BenRK

I'm primarily interested in developing games using Game Maker Studio for mobile platforms. I have an Android tablet I'm using to experiment around with, and so far I'm loving it! Not to excited about the supposed pricing however... but at least it's cheaper then everything else I've seen short of learning how to use the SDK (and due to time constraints, that's not going to happen). Anyway, I have a few suggestions that I hope YoYo will see.

For starters, I do like how I don't have to have the runner app pre-installed to test my projects, but I feel like load times can be sped up considerably. From what I can tell, the runner is constantly re-installed every time I want to test my project. While it is faster then compiling the apk, transfering it over, installing, running the test, then uninstalling, it's still... a tad too slow. I clocked it at 10-11 seconds, and like I said, it is faster then doing it the hard way, and I would much rather have it be that slow then not at all. Anyway, I think it would make things faster if Studio detected the app being installed already and just transferred over everything it needed. Maybe this is what it's already doing and I'm just reading this wrong, maybe it's simply not possible, I don't know.

Another suggestion I have is completing the help file. I don't know about you, but one thing that makes using Game Maker all the more easier is the complete help file. I can't live without it, and it sets other programs apart from it. Be it just browsing to see what functions you could use in future projects to looking up a function you're not quite sure how to use. It's always stop 1 for trouble shooting. I haven't seen such completeness in Studio's help file. It also seems... less friendly. I KNOW there are functions that are new to Studio and are not documented. I read something about achievements while I was writing up some GML, but I found nothing in the help file. I know the function is there though. Same with 3D. In my own testing, I managed to get a spinning cube to display on my Android tablet, yet the 3D functions are not actually documented. I don't want to have both Standard AND Studio open at the same time just so I can use the far better help file in Standard.

On to some bugs. They are all probably mentioned already, but hey, no harm in bringing it up again.

I've noticed that the windows in Studio keep changing sizes. The object screens, room screens, etc, all keep changing sizes on me.

And maybe it's an error on my end, but I can't get sounds to play on the Android runner.

A little while ago my copy of GM8.1 reverted back to lite. Not a big deal, I thought, but for some reason, my key is no longer in existence. I can't find it on the store, on the site, anywhere. I thought I saved it, but I can't find the file either.

Oh, ok then, guess I'll go to the help desk. Big mistake.

I explained that my copy of GM8.1 is no longer activated, explained I believe it was from a recent hardware change. They told me to look at the FAQ. Ok, sadly, nothing on there helps, as my copy of GM doesn't think it needs to be reactivated, it thinks it's a fresh new copy of lite.

Mentioned that, they tell me to go to Softwrap. Um.. excuse me? GM8.1 uses an in house DRM, correct? How would contacting softwrap help? I did so anyway, and lo and behold, nothing. I said it didn't work, then they told me to look at the FAQ again and closed the ticket.

I don't mean to sound like I'm just ranting, though I am upset about this. I simply want to get my copy of Game Maker working again, yet I'm not getting ANY help from YoYo. What the heck is going on!?

At the end of the day, all I wanted was my key returned to me, not to have me run around in unhelpful circles.

So I turn to you for aid and suggestions and perhaps bring up the poor performance the help staff have been.

I'm working on a tower defense game. I've done many proofs of concepts before and I know the A* functions like... well, like how I look them up in the help file. Anyway, my question isn't about the A* functions them selves, I know how to use them, not the issue.

What I'm trying to accomplish is making an object for the A* path finding stuff that is only solid part of the time. Say... a fragile sand bag wall. Realistically, this could be easily destroyed, and I want to do something along those lines. If the enemy can simply go around it, then they would go around it, but if there is no other option, then they would destroy it to get past.

I understand the basics for this. Simply do the normal path finding stuff at the start of the round. If there is no obscured path, then things work as normal. If there is no clear path, then start looking for these destructible walls till a clear path has been found. Simple, right?

Well, it would be if I allowed for only one destructible wall, however, this wouldn't really be fun, make the building rather useless, right? I want to be able to place as many of these walls as I need on the playing field. This would lead to some game breaking glitches when done incorrectly. Such as, say, you have a long row of walls on two sides of a path, but only one wall in the path it self. If I simply make all of the walls not solid, the enemy would start digging through the long line of walls, not the obvious one, slowing them down and making the wave too easy. Maybe the line of walls is the only path, so the enemy would have to dig through all of them, but if I make it so only one wall at a time is non solid, then it would never return a path, thinking there was none.

I'm not looking for any GML, but I would like some ideas on how to solve this issue and get it working.

I already have the basics done for it, 2D arrays and such for the path finding and information that holds which object is destructible or not (unrelated question, would moving up to a ds_grid be faster in terms of over all game speed) and the basic A* path finding in place.

I'm going to enter competition 6, and I have an idea of what I want to do, however, I'll be needing someone to deal with the graphic end of this. I think it goes without saying that I'm no artist, and to do what I'm wanting to do, I'm going to need someone to do the art and graphics.

What I'm looking for is an artist who is willing to do the graphics and artwork for the game. If the game wins, I will share the winnings with all team members appropriately. I will be programming, writing the story, and probably most of the level designing.

I wont share the game premise of the game in public, but I'm looking for SNES quality sprites and backgrounds.

So yeah, please PM me or contact me through any other way provided by my user page. Thanks.

To start off, I'm not going to use 39dll, as I'm fairly sure I'm not allowed to use it for the contest.

Anyway, I seem to be unable to connect to my self for testing reasons using mplay. Has anyone else managed to do this, or is it simply impossible to connect to my self using mplay?