.0: 1991 1.05: February, 1993 1.05b: 1993 2.0: August 10, 1993 2.02: December 5, 1993 3.0: 1994 |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| System requirements
VGA display, 286 processor, mouse, 640kB conventional memory |
|
Game-Maker (aka RSD Game-Maker) is an MS-DOS-based suite of game design tools published between 1991 and 1995 by the Amherst, NH based Recreational Software Designs and sold through direct mail in the US by KD Software.[1] Game-Maker was also sold under various names by licensed distributors in the UK and Korea, including Captain GameMaker (UK) and Create Your Own Games: GameMaker (Microforum).[2] Game-Maker is notable as one of the first complete game design packages for MS-DOS-based PCs and for its early support for VGA graphics, Sound Blaster sound, and full-screen four-way scrolling.[3]
Primary distribution for Game-Maker was through advertisements in the back of PC and game magazines such as VideoGames & Computer Entertainment. At release, Game-Maker was priced at $89 and shipped on several 5.25" floppy disks with seven or eight demonstration or tutorial games. Later releases were less expensive, and shipped on CD with dozens of sample games and a wide range of resources.[4]
Users could distribute their games through the Night Owl (later, Frontline) BBS in Kennebunkport, Maine or through the Game-Maker Exchange program — an infrequent mailing to registered users, compiling submitted games to a floppy disc with occasional commentary from RSD president G. Oliver Stone. [5]
Contents |
Game-Maker consists of a text-mode wrapper, tying together a collection of WYSIWYG design tools. The tools produce proprietary resources that are compiled together and parsed with RSD's custom XFERPLAY game engine. The design tools include:
Game-Maker involves no scripting language; all design tools use a mouse-driven 320x200 VGA display with a common theme. Users draw background tiles pixel by pixel in an enlarged window, and can pull tiles from the palette to arrange in a "sandbox" area. A further menu allows users to set physical properties -- solidity, gravity, animation, various counter values -- for each block. The user draws maps by pulling blocks from the palette and painting with them using simple paintbrush, line, shape, and fill tools.
Characters can have up to 15 keyboard commands, plus idle, death, and injury animations. They can hold an inventory and money, earn score, gain and lose hit points and lives, and track several counters -- often used for keys and similar functions. Monsters have simple animations and movements, and can also change behavior in response to the player.
Playable games can be exported complete with a portable version of the XFERPLAY engine, sound drivers, and configuration files. All games record high scores and (in later versions) attract mode replays. All games also feature instant save and load, and support standard PC joysticks.
One of the more opaque qualities of Game-Maker is its exclusive support of Creative's proprietary .VOC and .CMF sound and music formats, and its absence of integrated design tools for those formats or even recommendations as to external tools, leaving users to figure out their own solutions — or not.[6]
Other common frustrations include the lack of multi-key mapping for character behaviors (such as pressing Z + a directional arrow to jump in the direction pressed), the extreme simplicity of monster behaviors, several eccentricities of the game engine itself, and the lack of on-screen displays for health, lives, and other counters.
Although in 1991 Game-Maker's features were on par with or superior to contemporary Shareware releases from companies like Apogee and Epic Megagames, by the mid-'90s its technology was eclipsed by the shift to 3D games and the advanced memory techniques afforded by tools like DOS4GW. Despite some plans for a professional-quality update, RSD ceased support for Game-Maker around 1995.
As one of the first complete game design suites for IBM-based PCs, and the only one devoted to action games during the early '90s Shareware boom, Game-Maker "anticipated the thriving indie game community we have today with countless game engines, web sites and indie game companies."[7] Several of its users went on to later note in indie or commercial game development, such as renowned Seiklus author cly5m[8][9], Liight programmer Roland Ludlam[10], and Bionic Commando associate producer James W. Morris[11]. Some games produced with RSD's tools, such as Jeremy LaMar's Blinky series, have become cult favorites.[12] Others, like A-J's Quest, Die Blarney!, and Matt Bell's Paper Airplane, reached a wide circulation during the 1990s Shareware boom, appearing on many CD compilations.