Getting started

Game-Maker: Sandbox Edition designs and plays games made with Recreational Software Designs’ Game-Maker 3.0 (1991–1995). It reads and writes the original file formats, so a game made here also plays in DOS, and an old game folder opens here unchanged.

Everything is kept in this browser. Nothing is uploaded, unless you set up your own AI to work on a game. To keep a copy elsewhere, choose Download and then Game files for one game, or Back up / restore… in the ⚙ Settings menu for everything at once.

New to Game-Maker? Play a sample game, then choose Look inside, then Edit a copy on the bar above the editor, and change something small, such as a block or a monster’s speed, and play it again.

To be shown around, press ? at the top of any page and choose Show me around this page: characters from the games point out each control and say what it does.

The two printed guides

The Game-Maker box holds two guides written for the DOS version. Their menus and keys are DOS Game-Maker’s, but what they teach holds here too, since this edition makes the same games.

The Owner’s Guide explains every part of a game (palettes, blocks, maps, monsters, the hero, sounds and music) and how they fit together.
The Ultimate Owner’s Guide is about designing a game people enjoy: a hero who feels right, levels that teach, fair enemies, keys under the hands, music and sound, and play-testing. Its checklists are the ones the Level check uses.

Open this in the Guide · Game-Maker: Sandbox Edition