GameMaker:Studio

Welcome to GameMaker:Studio!
GameMaker:Studio is the newest member in the GameMaker family of software and is designed to be a one-stop tool for single and small teams of game developers. Like previous versions of GameMaker it includes all the tools that you are used to and would expect : sprite editor, timelines, paths, an extensive room editor and it's own programming language, GML. it also offers a number of new and exciting features that are outlined briefly below...

New Features
GameMaker:Studio adds a number of new features that have previously been unavailable in the GameMaker series of products :

Export Modules
GameMaker:Studio offers cross platform porting of your games and projects. The base version of GameMaker:Studio allows you to export to Windows and MacOS with add-on modules available for Html5, iOS, and Android with more platforms being made available in the future. This means that you only have to purchase what you really need to get the projects you are working on published.

Source Control
Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after the command name svn) is a software versioning and a revision control system distributed under a free license. Developers use SVN to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation, and for the first time support for this has been integrated into GameMaker:Studio. For more information on how this works, how to set it up and how to use it, please go here.

Physics
The integration of the Box2D physics library into GameMaker:Studio means that you can now take control over all aspects of the physical behavior of objects within your game world, particularly collisions and object interaction. The "traditional" collision system (which GameMaker:Studio defaults to) is a "reactive" system, where you check for a collision based on bounding box overlaps (or even pixel to pixel overlaps) and then react to that collision with codes that you place in individual objects. This is fine for simple games, but when you have a large number of objects and have to code how they all react to different situations in the game world, it quickly becomes obvious that this system is just not enough! That's when you have to turn to the GameMaker:Studio physics system!

The physics system works in a very different way to normal collisions. It is more of a "passive" system where you define a series of properties for your objects in the game world, as well as the properties of the game world itself, before any collisions or interactions occur. These coded "rules" will then govern the way everything in your game world interacts. In this way, with a few simple codes and the correct room setup, you can create very complex interactions between objects and the world which will occur and resolve without you having to code for every single possible outcome.

Getting Started
Once you have downloaded and installed GameMaker:Studio, the first time you run it you will be prompted to enter your License code. This can be found in the e-mail that will have been sent to the address specified when you registered for the product. Once that is done, GameMaker:Studio will start as normal and you can go ahead and create projects, but, depending on the modules you have installed, you may have to perform some additional setup procedures too :


 * To setup the module for iOS devices, please go here
 * To setup the module for Android devices, please go here
 * To setup the module for Html5 devices, please go here

If you have just the base version, then there is little that you need to do other than start to make games!

Looking For Help
When you get a copy of GameMaker:Studio, you may find that you need some support or think you may have found a bug. To that end we have two companion sites that we highly recommend you sign up to. The first is the GameMaker Community (GMC) which is our dedicated forum, where you can ask questions, give feedback or even help out others, and the second is the Yoyo Games Bugtracker which is where you can file and report any bugs you think you have found and they will be looked into quickly. You can register on those sites at the following links :

GameMaker Community

Bug Database

Finally, GameMaker:Studio comes with a selection of Tutorials and Demo files which can be accesed through the main startup screen when you run GameMaker:Studio. The tutorials are mainly aimed at new users who are not familiar with any of the GameMaker family of products, whereas the Demos are provided to explain some interesting features that GameMaker:Studio has which may not be obvious even to experienced users.

Frequently Asked Questions
Finally we have produced a FAQ with some of the most common questions about GameMaker:Studio :

Frequently Asked Questions