On his blog Jon from Stencyl highlights the vast differences between the commercial YoYo Games and their self-funded ‘hobby’.

“…while competition is an inevitable part of any business, let’s remind ourselves that we’re not out to “beat” Game Maker. We’re here to execute on our vision and make the best product for our target audience. That’s how a successful product is made, and if we’re to be competitive, it’s by doing that. It’s not done by staring at the competition, copying features or engaging in a war of words. I surely hope that this is the last time I have to do that!”

- Jon from Stencyl

Stencyl compares itself to GameMaker is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Speaking of the reasons behind the move Stencyl’s webmaster and Lead Web Programmer Stephen said…

“We appear more professional and committed just because we have the “LLC” after our name. It’s a minor thing, but it allows users, investors, and other such people, at first glance, to see that we are quite serious about the project.

“It centralizes the finances, risk, and legal liability for the websites. When we transfer over all of Stencyl’s assets (servers, mainly) to Stencyl bank accounts, it saves one of us from being the “official” host for the project and being personally liable for all the costs and liability that comes from our site. It also allows much more transparent and equitable distribution of our funds.”

Founder of the Stencyl project Jon also revealed that work on Stencyl only started at in January 2008, despite information regarding the project being online for a much longer period of time.

“Despite our seemingly late start and our busy schedules, we’ve made terrific progress in these months and are well positioned to start our beta program in the latter half of this year…..

“…We will only announce a release date when we are ready to release. We are (obviously) planning to release this year.”

If all goes to schedule this would mean that we would see the first version of Stencyl before Game Maker 8 which Sandy has said will not be seen until 2009.

If you are interested in the Stencyl project be sure to visit my Stencyl blog where you can watch video trailers of Stencyl and can read my opinions on the software, including a comparison with GameMaker.

Stencyl before GameMaker 8? is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Don’t think this will happen with the incompetence shown by YoYoGame so far, but you never know. A move away from registration based income to advertising revenue would obviously need to happen here but it would, if it happens, help increase the popularity of GameMaker and of course would result in more features for users.

Only Stencyl for competition, shame YoYo haven’t got this done, and are only “maybe one day [going to] think about going Open Source”.

Open Source Game Maker is taken from: GameMaker Blog

Starting in March 2006 the blog has so far had a total of 161 posts, however the latest post on the 2nd September was the only post for that month. A little over a week ago I followed the instructions on their website for submitting news and have not heard anything back.

Frustrating? Yes, especially since GMNews its five latest posts displayed via RSS in a prime position on gamemaker.info – the latest gamemaker news “15th August – 2nd September”.

I’ve had many blogs in the past I have given up on – most notably a Computers, Internet and Business blog I wrote for the prime purpose of monetizing using PayPerPost, as well as a couple of personal blogs. Indeed since arriving back from the depths of Yorkshire a couple of days ago I checked my mailbox to see that someone had sent me a message via YouTube enquiring as to why my Stencyl Blog has not been updated for more than a month.

The answer is obvious, – although in truth there are several reasons. Firstly I registered the Stencyl.org domain name without really thinking what I would do with it. The fact that it had been left unregistered so long meant I grabbed it when I realised if I was quick I would be able to get my hands on it.

I put up a quick holding page before deciding to branch out into a site which would include news about the progress of the Open Source Game Development platform that is Stencyl. All the news I have posted on it (besides my opinions) can easily be found elsewhere on the Internet, and my content consists of information which has mostly been taken from the Stencyl forums and several YouTube trailers of the software which were made by people more involved in the project that I will ever be.

When Stencyl finally gets released I may try to keep the site more up-to-date, and will link to resources and community news in much the same way as I do here for Game Maker. However until Stencyl actually come out with something there isn’t really all that much to say.

I added some content, I got some traffic – but to be honest I know I’m not doing enough to keep that traffic. It doesn’t take long to make one blog post – but right now my blogging priority is GameMakerBlog, and then there is everything else… I guess GMNews is going through the same situation, but I wonder, will it ever return?

Is Game Maker News dead? Stencyl Blog. is taken from: GameMaker Blog