Description
The SparkEngine is a platforming game engine made for GameMaker 7.1. It was designed from the ground up to be friendly for beginners, featuring a simple one line command to enable things such as character controllers, physics, and animation. The SparkEngine is generic enough to work for any platformer, handling most basic functionality while still being fully customizable. The engine officially supports up to GameMaker 8.1, but not Studio and beyond.
Features:
Movement
Gravity
Jumping
Auto-Animation Tool
Wall Jumping
Double Jumping
Physics
SmartCam that can zoom, pan, view multiple objects, and rotate. Also acts as a cinematic camera.
Speech Bubbles
Player can reach speeds of up to 9999 without missing the collision between the player and the ground
Sound that pans and adjusts volume based on distance
Water and Ice
Moving Platforms
One Way Platforms
Motion Blur
AI
Screenshots
My Role
I developed everything myself from the ground up, no third party libraries were used.
Lessons Learned
The SparkEngine was my first deep dive into the ins and outs of GameMaker. I learned a lot about collision detection, as well as creating a user friendly API. It was also when I discovered my love of tool creation, being the first tool I every published. Lastly, I got to experience what serving a community was like. After posting it I was flooded with messages and posts asking for new features or telling me to fix bugs. Being able to work with and develop for a community is an experience I still carry with me to this day.
Development
While the date I started working on the SparkEngine is unknown, I do know this project was one of my larger ones. Prototyping and implementation came quickly, but adjusting for community feedback is what took time. Designing something as relatively complex as a platformer into single line commands was one of the most fun parts. It enabled rapid prototyping of some of my other projects too.
This tool was made specifically for beginners of the GameMaker Community. There were many new users always asking for help with platformers, so I decided to make a heavily documented example for them to build off of, and eventually that grew into a fully featured toolset.
Notes
Controlls:
Up Arrow: Jump
Left and Right Arrows: Move/Wall jump
Enter: Talk
T: Toggle on/off showing gravity pull direction
Num Pad: Controll the camera (Explained in-game)
Z: Shrink
X: Grow
C: Return to normal size
SparkEngine
The SparkEngine is a feature rich platforming engine created for GameMaker 7. It was designed for beginners, and is known for its single line character controller. It handles movement, gravity, wall jumping, double jumping, collisions, physics, animation, audio, scaling, camera control, motion blur, and more!
Release Date:
02/28/2008
Platform:
PC
Roles:
Programmer
Solo Developer
Skills:
Tool Development
Collision Detection
Graphic Effects
Tool:
GameMaker 7.1
Client:
GameMaker Community
Download
Source Code
GMC Forum Post
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