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GameMaker Studio 2.0 Confirmed

YoYo Games CEO Sandy Duncan has confirmed that GameMaker Studio 2.0 is currently in production. He stated on Twitter that “we’re working on GameMaker Studio 2.0” and that it will run natively on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

There is no set date for public availability yet, but hopefully we will see a beta release later this year or in early 2015.

gamemaker-studio-2

Few other details are currently known about GameMaker Studio 2.0 but there is the possibility of a subscription model being introduced.

Do you think existing GameMaker Studio owners will get this new version for free? If not, would you be willing to pay for a new version of the engine?

Let us know in the comments below.

What do you think?

66 Comments

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  1. Bought Professional last week. Really exited to get my hands on Android development and buying the Android module. But the uncertainty of the future of the Gamemaker makes me regret the purchase already.

    I think I keep my options open and hold on the with the purchases and keep on looking other IDE to use.

  2. You guys forget, that Sandy promised the new IDE on an interviewed video by November 2014, meaning GMS 1.x would have it along with .SVG support in that video. Not GMS 2.0 crap. I can’t export to iOS either at the moment, unbelievable amount of new bugs. I actually had to update my games on iOS because GMS forces us too for iOS 8.0. I updated them, and forgot to clear the cache on a game, game now has a bug, and I can’t export to clear the bug. Unbelievable… hmmm maybe GMS 2.0 will save us from these newly implemented bugs. I hope I get more cocoatouch errors and compiler errors so I’ll pay for 2.0. Since this has happened to me, where other gaming engines you wouldn’t have to update your bloody games, once it’s on the iOS store it stays working, I am now transitioning over to Unity. Unity has over 200 employees and they would not let this happen or they’d make a Unity patch release quickly. I will NOT pay for GMS 2.0 nor give Yoyogames anymore money, while they spend it with making 5 tech blogs on a bloody commodore 64 emulator, yet I can’t even export to modules I’ve paid for (master collection owner and obviously proud of paying them it). They make Tizen over a year ago when store isn’t out, but haven’t made a Blackberry export? ha!!! Thanks for spending my money yoyogames, maybe you can make an intellivision emulator tech blog while my game reviews go to crap!

    • I can’t agree more!… I’m still wondering what are yoyo’s priorities as we speak. That stuff has been beta since the start (studio). Many bugs have been fixed… at the price of other things that used to work well becoming completely broken! I agree, GMS could use a brand new fresh and flashy UI, funky buttons and illuminated menus, a nice animated splashscreen and probably a cool project loader that would also make coffee, but I don’t really understand why, instead of focusing on trivial graphics things, people don’t immediately jump on the opportunity of claiming the bare necessity of any existing software since computers exist: launch it, use it, enjoy it, have the editor company fix bugs, use it again, be satisfied and THEN buy the next company product that will go on the shelves the next year… I’m under the impression that Yoyo is a company full of great ideas and innovations, but when it comes to making a reliable and solid product, it starts to go in a lot of different directions and they forget the essential: keep what works, fix what’s broken. It’s a pity that after 2 years of use I find myself unable to compile an APK without going thru a lot of troubles as of today, as I’m told that it will surely work on next release….
      Now if you ask me, I’m not sure I even want to imagine that a 2.0 incoming version, even at half price, would lead to a more reliable product down the hill.

  3. Here’s a web archive of their “Buy” page: http://web.archive.org/web/20140107042616/http://yoyogames.com/studio/buy

    It clearly said “Includes all future export modules”. For this to be valid, they would have to release the new export modules for 2.0 AND 1.4…or allow 1.4 owners to upgrade to 2.0 for free (or a minimal fee). Anything else would be a breach of trust, especially with all these bugs in 1.4 that prevent me from actually releasing a game.

    • Their caught red handed man. I bought it when they were at v1.2 and it never said “lifetime 1.x” or I wouldn’t have bought it. I thought I was investing for the long term.

      I Got Ripped Off. Transitioning to Unity3d.com

  4. Why doesn’t yoyogames fix 1.4 instead of jumping the gun on this? I still cant export to iOS since the new update so this is useless to me, especially if I have to pay 800 dollars again. No way

  5. Id fork out $100~ to go from 1.x MC to 2.x MC considering how much of a change it will be (Object orientated for one).
    But…
    I wouldn’t pay for a subscription unless yoyo were basically doing everything but wiping my arse.
    My list of unreasonable subscription demands may include:
    Full 3d support with content management so newbs like me can just import things from blender and make them work.
    All collision engine work (2d and 3d, physics and non physics) done for me so I can implement whatever I like with predictable results.
    Networking for entities/physics, compression of traffic and lag compensation.
    Deferred lighting engine with a tool to setup light and shaders, so each game can look different rather than the same DX(whatever) setup.
    AI and finite state machine tools.
    particles, lod terrain, voxel management etc etc etc..

    Don’t get me wrong, I love learning things! But if I had to continually sink money I’d rather just be able to make games while scratching my arse and eating cheetos! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    I love what yoyo do, and yes this post is a bit tongue in cheek!

    • After using a competitors free product for the last 2 and a bit weeks I would have to agree especially on the 3D front. I couldn’t believe how quickly I got a 500 metre square terrain up and running with a controllable character without doing a single line of code – and importing free terrain assets from their store.

      Yes, was good, very very good. I’d still prefer to be writing that killer 2D platform app I’ve always wanted in GameMaker, but, that product blew away GM:S in third dimension.

  6. Some people are missing the point here, GMS 2 was always said to be a complete rewrite of the software, that means that projects from GMS 1.x will most likely not be compatible with it, or have serious bugs when brought in.

    YoYo has been pushing all breaking changes in coding, functions, etc to this new version, so it doesnt create a compatibility mess with existing projects, and even trough they did introduced some breaking changes in the way, most was essy to fix.

    Now, with GMS 2 we can expect to see an entirely new GML, a new UI, the YYC as default and other awesome stuf like that, wich would never be possible under the current codebase of GMS 1.x.

    IMHO trough, subscription models suck, and as was pointed above, GameMaker is not a service but rather a product. I own Master collection (from the beggining) so I would expect to at least have a very substantial discount for this new version.

  7. I am not a fan of monthly subscription models for software in general, I’m happy to make a one time purchase and feel that I own my copy of the software. And I’m not a fan of free upgrades to studio version 2 from version 1 either. It costs money to develop new software and I think that Gamemaker is getting better and better with every new version released. It has even become a tool for the serious game developers. And to make sure it stays that way I think that an entirely free upgrade to a new version isn’t realistic. It’s like saying: “I have bought FIFA 14, so I should get FIFA 15 for free”. But contrariwise I think that existing users should get a discount on upgrading to version 2 while keeping the licenses and exportmodules from version 1.

  8. I am a hobbyist and there is a probability that I will never develop a game that I would put the hands of someone else to play – so I will never see a dime coming from this hobby. So there is no way I could justify spending money on a monthly subscription model – that why i haven’t touched the Unreal engine. If it’s a one off payment of $100 or less, I would definitely do that, I do enjoy playing around with GameMaker doing my little thing, it a nice way to take my mind of the other hassles I have in life.

    But a subscription model isn’t something I am prepared to do, if it does happen I’ll just run off and play with a competitors product, no prizes given for guessing which one.

  9. The question is how much is the new version going to cost for existing uses

    I don’t mind paying for the next version.. HOW EVER

    The next version better included all the existing Licenses of the previous version for uses.
    IE if I upgrade my HTML5, Pro, Linux, Andriod,iOS windows Phone and yoyo DLC/License better come with me..

    Owning most to all the “extra” licenses to be able to port my projects to other platforms is rather $$$$ and I not about to rebuy all though. Im only willing to pay the “new Studio” and not the extras licenses .

    • No you will have to pay and re-purchase ALL your licenses
      you will have to buy a new toaster oven
      and some new pair of shoes.
      People, YoYo Games is not a charity.

      New versions of software come out all the time, live with it, or don’t use it.

      • Well duh new software comes out all the time… and yes u normal might have to pay for the new version but you never have to pay for a new licence unless its under a renewel based subscription.

        I dont mind paying a upgrade cost on the tools it self… but we should have to repay to be able to releases on other platfourms that we already have licnes to do so… and since GMS never mentioned Sub based fee like UE4 or crytech . Im under the assuming my *DLC* (see steamstore) Licences caries over .

      • But even you would have to admit that YYG changing the license agreement after people had already bought the product was pretty weak on their part.

  10. This is annoying. I bought GameMaker Pro 8.1 for the full price, was able to upgrade to GameMaker Studio: Standard for free. But then they made GameMaker Studio: Standard the free version and it’s like I never paid for anything; I’ve got the annoying splash screens all over again. I don’t like YoYoGames’ model.

    • And I purchased Windows 3.1 and was told that 64KB will be enough RAM that I will ever need.

      Now I have 16 GB of RAM and keep purchasing new windows.

      It is so not fair. 😀
      Welcome to the world of technology, where what you buy now is obsolete in 1 month……… Good news is that you have the choice……. 😛

  11. I have bought Master Collection last year, and I have been a beta tester during all this time. I didn’t have a chance to use a “final” product and had to constantly resubmit apps on different stores because this or that bug had been fixed in GMS and i’d better remove that workaround X or Y I had to compile the game with… I even had to bear with over 6 months without any fix for a reported bug that they even missed in their extremely long list….

    No need to say that I’m not eager to pay again for another beta test and I have already switched to unreal Engine 4 that is just perfect for my needs, and ways more reliable than GMS with no comparison! I am not that masochist and have more interesting things to do in my life than handing several hundred bucks to join an alpha testers handful of programmers whose only aim is to help Yoyo fix what they break at every update!…

  12. Lifetime means… what, a year and a half now?
    I hope my life will be longer than that. There’s plenty of software that I paid for years ago, and that’s still being actively developed… and I still receive update to that for free.
    I already paid a pretty high price, expecting to be covered for the next couple of years.
    This new UI should be free for everyone who has invested in GameMaker… we made it (financially) possible to develop this UI, and the crappy UI we put up with now should be fixed for current users.

    If it’s reasonable, I will probably pay the price. And by reasonable, I mean not more than $100 for the Master Edition. I do understand if there’s an upgrade price, but I would be extremely disappointed.

    • Listen mate, stop blaming YYG for their IDE, blame Mark Overmars. YYG only inherited the Delphi Pile of Poo based IDE.

      Yes the IDE needs a major re-write, so does GM. If you lot seriously think GMS 2 will be a major re-write you are bloody delusional.

      I don’t think they would be able to deliver it in such short periods of time.

      A re-write of everything would take potentially years.

  13. So it will be a Mature Update, I see, will it be an Upgrade or a complete new program? I hope all code will work exactly fine like in 1.4, but the IDE could get more features.

    There are some questions with 2.0. What if you payed for the Pro or Master Collection or will buy it this year from 1.x. Will there be a Grace-Periode where you get 1.4 for money and 2.0 for free than or do you have to buy it twice? What about the modules? Will they be integrated or update-able or is maybe only the IDE changed in 2.0 and the rest will work fine and you don’t have to buy anything new, only update to the new IDE maybe (that what I prefer)

    If it will be subscription in the future, I am out and will stay at 1.4 / 1.x as long as I could. I bought GameMaker because of NO-Subscription. That was one of the Main-Reasons for me.

    They will have the YoYo-Market or GameMaker-Marketplace or like it would call in the future, so maybe this could be a place for sharing stuff and some of the profit can finance the Updates for the current users of Game Maker Pro and Master Collection.

    If the would make subscription I think they will also have to handle with Unreal Engine, Unity, Corona SDK and some others.

    For someone who is new to Game Maker could lern also other IDEs and languages, and for the people who are allready worked with 1.x and have paid for it, maybe don’t want to pay everyday again for something a little bit newer.

    If you make games for hobby after work or with your kids, it will not pay for itself in money I think. The same is for the Adobe Cloud. I bought the Master Collection CS4, update to C5 in the Grace-Periode, than bought CS 5.5 Upgrade and CS6, but after that I had to subscripe, it will be a a bottomless pit.

    That was, why I changed from Flash Professional CS6 to GameMaker Studio 1.x

  14. I think we should get it for free , and I think the subscription model is utterly insane and will cost you in the long run.

  15. A) I hope a project can seamlessly move from 1.x to 2.0
    B) I hope we see multithreading support
    C) I will gladly pay for 2.0 at whatever fee they think is appropriate for a permanent license. It’s worth it. But I’m trying to eliminate monthly bills not pick another one up, they should also remember the piratebay is a google away.

  16. You guys really need to focus on a professional IDE that helps your customer base and expands it. I know you have a lot of technical staff improving performance and functionality to be cross platform, but reliability is equally as important and people need to know that they can TRUST your product. I believe if you need to pay for a new version, it should be a much smaller upgrade fee. I subscription fee should only be optional so someone could get a temporary license (e.g. to work on a specific project).

    I’ve been a game maker user for a long time now, but while there are improvements to containing a game project, it simply does not have the tools to stack against the competition. The room editor is outdated, the objects and scripts structure is not organized, and it is unclear to new users if they will have control over loaders and other yoyogames presets.

    I am happy you guys are improving, but ever since yoyogames was a thing, it seems like some improvements always came with poor changes to the community and dev environment as well (no offense intended). I want to improve the GM community and recommend it, but right now I am still unsure of its state and im currently not developing tools or recommending it to programmers. But maybe it will change in the future and turn around.

    So anyway. BE PROFESSIONAL! It is extremely important to have a professional IDE and tools to use with the compiler itself with this kind of development. Have a nice light and dark skin, organize the objects and code in a smart way. No more weird menus to manage your list of projects. That is my suggestion. Thanks guys

  17. I am an owner of a master version.
    I also thought that a master version was a lifetime version.
    I would continue liking to always use the latest version.
    I would like to continue to use, if upgrade is discount price.

    I think that subscription should occur.
    It is also good for a price to change for a monthly amount, the amount of half a year, a yearly amount, etc.

    • Please carry out support of a previous version half a year,
      After a 2.0 formal release.
      It will be troubled if the project which is progressing stops.

  18. I’m a Master Collection owner as well. I would be happy to pay for an upgrade from 1.4 to 2.0 for the Mac OS X IDE, and future platform support (WiiU, 3DS, XBox One, etc)however I would be strongly against having to continuously pay for a product I have and am able to pay for in full, under a model that does not reflect my needs or intentions.
    Further I would be heavily disappointed if after paying for Master Collection not getting my fix so I can fully utilize the OUYA gamepads(http://bugs.yoyogames.com/view.php?id=14554) which was one of the main reasons for investing in the whole thing right off the start.

  19. I own the Master Collection and I would expect to pay an upgrade fee for 2.0 but I would not pay for a subscription. I understand why businesses would want a subscription model but I would not pay for it. So far I use GM to play around and explore but at this point I don’t use it for a business. If it was for a business that was making money it may be worth the subscription fee but my guess is the VAST majority of people that currently own GM are not making money from it and would feel the same way.

  20. I really hope that they’re remaking the IDE from scratch, because the current IDE is really old and made with an old technology. I feel really bad for the programmers who have work with this, probably tangled code, trying to fix bugs without creating new ones.

    GMS’ IDE has to be the ugliest and most buggy IDE of all time, Autodesk 3dsMax being a close 2nd.

    I wouldn’t mind paying the full price for it ; a subscription model would bother me a little though.

  21. I’d be fine to pay for version 2.0 but I’d expect a good upgrade discount. When I upgraded from MMF2 to fusion 2.5 the discount was fantastic, I’d hope to see the same for gms.

    Also against subscription models. They are not good for most people and you pay more over time than what you generally get back in continued improvements and new features. Adobe are particularly bad, such a high subscription price for access to a lot of software…does not appeal at all to me when I only use a couple.

  22. I’m really not sure how I feel about subscription models. I guess it really depends on the terms of the agreement.

  23. I have to say I knew this was coming. They have modified the studio roadmap. Like saying “this and this is too much effor to do by what they paid”

    They even raised the studio price after a while.. We cant expect this will be free. Well, neither yoyo can expect to us to buy studio 2.

  24. Awesome news!
    The 2.0 version of the studio is more than welcome!
    I will be glad to see all the new features it may have included.

    On the other side, I think the current 1.xx versions are far from being stable and/or complete with all the features they announced.

    I hope they will fix everything before jumping to the v2.0

    Anyway, I like to see GMS moving on 😉

    cheers!

    • BTW…
      About the subscription model… I think it’s a wrong marketing strategy.
      Having both systems could be ok but, honestly, I think really few people will pay a quote for GM. mainly because the users demand GM as a “product” not as a “service”.
      Beside this GMS is a “beta product” by default and do not get me wrong here:
      we buyed some licenses knowing this fact and we have no complains about GMS and its developing team.
      They work hard and effectively and we’re super happy with how the product is evolving since the very first download. however, I think ther still some work to be done and polished in order to accomplish all their promises 😉

      cheers!

  25. At least a discount?— that is probably what is going to happen.
    I am fine with paying a little more, as long as they keep on adding new features

  26. I will be disappointed if YoyoGames jumps on the subscription model bandwagon. The one time purchase fee was one of the most attractive things about GameMaker and would make me reconsider whether I would continue using it and recommending it to people in the future.

  27. Unless 2.0 is massively different from GMS 1.0, I think this is cheap move for more money. I’m talking about a complete redo of GML and the IDE. Plus GMS needs to step it’s game up with better 3D programming, or step out of the restriction of Game development only, biggest regret I have is not being able to create Live Wallpapers for android due to this restriction. Until then, it’s not worth a monthly bill. Plus this Subscription concept is ridiculous, unless people are making money on their games daily, this is going to put off a lot people, especially beginners. It takes quite a long time to learn how to make a game that has potential to make money, which usually isn’t much money either. Why should people have to spend money while they’re learning? I’d rather they demand a percentage of money made from our creations. At least then we’ll already be making money, and the cost will depend on how much money we’ve made. Besides, a lot of people who are serious about using GMS, are serious only because they’ve used this program from a young age. With a monthly fee, no kids will use this program, and those same kids in a few years can very well be serious programmers, which will cause a decrease in users and money yoyogames will make when these same kids decide to purchase Modules.

    The only way I can see a monthly fee being reasonable, is to have 2 version of GMS 2:
    One like Standard that’s for free.
    And one with the monthly fee and access to ALL modules.

    At least then, beginners have the ability to learn this program, and then when they’re serious, they can pay the monthly fee while having the ability to make money themselves.

    • Your last statement is a very good idea. With that model we can work in our projects in the tool for free and then when we are ready to publish and distribute, we buy the export modules for a short period of time, to test out things, and then submit to the markets.

      Thought Yoyogames is the one that is losing in that model 😛

  28. I hate everything about subscription models make it a one time payment and give a discount to those who already own gms modules >.<

  29. As nice as it would be if it were a free upgrade, I think that it’s pretty unlikely that anybody who bought the master edition would be getting a completely new version entirely free.
    For example, if you bought Adobe Creative Suite Master Edition 6 for whatever-ridiculous-price-it-was-in-your-country, it would be pretty unreasonable to expect to have gotten the Cloud version of the software for free.

    I personally don’t think that the next version of GameMaker should be free, financially it doesn’t make sense for YoYo to give it away for users who bought an older version. They need financial support to continue improving GameMaker, no matter the version.
    I would however like to see YoYo give users who purchased the current version for a discount, I think that would be fair.
    Of course you’re always going to have users from the GMC complaining, somebody is always complaining about something – people used to hate YoYo Games, saying they were destroying GameMaker, but there is no way that GameMaker would be where it is without YoYo’s financial backing, one that has to be paid for. But as anybody who has been around the GameMaker Community long enough will know, a large share of GameMaker community users are very entitled, and they hate changes. Remember the price increases in GM a few years ago? Blown out controversy.
    Making improvements to GameMaker like there has been is incredibly expensive. Do you think that software that cost $20 would have all the features we’re looking at GameMaker having today? Or the platforms you can export to (especially something like the PlayStation platforms), or the marketplace? These things aren’t cheap.

    You can go on and on about how “they said they’d do this”, but when you bought your copy of Windows XP (if you’re old enough to remember that), and they said you’d get all updates free, did you expect to get Windows Vista and 7 for free too?
    You’re always going to have people that don’t like the direction that something is going in, no matter what we’re talking about – application software, operating systems, building construction, laws.

    YoYo have been very fair with their prices, and even more-so with their upgrades, lets not get greedy.

    I personally don’t like the idea of a subscription model at all, but if it is what they think is the best way to continue supporting GameMaker in the way they have over the past few years, then I’m all for it.

  30. Looking forward to version and more information about what it contains. I guess the Delphi UI is replaced by something more more cool 🙂

    Paying for a major upgrade is of cause okay. Money is needed to ensure keeping Game Maker up to date.

  31. It would be great if version 2 was free to existing customers, but I can’t see them doing that.

    I am absolutely an anti-fan of “instead of paying us a set fee for the right to use this software more or less forever, pay us a smaller fee to keep using it”. As others have no doubt said, I don’t want to “borrow” your software; I want to purchase the right to keep using it without having to keep paying you money to do so. To me it feels like a protection racket. “It would be a shame if something happened and all that work you have put into your game was lost…”

    I would gladly pay for a second version that could natively run under Linux and MacOS, but I don’t think the circumstances are right for that to work for me.

    I currently own just Pro with no other export options because to me as a hobby developer I can’t justify the high (for me) costs of being able to noodle around with my lame prototypes on other architectures. I’m never going to sell one and I’ve yet to create something so good I would pay money to put it on another platform for a stranger to play.

    I somehow doubt that with all of the work going into a new cross platform version that it would get cheaper, be free to existing customers or even drop in price and/or include more export options out of the box.

    That’s probably going to severely limit me.

    However it’s probably going to be awesome for a lot of other game makers, and I think that’s great.

  32. I don’t mind if they change the licensing terms for new license sales, but they ought to honor the wording of the license at time of purchase. Of course every EULA has a clause in it that says that the license terms are subject to change at any time, with or without notice or consent, yadda yadda, and that’s how they always get you. Whether they stick with perpetual licenses or switch to subscription, itll still be the same cost to keep up with the latest version. Psychologically, being able to retain an outdated version forever without having to pay more feels more secure, but always being entitled to updates while your subscription is valid is better. Unless YYG ever goes out of business and you can no longer use the software at all because of DRM. But im very excited about GM:S on linux and OS X, because GameMaker is the last app holding me on Windows. If 2.0 comes out soon enough, I’ll never have to deal with running on Win8.

  33. NOPE, it was a lifetime license, not a 1.0 lifetime license, until they changed their website saying now that it’s a 1.0 lifetime license. I bought the Master Collection when it said “Lifetime LIcense” there was no mention of 1.0

    • The thing here is that yes, you got lifetime license of Game Maker Studio but they are making a different product, It’s not Game Maker Studio anymore on what they are working.

    • They have changed the license terms for the Master collection – comes with all future GM:S 1.x modules. If I had to guess, I’d say there’s absolutely no chance 2.0 is going to be a free upgrade, free/trial version excluded.

      • No you don’t have to pay again, you can simply do the right thing and stop using it and stick to the version you have until they make it obsolete like they did with GMS8.1, then find a better product to suit your needs and spare us of your whining.

  34. I think previous users should get it for free, But that’s only because I’m a cheap skate. Also why is it they are working on 2.0 whilst working on 1.4?

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