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DS Game Maker 5 IDE Interface Looks Familiar

DSGameMaker 5 IDE
DS Game Maker 5 IDE (click to enlarge)


The screenshot above is of the DS Game Maker 5 game editor a beta of which has just been released [10MB]. The similarity to that of Game Maker will no doubt enrage some YoYo Games forum members (see previously).

The DSGM manual has a short section discussing the relationship, or lack of, with YoYo Games’ Game Maker.

“Many people compare DS Game Maker to Game Maker by Mark Overmars. In reality they are different products by different people (one is a university professor; one is a 16 year old). DS development is different from computer development so comparing the programs is difficult on that score. For a start the Nintendo DS has considerably less temporary memory (RAM) than a computer, these days around 256 times less.

The only real similarity is the events and actions concept. This is an excellent concept, but it is also such a simple concept that could not possibly be copyrighted. It has already been duplicated for the Nintendo Wii with Wii Game Studio (though not as well as the DS implementation). The programs share interface layouts in areas, such as for Objects. This is merely coincidental, that the layout used in Game Maker is the best way to lay it out, and that the best way to do it has been chosen in DS Game Maker, and that it is somewhat similar.

Very simple concepts like having a menu bar and toolbar at the top of the main window like Game Maker, and having “floating windows” is certainly not copying it, such features have been part of Windows programs since Game Maker was even created.

Finally, I admit that DS Game Maker V5 has moved very close to the program by YoYo Games /Mark Overmars, but it is still definitely a unique implementation that builds upon the good points of Game Maker and the great events/actions system, but does not harm their business…”

Although I think the new DSGM IDE is an improvement over its current offering I question whether Game Maker is the right program to take inspiration from.  Game Maker’s interface has remained very similar over the last 4 major releases and I am expecting to see some requests for improvements in the results of the GMIndie Game Maker survey which should be out tomorrow.

What are your favourite and least favourite areas of the Game Maker interface?  Two things which are annoy me are the way the scripts are placed within object Actions – why the need to drag and drop the code icon then double click to edit it instead of displaying the code directly under Actions? – and the minor but frustrating missing functionality of [F2] to rename resources (instead it is Ctrl+R).

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What do you think?

11 Comments

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  1. Main change here being that now his ds game maker is useless as its illegal to even own a homebrew cart now and as you will notice his product is not endorsed by nintendo and so I doubt he has anyway beyond the illegal carts to get the games built in the app to the portable device so I expect more people are annoyed about buying a useless product on his side than people here being bothered about a similar layout between applications, good imagine compare all the imaging apps out there, they all have almost identical interfaces because the programs all have the same features that are all required for that task.

  2. Thanks for the comments.

    Before I can really “work” on the interface and make it better than Game Maker’s I must first make a similar interface.

    You can see in the Object editor that the tabs are at the bottom. I actually did this because I think it’s better than GM’s vertical arrangement, not just because it’s different or I had to make a change to differentiate from GM.

    If anything is directly duplicated, it’s because I think GM has done a good job.

    GM’s UI arrangement is generally quite good, but I don’t want a duplicate of that UI because it’s pointless. I must take this opportunity to improve on it, because as Phil says, it isn’t the most up-to-date.

  3. It looks like it does all it should, but he should make a better effort to have an original program, not decomp’ing GM and changing the graphics. I mean, look at Game Maker, and look at Construct. Goal – the same. Interface – completely different.
    I don’t like it.

  4. Well, not calling this guy a liar or anything, but the UI seems too similar. In fact, the actions and tabs are nearly exactly the same. Hopefully this guy won’t be sued or anything, since this is a “decent” program.

  5. Neither the events/actions system nor the layout are very good, actually. He really hasn’t tried very hard if that’s the best he can come up with.

  6. If the program actually works, why not take some time and just make it look a little different? Why risk all your hard work at making something like this on the chance that YYG won’t try to sue you?

    Some people are just stupid.

  7. Agreed. I believe somebody made the suggestion on the podcast with Yoyo games to have an option to type straight into the actions section of an object. Brilliant idea.

    Personally, I hate all the short cuts Ctrl+Z is undo (obviously) but redo is Ctrl+Shift+Z not Ctrl+Y.

    Sondar.

  8. Wow. They’re very… similar.

    The backgrounds, besides both having the program name tiled diagonally, are even the same color ($E5E5E5).

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