One of the basic things you’ll want is for your character to face the right way. Luckily, GameMaker makes this super simple.

The Setup

We’ll assume a side-view game where your character can face left or right. Instead of drawing two sprites, we’ll use just one right-facing sprite and let GameMaker flip it for us.

Using image_xscale

GameMaker gives every sprite a property called image_xscale, which controls how wide it’s drawn. By default, it’s set to 1, meaning the sprite shows at its normal size. If you set it to a bigger number, the sprite stretches wider; a smaller number squishes it.

The really useful part, though, is that a negative value flips the sprite. Setting image_xscale = -1 makes your right-facing sprite instantly face left. You won’t need a second, left-facing sprite!

Flip with the Mouse

To make the character face the mouse, add this to the Step Event:

if (mouse_x > x) {
    image_xscale = 1;  // face right
}
if (mouse_x < x) {
    image_xscale = -1; // face left
}

Since the sprite starts facing right, 1 is your default. Flipping to -1 makes it look left without a second sprite required!

That’s all it takes to get your character turning naturally!