Maverick22

GML is case sensitive.  Try making "Direction" lowercase, "direction".

I'm pretty sure I read that you can't compile and run Windows 8 native on Windows 7.  If you want to test Windows 8, you need to do it on a Windows 8 computer.

Zolo,

Those functions are not compatible with GM:S.  You should be able to find many threads on pausing a game, but basically, you can either use:

sprite_create_from_screen or background_create_from_screen to get a copy of the current screen, then deactivate all instances and display the surface with the screen shot until unpausing occurs, in which you activate all of your instances and destroy the surface of the screen shot.  You could also use the screen capture method and go to a different room while paused and return when unpaused.   Make sure you mark you room persistent though so all of your instances are there when you come back.

The other method I am aware of is using a pause variable and using it in all of your instances/objects step/mouse events to determine if they are paused or active.

I personally use the pause variable method, but both should work.

Edit: Reread your first message, you should also check out file/ini handling functions to save your game data.  Also, I have never used game_save and game_load, but they might work for your needs.

Yeah, it is very nice.  Clean and professional. 

I know  this does not resolve your issue with OOP and instance storage.  But, if you are going to change to a different method, wouldn't ds_maps be better for this anyways?  I thought ds_maps were blazing fast in GM Studio as long as you don't need to iterate them sequentially.  I know it is not an OOP replacement, but it is very readable:

// Note: assumes a separate ds_map for each instance.

 ds_map_replace(myMap, "damage", 43);

 damage = ds_map_find_value(myMap, "damage");

Heck, I'm not even sure performance is going to be an issue when LLVM comes out in version 1.2, which is hopefully going to be this quarter.