Game Development: Breakout In this unit you will learn about some of the history of computer game development. You will also learn how to use simple instructions to program a classic arcade game using GameMaker.

1. Play Breakout

Breakout is an arcade game developed by Atari, Inc and introduced in April 1976.

In the game, a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen. A ball travels across the screen, bouncing

off the top and side walls of the screen. When a brick is hit, the ball bounces away and the brick is

destroyed. The player loses a turn when the ball touches the bottom of the screen. To prevent this from

happening, the player has a movable paddle to bounce the ball upward, keeping it in play.

Play breakout for a minute to get a sense of how the game works.

You can play Atari Breakout here. Or you can Google Images Breakout here. You can watch a video of

Super Breakout here.

Please Note: You will need to track your progress using the new

progress sheet in your folder

2. Install GameMaker

Download and install GameMaker from here.

There will be two important pop ups during installation. Choose the “Stable channel” and say “Yes” to

using advanced mode.

3. Use GameMaker to create your own version of Breakout

You will need to use the following two video tutorials in order to program your game. We have also

included a summary of the programming from these videos to help you. Please be sure to watch the

videos before you start (you can pause and rewind as much as you like to be sure you have done the

project correctly).

Breakout Game Tutorial Part 1

Breakout Game Tutorial Part 2

Summary of game programming

A. Create the following sprites

The die sprite must be 16x16.

B. Create the following objects

The die object must be made invisible. Open the die object and uncheck the visible box.

The following objects will need to be programmed: bat, ball, stone_green and the controller.

Object Properties for the bat

Object Properties for ball

Object Properties for the stone_green_destroyed

See the next page for the timeline.

You will have to make the timeline

before you can set it here.

You will first need to create a timeline:

Object Properties for the controller

C. Create a room and add all of the objects

Extension

Use the skills that you learnt in year 8 to program:

a game over screen (ball: step event + if lives = 0, then go to game over)

a you win screen (ball: step event + if score = x, then go to you win)

game sounds

extra levels to your game (ball: step event + if score = x, then go to level 2)