Part 10: Let’s Export the Game for Windows!
You should now have a basic jump action game, but as things stand only people who own ACTION GAME MAKER can play it. Let’s export it in Windows format so that people who do not own it can play too.
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From the “Project” menu in the upper left, choose “Export…”.
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The Export window opens. Choose “Windows Desktop” from “Add…” in this menu.
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Click the file icon to the right of the Export Path field on the right.
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A save-file window opens. Here you choose where and under what name to export the game you made. The location it opens by default is the project’s own folder, so let’s change it to a different folder.
For example, creating a “Platform Tutorial Export” folder in My Documents is a good idea.
Why is exporting inside the project folder a bad idea?
Everything inside the project folder is loaded when the project opens and when the game starts. In other words, having export files in there causes unnecessary loading, which can slow things down or cause problems.
It rarely becomes a serious issue, but it is best avoided just in case.
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Once you have decided on the destination folder, enter “Jump Action Tutorial.exe” as the file name inside it and save. (You need to type the .exe as well.)
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Once the path is specified, the “Export All” button in the lower left, which was grayed out until now, becomes available, so click it.
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A window for choosing the export mode appears, so select “Release”.
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A progress bar appears for a moment and closes automatically — that means it is done. Open the folder you saved to in Windows. There should be two files: PlatformTutorial.exe and .pck. The .exe is the program and the .pck is the data; the two go together. If you distribute your game to someone, make sure to send both files.
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Try launching the .exe file. Just like in a test play, the game starts up and you can play it. Your game is complete, at least for now — congratulations!
In Closing
How was the tutorial?
It was probably a bit difficult, but you have now learned the basics of ACTION GAME MAKER: how to make a map, how to make an object, and how to build a visual script.
That said, you probably still have questions like:
- How do I make a title screen?
- How do I make that gimmick you see all the time?
- How do I make a top-down game?
We have prepared advanced tutorials that cover these, so please take a look at those as well.
You can find the other tutorials in the table of contents!