I was wondering if anyone here takes tutorial requests? My friend, Jennifer, is looking for a Gamemaker tutorial for a class of autistic boys she teaches. I'm trying to help her find one. Here's her original message:
"I teach 9 to 12 year old autistic boys. The thrust of the class is to create focus and hold attention. We've created comic books and trading card games. We've worked in CAD and StudioMax. We've made steampunk creatures. Then we started working through some of the tutorials at Yoyo Games. The boys are very dedicated and bright but they don't have the ability to take the skills from one tutorial and apply those skills in a different project/genre.
I was hoping to find a pre-existing tutorial for a hidden object game (like "Lost in the City" which the boys played and loved). I do have a budget for the class and would be willing to pay for someone's time to create a tutorial. I know what it needs to cover and could supply a checklist. Is anyone up to the task? I promise I'm really easy to work with.
By "hidden objects game" I mean a game like this one:
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/4647/lost-in-the-city/index.htmlThere are cut scenes with narrative text and then intricate pictures. You have a sidebar menu of items you try to find hidden in the intricate picture. Sometimes you have to drag these hidden items onto other items in the picture to trigger events. Other times you get to take hidden objects and place them into your inventory (another sidebar or bottom of the screen panel) to use to interact with a future picture. When you find an item, it then automatically crosses off your list of items to find.
Sometimes there are breaks in the game with puzzles like slider puzzles, match-up games, or memory games but I think I can find tutorials for those kind of "mini-games" myself.
I don't need any 3D or animation. 2D would be fine. "Lost in the City" is just flat 2D pictures with "hot spots" for each hidden object. The objects can't be rotated in space or anything like that, just dragged and dropped. Also, players can't move around in the scene, they just get a flat picture peppered with hidden objects.
The "cut scenes" between the picture scenes can be literally just text over a background. No problem there. Not looking for any animation really.
I'm mostly concerned about how to set up the sidebars for the inventory and hidden object lists.
I hope I'm explaining this all clearly enough. The game I linked to can be downloaded for free (trial for an hour) if you want to get a really good idea of what I mean.
I can be reached by posting here or by email at blueartisans@gmail.com. If anyone would like to take a crack at a tutorial that would cover HUDs like described above as well as the other elements described (mouse pointer changing to clicked object, and clicking on all objects in any order triggering the end of the level). I have a budget of $100 for a complete written tutorial with screen captures. I don't need a sample game file created or graphics. Just the tutorial.
The class will be the second week of April so I'd like to have the tutorial in-hand by then.
I wish I was a savvy IT professional. I'm just a social skills and team project teacher working with some great kids.
Thanks everyone. I'm going to continue my search and will keep checking back here just in case.
Jennifer"
Is anyone willing to help? Again, we can afford to pay for your time, we just need help preferably by the end of the month and definitely by the second week in April.
You can contact Jennifer at the email above, post here, or even email me if you can help us.
Thank you so much!
Launa