Following a string of recent GameMaker: Studio discounts and promotions by YoYo Games, competing company Scirra has launched a promotion targeting existing GameMaker users.
For a limited time, GameMaker: Studio owners can purchase Construct 2 for just $89.25 instead of the usual price of $119. Interestingly, Scirra has listed “Proudly 100% DRM Free” as their first feature point, a nod towards the recent GameMaker DRM vandalism controversy.
“Too bad” the campaign was already basically over when this article was posted.
I spoke to Tom Gullen from Scirra and he told me: “It does expire soon but we’re often quite generous if people email us a day or two late.”
@lune lol, this wont work…..
I know, ill just purchase a new program that does less than my current program, and I have no idea how to use, vs just keep my program…
I dont think that a single gm user will be switching…..
no logical reason too.
On the other hand though, I must say that I (personally) found GM:Studio to be an inferior product compared to previous releases of GameMaker. Studio is very buggy. This is likely due to the new features being introduced, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it ought to be fixed nonetheless. The somewhat unprofessional-looking interface didn’t appeal to me very much either. However, I do believe compiling and exporting to a variety of platforms is a step in the right direction. When I used Construct 2, it definitely had a very different, ‘fresh’ feel to it and seemed, as some have people pointed out, like “GameMaker done right.”
“Proudly 100% DRM Free! Our software won’t hit you with nasty surprises.”
Lol, that is definitely directed towards GameMaker.
Anyway, the disadvantage I see of Construct 2 compared to Game Maker is that it only exports to Javascript (though it seems this was an intentional decision) and that it has no integrated scripting engine. While you can use the Javascript SDK to make your own plugins, this can be a more time-consuming process than simply writing a script right into the editor.
I think this is a sign of a good trend for customers in the long run. Competition should encourage both companies to produce higher quality products at lower prices, and a more diverse market will offer a wider variety of options for developers.
I dunno… I kinda like the idea of dropping the code base I’m already familiar with for a software that does, at best, nothing more than GM:S.