Ahh yeah importing things into GameMaker (both 1 and 2) can cause quite the headache. There is a way to import things into a pre-existing project as a resource via the marketplace, which I have done for the GMS2 version, but unfortunately I don't have a GMS1 license to upload to the marketplace. So the next best thing would be to download the demo, and then add the assets to your own project by (for example, for an object):
Right click on the "Objects" folder -> click "Add Existing" -> Locate the folder where the demo .gmx is -> objects -> open each object.
Unfortunately this manual loading takes a bit of time, but I'm not aware of any other method (I would love to be corrected though!).
Haha yeah I love dialogue options! There could be a way to allow text input at some previous stage, that is saved into a variable, and then you can add THAT variable to the string (you can piece strings together like: "my cat is named " + cat_name + " and they're adorable!".
Thanks so much :)! To be honest, I'm pretty terrible at making gifs. I use GifCam to record them - though half the time they come up with weird pixelation or distortions!