Game Maker Blog

YoYo Games are sponsoring this years Global Game Jam, a worldwide 48-hour game creation contest based around a yet to be revealed theme.

Special coupon codes which give two months access to GameMaker: HTML5 are being distributed to Jam organisers so that participants can use the software for their game. Those who enter will also receive a future 50% discount of the (as yet unrevealed) price of GameMaker:Studio.

Global Game Jam claims to be the world’s largest game jam event and last year more than 1,500 games were submitted from entrants in 44 countries. The 2012 event takes place this coming weekend, starting Friday afternoon. To find a local participating site visit http://globalgamejam.org/locations.

Last year’s event was sponsored by rival easy game creation tool GameSalad.

GameMaker Latest Version API – Ahead of starting work at YoYo Games Pitor Gnys has produced an API which can be used to easily extract information about the latest released versions of Game Maker. The API and documentation can be found here.

indie(Radio) Returns – “Season II” of the indie(Radio) “game development talk show” began yesterday. The episode was scheduled to include an interview with Vlambeer but is not currently available to replay.

RedChu’s YoYo Games signature card generator has been updated with some new designs. The dynamically generated images can be used to display real-time information about games hosted on YoYo Games.

Are Indie Bundles Bad For Gaming? – Not many GameMaker games make it to well-known indie gaming bundle deals but the number of bundle offers around has grown rapidly. Pixelsordeath asks whether such deals are good for their creators and the industry.

Dustforce, a platform game featuring an “acrobatic janitor” who must sweep up leaves, has recently become available on Steam for PC. Indie Game Mag have reported that Mac and Linux versions of the title are on the way and will be published in the near future.

Dustforce began life as a GameMaker creation by Woodley Nye and Lexie Dostal which was entered into, and subsequently won, the indiePub games’ third game making contest.

With the original game now dubbed a ‘prototype’ the creators abandoned GameMaker in favour of rewriting the game from scratch in C++ ahead of its commercial release. The new version has already received an honourable mention in the Excellence In Visual Art category of the Independent Games Festival competition.

YoYo Games’ first social game Grave Maker demonstrates popular Game Maker product’s versatility
Game Maker Studio is to be released “shortly after” GraveMaker. A beta of GraveMaker is currently available online ahead of a planned simultaneous launch in February on iOS, Android and Facebook.

Money and the App store: a few figures that might help an indie developer
The Game Bakers outlines some common App Store myths and posts some details of the varying successes games have found in the store.

HTML5Haven
Game Maker Community member Dangerous_Dave‘s HTML5 game hosting website is currently serving up 100 unique game plays a day. Aside from the blocky choice of font it’s a pretty good start for a showcase of Game Maker HTML5 games.

Tom Grochowiak blogs about the love-hate relationship he has with GameMaker as a professional game developer.  Under the MoaCube banner Tom has been the main developer on the Magi and ArcMagi magic strategy games and the upcoming Cinders visual novel

Dividing his thoughts into sections focusing on the good and bad aspects of GameMaker as he sees them for commercial game developers, Tom outlines the benefits, such as rapid development from the off, and drawbacks, many of which he notes are being worked on in the future GameMaker Studio edition.

The full post is well worth a read, but Tom concludes:

“Let me reiterate: when faced with the responsibility of having to spend actual money that isn’t ours, we concluded that using a completely new engine is less risky than working in software I’ve been using for the past 7 years. It made me think. You should consider it too.

GameMaker is a tool with much promise, and may well become a viable choice eventually, but it needs more time and better handling from YoYo Games. They could probably use some constructive feedback that’s not just straight hate, so if you are a professional indie developer, consider getting in touch with them and let them know what bothers you about the software and what improvements would be crucial for you to consider using it. The guys there really wish well and deserve the chance.”

In a way this tells us what we already know – GameMaker is good for beginners and most 2D game projects but has shortcomings for larger games – but it is interesting to see these points laid out by one of the more serious developers using Game Maker.

• YoYo Games to embrace social gaming and add microtransactions to GraveMaker. – Social Gaming Hub

• “Our studio plans are very organic and we are small enough to adapt quickly to the ever changing market conditions and new technology.” – Animation Career Review

• YoYo Games are now a “Top Developer” in the Android Market. On their blog Google describe the Top Developers badge as identifying developers who create “the highest quality, most popular, and most notable apps available on Android Market”. Mike Dailly writes that “just as with Apple, being featured is very important, and having a good relationship with Google is vital”.

A new Game Maker magazine, named “The Independent Gamer”, debuted its first issue yesterday.

Issue 1 includes an article on game theory, an interview with Game Maker user Notcturne on the Game Jam, snippets of news, and obligatory GM game reviews. There are 20 pages of content in total, including the front and back covers.

You can grab a copy of the magazine for the rather ambitious fee of $4.50USD for a printed edition. Additionally, you can also freely purchase a digital copy, but with a registered account at MagCloud.

A mirror of the digital version on Dropbox has also been provided for those who wish not to subscribe to the MagCloud service.

The magazine has been developed by the “surviving members” of IndieGo magazine, who subsequently failed to make three issues of their previous endeavor.

Read more…

A beta version of Gravemaker Grave Maker HTML5 has been released by YoYo Games. The Zombie/Halloween themed RPG requires you to create an account to play but the process is pain free and currently does not use e-mail registration instead asking only for a username and password. Wonder if we can expect to see a Christmas themed release sometime soon?

Greg Froning has created a free GameMakerNews Android App. The App provides easy access to GameMakerBlog’s latest stories as well as a community area for discussions.