Hey man, great tutorial! This one was really much clearer to follow and did not require me to look for a free hour in my agenda before I could get into it 😂. Really, I think 20 minutes video length is a good target duration for you. It forces you to remain relatively focused on your main topic, but not so short as to take away all your relaxed improvisations (which is clearly your style). Keep it up!
Thanks! It sucks only because i can't do much more than do something quick based on pre-made assets, but yeah, I'm going to try to stick to a 20 min length for these unless it's a special case.
@@Hyperdelica-Xander These are meant as beginner tutorials. What may help you more, once you master all five of these starter tutorials, is to really go through the parts that you want more information on, and/or get more info on the forums for specific things you might want to do. :-)
makes me want to hurry up with my first game lol. and no worries i have ideas for another. i can atleast draw some rgb graphics for it while you guys get it all good to go.
Hello, even though this tutorial is outdated, I think my question would be valid for future tutorials since the method by which I am going to ask the question I suppose has not changed. My question is how does the character detect that he is on a coin tile?
if it's a *tile*, it has to do with tile collision. Definitely make sure you are using the tutorials from the LEARN page of the website. There are a TON of tutorials there that will walk you through this sort of thing 🙂
Not sure I understand the question. You can create any AI you can imagine. There are several examples of different AI across the 7 modules that come bundled with the current version. It's up to you to figure out how to use those things creatively :-) But also, you're never limited to just what comes with the default templates. Those are really only intended to be starting points. But even just using those elements creatively, you can get quite far.
Sorry, it was hard to glean from the video, but can you change what collecting all the items does? My idea involves the enemies being invincible until all of the items are collected on a screen, at which point they can be attacked and defeated (if not it sounds like a simple change to code might do it?)?
You can change just about everything you see here. But THIS module does these things. :-) You could absolutely dig into the scripts to make these changes, though you might have to learn a little ASM first :-)
You are very optimistic using an 8 digit score when you are collecting 1 to 5 points at a time. Are you controlling the point value in the ASM or is that a value you enter into some property box for the various objects?
I might have missed this information somewhere, but do you cover how to wrap the player position to the opposite side of the screen when reaching an edge? Similar to Pac-Man and some of the arcade classics.
This tutorial set is about to be very outdated as the new version has dropped, and all new tutorials will be showing up all week. We are just this week going to be changing over all of the online resources, so check out the website (on the ByteOff 2020 page now, soon to be main paged) To answer that question, yes, you would have to learn how to set up different edge reactions for objects :-)
@@damianwinter2787 Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary and still going strong. I do hope you'll participate in this year's Byte Off! :-) head to the site for info about that.
@@TheNew8bitHeroes congratulations! I watched your documentary a couple years ago, then got NESMaker soon after. I'll use the jam as a reason to finally dig in. Heading over!
Right off the bat, I think your interface seems a bit over-designed and convoluted, at least to me. I started using GameMaker back in the day (I'm talking like GameMaker versions 4-8 here), a program that is clearly far more capable than NESMaker in terms of letting you create games that are way more graphically and technically advanced than anything a NES can do, and yet that program's interface, while actually very similar in basic layout and presentation to NESMaker, is just waaay easier to use from the get-go (at least as I see it). I mean, if you try to complete the first few tutorials in GameMaker for example (the older versions before Studio), you can follow and complete them without even having to understand anything beyond navigating to some folders on your computer and then just adding the stuff into the program (stuff that's named in a way everyone can immediately understand such as Sprites, Backgrounds, Sounds, etc) and building away via the drap and drop icons--and tutorial done and simple game made. Now, I think that comes down to them doing a lot of the stuff behind the scenes in GameMaker that we as creators don't really need to understand out the gate, such that adding sprites for example is a simple as clicking the sprite icon, navigating to wherever they are saved and clicking whatever art asset and loading it in (with no other steps or understanding required, and certainly not going into a pop-up menu with Project Labels and Tilesets and Script Settings, etc). And making those sprites objects is a simple as creating an object and selecting the sprite as its sprite. And adding the basic gameplay and interaction stuff from there is a series of easy-to-understand drop and drag icons at the most basic level (but you can still do quite a lot with that alone). Something called a "Bank" just makes no sense to the average person. And why are things in "Banks" anyway? Do the "Banks" really have to be something that's put in front of creators out the gate? Now, I half understand this idea of "Banks", but not really, and not enough to really feel comfortable completing a tutorial where I have to use them yet ignore what that actually means and how it affects things. Or do I now have to go read up about "Banks" before I even finish the very first tutorial? And what about "Tilesets"? Do we really need to understand how tilesets work before we can add some basic art assets to the game? I mean, I've made 8 games in GameMaker now, that have released across multiple mobile platforms, and I still haven't even used Tilesets. Yes, inefficient/bad game design for sure, but I'm just saying that you don't need to throw people into this kind of stuff right out the gate. Can't we just make some "characters" and "background" visuals have the program convert these into "sprites" and "tilesets" and sort them into the various "Banks" behind the scenes initially while we're learning the actual interface of the program and how to make the most basic game as part of this learning? What the hell is Sprite 0 Detection? What is H-blank, etc? This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. The stuff you are talking about in the first few minutes of this tutorial is already confusing to me, and I actually suspect might be unnecessary to understand at the point of just learning to make a very simple beginner game (colour palette limitations and allocations, and graphics banks, and stuff like that should maybe be handled behind the scenes by the program creators, at least at the beginner level tutorial stage, and you could just impose the limitations on any art that's added to the project, such as the size of the image and the amount of colors used, etc). Basically, let us add some simple art for the character/sprite, with no other understanding beyond the caveat that it must be this size and use only up to this amount of colours, or something like that--and in the tutorial it would just be "navigate to the character/sprite folder and add this pre-made character/sprite--and then run something behind the scenes to make sure it fits the program and NES limitations and structure correctly. I honestly think maybe you should look into a similar approach to those early versions of GameMaker with your own program in the future, and try to get things a lot simpler on the surface when using the basic and essential features of the NESMaker program during the very first and most basic tutorials. And obviously, once people get comfortable with the basics and really want to dive down into the program and the creation of NES games that are far more sophisticated, then they can worry about best utilization of memory banks and how to manage the colour palettes best and so on. Let me show you an example of exactly what I'm talking about: ua-cam.com/video/UKHrvdJU0Gw/v-deo.html&ab_channel=TopHatDan Anyone can follow and understand that, and create something real simple in the process while learning the basics of the program and its interface. Or: ua-cam.com/video/aH2oa77R8MU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=GameMakerChannel That one doesn't even have anyone talking you through what to do, and it has really annoying music, but it's still really simple to follow and teaches you the basics and you get a simple little game by the end. Note: The actual original GameMaker tutorials, which are built into the program (maybe even still there in Studio too) are far better than the examples above, but they're so old now that I can't really find any footage on UA-cam showing just how well put together they were. They're still available in the old The Game Maker's Apprentice book though (with attached DVD that includes an old version of the program), that's actually still available to buy online on sites like Amazon. I have that and it's just brilliant for getting you started, alongside the built-in tutorials and the like. Now, maybe it's just the way you're going through the tutorial or something and the program isn't that confusing or complicated at all when you go through the tutorial on your own. But there again I think maybe looking at some of those very early GameMaker tutorials would be very useful as a reference point for how simple and intuitive it should be just to get started day one. All I'm really saying here is that I think you need keep all this stuff real simple and surface level at the start is all, so people don't get frightened off in the first few minutes, and after that, after the first few tutorials, you can start talking about or going through the rest of the stuff that basically people in the know should know. Let me put it very succinctly: I'm scared of buying this program right now, because I fear I might not be able to learn it properly or well enough to ever do anything worthwhile with (as has been the case with many other programs I've tried to use in the past), and being confused by this very first tutorial video isn't selling me on buying the program.
For sure, there is a LOT of chaos to this program, but such is the nature of trying to make a simplified WYSIWYG type tool for a system like the NES! AND trying to make it infinitely expandable as far as what it can do. There is nothing simple or intuitive about the NES. The more simple and more intuitive this tool were to be, the more it would strong-arm users. I'll give a good for instance. You should be looking at the *current* tutorials on the site - check out the Maze game there. You can be up and running very fast. Most people can have a graphically cool pacman clone rocking in about 15 minutes. But yes, as you get more and more particular, more complicated, the complexities of designing for this system increase exponentially. It's just the nature of it. It's not like GameMaker, where you can provide very simple event->action trees for all available objects, because you're dealing with an absurdly finite amount of ROM space in which to work. So you really are in a "take only what you need to survive" style of development. However, the alternative for making NES games is...straight Assembly code in a text editor, and thinking about it in the abstract. This has helped thousands of people make their NES games. Our youngest user is 7 years old AND English is his second language. And he has produced 3 games, successfully produced and sold them, and has gotten international press for it. So...it can be done :-)
Roguelike is a very particular type of game. This is almost directly emulating Pac Man with different graphics, which I wouldn't exactly call Roguelike :-)
@@TheNew8bitHeroes I am losing my mind waiting for the update :) This program has been so much fun to work with and has been a great bonding experience with my son!
I show you how I made the project in 20 minutes. Once you get comfortable with the tool, you can do this even faster (keep in mind, I spend a lot of time explaining what I'm doing) :-)
Heh, well admittedly I was exploring the tool and "testing" the game too much at the time. Since my flash cart just arrived - and 4.1.5 is out - I decided that it was high time that I finally make some time to sit and try it out. And thanks eh. I love that you are making these videos and can't wait to try the shooter one. [Been wanting to make a Tengen-style-totally-unlicenced Spaceman Spiff game] Now if that gypsy is predicting a brawler tutorial is in the cards...
@@VonOzbourne Expected :-) These are all just very basic things...a starting point. To really build a full unique game you will have to really learn what makes the tool tick. But these are a great starting point!
Hey man, great tutorial! This one was really much clearer to follow and did not require me to look for a free hour in my agenda before I could get into it 😂.
Really, I think 20 minutes video length is a good target duration for you. It forces you to remain relatively focused on your main topic, but not so short as to take away all your relaxed improvisations (which is clearly your style).
Keep it up!
Thanks! It sucks only because i can't do much more than do something quick based on pre-made assets, but yeah, I'm going to try to stick to a 20 min length for these unless it's a special case.
@@TheNew8bitHeroes Any longer more detailed video is better in my opinion.
@@Hyperdelica-Xander These are meant as beginner tutorials.
What may help you more, once you master all five of these starter tutorials, is to really go through the parts that you want more information on, and/or get more info on the forums for specific things you might want to do. :-)
You've sold me. I would love to make a Gauntlet/Dark Chambers clone!!!
How about..."a game inspired by Gauntlet and Dark Chambers"? :-)
@@TheNew8bitHeroes Even better!
It's an aMAZEing tutorial, thanks Joe!
Awesome, thanks for making these! Can't wait to get into it!
Cant wait to get this program
makes me want to hurry up with my first game lol. and no worries i have ideas for another. i can atleast draw some rgb graphics for it while you guys get it all good to go.
Please also make a tutorial on how to make map with multiple warps, like you did with xmas troll burner game.
Ooh these look great!
Hello, even though this tutorial is outdated, I think my question would be valid for future tutorials since the method by which I am going to ask the question I suppose has not changed.
My question is how does the character detect that he is on a coin tile?
if it's a *tile*, it has to do with tile collision. Definitely make sure you are using the tutorials from the LEARN page of the website. There are a TON of tutorials there that will walk you through this sort of thing 🙂
Is their any decent AI for use with npc characters? Maze game without the chase seems a bit disappointing.
Not sure I understand the question. You can create any AI you can imagine. There are several examples of different AI across the 7 modules that come bundled with the current version. It's up to you to figure out how to use those things creatively :-)
But also, you're never limited to just what comes with the default templates. Those are really only intended to be starting points. But even just using those elements creatively, you can get quite far.
Sorry, it was hard to glean from the video, but can you change what collecting all the items does? My idea involves the enemies being invincible until all of the items are collected on a screen, at which point they can be attacked and defeated (if not it sounds like a simple change to code might do it?)?
You can change just about everything you see here. But THIS module does these things. :-) You could absolutely dig into the scripts to make these changes, though you might have to learn a little ASM first :-)
I’m having trouble loading the tile sets. At 2:49 I get an error code “ An error occurred while importing: Root element is missing”
My guess is that you never picked a module when you started a project. Make sure you are following the instructions at around the one minute mark. :-)
You are very optimistic using an 8 digit score when you are collecting 1 to 5 points at a time. Are you controlling the point value in the ASM or is that a value you enter into some property box for the various objects?
Everything here uses ASM, and ASM that is malleable by you, the user, if you want to change it.
I might have missed this information somewhere, but do you cover how to wrap the player position to the opposite side of the screen when reaching an edge? Similar to Pac-Man and some of the arcade classics.
This tutorial set is about to be very outdated as the new version has dropped, and all new tutorials will be showing up all week. We are just this week going to be changing over all of the online resources, so check out the website (on the ByteOff 2020 page now, soon to be main paged)
To answer that question, yes, you would have to learn how to set up different edge reactions for objects :-)
@@TheNew8bitHeroes thanks so much for the info! Also, for giving us something to look forward to :)
@@damianwinter2787 Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary and still going strong. I do hope you'll participate in this year's Byte Off! :-)
head to the site for info about that.
@@TheNew8bitHeroes congratulations! I watched your documentary a couple years ago, then got NESMaker soon after. I'll use the jam as a reason to finally dig in. Heading over!
Right off the bat, I think your interface seems a bit over-designed and convoluted, at least to me.
I started using GameMaker back in the day (I'm talking like GameMaker versions 4-8 here), a program that is clearly far more capable than NESMaker in terms of letting you create games that are way more graphically and technically advanced than anything a NES can do, and yet that program's interface, while actually very similar in basic layout and presentation to NESMaker, is just waaay easier to use from the get-go (at least as I see it). I mean, if you try to complete the first few tutorials in GameMaker for example (the older versions before Studio), you can follow and complete them without even having to understand anything beyond navigating to some folders on your computer and then just adding the stuff into the program (stuff that's named in a way everyone can immediately understand such as Sprites, Backgrounds, Sounds, etc) and building away via the drap and drop icons--and tutorial done and simple game made.
Now, I think that comes down to them doing a lot of the stuff behind the scenes in GameMaker that we as creators don't really need to understand out the gate, such that adding sprites for example is a simple as clicking the sprite icon, navigating to wherever they are saved and clicking whatever art asset and loading it in (with no other steps or understanding required, and certainly not going into a pop-up menu with Project Labels and Tilesets and Script Settings, etc). And making those sprites objects is a simple as creating an object and selecting the sprite as its sprite. And adding the basic gameplay and interaction stuff from there is a series of easy-to-understand drop and drag icons at the most basic level (but you can still do quite a lot with that alone).
Something called a "Bank" just makes no sense to the average person. And why are things in "Banks" anyway? Do the "Banks" really have to be something that's put in front of creators out the gate? Now, I half understand this idea of "Banks", but not really, and not enough to really feel comfortable completing a tutorial where I have to use them yet ignore what that actually means and how it affects things. Or do I now have to go read up about "Banks" before I even finish the very first tutorial? And what about "Tilesets"? Do we really need to understand how tilesets work before we can add some basic art assets to the game? I mean, I've made 8 games in GameMaker now, that have released across multiple mobile platforms, and I still haven't even used Tilesets. Yes, inefficient/bad game design for sure, but I'm just saying that you don't need to throw people into this kind of stuff right out the gate. Can't we just make some "characters" and "background" visuals have the program convert these into "sprites" and "tilesets" and sort them into the various "Banks" behind the scenes initially while we're learning the actual interface of the program and how to make the most basic game as part of this learning? What the hell is Sprite 0 Detection? What is H-blank, etc? This is the kind of thing I'm talking about.
The stuff you are talking about in the first few minutes of this tutorial is already confusing to me, and I actually suspect might be unnecessary to understand at the point of just learning to make a very simple beginner game (colour palette limitations and allocations, and graphics banks, and stuff like that should maybe be handled behind the scenes by the program creators, at least at the beginner level tutorial stage, and you could just impose the limitations on any art that's added to the project, such as the size of the image and the amount of colors used, etc). Basically, let us add some simple art for the character/sprite, with no other understanding beyond the caveat that it must be this size and use only up to this amount of colours, or something like that--and in the tutorial it would just be "navigate to the character/sprite folder and add this pre-made character/sprite--and then run something behind the scenes to make sure it fits the program and NES limitations and structure correctly.
I honestly think maybe you should look into a similar approach to those early versions of GameMaker with your own program in the future, and try to get things a lot simpler on the surface when using the basic and essential features of the NESMaker program during the very first and most basic tutorials. And obviously, once people get comfortable with the basics and really want to dive down into the program and the creation of NES games that are far more sophisticated, then they can worry about best utilization of memory banks and how to manage the colour palettes best and so on.
Let me show you an example of exactly what I'm talking about: ua-cam.com/video/UKHrvdJU0Gw/v-deo.html&ab_channel=TopHatDan
Anyone can follow and understand that, and create something real simple in the process while learning the basics of the program and its interface.
Or: ua-cam.com/video/aH2oa77R8MU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=GameMakerChannel
That one doesn't even have anyone talking you through what to do, and it has really annoying music, but it's still really simple to follow and teaches you the basics and you get a simple little game by the end.
Note: The actual original GameMaker tutorials, which are built into the program (maybe even still there in Studio too) are far better than the examples above, but they're so old now that I can't really find any footage on UA-cam showing just how well put together they were. They're still available in the old The Game Maker's Apprentice book though (with attached DVD that includes an old version of the program), that's actually still available to buy online on sites like Amazon. I have that and it's just brilliant for getting you started, alongside the built-in tutorials and the like.
Now, maybe it's just the way you're going through the tutorial or something and the program isn't that confusing or complicated at all when you go through the tutorial on your own. But there again I think maybe looking at some of those very early GameMaker tutorials would be very useful as a reference point for how simple and intuitive it should be just to get started day one.
All I'm really saying here is that I think you need keep all this stuff real simple and surface level at the start is all, so people don't get frightened off in the first few minutes, and after that, after the first few tutorials, you can start talking about or going through the rest of the stuff that basically people in the know should know.
Let me put it very succinctly: I'm scared of buying this program right now, because I fear I might not be able to learn it properly or well enough to ever do anything worthwhile with (as has been the case with many other programs I've tried to use in the past), and being confused by this very first tutorial video isn't selling me on buying the program.
For sure, there is a LOT of chaos to this program, but such is the nature of trying to make a simplified WYSIWYG type tool for a system like the NES! AND trying to make it infinitely expandable as far as what it can do.
There is nothing simple or intuitive about the NES. The more simple and more intuitive this tool were to be, the more it would strong-arm users. I'll give a good for instance. You should be looking at the *current* tutorials on the site - check out the Maze game there. You can be up and running very fast. Most people can have a graphically cool pacman clone rocking in about 15 minutes.
But yes, as you get more and more particular, more complicated, the complexities of designing for this system increase exponentially. It's just the nature of it. It's not like GameMaker, where you can provide very simple event->action trees for all available objects, because you're dealing with an absurdly finite amount of ROM space in which to work. So you really are in a "take only what you need to survive" style of development.
However, the alternative for making NES games is...straight Assembly code in a text editor, and thinking about it in the abstract. This has helped thousands of people make their NES games. Our youngest user is 7 years old AND English is his second language. And he has produced 3 games, successfully produced and sold them, and has gotten international press for it. So...it can be done :-)
This kind of game is being called Roguelike nowadays. Checkout Brogue from Brian Walker for reference.
Roguelike is a very particular type of game. This is almost directly emulating Pac Man with different graphics, which I wouldn't exactly call Roguelike :-)
When is the page going to be up again ?
octo man up now :-)
Gahhhh! Im at work- need NESMaker 4.1
It's ok - website is down...we are fixing a glitch and posting a patch tonight anyway, so I guess it was just a tease...haha
@@TheNew8bitHeroes I am losing my mind waiting for the update :) This program has been so much fun to work with and has been a great bonding experience with my son!
@@adammcclendon5258 Fantastic to hear. :-)
This tutorial is mis-labeled. This video took over an hour to watch.
...
I may have been designing and playing this game at the same time.
I show you how I made the project in 20 minutes. Once you get comfortable with the tool, you can do this even faster (keep in mind, I spend a lot of time explaining what I'm doing) :-)
Heh, well admittedly I was exploring the tool and "testing" the game too much at the time.
Since my flash cart just arrived - and 4.1.5 is out - I decided that it was high time that I finally make some time to sit and try it out.
And thanks eh. I love that you are making these videos and can't wait to try the shooter one. [Been wanting to make a Tengen-style-totally-unlicenced Spaceman Spiff game]
Now if that gypsy is predicting a brawler tutorial is in the cards...
@@VonOzbourne Expected :-)
These are all just very basic things...a starting point. To really build a full unique game you will have to really learn what makes the tool tick. But these are a great starting point!
FFIIIIRRRSSSSSTTTTT!