This is your traditional level editor, where you can create various layers of entities that compose your game level. For example, right clicking the Tile Sets area will bring up this menu: You can also create new entities via the dynamic right click menu. For example, dropping in an image file will create a new Sprite entity for you. You can also drag and drop assets onto this window to import them for use in your game. The resource panel is commonly used across the various editors and contains the various assets that make up your game. The primary work area is tabbed, supporting multiple open views at once:Īs mentioned earlier, GMS has a workspace setup that enables you to work with and pan between multiple editors at once, like a giant virtual desktop. Side and bottom panels can be collapsed down to give more room: The all in one all tools at hand nature of GameMaker is probably one of it’s greatest selling points. It includes everything you need in a single application with a tabbed working environment and a unique virtual desktop style approach supporting multiple editing windows at once. GameMaker Studio is an all in one integrated environment for creating games. Let’s jump right in with GameMaker Studio 2! The Tools As always, there is an HD video version available here and embedded below. The closer look series is a combination of overview, review, and getting started tutorial aimed at helping you decide if a given engine is the right choice for you.
GameMaker is commercial software with a free trial available, we will discuss pricing shortly. It is a cross platform 2D game engine with tools that run on Windows and Mac machines while capable of targeting both desktop operating systems as well as Ubuntu Linux, Android, iOS, UWP, HTML5, XBox One and PlayStation 4 consoles. We regret the error.GameMaker is a seminal game engine, with roots dating back to the late 1990s.
Even if it doesn’t, now anyone can experiment for free at their own pace.Ĭorrection August 10th, 12:02PM ET: A previous version of this article stated YoYo Games used to charge $199 for console licenses, it actually charged $799.
Lowering the cost to develop and publish on popular platforms like iOS and Android could make a big difference for developers just getting their start.
Some of the flexibility of picking and choosing a specific console to publish on is lost, but the benefit of a lot more platform options might be worth it.ĭeveloping games has obvious hurdles (learning how to code is just scratching the surface), but the price is one of the larger ones.
That’s the same offering as YoYo Games’ old $1,500-per-year Ultimate license for a dramatically lower price. Those prices will now be replaced by a single Enterprise tier for a $79.99 per month / $799.99 per year subscription. YoYo Games used to charge $799 per year to publish on either Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch. The final pricing change is to console licenses. Packaging them into a single option simplifies things and makes it easier to get games released across a greater variety of platforms.
Previously, non-console pricing broke down into two categories: Creator offered $39-per-year subscriptions to licenses for either PC or Mac and Developer gave $99-a-piece permanent licenses to export games for mobile, desktop (Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu), HTML5, and UWP. The new Indie price tier bundles licenses for Mac, Windows, Android (including Amazon’s Fire OS), iOS, UWP (Universal Windows Platform), Ubuntu, and HTML5 for $9.99 per month / $99.99 per year.
The price to export and publish is luckily also going down.