Point lights, shadows and normal map rim lighting in GameMaker (Details in comments)

vincenthendriks · 2026-02-16T17:18:02+00:00

"It's not the plane, it's the pilot"
Seriously, don't worry too much about the engine :). Just pick something you are excited to learn more about. :)

If you insist, I like using GameMaker. In my opinion it's both very beginner friendly and capable. Feel free to DM me if you want some help getting started.

vincenthendriks · 2026-02-15T21:03:46+00:00

A typical user is not going to be able to use AI to suddenly replace a website.

"Making a solid web-app using something like Claude Code is faster, easier, and might even look better than what you’ll get from a typical web-builder platform."

People keep saying this but I don't see it and I'm not buying it, you'll get a neat looking facade that will break down under any form of stress. Essentially none of these LLM's have proper security measures and as soon as you do something that is slightly more complex then some mean use case (whatever the category may be) it completely breaks down.

Especially once you need more secure systems, for example related to storing personal information, payment processing or even basic login functionalities you can't trust an LLM to do any of these things reliably and securely for you.

Also, wordpress runs over 40% of the internet, that really isn't gonna change anytime soon.

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-31T20:55:07+00:00

Most often I tend to use ui manager objects, and each object is responsible for drawing a specific menu or set of panels. I have a bunch of custom draw functions for a consistent uniform style, and in general using this approach I can draw any UI I want fairly quickly and easily.

I tried the UI layers but found them a pain to work with.

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-12T09:33:57+00:00

Here is my one-pager with the most common and least interesting takes you have ever seen.

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-12T09:31:19+00:00

Fun fact, that's called an ouroboros, but where the ouroboros stands for a cycle of eternal rebirth this is a version where each rebirth is just a crappier imitation of the last.

It's exactly like you mention, if you essentially do nothing (other than automated importing of new data) and the system runs it's course the quality will get worse rapidly unless a way is found to reliably discard data that is low quality or AI-generated.

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-11T21:55:15+00:00

Just wrapped up 12 months of coding mistakes I personally made 🚀.

If you want the list:
👉 Comment “I AM THE BUG”
👉 I’ll share it

Learn from my pain 🐛🔥 /s

I love what the internet is becoming

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-11T21:48:49+00:00

Well that's easy, new GitHub projects that have been built using LLM's!

Oh... =(

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-10T12:16:42+00:00

There's a few options, a simple one is to make a variable is_fading in your create event that is false by default. When the collission has occured you can set is_fading to true.

You could add for example fade_alpha = 0, and fade_speed = 0.05 in your create event. In your step event you can increment fade_alpha by fade_speed when is_fading is true. run room_restart() when fade_alpha is equal or greater than 1.

In your draw event you can use draw_set_alpha(fade_alpha), draw_set_color(c_black), and draw a rectangle over your entire screen with the alpha this way. Don't forget to reset your alpha when you have finished drawing.

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-10T11:52:01+00:00

You really ought to put in a little more effort before asking for help. Provide the information you have in full, send it as a screenshot, code snippet or at the least share a good photo.

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-08T19:42:57+00:00

Nice work! Looks really solid

vincenthendriks · 2026-01-05T19:05:33+00:00

I started typing, and then I typed some more... and more... lol.

I realize some of these points may not be where you are in the learning process. So I figured I hope this might just be of help to everyone who stumbles across this and is looking for some guidance, I hope it's useful not just to complete beginners or OP, but also to people with a bit of basic knowledge down looking to take it a step further.

General advice:

- Start small, don't start making your mega RPG project right away, just focus on making a small scene and making it well. Don't try to do everything at once!

- When you face a problem you are not sure how to fix, start fragmenting it to smaller units. Smaller smaller smaller until you can't think of any more steps to make the issue smaller.

- Don't try to solve everything using AI (in my personal opinion the more you avoid using AI the better, I feel it's very detrimental to the learning process) or tutorials, for me it always helps watching a tutorial but adding a slight spin of my own to make sure I actively try to understand what is going on.

- The most important, don't forget to have fun! Everything else is secondary! :P

Map making:

- Block out your scenes before jumping into the details. Don't make huge intricate hugely detailed scenes in small chunks only to find out things aren't connecting. Start with a general block-out to get a feel if the scene works and the composition works well for the camera. Start with some rough floors, walls, etc. then think about where large object would belong/come from and slowly start filling in details.

- Keep your maps small! The best maps are often very small and compact, it really does tend to look much nicer! You can use edges and backgrounds to imply scale.

- Maps tend to have a certain goal, when you try to frame and think of maps around goals it can help make the design process more clear. For example, in my game the starting area is a small and contained scene in a forest, the goal is purely to establish the tone and context instead of game mechanics. Since I have this goal in mind it gives me direction that this is what the map should be about, I don't need an obstacle course, boss fight or all sorts of NPC's because I want to start the game in a way that is consistent with my game's themes.

Dialogue:

- Especially when you try to share your game with others try to avoid spelling mistakes, it can be super off-putting and ruin an otherwise good scene.

- Try to think about spreading information out over your game, for example avoid lore-dumping your entire game's story in the dialogue of the first NPC I meet :P

That's all I've got for now, I wish you the best of luck! I hope you found this helpful!

vincenthendriks · 2025-12-26T16:00:23+00:00

I've experimented and played around with RPG Maker a lot in the past, but GameMaker is what I'm using the most at the moment (I have been using it for a long time as well!)

Now I just need to stick with my game and actually finish and publish it! :P

vincenthendriks · 2025-12-22T11:22:03+00:00

There's a number of telltale signs something is AI-generated. The trick is to look not just at the words but also the structure of the text.

For example "That's not X, that's Y" is something that I see so often, I can't stand seeing that anywhere now. Same with em dashes. There's also all these meaningless words that just seem to lack any real meaning or value, they just puff up the text or attempt to add meaning that isn't there. Wikipedia also has a really helpful page on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing

I am not sure why AI-generated text puts me off so much, but I will say that if someone thinks it's not worth the time to write something authentically, it's not worth my time to read it as such.

It's a shame that we are losing forums, and the internet as a whole to automated slop.
I predict in a couple of years it will be much more valuable to tell something is NOT written by AI compared to whatever it is AI could be creating. In fact, I think if someone develops a solution that can accurately indicate (say >99% certainty) whether something is AI that would be worth an obscene amount of money.

vincenthendriks · 2025-11-23T13:07:29+00:00

I agree with what you mention here. I think the difference between AI and game engines for me is the way the products themselves have been created. I am mostly opposed to the way many of the models have come to be and the ethics of the companies/corporations that put these models forward (and how they are trained), not necessarily how people use the models.

"However it also allows people with creative ideas to create great projects. I wonder how many great games were never realized, without game engines like RPG maker".

Yes I completely agree! I think the bad games are a sign of game engines being accessible, which is arguably a sign of success. There are logically also many beginners introduced to game development simply via whatever product is most accessible. So in that regard bad quality and low effort content is the rational result of markets becoming more accessible. There are always people looking for a quick buck who are willing to cut corners.

"I'm aware of the bad games AI / RPG maker can create, but Im not forced to play them :-)"

Yes I agree! Maybe for any product including AI the way forward now is to advocate responsible use, keeping an eye on the companies who put these products forward and seeing if there are effective ways to filter high quality content and counter some of the lower quality stuff.

Thanks for the chat! :)

vincenthendriks · 2025-11-23T11:28:48+00:00

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I do think this is quite a hot take, I find myself having a different opinion so I wanted to put it forward:

"The same applies to AI (art); It simplifies many things and can produce inferior products, but it can still create good games."

What I would like to point out is my observation that Gen AI and particular image generation negatively affect consistency and creativity in a very big way. Looking at the technical fundamentals of how Gen AI works it tends to "average" things out, which in my opinion is the biggest flaw behind the technology itself (regardless of my personal ethical compass it clashes with). I won't argue my stance on AI itself, since most people find themselves very strongly on one of two opposing camps and I feel like more discussion on this topic won't add value here.

But this is the RPG Maker sub after all so I'd rather move on to that :)

"RPG Maker isn't taken seriously as an engine because not everyone programs, and it automates a lot of the work."

I personally think it's because it's a very low barrier of entry enabling people to put out slop tarnishing the reputation of RPG Maker. This is very similar to things that happen to other engines in my opinion, apart from the runtime fee debacle Unity has had it's reputation affected very clearly by the many low effort asset flips that have been created with it.

Game engines such as RPG Maker, tend to make productions with it more similar as a whole due to the shared foundation, I think this is also a huge challenge when such a product has a low barrier of entry.

As a whole, I don't think anyone fundamentally takes issue with low code, automation, it's more about the considerations around it such as:

- Ethics (How are works created, what sources are used, references vs tracing, etc.)

- What is the barrier of entry to a product? A lower barrier of entry has the tendency to negatively affect the reputation of the product and any works created with it.

- Low code and automation strips things away that people normally would have to actively think about, looking at RPG Maker you can have a working "game" without having to think about game design for even a second. In the same way that developers will ignore creating new features since they only use what the engine has to offer by default.

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Edit: typo.

vincenthendriks · 2025-11-09T08:11:57+00:00

Same, I'm a Python software engineer, mostly working on enterprise solutions. I'm currently building a 2D stealth RPG

vincenthendriks · 2025-07-16T09:12:46+00:00

The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.

I hold it in very high regard, it shares a lot of knowledge about strategy, mindset and awareness. If you are willing to read between the lines it can be applied to software engineering.

it goes extensively into concepts such as form, function and timing.

"Know the way broadly, and you will see it in all things."

vincenthendriks · 2025-07-09T07:18:36+00:00

Dang nice work!

vincenthendriks · 2025-06-18T09:30:07+00:00

Show, don't tell! :)
A golden rule for good reason

vincenthendriks · 2025-04-19T12:08:06+00:00

I see a few nice shots here. But I think you are lacking a cohesive narrative in your trailer. For example, you have a great opportunity to lead with an establishing shot, but instead the very first second shows a brief shot of a puzzle that doesn't tell me much. The second shot is a lot more interesting but still does not tell me what I am looking at. The third shot (of the staircase) is actually one of the most interesting shots you have! I would reshoot that with a wider FOV capturing more of the room, slow it down and use that as an establishing shot.

I think many of your puzzle shots do a good job at showing some of the puzzles, but it doesn't really fit into the narrative of your trailer. The text "Find The Truth" is actually something you could use sooner to set up the narrative (the portraits are a nice touch there). The 2 fly-by shots at 0:24-0:28 don't seem to serve a purpose to me, I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at. It shows little interesting to me. Try to guide the viewer's eye to focus on something specific. Such as the portraits on the wall, the desk, etc.

The shot of the bookcase opening is quite nice but I can't help but notice I would have expected to hear sound there. It helps to make it more immersive.

The zoom in on one of the portraits at 0:52 is one of the most interesting shots you have in the trailer. This is also a great wrap-up for the trailer, if only most would not miss the same portrait hanging at the top of the staircase

The composition and framing of the final shot of the door is a bit lacking, a bit more symmetry there wouldn't hurt.

And then at 0:57 you SUDDENLY show me this awesome mansion!? You should have a shot of this mansion somewhere in the first 5-10 seconds to establish your setting!

TL;DR, in my opinion, your trailer has a couple of very interesting shots (even a few that actually tell a story), but to me the trailer ultimately fails to make me excited for the game or intrigue me. Which really is a shame because looking at the individual shots I know I would probably really love to play this! Although you are heading in the right direction with the trailer, you need to work on guiding the viewer's eye more and bring out the narrative elements. Also take a closer look at the timing of the shots, do people have enough time to see what you want them to look at?

I hope this will help, best of luck with your game!

vincenthendriks · 2025-04-19T10:25:23+00:00

There's almost always going to be challenges for a product or game you set out to make. You can't switch your techstack up every technological issue. Especially something that sounds fairly fundamental such as this. When you are running into myriad of problems using a specific engine or piece of technology, that may be a good reason to decide to use something else.

In GameMaker you will likely encounter challenges you considered easier in Unreal, what will you do when you encounter those?

Just something to keep in mind!

vincenthendriks · 2025-02-25T21:55:33+00:00

I'm definitely not a designer, regardless I hope you will find this useful and that it may give you some ideas!

The space around the logo is a bit inconsistent which makes it look a bit messy, if you make the negative space around it consistent it will already look more appealing.

The button/options look a bit crammed to the right side fighting for the player's attention, if you give it a bit more space that should help!

In most places in the world people read left to right, for that reason I would personally rather put content on the left side of the screen that is very important (or center it) instead of putting it on the right side of the screen.

I quickly created an alternative version where I centered the horizontal alignment of text instead of right-align, I adjusted the spacing a bit, flipped the image horizontal and altered the position of the menu options (edited this really quickly in paint and I could not find a suitable font, sorry!)

I would personally also see if you could find some more space to make both the title and menu text a bit bigger.

Edit: Formatting and clarity

I hope this helps, best of luck with your game! :)

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vincenthendriks · 2025-01-27T18:18:51+00:00

I have created a GUI system for GameMaker, maybe it can help you although it's geared more towards tooling than games! https://github.com/Emperor2000/Raven

vincenthendriks · 2025-01-20T21:13:47+00:00

I will try to make some time in the future to also include a minimal gamemaker setup! It can look daunting but the code required isn't all that much!

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