One critical aspect of game development is the design of the different levels that make it up. Obviously, you need to start out by presenting easier levels first, saving more complicated levels for the end of the game. As you design your game’s levels keep in mind that players who are new to your game have a lot to learn upfront. As such, it’s a good idea to limit the number of controls that the player must learn in the beginning. You can always introduce new controls as the player progresses through the game.

By the time players advance through the first two to three levels of the game, they should be getting comfortable with the game and its controls. This is the point where the game’s levels should be designed to be really challenging. If players really like your game, they should become fully engrossed and addicted, forgetting everything else. Players’ skill levels should begin to grow rapidly. It is important that you continue to toss new challenges out to them at an appropriate rate. Throw them out too fast and players can get frustrated. Throw them out too slow and players may get bored.

Eventually, players who stick with the game will get really good at it. Their level of improvement will begin to level off. If you time things right, this should coincide with the point in the game where the player is introduced to the game’s climax, hopefully making for a great finale and conclusion. If you do not time things correctly, and wait too long, players may not stick around long enough to reach the end. If you let the player reach the end of the game too soon, things may work out or players may come away feeling cheated because they were emotionally unprepared for the ending.

The best way to determine whether you are getting things right with the design of your levels is to lay them out carefully, going from simple to complex all the while introducing new features, obstacles, and rewards. Of course, you need to test each level and make sure that it feels right and that together they provide the player with a fun, fair, and well-balanced experience. But don’t take your own word for it. Enlist the help of your friends and get their feedback. Make sure you ask them about each level and whether or not you got them in the correct order. Find out what they like about a given level and consider adding it in other levels. Find out what they don’t like and consider reducing its occurrence or even eliminating it all together.

A computer game is an interactive experience involving one or more players in pursuit of a common goal. In order to achieve this goal, multiple obstacles or challenges must be overcome. In order to be successful, your games must challenge players and keep them entertained. This is achieved by creating an interactive experience in which players at all skill levels are kept engrossed in the gaming experience.

Keeping games challenging for players with different skill levels is an important game design consideration. If you make your games easy enough for beginner players, more experienced players will quickly get bored and move on. On the other hand, if you make your games challenging enough to engross experienced players, beginners will feel overwhelmed and walk away. Designing a game to satisfy the needs of both of the groups is not always easy, but it can be done using some basic design techniques.

One way of satisfying the needs of players with different levels of skill is to design the game to operate at different levels of difficulty. For example, you might give players the options of clicking on buttons labeled Easy, Medium, and Hard located on the games intro screen. Then based on the player’s selection, you could vary the speed at which things move or change the number of enemies that are generated at any one time. You might instead consider creating different levels to support easy, medium, and hard levels of play. Easy levels might be smaller, less complex, have fewer obstacles, and require fewer controls to navigate and control. Medium and hard levels might feature additional objects as well as new enemies and monsters that only more experienced players will be able to overcome.

You might also consider adding a few optional training levels to your game that are designed to acclimate new players to your game and to give players a chance to pick up the basic skills required to be successful without running the risk of initially overwhelming them. Another way of accommodating players with different levels of skills is to keep an eye on the player’s score and to use that score as a trigger for unleashing new levels of challenges. This way, players who are unable to score lots of points quickly can advance slowly from challenge to challenge while advanced players capable of moving quickly between challenges can do so just as fast as they can rack up points.

Yet another way of accommodating the needs of advanced players is to create a number of optional or secret advanced levels, which players do not have to play in order to complete game but which provide experienced players with greater and more satisfying challenges.

Every game needs a goal and it is critical that the player knows from the outset what that goal is. This helps to focus the player’s attention and keep his interest. However, if goals seem too overwhelming or distant, they may instead turn players off. A good way of overcoming this situation is to create smaller and easier to achieve objectives, the sum total of which lead the player ever closer to meeting the game’s goal.

Just as important as setting a clear goal and objectives is keeping the player informed of how well he is progressing towards them. You can do this in a variety of ways. For starters, you can display a score that lets the player know how well he is doing. For example, in a treasure hunting game, you might provide players with the ability to view their inventory or provide a map that shows how far the players have progressed on their journey.

Many action shoot-up games involve a series of battles fought over a number of levels, culminating in a fight with the game’s primary antagonist, often referred to as the boss. In these games the boss is a computer-controlled opponent that must be defeated as the climax in the game’s final level. Along the way to reach the game’s boss, players may need to defeat a number of tough mini bosses. To help the player keep track of his progress, you might display the player’s score along with the current level.

Game Maker provides a high score mechanism that you can include in your games to let players know how well their final score matches up against that of other players. By keeping track of high scores, you can provide players with the inspiration needed to keep playing as they aspire to earn the much-cherished high score.

During game play all kinds of things are going on and players have all kinds of things to think about and respond to. For example, in a Pac-man-style maze game, players have to decide whether to move up, down, right, or left at any moment in the game, while taking into consideration where various rewards lie and the location and direction that protagonist ghosts are moving. For these types of games, the choices are pretty straightforward and the consequences are obvious. However, other types of games allow the player to make different types of choices.

Some games allow players to select the character that they will control during game play. These characters might be a Viking warrior, a wizard, or a troll. In order for the player’s choice to have any real value, there must be consequences to their decision. This could be achieved by assigning different abilities to each character. The warrior might be fast and good with a sword. The wizard might be a lousy fighter but be able to ward off enemies or even hypnotize them with a magic wand. The troll might be quite slow but impervious to certain types of blows. By giving each character unique abilities, you make character selection meaningful.

As you work on your games, when you create a situation where the player has a choice to make, ask yourself, is the choice worth making? After all, if you give the player a choice between carrying either of two types of weapons, both of which are functionally identical, what is the point? Player choices should have meaning and consequences.

An important feature of any game is the proper care and feeding of the player. One way of doing this is to provide players with rewards for good play or perhaps for no reason whatsoever. The proper and timely provision of rewards can have a big impact on keeping players happy. Happy players keep playing and will keep coming back for more. Unhappy players give up and move on, which is the last thing any developer wants.

Rewards are important because they provide players with a sense of satisfaction and achievement for deeds well done. For example, when players accomplish certain tasks, you can reward them with bonus points. You can also reward players with extra lives or extra time to perform tasks that must be accomplished within specific time frames. There are other ways to provide players with rewards. One easy way is to display a message acknowledging when particular tasks are accomplished. A more involved approach might be to display a clever animated sequence at the conclusion of a level. In addition to letting players know they did well, you could use this as an opportunity to help make transitions between different levels and to instruct players on what their next objective is.

Rather than just assigning rewards for performing tasks, you can add objects at various locations within the game that players can collect as rewards. For example, you might strew a collection of medical kits around a room that when collected help to repair player health. Likewise, you might strategically place various objects that when collected give the player new or temporary abilities, like invisibility, invulnerability, or extra powerful ammunition.

Be consistent with any new capabilities you provide players and don’t get carried away too early in the game. This is a common mistake. It is important that as you introduce new features that you do so in a reasonable and equitable fashion. This means not giving the player access to every possible ability under the sun in the first or second level, but instead handing them out evenly throughout the course of the game. Otherwise, what do players have to look forward to? You might want to consider giving the player access to objects that provide different abilities on different levels. This can really keep things interesting and help to keep players on their toes. Also, do not give players an ability early on that they will love and then deny players that ability in later levels.

When it comes to rewards, remember two rules. First be generous but not too generous. A healthy dose of well-earned points can be a big motivator. On the other hand, loading up the player with a ridiculous number of points every time a small or menial task is performed quickly loses any motivating appeal. The second rule of rewards is to occasionally hand them out for no reason at all. Not only is this a nice surprise but it also motivates players by giving them hope that no matter how desperate a situation may be, there is always a chance that some random reward may be around the corner.

Another important part of game design is to make sure, unless you have a special reason for not doing so, that you provide players with all of the common features and controls that they expect. An example of something that players have come to expect from most computer games is to be able to create and reload save points. This is especially important in adventure-style games that can take hours or days to complete, as the player will get very upset if he realizes that he has to start all over from the beginning of the game or from the beginning of a level when his character dies. Game Maker helps you do this by providing Save Game and Load Game actions.

Players also expect to be able to keep track of their character’s health and to be able to tell at a glance how many lives they have left. You can provide this using Game Maker’s health and lives mechanisms. It is equally important that players be able to keep an eye on their score. To help you do this, Game Maker provides access to a number of score actions.

To make all of this information visible without interfering with game play or crowding up the display of the game screen, you can display an information plan at the top, bottom, or side of the screen. Players also expect to be able to take credit for their achievements in games where they earn a score. To satisfy this requirement, you can take advantage of Game Maker’s Show Highscore action.

When considering what types of features are essential to your games, shop around and take a look at what your competition is up to. Is there a common set of features? If so, you should probably make sure your games provide the same features.

The first step in creating Skybuster is to add the sprites needed to represent the game’s ball, walls, paddles, and red and green bricks. If you have not already done so, start Game Maker, or if it is already started, click on File > New to create a new application. Use the steps outlined below to add the game’s first sprite.

Using the same set of steps outlined above, create a new sprite named spr_paddle assigning it the paddle.gif file, a sprite named spr_goal assigning it the goal.gif file, a sprite named spr_miss, assigning it the miss.gif file, and a sprite named spr_wall, assigning it the wall.gif file. Unlike all of the other graphic files, the wall.gif file does not have a transparent background, so disable the spr_wall sprite’s Transparent setting. Next add another sprite named spr_redbrick and assign it the redbrick.gif file and a sprite named spr_greenbrick, assigning it the greenbrick.gif file.

The next step in the development of the Skybuster game is to add the sounds needed to play the game’s sound effects. This game will need three sounds, one for when the ball collides with the wall or a paddle, one for when the player misses the ball, and one for when the ball collides with the bricks. You will use audio files that come with Game Maker when creating these sounds. By default, these files are located in C:Program FilesGame Maker7Sounds.

The following procedure outlines the steps required to create the first sound.

Using the steps outlined above, create a new sound named snd_miss, assigning it the zap.wav file and then create another sound, naming it snd_hitbrick, and assign it the beep5.wav file.

Now it’s time to define a background for the game. The steps required to add the game’s background are outlined here:

The next step in the development of Skybuster is to add three rooms in which the game is played. The game consists of three levels, so three rooms will be needed. To create the first room, click on Resources > Create Room. The Room Properties window appears. Name the room room_level1 and increase the size of the room by clicking on the Settings tab and changing the room’s width to 800 and its height to 594. Also, add a caption of Skybuster - Level 1 to the Caption for the Room field. Next, click on the Backgrounds tab and clear the Draw Background Color setting and then select bck_sky as the room background. At this point, this room contains all of the base features needed by every room in the game, so to make things easy, click on OK to close the room you just started creating and then right-click on it and select Duplicate from the list of options that appears. Game Maker creates an exact duplicate of the room. Repeat this step one more time to add a third room to the game. Right-click on the first duplication and select the option to rename it, assigning it a name of room_level2. Repeat this process with the second duplicate room, naming it room_level3.

You are now ready to begin populating each of the rooms with the objects needed to facilitate game play. Begin by opening room_level 1 and selecting its Object tab. Next, select the obj_wall object and then draw repeated instances of it around the left, right, and top edges of the room, as shown in Figure 5.2. Then add 10 instances of the obj_redbrick object across the upper portion of the room. Next, select the obj_miss object and use it to draw a line across the bottom of the room. Finally, add an instance of the obj_paddle object just above the bottom center of the room and add an instance of the obj_controller object to the room anywhere you want.

Figure 5.2. The first level contains a single row of red bricks.

Once you have finished working on this room, click on the green check button located on the Room Properties toolbar to save and close the room. Using the same steps outlined above, open room_level2 and then configure it so that it contains three rows of green bricks laid out as shown in Figure 5.3.

Figure 5.3. The second level contains three rows of green bricks.

When done, close this room and open room_level3, configuring it as shown in Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4. The third level contains five rows of red and green bricks.

When done, close this room and proceed to the next section where you will add and then configure the objects needed to bring the game to life.

Skybuster is made up of a number of different objects, some of which are visible and some of which are not visible. The visible objects include the ball, paddles, walls, and color bricks. The invisible objects include the obj_miss object that will be placed at the bottom of the screen and used to determine when the player has failed to deflect the bouncing ball back into play. An invisible controller object will also be used to initiate the start of game and start of room actions as well as to track the number of bricks left in the room and manage the process of switching between rooms when all of the bricks have been knocked out. The controller object will also track player lives and determine when game play should end.

Let’s begin by defining all of the objects that will be visible to the players, starting with the ball object, moving on to the paddle objects, followed by the wall object and then the red and green bricks.