Shellie - ShelliePancake
23 May 2023
Gameguru Max
GameGuru MAX is a 3D game-maker that allows you to create simple, quick and easy games without coding knowledge. GameGuru MAX provides all the tools and assets required to create your own video game. Developed and Published by TheGameCreators, GameGuru MAX is an effective tool for budding game developers to dip their toes in the water and get a feel for game development.
GameGuru MAX has pre-loaded demo games that you can load up and edit immediately and add to the pre-existing code, or you can create your own game from scratch. With the pre-loaded games, you can play them as is or start to tinker with the coding. I tried three of these games – Bounty, Foggy Island and Trapped. Bounty was an easy and straightforward game. It’s a shooter-style game where you shoot NPCs as you make your way through the map. To win the game, all you have to do is kill all the enemies on the map.
Foggy Island was more in the medium difficulty. It’s a zombie game, and you spawn at the start of the island in a town with four NPCs in it, and each person gives you a hint. One, for example, will tell you that you need to go and find his guns, and another will ask you to go and find the key to the lighthouse so you can call for help. During my testing, I discovered you could kill the NPCs. Unfortunately, this game is quite buggy. Even after you kill an NPC, the dialogue will continue, still giving you the necessary hints. When they die, the zombies can sometimes stretch out and glitch once you kill them and don’t de-spawn. And sometimes, they will run to a certain point towards you, stop, and teleport back to their starting point – creating an endless loop. You can fix the loop by stabbing them with a dagger one of the NPCs gave you, but that requires you to get hurt in the process. It also doesn’t stop the issue from happening every time.
Trapped was on the higher difficulty end of the scale. A horror-puzzle game where you have to shoot zombies and figure out puzzles to escape the haunted mansion you are in. This game is packed with jump scares, which as a horror fan, I enjoyed, but I found once I reached a certain point, the puzzles became undecipherable. With no hint as to what to do, I became trapped and couldn’t progress.
I also tested the game creation. I mainly focused on creating a map, and the options for terrain and daylight are incredibly cool. From giant craters to huge mountains, the game gives you plenty of options to personalise and play with the settings. I found this pretty easy to navigate and didn’t require many tutorials as it’s self-explanatory. But some people may need them, and they are easy to understand. However, the more detailed tutorials get a little more difficult to understand.
The controls in game creation mode are always on the screen, so you can’t mess up too much. And if you do, you can quickly delete, undo and redo. The only thing limiting you is your imagination, and with more practice, I could produce a simple, working game in about 1-2 months. The assets are pre-loaded, and all of your editing functions are available on the side of the screen. Once you have edited some of your terrains, you can go in and play it to see if it plays how you would like. If not, you can easily flick back to editor mode and make edits, such as flattening terrain, adding trees or removing grass. Most editing is done by clicking and dragging items around the screen or from the options list onto your creation.
The graphics are decent, although if Pixel games are the style you want to create, this is not the creator for you. There are plenty of options, and some of them are quite pretty. The water is clear, the forests look lush, and the mountains look tall and unpassable.
GameGuru MAX, with a lot of work and editing, could be a great jumping point for people wanting to become game developers. While this may not be a style for some people, it’s a great option to jump in and get a feel for game development. The only options of games to make that this gives you are shooter games, zombie games and puzzle games. While some of the pre-loaded games can be pretty buggy and require some improvement, overall, it was an enjoyable chance to get a feel for my future.
7
10
The Bad
- Easy to pick up and use
- Simple instructions
- Pretty graphics
- Buggy and glitchy
- Rocky learning curve
- Unclear game instructions