How to fade out text after a second in GameMaker

Question

In my game, if the player goes through a door, I would like to have text appear for one second and then fade out.

I'm using GameMaker:Studio 1.4

Answer 1

Create an object, for example obj_text, with the following events:

• Create event:

  alpha = 1;
  fade_out = false;
  alarm[0] = 60; // Time in frames
  

• Alarm 0 event:

  fade_out = true;
  

• Step event:

  if (fade_out) {
      alpha -= 0.05;
  }
  
  if (alpha <= 0) {
      instance_destroy();
  }
  

• Draw event:

  draw_set_alpha(alpha);
  draw_text(x, y, "You went through a door");
  draw_set_alpha(1);
  

When the player goes through a door, simply use instance_create(x, y, obj_text) to display the text.

Answer 2

1. Create a new object for example "obj_text".

2. Create event:

   count = 0
   alpha = 1
   delay = 1 // in seconds
   

3. Step event:

   if (count == room_speed * delay) {
       alpha -= 0.05
       draw_set_alpha(alpha)
       if (image_alpha <= 0) {
           instance_destroy();
       }
   }
   else {
       count += 1
   }
   draw_text(x, y, "You went through a door")
   draw_set_alpha(1);
   

   When the player goes through the door you simply use

   instance_create( x, y, obj_text)
   

   to display the text.

You can change the value of delay to define how long the text should be shown until it starts to fade out.