Whether building your first game or creating and publishing your next hit, getting started with GameMaker, the multi-million downloaded 2D game development engine of choice for beginners, hobbyists and indie studios, has never been easier.
The world is changing fast with not thousands but millions of games being created every year not only by the professionals, but also by artists, designers, hobbyists and other creative people around us. Anyone who has ever thought to join in the fun and try to make a game will be inspired by our news. As of today game creators can have absolutely free access to all GameMaker’s powerful tools and functionality, with no restrictions to the games they make.
Today everyone can learn how to build games by starting slowly and enjoying the thrill of creation. And if your creations are ready to be shared with the world, there is an option to get your game out to your favorite platforms, fast.
New, more affordable pricing for sharing and publishing games
Starting with computers and then moving to web and mobile, more and more platforms are being introduced and then quickly becoming adopted by game creators. But today’s world is truly cross-platform, people want to access their games everywhere, from their PC or a game console to their phone or on the internet while on the go. To meet those needs and encourage developers to ship their games everywhere we are making our purchasing options broader and at the same time more affordable and flexible.
From now on, we have combined all our non-console platforms into a single “Indie” option where you can publish across all these platforms from a single version of the game. We have also lowered the price of shipping to console platforms for studios.
All new creators also benefit from free access to a wealth of high-quality demos and tutorials created by industry professionals, to help them to quickly get up-to-speed with the basics of GameMaker. Like the recently released Little Town and Fire Jump tutorials.
Sign-up for your free GameMaker account and start learning to make games today by visiting https://opr.as/GMS2
Russell Kay, CTO at YoYo Games, said: “Our vision has always been to make it as easy as possible for anyone to start making awesome games. Today’s announcement represents a huge step forward in making GameMaker more accessible to game creators of all levels. We are also committed to fostering creativity within our community and will be introducing exciting new initiatives in this area later this year.”
Krystian Kolondra, EVP PC & Gaming at Opera, added: “The gradual lowering of technical hurdles has already enabled the democratization of content publishing, through platforms like WordPress, and video creation through YouTube. Making games is the next big step in the creator economy. By making GameMaker free for new game creators and more flexible for Indies and Studios, developing skills and creating great games has never been easier.”
Earlier this year, YoYo Games was acquired by browser developer and consumer internet brand, Opera. Together with Opera GX, the world’s first browser built specifically for gamers, GameMaker has formed the cornerstone of the new Opera Gaming division. Over the coming months, stronger synergy with Opera GX will give GameMaker game creators and studios enhanced access and visibility to share and promote their games to over 10 million games-obsessed Opera GX monthly users. Opera GX and GameMaker recently announced the Opera GX Game Jam, calling on creators to create the next offline game for the “No Internet” page in Opera GX.
As well as being used by game artists, hobbyists and studios across the world, GameMaker has also been used to fuel many multi-million hits, including indie classics such as Risk of Rain, Hotline Miami and the fan favorite critical darling, Undertale. Other indie success stories include GameMaker’s Best Game of 2020, Forager and Hyper Light Drifter, which became Apple’s iPad Game of the Year in 2019 after already seeing massive success on console platforms.