GameMaker Studio 2.3.0 -- Huge New Release

GameMaker Studio 2.3.0 just released and it's got a ton of huge new improvements. We take a closer look in this video.

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[emanuelprado]

I've actually began developing games in the old Game Maker 6, red sphere icon and all, so that makes me nostalgic. Unfortunately, today GM is on the expensive side of things.

[erayzesen]

Finally!... I'm a programmer and I switched Gms2 from Cocos2d-x 4 months ago. (Unity long before) Because I'm working on unrelated things except making-focusing games when I choose other engines. Gms2 is good choice if you only want to focus making games, . But the problem is that I didn't really like GML coding workflow until this version. GML isn't bad language(similar C and javascript) but I want to write functions, objects (oop parts), structs, libraries...etc as a programmer. Now everything is fine for me.

[igormoreno]

I've used Game Maker since version 4 up to 8.1 and GMS1, and as far as my experience with GML goes, these functionalities were never needed due to the way it worked: eg. all objects have to be instantiated and have local variables, so it was kinda like a class/struct; functions were always there as scripts (as the changelog says), but now you can have more than one in a single script file.

I have migrated to Unity because of my work and haven't used GMS2 a lot, so my guess is that these features were added to make the engine less arcane to newcomers from other languages and/or better support bigger projects.

[ckkitt]

"i will talk to you all later, go-"
famous last words

[chooby]

As someone who has been using gamemaker for almost a year now, this is a great update. The only negative is that a lot of projects have been really buggy because of all of these changes.

[YOSFP]

I've been waiting for those GML changes since they have been on the roadmap in the beginning of their GMS 2 release. I'll definitely try it out again

[STANNco]

I coded a way to make cutscenes, and just after they added a sequence editor to do it much easier...

[gamefromscratch]

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[ZachHixsonTutorials]

Wow I first started learning programming in GameMaker when I was like 11 or 12 so I didn't know what functions and stuff were. Haven't messed with it since then, but I'm shocked to hear that they didn't have these basic features for all this time.

I'd happily go back to Game Maker if they had a free version again. Learning something as a hobby with a limited time trial is just a no go for me as I'll never get to the point where I know if I want to buy it before the timer runs out. Until then I'll stick with Godot which is a programmers dream 😊

[SidFish]

Been using GameMaker for a few years now. I love the simplicity of the engine and these new updates are really welcome, especially looking forward to playing with sequences. Would love to see added Sprite editor effects, improved particle system and UI editor. Would also be great if they made it a bit more affordable considering the free options going around.

[bytejunkie]

I like the scripting changes, and the sequence editor looks interesting. I've actually been holding off from making anything new, because I'd heard these changes were coming. Looking forward to this weekend when I can sit down with it and try it out.

[yummyfunnybunny]

GMS helped me get into coding as a hobby probably about 6 years ago. I am now studying software full-time. all of these major updates would have bee completely foreign to me had i not started studying JavaScript, so I am happy that the workflow will now be much more similar to a JavaScript workflow.

[KlausWulfenbach]

Three years too late for me to still use it professionally, but I might go back for a hobby project or two when I have the time.

[QatariGameDev]

I liked all the updates, but it's too late now because I am a Godot developer. But on the positive side, I still can manage and update my old GMS2 games.

[hothead]

I have used game maker for almost a year now and this update confused me a little. I do like that you can color coat your assets, keep everything organized. As long as the language is the same, it is right?

[winterboltgames]

GameMaker Studio 2 is one of the best 2D-game engine out there! It beats all the others when it comes to performance and ease-of-use! The only area it's currently lacking in is GUI creation, other than that it's my go-to engine for 2D game jams and quick prototypes. Also, this update (Which I have been trying out since the very first initial beta) is extremely amazing when it comes to the new language features they have added!

[MrMrXimo]

Lately I'm more of a PICO8 guy but it is sad to see so many comments (even the channel owner on the video) mocking a very easy to use engine with quite a lot of users. First rule for every gamedev should be inclusion. Don't feel superior because you use X or Y engine.

Of course GML already had functions, there were called scripts and you could only have one per file. Now you can have multiple functions in one file and created them inline.

Of course it had an asset manager. They just revamped it.

Of course you could create structures. You just needed to combine maps with lists like you would do in javascript. The syntax is a bit messy though.

GameMaker has been around since 1999 so it carries quite a bit of tech debt but it is a perfectly capable engine for 2D games. You can add Steamworks support, Google Play achievements, Ads, etc with a few clicks. It has an impressive platform support in my opinion.

[gerardolegend]

I also haven't been in Gamemaker for a while (2016) but recently i got in with the web module to focus on making html5 accessible games. Now, i forgot how to do this, and i went back to v1.9, but then saw the difference. The interface is what got me a bit jittery on v2 but it's all about patience and time to let it sink. I spent over $400 on the original v1 set and only was able to accomplish to make 4 very small games with it and now i have to spend extra for v2 again kinda sucks. That's why i migrated to unity because i don't think i will be able to make something and profit from it, if only i get so lucky to make it happen like that although gml is easy to get into than other programming languages because of the help manual being so well done and comprehensive with examples. I'm treading carefully this time on investing more into the tool set. They seriously need a free base version like how it was with GM8

[CassieCollision]

I'd absolutely love Game Maker Studio if it weren't so prohibitively expensive. Since I have no business paying $70-100 out of pocket PLUS license fees, I think I'm gonna keep sticking to Godot and Unity.

[paulwhiterabbit]

can you magnify the screen to prevent us from squinting? I usually do it by "win + +" or "win + -"