GameMaker: Studio For Dummies

Chapter 7

Using Actions to Create Special Effects with Particles

In This Chapter

Creating buttons to trigger particles

Using the Create Effect Action

Creating several types of fireworks effects

Coding simple and complex particles

Coding emitters

In GameMaker, you can make some very special effects, such as explosions and fireworks. You create these effects through the use of particles. Particles are fast graphics resources that are generated based on random values. You can create special effects for your game by

• Using the Create Effect Action
• Using the 13 different Actions in the Particles section on the Extra tab
• Writing your own code
• Creating an Emitter Burst or an Emitter Stream

In this chapter, I walk you through these various methods by using the Particles tutorial that is included with GameMaker. For the coding aspect, you can go ahead and skip to the next chapter, because this chapter primarily discusses using the drag-and-drop Actions. However, I do show you how to create ...