The 3D Gamemaker

This game/console's online features are no longer supported. While this game/console's online features were once accessible, they are no longer officially supported and online-exclusive features may be documented as now-unseen content.

The 3D Gamemaker is a program in which you select scenes, characters, and objects (often with misspelled names) from eight thematic categories to create simple 3D action games such as first-person shooters, third-person shooters, vehicle shooters, space shooters, and racing shooters games.

Unused models#

OLDwarden02.x#

Hidden in the Traffic Warden enemy's folder is a model file for a female version of a Prison Warden that has been scrapped in favour of a male model identical to Prison Warden's, but with a blue uniform. The warden lady has an associated texture OLDwarden02.dds (viewable in Traffic Warden's texture control page) that her model can read by renaming it to warden02.dds.

OLDwarden02.x	Traffic Warden.x

Judging by OLDthumb.dds showing her in a T-pose, the female traffic warden model likely has been scrapped before she's been given any animation set.

OLDpolicecar.x#

The folder for the Cop Car player model contains a model of that is identical to the used car model, except it has a lightbar on the roof...

OLDpolicecar.x	Cop Car.x

...and it's honking huge. Without scaling it down and increasing the camera distance, the camera would sit awkwardly inside the model. Even with adjustments you wouldn't get a good view of what's in front of that car.

robotorigional.x#

The folder for the Hover Bot enemy contains an unused model of that robot standing on legs textured with greebles. It has no associated animations.

globe.x#

In Objects/01Shooter/1Scene/Segments/ is a model for a skyglobe using textures of a red sky over the sea found in files fcbg##.dds. Sadly however, there are no scenes using that globe.

Missile Glow#

Both the Fat Bomb and Missile flacks from the Space category have thumbnails advertising an exhaust glow trailing behind those projectiles, but their actual models haven't got them. They are instead hidden in the files miss##glow.x found inside their folders.

Unused Images and Textures#

Note that textures that aren't used (partially or fully) but are viewable on the texture control page will not be documented here. Textures for customisation appendages are okay as there is no way to modify (and thus review as well) their textures in-program.

shield##.dds#

Files shield01.dds and shield02.dds found in the gfx folder contain the textures used for that gadget shown on the right display when it's not previewing anything. The first texture contains the unused initialism "ACK", and the second has The 3D Gamemaker logo pasted over what appears to be the program's working title, Arcade Construction Kit. There a few references to that title elsewhere in program, including "ACK Photography" shops found in several Driving scenes and an Apple thumb that went unused.

Blue Planar Explosion (in quadruplicate)#

The 3D Gamemaker provides 12 explosion effects to use when objects get destroyed, but its Explosions folder actually contains 16! The remaining 4 are all the same blue planar explosion that is unavailable in the program, except as a part of explosion #2, which combines it with explosion #4.

buster.dds#

Leg attachment #9 uses only a part of a texture made for what seems to be a shades-wearing fellow dressed in blue, and there's no model included that could make full use of that texture.

Yellow Buggy Texture#

Wheel attachment #6 comes with a unique texture map for a yellow-coloured buggy, but it uses only a fraction of that texture.

It can be laid over a full Buggy model to give it a yellow paintjob.

Blue tank texture#

Wheel attachment #10 has a unique texture map for a blue-colored tank that it uses only a fraction of.

It can be laid over a full tank model to give it a blue paintjob with white stars.

shuruken.TGA#

In the folder for the Hook Shuriken projectile lurks this huge texture map (with a misspelled filename) that is mostly black except for a cool-looking five-pointed shuriken in the top-left corner... and a slight hint of a some glow in the bottom-right, as if it was cropped from a larger image. This texture is not visible on the texture control page.

The model that was eventually used is not quite as cool.

intBG.bmp#

The bitmap holding the main interface background has a blue bar saying "Beginner Mode" and a test button with an arrow on it. At runtime, the mode bar is replaced with a blue/red bar with a translatable text over it and the button is replaced with a similar but arrowless one.

buttons02.bmp#

This bitmap holds sprites for animated top-interface buttons, the vertical scrollbar and... the game start button that looks completely out of place. And a spanner icon of unknown purpose.

buttons03.bmp#

This large bitmap has graphics for a few widgets that remain unused.

A right-pointing arrow button that was supposed to animate into pointing downwards, or vice versa. Also, an orange-coloured arrow; a green one is used when hovering your mouse over an object, so an orange would have been used in its place when mousing over an already selected object (which is marked with an orange frame), but that's not the case.

Greyed-out versions of the object property buttons. Those are always clickable when available.

A collection of buttons for managing wheel and wings attachments. The buttons for leg attachments are the ones used in their stead.

A sprite for the game test button pressed halfway. Likely meant for an animation that wasn't implemented.

Unused apple thumb#

thumbOld.dds	thumb.bmp

The apple projectile from the Jungle category has a scrapped (and oversized) thumb hidden in its folder. Despite being stored in a DDS format, it won't show up on the texture control page.

The unused thumbnail shows the apple labelled with a sticker showing "apples" and some blurry initialism above it (most likely "ACK" that's been scrubbed off the preview display gadget), while on the used one the sticker says just "apples". The sticker on the texture actually used on the apple's model is just blank.

TomatoFinal.zip#

In the folder for the Tomato player model from the Cartoon category are zip folders holding leftover files from designing the model in 3D Studio Max. TomatoFinal.zip additionally contains two BMP files.

Unused thumb	Used thumb

One is a thumbnail showing the red tomato in the same position as the thumb for Green Tomato from the Silly category.

The other is a texture for the model identical to the used one, but in higher resolution.

tex63.bmp#

The Textures folder contains 62 images you can use in The 3D Gamemaker to quickly replace the textures on your game's objects... and one that remains unavailable because the image holding thumbnails for those textures hasn't got space to fit all 63 images and a "C" button that resets the texture.

Unused text#

english/screens.txt#

0002=Game Description Text Here

The description on your game's title screen is empty until you fill it yourself.

english/words.txt#

0345=SCENES CANNOT BE DOWNLOADED!

The message displayed when trying to select scenes in Web category is instead "SCENES CANNOT BE IMPORTED", split into strings #115 and #116.

0436=Connected to
0437=...Scanning For New Downloads...
0438=Downloading
0439=: Progress at
0440=WEB CONNECTION INTERUPTED
0441=WEB SYNCRONISATION COMPLETE
0442=Could Not Make Web Connection!
0450=Checking Model :

The 3D Gamemaker has functionality for connecting with its website to download additional models and apparently music and sounds as well... or at least it used to. Since the server has been shut down, trying to connect will only freeze the program for a while before resuming without any message, not even about an error.

0498=STATIC
0499=ROTATING

These two strings are located right below STATIC and MOVING strings used for boss' property page, suggesting they would be used on item property page, likely for setting whether the item pickups should animate.

0879=NOT AVAILABLE IN DEMO!
0896=SAVE SCENE NOT AVAILABLE IN DEMO!

Leftovers from the demo version where these strings show up whenever you try to use functions that are... not available in demo.

Undocumented functions#

• , and . (< and >) allow sidestepping while controlling a walking player character with a keyboard control scheme.
• Holding S makes the HUD display debugging information instead of your stats. The lives counter most obviously will read out frames per seconds.
• Pressing G in testing mode will start rendering the scenery in wireframe. Pressing H will switch it back.
• Pressing N disables the level music. Pressing M reenables it.
• Pressing ← Backspace kills the player character.

Hidden message#

There's a string of pop culture references starting at 0016A2B4 in the exe file:

I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed.
Badges...BADGES!...We don't need no stinking Badges!
What the smegging smeg have you smegging done!
Seeth, seeth, seeth. If he seeths anymore he'll turn into a seeth.
They are your best, last and only line of defence against the worst skum of the universe.
We are the knights who say....NI! NI! NOO!
You must answer me these questions three.
In the wastes of Asteroth, the goblin hoards prepared for battle.
Thick Jack clot, sits in the stocks and gets pelted with rancid tomatoes.

Version Differences#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

Lite version#

In 2002, Dark Basic Software (The Game Creators before renaming themselves) released a "Lite" edition of The 3D Gamemaker, a cheaper and indeed lighter version bundled with only four categories: Shooter, Space, Driving, and Silly. The scene creator, the object placement editor and the online functionality have been removed, and the number of scenes in each category has also been cut down from 45 to just 9.

September 2002 release#

Since September 2002, the model packs that were available as separate purchases have been bundled with The 3D Gamemaker itself.² Also, somewhere along the way the Kangaroo player character from the Cartoon category was replaced with a Toon Car that was previously available as free DLC, likely due to the kangaroo being too similar to the title character of Kao the Kangaroo.

Digital rerelease#

To do: Find the exact date of digital rerelease.

Sometime around 2013, The Game Creators started publishing The 3D Gamemaker as a downloadable title with an interface reskin. Most buttons in particular have been given a retro, pixelly look.³

References#