Tweaks so far include increased support for the discussion of non-Windows development. Subforums such as “Work In Progress” now bare three separate sections for Mac, Windows, and HTML5. This is a positive step towards the growing list of supported Game Maker platforms being better incorporated with the forum.

Three new subforums have also been introduced that focus on students using Game Maker, indicating YoYo may be wishing to further target university students and budding game developers in the coming years.

The most controverisal addition to the restructuring is the new “Off-topic” section. Some members are voicing concerns that the introduction of this subforum could dilute posting in other areas. It is generally believed that off-topic forums web-wide tend to distract veteran members from contributing to on-topic areas of websites.

Further changes to forum names and sections will continue to take place in what may be the biggest change to the website since YoYo Games took over management of the GMC. It is likely to remain a big talking point in the days to come.

GMC Faces Major Restructure is taken from: GameMaker Blog

The Game Maker Community Game has been released. The release is titled “GMCG: The Arcade” and is a collection of arcade mini games developed by different individuals and teams. Because of this the games don’t share the same look and feel – this is essentially a linked selection of games similar to those “100 Great Arcade Games” CDs you can pick up cheaply at electronics stores. Initially a single game was being developed for the Game Maker Community Game project but this was later revised to the collection of mini games.
GMC Links: Creations Forum Post | Announcement of Release

Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5 – ZDNet
Adobe is to stop development of Flash Player for mobile browsers in favour of Adobe AIR packaged native Apps and HTML5.

Cactus Interview, GMCG Released, Adobe to Stop Mobile Browser Flash Development is taken from: GameMaker Blog

YoYo Games have updated the default forum skin at the official Game Maker Community.  The new, much darker, theme is pretty much a complete overhaul and features a grey top navigational bar similar to that introduced on the main YoYo Games website last month.

Whilst the most apparent change is the jump in colour-scheme from green and white to grey there are other noticeable changes with a new GMC logo and post icons.

There are also some pretty major problems – the most important one being that the new theme does not have a login form or direct link to login anywhere on the main page. The register link is missing as well. These links are absent as the page source code indicates they are constituents of the grey top bar, which is supposed to function as a drop down menu, which does not work.

Don’t like it?
Forum moderator tangibleLime writes that “in a week or so” a topic will be opened in which forum members can share alternative forum themes compatible with GreaseMonkey.

I’m not a fan of light-on-dark designs – they strain my eyes – so was pleased to see that it is still possible to revert back to the previous design. The theme switcher at the bottom of the page provides options of “YoYoGames” and “IP.Board Mobile”. Switching to mobile and then back to “YoYoGames” brings back the green theme which was in-use until earlier today.

The last major GMC refresh took place in June 2010 alongside a much needed update of the Invision Power Board software used to run the forums. Prior to that the forum was mostly blue.

New Game Maker Community Theme is taken from: GameMaker Blog

“Truth be told, because of the lack of input in this forum, we’re considering axeing it completely” [sic] wrote GMC moderator Takagi in May of this year.

The suggestion of removing the subforum has created passionate reaction. GMC reviewer chance suggested that Reviewers Choice is the only area of the community that “represents an effort at intelligent content” claiming that other areas of the forum, specifically the Distributing Games section, are “garbage” in comparison.

Multiple budding reviewers attempting to get a chance to write for the forum have stated that the reviewing process is slow and ”demotivating”.

“I’ve been trying to get a review of my own posted here for like 4 months.” orange08 said, a user attempting to contribute content.

Despite this, moderators associated with the forum insist that applications are still open to people who wish to publish their reviews. In the meantime the publishing of content remains slow, with only one review being posted this month.

GMC Reviewers Choice Nearing End? is taken from: GameMaker Blog

“YYGs will release a GM Windows upgrade [public beta or complete] within approximately two months, let’s say on or before April 20, 2011 (GMT).”

The “friendly challenge” was crafted in response to NPT’s frustration at the number of comments in topics stating that YoYo Games has neglected the Windows platform and its users by changing its focus to porting Game Maker games to handheld devices.

In December YoYo Games stated that they hoped “to get [Game Maker 8.1] out as a beta in the first few weeks of 2011″. The Win32 spec, which all games submitted to the YoYo Games store must follow, states that games must be made using Game Maker 8.1 or Game Maker 7 for Mac.   On January 24th a Creative Game Challenge newsletter said that game submissions would be allowed “from the beginning of February“.

Although notoriously loose with their release schedules it now looks promising for the April 20th date to be met by YoYo Games.  On Saturday from their Dundee offices Mike Dailly tweeted “Wow… some amazing things cooking here at YoYo Games. The future is gonna be AWESOME! I’m drooling just thinking about the possibilities!”.  Earlier in February Andrew McCluskey also started testing improvements that had been made to the Game Maker room editor.

When Game Maker 8.1 is released it will be the first ‘minor’ update to Game Maker since 2006 when version 6.1a was released alongside Mark’s Game Maker’s Companion book.

NakedPaulToasts’s Game Maker 8.1 Wager is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Mike recently posted his own thoughts on some of the suggested features.

Discussion on Game Maker 8.1 is taken from: GameMaker Blog

• Takagi created a pinned topic in the Work in Progress section of the forum in which a brief description and screenshots of upcoming projects can be posted. The topic is not meant for discussion of games but provides a nice showcase of some of the games currently being developed using Game Maker.

• The member group banners which appear under the avatar and member title of each poster have finally been fixed.  These have been absent for 4 months(!) since the forum theme was YoYo Games-ified.
• Minor forum theme changes.
• GMC Cage Matches may be returning.  xot writes that the weekly feature in which two Game Maker games are pitted up against each other “is almost certainly coming back”.
• Newly promoted administrators FredFredrickson and xot have implemented many of the above changes.   There have also been other minor changes and fixes, full details can be seen in this topic.

Recent GMC Improvements is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Along with the new game being planned, several GMCG leaders have stepped down. The following leaders have resigned from their positions:

• Rusky, Programming Leader
• Opacus, Graphics Leader
• monocledsardine, Sound Leader

The GMCG has been criticized from the very beginning and disagreements, collaboration issues and other problems seem to have finally surfaced. With over a years worth of work thrown away people may think twice about contributing to a new project that may end up being trashed as well. The lack of replies on the announcement from Takagi could indicate that people have already lost interest in the project.

GMCG Project Scrapped – Leaders Step Down and Smaller Game Planned is taken from: GameMaker Blog

KC LC retires from the GMC is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Download 5.5 MB zipped .exe (left click only)

Controls:  Arrow keys for movement, X or [Space] to talk, mouse to pickup objects and select chat options.

Game Maker Community Game release first demo is taken from: GameMaker Blog