Build Game

Building Your Game

RPG – Build Game (Part 5/5)

In this part of the 001 Game Creator video tutorial series, we’ll be making magic, adding a new party member and creating a kill quest, as well as building our game so that others can play it.


Once your game is complete and you’re ready to share your game with the world, you need to first build it for the platform(s) of your choice. You can do this either by clicking the floppy disk icon along the main toolbar at the top or by opening the Game menu and selecting “Build Game” from the drop down menu to open the Build Game window. Here, you can specify the output directory (which is the location that the game will be built to) as well as the type of build:

  • Windows Installer – this builds an executable file that allows you to install your game on your computer or other computers without the need of 001 Game Creator.
  • Windows Plain Files (Advanced) – this builds an executable file for your game (without an installer). This option is useful for those that wish to create their own installer using third-party software. Use the “Redist001.exe” file to register necessary DLL files.
  • Steam for Windows – this build is similar to Windows Plain Files, with some internal differences so that it can run on the Steam digital distribution platform. Please note: The game will not work unless it’s running within Steam or the folder contains a “steam_appid.txt” file containing your game’s Steam App ID. In order to build your project you must ensure the “Steam App ID” property in Game Settings is filled in.
  • HTML5 (.js/.html) – this builds HTML5 compatible files to allow you to play your game inside a web browser. Your HTML5 files will need to be uploaded to a web server in order to play your game. Make sure to ZIP up and upload all of the generated files and not just the index.html file on its own!
  • Android (.apk) – this builds a compatible APK file of your game for use on Android devices. You can use this file to self-publish your games. Please see the section below for a list of the necessary components needed to successfully build your game for Android devices.
    PLEASE NOTE: If you receive the following error while building your game: jarsigner error: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: MALFORMED it is due to one or more of your Map or Interface filenames using UNICODE characters. These characters are not supported!
  • Android Signed/Aligned (.apk) – this builds a compatible APK file with a permanent “cert.keystore” file. You will be required to input various data, including a private password which is used to sign the APK file. An aligned version of the APK with “-aligned.apk” is also generated, ready to be uploaded to the Google Play Store.
  • iOS (.ipa) – this builds a compatible IPA file of your game for use on iOS devices.
    Please note: You will need a Mac in order to deploy.
  • DATA.1RC Only – this builds a single “Data.1RC” file and is only used as a means of sending your project to the 001 Game Creator team in order to track down bugs and other errors you may be encountering.

Dedicated Online Multiplayer Server – when ticked, internal changes are made to the game build so that, when it launches, it’s treated as a dedicated server.

Windows Installer Requirements

In order to successfully build your game for Windows (using an Installer) you will need to ensure that you’ve downloaded and installed NSIS. Please ensure that you’ve installed NSIS to its default file location, otherwise 001 may not be able to find it!

When installing NSIS, please also ensure that the “Full” preset is selected – as selecting “Lite” or “Minimal” will prevent some required files from being installed and will result in an error when attempting to build your game.

Android Build Requirements

In order to successfully build your game for Android devices, you will need to ensure you’ve downloaded and installed the following components. We strongly recommend installing these components to their default file locations, as this will require fewer steps:

  1. First, you will need to download and install the Java SE Development Kit 8 from the Oracle website. Click on the download link besides “Windows x86” if you’re running a 32-bit version of Windows or “Windows x64” if running a 64-bit version of Windows. Tick the license agreement checkbox and click the download button – you’ll be re-directed to a login page where you’ll be required to sign in/register an Oracle account.
  2. Next, you’ll need to download and install Android Studio from the Android Developer website.
  3. Once Android Studio has been successfully installed, launch Android Studio and select Configure > SDK Manager from the main menu. Then select the SDK Tools tab (see image below for reference) and put a tick in the box next to NDK (Side by side). Then click the “OK” button in the bottom-right corner of the window to start downloading and installing the required NDK components.

Once these components have been successfully installed, you should be able to build your game for Android devices without running into any issues!

(Optional) Setting Environment Variables

If you installed all of the components to their default locations, then you DO NOT need to manually set Environment Variables as 001 Game Creator will be able to find the required files automatically. If you didn’t install the components to their default locations then you’ll need to set up Environment Variables for %JAVA_HOME%, %ANDROID_HOME%, %NDK_ROOT%, and %ANDROID_NDK_ROOT%. Click here for information on how to configure these properly.

Android Troubleshooting

While building your game for Android the following processes may get blocked by your firewall or anti-virus software:

  • java.exe
  • aapt2.exe

If this happens, make sure to mark these as exceptions from within your firewall/anti-virus software settings and then build your Android game again.