I’ve re-published the mmap mini maps over at the GameMaker Marketplace. The new version, 1.1.6, fixes the bug of the missing mmap constants — this time the right way, replacing the earlier workaround that I had supplied a few days ago.
Building the asset package the way I needed it was not obvious, but with the help from some GameMaker Community Forums users, I was able to learn the correct method to get the constants added to the package.
Two ways to build a Marketplace Asset
GM:S has two ways to build an Asset.
The more visible method of the two, and the one I had used at first when building my Asset, is to use the Package Manager, located in the Marketplace Menu.
Using this method, you can only build an asset which includes “project resources” — Sprites, Sounds, Backgrounds, Paths, Scripts, Shaders, Fonts, Time Lines, Objects, Rooms, or Included Files.
NOT include-able are Extensions, Macros, Game Information, or Global Game Settings. It’s a good idea to understand the rationale for not including these, and how YYG intends for GM:S users to work around these limitations:
- It makes sense not to be able to include Extensions, because building an Asset is building an Extension, and Extensions are not designed to be nested.
- Macros cannot be included, but I’m not clear on why. Perhaps because it’s not easy to separate built-in Macros such as GM_version and GM_build_date, and importing these would create conflicts?
- Game Information is a deprecated legacy feature which YYG seems to be phasing out. No longer can Game Information be displayed at runtime when a game is playing. So it really only serves to exist as a readme file that you can access from within the GM:S IDE, when working on the project. The same information you might put in here is better added to an Included File.
- Global Game Settings includes a number of fields that are developer-specific, and should not be shared, such as advertising account credentials, Facebook App ID, etc. There are some settings that would be nice if they could be included in an Asset package, such as HTML5 graphics settings, and options for Use New Audio Engine and Short-Circuit Evaluations, but if your Asset depends on such settings, the only option is to document that in your user manual so that users of the Asset can be informed of how they will need to set up their project.
The other way to create an Asset for the marketplace is to build an Extension. Right click on the Extensions folder in the Resource tree of a project, and Create Extension. Then right-click the newly created extension and Add Placeholder. The purpose of a “placeholder” is vague, but what it allows you to do is define Macros which reside at the extension level,which is done one at a time, in an interface that is different from the project-level Macros editor, and even more of a pain to use.
You can also add Functions to the Extension placeholder. You can add a code file, such as exported scripts in .gml format, or a .dll, .js, .dy-lib, etc. and then define Functions which hook up to the code file.
Once the Extension is defined, you can create an Asset out of it, by logging into Marketplace, and then right-clicking the Extension, and choosing the Create Asset Package option. Creating the Asset Package this way is much the same process as creating an Asset Package from the Marketplace menu, with the exception that the Extension that you right-clicked on will be included with the Asset Package.
Why there isn’t a simple way to include an Extension in the Package Manager build process, I don’t know. I guess the answer ultimately is that this is a new feature in GameMaker, and still in beta. The UI design is rough, inconsistent and not as obvious as it could be. Hopefully this will be addressed as the features are refined. But, for now, it is what it is, and game developers who use GM:S will just need to be aware and familiarize themselves with the differences between these two methods of building an Asset Package.