Express Game Maker

[Mr.Mo]

We are pleased to announce Express Game Maker (EGM)!

Spoiler: Videos

Preview Video 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqnXRAF7gSE
Preview Video 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNnP0Fc6ip8

Spoiler: More Screens

Title Screen

Spoiler

More info here.

Message System

Spoiler

More info here.

Ever wanted to make games but you don't know how to program or draw? Wait no more! Express Game Maker is a 2D game making software that requires no programming or artistic knowledge to use. Make games for Windows, Xbox Live, and Silverlight.

What makes Express Game Maker different from the rest?

Intuitive user-interface… powerful C# engine… ease of use… loads of features… and multi-platform deployment.

EGM is designed from the ground up to be user friendly as well as powerful. Keeping in mind both beginner and advanced users, EGM has features to cater for all.

Beginner game developers will be able to take advantage of:

• • Project templates that come with pre-setup data to quickly get them started.
  • Resource packages that provide graphics, font and audio they can use in their games.
  • The release version of EGM will also come with a built-in tutorial system to guide you through creating your first game.

Advanced users will be able to make their own project templates and take full advantage of:

• • The custom databases.
  • The powerful event editor.
  • Multi-Variable System.
  • The particle system.

Programmers can enhance their games by adding their own code to the fully open source C# engine written on top of XNA and even share the code with others.

ExpressGameMaker.com/Features
More features will be revealed every three days (some sooner), so check back soon.

ExpressGameMaker.com – Our main website
facebook.com/ExpressGameMaker - EGM on Facebook
twitter.com/EGMaker - Follow us on Twitter

Place one or more of these in your signature and spread EGM! (Link back to this thread or our website) :D

This is Virtual Impact Studios LLC's first project! The Release Candidate’s Release Date is planned to be sometime in September 2010.

All content is work in progress and is subject to change without notice.

 

[OneLostSoul]

mr. mo? the same mr. mo from forever ago? (that rhymes i should be a rap artist lol)

so you're behind this? :haha:

 

[Kav]

Okay, you didn't answer me on rpgmakervx.net, so I'll ask again:

Is this free? If so, this looks like a pretty good deal. It's like RPG Maker XP/VX without the restrictions.

Also, I wanted to register on your site, but you have a 4 character minimum requirement, and Kav is only 3 characters >_> maybe you can change that

 

[Mr.Mo]

No, it is not free, a lot of labor and money is invested in to this. We don't have a definite price yet but expect something around the price of a new 2nd gen video game.

Also, I PMed you on RMVX .

And yup I'm behind this, well, not just me.
Thanks for your interest.

 

[Mr.Mo]

Update
We've just revealed more about two features!
The Animation Editor and the Map Editor. Check them out!

 

[Ellie]

This looks amazingly cool. Just make sure you release it :p a lot of people have tried this in the past. This looks the most complete though and I like the look of the interface.

 

[Mr.Mo]

Update
-----------

Hello everyone, we've released more about features. Check them out.


We'll be releasing more content soon

 

[Mr.Mo]

This week on EGM we’ll update you on EGM progress and talk about the first EGM resource pack. The website development is on hold for now as version 2 of the website is being planned by the webmaster which will be a total remake of the whole website with many exciting features!

Read the rest here:
http://www.expressgamemaker.com/Communi ... -2010.aspx

 

[Guest]

;D

 

[Alexander Morou]

. . . we've had ad bots give more info on the site posted on than this . . .

Perhaps they were onto something, if you're going to spam, spam in detail, so it's less obvious (that it's spam).

 

[Mr.Mo]

Hello everyone,

This week on EGM we will release the first video on EGM and tell you about our progress.
You can watch the video on our youtube page http://www.youtube.com/user/ExpressGameMaker.

Don't forget to rate the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqnXRAF7gSE&fmt=22

This video is for those who are already familiar with EGM or any other game maker and game development. Our next video will be for those who are unfamiliar with it .

So far, the development on EGM is going smooth and we have already started the first phase of the private beta testing.

The battle system and the menu maker are also almost complete. We’ve tweaked the UI and added some new UI elements to make EGM easier to use some of which can be seen in the video.

We have only a few more features to complete and EGM will be ready for the second phase of testing.

Remember to tell others about us!
Express Game Maker Team, http://www.expressgamemaker.com

 

[Mr.Mo]

Hello everyone,

We just released new video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNnP0Fc6ip8

Express Game Maker Team, http://www.expressgamemaker.com

 

[Mr.Mo]

Hello everyone,

Today we are going to talk about the menu maker and show you how easy it is to make a title screen and your own message system.

The screens are from a mini-rpg game we are working on to wrap up EGM and test out many of its functions.
*All the information below is work in progress and is subject to change without notice.

Title Screen

Spoiler

This title screen has only a background, one menu (a list) and the menu contains 3 options.
You can see the events at the right side of the image. One of the events we use here is the OnConfirm event, which activates when the user clicks the action key while the menu is active. In this case, we use this event to either start the game, load it or exit it.
Another is OnSelectedIndex, which activates when the selected index changes and in this is case, it is used to play a sound effect.
Also notice the "Variable" field in the property list, under Options. This field lets us store the index of the menu to a variable which can be used in an event (as can be seen in the third image).

Message System

Spoiler

The message works similar to the title screen. You setup its design and functions and declare it as a message (IsMessage) and the rest is handled by the engine. In this classical message system, there is one window, one text, and one animated arrow.

Note that this is the last game we (the devs) will be doing until the demo release. Which in other terms means, the demo release will be around the same time the game is finished.

Remember to tell others about us!
Express Game Maker Team, http://www.expressgamemaker.com

Note: Updated first post with more info.

 

[Mr.Mo]

Hello everyone,

We know that many of you come from tile-based mapping game makers. So this week we are going to cover the mapping system in EGM and why it’s better than the traditional tiled mapping systems. I’ve used tile-based game makers before and using EGM may feel like the same at first but the more you use it you will notice the key differences.

EGM’s mapping system is a layer based free/pixel mapping system. This means you can freely place tiles in a map and each tile is an object with its own properties (scale, rotation, and tint). In short, you don’t have to follow a grid or be stuck with 3 or less layers.

Since there is no preset grid in EGM, you can have as many layers as you want. Even though there is no preset limit to the amount of tiles, because each tile is an object you’ll have to be careful about the amount of tiles you use. In the current version, we haven’t come up with a way to use unlimited tiles… yet.

That’s the map editor. It’s made up of several components, which are:
1. The map – where you place the tiles and events to.
2. The maps explorer – where you manage your maps.
3. The layers – where you manage the layers.
4. The map’s events explorer – an extra simple way to access the events on the selected map.
5. The tiles explorer – contains the graphics you can place on to the map.
6. The tileset editor – where you add the graphics to be used for the map.


Although you don’t have to use a grid based mapping system in EGM, it’s still best to use tilesets because they are easier to manage then loads of single sprites. However, if you do not wish to use tilesets, you can just easily match the sprite’s grid to its size, making it a single sprite like so:


Now, in order to map, we need to create a map which can done by clicking the gridded map icon with the small green plus sign. You can edit the map settings by clicking the gray cog icon.


You can edit the map size, the grid size, the gravity (optional), the effects (BGM, BGS, Tint, and Fog), dim the layers, and snap to grid.
Snap to grid can be used for tile based mapping and can be turned off to pixel map and add details to the map. This is actually my favorite feature in the whole map editor simply because it lets me add the small details and layer tiles on top of each other without using different layers.


Notice that the swords and the shields are on the same layer (named “Events”). With snap to grid off, you can place tiles anyway you want. Also, one of the swords is tilted (rotated) by 17 degrees thanks to the edit tile dialog. There are other tiles in the screenshot that are placed by pixel mapping such as the chairs and the torch.

So, why exactly is this an important feature for mapping? In short, tile/grid based maps don’t look very natural and pleasing to the eye because everything is neat, squared, and extremely symmetrical. Even if you wanted to make small changes such as a simple rotation or layer/group tiles, you would have to edit the whole tileset in an image editing software (ie. Photoshop, paint) and re-import the tileset. Which is very inconvenient, time-taking and limiting.
That’s it for now, once the demo is released, we will be posting video tutorials on how to use many of EGM’s features.

Remember to tell others about us!
Express Game Maker Team, http://www.expressgamemaker.com

 

[Mr.Mo]

Hello everyone,

Signing up for beta testing Express Game Maker is now open! This is your chance to test out Express Game Maker and help make it one of the best out there.

Register now:
http://www.expressgamemaker.com/BetaSignup/

The testing will start in just a few weeks. We are currently fixing bugs, making templates, making sample games, and writing tutorials.

Invite your friends to sign up for the testing!
Express Game Maker Team

 

[Jason]

Is this beta like, only for Americans? It asks me for a state, and they're all American, we don't have those over here in England, what the hell am I supposed to do on this? o.O

 

[Xilef]

Feel good about yourself because you can remember that other countries access the world wide web.

 

[Mr.Mo]

We've updated the page and now you don't have to be a resident of US to sign up. The initial page isn't updated yet but the sign-up process is.

 

[friend]

Server Error in '/' Application.
The resource cannot be found.
Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.

Requested URL: /BetaSignup/Account/Register.aspx

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.4200; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.4205

I click register and this is what I get.

EDIT: Oh hey this time I tried login then clicked on the "register" button and it works now O.o

 

[XxRukiriXx]

Okay all other countries can now register, I guess their were many people from Europe that wanted to test it..
Anyway, I recently got selected for Beta Testing(Private) so when I get it today or tomorrow I should be able to see if this is a really good engine to use, I think so. Hell, if you can code a damn good perfect and or better Zelda engine than well I'm all for it, and I'm really glad that C# is allowed to customize the functions much like Ruby for RPG Maker.

This really is how RPG Maker XP should have been, seriously excited to test it today or tomorrow(I have tomorrow off so I'll be waiting like a hawk for that download)