How to Make a 2D Platformer in GameMaker! (Slopes, Moving Platforms, Semi Solid Platforms)

Part 1 of 9! Includes slopes, moving platforms, semi-solid/one-way platforms, precise collisions, and crouching! You can also download the fully finished project file for this series on my Patreon!
Patreon: / peytonburnham
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[@peytonburnham4316]

Thanks for checking out the series! Like I said, if you want to download the project file or watch the rest of the 9 videos early you can check that out on Patreon! (Links for that and my games and all that stuff are in the description!) This was a tough series to make so I hope it’s useful to you and you learn a lot!

[@SocialReclusee]

Thanks for these tutorials Peyton, I will definitely be joining your patreon :)

[@peytonburnham4316]

@@SocialReclusee Thanks!!!

[@starterdust]

Thanks for all the hard work.

[@Mrmystery9]

thank you for this

[@autismandgaming4532]

I'm sorry but I can't take "scoot up to wall precisely" seriously at all

[@dingusproductions3708]

BABE BABE!!! GET UP!!! A NEW PEYTON BURNHAM TUTORIAL JUST DROPPED!!!

[@d4rkkmusic]

The best GameMaker Teacher is back. I immediately subscribed to you on Patreon to watch all parts right away. Thanks Champ!

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thank you so much!!

[@TheSpooker9000]

I dont think ive ever been this exited for a series, ive been checking every 20 minutes for part 2 for the last 3 days😂

[@Seeks_stuff]

LES GOOOO!!!! I'm so excited to follow this one

[@grahamothy424]

as a SCADA Engineer, I love this explanation and personality. I am super impressed. I can't wait to see the rest of this series, incredibly job with this :)

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thank you so much!

[@GabeItch88]

Best game maker tutorials on youtube, thanks for all you do. Just finished the RPG series and its the first tutorial series I have watched that made me feel like I fully understood everything and felt confident on the material. Perfect timing for a new series to come out.

[@MrKoltuk]

No way i just trying to make a platformer game and this video come out

[@Help-Rubikscubemaster029]

🤑

[@makeitsogames]

I'm looking forward to the rest of the series! 17:00 for platform collisions I've always done it this way: var _wall = instance_place( x + xspd, y, oWall ) if (_wall) { if (xspd > 0) x = _wall.bbox_left - sprite_width/2 else if (xspd < 0) x = _wall.bbox_right + sprite_width/2 xspd = 0 } x += xspd

[@peytonburnham4316]

I love the creativity here! This code has some limitations but it's not a bad approach at all! You'll actually see we do something VERY similar later on in the series for dealing with moving solid platforms!

[@Vintal]

Omg yes! You are the best GMS2 Teacher on YT for me. Every video is so brilliantly executed and explained, great to follow and easy to build along. Still currently binging your twin stick-Shooter playlist but I'll be in this right after. Thank you for your content, King!

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thank you!! Always glad to hear when someone goes through the top down shooter series!!

[@queen-of-trash]

I’m in the middle of making a small turn based rpg in my free time and I’ve been using your older videos, super informative! Glad to see you’re doing more types of stuff, I’ll definitely keep this video in mind if I ever make a platformer.

[@SpringySpring04]

I like the idea of planning out those other 3 subtypes of platformers using this series as a base. I'm quite excited to see the end result!

[@alicemation]

Used my time machine to get here, bit upset that my 2021 version of gamemaker is not compatible with this tutorial series ngl (Super hyped for this series and cant wait to make a cool platformer :3)

[@poptartmools]

Wow im just so excited or this tutorial! Thanks for everything peyton!

[@peytonburnham4316]

Of course!!

[@Mafeijora]

This is a big help man, I look forward to the series!

[@johnydev-co2id]

oh my god I've been trying to fix my moving platform bugs and you just came with this video form heaven to deliver me. thank you so much, i look forward to the next tutorials.

[@siahsneaka]

The best Godot tutorial producer out there. Thanks for your time!

[@ng65gaming]

I've been coding in Scratch for 2 years now, and finally wanted to be able to port my ideas to a more versatile platform and make some actually good stuff this summer. It looks like this tutorial series just might make the dream true. Thank you so much for making this!

[@Luke.J358]

bro same actually lol but for me its around 3 months

[@ng65gaming]

@@Luke.J358 Nice man, hope things go well for you!

[@spaceotter7983]

Your videos have been a huge help to a novice hobbiest like myself just backed your Patreon you deserve all the support my friend 🙌🏻 thank you for all thw great educational content

[@peytonburnham4316]

Yo thank you so much!!

[@k-shady240]

Heat as always 🙏🏾 We need that RPG beat em up tutorial next 👀

[@PacificNorthwestPottery]

Came here striaght from your RPG series :), thank you, you are a wonderful teacher!

[@gregethgeist]

Completely unrelated to this series, but I'm just curious if we'll see a cutscene system tutorial in the future. Been working on an indie RPG game for the past couple years after I found your series on the genre (the game has been in an absolute development hell due to rewrites lol, but it's finally free from that), and I'm finally in a state to work on cutscenes! You're always the goat when it comes to Gamemaker tutorial series, so I would love to see a cutscene system at some point. Keep up the great work, and thanks for all the programming help over the past few years!

[@peytonburnham4316]

I totally will at some point! It'll eventually be wrapped up in a fully furnished "how to make a turn based rpg" series! Cutscene systems are best when they work in tandem with your core code for things like movement and animation so it's very difficult to make a good cutscene system that can just retroactively be fit into anyones game. That's the main reason it's taken so long, wanting to contextualize it. and I figured there's not a better genre for a good cutscene system than rpgs! So it may be a little while but I definitely will get to it!

[@gregethgeist]

@@peytonburnham4316Awesome! Looking forward to seeing it!

[@arthursilva4337]

Peyton! i missed you! thanks for your amazing tutorials as always.

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thank YOU!

[@crystalwolfx]

I can't wait to watch these in full!! Platforming logic is just something I never seem to get the hang of, and so far this seems like an amazingly helpful breakdown!

[@baseballknights]

Thank you so much for explaining how the physics engine works and explaining how each line of code works with the others. As a beginner in both GameDev and coding I truly learned a lot of syntax and structure from this video alone.

[@wumfumblus]

absolutely incredible tutorial! everything about it is so simple and easy to understand!

[@Jzit-Animations]

Lets freaking go, more tutorials!

[@JuniperDev]

Amazing work ❤

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thanks!!

[@slipperyphish]

Thank you so much for making these videos! 🙂

[@b3moy648]

yayy, new video is there

[@nlt_productions]

The best teacher.

[@Spookyplaguedoc1223]

new gamemaker dev here, and i just wanted to say that as a beginner, your tutorials are awsome!

[@HotSaladWater-ep2bq]

you know you can make any game you want when Professor Burnham is here B)

[@Cubex64]

You are amazing for this!!

[@notturtularsam5213]

Loving the tutorial so far, but having a bit of an issue where the player will clip 0.5 of a pixel into walls or the floor, I don't know why this is happening and it makes slopes a lot harder to do.

[@mousymurder]

Same, but for verticle movement. Seems to be related to decimal stuff (move_spd and grav)

[@Questionable_Insights]

Just when I thought I was done with GameMaker a seemingly promising tutorial series ropes me back in, lol I hope it covers wall jumping too!

[@peytonburnham4316]

No wall jumping in this series, but the idea is to branch off of this series with more specific mechanics and genres so I'm absolutely going to cover that at some point!

[@Questionable_Insights]

@@peytonburnham4316 great to hear!

[@shinybe]

Starcross this year :O

[@DJaycerOfficial]

This is a great tutorial. It makes me want to make a platformer.

[@TheSpooker9000]

Go for it

[@DJaycerOfficial]

@@TheSpooker9000 I would if I wasn’t currently making an RPG rn. So maybe a few years in the future, but right now I’m just cruising.

[@TheSpooker9000]

@@DJaycerOfficial then come back in a few years😅 goodluck on the rpg

[@alpheyy_for]

OMG the best creator of Game Maker !! 😭😭❤❤lov u

[@Hunnenkoenig]

Started a week ago again and now ur back! Sub. :)

[@ZODDtheApostle]

This tutorial has singlehandedly changed my coding style forever (in a good way) lol

[@mattidevs4310]

This must be the best tutorial I have ever watched, good job!

[@mehmetyigitkeskin5049]

Great video as always :) I have a question. Are you planning to make a video about optimization stuff?

[@peytonburnham4316]

I probably will do some kind of video focused on that subject at some point! Probably after I've finished my own commercial release and have 1st hand experience of getting technical feedback from a lot of different players!

[@jazzyfaye6976]

Awesome stuff man!!!

[@3dblendermodeler]

finally a game maker teacher, thank you very much, I hope you continue teaching

[@GabeSwarr]

OMG this is perfect! I've been hobbling together everything I could find into my project and you have it all in one tutorial! Thank you so much! Now to redo a ton of janky code...

[@jacetheguymusic]

i hope this series helps, though im sure it will, because after this part one, ive already made a basic platforming room and understand what everything does, thanks to you

[@hiiambarney4489]

That's sick, slopes specifically where something properly missing from any 2d Platformer tutorial, ever. This comes roughly 5 years late for me but hopefully people don't have to suffer as I have while learning this fairly basic thing to their games.

[@K4RT1E]

i just found you are and you are amazing, would you possibly be able to make a video on how to make interactive signs?

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thanks!! I have a video on making a branching dialogue system and it can be pretty easily used for that application!

[@yunielmakegames]

hi, for the one whose player is going to the other side of wall, check your while loop code, you probably would have pressed tab instead of typing "place_meeting" completely, and did not check it so instead of place_meeting, it's place_empty now if you fix that, the collisions would be working then. hope this helps the ones who need it !

[@Skivenous]

love the tutorial, and that game youre making looks genuinely fun, will have to check it out!

[@SodieSquad]

I want to make a platformer and this sounds like an amazing resource. I am trying it out and following along now. Thanks for this

[@Glory2Snowstar]

Your RPG tutorial has single-handedly been carrying me through my senior capstone, so dang psyched to see you back!!!! I'm really happy with how it's turning out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iobZkqJsd9mhbLs I've been wondering about adding Z-height jumping and slopes to my overhead game, wonder if that's possible with the slopes here. Speaking as an 8.1 OG I've always been baffled as to how to get slopes working.

[@peytonburnham4316]

WOAH that art style is wicked! It's looking awesome! I'm glad to be some help to you that's really awesome to hear! Z height stuff is very tricky with overhead stuff, and the way I personally got it working in my game is very different than what this series covers, but you'll definitely learn a lot and it might help you learn some techniques than can be very useful for building a system like that! Good luck!

[@Glory2Snowstar]

@@peytonburnham4316 Yo thank you so much!!!! The sprites are all frame-by-frame and are drawn in Procreate! That means the world to hear from the person who made this game’s existence possible :) Yeah Z-height is pretty weird, I’ve heard people talking about setting a timer after jumping or assigning numerical values to terrain and running checks on collision for their values. I’m not too literate in GM2 yet, but I’m confident my skills will increase as time goes on :)

[@peytonburnham4316]

@@Glory2Snowstar That's awesome! Well yeah it looks great! And yes generally for a successful z axis simulation in gamemaker similar to the mario and luigi games, you'll need to give walls their own z information and run lots of checks on the walls in your game! I definitely have faith you'll figure it out! But also just an FYI, and something that may have been useful for me to hear earlier on, it may be easier to eventually move to an engine that actually supports 3D. Faking a 2D look in a 3D game is almost certainly a lot easier and more efficient than faking 3D physics in a 2D game! But it's totally up to you and how you want to move forward!

[@Glory2Snowstar]

​@@peytonburnham4316 That's a good tip actually! I just went back to GameMaker 2 because I grew up with 8.1, I know that program like the back of my hand. But I did drag-and-drop instead of GML, so GM2 feels like a new engine. I've been hearing great things about Godot, and thankfully I could simply port all the sprites over there and recreate the rudimentary movement in a snap. And yeah, EXACTLY Mario & Luigi style is what I'm going for! If that's more at-home in Godot, I think I may switch over there when I find the time! Just a matter of giving these 2D sprites 3D properties. Thank you so much!!!! Have a great night!

[@ColossussGames]

great video and excited for the rest of the series! i've got the code down exactly the same way but running into an issue where when I try to jump, the player gets a few pixels off the ground and then just slams down again, almost as if it's hitting a roof? ive rewatched the section loads but cant seem to fix it? Edit: this was due to me missing a "+" feel like a dummy now lol

[@AnthonyColon-o8y]

Thank you!

[@eiadithecoder620]

hey i have a problem, the oWall code is blue meaning its a variable, and when i loaded the project, it crashed because it was unexpected, fix please edit: nevermind, i found the issue, i even added momentum thanks to you peyton

[@IcarsisTV]

Thank you for this series! Do you still plan on releasing your game this year? Definitely going to grab it to support you for these tutorials.

[@plokijhugf]

why dont people use gamemakers built in physics more? right now im making a platformer using its built in physics and i dont really see much of a problem

[@peytonburnham4316]

Not sure! I never really tried them out more than a little when I first started years ago, I have no idea if its similar now to how it was then. But I do know that when you make your won systems, it's nice to have exact control over exactly how you want your character to interact with the environment, especially in something like a platformer!

[@DiceDrivenGameDev]

Hi thanks for the tutorials, the newer move_and_collide seems to work great have you tried it ? If so what are your thoughts 💭 trying to decide on how to handle my collisions for platformers

[@peytonburnham4316]

Hi! I’ve messed around a bit with move_and_collide and personally found it can get somewhat strange results with slopes depending on how you make them and I’m really unsure how well that function would be able to handle moving platforms and semisolid platforms on its own. I remember finding move_and_collide seeming much more viable for top_down style games? With platformers the collisions are much more important so I find doing the basic movement and collision manually feel a bit more trustworthy, especially if I’m intending to add more complex mechanics like slopes, moving solid platforms, semisolids, etc! But that was just my personal experience with it!

[@DiceDrivenGameDev]

@@peytonburnham4316 thanks for replaying, I will consder your exp/opinion !

[@DanteCorwyn]

Not sure if you'll add this later on, but how would you make it so that you couldn't change your x direction when in the air? Whenever I've tried it, I've then got the problem that I can't jump over walls if I'm close enough to hit them.

[@peytonburnham4316]

One of my planned offshoot series/videos of this platformer base would definitely be a castlevania style character, so I would definitely eventually cover it there!

[@super-toast-system]

I have a question. How do you implement stuff like grappling hooks into your game

[@ajejebrazord4068]

Thank you ❤️

[@AidinZolghadr]

Did you make all three games you're showing at 3:22? And/or do you know their names? Ty!

[@peytonburnham4316]

I sure did! The mario clone was how i developed the system, the shooter is sort of a prototype/mockup, and the action platformer with the combat is my game Starcross Starcade Special!

[@AidinZolghadr]

@@peytonburnham4316They are nice! Love the explosion effect on the end of laser.

[@boombox2112]

Nice Thank you

[@Meeseeks97]

What was the Mario like game you showcased in the beginning?

[@peytonburnham4316]

Just a little demo game I made with the code from this series!

[@Xboy1207]

video starts at 4:46 btw

[@Dev_Astral]

Hey Peyton, thanks a ton for all the tutorial stuff you put online. I've started a couple days ago and your material has been a goldmine for me. Just wanted to bring to your attention that while I think it is good advice to start with the how to make an RPG series, it's also outdated and a lot of stuff you show in those sadly doesn't work at all anymore. Maybe you could point out some resources that you feel could complement that first foray into the world of GM? Anyways thanks a ton for the hard work and your willingness to share your knowledge!

[@aronn43]

same for me

[@CraigHodson-e8m]

I made it through this one, see you in the next

[@hiramaru6020]

Best,man!!!!!!

[@linear5695]

So, following your code exactly, my oPlayer just permanently keeps moving to the right. The only way to stop this auto movement, is to change moveSpd in the create tab to 0, and then it accepts inputs, but is extremely slow. I'm sure I'll figure out why shortly after posting this, but it's always funny dealing with code that decides it's gonna be difficult that day, lmao EDIT: I was correct, I hit + instead of * between moveDir and moveSpd I code spreadsheets for fun, I should have caught that. lmao Thanks for the videos! Finally dipping my toes in this hobby instead of just dreaming about it and your videos are the perfect guide!

[@AidinZolghadr]

What are your thoughts on using the new move_and_collide instead?

[@DrowsyBelt95670]

Instant subscriber. However, when I added y movement at line 48 I get this error for place_meeting “GM1019 - The function ‘place_meeting’ takes no more than 3 arguments but 4 are provided.” Any ideas on how to fix this? Edit: it’s line 44 for you, 48 for me

[@imnugget8085]

I think every gml need to add a how to or questionnaire on explaining what does what fill the blanks can use chat gpt to make them

[@skudopludo]

really informative video. my only problem is its telling me it failed to build. i've read through the compile error window and it says there are no errors.

[@shadowSquall1]

I haven't started this series yet but can anyone verify if this covers air and ground friction/wall slides/ in the movement? I'm thinking I'd like to change my collision system to something a bit more modern but don't want to drastically alter the way my movement works if this series won't have the same features. Cheers!

[@autismandgaming4532]

For the X and Y collision variables, will they function the same if they went into a Collision event instead of the Step Event?

[@cryptune2003]

Hey, so I really like this refined collision system! It helps a lot. My only issue I'm having is that I've integrated a smooth acceleration system and despite the precision this collision system has, I'm still experiencing sticky collision. Why is this?

[@jakers2323]

yes, please add acceleration tutorial

[@fierorecensione5828]

TOP!

[@xburgui2542]

starcross is looking fun

[@MrCoolJule]

Your explanations are great indeed, but one thing I don't understand is why did you set your var subPixel a second time for the vertical collision. Wasn't that already set in the horizontal collision? Shouldn't that code still be running for the vert col?

[@HJHawley7677]

I had the same question

[@OHHHHUSBANT]

I literally searched for pixel slop games, this was recommended lmao

[@eldiegoplaysgames]

Idk if I did smth wrong or not but when I try playing the game it just freezes the player

[@DarkeQ]

Lets go 💪💪

[@InTheDark_6]

My character is falling through the floor for some reason. Can anyone help? I've made sure multiple times that I havent missed anything or made any typos, but im not %100 sure.

[@shamilmadatov8832]

hey I kinda have a problem so i downloaded gamemaker but then moved it to recycle bin when i saw this video i decided to download it again, but then the installer said that gamemaker is already installed. my recycle bin is empty and gamemaker was permanently deleted, however it still says that gamemaker is installed. I literally cant find any installed gamemaker app on my computer, and the installer wont let me do anything. Even pressing "ok" to remove the previous version doesnt work. What can I do?

[@austin-g-s]

i got it from steam, so if you have an account then you're good ( i think )

[@dwapy5580]

Although code works, but when I jump, it looks like I hit a ceiling and then I slowly fall back down. Can someone help me with this? Edit: I just needed to increase the jump, speed and terminal velocity

[@Mohammed-ik4be]

Thanks didn't understand a thing but you're explaining is pretty good

[@lucianogoncalvespimentel4681]

Congratulations on the videos, is there a possibility of creating a Space Shooter series?

[@lavendeereatingreens]

HE'S BAAAAACK!!!

[@TeeStaten-l4y]

this video is really helpful but i ran into an issue. instead of jumping like the block in this video, it only jumps up a tiny bit and when i turn up the jump speed, it rockets into the air. It also falls incredibly slow. I did everything in the video right and reviewed my code many times over. can anyone help me?

[@dwapy5580]

I am having the same problem

[@AidinZolghadr]

How this series is different from Shaun's? Just the core without AI and shooting stuff?

[@duckarro]

I copied the code 100% exactly but when I try to move, my character doesn't move at all. Also I tried to make the test with the walls far for each other. It didn't changed that much. Now I can move, but the while !place_meeting() {} doesn't work and it stops me if I'm 2p close to the wall. Edit: I managed to fix my problem, it wasn't the code.

[@relaxolotlgames6460]

imhaving this issue too, what did you have to change im going insane

[@duckarro]

@@relaxolotlgames6460 Honestly, I have a short memory, so I forgot. But try giving a look to the properties of your objects and if nothing work, try to remake it from the very beginning. Sorry for not having the solution

[@Mythos_Musik]

This was helpful, thank you.

[@Torch23-l5p]

I tried to make this tutorial but when I run the game the player starts moving to the right and I can’t move it with my keys 😢

[@emiliagodoy5556]

maybe you did an + instead of * between moveDir and moveSpd

[@breakfastmarsupial]

you made a jump and shootman game and didnt TELL ME???

[@peytonburnham4316]

I don't have to tell you ANYTHING ! 👿 !

[@MergeFox]

Not sure if it's because I am using a newer version of Game maker, but when I first run the program, after adding the x movement, my player starts falling. Not sure how to fix it.

[@REALJ3STERDEVELOPER]

Do you have any thing planned for 2024

[@peytonburnham4316]

Yes i do! First i have to finish my game Starcross Starcade Special but the idea is to have a lot of youtube stuff happening especially later this year

[@Thegoofygobber]

Hey does anyone know how to fix the error of game maker not allowing you to use a local variable twice? I’m having issues with the jumping mechanic cause of the issue

[@ed_5578]

ive rewatched this so many times aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[@benthepandaYt]

I cant add an event

[@benthepandaYt]

Hi SUBSCRIBE OR I WILL PEW PEW MISTER BEAST