Does Game Maker Studio Have to Use Pixel Art

For developers merely starting in the industry, the chore of choosing the all-time game engine can be daunting. Hither, nosotros'll endeavor to address many of the issues concerning one of the most pop game engines, GameMaker, so you can see if it's the right game engine for your project.

Y'all can read our other in-depth guides on all the major game engines on this page.

If y'all're a games journalist secretly dreaming of being a developer, chances are yous've given GameMaker a try.

Above all, GameMaker is an engine for novices -- the artists, the writers, the non-programmers, the people with ideas who take never written a single line of lawmaking and wouldn't know where to starting time. But GameMaker is too much more than that. Information technology's the high-terminate 2D engine, the top-down activity games engine, the puzzle-platformers engine, the pixel fine art engine.

Vadim Dyachenko has built a career from working with GameMaker. Later on gaining renown for online multiplayer mods, he was recruited to work on Nuclear Throne, Forager, Nidhogg 1 and 2, Rival of Aether and Caveblazers, among others -- all of which were created with GameMaker.

"The engine is peradventure the most known for a wide variety of pixel art games fabricated with it," he says. "But the past years have seen an increment of higher-fidelity games like Swords of Ditto, Levelhead, Synthetik, or Nidhogg 2."

GameMaker was created by YoYo Games 20 years ago, with an underlying goal to "streamline the development process" using a drag-and-drop visual scripting tool. The engine is currently bachelor under its latest iteration, GameMaker Studio two (GMS2), which was released in March 2017. More than i,000 users annals to use the engine every unmarried day.

GameMaker supports a dozen platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu, Android, iOS, tvOS, Burn, Microsoft UWP, and HTML5.

Onebitbeyond's The Swords of Ditto

In Baronial 2021, YoYo Games streamlined its license options for GameMaker, switching from permanent licenses to a subscription model. Instead of its one-time Creator, Developer, Panel, and Ultimate licenses, the engine now offers two new options.

The Indie license, at $9.99 monthly (or $99.99 yearly), gives access to all not-console platforms in ane bundle. Information technology replaces the engine's Developer license, which was divided by platform (desktop, mobile, web, UWP). Each were permanent licenses and priced individually from $99 to $199.

The second selection is the Enterprise license, priced at $79.99 monthly, or $799.99 yearly. It gives access to all platforms. GameMaker previously had a console-only license for that same price, also as an Ultimate license with all platforms included for $i,500/year. Both have now been retired.

Information technology'southward worth noting that there's also an Education version of GameMaker, aimed at teachers who desire to innovate their students to the engine, with diverse platform options. Prices start at $10 a month, per seat, with a minimum purchase of five seats. You can find more details about GameMaker for Education on this page.

• What are the advantages of GameMaker?
• What are the disadvantages of GameMaker?
• Advice for new GameMaker users

What are the advantages of GameMaker?

• GameMaker is the best engine for 2D games

GameMaker's primary force lies in making 2nd games, every bit highlighted by Butterscotch Shenanigans CEO and co-founder Seth Coster. The co-creator of Crashlands and Levelhead, Coster went from no programming knowledge to total-time programmer inside 2 years, all using GameMaker.

"GameMaker is the all-time tool around for making 2D games of whatever kind"

Seth Coster, Butterscotch Shenanigans

"GameMaker is the best tool effectually for making 2D games of whatever kind -- that's what information technology was built for," he says.

Teddy Diefenbach, aka Teddy Dief, co-designer and developer of Heart Motorcar'due south Hyper Calorie-free Drifter, agrees that GameMaker shines in "straightforward second game making," while also praising its "direct control of how sprites are rendered."

• GameMaker can handle all genres and styles

GameMaker is at its best when building sprite-based 2nd games, just according to Benjamin Rivers, the creator of Habitation, Alone with You and Worse than Expiry, it tin be practical to a multifariousness of genres.

"In our feel, its toolset allows yous to make just about whatsoever game you tin imagine, whether big or small," he says. "Tutorials and videos often focus on games that use pixel fine art, just GMS2 can handle high-res, varied art styles also. In two dimensions, I tin can't think of a single genre it couldn't handle."

Benjamin Rivers' Worse than Death

Julian 'Juju' Adams, programmer on Hyper Light Drifter and Swords Of Ditto, cut his teeth on various genres in GameMaker and confirms its versatility.

"GameMaker as a tool has few hard limits: I've made 3D games, I've made roguelikes, I've made metroidvanias, I've fabricated competitive multiplayer brawlers," he says. "I brand the kind of games that'd brand 14-year-erstwhile me proud. GameMaker makes the worlds I dreamt of exploring every bit a child."

• GameMaker is (very) fast

GameMaker is the go-to engine for beginners for myriad reasons, merely its speed at the top of the list. You tin have a simple game running in record time, while also iterating and prototyping with ease.

"The workflow of GameMaker is incredibly fast," Coster says. "If you desire to return a sprite to the screen, information technology's a unmarried line of code. If you want to add a font, it's a two-pace procedure. If you want to play a sound, it's a single line of code. When you switch to other engines, you will generally observe that everything y'all do takes some series of steps to go that idea going, while GameMaker does well-nigh things you desire it to do with hardly whatsoever attempt."

• GameMaker is simple

GameMaker is also a simple engine to acquire, using a plug-and-play system for making games with almost no programming.

"GameMaker removes a lot of the overhead from setting up a projection"

Benjamin Rivers

"GameMaker removes a lot of the overhead from setting up a project," Rivers says. "With more general-purpose 3D engines, yous have to shoehorn a lot of forepart-stop work to prepare the in-engine tools you need to starting time creating the blazon of game you want, sometimes choosing entire tool-prepare modes.

"GMS2's 2D toolset, however, handily takes care of the nigh mutual aspects you'll have to deal with -- objects, sprites, sounds, and then on -- which means that in nearly cases, yous're not building tools to build more tools. Y'all'll probably take the majority of what you lot need correct in front of you, and considering it'south not juggling both 2D and 3D tasks, information technology's lighter-weight with less bloat and a more than focused interface."

• GameMaker has its ain, easy to learn linguistic communication

Even if you want to become beyond the drag-and-driblet tool, GameMaker uses its ain language, and so you yet don't need programming knowledge to leap in.

"GameMaker Language (GML) is the code linguistic communication used past the engine," Dief explains. "It's non every bit robust or object-oriented equally common languages like C# or C++, so you volition sometimes striking ceilings as your project gets more circuitous. Only spend enough time with GML and you'll as well love it. It has weird quirks and shortcuts you won't get elsewhere.

"C# is more robust, but also 'heavier'. GML is Wild West code. It's fast results code. Information technology's beautiful and wild and sometimes frightening."

Jon Peterson'southward Retro Palette Swapper

GML is simple to larn, for both beginners and programmers. Jon Peterson has been using GameMaker for over a decade, making his proper noun past creating tools and guides for the engine -- including Retro Palette Swapper, a organisation for drawing sprites, surfaces and backgrounds.

"GML is a very forgiving language with few types and fewer syntax requirements," he says. "No need for ; at the end of each line, you tin can write an 'if' check without parentheses, and new variables can be defined at pretty much any fourth dimension."

• GameMaker makes exporting to multiple platforms simple

Some other way GameMaker simplifies developers' lives is past making it easy to port your game from one platform to another -- provided you have the right publishing licence, of course.

"GML is Wild W code. It'southward fast results code. It's beautiful and wild and sometimes frightening"

Teddy Dief

"It really is merely choose the platform and press the 'export' button once you lot're ready to become," Rivers explains. "We shipped our most recent game, Worse Than Death, on five different platforms from ane project file. That's a huge win for a small studio, particularly, that wants to launch and manage its titles for multiple audiences."

• GameMaker's file sizes are well optimised

GameMaker'southward simplicity and flexibility is evident in the size of its files, which remain lightweight fifty-fifty when there'southward a lot going on.

"Games made in GameMaker tend to be pretty well optimised in terms of file sizes, RAM usage, and full general overhead, and then you can brand some pretty elaborate stuff," Coster says. "Forager and Levelhead, for example, often have thousands of instances running at once, and GameMaker handles it just fine.

"Levelhead has dozens of songs in its soundtrack, hundreds of sounds, thousands of sprites, and around ninety,000 lines of code. All that comes out to a file size around 250mb, and the game uses effectually 350 mb of RAM. For how much content that is, that's tiny."

Centre Machine'due south Hyper Lite Drifter

• GameMaker is skillful at debugging

Debugging is a crucial part of development for any creator, and it is an overlooked strength of the GameMaker engine.

"The debugger is fantabulous and doesn't get praised enough," Adams says. "Information technology stands caput and shoulders above any other engine that I've used."

• GameMaker makes information technology piece of cake to build in-game tools

According to Teddy Dief, Middle Auto didn't utilize GameMaker's drag-and-drop system for Hyper Light Drifter, writing custom mechanics for the hit game instead. Dief says that GameMaker immune the studio to create the tools to practise this very easily.

"The simplicity of its rendering systems allow u.s. build our ain tools inside our game more hands than I've found with whatever other engine," he adds.

What are the disadvantages of GameMaker?

• GameMaker isn't gratuitous

1 of GameMaker's greatest paradoxes is that, while it'southward meant to help beginners get something off the ground speedily, in that location is no complimentary version. Unity, for instance, allows individuals to create commercial games for free, with a cap on revenue. That's non the case with GameMaker.

"Hobbyist and educational sector users volition bespeak out that GameMaker costs money"

Vadim Dyachenko

"Perceived disadvantages of GameMaker depend on who you lot ask, but hobbyist and educational sector users volition point out that information technology costs coin," Dyachenko says. "The toll of game development tools has decreased a lot over the years, merely it'southward no help if you don't accept much spare funds to begin with.

"GameMaker tries to accommodate this past offering a calendar month-long trial version -- which is enough to brand a small/average-sized game and decide if you lot like it or not. But non everyone has enough time to dedicate [a calendar month to it] either."

• GameMaker is not made for 3D

While some developers praise GameMaker's versatility, others indicate out that YoYo Games' engine lags backside when it comes to 3D. Dief confirms GameMaker is "much stronger in 2nd than 3D," while Peterson adds that it "lacks adept support" for 3D projects.

Peterson continues: "3D is possible, but the tools to make working with 3D assets (models, textures, animations, and so on) are non-existent, and considering GMS2'due south UI isn't mod-able, nobody can build tools to plug in to make 3D projects more than manageable."

Butterscotch Shenanigans' Levelhead

• GameMaker's linguistic communication tin can atomic number 82 to bad habits

GML is a double-edged sword: its simplicity is why developers are drawn to GameMaker, just that same simplicity can lead to many challenges down the line. Co-ordinate to Teddy Dief, GML is "both an advantage and disadvantage," particularly when dealing with larger projects.

Peterson points out that "because GML is so forgiving, information technology can lead to some bad habits that could hamper the developer if/when they motion to a different language."

Adams adds: "Information technology is difficult to maintain a clean namespace in GameMaker. This acts as a hard limit to the complexity and scale of games, and it makes implementing libraries and extensions clumsy. It'south hard to write reusable code."

• GameMaker makes recruitment more than challenging

While it has advantages, GameMaker's language can crusade recruitment issues. According to Rivers, information technology tin be "harder to convince seasoned developers who adopt C# or similar languages to jump on board. If they know C#, they desire to work in it."

"Information technology is difficult to maintain a clean namespace in GameMaker"

Julian Adams

A lot of developers tend to abandon GameMaker later on a time to work with other engines, which makes finding experienced recruits relatively difficult.

Dief says: "If y'all're planning to run a large team and rent a bunch of developers experienced in your engine, GameMaker is harder than the megalopolis engines Unity and Unreal these days."

• GameMaker'due south ecosystem is small

Another issue stemming from GameMaker'due south status as an engine for beginners is its limited nugget store -- peculiarly when compares to Unity or Unreal Engine 4.

"GameMaker'southward nugget ecosystem is smaller than that of Unity," Dyachenko says. "Websites and services don't offer ready-to-utilize extensions for GM as ofttimes. Near C++ SDKs tin can exist wrapped for use with GM easily enough, but that'southward still extra work."

HopFrog's Forager

• GameMaker doesn't back up automatic deployments

While GameMaker makes exporting a game to different platforms uncomplicated, it doesn't automatically package and deploy patches to all platforms at once. According to Butterscotch Shennanigans' Coster, this is "GameMaker's biggest problem right now."

"The games market place is incredibly fragmented nowadays, and if you are an contained studio without an sectional locked down, your all-time artery for making a living is to put your game on as many platforms as possible," he says. "To do that, you demand to exist able to automate your deployments, then you lot can create builds and send patches to all of your supported platforms at once.

"We've built our own automatic deployment pipeline for GameMaker, just it took a lot of hacky workarounds to become it going, and nearly teams aren't going to have the time or resources to brand that happen."

• GameMaker needs more than features

Overall, almost of GameMaker'southward weaknesses steam from its smaller ecosystem. YoYo Games merely doesn't take the resource of Epic Games or Unity Technologies, and that shows in the engine's capabilities.

"Advanced and intermediate users generally desire more than features from the scripting language," Dyachenko says. "People with complex nugget pipelines want tools for extending the built-in editors, which is a very valid bespeak, but likewise a huge time investment to implement correctly."

"Advanced users generally desire more features from GameMaker's scripting language"

Vadim Dyachenko

Adams has concerns about GameMaker'southward visual scripting system: "It's a shadow of the powerful tools available in Unreal, and a comparison between the ii is not favourable to GameMaker... I don't take any bright ideas hither, but GameMaker is lagging behind."

GameMaker also lacks support in some primal languages. Downwell developer Ojiro Fumoto says he wishes GMS2 "was localised to Japanese and so [he] could recommend it more to the developers hither."

Advice for new GameMaker users

• Give information technology a endeavor, and test its capabilities in fundamental areas

The best way to empathise whatever engine is to offset using it, but with GameMaker it is specially important to examination information technology against the needs of the project you want to build.

"GameMaker has an official 'Learn' page with a number of tutorial serial," Dyachenko says. "Participate in a couple of game jams -- one- to two-day jams are the all-time, as these offering an opportunity to test a tool in 'real conditions', and not risk much if you make mistakes."

Ojiro 'Moppin' Fumoto'southward Downwell

Rivers adds: "Become your easily on information technology and test it for your key pillars -- performance, networking, co-op, 2D workflow, whatsoever they are -- just don't presume it can't do something. The sheer variety of amazing and creative projects released with it accept disproved that fourth dimension and time once again.

"Know what kind of game you lot want to brand, and where you want to release it, earlier determining if GMS2 is the correct engine for you. Non everyone will click with GMS2'due south programming language or its full general flow, peculiarly if they're coming from another engine."

• Skip drag-and-drop and get-go learning GML

GameMaker'due south drag-and-drop feature is a strength when it comes to novice users, only if your intention is to get a professional game developer, you'll have to go further.

"Elevate-and-drib is a cool feature, simply really only recommended for those with literally naught programming experience," Peterson says. "I recommend jumping into GML as presently as possible.

"Too, don't copy and paste the code from tutorials. Write the code out yourself and rename all the functions and variables. Information technology's a much better way to learn and brand the code your own."

• Lean on GameMaker's community -- they're happy to help

GameMaker has a very potent community of hobbyists and professionals who will willingly help you. According to Adams, the engine'south community is "unlike whatever other."

"The distance between experienced professional developers and newbies is pocket-sized," he says. "Good technique doesn't have far to travel, and when a new technique is invented it rapidly gets into the hands of the next generation. Nosotros're all constantly improving our understanding of game development, and that self-comeback is embedded deep in GameMaker's DNA."

Dyachenko lists a few community-driven places you should take a look at in case of any issues: "There are official forums that are well moderated and serve for mid/long-term discussion. There's a big, seven,000 members Discord server and the associated GitHub organisation, which is peradventure the best identify to go if you accept small but numerous questions."

According to Adams, that sense of community is particularly potent with GameMaker, which has "been the underdog for its unabridged history." While existence pocket-sized has some disadvantages, it has a atypical advantage that its competitors cannot emulate.

"We push boundaries and discover things for ourselves, making honest and cute things as nosotros go," he explains. "A game engine is certainly a tool, merely it'due south likewise a civilization, and I stay for that civilisation. In a earth where applied science is accelerating and products are converging and intertwining, it is the customs spirit that makes GameMaker different. It's why I've stuck around."

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Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-01-16-what-is-the-best-game-engine-is-gamemaker-the-right-game-engine-for-you

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