I want to make a working multiplayer game

[tastyyelosnowman]

Hi, I'm hoping someone might have some useful hints for me.
i'm currently trying to make some multiplayer mini-games and have had varying levels
of success. My problems are mostly around the limitations of a second player.
I have successfully made a basic running race game that can detect a winner and keep score etc with no bugs or problems. What I'm hoping to do next is to create something slightly (or probably much) more complex where 2 characters can run around a map and BOTH collect coins/power ups etc. I have no issues in creating controls for the second player using Key Input Processing, but I'm struggling to find a way to get an event to trigger an event. eg, player 2 to pick up a coin. (especially if the coin isn't set to one spot) I'm confident there is a way to do it with the Get Event ID command and storing variables in some sort of common event.
My questions is essentially
a) has anyone successfully implemented this kind of thing?
and
b)how far out of my depth am I likely to be considering I only have about 100-150hrs experience over the last 2 months ?

[prpl_mage]

a. You are correct. The way to do this would be to store the X and Y coordinates of "player 2" and then have a paralell process running that checks if those values matches the X and Y values of each interactable object.
As you can tell, this is going to be a blast.

b. Very, this is an old maker not really intended for stuff beyond rpg combat and exploration so you're making things very hard for yourself. I mean, you obviously found a path to realize your goal so you can probably make this work.

For non rpg and non singleplayer I would suggest Gamemaker, even the free trial gives a good idea of how much easier it can be done.
By making groups of objects that all act alike and also assign "labels" to them you can streamline a system neatly. For example, anything labeled "projectile" when colliding with an object labeled "enemy" will make the projectile disappear and create a damage effect.
Likewise, you can setup collisions between player controlled entities and whatnot instead of doing as you need to do now, individually setup every single thing.

[tastyyelosnowman]

Thanks. I thought it might be more effort than it's worth. I've made a small mini game collection that my kids quite enjoy playing and I was hoping to make something more than the basic "track and field" style 2 player game. Think I will park the 2 player idea for now.
Thanks very much. P.S. I had a look at Juno's Odyssey recently and really liked the character sets you and your group created. I really struggle with the art side lol

[prpl_mage]

You can probably revisit that later if you want.

One thing to keep in mind is that each event is given an ID.
So if the 2p thing is supposed to span several maps, make sure to make 2p event 0000 and the paralell process thing 0001, and copy paste them into the next map right at the start.
That way you won't need to specify which event every single time.
Also, you can have a creative use of Terrain ID in case the objects you interract with are stationary as a way to cut some corners as well.

Otherwise if you want more 2p content, consider turn based things.
Such as making a version of Rock paper scissors. Player 1 makes an input (1,2 or 3) and then player 2 makes and input (1,2 or 3) then the game looks what those choices entail and calculate who takes damage or not.

I hope you liked the game, we try to make everything as coherent as possible when it comes to graphics, especially the later projects.

[tastyyelosnowman]

Thanks, those are some really good tips. I hadn't thought of turn based games.
That opens up whole new possibilities, card games, board games etc.

I will admit I haven't played a huge amount of the game as yet, but what I have I found
quite enjoyable.
I was looking for inspiration initially more than intending to play through the whole game, but I will give it a fair run purely out of gratitude for your advice.

[prpl_mage]

Another easier sort competition is storing high score to a variable and let the leader of that highscore enter their name (create a hero somwhere called high score1, use the Actor name input command, display a message with the code for actor# and the value of the highscore var to display this to the players).

Don't feel any pressure to play the game, open it up and check out how things are done and such if you want. It was only ever intended to be a fun project for the group that we wanted to upload so other people could get inspired by.
There are some nice chapters in there but as always with these games the combat balance tends to be unhinged after a few makers put their work in.