YOYO GAMES GLOG — There are quite a few rumors going around about the new YoYo Games website. Little snipplets of information are being released on Twitter every now and then by the YoYo Games, and we've been waiting a while to put all the information together in one news article. Here is the first preview we've gotten of the new website:
The new website is suppose to look darker, sleaker, and appeal to an "older audience", since YoYo Games believes GameMaker is not just a kid's program. They spelled Game Maker with it's new spelling (GameMaker) and the original (Game Maker) on their new design, so whether or not GameMaker will retain the space or not is not clear.
YoYo Games said this site will take a couple of months on a glog post a week ago, but is aiming for the "first round" to be finished by the end of July.
YoYo Games said that their current website "looks like a kid's play site". YoYo Games claims that their site shouldn't be regarded as that, so the new design will be geared towards a more mature audience. They are really trying to make the site look professional and attractive to programmers/game developers who are giving GameMaker a first look.
The new site will be added in parts, that way nothing gets lost (like your uploaded games!) in the process of upgrading. One of the new features a lot of people are sad about is that you will only be able to upload games made in Game Maker 8.0, GameMaker 8.1, and future releases. So, if you're using Game Maker 6, 7, or possibly even 5.3, you won't be able to upload your games to the site anymore!
YoYo Games is also planning on making the Instant Play plugin open source so people can embed it into their own websites. No longer will you have to download games off your website; you'll be able to play it by running it out of your browser!
June 22, 2011 at 2:40 PM
"a lot of people are sad about"
A minority. Why would anyone use Game Maker 7 instead of 8 or 8.1? (exception of Mac)
June 22, 2011 at 4:51 PM
Many people like developing games in 6.1, and some even prefer 5.3. No one really likes 7. :P
July 9, 2011 at 7:00 AM
The website seems very... incomplete? The glog article about the site talked about social networking and better uploading, etc. Right now it seems the only way that the community can do anything is by going into the old website (sandbox) or the gmc forums, which both have nothing to do with the new site.
Also, just the content of the site seems very incomplete. What does gamemaker studio mean? Is it a different version of gamemaker?
All in all, it seems like yoyogames is completely ignoring the community on the new site and trying really hard to look "cool" to... i guess game developers. Seems like they're having a hard time straddling this awkward gap between trying to be a profitable game developer and a community for random Game Maker users. Why not make 2 separate sites: one for the general community, and one for Yoyogames' published games/professionals/whatever else they want to do?
They were upset that the site looks like "kid's play"? I think that GM is kids play in the best way possible. I mean, kids are awesome. Game Maker is great because it lets everyone make games: kids, n00bs, pros, awesome indie game makers, etc. The new site seems to say that GM is only for cool and talented people.
Also, I must say that an obsession with dark, shiny, animated things makes the site seem immature, not mature, in my opinion.
Of course, I'm no expert, and these are just my first impressions. Hopefully it will get more rounded out as content is added, etc