Whether you’re creating your first game or working on your next big project, one of the first things you’ll need are sprites—the images that bring your game characters and objects to life. Let’s walk through how to easily import your sprites into GameMaker, so you can start building your game world!
Step 1: Prepare Your Sprite
Formats: GameMaker supports .png, .jpg, .gif, .swf, and .json (for skeletal animations). PNG is best for transparency, but .gifs are also popular as they can be used to import animations.
Size: Keep it balanced— sprites that are too large may slow things down, but when they’re too small may look pixelated if you need to scale them up.
Step 2: Create a Sprite in GameMaker
- Find the Asset Browser.
- Right-click in the Asset Browser and click on Create > Sprite.
- A sprite is created and will automatically open in the Sprite Editor.
- Rename it something descriptive (e.g.,
spr_player) for easy organization.
Step 3: Import Your Image
- In the Sprite Editor, click Import.
- Select your image file.
- Click Open.
- Your sprite appears in the preview window!
Step 4: Adjust as Needed
Edit the sprite using the built-in Image Editor.
Resize it with the Resize button.
Set the origin point (where the sprite rotates or scales from).
That’s all there is to it! You’ve successfully imported a sprite. Now it’s ready to be used in your game.