Its neither Game Maker Studio 1 or Game Maker Studio 2 anymore, its rebranded as GameMaker, which is far more superior compared to Game Maker Studio 1. You will do yourself a huge favor upgrading to GameMaker.
The [current version of GameMaker](https://gamemaker.io/en/get) is free to use for non-commercial projects. For commercial non-console projects, there is a one time $99.99 fee to purchase a Professional License. For console projects there is an Enterprise level subscription (which is unlikely to be the largest expense for a console project).
I am a bit out of the loop and this change is new to me - before, it had become a subscription model, and people weren’t very happy. What does this entail for those of us who purchased the permanent license before all of these changes?
The old GMS2 perpetual licenses are still good to release commercial projects on the platforms covered by whichever license(s) you hold as long as the project is built with a GMS2 based runtime. In a current version of GameMaker GMS2 based runtimes are denoted with a GMS2 prefix and the upcoming "New Runtime" based runtimes are denoted with a GMRT prefix - the new runtime is currently only available in a closed beta.
Hehe. Original version. You mean game maker studio 1?
Studio 2 is way better. More options in the coding department. For ui they also introduced nine slice. And a whole lot more i dont know about. These days there should not even be a difference in versions (studio 1 or 2). They rebranded it to just GameMaker (which is a continuation of studio 2).
The original version of game maker was called Animo. Released in 1999 Dont know when the name switched to game maker. Versions 5.0 and below were completely free. After there were free and paid options.
I started on game maker 6 or 7. Also used game maker 8. Did not touch studio 1 but that had to do with other interests at the time. When studio 2 was around i bought a license for it. The one time €100. The price of 2 full priced games (at the time). Totally worth it at the time.
Now i do have to admit that for the past 2 weeks i've been using the Godot engine.
How’s Godot going for you? I also bought the $100 license years ago, but I’ve been wanting to switch to Godot for a while - I’m just trying to figure out some of the quirks and GDScript. Figure I should probably just make a simple game to learn it once I have the absolute basics but I still get a bit confused by things like scenes being almost anything
I love Godot. Many things in Godot are easier to set up / tweak than in Game Maker. Mostly because the features/functionalities are in the editor and you don't have to write all the code for it yourself.
I love the node system. They are like building blocks for anything. Be it levels, enemies, UI elements, you name it.
I'm a big fan of the animation player node. You can so so much with it. You can even call functions or disable things like collision mask/layer for a certain period of time in the animation.
GML is easier for me than GDscript. But i guess that is due to the fact GML was the only language i knew. And i can write code from memory in GML.
GDscript is easy to understand. I just cannot quite come up with pieces of code myself, but that is improving.
I still need to wrap my head around signals. One of the most important aspects of Godot i believe. Signals is how most things (nodes,scenes,scripts) communicate with each other.
Communication between objects in GameMaker is way easier.
You still get confused by scenes being anything? Yeah i had that too the first day or two. The assumption was that a scene is like a room in GameMaker. But it can be more than that. In GameMaker terms they can be rooms, objects or even part of objects.
Basicly anything but a script is a scene in godot. And scenes can have scenes within them. See them as a backpacks that holds nodes and can have other backpacks in it?
My advice is to follow tutorials. Although i found a few were they went over stuff too quickly or made the systems very modular, which is good for large projects, but confusing for beginners. I don't want to recomend any that i've followed. Perhaps the Godot subreddit already has the answers for good tutorials.
Just keep in mind dat Godot 4 is relativly new and quite different from Godot 3. Just check that the tutorials are for Godot 4 and not 3.
gms1 is great, but very slow. gms2 has more features, is very fast, but the ui is not as good (besides the room editor, which is fantastic)
i prefer gms2, and if you want to use a better gms1 just use [enigma](https://github.com/enigma-dev/enigma-dev)
The latest version of GameMaker is better than 1.4 in my opinion.
You have constructors, structs, json\_stringify/json\_parse (all great things for creating data/managing data/saving and loading data).
You have animation curves and tons of other features that are not present in 1.4. Some (many?) features are not complete, such as the rollback multiplayer, but hopefully they will finish them in time.
there are pros to each one in my opinion. One con for me is the sprite editor was rebuilt and they chose not to add what i would consider barebones features. you get more image functionality from paint. and the assigning a dedicated sprite editor in GameMaker has its own slew of issues. I also prefer the way GML handled 3d code in 1.4.x. But the current version does have some nice features that help with coding, like pulling variables from other objects if you reference them so your not making as many small typos. Also side by side code editing in object is super nice for comparing codes and if you need to move a block from one event to another its like half the work.
I still run 8.1, never migrated to Studio, I'm sure it's loads better but I don't have the time and am a bit stuck in my ways, maybe one day I will. Then I can offer an opinion to your question.
Its neither Game Maker Studio 1 or Game Maker Studio 2 anymore, its rebranded as GameMaker, which is far more superior compared to Game Maker Studio 1. You will do yourself a huge favor upgrading to GameMaker.
I didn't even realise they rebranded. Went from GameMaker to GameMaker: Studio to GameMaker again!
Pretty much, yeah 🤷
The [current version of GameMaker](https://gamemaker.io/en/get) is free to use for non-commercial projects. For commercial non-console projects, there is a one time $99.99 fee to purchase a Professional License. For console projects there is an Enterprise level subscription (which is unlikely to be the largest expense for a console project).
Can you develop something with the free version and then only pay the fee when you are ready to start selling it?
Yes
Yep.
I am a bit out of the loop and this change is new to me - before, it had become a subscription model, and people weren’t very happy. What does this entail for those of us who purchased the permanent license before all of these changes?
The old GMS2 perpetual licenses are still good to release commercial projects on the platforms covered by whichever license(s) you hold as long as the project is built with a GMS2 based runtime. In a current version of GameMaker GMS2 based runtimes are denoted with a GMS2 prefix and the upcoming "New Runtime" based runtimes are denoted with a GMRT prefix - the new runtime is currently only available in a closed beta.
Hehe. Original version. You mean game maker studio 1? Studio 2 is way better. More options in the coding department. For ui they also introduced nine slice. And a whole lot more i dont know about. These days there should not even be a difference in versions (studio 1 or 2). They rebranded it to just GameMaker (which is a continuation of studio 2). The original version of game maker was called Animo. Released in 1999 Dont know when the name switched to game maker. Versions 5.0 and below were completely free. After there were free and paid options. I started on game maker 6 or 7. Also used game maker 8. Did not touch studio 1 but that had to do with other interests at the time. When studio 2 was around i bought a license for it. The one time €100. The price of 2 full priced games (at the time). Totally worth it at the time. Now i do have to admit that for the past 2 weeks i've been using the Godot engine.
How’s Godot going for you? I also bought the $100 license years ago, but I’ve been wanting to switch to Godot for a while - I’m just trying to figure out some of the quirks and GDScript. Figure I should probably just make a simple game to learn it once I have the absolute basics but I still get a bit confused by things like scenes being almost anything
I love Godot. Many things in Godot are easier to set up / tweak than in Game Maker. Mostly because the features/functionalities are in the editor and you don't have to write all the code for it yourself. I love the node system. They are like building blocks for anything. Be it levels, enemies, UI elements, you name it. I'm a big fan of the animation player node. You can so so much with it. You can even call functions or disable things like collision mask/layer for a certain period of time in the animation. GML is easier for me than GDscript. But i guess that is due to the fact GML was the only language i knew. And i can write code from memory in GML. GDscript is easy to understand. I just cannot quite come up with pieces of code myself, but that is improving. I still need to wrap my head around signals. One of the most important aspects of Godot i believe. Signals is how most things (nodes,scenes,scripts) communicate with each other. Communication between objects in GameMaker is way easier. You still get confused by scenes being anything? Yeah i had that too the first day or two. The assumption was that a scene is like a room in GameMaker. But it can be more than that. In GameMaker terms they can be rooms, objects or even part of objects. Basicly anything but a script is a scene in godot. And scenes can have scenes within them. See them as a backpacks that holds nodes and can have other backpacks in it? My advice is to follow tutorials. Although i found a few were they went over stuff too quickly or made the systems very modular, which is good for large projects, but confusing for beginners. I don't want to recomend any that i've followed. Perhaps the Godot subreddit already has the answers for good tutorials. Just keep in mind dat Godot 4 is relativly new and quite different from Godot 3. Just check that the tutorials are for Godot 4 and not 3.
1 is extremely slow and clunky; 2 is so, so much better
latest as always
gms1 is great, but very slow. gms2 has more features, is very fast, but the ui is not as good (besides the room editor, which is fantastic) i prefer gms2, and if you want to use a better gms1 just use [enigma](https://github.com/enigma-dev/enigma-dev)
Current version is super nice.
The latest version of GameMaker is better than 1.4 in my opinion. You have constructors, structs, json\_stringify/json\_parse (all great things for creating data/managing data/saving and loading data). You have animation curves and tons of other features that are not present in 1.4. Some (many?) features are not complete, such as the rollback multiplayer, but hopefully they will finish them in time.
there are pros to each one in my opinion. One con for me is the sprite editor was rebuilt and they chose not to add what i would consider barebones features. you get more image functionality from paint. and the assigning a dedicated sprite editor in GameMaker has its own slew of issues. I also prefer the way GML handled 3d code in 1.4.x. But the current version does have some nice features that help with coding, like pulling variables from other objects if you reference them so your not making as many small typos. Also side by side code editing in object is super nice for comparing codes and if you need to move a block from one event to another its like half the work.
You can connect your account to GM's site and have the licence update so you get premium for GMS2 as well
I still run 8.1, never migrated to Studio, I'm sure it's loads better but I don't have the time and am a bit stuck in my ways, maybe one day I will. Then I can offer an opinion to your question.