Game Maker #1 : Basic Movement

I believe most of you loves to play game; be it online game, console game or pc game. Today, I am going guide you in your quest to create your very own game. 

Preparation
1. Install GameMaker 8.1 Lite 
2. Make sure you download the free version

The Basics
In the universe of Game Maker, you have 3 important elements. There are: Sprite, Object & Room. You can't create a game without any of these. 


Sprite 
This basically your graphical element. You can either create your own sprite or load sprite which comes with Game Maker. 

Object
These are container that stores your sprite and turn them into useful stuff. You can add functions to your sprite only by associating them with object

Room
This is a space where you fill in with your objects and walls to form the environment for your game


Enough talking, let's get going with your first video tutorial which I found most useful. This tutorial shows how a 11 year old boy teaches his father how to use Game Maker. 

This video uses Game Maker 7 to design the game. Therefore you might find some features missing in action. Don't worry about it, the principles remain thesame for all versions of Game Maker. If you feel like moving forward after this video, please feel free to continue the tutorial below.


GAME MAKER VIDEO TUTORIALS (1 - 4)

Next Monday, we are going to organize a game design mini competition among you. Prepare yourself and learn as much as you can to emerge as the champion. If you have any inquiries, please comment on my Facebook post.

Pandora Hacks : Saying "No"

When was the last time you ever say "No' to someone who come for help. For most persons that would be a zero, but we also have "selfish" people who did the opposite. Today we are going to talk about the power of No and its relationship with productivity.

Why people say "Yes" all the time ? 

Let's analyze why people are reluctant to say "No" to others:  


1. They want to play nice 
2. They are afraid to offend someone
3. They do not dare to challenge the authority 
4. It is in their nature 

It's clear that FEAR plays a vital role here. They are afraid that by refusing to offer assistance might damage relationships. Friends or colleague might "suddenly" leave them alone. The truth is: most people do not hold any ill feeling if you give them a proper reason. They won't step out of your social circle for being a jerk once in a while. In contrast, they will think twice before asking for your help and weight the urgency of the matter. Remember, your friends too need you and they would not simply abandon you for such petty reason. Even if were to abandon you, they are probably not  good friends also.

The Advantages 

Now let's get down to the advantages of saying "No". The most significant effect will be less people bothering you with petty problems, which they can solve by simply typing it in Google. Secondly, they will respect your time and only look for you when the task is extremely urgent. Most importantly, you will have some long uninterrupted time for yourself. Imagine if Linus Torvalds, Larry Page, Steve Jobs  and Tim Bernes Lee were reluctant to say No. The web would not exist at all, Google would not be the giant today and Iphone may not even exist. You see, chasing down your dream required tremendous amount of time and energy. If you leave your window open to nonsense, you will end up a loser. 

But saying "No' means I am selfish 

This is another bullshit I hear all the time. I am not telling you to ignore everyone's requests or lock yourself in a black box. Instead, I am asking you to use your mind to weight the importance of the tasks at hand versus those that are being thrown to you. For instance, if you were to spend your whole evening playing computer games, I guess you don't have any power to say No. You can still say No because it is your life not theirs. You may not want to hear this, sometimes you have to be selfish in order to succeed. This is the hard truth that everybody seems to deny in today's society. 

My Experience  
Recently I was up go for an event, I was reluctant to do so because they were so many important competitions around the corner such as the KDU Game Design Challenge and National Robotics Competition. Sadly, weekends are the only time I can spend long uninterrupted time to do some creative work. What Did I do ? I told a white lie to brush off the request. However, the lie was discovered and I was bombarded with all sorts of accusations. Maybe it as my fault to lie in the first place, but could I get away nicely if I had not tell the lie. The answer is "No". They were literally 20 people who were busy with their friends or tuition, that were not ask to join the event at all. What did I get ? I was told that I am dishonest, not committed and disappointing. If I am not committed, i would not have spent my time in Form 1 till Form 3 working like hell. Those people close to me know that I am extremely obsessive with my work. I will take days to plan out strategy and go through sleepless nights in order to get what I want. 

Finally I would like to quote Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech: 

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking"  - Steve Jobs 

 

KDU Game Design Challenge 2011

The game design challenge is back and they will continue to use Game Maker 8. Anyone interested in game should really give this challenge a try. Trust me, crafting your own game is way better than hanging out in Gurney Plaza or going to your boring tuition. 

The Details 
As usual, each team consists of 2 people and you will have to pay Rm20 per team. The event will start at 8.30 and end at 5.00. In the morning, students will be exposed to various aspects of game design. Moving forward, senior students of KDU will provide training on all these aspects to prepare you for the ultimate challenge. The competition usually starts after your lunch break, and from what I heard, the organiser is going to extend the amount of time given to design your game. The theme will be announced on that day itself. 

The Experience 
After registration, we were told to move into the lecture hall. As usual, they had the introduction session and yada yada yada. Then, students of KDU started giving lecture on various aspects of game design such as audio, picture and storyline. The lecture provided us with better picture of a good game. 

My Advice 
You can start playing with game maker before joining the competition to get a better grip at it. There are many good tutorials out there. If you need ebooks for the competition, you could get it from me


So what are you waiting for ? Join now.

Jinified : Do you love Art ?

 

I am a big fan of life hacks and psychology. Although I claim myself as a geek, but I always love art. Perhaps I should define the word Art. Here it refers to any subjects that places more emphasis on your right brain rather than your left brain. I find them surprisingly not boring. Many students, especially science students find art subjects like economics, english and history very dull. Let's face it, the real problem lies in the way at which these subjects are taught, and not on the subjects themselves. Walking into an Art class, one would expect creative classroom and fun environment which stimulates your right brain, but sadly these classes are rather rigid and orderly. Shouldn't Art be associated with the word 'Crazy' instead of 'Dull'. I think I am running out of creative juice, so bye bye for now. 
 

Jinified: I'm Back

 

- THIS IS A SHORT MOVIE -

Grab a bucket of popcorn and get ready to sail through the voices in my head

Finally Jinified is back after what it seems like an eternal break. I miss this blog so much and I felt really bad for neglecting this blog for quite some time. Let's get back to business, after I have officially settled down in Form 6. Talking about Form 6, I am glad we have a pretty strong lineup of teachers.For instance our class teacher is none other than Madam Saw who also teaches MUET. Besides that, we also have the female Einstein, Mrs Chong Lai Yoong. Most "frees" who apply for Physics are placed in 6RB. The class committee also consists mainly of "frees" and did I mention I was voted as the class treasurer, but I exchange with Zhen How for the post of secretary. This holiday comes at the right time when I needed to rejuvenate and prepare myself for some of great battles ahead. 

What is the plan ?

1. GVC 

Although the competition will commence on the 1st of October, but the planning is extremely crucial. I have done some really extensive research on the marking criteria. Maybe I will create a Wordpress blog solely for GVC where the public can share their ideas and thoughts. Besides that, starting from last year, the panel of judges has introduced a new criteria called Helping Focus. From my understanding, this requires the participating schools to help their community with what they are working on. In simple terms, community service. I was thinking of my pro-bono web design plan might be useful here. 

2. NRC 

This year National Robotics Competition Open Category theme is "Robot Improving Life". I am still in the process of laying down the framework for this project. From what I see, the theme could be interpreted in many ways and robots can be used in various ways. I wasn't really sure I should join this competition since the Form 6 classes will be going like bullet train. Somehow my heart is asking me to participate. 

3. School Magazine

I have decided to join the school Editorial board "officially" as the layout designer. at first i was reluctant to join the board because; firstly I really hate to be tied down and forced to be committed. And joining the board means i have to compromise my design for the likes of our great principal. Nevertheless, I join the board because for once I want to create a magazine that I truly want to buy. Who cares about limitation when you can kick reason in the face ? 

4. Designing T-Shirt 

I am planning to design t-shirt for Computer Club and maybe the sixth form society if they allow me to. I have all sorts of geeky ideas for the computer club t-shirt. As for the Form Six society, I don't think they want to label themselves as geeks.  

5. English presentation

Madam Saw gave us this assignment where the students have to find one newspaper article, news (documentary, talks or biography) and a movie. Then, they are required to present these 3 items in class by adding their personal opinions. I am really excited wit this project and the first thing that came to my mind is PowerPoint. I haven't touch this software for ages, and I would really like to use it once again to lay down my present my ideas. I hope what I'm going to talk about will inspire the class and learn something that will change their life. Talking in public always gives this creepy feeling which is like a cocktail with fear and ecstatic feeling. There is nothing wrong withe failures, because they don;t really care if you fail. For some clues on my presentation: Steve Job, gamestorming and hacking.

I know this is a pretty long post and if you didn't get lost in the sea of words; thank you. I just had to lash out all these thoughts in my mind before executing my plans. Maybe some of you were wondering how come studying is not included in my plan ? The reason is pretty simple, if I do that, you could probably call this a short movie instead of a blog post. And I detest the word studying because I don't study. Instead, I execute my plans and study should be treated like a strategy game. 

Happy Holiday !!!!