Main actions, set 2

Here are some more main actions, dealing with timing, giving messages to the user, and dealing with the game as a whole.

Set Alarm
With this action you can set one of the twelve alarm clocks for the instance. You select the number of steps and the alarm clock. After the indicated number of steps, the instance will receive the corresponding alarm event. You can also increase or decrease the value by checking the Relative box. If you set the alarm clock to a value less than or equal to 0 you switch it off, so the event is not generated.

Sleep
With this action you can freeze the scene for a particular time. This is typically used at the beginning or end of a level or when you give the player some message. You specify the number of milliseconds to sleep. Also you can indicate whether the screen should first be redrawn to reflect the most recent situation.

Display Message
With this action you can display a message in a dialog box. You simply type in the message. If you use a # symbol in the message text it will be interpreted as a new line character. (Use \# to get the # symbol itself.) If the message text starts with a quote or double quote symbol, it is interpreted as an expression. See below for more information about expressions.

Show Info
With this action you pop up the game information window.

Restart Game
With this action you restart the game from the beginning.

End Game
With this action you end the game.

Save Game
With this action you can save the current game status. You specify the filename for saving (the file is created in the working directory for the game). Later the game can be loaded with the next action. (Please realize that only the basic game status is save. Things that are for example not saved are the current sound that is playing, and advanced aspects like the contents of data structures, particles, etc.)

Load Game
Load the game status from a file. You specify the file name. Make sure the saved game is for the same game and created with the same version of GameMaker. Otherwise an error will occur. (To be precise, the game is loaded at the end of the current step. So some actions after this one are still executed in the current game, not the loaded one!)