Just yesterday, we wrote a piece about how you can easily monetize your GameMaker games with HTML5. Today we’re sticking on the subject of GameMaker, because YoYo Games has just released their newest version of the powerful introductory game development software, GameMaker Studio 2. With the release of GameMaker Studio 2, YoYo Games has unfortunately stopped selling GameMaker Studio 1.4, though they claim they will continue to support it.
GameMaker Studio 2, like GameMaker Studio 1.4, will be available for free in its most basic incarnation. This will allow people to give GameMaker studio a try, though it will be severely restricted. The free trial of GameMaker studio 2 will only allow a limited number of sprites, objects, rooms, and other resources, meaning it would be almost impossible to make a full game for free. The free version of GameMaker Studio 2 will also not allow exporting of games for different platforms, meaning you can only export them for Windows testing.
GameMaker Studio 2’s additional modules (which will allow you to export games for Windows including UWP, MacOS, Ubuntu, Android, iOS, PS4, Xbox One, and HTML) are priced as follows with upgrade paths below:
Those prices look (and are) steep, but they’re not too far off from what GameMaker Studio’s modules went for. The difference is a lot of people, myself included, got these modules from Humble Bundle or other sites at a deep discount, so it didn’t feel so expensive. Incidentally, this is why I think YoYo Games is releasing GameMaker Studio : as little more than, to be frank, a cash grab.
You see, between the aforementioned Humble Bundle deals and the amount of time GameMaker Studio has been on the market, almost anyone interested in GameMaker already has a copy with a number of modules. Before this week, if someone was interested in GameMaker Studio, they could just wait for a Humble Bundle and get a crazy good deal. By releasing GameMaker Studio 2, I think YoYo Games is basically trying to force people to spend extra money to feel like they have the newest software.
Sure, they claim that Studio 2 is more optimized for laptops, and that the development environment in general is more streamlined and customizable. YoYo Games also claims that the drag-and-drop interface is stronger (which might appeal to absolute beginners), and that people can now integrate networking and in-app purchases into their games. All of this is cool, but it seems that they could have sold these as modules for the original version of GameMaker Studio. Since they chose to bundle it all as a new version of Studio, combined with the fact that you can’t buy Studio 1.4 anymore, this honestly just seems like a cash grab. If I had to answer whether or not GameMaker Studio 2 was worth it, I’d have to say no.
If you already have GameMaker Studio 1.4 and all of the modules, it might be worth it to upgrade to GameMaker Studio 2 at a discount just to have all possible features available. YoYo Games did make Studio 2 backwards compatible, so at least you can port all your old projects over. If you do not have GameMaker Studio 1.4, though, I’d recommend either waiting for GameMaker Studio 2 to hit a Humble Bundle, or I’d recommend looking for a version of 1.4 you can buy.
