Seedpod for GameMaker

Seedpod is Daikon Games' collection of the APIs we think GML is missing. Every game Daikon creates includes these functions as our first step.

Seedpod is an opinionated set of APIs meant to be well designed, easy to use, and enhance your GameMaker programming experience. The collection is split into multiple scripts so you can import everything, or just the category of scripts you need!

Table of Contents

• Get Seedpod
• Seedpod Basics
• Seedpod Instances
• Seedpod Strings
• Licensing

Get Seedpod

Manual Package Installation

You can download the latest release of Seedpod from the GitHub Releases page, or from our itch.io page.

Once you have downloaded the the package, in GameMaker click on the Tools menu and select Import Local Package. Choose the .yymps file you downloaded, and import any or all of the Seedpod scripts.

GameMaker Marketplace

Seedpod can be downloaded directly from the GameMaker Marketplace. Simply visit the Marketplace page and click the Add to Account button.

Seedpod Basics

Seedpod Basics (scr_seedpod_basics) is a collection of general purpose APIs to make GameMaker programming easier and faster.

echo

This function is a replacement for GameMaker's show_debug_message API. It will take data and print it the output console for debugging purposes. However compared to show_debug_message it is easier to type, and its string can be templated with other variables for debugging convenience.

echo(debugString, data...)

Argument	Type	Description
debugString	String	The debug message to print to the console
data...	Any	Optional, provide any amount of additional arguments of any datatype. They will be cast to strings and replace occurrences of the string %s in debugString in order

Returns

N/A

Example

echo("Player x: %s, y: %s", obj_player.x, obj_player.y);

Assuming obj_player is an instance in the room with coordinates of x = 25, y = 100. The above code will print the following string to the output console: Player x: 25, y: 100

mod_wrap

This function acts similarly to the mod/% operator, but it wraps around when provided negative numbers. It is useful for changing selections in a menu, for instance, where you want to wrap around to the other side of the list when you reach either the beginning or the end

mod_wrap(newValue, listLength)

Argument	Type	Description
newValue	Integer	The value to perform modulus on
listLength	Integer	The maximum length of the list of data being operated on

Returns

newValue mod listLength, but with the wrapping logic described above applied.

Example

if (keyboard_check_pressed(vk_up)) {
    selection = mod_wrap(selection - 1, array_length(menuItems));
} else if (keyboard_check_pressed(vk_down)) {
    selection = mod_wrap(selection + 1, array_length(menuItems));
}

The above code will decrement the selection variable when the up keyboard key is pressed, and increment it when the down keyboard key is pressed. By using mod_wrap, if the decremented value is less than 0 or the incremented value is less than the length of the array menuItems, the variable selection will instead loop around to the other side rather than going out of bounds.

choose_from

This function acts similarly to the built-in choose, in that it randomly selects one of a list of items. Unlike choose which uses a variable amount of arguments, choose_from returns a random item from an array. This can be useful for choosing from a programatically defined set of items rather than a pre-defined one.

choose_from(choices)

Argument	Type	Description
choices	Array	An array whose items to randomly choose from

Returns

Any one item from choices, selected at random.

Example

var footstepSound = choose_from(footstepSounds);
audio_play_sound(footstepSound, 1, false);

Assumes that footstepSounds is an array defined elsewhere, containing references to multiple sound files. Every time the code above is run it randomly selects an item from footstepSounds and plays it.

array_remove

This function searches an array for a given value, and removes the first instance of it if found

array_remove(array, value)

Argument	Type	Description
array	Array	The array to search
value	Any	The value to remove from the array, if found

Returns

N/A

Example

var sampleArray = ["A", "B", "C", "D"];
array_remove(sampleArray, "C");

After the code above is run, the value of sampleArray will be ["A", "B", "D"].

round_to_nearest

This function rounds a numeric value to the nearest multiple of another value.

round_to_nearest(value, multiple)

Argument	Type	Description
value	Real	The value to round
multiple	Real	The multiple to round value to

Returns

The multiple of multiple closest to value.

example

var testVal = 19;
var testVal2 = 30;
var roundedVal = round_to_nearest(testVal, 16);
var roundedVal2 = round_to_nearest(testVal2, 16);

After the code above is run, the value of roundedVal would be 16. The value of roundedVal2 would be 32.

real_truncate

This function returns just the integer portion of a real number.

real_truncate(real)

Argument	Type	Description
real	Real	The real value to truncate

Returns

The integer portion of value.

example

var testVal = 19.24;
var truncVal = real_truncate(testVal);

After the code above is run, the value of truncVal would be 19.

variable_struct_get_or_else

This function streamlines the process of checking for a key's existance in a Struct, and getting the value of that key.

variable_struct_get_or_else(struct, name, defaultValue)

Argument	Type	Description
struct	Struct	The struct reference to use
name	String	The name of the variable to get
defaultValue	Any	The value to return if the named key does not exist in the struct

Returns

The value of the given key in the given struct, or defaultValue if the key does not exist in the struct.

example

var monster1 = {
  type: "monster",
  hp: 15
};
var monster2 = {
  type: "monster",
  hp: 20,
  color: c_red
};
var monsterColor1 = variable_struct_get_or_else(monster1, "color", c_black);
var monsterColor2 = variable_struct_get_or_else(monster2, "color", c_black);

After the code above is run, the value of monsterColor1 would be c_black, whereas the value of monsterColor2 would be c_red. You can see that since the key color did not exist in the first struct, the default value of c_black was returned, and no manual existence checks were needed.

Seedpod Instances

Seedpod Instances (scr_seedpod_instances) is a collection of functions pertaining to live instances in the game at runtime.

with_tagged

This function lets you quickly apply a function to all instances in the room whose object asset has a given tag.

with_tagged(tag, lambda)

Argument	Type	Description
tag	String or Array of Strings	The tag or array of asset tags to operate on
lambda	Function	A function to run on every instance in the room whose tag or tags matches tag

Returns

N/A

Example

with_tagged("enemy", function() {
    instance_destroy();
});

The above code will destroy every instance in the room whose object has the Asset Tag enemy.

change_sprite

This function changes the caller's sprite_index and resets its animation (image_index) to frame 0, only if it is not already showing the desired sprite. Lets you easily start all animations from frame 0 without having to write a conditional, you can simply call change_sprite every frame.

change_sprite(newSpriteIndex)

Argument	Type	Description
newSpriteIndex	Sprite Asset	The desired sprite_index for the caller

Returns

N/A

Example

switch (state) {
case playerState.idle:
    change_sprite(spr_player_idle);
    break;
case playerState.running:
    change_sprite(spr_player_running);
    break;
}

The above code will change the player's sprite depending on the state of the character controller's state machine. Whenever the state changes, the new animation will start from frame 0.

center_x

This function returns the horizontal midpoint of an instance, as defined by its bbox_left and bbox_right values.

center_x(inst = self)

Argument	Type	Description
inst	Instance ID or Object Asset	Optional, the instance whose midpoint to find. If not provided, the caller's midpoint will be returned

Returns

An X coordinate representing the exact midpoint of inst, as defined by its bbox values.

Example

instance_create_layer(center_x(), center_y(), layer, obj_smoke_puff);

The above code creates an object at the exact midpoint coordinates of the caller, regardless of the caller's size, sprite, or position.

center_y

This function returns the vertical midpoint of an instance, as defined by its bbox_top and bbox_bottom values.

center_y(inst = self)

Argument	Type	Description
inst	Instance ID or Object Asset	Optional, the instance whose midpoint to find. If not provided, the caller's midpoint will be returned

Returns

A Y coordinate representing the exact midpoint of inst, as defined by its bbox values.

Example

instance_create_layer(center_x(), center_y(), layer, obj_smoke_puff);

The above code creates an object at the exact midpoint coordinates of the caller, regardless of the caller's size, sprite, or position.

point_in_bounds

This function tests whether a given X/Y coordinate exists within an instance's bounds, defined by the bbox_* internal variables.

point_in_bounds(pX, pY)

Argument	Type	Description
pX	Real	The X coordinate to test
pY	Real	The Y coordinate to test

Returns

True if pX, pY falls within the bbox bounds of this instance.

Example

if (point_in_bounds(mouse_x, mouse_y)) {
  change_sprite(spr_moused_over);
}

The above code tests whether the mouse cursor's room position is over the given instance. If so, it changes the instances sprite using change_sprite.

Seedpod Strings

Seedpod Instances (scr_seedpod_strings) is a collection of functions useful for string data manipulation

string_pad

This function operates similarly to string_format, except it lets you define an arbitrary padding character rather than just the space character.

string_pad(value, amount, padChar)

Argument	Type	Description
value	Real	The number to be converted to a string
amount	Integer	The total number of places to pad out value to
padChar	String	The character to use for padding out value

Returns

A string containing the number value but padded out to amount characters minimum using padChar to fill out the extra space.

Example

return string_pad(coins, 3, "0");

The above code will pad out a coins variable to 3 places using the character 0. For instance, if coins is equal to 56 then the above code will return the string "056". Useful for displaying data in game UIs.

Licensing

Seedpod for GameMaker is licensed under Creative Commons 0. Essentially, you may use it, change it, ship it, and share it with absolutely no restrictions.