GameMaker Games

Beginner to Advanced Game Development Projects

Game Project Progression

Level Game Project Main Skills
1 Move the Player Keyboard input and movement
2 Collect the Coins Collision detection and score
3 Maze Game Walls, collisions, and rooms
4 Dodge the Enemies Random movement, lives, and game over
5 Click the Target Mouse input, score, and timers
6 Pong Paddle movement, bouncing, and scoring
7 Breakout Bricks, collision, and object destruction
8 Simple Platformer Gravity, jumping, and platforms
9 Endless Runner Scrolling, obstacle spawning, and speed
10 Space Shooter Bullets, enemies, health, and score
11 Asteroids Rotation, momentum, and spawning
12 Top-Down Racing Game Acceleration, steering, and checkpoints
13 Frogger-Style Game Moving obstacles, lanes, and level goals
14 Pac-Man-Style Maze Game Enemy movement, pellets, and power-ups
15 Tower Defense Enemy paths, towers, and targeting
16 Top-Down Adventure Game Rooms, NPCs, and inventory
17 Zelda-Style Game Combat, enemies, health, and items
18 Platformer with Enemies Enemy AI, animation, and checkpoints
19 RPG Battle Game Stats, attacks, menus, and turns
20 Dungeon Crawler Procedural rooms, enemies, and loot
21 Survival Game Resources, health, hunger, and crafting
22 Advanced Racing Game Lap system, AI racers, and timing
23 Metroidvania Connected world, abilities, and saving
24 Real-Time Strategy Game Unit selection, movement, and resources
25 Full RPG Quests, inventory, dialog, combat, and saving

Suggested GameMaker Course Progression

Stage 1 - Beginner

  1. Move the Player
  2. Collect the Coins
  3. Maze Game
  4. Dodge the Enemies
  5. Click the Target

Students learn objects, sprites, rooms, events, variables, keyboard and mouse controls, collisions, and scoring.

Stage 2 - Beginner / Intermediate

  1. Pong
  2. Breakout
  3. Simple Platformer
  4. Endless Runner
  5. Space Shooter

Students begin using instances, timers, gravity, projectiles, spawning, animation, lives, and game-over screens.

Stage 3 - Intermediate

  1. Asteroids
  2. Top-Down Racing Game
  3. Frogger-Style Game
  4. Pac-Man-Style Maze Game
  5. Tower Defense

Students learn more complex movement, enemy behavior, paths, arrays, object relationships, and level design.

Stage 4 - Advanced

  1. Top-Down Adventure Game
  2. Zelda-Style Game
  3. Platformer with Enemies
  4. RPG Battle Game
  5. Dungeon Crawler

Students begin working with inventory systems, enemy AI, state machines, dialog, menus, weapons, and persistent data.

Stage 5 - Major Projects

  1. Survival Game
  2. Advanced Racing Game
  3. Metroidvania
  4. Real-Time Strategy Game
  5. Full RPG

These projects can incorporate data structures, save files, procedural generation, sophisticated AI, large maps, menus, multiple levels, and advanced GameMaker Language (GML).

Recommended Classroom Sequence

Recommended progression:

Coin Collector → Maze → Pong → Breakout → Platformer → Space Shooter → Racing → Tower Defense → Zelda-Style Adventure → Final Original Game

This sequence gives students a manageable increase in difficulty while gradually introducing more advanced GameMaker and GML concepts.