Mark Overmars was one of the speakers at a Microsoft Academic Day on Game Development in 2008.
We have just recently reached ten years since the launch of the first Game Maker version, so now seems quite an appropriate time to look at the past, present and future of the software. This also provides a nice round up of announcements from YoYo Games regarding their future.
At the event he gave an hour long presentation about using Game Maker in education and mentioned a few points that may be of interest to Game Maker users:
On Game Maker:
- Mark started developing Game Maker in 1998 when he wanted to teach his children about the concepts of Computer Science but they never used it.
- Maintaining and improving ease of use is a greater priority than adding new features.
- He is often asked “can you create a 3D Game Maker?” but says it will be too hard to use if it is a generic tool.
- Game Maker receives around 100,000 downloads a month (in Feb 2008).
- 12 year old girls “tend to create nicer games” than boys of the same age.
- Game Maker is used in Mark’s game design course but he would discourage people from using it for a real game programming course. This may be of interest to people who have been discussing a recent topic at the Game Maker Community about an Open University module on Game Design which uses Game Maker.
On YoYo Games:
- The goal of YoYo Games was “not really to make money with Game Maker or commercialise it” but “to create a social networking place for amateur game developers”.
- One of the goals of YoYo Games is to “become a publisher of casual games“.
- Something blatantly obvious to the majority of us: “most of the games [on YoYoGames.com] are absolute crap” with “1-2%” being “really good”.
Future plans:
- Open up Instant Play for websites other than YoYoGames.com
- Desire to port to consoles, mobile devices etc.
- Improving developer support through provision of free assets (e.g. sprites).
- Revenue sharing
- Potentially setting up sub-groups on YoYo Games for educational use
A video of Mark’s talk can be found at the Microsoft Faculty Connection website where it can be streamed or downloaded. Your reward for downloading the 185MB file is to see Mark perform a magic trick. No really.
For those who like to complain that we posted something late before later posting it on their sites: Yes I am aware this isn’t new. Now go and post it on your blog.
Most games are crap to be fair on YoYo Games.
Quote:“12 year old girls “tend to create nicer games” than boys of the same age.”
How is that? Nicer in what way? You’d expect it to be the other way around since males are (generally) more interested in programming and/or computers which leads to better graphics being produced in(say gimp? photoshop? paint.net?) and/or music in other programs and overall more knowledge in how to “do stuff”.
I agree with marks statement, 12-year-old boys are more lickley to have played more PC games, or more FPS games probley, so they would probley think that they can make there own Call of Duty with game maker, and fail horribly, where as girls would probley think more realisticly. Game maker can make very nice 3D games, but it took me 2 years to get the knowlage to make counter-strike like games with game maker, and it uses a .dll extensoin. When mark says ‘nice games’ he probley means as in funtualty.
I honestly believe Mark’s statement to be true.
@Recreate You say males have “more knowledge in how to ‘do stuff'”? I think you might want to reconsider that one.
“12 year old girls “tend to create nicer games” than boys of the same age.”
How is that? Nicer in what way? You’d expect it to be the other way around since males are (generally) more interested in programming and/or computers which leads to better graphics being produced in(say gimp? photoshop? paint.net?) and/or music in other programs and overall more knowledge in how to “do stuff”.
It’s nice to hear that Game Maker was initially a hobby project and turned out into a living for Mark Overmars. I did not expect YoYogames to be a social gamesharing tool without the real intention of making money. Nice to hear!
“Most of the games are absolute crap.” — Mark Overmars
Hey, a new GMC signature just fell into my lap!
@ ~ 52:00 In reference to games uploaded to YoYoGames.com.
“Most of the games are absolute crap.” – Mark Overmars
Cripes, that could have been a quote of mine. Except when I say it, people think I’m mean.
It’s true. Only a handful of games I know that are on YoYo Games are above crap.
“Most of the games are absolute crap.” — Mark Overmars
Best Quote Ever! 😀