Testing in GameMaker

To test a node late in the story, you would normally play all the way there. Start here skips that. Press Run in GameMaker, and the game starts at the node you picked.

Pick a node

Click Start here at the top of the node. A box opens:

• The way here: the quickest route from the start of the game, node by node, with the option picked at each step.
• What happened on the way: the events on that route, like items given. Untick one to leave it out.
• Story variables: each variable as it would be when you get here. Change any of them.

Click Start here. Run in GameMaker now starts at this node, with the items, variables, unlocks and map places from the way here, and the nodes on the way counted as visited.

While a start is set, a note under the tabs and in VS Code’s status bar says where Run starts.

Start from the beginning again

• Click the status bar note, or the reset button beside the note under the tabs.
• Or run Tsumugi: Start the Game from the Beginning.

From the text editor

Put the cursor inside a node, then right-click and pick Start the Game Here (when testing). The Story Writer opens with Start here for that node.

Set up your game once

Your game must ask Tsumugi where to start. The first time, the Start here box shows the one line to change in your game’s code: your first node and file go inside story_start_scene() and story_start_file(). Tsumugi writes those functions for you.

Until that is done, Run still starts at the beginning, and the note under the tabs says the start works once the game is set up for it.

Teams and Git

Where you start is yours alone. Tsumugi tells Git to leave your start out of your commits, so your team’s Run still starts where theirs does.