Tutorial:An introduction to Game Maker/Installation

From GMWiki, the Gamemaker Wiki.

You probably already did this but if not, here is how to install Game Maker. Simply run the program gmaker.exe. Follow the on-screen instructions. You can install the program anywhere you like but it is best to follow the default suggestions given. Once installation is completed, in the Start menu you will find a new program group where you can start Game Maker and read the help file.

The first time you run Game Maker you are asked whether you want to run the program in Simple or Advanced mode. If you have not used a game creation program before and you are not an experienced programmer, you had better use simple mode (so select No). In simple mode fewer options are shown. You can easily switch to advanced mode later using the appropriate item in the File menu.

Within the installation folder (default C:\Program Files\Game_Maker6\) there will be a number of other folders: examples contains a number of example games for you to check and/or change.

• lib contains a number of libraries of actions. If you want to install additional action libraries you must put them in this folder.
• sprites this folder is meant to contain sprites you can use. The default installation does install just a few sprites, but from the Game Maker website (http://www.gamemaker.nl/) you can load a number of resource packs that contain additional sprites, sounds, backgrounds, etc.
• backgrounds, sounds similar folders that are meant to contain the background images and sounds.

[edit] Requirements

Game Maker requires a modern Pentium PC running Windows 98SE, 2000, Me, XP, or later. A DirectX 8 compatible graphics card with at least 16MB of memory is required for most created games. It requires a screen resolution of at least 800x600 and 65000 (16-bit) colors. Also a DirectX 8 compatible sound card is required. It requires DirectX version 8.0 or later to be installed on your computer. (You can download the newest version of DirectX from the Microsoft website at: [1].) When designing and testing games, the memory requirements are pretty high (at least 64 MB and preferably more, also depending on the operating system). When just running games, the memory requirements are less severe and depend a lot on the type of game.