separator-blank.png

 

GAMEMAKER

FAQ 2022

 

separator-blank.png

 

Q – When I run the game, none of my sprites appear.  The background is visible in the correct colour but nothing else is visible.

 

A – This has been a bug that many people have reported online.  It seems that there have been many different solutions for people.

 

Mr. C. had this problem in June 2022 and it was FRUSTRATING!  After attempting about 10 solutions found online and failing, I finally found a solution.

 

The solution was to save the project in a different folder.  I think the reason for this is that the default folder is protected by my virus scanner.

 

Once I saved the project to my Workspace folder (or any other folder that one creates), it worked fine. 

 

Way too many hours wasted on this one!  Ugh!

 

 

Q – The panel with details about my room (called the Room Editor) is missing.  How do I get it back?

 

A – The first time you open a room, you get the Room Editor on the left.  You should try to close the room’s tab instead of the Room Editor tab. 

 

If you accidentally close the Room Editor, it seems that you need to go into the top menu and choose Layout > Reset Layouts to get it back.

 

 

Q – When placing many items in a room, it is very slow to drag the in one at time.  Is there a trick?

 

A – Yes, you need to use the ALT key.  However, on some computers, you need to use the RIGHT ALT key that is on the right side of your spacebar.

 

 

Q – Can I export an animated sprite that I created in GameMaker as a GIF animation?

 

A – At the moment, there isn’t an easy way to get an animated GIF from an animated sprite.  But you do have a few options:

 

Option 1

 

You can go into your project folder where your game is saved.  In the Sprites folder, you can find all of your sprites saved as PNG files.  Each frame is saved individually (see below).  In fact, if any of your sprites had multiple layers, then each layer is also saved in its own PNG file.  This is pretty nice!  However, you then need to combine the files to create your own GIF animation.

 

 

Option 2

 

When you open a sprite and you click on Edit Image, it opens up the Image Editor and new options appear in the menu bar at the very top.  One of the new menus is Images.  In Images, you will find Export PNG that will create a sprite sheet with all of your frames placed side-by-side.  Many software programs (including GameMaker) can work with spritesheets to create animations.  Again though, you still have to create your own GIF animation.

 

 

Q – How can I create a GiF out of individual frames?

 

A – There are many software programs and online website tools that can help you.  Simply search “GIF maker online” to find one.

 

 

EX:

 

I used the sprite images shown in the screen capture above on the site https://ezgif.com/maker to create this Pacman Animated GIF.