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Community Links: Mac App Composer, GameMaker 8.1 & HTML5 Differences

Uriel Griffin has released an application which allows Game Maker 7 for Mac users to package their game ready for distribution on the Mac App Store. Dubbed ‘App Composer’ Uriel says the utility was designed to “help you automate and facilitate Mac App Store publishing of your GM4Mac apps”.

xot has updated his list of “Things that work differently” between GameMaker 8.1 and GameMaker:HTML5. Well worth a read if you are getting started with GameMaker:HTML5.

Some of the first entries in the Game Maker’s Developer Network have appeared online.

What do you think?

8 Comments

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  1. epic_Creations :Ummm… how about asking for more installations? You can do that for Game Maker 8.0 and such, you know.
    Also, if you have to re-image your OS that often, there’s probably an underlying issue there

    I have a desktop and a laptop, and I do a fresh Windows install on each about every 6-months to a year just to keep them running fast. Also, on the laptop there was a period recently when I went back and forth between XP and Win7 a couple times trying to decide which I liked better.

    So I quickly used up my 5 original installs and had to email them to beg for more. They said they added more to my account, but didn’t say how many. It was at least one because I was able to install it again, but I don’t know how many are left. Also, I kinda doubt they’ll give me any more if I ask again.

    And really, my point is that I shouldn’t have to go through that extra hassle in the first place, since I’m not doing anything dishonest. And those who are dishonest don’t have to worry about running out of installs (or having their copy remotely disabled if its 8.1) because they just run a crack.

    • Wait, isn’t the new remote system only for HTML5? I’m pretty sure that’s what it is. Also, as far as the new “remote disabling” thing goes, you should read this topic for more: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=520006

      Basically you can uninstall and reinstall as many times as you need with GM HTML5, although you are technically limited to three copies running simultaneously. Your re-imaging habits shouldn’t be a problem in this scenario. 😛

      Oh, also, might I recommend getting Windows 7, and adding a new partition, with which you install XP into? Windows 7 has a nice little built-in loader to let you choose whether you want to boot XP or 7. :3

  2. From the list: “GM:HTML5’s DRM doesn’t have an installation limit, but it does limit the number of actively running copies to three. Installations are tracked and can be “remotely blacklisted or questioned if they’re being installed too frequently”.”

    I wonder how much R&D went into YoYo Games’ fancy surveillance system where they can watch their users every move and pull the plug if they happen to see something they don’t like. I also wonder what sort of additional information about users they’re taking the opportunity to gather while they’re at it. I’d love to know, but I doubt it will ever be disclosed.

    Treating paying customers like criminals is a lose-lose proposition. DRM systems are expensive to implement (time that could’ve been spent on something good like GM Studio) and they piss off honest people (like me) who have to deal with the hassles and restrictions they bring. The real kicker of course, is that nobody who runs cracked software ever has to worry about DRM. Its always been conveniently removed.

    This is why I never upgraded my copy of GM from 8.0 to 8.1. And when my periodic Windows re-installs use up however many installs I have left with softwrap, I simply plan to install the cracked version. And believe me, I find nothing more absurd than having to run a crack on a program THAT I ACTUALLY PAID FOR, but this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to do it.

    • Ummm… how about asking for more installations? You can do that for Game Maker 8.0 and such, you know.

      Also, if you have to re-image your OS that often, there’s probably an underlying issue there 😉

  3. Thanks again for the coverage Philip! I’d like to take this opportunity to share some information exclusive to your readers about me, aFoobar.com, the GMDN, and how I plan to change the way developers use GameMaker and any game engine…and why I’m taking extreme measure to do so. A damn bold statement, I know, so allow me to expand:

    I’ve been a silent user of GameMaker since the GM 5 days…maybe 10 years or so and a silent reader of yours for a fairly long time. I’ve always felt that GM was a powerful prototyping platform and since then I’ve created:
    * A Lemmings Engine (http://www.64digits.com/download.php?name=lemmings_GM_Demo_04.zip&id=14769)
    * A fully functional speaking chatbot which I intended to have procedural “DNA” based learning – a concept I blogged about once but have since lost (http://64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=Carlos508&cmd=comments&id=264522)
    * A powerful learning tool for GM (with download! http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=496929&st=0&p=3690379&hl=oits&fromsearch=1&#entry3690379)
    * And a network monitoring tool I created as lead Network Admin for my battalion while serving in Baghdad, Iraq which I actually put to use in one specific emergency.

    GameMaker CAN, in fact, save lives!!!

    This spring, I also started working on a project very similar to GM:HTML5 (http://64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=Carlos508&cmd=comments&id=269768). Unfortunately, working on my own I didn’t make it too far, although I never quite and in fact did get a lot done! It was at this time (early Feb) that I bought the aFoobar.com domain, to serve as a host for my wacky, crackpot engine. I ended up starting a small local web dev business in order to sharpen my web dev skills. In the meantime, YoYo was creating GM:HTML5 – saving me my sanity and starting what I honestly believe a new era in how people interact with the Web.

    I believe GM:HTML5 can change the web, and I believe this so much I’m taking extreme measures.

    About three weeks ago GM:HTML5 beta was publicly released. After playing around with it an idea hit me; what if I took the learning tool I created (see link above with download) and ported it to GM:HTML5? That would allow me to create a level of interactive online learning that simply has never been done before. Good idea, but ultimately it would have failed (not to mention the lack of execute_string(), for better/worse). So I came up with the GMDN – instead of doing interactive tutorials, I would do an interactive help manual.

    The Problem: As programmers, we use Google a lot. I mean A LOT! We probably use Google more than anyone else (or at least should lol)! A lot of time is spent searching for answers on the net, and given the nature of the web we can easily get distracted and thus taking away from development.

    The Solution: Design a system that will allow the programmer short on time to literally GLANCE at a page and “understand” how to use the command, or serve as an encyclopedic source of information for the developer who wants to “know” the command. The GameMakers’ Dev Network is what I came up with which “allow game makers to do more, by searching less.”

    After working out all the bits and pieces, I decided to create a “prototype” site – what you see now at the GMDN. After finishing up a good foundation of articles that demonstrates how the GMDN works, I emailed YoYo a 17-page business plan outlining every detail of what I intend to do and how I intend to do it. After a couple attempts to reach them I finally got through three days ago and they are looking it over now.

    With some money I saved up through my stint with web design and selling off nearly everything I own I have just enough to pay rent/bills and live off of ramen and eggs for the next 6 months to work on the GMDN full-time. I also dropped out of college today.

    Cliched but I honestly believe with every ounce of my being that GM:HTML5 (and eventually GM:Studio) can – if marketed right – literally change the web. GM:HTML5 was not the first, and certainly not the last but it’s popularity gives it the potential to come out on top. My intent in creating the GMDN is to give GM:HTML5 the edge on its competitors. Fact is, I’ve spent the last 10 years working with GML and I want to spend another 10 using it.

    Help documentation can go a looooong way in making a product usable, and I intend to give everything I have in making GM:HTML5/Studio so easy to work with that it won’t matter who has the best HTML5 engine – users of GM will have a learning aid so intuitively powerful that developers truly will only be limited by their creativity by “doing more by searching less”. And I intend to do this with or without YoYo behind me.

    Obsessed? Absolutely, but it’s this obsession that will get me through what will undoubtedly be the tightest and most stressful six months of my life (to include my time in an ‘effin warzone). It’s this obsession that I hope to inspire others to take GM:HTML5 and explore new fronts on the web – be it through games or applications. It’s this obsession that will either make the GMDN the new standard in interactive online learning or quite literally put me on the streets.

    I’m at the Poker Table of life right now and I’m all in. At this point, there is no turning back.

    (NOTE: The GMDN will not be updated for at most a week while I finish up final plans and talk to YoYo. My plan is to have 50 commands (+- 10) documented a week after that. Plus a few extra things)

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