The possibilities are, ultimately, endless with Game Maker Studio, especially as time goes on. Now that you’re a developer, get out there and develop to your hearts content. Always go where your passion is. Not every game that you develop will be a raving success, but as long as you’re passionate about development, that’s what truly matters. Video game development is an art form. You’re an artist and a creator, so, create. Many who use the Game Maker software continue to use it for future projects, but there are also many who evolve to use other coding languages such as Java or C#. Bottom line, never stop creating.

With the extravagant addition of Game Maker Studio 2, more exporting options are available than ever before. As a rule of thumb, you want to own (or borrow) the device that you’re creating a game for. If you are making a game for an iOS device, you’ll want to have an iPhone, iPod or any other iOS device readily available. With the highest tiered package, which costs $1500, you’re given these export options: Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, HTML5, Microsoft UWP (Universal Windows Platform), Android, iOS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. At one time, the only exporting option within Game Maker was for Windows devices – Game Maker hasn’t had the best reputation because it doesn’t involve “real” coding, but it’s a fantastic way to break into the industry. There are many games on platforms such as Steam (ex. Hotline Miami and Spelunky) which used Game Maker for development, even before all of these export options became so easily available (and to use).

A room in Game Maker Studio can be a level, a menu or even credits. The built-in room editor allows for a uniquely fantastic range of level designs. Once again, Game Maker Studio shows off its ease of use with their built-in room editor. Easily change the background image, views, physics or add tiles with the room editor. Game Maker Studio allows you to place your objects into each room, while also giving you the option to adjust the view on each object (for example, if you have a particularly large room and would only like your character to be shown in part of it, you can adjust the view so that the camera is only a certain size around your character).

Objects are what your sprites are (generally) applied to. Inside of objects, you can assign cause and effect actions with the drag-and-drop functionality mentioned before. For example, you can apply a “Left Pressed” cause onto an object (which means when the left mouse button is clicked), then drag-and-drop an effect as an action, such as playing a sound, jumping, moving to the next room or other functions. Objects can be anything from a ‘mute sound’ button to an enemy character or even the ground floor of the level. Sprites and objects are the entire basis of your game.

As stated in a document from YoYoGames, “Sprites are generally the visual representations of objects with the game you are creating.” To put it into perspective, a sprite is basically the human body and the object is human consciousness. The sprite is what’s behind the scenes; the image of what an object is. The object is the controller of the operation; it tells the sprite what to do and how to act.

With the built-in image editor, Game Maker Studio makes it very easy to create your sprites from scratch, edit existing sprites and even create animations. Animations are very simple to make, especially in a 2D game – animations are basically a collection of images positioned slightly different than the first image. It’s almost like creating a cartoon doodle in a sticky note pad and flipping the pages to create a “mini-show.” Animations can be used to show your character running, jumping, flying or any other effect that you can think of! To design your own pixel art, you can use the editor built into Game Maker Studio (for when you edit sprites). Personally, I make pixel art with the editor or use already made game art and simply edit them to my liking.

There aren’t many prerequisites to using software like Game Maker Studio. You will, however, need these:

• As goes with any software or coding language, patience.
• A computer, at least fast enough to play the kind of games you’re creating. YoYoGames (the creator of Game Maker) suggests at least 8GB of RAM for either Mac or Windows.
• If you’re developing for a specific device, you’ll need the device to test with.
• You’ll need to get the free trial of Game Maker Studio 2 or buy it outright.

Take into consideration before you buy Game Maker Studio as to what sort of games you’re planning on developing; with the newest addition of Game Maker Studio 2, you can now develop games for Ubuntu, PS4 and Xbox One.

As a beginner, developing your very first video game always seems daunting. There are so many different avenues to take when it comes to starting development; HTML, C++, C#, Python, Java and more. Game Maker Studio simplifies the development process with its very easy to use drag-and-drop feature. Many professionals, such as Benjamin Rivers (Alone With You), Dennaton Games (Hotline Miami), and more, use GML (Game Maker Language), but one of the best features of Game Maker Studio is its drag-and-drop feature – this makes the development process a lot smoother, and easier to transition into coding. 

Imagine that you own an online business creating handmade items (ex. bracelets or necklaces). These items take time to create and time to perfect – these handmade items symbolize most coding languages such as C++ and Java. In order to speed up the time it takes to create these handmade items, you would either hire employees or possibly, over time, mass produce in a factory. The extra employees or the conveyer belt in a factor symbolize Game Maker Studio. While using Game Maker Studio as your software, it will speed up the process.