Updated Jan 15th.
A couple of weeks ago we ran an article speculating on the devices which Game Maker games might be able to run on in the future.
Here is a compilation of comments that have since emerged from YoYo Games on some of the possible platforms:
“In 2010 we will begin an aggressive strategy to become the World’s most prolific publisher of Mobile Games, focusing on PSP, iPhone and Android based devices.”
- PlayStation Portable – Under development in Dundee, Scotland. It’s going well.
- iPhone – unlikely [to be able to play the final entries of the competiton on an iphone]. Although it is planned.
- Android – “If we can get it to work on iPhone, then Android will be a quick port …”
- Nintendo DS – “a long way off. Two Screens and low compute power make it a hard job, but we’d love to do it.”
Also on GMB: Will game creators be able to play their Game Maker games on a portable gaming device before the end of the year? Vote in our 2010 Game Maker predictions poll.
I wonder how they are doing it. I mean, is this more of homebrew or actual games?
kk, let me get this straight, to make an iphone game maker you would need to insert iphone sdk into game maker, this would probably not be allowed for apple are just EEEEEEEVVVVIIIILLLL people, though with the possibility of dragonfire sdk coming up it is possible to make a game maker for iphone BUT why would you want to when apple rakes up 70% of your sales, psp on the other hand is much better to develop for because of it’s ever expanding homebrew community.
in other words it isn’t just based on if it’s easier to develop for,it is partially based on the freedom on each platform.
yea guys i know about jailbreaking an iphone, their homebrew is a piece of sh**
If Game Maker would work on PSP, they should try to make it very easy to get it on the PSP. What is Android?
@RIP: Just because the operating system is open source doesn’t mean that you can’t run closed source apps on it. Besides, Android is open source with commercial backing, is that wrong?
@James: Mac OS X and Linux share UNIX heritage. A bit of recoding and a recompile lets you run each other’s applications (as long as there are no Apple propietary libraries involved): which is why the Wine project is available on OS X, being a native Linux app. iPhone OS is based on OS X. Porting IS easy.
Additionally, Android IS the future. Just look at the slew of Android powered devices being launched.
Those twitter links are down.
Sandy has gone on a username changing fest.
Let it begin!!! Can’t wait to see my games being played by everyone with a PSP Lolz;D!
@FredFredrickson @James Rhodes Glad I am not the only one with that line of thought. It always feels strange opening an object and then having to select an action and then double clicking to open the code box.
@James They can’t make it for every platform at once. PSP, iPhone and Android seem to be their priorities (in that order).
Why do they claim “they’d love to do it” when they throw away the help of other developers? It’s so ignorant. Gawd. I am furthering the development of my own semi-popular DS Game Maker after their response. If users now wish to make DS games, they will buy my app, thus giving their money to me (I do not make a 200 thousand buck loss either). Also on the NDS… Stylus is a mouse…. no other console has this (e. Wii). PSP has no touch…).
They forgot to consider Xbox 360 which already has hardware like a PC. Or the high-spec PS3. Or the Nintendo Wii which already has a MOUSE and CLICK FUNCTIONALITY (the Wii-mote, nothing else has this) and support for a KEYBOARD. GAWD!
“Piracy rate for games is way too low on Mac to ignore that market in the end from what I have seen and read from indie devs.”
Yes that is correct. Apple make it easy to develop for the Mac and the user experience is far superior. (And you can charge a small fortunate for Mac apps. Parallels cost me £60). See “ADC”.
“If we can get it to work on iPhone, then Android will be a quick port …”
Just because consoles have the same screen size Sandy, does not mean that portability is easy. Actually I see it highly impossible to quickly port from one platform to another. For a start one is closed source and one is open source. Actually I have decided this is one of the most n00bish quotes I have read today. (though it is early).
“Is there some kind of shortage out there of programmers who can help these guys”
No. I have volunteered my services for the NDS and Wii via the GMC, Sandy’s twitter and by emailing Sandy and “Jim”. They did not reply, so I will not help them port it to NDS and Wii. Ha!
“Any sane indie developer out there will stay away from Android just like they stay away from Linux”
Android is a commercial platform. It is only development that links to Linux (from the consumer’s perspective). Mac runs UNIX so does that mean only nerds can use it. No.
Android is a better platform to pursue because not everything has been done on the app store, the regulations may actually allow n00b games (no way Apple will allow all the crap) and it is the underdog, up and coming platform: More and more handsets and easier development.
Anyways I am finished arguing for now. If anyone wants to go AWESOME!!! LOL!!!1 at what Sandy says then go do it. Otherwise, RIP and I know this is merely PR.
@James Rhodes
@James Rhodes
Most artists I know upgraded to Photoshop CS3 mainly because of GUI improvements. Adobe managed to completely reduce the clutter and free up the space for artists to work without going around dragging and minimizing a thousand open tool windows. The way things are going, I somehow I doubt it that YoYo will even bother working on such changes. It’s like using XP over Windows 7 or Vista. Little changes can make one hell of a difference in the workflow over time (like, not being able to go back to XP ever in this lifetime).
It’s obvious that YoYo wants to really attract the commercial Indie development crowd over the annoying 13 rd old base which goes around creating petitions over a logo (but then again, it was YoYo’s fault this all happened in the first place.. talk about stupid decisions). Else they wouldn’t even bother targetting handheld market. Their priority should still be the Mac port, and hiring more than 2 people ffs.
@NakedPaulToast
Either you are really gullible or.. actually, it’s just sad that after the GM8 you are still going to actually defend YoYo games by posting “their” own excuses.
Considering the fact that these are the same people who hired a bunch of 13 year olds to do a logo for their app, I think posting inane excuses like “investigating iPhone development” isn’t going to prove anything.
“You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
Look, I don’t exactly intend to go argue with every GM loving kid like you who have no idea about the market himself, but might wanna keep in mind that most of us do indeed develop commercial games for 3rd parties and are actually more aware of which platform sells and which attracts flies more than some kid who enjoys getting featured on comically bad GM podcasts (unless it was someone else.. hmm).
Either way, only the PNG support and speed improvements are the most useful updates in GM8. It’s actually sad how the app, the reason why we are all here and why blogs like these exist, is nowhere near the level of a freeware app like Construct in major areas. GM8 was nothing but a minor update, which they packaged and sold as a new major release (hell, I would to if my company was busy blowing money on stupid competitions instead of hiring more than ONE PERSON to do a important port job). But then again, I am sure Sandy knows that he can post any excuse and fanboys will not only fail to see what is actually going on, but go around posting same excuses world over to prove some point.
“Virtually all the players have seen the success of Apple’s appstore and are scrambling to implement a similar business model.”
Like who? While they are trying to copy Apple, Apple and featured game developers are busy raking in more moolah than ever in a established market of millions of customers. Google stores will never even come close to emulating this success, nor will any other party actually. Also, might wanna learn more about the mentality of “open source community” before commenting on a OS while I was referring to the whole mindset behind such platform.
@James Rhodes
Maybe they’ll finally let us condense it down to actions & GML, so you don’t have to add a GML code box from the library every time you want to code something? That’d be a reasonable and welcome GUI reduction, wouldn’t it?
“They first abandon the Mac build”
No they didn’t. They contracted a developer, the developer made considerable progress, but didn’t complete it. He then informed YYGs that he couldn’t fulfill his contractual obligations. YYGs informed the community that it is delayed and started looking for an alternative developer.
This is not “abandoning”.
“They then proceed to ignore iPhone”
No they didn’t. Sandy has reported numerous times that he has been investigating iPhone development, including meeting with Apple. One can also not conclude that because there hasn’t been much progress, or any announced progress as being ignoring.
“If we can get it to work on iPhone, then Android will be a quick port …”
How can you claim they are ignoring the iPhone and then quote one of their statements regarding iPhone development.
Pay attention to the the Mobile market. Virtually all the players have seen the success of Apple’s appstore and are scrambling to implement a similar business model. Blackberry has their appworld, Google has announced their app store, Motorola has announced an Android app store, HTC has created their Hero (android) app store. An open os on a phone can simply not be compared to Linux. Most phone consumers simply are not aware of the underlying OS and don’t care. Sales of android based phones suggests you’re full of shit.
You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
@FredFredrickson:
That is true – I would also like to see a GML mode. However, the post I was replying to clearly indicated that he thought that Adobe-style GUI is what GM needed, when it really doesn’t.
And what exactly is wrong with the IDE? It’s *already* as simple as you can make it without severely affecting easy-of-use.
The IDE works fine, isn’t cluttered and doesn’t have any of that lets-make-our-own-GUI bullshit some software companies seem to think is a good idea.
@RIP
Do you have the money? I didn’t think so.
So lemme get this straight.
a) They first abandon the Mac build, which tbh, would have still been an asinine way to do it if you couldn’t have created Mac builds from Windows and vice-versa. Mac version would have REALLY helped promote GM among commercial developers (who are already using it but are forced to look other way to support Mac). Piracy rate for games is way too low on Mac to ignore that market in the end from what I have seen and read from indie devs.
b) They then proceed to ignore iPhone, the hottest money maker out there and go for PSP, which even AAA developers are abandoning because of massive amount of piracy going on.iPhone version, which would have launched, god knows how many, indie games lying dead on YoYo site into the hands of millions out there, is a no go.
c) “If we can get it to work on iPhone, then Android will be a quick port …”
IF we can? Is there some kind of shortage out there of programmers who can help these guys with Mac and iPhone version? Also, who the fuck in gods green earth wants to support an open source platform like Android with commercial games? Any sane indie developer out there will stay away from Android just like they stay away from Linux to release commercial apps. It’s just not worth it.
Makes you wonder. What exactly were these people working on all this time? There is hardly any communication between software devs and customers on the progress, features are randomly picked and canceled because of one reason or another. Instead of spending time and money on their stupid site and plugins like Instant Play while throwing cash for useless competitions, they should start working on a proper GM update (not a bug fix that GM8 was) with Mac and iPhone support and a HUGE update involving GUI changes (someone send them a link to the trial version of Photoshop to see how GUI can be minimized).
A reason to buy an PSP! Yeah!
-Elmernite
PSP Game Maker would be great for the game I’m making at the moment, I hope it will be compatible with GM7 files.
@WadeMcGillis
How?
OMG! I’m famous! kinda 😀
Yes, yes, yes. iPhone definitely 😀
I also really hope GM games will work on portables soon; that’d be awesome.