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Community Links: Mark on Designing Mobile Games with GameMaker, iOS Ninjammin Beat-Jitsu

A guide by Mark Overmars entitled Designing Successful iPhone and Android Games with GameMaker was added to YoYoGames.com when it was given its new design. The .pdf document outlines some criteria which make a game suitable for mobile play and explains how games should be implemented in Game Maker including using virtual on-screen keys and the limitations of what is supported.  Also included is an invitation for committed developers to contact Mark for advice throughout the process of creating an iPhone and Android game using GameMaker (presumably this is YoYo Games Studios).

Liam Barden’s Ninjammin Beat-Jitsu is the next title to be published by YoYo Games.  According to Liam YoYo Games have been working on porting the game since last year! The music based platformer, which took the second place prize in a YoYo Games competition in May last year, will be available on iPhone and iPad very soon.  The New Zealand iTunes App Store page can be seen here. No word directly from YoYo Games on this release yet or on whether we will see the game on Android.

Visual Novels Now, a new website dedicated to the game genre, have interviewed MoaCube’s Tom Grochowiak. The interview covers MoaCube’s transition to a “full-time indie” studio and their upcoming game Cinders.

The fourth indie(Function) radio show took place last weekend. [detailsmp3]

What do you think?

5 Comments

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  1. Although I agree that games should have a certain quality about them, reading that document (especially toward the end), made me feel like YYG is a stuck up piece of snobbish sh*tholes.

    “Please realize that YoYo Games is rather selective in the games it publishes on these devices, so following these guidelines does not mean that we will automatically publish your game. Game{s} that we publish must be of excellent quality”

    Makes me wish that Zach and others continued the work on the iOS compiler just to knock it down a few pegs. YYG and Mark sometimes forget their place in this world…you started with a small rubbish stint of software, don’t begin to turn into an almighty outfit, stepping on our shoulders just because we threw a few bucks your way.

    As for the document itself, there were really only 2 parts to the whole thing which could have been wrapped up in a single post in his blog. One, the obviousness of “designing a game” (by making sure you pick “something people will like” — really? No duh). Two, the small useful list of GM programming differences required in order to write for that specific platform (thanks for that I suppose — even though it looks like only a few dozen people will even get a chance to crack that egg and make an omelet with it, due to the “high-arch excellency” requirement).

    I guess that’s enough of my ranting, I look forward to reading your replies….not really, I already know what’s going to be said, and I don’t care.

    • I’m not going to disagree with you, as admittedly I’ve only had time to skim the document so far. But my position is that any information about mobile publishing from YoYo Games is good- even if its aimed at beginners and has what could be perceived as a condescending tone regarding publishing.

      To me it just means we might be getting closer to the release of the mobile exporters as a standalone product, which is all I care about. So I don’t care what they say about how selective they are as a publisher because with GM Studio, you shouldn’t have to go through them.

      All that being said, if someone were to beat YoYo Games to the punch and release a decent 3rd party tool to export Game Maker games to mobile devices, I’d be quite interested in that too. It sounds like a few people working on such things, and I hope if nothing else it motivates YoYo Games to release their own exporters sooner rather than later.

  2. Nice. I always enjoy reading Mark’s instructional materials. His tutorials were how I got started with Game Maker many years ago.

    Now if only YoYo Games would get the lead out and release the darn iOS exporter, I’d be a happy camper.

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