Trouble Sleeping

I've been having trouble sleeping lately.

So Sunday night through early Monday morning I sat down and started fiddling with Gamemaker.

I had already come up with my main idea.

My method was simple: I wrote down some themes in which I was interested. Then I wrote down a list of all the verbs that I thought I might be able to do in Gamemaker. Which meant simple stuff - nothing like "God of War-style attack system". Things like "move," "jump," "push."

So I had the big idea. I had a list of interactions.

I managed to prototype my idea by fiddling. Which means that so far I approve of the software. It took maybe four hours using temp graphics.

It wasn't perfect, of course.

Actually, let me explain. The collision system is pretty terrible. I have read suggestions to use masks but no in-depth tutorial on getting them to work properly.

Which means the objects that I can push around sometimes collide with my main character and get him stuck. Or sometimes they clip right into the supposedly solid brick floor.

I also can't make it so that if the main character pushes objects in a line that all of them will move.

I was thinking that maybe a decent physics system could solve this much faster. But there's no help whatsoever for the Gmphysics lib. I have no idea where to even begin.

Ah, the joy of making games.

[beats head against wall]