Up to now we considered the simple features of Game Maker. But there are a lot more possibilities. To be able to use these you must run Game Maker in advanced mode. This is easy to change. In the File menu, click on the menu item Advanced mode. (To fully see the effects you should restart Game Maker or at least save your game and load it anew.
When you start Game Maker in advanced mode, the following form is shown:
It contains all that was there in simple mode, but there are a number of additional resources, buttons, and menu items. Also, as we will see in the chapters that follow the different resources have additional options. Here we will discuss the additional menu items.
15.1 File menu
In the file menu you can find the following additional commands:
• Import scripts. Can be used to import useful scripts from files. This will be
discussed in more detail in Chapter 21.
• Export scripts. Can be used to save your scripts in a file, to be used by others. Again see Chapter 21.
• Merge Game. With this command you can merge all the resources (sprites,
sounds, objects, rooms, etc.) from another game into the current game. This is very useful if you want to make parts you want to reuse (e.g. menu systems). (Note that all resources and instances and tiles will get a new id which might cause problems if you use these in scripts.) It is your responsibility to make sure
that the resources in the two files have different names, otherwise problems might occur.
• Preferences. Here you can set a number of preferences about Game Maker. They will be remembered between different calls of Game Maker. The following preferences can be set:
o Show recently edited games in the file menu. If checked the eight most
recently edited games are shown under the recent files in the file menu. o Load last ope ned file on startup. If checked when you start Game Maker
the most recently opened file is opened automatically.
o Keep backup copies of files. If checked the program saves a backup copy of your game with the extension ba0-ba9. You can open these games in
Game Maker.
o Maximal number of backups. Here you can indicate how many (1-9)
different backup copies should be remembered by the program.
o Hide the designer and wait while the game is running. If checked,
when you run the game, the designer window will disappear and come back when the game is finished.
o Run games in secure mode. If checked, any game created with Game
Maker that runs on your machine will not be allowed to execute external programs or change or delete files at a place different from the game location. (This is a safeguard against Trojan horses.) Checking this might make that certain games don't work correctly.
o Show the origin and bounding box in the sprite image. If checked, in
the sprite properties form, in the sprite image, the origin and bounding box for the sprite are indicated.
o In object properties, show hints for actions. If checked, in the object properties form, when you hold your mouse over one of the actions, a description is shown.
o When closing, remove instances outside the room. If checked, the
program warns you when there are instances or tiles outside a room and lets you remove them.
o Show popup at right mouse click in room image. If checked, a right
mouse click in the room will not delete the instance but shows a menu in which you can, among others, set initialization code.
o Remember room settings when closing the form. If checked, a number
of room settings, like whether to show the grid, whether to delete underlying objects, etc. are remembered when you edit the same room later.
o Externa l sound editors. You can indicate here which external editors to use for the different sound types. (Note that Game Maker does not have a built- in sound editor so if you don’t specify editors here you cannot edit the sounds.)
o Scripts and code. See Chapter 23 for more information about these
preferences.
o Image editor. Default Game Maker uses a built- in editor for images. If you have a better other image editing program you can indicate here to use a different program for editing the images.
15.2 Edit menu
In the file menu you can find the following additional commands:
• Insert group. Resources can be grouped together. This is very useful when you
make large games. For example, you can put all sounds related to a certain object in a group, or you can group all objects that are used in a particular level. This command creates a new group in the currently selected resource type. You will be asked for a name. Groups can again contain groups, etc. As indicated below you can drag resources into the groups.
• Find Resource. With this command you type in the name of a resource and open
the corresponding property form.
• Show Object Information. Using this command you can get an overview of all
objects in the game.
15.3 Add menu
In this menu you can now also add the additional resources. Note that for each of them there is also a button on the toolbar and a keyboard shortcut.