by BRIAN FETCHER
GAZETTE — Softwrap (popularly known as SoftCrap among a vast number of GM users in the Game Maker Community) handles registration upgrades (GM Lite to GM Pro). Softwrap was to distribute GameMaker without fear of piracy (as they do with many other products). Sandy Duncan just received the following letter from Softwrap, which he says "will make some long term GameMaker devs smile quite a bit". Softwrap service termination date has been announced for: September 1st, 2013.
by BRIAN FETCHER
GAZETTE — 1 year ago YoYo Games developed an amazing product. A product that would revolutionize game development for mobile platforms. That product is GameMaker Studio, and it just turned 1 years old today! Help YoYo Games celebrate by retweeting and telling YoYo Games what you love about GameMaker Studio.
"We've even got a few bday presents to give away!" -- YoYoGames, Ltd.
Happy Birthday!
by BRET HUDSON
YOYO GAMES — The official, non-beta version of the Windows 8 native export was released on May 16th, 2013. The export is now available to all users with FREE, STANDARD, PROFESSIONAL, and MASTER collections. The export allows for easy deployment of GameMaker: Studio games onto the Windows store. Along with the release, YoYo Games is hosting the "WIN BIG Competition", which allows users to submit their games to the Windows Store to win part of the $35,000 in prizes. Check out http://www.yoyogames.com/promotions/win_big for more information. Also:
YoYo Games is also offering GameMaker 7, 8, and 8.1 customers to upgrade to GameMaker: Studio PROFESSIONAL for only $50! This is a unique opportunity so upgrade now before it is too late.
by BRIAN FETCHER
GMGAZETTE — YoYo Games announced that Game Maker Studio will be supporting the Tizen platform. You'll be able to export your games as a Tizen Store-ready application at the click of a button! YoYo Games says the launch will be later this year. Tizen beta will be available May 22-24 at a Conference in San Francisco, where YoYo Games will be demonstrating.
You can read the original article by YoYo Games: Click Here
What is Tizen? It's an operating system for mobile devices: Smartphones, Tablets, and even Smart TVs!
“We strongly believe that Tizen will be a significant platform for mobile and other devices and we're keen to show our early commitment to the platform,” said Sandy Duncan, chief executive officer at YoYo Games.
Tizen is open-source and is linux based! It's a solid platform.
by BRIAN FETCHER
GMGAZETTE — YoYo Games has uploaded the manual for Game Maker Studio online. Why are they doing this? The reason behind this was to make it both easier on the developers of the Manual and easier on the users. Hosting it online allows them to edit the manual and provide instant updates without waiting for an update download within the program itself. Game Maker Studio is still an evolving model, so additions/modifications will happen often. When they do, they will be automatically updated and uploaded. Users can access this online without having to download updates to upgrade their version of Game Maker Studio. So there's no worry if you're not using an up-to-date client.
URL: http://docs.yoyogames.com/
by BRET HUDSON
YOYO GAMES — The Steam Software Store launched recently, adding GameMaker: Studio as one of its first programs available for download. The Steam version of GameMaker: Studio is the same as the version you can get via YoYo Games, however, you are able to save your work to your Steam Cloud storage space as well as be a part of the "Steam Workshop". The Steam Workshop is an online game portal designed for user-created games using the program. "GameMaker: Studio takes advantage of Steamworks features like easy installation, automatic updating and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so files can travel with you." To read more on what Valve's Mark Richardson and YoYo Games' Sandy Duncan had to say about this, check out the YoYo Games News article. To purchase the program, either search for it via the Steam program or check it out on theSteam website.
by MATT CHELEN
YOYO GAMES — Along with the announcement of the Windows 8 export module, YoYo Games announced that through the rest of the 2012 calendar year, they are giving Game Maker 8.1 users a shocking fifty percent discount on Game Maker Studio's Standard and Professional editions, marking them down to $25 and $50, respectively.
by MATT CHELEN
YOYO GAMES — YoYo Games has just recently announced that everyone who currently owns Game Maker Studio Standard or Professional editions has access to a new export module made for Windows 8 Metro applications.
The new export will require users to download and install both Microsoft's .Net Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio to build for it.
by BRET HUDSON
GAME MAKER COMMUNITY — Schreib just uploaded a new version of the Game Maker Obfuscator that supports GameMaker 8.1. The new version not only has been upgraded to support the latest version of GameMaker, but also obfuscates your sprites!
For more details and download links, please visit the GMC topic. The topic explains what the obfuscator is, how it works, how to run it, etc.
by BRET HUDSON
YOYO GAMES NEWS — We've been REALLY bad with news over here at indie(News); lately, and we wanted to apologize for that. We're going to catch up with all of it in this post, since most of it has been HTML5 news. That's perfect, though, you can get it all in one source right now.
The latest news is probably the most exciting, so we'll inform you of that first. The GameMaker HTML5 Beta might be released early September. If you'd like to be a part of this beta, you can request an invite at http://yoyogames.com/gamemaker/html5/beta.
YoYo Games released the first preview of what GameMaker HTML5 can do with their animated scroller on the new YoYo Games site. Now, they've released a video showing an actual game made in GM HTML5. Their game, GraveDigger, can be seen in the video below.
YoYo Games announced that we might see a GM HTML5 beta as soon as September! However, Mark Overmars released on Twitter that the IDE will only be available on Windows. That's depressing news for Mac users.
YYG is going to the GDC (Game Developer's Conference)! There, they will be showing off the new GM HTML5.
YOYO GAMES GLOG — YoYo Games has recently released the awaited GameMaker 8.1.77. This version contains updates that allow you to use stronger 3D functions in GameMaker at faster speeds. The improvements are rather amazing, and many more people will be likely taking up programming in 3D within the program.
Surfaces are being fixed, you can now use them without having to use any external DLL's! A demo of the new 3D features can be found here.
by BRET HUDSON
YOYO GAMES GLOG — YoYo Games just announced the newest version of the GameMaker software, GameMaker Studio. GameMaker Studio, working title, is going to be an upcoming update to the software. GameMaker Studio will allow you to create games for Mac, iOS, Android, PSP and HTML5 formats, independent of YoYo Games.
No date or price is yet confirmed for this version.
YOYO GAMES GLOG — YoYo Games released the first update of GameMaker 8.1 today, which is GameMaker 8.1.69. It mainly consists of bug fixes, but also contains some new features.
New features include;
- The new parameter checking system is now able to be turned off.
- Anti-Alias settings in the FONT dialog can now be controlled
- New folder links were added so you can find your tutorials, libs, and extensions in Windows Explorer
A full list of added features, fixed bugs, and addressed issues can be found here
YOYO GAMES — The moment everyone has been waiting for: GAMEMAKER* 8.1! We're going to make this simple, so here are the download links:
Want the lite edition?
Lite Edition - $0.00
Want the standard** edition?
Standard** Edition - $25.00
*Game Maker has been renamed (sadly) to GameMaker
**Standard is the new name for the Pro edition.
ATTENTION GAME MAKER 8.0 PRO USERS: You can upgrade to GameMaker 8.1 Standard FOR FREE! You can upgrade your version of Game Maker for free until June 1st, 2011. After that, it's not available. Also, the price will go up from $25.00 to $39.99 the same day. So all you lite users better upgrade soon to save $14.99! The upgrading process can be found here: YoYo Games Glog.
Have fun making games with all the new features of GAMEMAKER 8.1!
by BRET HUDSON
YOYO GAMES GLOG — A week ago (that's 7 days ;) ) YoYo Games announced the upcoming Game Maker 8.1. Currently, there is no release date, but a free upgrade will be available from GM 8.0 Pro to GM 8.1 Standard* until June 1st, 2011, which means that GM 8.1 will be released in either April or May.
*GM Pro has been renamed to GM Standard. GM Lite will retain it's name.
Pricing
Game Maker 8.1 marks the second time in GM's history that it will have a price increase. This time, however, it will not increase a mere $5, it's going to jump up $15. That would be a total of $39.99 for this product. You may think this is quite a bit of money, but, when you compare it to other professional products like Adobe CS5, it's VERY cheap. The reason why the price is going up is due to the addition of staff members at YoYo Games.
If you own Game Maker 8.0 Pro, you can upgrade for FREE to Game Maker 8.1 Standard (the new name for Pro). If you upgraded from Game Maker 7.0 Pro to Game Maker 8.0 Pro for free, you can upgrade a second time and save even more money!
Store Publishing
YoYo Games will be soon releasing their YoYo Game Store, which allows you to upload games and earn money by players purchasing your games. However, in order to do this, you MUST own Game Maker 8.1 Standard. You gotta remember, it costs money to make money, but usually the money made is greater than the money spent!
Features
Direct from YoYo Games Glog:
Closing Game Maker 8.1 Lite and Standard will be coming out soon, so be prepared! The YoYo Games team has worked hard in 2010 and so far in 2011 on making this a reality, and it's almost here! Put your hands up for the crew over at YoYo Games! We really appreciate your hard work so we can use this program, and we hope GM 8.1 is as successful as ever!
- No more Softwrap!
- Changed room editor RIGHT mouse click priorities. Menu for normal, CTRL+RMB for delete
- You can now RIGHT CLICK an object and EDIT it from within the Room Editor
- You can now use the mouse wheel to ZOOM in/out in the Room editor.
- Middle mouse button PANS around the room
- A customisable background grid has been applied to the room editor.
- The Image Editor has been updated to use the mouse wheel and middle button for better zooming and panning.
- You can now PAN around inside the PATH editor using the middle mouse button.
- You can now change the default background colour for rooms (when no ROOM background has been set)
- You can now disable background room filling, so you can see the background GRID when no ROOM colour has been set
- A new and improved NEWS system, bringing together news and tech tips from across the community.
- New, more secure .EXE encryption.
- New GML commands such as draw_self() and d3d_light_define_ambient.
- Some custom YoYo extensions brought into the fold, such as os_type and os_device to aid multiplatform coding.
- Better 2D and 3D support with a 24bit ZBuffer and faster rendering.
- Improved code editor features include:
- Faster rendering
- Block TAB’ing
- Better accented character support
- Easier to use Code Completion support
- Customisable background colours.
THE LIFE OF A GAMES PROGRAMMER- BLOG BY MIKE DAILLY — Mike Dailly talks of his experience in 2010 with joining YoYo Games, working on Game Maker, and making some good friends at his job at YYG. He talks about his experience with YoYo Games over the last year, struggles with Game Maker and the ports, working with Jesse and Andrew, and other things here and there, but in this post, we will be focusing on what we've been waiting for: Game Maker 8.1 news updates!
First thing right off the bat is the fact he's working on the much asked for Zoom Feature in the room editor! He agrees with us the room editor needs this feature. He says he plans on "improving Mark's already damn fine program". He also mentions hows it's great that it's finally getting added in.
Now this had made the room editor need a speed boost. He's going to be modifying the drawing code for the editor. It's not currently hardware accelerated, so he says it's doing good for that fact! He's going to change it so it is, but for now, he's going to finish other things and get GM 8.1 out. After that, he's going to fix it all up!
Mike will also be working on a ton of bug fixes. He'll make sure most of the small ones are fixed and some bigger ones will be corrected. He's excited to expand and improve Game Maker!
Mike says:
So finally... looking forward to 2011. What does it hold for us? Onwards and upwards I hope!!! We're building some real momentum here, and it's looking better and better for all things Game Maker and YoYo! We have big plans for both community games, and Game Maker itself, and I am literary tingling with anticipation! I'm a games coder at heart, and the thought of helping you make more great games is a real buzz.
So lets all hope for a good 2011, and we'll see you all on the flip side!!
YOYO GAMES GLOG — Out of the blue, on December 17th, YoYo Games submitted a blog post on the YYG Glog about the Game Maker Android runner! So far, they have GM Solitaire and Teka Teki. What an exciting surprise right before Christmas! Now, to show us they're not all talk, they included a video to the post. The video can be seen below (in case your blind).
Mike Dailly -
Speaking of getting games… we have now started to contact a (very) few authors to try and get our publishing pipeline working smoothly, so if you’re lucky enough to be contacted by our shiny new Executive Producer Stuart, don’t worry! It’s not a scam! ... There were also several questions about runner performance and what we’re planning on doing about it, you can read a somewhat extended post on my blog site ... I will be doing another one about the current state of the runner and what the move from Delphi gives us in the near future.
YOYO GAMES GLOG — Sorry this article is so short, but there's not really much to say here. Game Maker 7 for Mac now has a "Lite" version*. Originally, you could download a trial, but after 10 hours, you were required to upgrade.
If you would like to download the new "Lite" version of Game Maker 7 for Mac, or would like to try it out, please follow this link: YoYo Games Store.
*Minimum Spec:
Intel Mac, running Mac OS Leopard v10.5 or Snow Leopard v10.6.
JESSE VENBRUX | BLOG — The legendary Game Maker user Jesse Venbrux (better known as 2Dcube), creator of the Karoshi series and the Competition 05 winner, They Need To Be Fed, has been contacted by YoYo Games to work for them. According to his blog, he will be working with them for a few weeks to make some games for the new PSP and iPhone runners.
Jesse Says:
YoYoGames is currently working on porting the Game Maker runner to other platforms such as PSP and iPhone (iOS), with the goal to become a publisher for Game Maker made games. I will be starting next week and get the opportunity to test new concepts straight onto these platforms. I’ve always wanted to test ideas for different kinds of input methods.
How exciting! It's his first trip to the U.K., so wish him luck!
Article written by GAME MAKER GAZETTE
FEEDBACK - What do you think? Post a comment and let us know!
YOYO GAMES GLOG — YoYo Games has really been going hard core on this project, hopefully they will keep it updated better than they have with their PSP Runner. Anyway, earlier today YYG released a new video of mMm (madnessMADNESSmadness by NAL), running on the iPad.
Mike Dailly -
Speaking of getting games… we have now started to contact a (very) few authors to try and get our publishing pipeline working smoothly, so if you’re lucky enough to be contacted by our shiny new Executive Producer Stuart, don’t worry! It’s not a scam! ... There were also several questions about runner performance and what we’re planning on doing about it, you can read a somewhat extended post on my blog site ... I will be doing another one about the current state of the runner and what the move from Delphi gives us in the near future.
