ExpressGameMaker

Hello everyone,

Our recent silence has been obvious over the last few months, due to a number of factors stemming from changes in our lives and the lack of time to work on this project.

This announcement is to inform everyone of fundamental changes to the EGM's structure. As you are aware we were intending to sell the software, but being unable to dedicate the time necessary to drive the project forward, we have decided to make the project entirely open source!

This means we will soon be releasing the source code to the application for anyone to download, change and compile as they wish. Our aim is to encourage developers to take their own initiative and help express game maker grow and develop. Before we can release the source code we need to prepare it; the previous validation code needs to be removed, new accreditation added and generally the project source code cleaned up for release.

The new model of EGM will be based online - the application will work in any environment, but there will be a number of closed source enhancements to give EGM viability; online marketplaces, plug-in enhancements and more will allow us to cover the fees of running the project.

We should be able to make necessary changes as soon as possible and will prepare a more in depth release to all of our current subscribers when the time comes.

Thanks for being patient,
Express Game Maker Team

Hello everyone,

We decided to put the public beta on hold because we can't patch it due to technical issues. Instead, please wait for the next release 0.9.8 which is 100% faster, stable and improved.

Currently we are private testing 0.9.8 with bi-daily patches and updates. If you would like to participate, more info here.

Please be patient, we will upload next version soon!
Express Game Maker Team

Hello everyone,

We are looking into private testers for next version to minimize the number of breaking errors. Note that we need people who are willing to test in a 14 day period and give us back results right away. You must also be familiar with how EGM works and willing to do several uninstalls and installs.

Email contact@expressgamemaker.com if interested. Please only contact us if you are already familiar with EGM.

We would especially like to see users who are currently having performance issues because we wish to work through optimizing EGM for you, to improve the public releases.

Hello everyone,

0.9.2 is finally here, we hope you like it. You have to uninstall any previous versions of EGM.

We will be adding 25 more days to everyone’s trials in a few days. So do not worry about your trial running out!

Your previous projects may not work, if they do not, post at the support forums or e-mail us but do not PM us.

Thanks to all the feedback we got from the initial release, we have made many great changes to EGM. Here are some of the changes you can expect for 0.9.2:

• Off-centered map.
  
• More projectile features (camera tracking and environmental collision)
  
• Ability to select sprite origin
  
• Default game starts at Player's start position (unless a menu or map is picked in Settings)
  
• All tiles origin at center for better scale and rotation. (Click "Correct Tile Placement" if your old maps don't look right.)
  
• Added the ability to rotate events on the map.
  
• Added zoom (known issue: zooming is odd with tiled maps)
  
• Tiles have option to be physical objects, instead of just static objects. Once it is out, check the "Royal Playground" for how it can be used.
  
• Testplay without saving.
  
• Removed the Warning dialog from Project Settings.
  
• Drag and drop background on to the selected layer.
  
• Improved some old features and visuals.
  
• Fixed many bugs.
  
• A Feedback system (it can also be access through your Account).

What we are working on for next version:

• XNA 4.0
  
• Particles
  
• Weather
  
• Parallex Scrolling
  
• More Event commands to help your creativity come to life
  
• XBOX (including templates)
  
• Improved Object Properties Explorer and other UI elements
  
• More tutorials
  

What we know is not working correctly and will fix in later versions:

• Better mouse gestures and controls for scaling and rotation
  
• Creating a new project may cause an error to pop-up, press OK and ignore it. It will be fixed next version.

The next version will be 0.9.8.

Let’s talk about some of the templates for 0.9.2 release as well. (note: ignore any Windows Installer errors during installing the template, it will come up even if installation was successful, we will fix it in next release.)

Royal Playground (Mini-game)



This game is a physics oriented game. As the princess, your goal is to punish your subjects by shooting balls at them. The first version (will be released with 0.9.2) will include a few levels and setups but we are hoping to improve it and release it as a full mini-game (for free and open source) later this year.

*The graphics are modified versions of Cute Planet from LostGarden.com (check it out, it’s a very useful website on game making).

Controls
Arrow keys Up and Down zoom in and out
Arrow keys Left and Right move the camera left and right
W and S keys aim the cannon
Space shoots, hold space for power

RPG Template (An action rpg template)


The RPG template contains weapons, armors, spells, animations, heroes, enemies, a menu, a HUD and two maps with a quest and battle. It also comes with licensed 100% original graphics which you can use in your games if you buy EGM. We will improve the first version in the course of time.

Don't forget to tell others about us,
Express Game Maker Team

Hello everyone,

We apologize for the downtime but the website is back up and you can now login to EGM!

Somehow, the whole server crashed and the host didn’t bother to fix it until the end of the weekend. So, in order to prevent this from happening again, we are planning to buy a second back-up server from a different host when we have enough funds.

If you have sent us any emails, because the server was down, we haven’t received any of them. If your email is still relevant, you can email us again so we can get back to you.

We will be adding 25 more days to everyone’s trials in a few days. So do not worry about your trial running out!

Now for some updates on the development of EGM.

Updates

Thanks to all the feedback we got from the initial release, we have made many great changes to EGM. Here are some of the changes you can expect for 0.9.2:

• Off-centered map.
  
• More projectile features (camera tracking and environmental collision)
  
• Ability to select sprite origin
  
• Default game starts at Player's start position (unless a menu or map is picked in Settings)
  
• All tiles origin at center for better scale and rotation. (Click "Correct Tile Placement" if your old maps don't look right.)
  
• Added the ability to rotate events on the map.
  
• Added zoom (known issue: zooming is odd with tiled maps)
  
• Tiles have option to be physical objects, instead of just static objects. Once it is out, check the "Royal Playground" for how it can be used.
  
• Testplay without saving.
  
• Removed the Warning dialog from Project Settings.
  
• Drag and drop background on to the selected layer.
  
• Improved some old features and visuals.
  
• Fixed many bugs.

What we are working on:

• A Feedback system.
  
• Particles (only one minor bug left)
  

What we know is not working correctly and will fix in later versions:

• Better mouse gestures and controls for scaling and rotation

Later versions will be even better as we have written up more awesome ideas to improve your user experience!

Let’s talk about some of the templates for 0.9.2 release as well.

Royal Playground (Mini-game)



This game is a physics oriented game. As the princess, your goal is to punish your subjects by shooting balls at them. The first version (will be released with 0.9.2) will include a few levels and setups but we are hoping to improve it and release it as a full mini-game (for free and open source) later this year.

*The graphics are modified versions of Cute Planet from LostGarden.com (check it out, it’s a very useful website on game making).

RPG Template (An action rpg template)


The RPG template contains weapons, armors, spells, animations, heroes, enemies, a menu, a HUD and two maps with a quest and battle. It also comes with 100% licensed original graphics which you can use in your games if you buy EGM. We will improve the first version in the course of time.

Shooter Template (A shooter template)

*The graphics from LostGarden.com

This is a vertical scrolled space shooter game. There are minor enemies, as well as a final boss. You can also have power ups that heal you or add shields. There are two droids (as can be seen in the screen next to the main player) that fights alongside you. Once setup, these games are quite simple to work with. This template works both on Windows and Xbox. Other templates do not have some controls for Xbox.


We are also working on a Platformer template which will be out with 0.9.3 or 0.9.4, a mouse based game, and a full Xbox-only game.

We hope these projects will help you get a better grasp of how EGM works.

Again, we apologize for the down time and we will be working to prevent it in the future,
Express Game Maker Team