In this lesson we take a look at some of the functions of the game making software and we familiarize ourself with the manual.

Getting Familiar with the software

I know that you are really excited about making a video game and you want to dig right into the software and start making amazing games but you have to temper this enthusiasm a bit and make sure you do this right! IT will pay off in big dividends fast enough. You really have to follow a good path in this exploration of new software. It will avoid a lot of headaches and it will help you to get really good, really fast.

So First things first

You can tinker around with the game - you can't break anything but I recommend you head straight to the users manual and get some information about the software. They have put together a nice manual that will make your game making experience so much easier.

To find the manual you should click on your start button and look for the new Game Creators menu item. By rolling over this you unfold further menu options and click on the FPS Creator pdf manual item. This manual is your bible and you should learn how to use it!!

This image shows the menu items to follow in finding the manual.

If you really want to get good with this software I recommend you print out the manual and go over it throughly. There are many tutorials that will help you improve and learn quickly. This tutorial I have here on this website can be considered an introduction to the software so you can start here then move on to the manual.

Roll over the items you see on the screen just to get a sense of things. And one of the first things you might notice is that when you roll around on the workspace with the grid you see a big cloudy dark spot that rolls around with your cursor. This is quite a unique little function of FPS creator in that it is the render shroud and it helps the game run fast and smooth. The size of this dark shroud is the size of the game that is rendered for your editing. Within the shroud you see exactly what your game will look like and everthing outside the shround is minimized. This saves memory and helps the editor to run faster and smoother. You can modify the size of this render shroud.

About making Mistakes

Don't worry about making mistakes at this point. Mistakes are a part of the learning process and you really can't break anything. Just remember that you can undo anything you do by pressing control-z or by pulling down the menu item edit | undo .

Okay, let's start tinkering around with the FPS Creator software