Instances

Instances are created from Objects and, once created, they can be changed, manipulated and destroyed through GML Code and GML Visual actions. This page lists the main functions related to instances that are available in GameMaker.

Creating Instances

You can create an instance of an object in a few ways:

• Drag it on an Instance Layer in The Room Editor.
• Create it at runtime, using the functions instance_create_depth and instance_create_layer.
• Add it to a sequence in The Sequence Editor and add the sequence in The Room Editor or through code.
• Add it to a room that's not the current room using room_instance_add.

Deactivating Instances

You also have the possibility of deactivating instances, which means they won't process any of their events, although they will still exist within the game. You can read about how this works and the functions you can use on the Deactivating Instances page.

Function Reference

General

• instance_create_layer
• instance_create_depth
• instance_destroy
• instance_exists
• instance_change
• instance_copy
• instance_find
• instance_furthest
• instance_nearest
• instance_number
• instance_place
• instance_place_list
• instance_position
• instance_position_list
• instance_id_get

Alarms

Instances have a built-in array variable alarm that can be use to get or set Alarm Event values, but there are also two functions that can be used to do the same thing:

• alarm_get
• alarm_set

Variable Reference

Global

• instance_id
• instance_count

Instance

There are a number of built-in variables available within each instance of an object that can be used to control different aspects of how the instance is displayed, how it uses other assets, and how it reacts to collisions, etc., which are all listed here:

• Instance Variables