Consumer video game development software faces a dilemma. If the tools are too simple, they don't teach you the advanced skills needed to further your potential career. But if the tools are overly complex, you'll be too frustrated to keep going. GameMaker first launched in 1999, and I dabbled with an early version many years ago. I was a dumb kid who wanted to rip off Nintendo games, but I remember being frustrated that the process wasn't as straightforward as the name suggested. Today, GameMaker strikes the ideal balance by accommodating newcomers but not withholding anything from people with the time (and money) to fully invest in their indie game dreams. The results truly speak for themselves, earning GameMaker our Editors' Choice award for video game development software.
Instead of talking about the games you can hypothetically make with GameMaker, I'll list some of the acclaimed indie titles built with this engine. GameMaker releases include Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Blazing Chrome, Downwell, Gunpoint, Heat Signature, Hotline Miami, Hyper Light Drifter, Katana Zero, Nidhogg, Nuclear Throne, Rivals of Aether, Spelunky, Undertale, Wandersong, and VA-11 Hall-A. These are some of the most beloved indie console, mobile, and PC games of the past few years, spanning genres as varied as platforming roguelikes, drug-fueled top-down shooters, cyberpunk visual novels, and comedy-basketball RPGs. If you can imagine it, GameMaker lets you make it.
Well, that's mostly the case. If you look closely, you'll see that all those games are 2D. GameMaker lets you add limited 3D graphics to your games, but it mainly focuses on 2D titles. 3D functionality is rare for consumer-level game development tools. The Nintendo Switch's Fuze4 offers it, but you can't produce games for other platforms. The same goes for the excellent Game Builder Garage. AppGameKit Studio and Godot let you implement 3D graphics into your game, but they require a higher level of technical knowledge. For 3D development, you need a truly professional program like Unity or Unreal Engine.
GameMaker also lets you create multiplayer games. With these tools, you can give your titles advanced online functionality through GameMaker's servers, including rollback netcode. In addition, you can flesh out the experience with extra features like chat rooms, spectator lobbies, and cloud saves. This greatly expands the kinds of games you can make. Likewise, Core offers online multiplayer dev tools, but that software is almost entirely for creating shooters.
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GameMaker simultaneously has some of the most affordable and most expensive pricing options of all the services I've tested.
On one hand, GameMaker has expanded its free tier options. As with Construct and Stencyl, you can use GameMaker's tools without paying, though with some limitations. Free users can export their games to PC, mobile, and the Opera GX gamer browser. Note, however, that free users can only make non-commercial projects, not games you can legally sell. Meanwhile, Godot is completely free to use without limitations.
GameMaker's Professional tier lets you export commercial projects to the web, Windows, Mac, mobile, and linux through the various PC gaming marketplaces. Instead of a subscription, you only pay a one-time fee of $99.99 for a permanent license.
If you’re serious about game development, though, you need to get your game in front of as many players as possible, including consoles. Among the services I've tested, only GameMaker offers licenses for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X. The platform holders want their cut, so those licenses don’t come cheap. The Enterprise subscription lets registered developers export to consoles for $79.99 per month or $799.99 per year. That price, while hefty, saves you more than $1,000. For comparison, a professional Unity subscription costs $1,800 per year, and Unreal Engine is free due to its pushing developers toward the Epic Games Store.
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Upon starting a project, GameMaker asks if you want to use the GameMaker Language (GML) or Drag and Drop (DnD) programming languages. GameMaker offers two informative, step-by-step video tutorials for building the same Asteroids clone game in either language, so feel free to try both to see what works best for you.
GML should feel familiar to anyone used to making games the traditional way: coding. It's similar to C or JavaScript, and you can even convert it into those languages. The tutorial is useful, but having some prior coding knowledge helps.
True beginners should go with DnD. This is GameMake's visual programming language, one that turns if/then statements from finicky syntax into digestible blocks. Previously, DnD offered much less power over your game than GML. But now, thanks to many premade behaviors, you can create a complex game without writing code.
Granted, that's because even this "simple" language gets complicated. You still do a lot of math and generate a lot of assets. For the Asteroids clone game, you set the frame rate, mold the physics for spaceship movement, set variables for randomly spawning rocks, and trigger explosion animations when bullets collide with their targets. I enjoyed the challenge.
DnD is easier than coding, but it comes close enough conceptually that I feel my skills can transfer over. You can even convert DnD scripts into GML or write bits of GML and stick them in your DnD projects as discrete functions. As a result, GameMaker's programming experience surpasses visual-heavy software, such as Construct or Stencyl, and code-only software, such as AppGameKit Studio or Fuze4.
GameMaker's interface helps you keep your project under control as your game grows in scope. For example, there's a main workspace and tabs for editing specific game elements, such as level rooms or sprite images. I appreciate how the workspace organizes visual and coding elements together. Seeing sprite animations, objects that those sprites are linked to, and code for that object grouped together makes it easy to track distinct game elements and see where problems might occur. GameMaker's workflow is better than Construct's, which separates visual elements and programmed events into separate Layout and Event sheet tabs. GameMaker’s layout reminds me of how Twine intuitively lays out the chunks of its interactive text stories, except with more elements.
The more big-name GameMaker games are released, the more the software's popularity and user base grow. If you have any ambition in game design, you should leverage GameMaker's excellent, free tutorials and example games, as well as its robust, community marketplace. You can browse for top-rated demos, animations, sound effects, scripts, backgrounds, and other useful assets to speed up your process or learn cool, new tricks. Most items in the marketplace cost either a few bucks or nothing at all.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: YoYo Games)
GameMaker
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
GameMaker lives up to its promise of easily letting you make real video games, whether you're a coding prodigy or have never thought about sprites in your life. Investing in its power and publishing possibilities, no matter how high the price, never feels like a waste, and the free and cheaper options make it more appealing than ever. As a result, GameMaker is our Editors' Choice winner for consumer game development software, alongside the even more accessible Game Builder Garage.
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