Original author(s) Written in Delphi | Developer(s) YoYo Games | |
Initial release 15 November 1999; 17 years ago (1999-11-15) Stable release v1.4.1760 / 30 August 2016; 6 months ago (2016-08-30) Preview release v1.99.505 Early Access / 25 August 2016; 6 months ago (2016-08-25) | ||
GameMaker: Studio (originally named Animo and later Game Maker) is a proprietary game creation system created by Mark Overmars in the Delphi programming language.
Contents
GameMaker accommodates the creation of cross-platform and multi-genre video games using drag and drop action sequences or a sandboxed scripting language known as Game Maker Language, which can be used to develop more advanced games that could not be created just by using the drag and drop features. GameMaker was designed to allow novice computer programmers to be able to make computer games without much programming knowledge by use of these actions.
Overview
Originally titled Animo, the program was first released in 1999, and began as a program for creating 2D animations. The name was later changed to GameMaker, lacking a space to avoid intellectual property conflicts with the 1991 software Game-Maker. GameMaker primarily runs games that use 2D graphics, allowing the use of limited 3D graphics.
GameMaker is designed to allow its users to easily develop video games without having to learn a complex programming language such as C++ or Java through its proprietary drag and drop system. These icons represent actions that would occur in a game, such as movement, basic drawing, and simple control structures. It is also possible to create custom "action libraries" using the Library Maker. Game Maker Language (GML) is the primary interpreted scripting language used in GameMaker, which is usually significantly slower than compiled languages such as C++ or Delphi. It is used to further enhance and control the design of a game through more conventional programming, as opposed to the drag and drop system.
GameMaker accommodates redistribution on multiple platforms. The program builds for these platforms: Windows, Windows 8, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, HTML5, Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8, Tizen, Xbox One, and Playstation. However, a Windows desktop computer with system requirements equal to that of the game produced is required in order to develop the games along with a broadband internet connection.
Reverse engineering
Several versions of the software made reverse engineering easy by packing resource data to the end of the executable with no encryption or internal obfuscation. A decompiler was released specifically for decompiling games distributed with the early iOS runner. Obfuscation programs were later developed and released to deter hackers from extracting the game resources from executable files built with the program. YoYoGames later issued a formal cease and desist to the hackers warning against further infringement of their intellectual property posing as a financial threat to the company. The latest version of the software, GM: Studio, makes it harder to decompile games given its compiled nature and it has built in obfuscation.
Digital rights management
In late 2012 and early 2013, YoYo Games released a version of their new Studio IDE for cross-platform development that would import games and destroy all of the image type resources for some legitimate purchasers of the software by superimposing a pirate symbol on top of the image. This was due to a fault in their digital rights management software implementation which they use as a method of combating infringing copies of the software. YoYoGames publicly stated they would remove the DRM at a later point in time, but that other less-invasive DRM techniques would remain.
Reception
The program currently holds a rating of 8.4/10 on Mod DB based on 196 user reviews many citing its flexibility and ease of use as positives and instability, crashes, project corruption and outdated features as negatives. Douglas Clements of Indie Game Magazine wrote that the program "[s]implifies and streamlines game development" and is "easy for beginners yet powerful enough to grow as you develop", though noting that "resource objects have to be gathered if unable to create" and that licensing between Steam and the YoYo Games website is "convoluted".