YoYo Games has launched Little Town – a new game-making tutorial – which teaches students and hobbyists game development using GameMaker Studio 2.
Developed in collaboration with award-winning game developer and university lecturer, Benjamin Rivers, Little Town has been designed to help new designers and developers to quickly learn the core functionality of GameMaker Studio 2 in a natural, fun way.
Adventure Game
Players take control a small child in an idyllic small town adventure. Players must follow the clues to find the right items and bring them to one of the town’s three characters – the baker, the teacher and the grocer.
The tutorial enables users to create their own layout for Little Town and use code to bring the town and its inhabitants to life. Users will also be able to choose where to hide each item, as well as writing their own hints and dialogue.
Inspiring Educators
With over eight hours of video tutorials as well as a wealth of supporting materials, Little Town provides a robust framework for educators with teaching guidelines and assessment criteria with which colleges and universities can effectively start teaching game design to their students.
The Little Town tutorial teaches many core skills from creating vibrant animations using GameMaker’s Sequences tool to controlling sprites, sounds and laying-out the playing area – providing the perfect introduction to GameMaker Studio 2 and the fundamental principles of game design.
The tutorial features six sections and has been designed to allow for both synchronous and asynchronous participation for in-class and remote learning.
Stuart Poole, General Manager, YoYo Games, said:
We’re extremely pleased to release Little Town, our most comprehensive GameMaker tutorial to date and the first in a series of high-quality tutorials which are currently under development.
While we’re constantly striving to make GameMaker as easy to use and accessible as possible, quality tutorials like Little Town are essential as they provide a practical framework to enable users to quickly get up-to-speed with the core functionality of GameMaker so they can start making their own amazing games.
Benjamin Rivers, Little Town’s creator, added:
While Little Town is perfect for anyone who wants to learn how to understand the basics of game making, the tutorial has been developed specifically to support students in higher education who are learning game design.
Little Town has been structured to encourage self-driven learning and experimentation, which we hope will inspire a new generation of game developers.
You can download Little Town (with or without the education materials) here.
