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Game Maker 8 Interface Suggestions

GMC member Eddy Munn, a.k.a edmunn, has created a mock-up of the interface he would like to see in Game Maker 8.

gamemaker-8-band

edmunn-gm8-large[Click to Enlarge]

Writing for Game Maker Blog Eddy described the process.

I designed this piece around the Adobe GUI, from Soundbooth CS4.

I thought about the ways in which I could make it practical for Game Maker, the GMC and YoYo Games and created this mockup.

I hope that I have given a visual source on how Game Maker could look in the future – especially with the upcoming release of the Mac port. 

The first thing that sprang to mind after I saw the image was its similarity to the current interface of Scirra Construct which has frames for resources around a central room editor similar to, but in a greater extent than, PowerPoint.

Scirra Construct interface:

construct-interface[Click to Enlarge]

There has been a generally positive reaction to the mock-up on GMB’s twitter, as well as speculation as to whether GM8 will be included in the existing Game Maker 5-7 license and on what new features the software might include.

GM8 is not due out until late 2009 excluding the almost-inevitable delays. 

If YoYo Games implement an interface similar to Eddy’s mock-up it would be the most radical change in the look of the program since its original release.  What are your thoughts on the current Game Maker interface, Eddy’s mock-up and do you have any suggestions as to how the interface can be improved for the next version of Game Maker?

What do you think?

21 Comments

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  1. Really beautiful GUI ! I have often hoped that GM would release a really punched out high end version…even if it was purely commercial and a bit expensive but…. I don’t ever see that happening. I think a Game Making application should stick to a specific format for best performance such as 2D or 3D version. The Game Maker program has one serious flaw that would preclude extensive 3D support. That is that it is a resource hog and games approaching 13 megabytes begin to have serious loading problems with out calling externally which….there is very few options to protect those resources. GM is a blast….but really a teaching tool.

  2. Game Maker was made for 2D games not 3D, adding a model editor would only cause the program to bloat and add other variables to the mix, making it more difficult for the dev team to debug, and maintain. I say that the model editor and 3D room creator need to stay away from Game Maker. Perhaps someone can make these in their own time?

  3. Yes their could be some improvements in the interface but that would be mainly visual. I agree with Naruto a 3D model editor and 3D rooms creation option is way more improtent to me than a interface change.

  4. Haha, I just realized that while companies like Microsoft spend a lot of money doing research and testing the the interface, YoYo is probably just going to hold a competition with 500$ price money on “who can design the best layout?”.

    So yeah, in the end they should just leave the interface as the current GM interface is with minor improvements. They definitely can’t improve it but they will most likely end up pissing off every old user if they do (esp. now that it is for OSX as well, Mac users will the heat on ruining the app form old users).

  5. Both layouts suck. The biggest problem even with current GM is that the work area is way too small unless you are working on high resolution (for your monitor) and low resolution for the world itself.

    You must always leave the work are alone. The new layout (the second one) looks like they are trying to copy Multimedia Fusion, which already has a crappy/ancient layout.

    The interface/menus/dialogs in this should be like Photoshop CS4 (even 3). Drag them anywhere, minimize them or just hide. The way YoYo is going at GM8, my guess is that they aren’t going to bother with massive interface improvements like CS4 and try to rip MMF and other crappy interfaces cramming every possible option which you don’t want out in the open.

    Also, there is no need for wasting so much space to display huge icons when same can be done with small ones in the corner. The Construct for example, why is there a huge menu bar with huge-ass icons?

    In the end both layouts here are amateur designs. Considering every Apple GUI I have seen so far, OSX users are the last people on the earth to take advice about proper GUI (the ugly OS skin for example). And no, I am not a fanboy, I have experience with both OS’s and I just find that Windows (Vista) interface does the better job of looking good, while cramming in all the options in the proper place (they are going with big icons in Windows 7 but at least the taskbar is more useful than before).

  6. I think that the interface could do with a touch up, although, I’d rather in GM8, a few things, I wont mention them all, just, zooming in the room editor, and object/sprite rotation inside the room editor too – and layers.

    It does seem like it’s from 2002 or something, quite old but still in this century, although, a new interface could turn away current users – I agree with some of the things that Simon said, though, saying that, I think that YoYo could even make the interface even easier to use. Though not too easy.

  7. msr :Also, there is definitely a need to update the interface. There are so many missing features, like zooming in and a better layer system to mention two. Not to mention the fact that this is an application that hasn’t really had an interface update since it was in the mid 90’s. It doesn’t follow modern interface conventions for any operating system.

    Actually, zooming would be nice.

  8. Also, there is definitely a need to update the interface. There are so many missing features, like zooming in and a better layer system to mention two. Not to mention the fact that this is an application that hasn’t really had an interface update since it was in the mid 90’s. It doesn’t follow modern interface conventions for any operating system.

  9. It’s not perfect, but it’s an improvement. However, they left out the most obvious fix: a real toolbar, especially for Mac OS X

  10. Meh, its ok. I think creating a new design would just be making more work for themselves with little result. There is no need to update the GUI.

  11. I really don’t like the new design. On the left I think that way of viewing objects and sprites is a good idea, but usually I have a couple objects named “controller” or something such as that without any sprite.

    Then the things on the right I really don’t see a need for. I usually mess with backgrounds before putting any objects inside the room so there’s no need for them to be up at the same time. Plus it takes up an extreme amount of precious screen space.

  12. Game Maker is popular because of it’s easy of use. Redoing the interface would be a terrible idea. The new interface contains many features which will make Game Maker far more confusing (metadata, keywords, tabs, 2 locations where objects, sprites and backgrounds are listed)

    Yes the advanced users will find many useful features but we will eliminate a big part of the beginning users. The entire reason that the Game Maker interface does not change is make it easy to use. Such a change would take that away plus it means that all tutorials, books, course programs about Game Maker are entirely outdated and need to be totally rewritten.
    Such a change will hurt Game Maker, not help it.

    There are minor details in this design that could be included in the current design like zoom without much complication of the interface but overall this is a bad idea. I know enough about the careful work Mark Overmars has spend in designing the interface that this will never happen.

  13. Complete lack of native UI elements? That is the biggest problem. Any application that is ported to another OS needs to maintain both its layout (that is found in all other versions, on whatever platform) as well as use the native interface elements on the particular platform.

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