DS Game Maker PDF Manual
It is fair to say that most enjoy playing computer games either alone or with their friends, but what is actually more fun, is making your own games and letting others play them. Unfortunately, the DS is not an easy platform for which to develop and teams of 50 professionals can take more than a year to finish a game which you would buy at a store. These people are highly experienced: designers, sound technicians, researchers and programmers, etc. Does this mean creating games for the Nintendo DS is impossible? Luckily, No! You should not be expecting to create Super Mario Bros. or Metroid Prime Hunters within a few weeks. Simpler games like Pacman and Space Invaders are also fun to play and much easier to create, but they still require good programming skills and understanding of the DS? hardware to handle graphics and sound, for example. So here comes DS Game Maker which was created to make game creation like the above much easier.
There is no need to have knowledge of programming or how the inside of the DS works. In fact, DS Game Maker simplifies game creation so it is possible, with commitment, to make great games in little time. You can import your own resources, including images and sounds. DS Game Maker is room-orientated (don?t worry!). Every room includes backgrounds and sprites (moving images) and a list of actions to make your games come alive. If you want full control of homebrew development for the DS, there is extensive support for the use of your own code at many places within the program. You may change the code for every action that comes with the software. We made the software simple to use but did not limit its use! DS Game Maker focuses really on 2D games and it is not in any way designed to create 3D games. However, don?t let this put you down. Street Fighter has proved there is still a market for 2D games and many games such as Command & Conquer are 2 dimensional games even though they look to be 3 dimensional. Also, designing 2D games is much easier and faster in development for any console.
There are two editions of DS Game Maker, the Free Edition and the Pro Edition. The Free Edition can be used free of charge but it shows a DS Game Maker advert when the game is run and it is also limited in functionality. You are free to distribute any games you make with the software, whether you use the Free or Pro version, we don?t mind. You don?t even have to mention you used DS Game Maker in the credits. With this in mind, you are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the Pro Edition of DS Game Maker. It extends the functionality of the software and will remove the advertising splash screen before the game launches. It will also support the further development of DS Game Maker. This help file will tell you all that you need to know about DS Game Maker and how to create your own games with it. Please do realize however, that even with a program such as DS Game Maker, designing games is not completely effortless. Many aspects are important in creating a successful game, including planning, graphics, user interaction and music. These are elements that you should think about when creating your game to impress your audience. Start with easy examples and build up your knowledge of the program and skills with it.
You will soon realize that creating your own games is great fun. Note that the link above will always give you the latest version of the software. Other websites may host their own mirrors of the DS Game Maker installer. The issue with this is that other websites do not update their copies as updates are released (and hence as bugs are fixed, things are added etc). Also by downloading the installer from our website, you can be sure it is 100% virus/spyware free. MICROSOFT .NET FRAMEWORK In order to run DS Game Maker, you require Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 to be installed on your computer. Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Vista include this (so you can run the application straight away and ignore this step). Most Windows XP users should have it installed too (from Windows Update), but this is not always the case. So, if you do not have the framework you will receive the following error:
It would be great to live in a world where any kind of development was not limited in some way by the software or hardware of a games console. Unfortunately, the DS is actually very low spec and when designing games, it has to be taken into consideration. When creating games, you may have to think about your use of high quality graphics and background music, etc. The following limits are in place as results of the DS? hardware, PAlib and DS Game Maker functionality: ? Maximum of 32 256-color sprites in the project ? Maximum of 128 instances of the above sprites per screen at once ? 4mb cap on all resources except MP3s (DS RAM is 4mb) ? MP3s require a low bitrate As a new user, I would really not worry about these limits. You can cross this bridge when you come to it. It is just useful and important in my opinion, to inform users about this.
PIECING IT TOGETHER Before diving into the possibilities of DS Game Maker it is important that you understand the key concepts behind games created using the software. Games created in DS Game Maker take place in one or more rooms (they are flat, not 3D, but may contain 3D looking graphics). In these rooms you place sprites, for example walls, moving balls, monsters or the main character, and you also set backgrounds for the room like wallpaper. Some sprites will move around and react to player input, for example from the stylus or DS? buttons. Some sprites trigger logic when they collide with other sprites, for example when the play meets a monster he might die. Once you have added sprites it is time to define the rooms in which they are placed. Rooms can be used as levels in your game or as menu screens, or for anything. Rooms, have 2 backgrounds (one for each screen). Next you can place instances of your sprites in the room. You can place multiple instances of the same sprite in the room (you only need to add 1 wall sprite but you can use it in many places, like to make a maze). The most important elements in your games are actions. These are put simply “things that happen” and some examples include Play Sound, Switch Room, Output text, Delete Sprite. These actions interact with the sprites you have plotted, other rooms and other actions with the list. Each room also has “View” settings (similar to those found in Game Maker). With this feature, you are able to add sprites off the screen and scroll them into view as the player navigates the room. See it as an overhead camera that is already programmed for you!
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