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Game Builder Lite -- An MVP Software Production Version 3.0 Copyright 1991,1993 Ed Simpson All Rights Reserved Now you can create full color animated graphic PC games without programming! This is a shareware version of Game Builder Lite. If you use the program please register with MVP Software. To receive Game Builder Professional, with the royalty-free runtime module (so you can sell your game creations), Sound Blaster support, and file compression, plus free disks of artwork, sound files, and extra fonts, see the appendix at the end of this file. Game Builder Professional is just $49.95 plus shipping. For your convenience print the order form (ORDER.DOC) or call our toll-free 24-hour order line from the US and Canada 800-968-9684. From overseas call 616-245-8376. You may also place your order by fax. Simply print and fill out the order form, and fax it (with credit card information) to 616-245-3204. COD orders are accepted by phone or fax. There will be a $5.00 charge to cover COD costs. Please see the Appendix at the end of this file for important information. DISCLAIMER ---------- THIS SOFTWARE IS DISTRIBUTED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. MVP SOFTWARE AND ED SIMPSON MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND MERCHANTABILITY. ACCORDINGLY, THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE USE, RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY THE USER. IN NO EVENT WILL MVP SOFTWARE OR ED SIMPSON BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MVP SOFTWARE OR ED SIMPSON HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF SUCH DAMAGES. IF ANY OF THE PROVISION, OR PORTIONS THEREOF, OF THIS DISCLAIMER ARE INVALID UNDER ANY APPLICABLE STATUTE OR RULE OF LAW, THEY ARE TO THAT EXTENT DEEMED TO BE OMITTED. ALL OTHER PROVISIONS, HOWEVER, REMAIN IN EFFECT. INTRODUCTION ------------ Welcome to Game Builder Lite, the program that will help you create full color, action graphic games -- without programming. Game Builder Lite can be used to create a large variety of adventure, educational, historical, and fun games. Game Builder Lite provides you with a set of easy to use tools for making simple or complex games. Game Builder Lite provides people who can't or don't want to program games with a way to turn their great game ideas into reality. FEATURES -------- 1. Supports CGA, EGA, VGA, and Tandy 16 color mode. 2. Easy to use pull down menus with mouse or keyboard support. 3. Allows you to create movable characters for use in your games. 4. Includes a full featured paint program that you can use to create screens, objects, and animations. 5. You can create music, sound effects and run outside programs. 6. Includes a sample game. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS -------------------- 1. IBM-PC AT or compatible. 2. A Graphics card that supports CGA, EGA, VGA, or Tandy 16 color mode. 3. A minimum of two 360K disk drives. 4. 640K of memory. 5. A mouse and a hard drive are also highly recommended. Game Builder Lite may run slowly on some of older computers (4.77 MHz CPU speed). For best results, you should use a mouse and computer with at least 8Mhz CPU speed. PROGRAM SUPPORT --------------- Support for Game Builder Lite can be obtained by using your modem to call our free Computer Bulletin Board (BBS) line at (614) 988-2307. Just leave a message with your questions or comments, along with your name and address. The BBS contains many helpful tips and graphic files that can help you produce your own games. Or you can write us at MVP Software, 1035 Dallas SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507-1407, or call voice at (616) 245-8376. Finally, you can contact us on Compuserve at 70363,15. Please do NOT call our 800 number for technical support or to answer any questions. The operators who answer the phone have no information and cannot answer your questions. That is an order line only, so save yourself a call and dial 616-245-8376 during regular business hours eastern time. GETTING STARTED --------------- You should immediately make a back-up copy of the program disks. Consult your DOS manual for instructions on making back-up copies. Put the original disk in a safe place and use the copies to run the program. INSTALLING GAME BUILDER LITE ---------------------------- If you have downloaded these files from a BBS or communication system, all you have to do is unarchive the Game Builder Lite files into a directory of your choice, type GB, and you're ready to begin. If you have received this program on a disk, then place the disk into your computer's disk drive (say the A drive), and type A:. Then type INSTALL. The installation program will prompt you to enter the letter of the drive to which you wish to install the program (normally the C drive if your system has a hard drive), and a subdirectory name (normally \GB). The installation program will do everything else for you. To start Game Builder Lite, type GB, and press enter. The Treasure Hunt sample game can be played from within the Game Builder Lite program itself by first selecting "File" from the menu, and then selecting "Load Game." Next use the PLAY menu selection. PROGRAM OVERVIEW ---------------- You can create complete graphic adventure games with Game Builder Lite. The games you create are limited only by your imagination. It does take a little planning to produce a top flight game. But you can also experiment and produce a game by trial and error. Here is a basic outline of how to produce a game with Game Builder Lite. Game Builder Lite makes games using a grid of screens. You decide how many background screens there are in your game. For example, the default is a 9x9 grid, which will result in an 81 screen game. You can also use Game Builder Lite to place animations, actions, words, and so forth for each grid location. Of course the more screens and actions that you have the larger the disk space required to store the game data. 1. Plan an overall theme and plot for your game. Example: A space game, a wild west game, a medieval game, an educational game, and so forth. Produce an outline of what you want the game to do. 2. Use TurboPaint to create background screens in whatever graphic mode your computer will support. You can also use TurboPaint to produce the opening and closing screens. Other paint programs, such as MVP Paint, that produce compatible .PCX graphic files can be used as well. You should also create Winning and Losing screens that display at the end of the game. 3. Use TurboPaint to create characters, objects and animations for your game. 4. Use Game Builder Lite's SCREEN GRID editor to tell your program which screens to display in each grid position. 5. Use Game Builder Lite's built in SCRIPT editor to produce allowable "word scripts" from your game characters and the responses that these scripts produce. This must be done for every screen in your game. 6. Use the special ACTION script editor to produce responses to your game's main character. Examples: Pick up or use an item, gain points, or lose the game. 7. Use the built in sound editor to produce music and sound for selected areas of your game. 8. Test your game for playability and bugs. Making simple games with Game Builder Lite is very easy. Making complex games will take a little more time and experimentation. USING GAMEBUILDER LITE ---------------------- After Game Builder Lite is installed you may start the program by typing GB and hitting the ENTER or RETURN key. You then get a menu at the top of the screen. This menu has the following choices: DESK -- Provides you with information about Game Builder Lite and also contains the Quit option. CREATE -- used to create objects pictures, animations, or sounds. DOCUMENTATION -- Lets you read or print the Game Builder Lite documentation. EDIT -- Select background screens, characters, animations, and actions. FILE -- Load, Save, or Create a new game. PLAY -- Plays games already loaded into memory. PREVIEW -- Allows you to view an object or picture file or play a sound file. There are two ways to select items from each of these menu selections, and most of the options on the submenus that are popped up. 1. Hold down the ALT key and while also holding down highlighted letter of the option that you wish to select. For example ALT C pulls down the CREATE menu. 2. Use a mouse to move the cursor to the menu item that you want and then click the right mouse button. To use this option you must first have your mouse properly installed for your system. Once you select a main menu option you'll get a another list of options from which to choose. For example: select the FILE option and you'll get a list with LOAD, NEW, SAVE. These additional options can be selected by using the mouse. Alternately you can use the arrow keys to highlight the chosen option and then press the enter key. The best way to learn about Game Builder Lite is to create a simple 2x2 grid game (4 screens) and then experiment with all of the features described in this manual. Another way is to follow this tutorial that goes along with the TREASURE HUNT game. This game requires that you have EGA graphics. If your computer has CGA graphics the game will not play. However, you can still load the game into memory and follow the tutorial starting with item 3 on the list below. 1. Load Game Builder Lite and then select the FILE main menu option. Then select LOAD and load the PIRATE game. 2. Play the game to get an idea of what a Game Builder Lite game looks and acts like. Then exit the game by hitting the F1 and then F2 keys. 3. Do the following with the PIRATE game still loaded in memory. First select the EDIT menu option. Then select GRID. You will notice that TREASURE HUNT is a 5 x 4 grid of screens (20 screens). Then select OK to return to the main menu. When you create a game one of the first steps is to select the grid size (number of screens). Game Builder Lite supports up to a 20x20 grid (400 screens). A game of that size would require several megabytes of hard disk space. 4. Next select the EDIT menu option and choose SPECIAL. This will show you another menu which lists the names of the Opening, Closing, Win and Lose screens along with music files that play for these screens. You can create any type of picture for these files to provide information to the user. The OPENING and CLOSING screens (if available) will automatically display when the game starts and at the end. The Win and Lose screens will display in response to the WIN GAME or LOSE GAME action items. 5. Next, you should view the ITEM and ANIMATION lists from the EDIT menu. These are lists that the game uses during creation and playing the game. The ANIMATION list contains a list of animation files that you intend to use during the game. The ITEM list contains a list of items that you wish your game character to use. 6. Now select the EDIT SCREEN option. This will pop-up another data screen that provides information on each of the 20 screens of the TREASURE HUNT game. You can use the right, left, up, and down buttons to flip through the various screens that make up the grid. Notice the following: A. Some screens have music files. B. Some screens have an Object file called shp1.ob. This is the moving ship picture that is used for the overhead ocean views. C. Some screens have walking animation files and no object files. The walking animation files are called MK1R.ANM through MK1U.ANM. These are the files that show the spaceman walking views in four different directions. D. Some screens also contain a MASK file. This masks (hides) the Moving character from view when it behind an object on screen. E. Go back to Screen #0000 if you are not already there. Select the SET EXCLUSION button. You will then be shown a list of exclusion x1,y1,x2,y2 values. These are exclusion screen areas into which the character cannot go. The ship simply will stop if it tries to move into an exclusion area. In this case there are two excluded areas: The top and left sides of the screen. Select Next to view the second set of exclusion coordinates. You can choose up to 24 excluded areas per screen. This is done simply by specifying the x,y screen coordinates for the opposite corners of an exclusion rectangle. 7. Now exit the EDIT SCREEN GRID area by selecting OK. Then select the SCREEN SCRIPT option. This will produce another screen that shows the verb/noun words that each screen uses. It also shows any response scripts that these words produce and special actions that are initiated by these scripts. A. Use the right direction button to go to screen # 0001. Notice that the first script uses the following verb/noun: look/around. When the user types in these verbs he will get the Response that is written in the response square. Notice that the position values are -1 and -1. These mean that the script is active for all x,y coordinates of the screen. If instead there were screen x,y values in the position data area, the script would only be active (work) when the game character was at that screen position. B. Next, select the action button. The next screen shows that the USER mechanism is selected for this script and that there are now special actions listed in the middle section of the screen. Special actions are events (from the ACTION list on the right side of the screen) that will occur if the word scripts are successful. Select OK to go back to the script area. C. Now select the Next button to view the remaining scripts for this screen. The verb/noun is Get Bottle. Note that the position has x, y values. Select the Action button and you will be taken to the actions for that screen. Note that the USER mechanism is used. But also note that there is a list of actions in the middle screen. D. The Action List says GET ITEM: Bottle and GET POINTS 30. This means that when the object is at the screen coordinates listed in the Position field and types get capsule -- that capsule will be added to the player's inventory and 30 points will be added to the players score. 8. You can now exit back to the Game Builder Lite menu. This little tour has shown you how Game Builder Lite produces screen data, word scripts, and actions for each screen of your game. Many screens may have only one or two scripts and actions. Other screens will have many scripts, actions and results. 9. When you select the OK button to exit either the SCREEN GRID or SCRIPT area any changes are automatically saved to disk. STEP BY STEP METHOD FOR CREATING A GAME --------------------------------------- Once you have planned an overall theme for your game and drawn the background screens and object or animation files, it is time to actually create. Here is how. 1. Make sure that all of your pictures, music, and object files are on the same disk and directory. 2. Start Game Builder Lite and select the FILE menu and NEW option. 3. Choose the EDIT menu and select GRID SIZE. Then enter the size of the grid for your game. Remember that the number of screens that you can have will be limited by your disk space. It is always best to create a grid slightly larger than the one you think you will need. Sometimes during the design of a game you will decide that you need an extra 3 or 4 screens. 4. Select SCREEN GRID from the EDIT menu. Enter the screen file name that you wish to appear at each grid location. You'll also need to enter any music, object, and walking files that you want for every screen. Finally enter any exclusion areas that are needed. The SCREEN GRID data will be saved whenever you select the OK button. 5. Select the SPECIAL option from the EDIT menu. Then enter the names of any opening, win, lose, and closing picture files that you want for your program. 6. At this point, it is a good idea to save the game data that you have so far. Do this by selecting the SAVE option from the FILE menu. This will allow you to name the program and save it. Be sure to save the program on the same drive and directory that contains your picture, music, animation, and object files. IMPORTANT -- always keep a Backup copy. Then if some problems occur when you make additional changes you can always go back to the original copy. 7. Next, you should create the object and animation lists that your game will use. This is done by choosing ITEM, ANIMATIONS, or PROGRAMS from the EDIT menu option. Simply type each file name into the appropriate list. The ITEM list does not contain actual files. They simply refer to objects that you have drawn on the background screens or created as a one screen animation. 8. Next, you'll want to use the SCRIPT EDIT option from the EDIT menu. This is the most time consuming part of creating a program. This is where you create the scripts (words) and actions or events that are associated with each screen. At first just create a few scripts and then save the game. 9. Now you should thoroughly test the game. Make sure the script editor's actions give the results that you want. You can quickly make minor changes and then run the program to test the results. CREATE MAIN MENU OPTION ----------------------- The Create option is usually where you begin your game design. First you'll want to create some background screens using the PICTURE option. Do this by choosing the CREATE option from the main menu and then select the PICTURE option. This will cause the draw and paint program (TurboPaint) to load. TurboPaint can also be loaded by itself by typing TP. Choosing the SOUNDS option will load the sound editor (SoundsGood). This is used to create music or sound files that can then be played during the game. This section will describe how to use these three features. To use the CREATE options simply press ALT C or select the CREATE option with a mouse click. To use any of the three CREATE options simply click on them with the mouse or use the proper ALT key combinations. This section describes how to use the three CREATE menu options: OBJECT, PICTURE, or SOUND. USING TURBOPAINT ---------------- TurboPaint is used to create picture, object, and animation files. Whenever you select CREATE PICTURE or OBJECT TurboPaint is loaded into memory. Any game that is in the computer's memory will be lost, so save the files that you want to keep. TurboPaint is is a full-fledged paint program. The menu bar at the top of TurboPaint's screen gives the following options: DESK, FILE, SET, VIDEO, and EXTRA. These options can be chosen using the Alt-key combination or by clicking on them with a mouse. Read the TP.DOC file for more information. Each of these menus produces a further list of actions. These additional actions can be selected by first highlighting them using the mouse or arrow keys. You can then hit the Enter key or click the left mouse button. Most of these features can also be selected with the Alt key combinations. The TurboPaint screen also shows a Toolbox menu that has the painting tools and colors that you can use. These tools and colors are selected by using the mouse and clicking the left mouse button. DESK -- is used to Quit TurboPaint, Erase Pictures, and move the Toolbox. FILE -- is used to Load and Save pictures, delete files, Load and Save Animation files, save Mask files, and for printing pictures. SET -- is used to change colors, text, line fill styles, and other screen variables. VIDEO -- this is used to select the video mode in which you wish to draw. Some video modes are not available for every computer. EXTRA -- is used for: block changes, font changes, load and save objects, Magnify, undo, and create animations. TurboPaint includes many features that are only available on expensive painting programs. One of the best ways to learn TurboPaint is to experiment with it. Simply select a tool and color and then move the cursor into the drawing area and begin to draw. For additional documentation on Turbo Paint print the TP.DOC file. CREATE OBJECT ------------- CREATE OBJECT is used to draw object files. These object files can then be displayed over top of the background screens that your games uses. The object files are controlled by the arrow keys for movement during game playing. Object files normally are small detailed drawings of: people, vehicles, and so forth. But you can create anything you wish. Remember object files only show one view of the object. If you want to show several views (such as walking people) then create a walking animation file. Object files must be created against a black background. Black is the mask color that does not show up when the game is played. Therefore, you should be very careful about using black as a color in your object. Black color in an object will appear transparent. To create an object file, simply select CREATE OBJECT. TurboPaint will then load. If TurboPaint's background is not black, select Erase Picture from the Desk menu option or change the color to black and FILL in the screen. You can now begin using the Toolbox tools to draw the object you need. Once the object is drawn, you need to save it as an object file. Here's how. First, select the scissors tool from the Toolbox. Then move the cursor back into the drawing area. Notice that the cursor has changed into two lines. Position the corner of these lines near the object that you have drawn. Press the mouse button and begin to move the mouse. A box will begin to grow on your screen. Use this box to surround your object. Then release the mouse button. This procedure has cut out a block section of your screen that includes your object. Save the object file by selecting the EXTRA menu option and using SAVE OBJECT. You will be prompted for a file name. TurboPaint automatically gives this file a 2 letter extension of .OB. The object files can then be placed into your game by entering its name into the SCREEN EDIT data. Remember you can change objects from one screen to the next if you want to. Also the object file must be on the same disk and directory together with all other game files. It is best to keep the objects at no more than 4 to 5 inches in size. CREATE A PICTURE, ANIMATION OR MASK FILE ---------------------------------------- TurboPaint allows you to create the appropriate background screens for your game. For example: If you are creating a space adventure you will need background screens that looked like outer space. You can create the background screens that are needed for your game and then list them in the proper location on the grid. TurboPaint can be used to create pictures in several common graphic formats including the very popular PCX or GIF formats. However, Game Builder Lite uses only PCX files. Therefore you must be certain that TurboPaint remains in the PCX picture mode. You can insure this by selecting FILE and PIC TYPE. The click the PCX button on the picture selection screen that appears. BACKGROUND PICTURE ------------------ Here's how you create background screens. 1. Select CREATE PICTURE and TurboPaint will load. 2. Use the Toolbox tools to draw the background screen that your game needs. Example: The first picture might be the outside of a house. The second picture may be one of the rooms in the house. 3. Save the picture when it is finished, by selecting FILE and SAVE PIC. It is not necessary to add the PCX extension; TurboPaint does this automatically. 4. To use the background screen in your game select the EDIT SCREEN GRID option from Game Builder Lite. Then select the grid location where you wish the picture to appear. Type the name of the file into the picture data line. It is usually most convenient to use file names such as PICXXXX where XXXX is the grid screen location where you wish the file to appear. Game Builder Lite will then automatically put these picture names into the SCREEN GRID data area. The picture files should be saved to the disk that you want to use for creating your game. CREATING ANIMATIONS ------------------- There are two kinds of animation files used in Game Builder Lite. 1. WALKING animations -- these usually give the appearance of a person or animal character in several walking views for each of 4 directions: UP, LEFT, RIGHT, or DOWN. This requires the creation of 4 different animation files: one for each direction. You will usually need 2 to 6 different motion pictures for each animation file. These animation files are played when one of the arrow keys are pressed. 2. STATIC animation files -- These are movement scenes that you locate in one area of the background screen. They are not affected by the arrow keys and just stay in one location. Example: An explosion on the screen or a person talking. You can also create one screen animations that can be PASTED or SHOWN on the screen as part of an ACTION list in the SCRIPT editor. To create either type of animation file first select CREATE PICTURE. Then use TurboPaint to draw various views of the object that you wish to animate. IMPORTANT: You cannot use black as a color for any of these animations -- black is the mask color that is used over the background screens. For example: You may want three views of a man walking to the left. Each view would show the man in a different phase of the walking motion. The easiest way to do this is to draw the first movement view. Then use the scissors tool to make a block cutout of this view. Then use the Paste option to paste this block onto another portion of the screen. You can then easily make the necessary changes to this second picture and end up with two different movement views on the same screen. The second view would show different arm and leg positions compared to the first view. See the included Walking man picture for an example of this technique. Once you have all the movement pictures drawn you are ready to save them in the proper sequence in an animation file. Here's how. First cut out a block that contains the first movement phase using TurboPaint's scissors option. Then select ANIMATION from the EXTRA menu option. The animation screen will then appear. This screen gives you the following options: Next, Previous, Insert, Delete, OK, Use, Center, or Animate. First choose INSERT -- this will add the current graphic block into your animation file. You should then choose OK -- this will return you to the TurboPaint screen. You can then cut out the second view of your animation as a block, and then again choose Animate from the EXTRA menu option. Then select INSERT from the Animation menu. This will add the second block into your animation file. Now you can select the Animate option and the picture should cycle through the two views in your animation file. If you wish to have more than two views simply continue to draw the desired views, cut out blocks and add these blocks to the animation file as previously described. Once you are finished viewing the animation select OK to return to TurboPaint. If you wish to save the animation select the FILE menu option and choose SAVE ANIMATION. You will then be given the option of choosing the file name. Then you will be asked for the x,y screen location. For WALKING animation files choose the default values of x=0 and y=0. You are also given the option to change the animation speed values if desired. For walking animations do not put anything in this value. Animation files are saved with a three letter extension of .ANM. STATIC ANIMATIONS ----------------- Creating static animation files is done in the same manner as for the Walking files. The only exception is that you should specify the x,y screen location values at which you want the animation to appear. The easiest way to make a static animation is as follows. First load the background screen into TurboPaint. Next activate the Mouse X/Y option under the EXTRA menu option. Then use the clip feature to cut out a small box that includes the area that you wish to animate. Be sure to write down the starting and ending x,y coordinate values. Insert this in an animation sequence as described above. Next make some small changes in the area that you are animation. Cut out another block that includes this area. You should start and end at the same x,y coordinates as for the first block otherwise each sequence of the animation will be slightly offset from the other. Insert this block as the next sequence in the animation file. Continue the above steps for as many blocks as you need to complete the animation sequence. For most simple animations such as a man talking you will only need 2 or 3 blocks. Once you have inserted all the blocks that you need save the animation file using the starting x,y coordinates that you used when cutting out the blocks. MASK FILES ---------- Mask files are used to create screen areas that cause the WALKING files to disappear when they enter the MASK area. This can result in a "three dimensional" look to your programs. This will allow you to have characters to appear to walk behind screen elements such as large rocks, buildings or trees. Mask files are easy to create. You simple draw in the area that you want to be masked. Then make sure that this masked area is colored black. The rest of the mask file screen must be colored in with any other color than black. The easiest way to create a mask file is as follows: Suppose that the first picture in your game has a large rock and that you want your character to disappear when he walks into that rock. To create a mask file for this screen simply load the screen into TurboPaint with the FILE LOAD option. Then color the rock Black. Then make sure that the rest of the screen is colored in with some other color. The easiest way to color in large sections of the screen is to use the FILL tool from the ToolBox. When you have the correct colors simple save the file as a mask file by selecting FILE and SAVE MASK. Then you can name this as the mask file for that background screen in the SCREEN EDIT option of Game Builder Lite. You can quickly and easily use TurboPaint to create a few objects and animations. Experiment a little to get the feel of using these tools and soon you'll be creating an elaborate character object for your background screens. USING SOUNDSGOOD (To create sound or music files) -------------------------------------------------- The sound editor can be used to make a wide variety of music or other sounds. To use this feature you must first select the Create option from the Main Menu area. Then select the sound option from the Create menu. This will load "SoundsGood," the sound editor program. Caution: When SoundsGood is loaded any game program will be removed from memory. Therefore, you should save any game files that you wish to keep. SoundsGood files have the extension .SND. The SoundsGood program has its own main menu of choices. These choices can be activated by mouse or keyboard. SoundsGood divides the screen into 3 separate areas. 1. The top left area gives you a list of premade sounds that you can use. 2. The bottom left area represents musical notes. 3. The right side of the screen displays the notes and music that you have selected for a sound list. The top of the screen displays a menu of choices for SoundsGood. SOUNDSGOOD -- MAIN MENU ----------------------- Here are descriptions of the main menu choices for SoundsGood. BLOCK ----- This allows you to make block changes to the sound list. Before you can make these changes you must mark a block of the sound list. There are two ways to mark a block of sound list items. 1. Place the mouse cursor on the first sound list item to be marked. Then hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse's cursor to the last item that you want in the block, Release the left mouse button. All of the block items will be highlighted in yellow. 2. Use the mouse or arrow keys to put the cursor on the first item to be marked. Select the Block menu option and then choose Begin. Next, use the arrow keys to move to the last item in the block and then select End from the Block menu. Once a block is marked, you can then proceed to make changes to the entire block (such as delete, copy, cut, paste, speed, and transpose). All of these actions are available from the Block menu. COMMANDS -------- The Commands menu allows you to add sounds and tones to the Sounds list box. Simply choose the Commands menu and then select the sound you want by hitting the enter key or the left mouse button when the cursor is on that sounds name. The sound should then appear in the Sound List. The sounds in the Commands menu are the same sounds that are listed in the top left area of the display. The sounds in this screen area can be selected by using the mouse or enter key. This gives you two ways to put these sounds into the Sounds List area. FILE ---- The File options allow you to load, merge, save or create new sound files. Simply select the option that you need and an appropriate menu will appear on your screen. SOUND ----- The Sound menu options are 1. Play the sound list that is currently in memory. 2. Stop the sound list that is being played. NOTES ----- The bottom left section of the screen is the Notes selection area. You can select these notes to be added to the Sound List. The notes can be selected by using the left mouse button or by hitting the letter that represents the note (Example C# is played when you hit the E key). The note will play for as long as you hold down the mouse button or keyboard key. Thus you can play songs or create new sounds using these notes. Each time that you play a note it will be added to the sound list. EDITING THE SOUND LIST ---------------------- Sometimes it is difficult to get the right time interval for the notes by just playing them from the keyboard. The time intervals can easily be changed by editing the sound list. Here's how. Use the arrow keys to highlight the notes that you wish to change (on the Sounds List). When the proper note is highlighted hit the ENTER key. You may then use the arrow keys to move to the section that you wish to change. When you are finished hit the ENTER key again and you will be removed from the Sounds List edit mode. Once you have created a sound or song that you like, be sure to save it by using the FILE and SAVE option. Sounds Good will automatically give the sound file a 3 letter extension of .SND. You can then use these sounds in your games by typing the sound file names in the SCREEN GRID or SCRIPT EDIT data areas. EDIT MAIN MENU ITEM ------------------- The EDIT main menu option is where you begin to put together the pictures and character files into a game. The EDIT option also allows you to attach various commands and actions with each screen or object. This section details the options available from the EDIT menu. GRID ---- The GRID editor allows you to select the number of screens that you want in your game. The default value is a 9x9 grid or 81 screens. To choose another grid size simply select the GRID option and change the values to suit the game you are designing. For example, for a 25 screen game, use a 5x5 grid. This will result in a grid of 5 screen rows and 5 screen columns. The maximum grid values are 20x20 or 400 screens. The screens are numbered in this manner for a 5 x 5 grid screen: Columns Rows 0000 0001 0002 0003 0004 0100 0101 0102 0103 0104 0200 0201 0202 0203 0204 0300 0301 0302 0303 0304 0400 0401 0402 0403 0404 Each screen can be referred to by it's row and column number. Example: the top left screen is 0000 and the bottom right screen in the above grid is 0404. The game always begins at location 0000. The animation character or object will move from screen to screen when the arrow keys are pressed. From screen location 0000 it can move to screen 0001 or screen 0100. But you can also use a GOTO command to jump from one screen to another unconnected grid location. Example from 0000 to 0403. You'll want to place a background screen at each one of the grid locations in your game using the SCREEN option from the EDIT menu. These screens can have whatever name you want. One of the easiest ways to keep track of all these screens and the location they go in is by incorporating the grid number into the name. Example: PIC0000.PCX through PIC0404.PCX. The SCREEN GRID option automatically assigns these names to the background screens when you first create a game. Considerations: Keep in mind that the more screens you have in your game, will also require more disk space and more computer memory. I suggest that you start out with a small number of screens and then increase the size of your game as you gain more experience with Game Builder Lite. Your game's movable object or animation character will move from one grid location to another (screen) by using the arrow keys on you keyboard. For example in your object character is a man at grid location 0000 you can move it to grid location 0100 by using the down arrow key. The object will then move down the screen until it arrives at the next screen. This allows you to move from one location to another to complete your adventure, presentation, or other game. IMPORTANT: Do not change the GRID size once you have started a game. This can cause errors in the .GAM file and give unpredictable results. IMPORTANT: Background screens are limited to 64K size. Screens that are larger than this will cause the game to hang-up. EDIT SCREEN GRID ---------------- The SCREEN editor allows you to: 1. Tell which background picture to put in each grid location. 2. Tell which objects, and walking animations to place on each screen. 3. Tell which areas to mask from view (allows your object to appear to move behind other objects). 4. Set exclusion areas of the screen into which your object cannot move. 5. Play music files when a screen is entered. The SCREEN GRID menu gives you several different options for moving through the screen grid. The top of this screen shows you the grid location that you are currently editing in the row,column number format. For example, the first location is 0000. You can quickly move to any grid location by selecting the Up, Down, Left, or Right boxes with a mouse or keyboard. Once the top on the screen lists the grid location that you wish to work on you can begin to enter data for that grid spot. The first choice is to enter the name of the screen that you wish to appear at that grid location. 1. PICTURE file -- This is the name of the background screen that you want to appear at the grid location listed in row & column. The default names are PICXXXX.pcx where XXXX stands for the screen row and column numbers. Example: PIC0000.PCX is the top left position in the grid. Screens are limited to 64,000 bytes in size. 2. MUSIC file -- This is a sound file that you have created with the CREATE SOUNDS option. If you put the name of a sound file in this spot it will play as soon as you enter this screen. 3. OBJECT file -- This is the name of an Object file that you created using the CREATE OBJECT option. Its movement is controlled by the arrow keys during game play. You cannot have a Walking animation file and Object file listed for the same screen. 4. WALK LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN -- These are the names of animation files that you have created using the CREATE PICTURE option. Usually they are files that show several motion views of a person or object moving in the direction left, right, up or down. In other words when you press the left arrow key the WALKING LEFT animation file will play if you have a animation file listed for that screen position. 5. BUTTONS -- the boxes at the bottom of the screen are OK and SET EXCLUSIONS. Selecting the OK box leaves the SCREEN EDIT data and exits back to the Game Builder Lite main menu. Selecting the SET EXCLUSION box calls up another data entry menu for setting restricted movement areas for the screen you are located at. When you select the OK button and exit the SCREEN GRID, all data is automatically saved. 6. SET EXCLUSIONS --This option can be used to make restricted areas that the object or animation character cannot move into. This is useful for preventing the object from leaving a screen or walking onto a particular area of the screen. You can set up to 25 excluded areas for each screen. To set an excluded area simply enter the x,y screen locations for the corners of a box that surrounds the excluded area. The exclusion box that you create must be at least 5 pixels (screen locations) wide. Also you only need to enter the two opposite corners of the exclusion box. These coordinates are x1,y1, and x2,y2 values. For example, if you are using CGA or EGA 320 x 200 graphics mode, then you could have x values of 1 to 319 and y vales from 1 to 199. If you wish to exclude the entire right side of the screen use values for x1,y1= 310,1 and x2, y2 = 316,198. The exclusion boxes that you create must be at least 5 pixels wide. A 640 x 480 VGA graphics mode could have x values of 1 to 639 and y values of 1 to 439. You can prevent the character or object from leaving a particular side of the current screen. Do this by creating an long narrow exclusion box that covers the width of that side. Most games will have many screens in which you'll want to prevent the character from moving out a particular screen side (right, left, top, or bottom). Here are some typical exclusion values that will prevent movement out of 320x200 screen modes. LEFT -- 1,1,7,196 RIGHT -- 310,1,318,196 TOP -- 1,1,318,24 BOTTOM -- 1,190,318,198 You cannot use 0 as a value for one of these x,y coordinates. If your character leaves a screen through a side that does not have another screen then it simply stays on the same screen. So you may want to enter exclusion areas to prevent this. This holds true for all the screens at the edges of the grid. If you have screens that do not have any moving character on them you should still to put exclusion limits on all 4 sides. Otherwise an "invisible" (non-existent) character could still be moved off the edge of the screen and give unpredictable results. Once you have entered the data for one particular screen use the up, down, left, or right buttons to move to another location. Doing this will allow you to fill in the data for each grid location. When you are finished entering SCREEN EDIT data select OK to return to Game Builder Lite's Main Menu. SCRIPT EDITOR ------------- The script editor can be used by selecting SCRIPT from the EDIT menu. The script editor allows you to define the words that each screen understands. You can also define a wide range of actions that can be associated with each screen. Here is how to use the script editor. 1. First, be certain that you are located on the screen that you want to define. Do this by checking the grid row and column number at the top of the screen. Use the up, down, left, and right buttons to travel to the screen you want. 2. Once you are at the proper screen you can begin to enter verb/noun combinations. These are words (one verb and one noun) to which the computer can respond. You can use any words you wish. Example #1 -- verb: look noun: around Response -- this is the response that is given when the user types the right verb/noun combinations. Example: user types: "look around". Response = "You see a mountain to the west." This gives you complete freedom to choose verbs, nouns, and responses for every screen. You can have up to 20 different scripts for every screen. You can use * as a wildcard noun word that will accept anything that the user types. You can also connect several NOUN words together like this: around!planet!space. The ! serves as a connecting device. This would result in a verb that could generate a successful result with all three of these words. 3. Position. These are x, y, screen locations that you can associate with verbs/nouns, responses, and actions. If you put x, and y screen position numbers in the position value the scripts will only respond when your character is at that position. Example: You use x = 150, y = 100, for the look/around script in Example #1. You would only get the script response when your movable object was at the x = 150, y = 100 location (about the middle of the screen). If you put in values of x = -1, y = -1 then the script would respond at all screen locations. This is the setting that you will need for most scripts. 4. Success sounds are sound files that will play whenever the script is successful. 5. There is a list of Verbs that will respond to the BUTTONS at the top of the game screen, these include: LOOK, OPEN, CLOSE, TALK, GET, GIVE, PUSH, and USE. However, the buttons will respond only to the first occurrence of that word in the script. If there are additional scripts (for the same screen) for that word then the user must type it in from the keyboard to generate a response. Some experimentation will teach you how this works. 6. At the bottom of the script editor screen there are 6 command buttons. Add -- use this button to add another script to the current screen. You can have up to 24 separate scripts for each screen. Delete -- Use this button to delete the current script. Next and Previous buttons are used to cycle back and forth through your list of scripts. OK button is used whenever you are finished creating screen scripts. Action -- This button displays an entire list of actions that can be associated with each script. It is described in the next section. ACTION ------ Pressing the action button displays a screen which shows: Mechanisms, Actions, and Action Results. MECHANISMS -- the 4 choices are USER, POSITION, TIMER and SCREEN. Select the choice that best describes the manner in which you wish the scripts and actions to be initiated. USER -- this mechanism means that the user must type a verb/noun phrase to activate the response script and action script. This will be the mechanism that you use the most. POSITION -- the response and actions are automatically activated when the user moves the character to the screen Position that is indicated in the x, y, position values. This is useful if your character moves through a door and you want to transfer to the next room screen. SCREEN -- the response and actions are activated as soon as the user enters the screen. TIMER -- This is to activate a timer as soon as the user enters a screen. This is usefully for creating time activated events. SPECIAL ACTIONS --------------- These are a list of actions that can take place as part of the response to a script. Here is a list of these actions. WIN GAME -- causes the game to end and displays the win game screen. LOSE GAME -- causes the game to end and displays the lose game screen. GET POINTS -- adds points to the player's score. LOSE POINTS -- subtracts points from the player's score. GET ITEM -- This puts the item that you specify on the player's inventory list. Note: The item must be on the ITEM list. USE/LOSE ITEM -- This removes the item from the player's inventory list. IF ITEM -- This determines if a player has an item and then can perform another action. IF NOT ITEM -- This is used if a player doesn't have a particular item. END IF -- This ends the IF statement and proceeds to the next action if the conditions are fulfilled. Every IF statement must end with an END statement. REMOVE IMAGE -- This will remove a one screen animation file (that you created with CREATE OBJECT) that you put on the screen with SHOW IMAGE. This allows you to have one disappearing object per screen. SHOW IMAGE -- This will show a one screen animation file for the time duration that you set when you created the file. IF TIMER -- the compares the value of a timer to the amount of time you select. IF RANDOM -- this compares values to a random number between 1 and 10. This is useful for creating random events. RESET TIMER -- this resets the timer to zero. BEGIN ANIMATION -- this plays an animation file that you have created with CREATE PICTURE option. The file is played at the location and speed you specified when it was saved. END ANIMATION -- this stops the active animation file from playing. IF ANIMATION -- this checks to see if an animation is running. GOTO SCREEN -- this immediately displays the game character on the screen that you specify. This allows you to jump from one screen to another. CANCEL MOVEMENT -- this stops the current movement of the object or walking animation file. DISABLE SCRIPT -- this prevents the script from being used again. If disable script is the last statement of your list then the script will only play once. This is useful to prevent a player from scoring an unlimited amount of points by continually doing the same action. This should only be used at the end of a script. RUN PROGRAM -- this runs another program from outside of Game Builder Lite. This program must be a stand alone .exe or .com file and must be in the same graphic mode as your program. After the outside program runs you are returned to Game Builder Lite. These functions let you add a wide range of responses, positions, verbs/nouns, and actions to each screen. The responses and actions can be triggered by position, a timer, screen, or the user. Example: Type this into the script editor. verb: look noun: around position: x = -1 y = -1 response: you see a blue crystal Next, select the Action button, and do the following: 1. Select USER button 2. ACTIVATE THE ACTIONS LIST by highlighting it with the left and right arrow keys. 3. Use the up & down arrow keys to highlight Get Points. 4. Hit the ENTER key and you'll be asked for the number of points to add. Select 30 and hit the ENTER key. 5. The phrase: Get POINTS = 30 should appear in the list of ACTIONS. The above sequence will result in the following actions during game. Whenever the player enters that screen and types "look around" the response script will display "You see a blue crystal". At the same time 30 points will be added to the player's score. To limit the point scoring to just a one time event, simply add this step: 6. Go back to the list of actions and highlight the Disable Script action. Hit Enter and this will be added to the response list below the Get Points = 30. Here are three more examples of response list actions: I. LOSE POINTS = -50 LOSE GAME II. IF ITEM = SHOVEL GET ITEM = 'CRYSTAL' GET POINTS = 30 ENDIF III. IF TIMER > 4 BEGIN ANIMATION: EXP1 ENDIF By smart use of the verb/noun combinations, position values, response scripts, mechanisms, and special actions you can create a wide range of actions and reactions for each screen of your game. But remember that each script takes up disk space. If you are trying to get your game onto a 360k disk you may need to consider cutting back on the number of scripts. The easiest way to understand how all of this works is to play the included sample game. Later you can load the game into memory and study the various scripts and actions. After that make a small experimental game and test various scripts and actions. ANIMATION LIST -------------- The ANIMATION option creates a list of animation files that you can then use in your program. You must have already created the animation files using the CREATE PICTURE option. To create an animation file list, first select the ANIMATION option from the EDIT option. This will then pop-up a list that you can enter the file names into by first hitting the enter key and then typing in the file name. You can have up to 20 animation files per game. ITEM LIST --------- The ITEM list is very similar to the ANIMATION list. This list can contain up to 40 items that can be used during the game. The ITEM list will be used by the SCRIPT EDITOR to tell the game how to use, get, or interact with each item. Enter item names into the list using the same method that is used for animation files. ITEMS are usually things that you have drawn in the background screens. They do not exist as separate picture items except in this ITEM list. You can even have items that don't appear on any screens. For Game Builder Lite to recognize the ITEMS they must be on the ITEM list and referred to in the SCRIPT EDITOR. SPECIAL OPTION -------------- The SPECIAL option enables you to specify the name of the screens to be used during opening, closing, losing or winning the game. You can also play a music file with each of these screens. These screens can be drawn with TurboPaint using CREATE/PICTURE option. The opening screen may contain some graphics and copyright information (if needed). The opening screen also usually gives a brief description of the game. The Lose screen is for ending the game when the player fails to complete the mission. The Win screen is displayed if the player completes the game's mission. The Close screen is so you can display an extra message about other games that you may have for sale or whatever message you wish. To use the SPECIAL option, simply select it by clicking the mouse. You may then begin to enter the names of the picture files that you wish for each screen. PROGRAM ------- This is a list of outside programs that you may want for some special effects during your game. These programs must be a valid EXE or COM file. Any outside programs that you run must be in the same graphic mode as your game. Programs that you put on this list can then be called, adding the RUN PROGRAM action to one of your scripts. ARGUMENTS --------- This is a list of command line arguments that you may need for the outside programs listed in the PROGRAM LIST. FILE MAIN MENU OPTIONS: LOAD, NEW, and SAVE ------------------------------------------- The FILE option is for Loading, Saving, or creating New games. LOAD is used to load an existing game into memory. SAVE should always be used to preserve any games that you are working on before you exit Game Builder. NEW is used to clear the computer's memory so that you can begin work on another program. Each of these options will present you with another screen that will allow you to select the drive and file name that you wish to use. PLAY MENU OPTIONS: PLAY GAME IN MEMORY -------------------------------------- If you already have a game in memory you can quickly play it by selecting this option. The PLAY option is useful when you are designing a game and want to test the changes that you make. PREVIEW MENU OPTIONS -------------------- The preview option is just a quick way to look at picture, object, and animation files or listen to sound files. This is a quick way of reviewing each file so that you can select the proper file to be used in the proper screen grid locations. OBJECT ------ The OBJECT preview option simply presents you with a list of object files that you can select for viewing. These object files have the extension of .OB. They are created with CREATE OBJECT. PICTURE ------- This option is used to view the background .PCX files that you have created with CREATE PICTURE. SOUND ----- This is used to preview sound files that were created with CREATE SOUND. MOVING ------ Moving is used to preview the walking and single screen animation files that you have created with CREATE PICTURE and the ANIMATION option. GAMEBUILDING TIPS ----------------- Think ahead when you design the background screens. Draw them so that it will be easy for the character to blend in and move around the screen without running into too many objects. Be original. Don't design the same old adventure games that everyone else is already doing. Use great graphic background screens. Don't use too many MASK files; they will slow down the overall operation of the game. However, do make liberal use of appropriate sound files to enhance the user's enjoyment. GAME IDEAS ---------- HISTORICAL ADVENTURES -- These are games in which your moving character is a famous person. The background screens are appropriate pictures for the right time and place in which the character lived. MAZE -- You can create a wide variety of mazes with Game Builder Lite. MAPS -- You can create a position activated map that jumps to a picture of the main areas on the map; such as cities, rivers, etc. You can even create maps of real cities which has pictures of real streets and buildings. EDUCATIONAL GAMES -- Identify plants, animals, etc. ADVENTURE and MYSTERY games -- solve puzzles and problems. BOARD GAMES -- each screen of the game is a location on the board. BIBLE GAMES -- Animated stories and Bible presentations. CARTOONS -- Make your own disk-based cartoons. PRESENTATIONS -- You can use Game Builder to make self running or interactive presentations for your product or service. BOOKS -- Use Game Builder to created interactive text and graphic books. OTHER IDEAS -- Training Program presentations, Rescue games, Explorer games, Sound and Music games, Puzzle games, Travel games, Treasure Hunts, Quiz and Riddle games. COMMON PROBLEMS --------------- 1. The script that I created does not give the desired response. Be certain that you have used the correct position values (either -1,-1 or the desired values). 2. My object moves through the exclusion areas that I have for a screen. Make sure that the exclusion rectangle that you have chosen is at least 6 pixels (x,y values) wide. 3. My walking animation files show the wrong movement when I press the right arrow key. Check the SCREEN GRID data files and be certain that you placed the correct file in the WALK RIGHT file area. OTHER COMMON PROBLEMS --------------------- Leaving out file extension when using the animation (.anm) or sound files (.SND) will prevent your game from operating properly. Background screens greater than 64,000 bytes cause the program to hang. Setting the wrong exclusion areas can cause the game to freeze up. For example if you use a GOTO to go to another screen and the character is placed in an area where it can't move the game will freeze. When editing a game if you make several changes you should save the game and then exit Game Builder before attempting to PLAY the game. REMEMBER this is a SHAREWARE program. If you continue to use it you should register. Print the ORDER.DOC file for more information. Appendix -- Game Builder Professional If you like Game Builder Lite, you'll want the ability to distribute or sell your games. This is impossible with Game Builder Lite because although you can play your games within the Game Builder Lite environment, you cannot play them as stand-along games, and so you cannot sell them to others. In addition, professional games include support for digitized sound and background music on sound cards such as the Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Adlib Gold, Thunder Card, and ProAudio Spectrum. You'll want the ability to add this to your games as well. A third feature that most professional games have is that graphics and sound files are combined into a few large "resource" files, often with compression added to conserve disk space. And finally, it would be handy to have a library of graphics, fonts, music and digitized sound clips that you can use in or adapt for your games. If you're serious about developing top-notch games, I've got good news for you. Game Builder Professional includes all four of these things. Game Builder has everything in Game Builder Lite, plus it adds a run-time module so you can distribute or sell your game creations. And you can do so royalty-free -- you keep all the profits! Maybe you'll be the author of the next shareware mega-hit, or maybe you'll even get published by a commercial game company! Game Builder Professional also includes the ability to create resource files with built-in data compression, and it includes support for all major sound cards so your game can have digitized sound effects and background music. In addition, you receive three FREE bonuses with Game Builder Professional. You receive a disk full of pcx files that you can use in your games, royalty- free. These pictures were created especially for use with Game Builder Professional games. You also receive a lot of extra fonts so you can vary the look of the text in your games. In addition, you receive a disk of music clips and digitized sound effects, over 100 in all! You can add these to your games to give them that professional touch. Best of all, you never have to pay one cent in royalties for games you create with Game Builder Professional. This includes the artwork, fonts, music and sound effects, too. All of them are free to you as bonuses for purchasing Game Builder Professional. This special HD three-disk set is available direct to you from MVP Software for only $49.95, plus $3 shipping from the US, $4 shipping from Canada, or $5 shipping from anywhere else. You'll also receive a printed manual with lots of details on using Game Builder Professional and creating high-quality games. To order, call our 24-hour toll-free order line from the US or Canada: 800-968-9684. From anywhere else, or for information or technical support, call 616-245-8376 during regular business hours EST. Or mail the order form (print the file ORDER.DOC), along with your check, money order, or credit card information to: MVP Software, 1035 Dallas SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507-1407. US funds only please.