GameMaker: Studio For Dummies

Chapter 8

Coding Special Effects with Particles

In This Chapter

Coding particle systems

Creating a simple firework using code

Coding both burst and stream emitters

Putting it all together into one complex particle effect

In Chapter 7, I show you how to create special effects using both the Create Effects Action and the Particles Action. In this chapter, I move on to coding particle effects, which requires more work than the drag-and-drop Actions.

Throughout this chapter, I show you how to re-create the first firework that you made using the Create Effects Action, but this time using code. You can see an example of the effect in Figure 8-1.

First, I step you through coding the particle system and the smoke trail. Then I explain how to code the firework effect itself. I move on to coding burst and stream emitters. And I wrap up the chapter by showing you how to code a complex particle effect using everything I’ve showed you so far.

Throughout this chapter, I refer to a button that ...