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Current thinking on Game Maker for Nintendo DS and iPhone

With the development of a runner enabling Game Maker games to run on the PSP a frequently heard question is “why not for Nintendo DS? (or DSi)”. We have covered this issue before – in short the DSi is less powerful but Mike Dailly has now provided some more information on the decision taken by YoYo Games to focus their attention on other platforms.

Dailly also mentioned the iPod Touch and iPhone platform which YoYo would obviously like to target due to its high user-base and successful App Store.

“And a quick note about the new Apple T&Cs… The rule says you have to build a game with C++ or ObjectiveC. The runner IS in C++, and interpretes scripts. This is fine as there at LOTS of apps which use scripting in some form or other, not to mention quite a few emulators (which is ALL scripting). So we don’t anticipate any problems, although Sandy will be speaking with Apple to verify.”- Mike Dailly

I am not sure of the likelihood of this going ahead as I have little experience with the devices or knowledge of Apple’s acceptance criteria but a recent change in rules over the tools allowed to generate code lead to prominent community member NakedPaulToast to author a topic Gm Runner For Iphone, R I P.


Also on Game Maker Blog:

What do you think?

13 Comments

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  1. Whoops, misread haha. I know they’re different people, just occasionally when skimming posts I get mixed up on who posted since their usernames are similar. Sorry, my bad!

  2. Frederick :I have things against companies putting games on screens that are so tiny, you can’t even see them.
    Putting Game Maker games on the IPhone or Nintendo DS is what? Pointless… Nobody’s going to play the Game Maker games for those.

    Sorry, but your statements are making me laugh, clearly you are not aware of the huge market share casual gaming represents.

    Obviously, to the hardcore gamer’s eyes, casual games are silly and boring, but market-wise there’s a more interesting market share rapidly increasing and generating more sales than big, shiny, 20 million dollar budget games.

    You should understand that the gaming industry is changing a lot, why on earth would EA buy Playfish for over 300 million dollars? (if you add the share arrangements to the cash paid) They are not stupid, dude, they know the bussiness and they know it way better than you and me.

    Game Maker games will hardly (just not to say never, lol) compete with big-budget games, on the other hand, heading Game Maker export options toward casual gaming devices is totally the right way to go.

    Or… maybe I’m wrong and you are just finishing the development of the next Halo with Game Maker. Are you?

  3. Jack, the population of the UK is 61,414,062, the population of the U.S. is 303,824,640, and according to surveys, nearly 35% of our population plays video games…. More people play over here than your entire population combined. PC is the most played. X-Box 360 is second. PlayStation is third.

    It might not be the most played in the UK… Probably because you guys prefer cheaper gaming platform materials.. Not that that’s bad or anything… But still, as far as WORLD polls go:

    1. Personal Computer
    2. Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite
    3. Sony PlayStation 3
    4. Nintendo Wii
    5. Nintendo DSI
    6. Sony PSP

    EDIT: Whoops. Fixed an error.

  4. I would love to see game maker on the iphone, however I am under the impression that Apple’s new T&C’s forbid any program to act as an ‘inbetween’ layer between the program and the Apple SDK. This is evident in the discussions in the Unity forums and the abandoment of the new iPhone Adobe CS5 tools.

    Therefore, Game Maker would NOT be allowed to develop apps for the iPhone – at least ones that wanted to be published in the App Store.

  5. I have things against companies putting games on screens that are so tiny, you can’t even see them.

    Play Station and X-Box 360 are the 2nd and 3rd biggest gaming platforms. PC remains #1.

    Putting Game Maker games on the IPhone or Nintendo DS is what? Pointless… Nobody’s going to play the Game Maker games for those.

  6. “Play Station and X-Box 360 are the 2nd and 3rd biggest gaming platforms. PC remains #1.” -Fredfredrickson

    In terms of sales (excluding the PC) the Wii has sold almost double as many consoles as the PS3, and Xbox 360… Doesn’t that mean the Wii is probably the “biggest gaming platforms”? Or do I misunderstand your meaning? (I wouldn’t really know – I don’t play many games on any console or handheld, besides my ipod)

    Unless the Apple ToS change, I think the iphone is definitely out of the question…

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