SoulHow to use data structures

I told you it was coming. The data structure soulhow article. We’re up over 8000 hits, thanks to you, so I figured it was a great time to write another article.
So what are data structures? Well first, before I go any further, I’d like to redirect you to the arrays soulhow article [...]

SoulHow to use arrays

Ever heard of those weird things called arrays?  Me neither.
…
Just kidding of course.  Anyways, arrays are much easier to understand than they sound.  Due to the fact that I realized I had actually never explained arrays in any blog entry (!!!), I’ll explain them here (as suggested by the article title…) If you don’t [...]

SoulHow to make a more successful fangame

What do you think is the most frequently made fangame?  Mario?  Sonic?  Megaman?  Nope, you’re wrong.  The most frequently made fangames, are bad ones.  And sadly, these poorly-made fangames’ reputations tend to rub off onto other fangames and shoot their chances as well.
I really don’t care about original vs. fangame; all I care about is [...]

SoulHow to make gameplay fun

This sounds like a ridiculous idea for an article. Come on; talking about what’s fun? You KNOW what’s fun. Or do you? This is actually a more difficult subject than many would assume. Making your game fun isn’t just about adding more and more features; it requires careful planning, strategy [...]

SoulHow to keep the player playing

Hey guys. I wanted to report that we’re up over 4000 hits, and I thought it’d be as good a time as ever to write another special SoulHow game design theory article.  This one is about how to keep people playing your game.  Keep people playing? What’s the point of talking about that? [...]

SoulHow to work with surfaces (Game Maker)

Welcome to the surfaces SoulHow article. In this article you will learn how to use surfaces in Game Maker. They can be used for many purposes, such as neat transitions, dynamic textures, and custom sprites made at runtime. A lot of people think surfaces are some magical, superdifficult concept you shall never [...]

SoulHow to debug your game (Game Maker)

Welcome to another SoulHow article.  This one is about debugging your game.  Ever get that problem during programming that’s just so elusive that it makes you want to take your keyboard, rip out every single key one by one, ram it into your monitor and finally burn it in fiery destruction?  But you never did [...]

SoulHow to work with views (Game Maker)

Well hello again. You’re reading another SoulHow article, this time about Game Maker’s views. I’m going to cover all of the settings in the views tab of the room editor in GM version 7.0; all those things that had cool names but you didn’t dare touch.
First off; what is a view? A [...]

SoulHow to get your questions answered (GMC)

What’s up guys. I’m here with another SoulHow article. This time, I’ve decided to stray from articles strictly related to Game Maker, and post something about the GMC (Game Maker Community).
More and more I’m seeing questions on the GMC’s Q&A forums which are impossible to answer, or impossible to convince someone to answer. [...]

SoulHow to deal with errors (Game Maker)

Here we have another SoulHow Game Maker assistance guide. This one’s about errors. Note: I’ve update the article a tad (6/14/08) due to incorrect use of certain terms, I apologize. It was about 3:00 in the morning when I first wrote this; you never know what can happen at such earliness =p
So [...]