A global group of Game Maker users, featuring krejic‘s rather magnificent Dutch accent gather to list the reasons why they like Game Maker and talk a bit about “Game Maker d3D” providing few insights or opinions.

Despite the collection of accents I was able to understand everything that was said until the volume dropped after the unnecessary and downright bizarre choice of advert:  ”I use Java and that has a user friendly interface”.  It must be Gmindie.  It is.

Although most of the content is purely audio, and the intention was for this to originally be in the form of a podcast, the presence of game play video clips is a nice addition though they are rather choppy.

I will admit I had been expecting this to be diabolical – it wasn’t.  The end of the video is strange, the sound quality could definitely be improved but is far from the worst we have had in a Game Maker podcast or video show.  A bit more time spent thinking about the content and I think this could be around for a few more episodes.

Tailware Video Podcast – Not that bad! is taken from: GameMaker Blog

GMVision’s Joshua Pedroza has interviewed the leader of Team SkyFire, Sokota, in his latest video released today (watch on YouTube). Team SkyFire have been working on their platformer stasis for over a year.

• After receiving criticism over the subscription-only policy of Game Maker’s Digest Brian has promised “NO more long annoying forum sign-ups to subscribe” for the next issue. I’m not sure whether that means general public release or if he will still require you to join a mailing list.

• IndiePubGames have published a brief article looking at some of the pros and cons of promoting a game with social media marketing.

Mid-week Community Links is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Also mentioned is Mike Dailly’s blog, the current YoYo Games competition, the YoYo Games App Store and we take a brief look at Game Maker magazines launched since our last episode.

55 minute mono version:

Direct link (50MB)

Show Links

Fifth competition results
They Need to be Fed Review by Andrew

Blackfoot
NTP 4
RC Aerobatics

Cowboykilla
IndieGames
ByteJacker

Wootman Zero

Entries into competition 6 so far (page appears to have been fixed!)
Issues regarding Game Maker games on iPod

Process of getting Game Maker games on to PSP

Overbyte Magazine Issue 3
Overbyte Magazine website
GMAG Issue 2
Grabeorama website
GMIndie magazine issue 9
Andrew’s review of GMIndie magazine
GMIndie eBook

Game Maker’s Companion by Jacob Habgood
The not so good book

Mike Dailly’s blog

Call of Duty 6 Game Maker

Music: Mr Spastic
Previous shows: GMTalk 2 and GMTalk 1

GMTalk Game Maker Podcast – Episode 3 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Featured Games:
Philo, Extinction 3D, Ne Touchez Pas IV, Tower of Heaven, Zoo Escape 3D, RC Aerobatics.

See also: Big Machine’s 25 favourite entries video.

GMVision’s Top 5 Games of YoYo Games Competition 5 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

As well as the first official mentions of devices beyond PSP Sandy also revealed plans to start commercially publishing games within the next 12 months and for more community involvement.

Development of Game Maker

• All effort currently going into PSP version.
• Users would need a Sony Dev kit (incredibly expensive) to test PSP games.
• No timetable for what they plan to do with Game Maker after the release of the PSP version however the emphasis is on new run time environments rather than features.
• 3D look and feel will be built into the PSP version
• Likely to see better 3D support in next 12 months – the features that people are using from external extensions will be built into the normal Game Maker distribution.
• Don’t want to over-complicate the product – basics will remain the same – fundamentally a 2D product.
• Currently 3,500 – 4,000 downloads of Game Maker a day. Similar rate to Feb 2008
• No massive advantage of going from a compiler to an interpreter. Huge job. Not on the agenda.
• To make games look better want to provide better resources including Sprites
• First official mentions of the possibilities of getting Game Maker games to run on Android, iPhone and also Windows 7 Mobile.
• PSP, iPhone then a question mark.
• Game Maker 9 will be unified across all platforms. Enable you to create ‘New PSP game’, ‘New iPhone game’ after which an appropriate template will be loaded.
• Lot of confusion by the recent changes in Apple’s developer agreement made in response to EA writing games with Lua. YoYo Games have been unable to get a definitive answer from Apple. Another product has which, like Game Maker, uses an “interpreted layer” have been told they are okay.  Until WWDC in June unlikely to get a clear answer from Apple.
• DS too much effort. Underpowered. Dual screens. Not impossible however – more likely to do Android, Windows 7 Mobile version first. Commercial possibilities of selling games on DS are dreadful.

YoYo Games

• Goal to publish games. YouTube for games with best developers going on to have games published.
• Next 12 months want to start commercial publishing of content through the website.
• Next few weeks will offer people the opportunity to sell their, high quality, games on the YoYo Games website. Some of the best developers on the site have already been signed up to help launch the store.
• Server/bandwidth costs minimal compared to turnover
• Website development outsourced – ridiculously expensive.
• Previously outsourcing to work on Game Maker … (link)
• 2 people currently working on Game Maker and the website
• Now started to hire own staff, Russell Kay and Mike Dailly
• Going to hire more staff in Dundee
• Looking for an office
• Interviewing for a “community manager” next week
• Never captured in one place all user suggested improvements. Will try to do this – maybe the YYG wiki.
• No more logo/design competitions(!)
• Sandy admits the site needs to do more to let people see the best games – algorithms need tweaking
• Search doesn’t work very well
• Thankfully an admission that the whole homepage needs a redesign
• Single login for entire site, including the GMC

A future episode of the podcast featuring an interview with YoYo Games CTO Russell Kay.

GMIndie’s first podcast (last week)

What are you most excited about?

GMIndie Podcast 2 – Sandy Duncan Interview is taken from: GameMaker Blog

The show is just over an hour long and features contributors Brian Fetcher, Kevin, Jonathan Miller, Landon Podbielski and Bret Hudson discussing various game maker community topics.

Issues discussed include: the decline of quality Game Maker games (utter rubbish!) and the lack of Game Maker media -timing not so great on this one!  The development and usage of Game Maker is also covered with mentions of the understated 3D functionalities of Game Maker, what an open source Game Maker would mean, the possibility of Game Maker for Linux (I’m pretty sure this will appear after the Mac version), Game Maker for PSP and official game maker tutorials.

It is certainly worth a listen and is a noticeable improvement over some of their live radio shows.

GMIndie Podcast is taken from: GameMaker Blog

In the 37 minute show we discuss the downfall of quality Game Maker media and experiences of collaborating in Game Maker team projects.  We also look back at the Game Maker entries in the recent GameJolt weekend Jam as well as taking a quick look at some other issues.

Mono version: Direct Link (34MB)

Show Links

Most recent GMTech Issue
Most recent MarkUp Issue
Independent Developer magazine
GMWeekly
Overbyte magazine

The GMCG @ GMC
GMCG Wiki
Google Doc’s style online Game Maker IDE by James Rhodes (abandoned)
GameCog
Braingale Team
“The incredible Lil Vypa“

Obligatory lack of Instant Play moan

The Book
Who is making money from Game Maker article

Official GameJolt Jam entry list
NAL‘s look at the Game Maker entries in the GameJolt Jam.
SohoPogoHo
Vatn Squid
Paper Dreams

GMC CageMatch on Hiatus
GMLive on Hiatus

Amusing YYG forum post
Game Maker Blog twitter

Music: Store and Save by Hardstroke
The first episode

GMTalk Game Maker Podcast – Episode 2 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

GMLive’s tenth live Game Maker radio show was hosted today and lasted half an hour.

The date of the next show has not been announced as host Joshua is considering the possibility of a merge with GMIndie Radio to make a weekly show.  Producer Jono announced that he would be resigning from his position at GMLive after today’s show.

Below is an ‘as live’ show recording complete with incredible levels of feedback and crackle.  You’d have to be pretty dedicated to make it to the end (when the site tracked just 4 listeners).

Direct link or flash player:  

Previous GMLive epsiode.

GMLive’s 10th Show is taken from: GameMaker Blog

GMLive

After a couple of broadcasts troubled with technical issues today’s was pretty straight forward with a number of topics discussed.  Sound quality still leaves a lot to be desired, to quote myself from the chatroom which accompanies the live broadcast – “How have you not learnt how to turn of skype sounds after 8 shows?” [sic].  It seems strange that the earlier broadcasts had better sound quality and fewer technical problems than those produced this year.

The links below are to an ‘as heard’ recording minus the music and random pauses that occurred presumably due to server lag.  At one point the player stopped working completely so a section of the show is missing.

Listen again:  

Direct link: gmlive-13-feb-2010.mp3.

Next show: 27th February (previous show).

GMIndie Radio

GMIndie, who are apparently satisfied with the explanation given by their webhost for what currently amounts to 13 consecutive days of complete downtime, currently have a show every Saturday.

On today’s show Nathan Hurde revealed that his latest magazine Tailware Times is turning into a blog and Brian talked about his new general programming magazine.  The game reviews are certainly better on GMIndie than on GMLive as the hosts seem to know what they are going to say about the games rather than the all to often “I haven’t played that game”.

Listen again:  Via GMIndie forum

Next show: 20th February (previous show).

Although GMLive started off with shows regularly lasting between one and a half and two hours, the two most recent broadcasts have been nearer to 45 minutes.  Conversely GMIndie Radio recently increased the aimed length of their weekly show from 15 to 25 minutes and today’s show was actually a similar length to GMLive.  GMIndie also did have guests or accept callers on their earlier shows however now have adapted GMLive’s “everyone is welcome” policy.

What is your opinion of the Game Maker radio shows?  Which do you prefer and what could be done to improve future broadcasts?

GMLive 9 and GMIndie Radio 21 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Listen again:  
Direct link: gmlive-30-jan-2010.mp3

Next show: 13th February.

GMLive Show 8 (Finally!) – Listen Again is taken from: GameMaker Blog