4When I created the first version of Game Maker in 1999, I naturally had no idea that it would achieve its current status of the most-used game-creation package in the world. The program was still rather limited. You could only create very simple games with it and the package was downloaded only a few hundred times per month. A lot has changed over the past ten years. New versions of Game Maker were released that made it possible to create sophisticated stand-alone games. The number of downloads rose to over 150,000 per month, and the company YoYo Games was formed that now develops and distributes the program. The site of YoYo Games (www.yoyogames.com) has already collected close to 100,000 games made with Game Maker and this number is rapidly increasing. But one thing has not changed. Most of the games created with Game Maker are still very simple and do not use many of the advanced features that the program offers. They also often lack sophistication in their gameplay. One of the reasons for this is that there was no text book for the more advanced Game Maker users. That is, until this book came along. A book dedicated to those that have already created their first games and want to learn more.