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Haven't used GMS in around 3 years. Need help/advice on updating things.

A

aGameDev

Guest
LIke the title says, I haven't used GMS for like 3 years, and the last time I compiled my games, GMS still had the libpng vulnerability.

Last month I received a standard email from Google saying, "On June 5, 2019 any apps that contain unfixed security vulnerabilities beyond the dates listed on your Play Console alerts will be removed from Google Play."

I don't see any date listed in the Google Developer Console itself, but I figure I'd better look into recompiling my games to remove the vulnerability.

Well, I started up GMS today for the first time in ages, and let it update itself to 1.4.1804
After that it offered another update to like 1.4.9999 but is that a beta or what? Should I go ahead and update to that or stick with the "stable?"

Of course, as you might guess, it's not going to be as simple as just updating.... Upon trying to compile I got a popup saying, "In order to use this functionality, you need to have the GooglePlayServices Extension installed. Would you like to download it now from the Marketplace?"

My project had used GoogleMobileAdsExt under "Extensions," but I'm sure that is now outdated.

Anyway, I told it to download it, whereupon it asked for my YoYo Account Login... which I don't think I ever had. I had posted here on the forums before, but that old account no longer seems to exist anyway.... So I signed up for a new YoYo account, then I had to sign up for a new forum account as well.

But then when I tried to log in at at that prompt in GMS, it says, "You do not have any Gamemaker: Studio 1.x licenses attached to your account."

So that won't allow me to continue to log in.

So I close that prompt, and the compiler downloaded something, which may have to do with Java, because then I got an alert about Windows Firewall blocking something Java related.... I told it to allow access.

After that (and after another attempt) the compiler fails (kind of expected).

The errors from the compiler are probably not important yet, because I expect I have a lot of updating to do to get things working.


If I thought Google would just grandfather my old games and let them sit in the store, I wouldn't mess with updating.... And it looks like after August, Google won't even allow games produced by GMS 1.4 to be submitted to the store, because of the 64 bit requirement? And I'm sure it costs money to update to GMS2, yeah?


Anyone have any advice on what I need to do?

(if anyone is curious, my games are nothing special, and are called "Pogo Piggle")
 

rIKmAN

Member
LIke the title says, I haven't used GMS for like 3 years, and the last time I compiled my games, GMS still had the libpng vulnerability.

Last month I received a standard email from Google saying, "On June 5, 2019 any apps that contain unfixed security vulnerabilities beyond the dates listed on your Play Console alerts will be removed from Google Play."

I don't see any date listed in the Google Developer Console itself, but I figure I'd better look into recompiling my games to remove the vulnerability.

Well, I started up GMS today for the first time in ages, and let it update itself to 1.4.1804
After that it offered another update to like 1.4.9999 but is that a beta or what? Should I go ahead and update to that or stick with the "stable?"

Of course, as you might guess, it's not going to be as simple as just updating.... Upon trying to compile I got a popup saying, "In order to use this functionality, you need to have the GooglePlayServices Extension installed. Would you like to download it now from the Marketplace?"

My project had used GoogleMobileAdsExt under "Extensions," but I'm sure that is now outdated.

Anyway, I told it to download it, whereupon it asked for my YoYo Account Login... which I don't think I ever had. I had posted here on the forums before, but that old account no longer seems to exist anyway.... So I signed up for a new YoYo account, then I had to sign up for a new forum account as well.

But then when I tried to log in at at that prompt in GMS, it says, "You do not have any Gamemaker: Studio 1.x licenses attached to your account."

So that won't allow me to continue to log in.

So I close that prompt, and the compiler downloaded something, which may have to do with Java, because then I got an alert about Windows Firewall blocking something Java related.... I told it to allow access.

After that (and after another attempt) the compiler fails (kind of expected).

The errors from the compiler are probably not important yet, because I expect I have a lot of updating to do to get things working.


If I thought Google would just grandfather my old games and let them sit in the store, I wouldn't mess with updating.... And it looks like after August, Google won't even allow games produced by GMS 1.4 to be submitted to the store, because of the 64 bit requirement? And I'm sure it costs money to update to GMS2, yeah?


Anyone have any advice on what I need to do?

(if anyone is curious, my games are nothing special, and are called "Pogo Piggle")
1.4.9999 is the final version of GMS 1.4 and is the last update it will ever receive since it was sunsetted after that final update.

It fixed many bugs (and maybe introduced some others, not sure as I started using GMS2 as soon as it hit beta) and is the most "up to date" version of 1.4 that is available. Unless you have any specific issues with that particular version and existing games then I would recommend updating to and using it if you want to stick with 1.4.

For your login issues, licences are attached to your YYG account so that when you login the IDE knows exporters you have access to.
As such, creating a new account will of course give you the error that no licences are attached to your account.

Did you ever purchase any GMS licences on your old account?
Did you use a free licence that was tied to that account?

Either way you are going to want to get access to that account (try the forgot password / account recovery link on the site) as that is the account that will have any licences you might own linked to it, and so is the one you want to be logging into the IDE with to get access to your owned licences.

Being away for so long, I would honestly recommend you just dive straght into GMS2.
It is the most current version, is still being updated and more importantly is the only way you are going to be able to export your games / apps to the Google Store once they start enforcing the 64bit requirement you mentioned.

1.4 projects can be imported into 2.x with a few clicks, and most games will just work - although the converted code and compatibility scripts aren't the cleanest code after conversion, it's usually relatively easy to clean it up yourself and move things over to using the new GMS2 features.

Download the GMS2 trial and make a simple Pong or Asteroids game and see what you think of it.

If money is an issue you can buy a 12mth Creators Licence for $39 which will allow you to choose to use the Windows IDE to export to Windows or Mac IDE to export to Mac (one or the other, not both) and will expire after 12mths.

if that is too limiting you can get the $99 Desktop Licence which allows you to use both the Windows and Mac IDE and export to Windows, Mac and Linux.

Other targets are priced differently, check out the site to see those prices: https://www.yoyogames.com/get

If you want to stick to Android development you would be looking at the "Mobile" licence which recently had it's price cut in half to $199, and that is for iOS + Android + Amazon Fire exports.

As I said my advice would be to forget 1.4 and give 2.x a try, using 1.4 for mobile development is going to be a pointless exercise at this point as you won't be able to submit anything to the stores with it and would have to look at importing into 2.x - which means you may as well start working in GMS2 from the start.

Hope that helps.
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I updated to 1.4.9999, and at least now I am not getting error message popups on startup like I was before.

I tried doing a password rest for the email that was used to purchase GMS + extensions + YYC, etc, but it tells me that account does not exist... which is odd because I was still receiving emails from yoyo games on that address as of October of last year. Did they purge inactive accounts or something?

I guess I will need to get that sorted out before I can go any farther with downloading the Google Play Services extension....


*sigh* I'm really wanting to avoid spending multi-hundred dollars to upgrade to GMS2 just to fix a flaw that was present in the previous software that multi-hundred dollars was already spent on (it's very hard to justify that cost for a hobby developer). It looks like it may be a major hassle, but if I can just get my games compiled with the most recent 1.4 version, and have everything working with Play Services, that may be my best option for now.
 

rIKmAN

Member
Did they purge inactive accounts or something?
I'm not sure, that's something you should get in touch with support about as only they can deal with account related issues.

Other than being 100% certain you are using the correct email address there isn't much you can do except contact them with the relevant details of your account (email, purchase date etc and whatever other details you think may help) and see what they say.

Did you purchase your licences direct from the YYG website or through somewhere like Humble Bundle or Steam? If so you could track down the purchase that way by looking through your purchase history to confirm the email used etc.

*sigh* I'm really wanting to avoid spending multi-hundred dollars to upgrade to GMS2 just to fix a flaw that was present in the previous software that multi-hundred dollars was already spent on (it's very hard to justify that cost for a hobby developer). It looks like it may be a major hassle, but if I can just get my games compiled with the most recent 1.4 version, and have everything working with Play Services, that may be my best option for now.
I get what you are saying, but time moves on and things change.
If you are looking to develop Android apps for the Play Store (which is what it sounds like) then as you have mentioned yourself, Google won't accept non 64bit builds pretty soon so 1.4 won't be able to create valid APKs for that anyway.

If you don't want to go down the GMS2 route then there are other free engines you can look at that will allow you to export to Android without an upfront cost.
However if you think of the Mobile licence as being just under $70 each for iOS, Android and Fire ($199 total for all 3) then the cost seems pretty reasonable considering what you get and what you have the potential to earn back with no royalties or other payments needed.

Not only that, it's being updated so you can submit valid apps to the store.

However the decision - as they say - is yours.
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
Ok, to update, I contacted YoYo support and was told,

"I can't see any YoYo Account for your email address but I can confirm that there are GameMaker: Studio 1.4 Professional licences linked to it.
The YoYo Account system was introduced since you last purchased a licence from us."

As I thought, I never had such an account before, but now it's set up with the correct email and the licenses are linked to it.

So back to trying to compile, I get the message,

"In order to use this functionality you need to have the GooglePlayServices extension in this project. Download this from marketplace.yoyogames.com and drag is onto the IDE to import it."

I went to the YoYo marketplace, and found the extension (It probably won't let me post an actual link, but I believe this is it? marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/2008/google-play-services )

At the top of the page it says, "You need a paid GameMaker Studio 2 licence in order to have access to this asset." And the download button just says "Not available."

Ok, what's up with that? Gamemaker 1.4 tells me I need it, but the marketplace tells me I can't have it unless I have a GMS2 license?


I can let GMS to go ahead and compile, but it fails at the end with some errors, but I'm not sure how relevant it will be to show those errors yet, until I get the above issue ironed out. Also, the erros contain links, and I know I can't post links until I have at least 5 posts under this account, heh.... So I better make a couple extra posts first.
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
I'm making another (kinda pointless) post because I need to inflate my post count so that I can post links, otherwise I won't be able to show my error messages.....

I don't actually want to get side-tracked though, and I hope someone can still help me with the above issue.


However if you think of the Mobile licence as being just under $70 each for iOS, Android and Fire ($199 total for all 3) then the cost seems pretty reasonable considering what you get and what you have the potential to earn back with no royalties or other payments needed.
Well, it sounds nice.... but in my own experience it just doesn't work out. From my 3 little games I made years ago (2 simple tappy games and 1 decent dice game) I haven't even come close to making back the money spent to buy the tools. (And my games aren't bad! They have good ratings....) There is a tiny trickle of ad revenue that builds up each month ($1.87 last month! Hah, not bad!) but over the last, like, 4 years, that hasn't even added up to the payout threshold of $100....

Now, I know I'm just doing this as a hobby, and if I were serious about it I guess I should be cranking out game after game (meh, but then you end up with poor quality shovelware), or putting a LOT of time into one grand game.... But the Android marketplace has millions of games, so it's extremely hard to eke out a profit from it, or even get noticed.

Ironically, I actually made money selling t-shirts with my Pig art on it, as a way to advertise my games! The shirts were bought by some friends and family who wanted the cute Piggle shirts.... But of course, it doesn't cost anything upfront to set up your designs on one of the t-shirt printing/selling websites....

So yeah, I made a small profit selling shirts as a way to advertise my games, which aren't anywhere close to being profitable :D

That's just my own experience regarding the "potential to earn back the money," but I'm certain that's also the case for the vast majority of hobby developers. You just have to enjoy making games, without the expectation that you will be able to make a profit from it.
 

rIKmAN

Member
I'm making another (kinda pointless) post because I need to inflate my post count so that I can post links, otherwise I won't be able to show my error messages.....
Why do you need to post links to show your error messages?

Just copy the error messages from the console and paste them into your post, using code tags to ensure they are posted inside code boxes and formatted correctly.
If the output is especially verbose then also use spoiler tags around the code box.

If you don't want to manually write the tags out they can be found under the "Insert" button on the toolbar above the textbox where you write your post.

Well, it sounds nice.... but in my own experience it just doesn't work out. From my 3 little games I made years ago (2 simple tappy games and 1 decent dice game) I haven't even come close to making back the money spent to buy the tools.
Well that's why it's potential and not a guarantee - if it was that easy everyone would be making great money from their games.

If your revenue is based just from ad revenue then you need a LOT of downloads / installs / ad impressions etc to make anything worthwhile, maybe now is the time to sit and think how you could monetize your next game in other ways such as a free version with a few levels and then have a 99p "full game unlock" or something similar.

Ok, what's up with that? Gamemaker 1.4 tells me I need it, but the marketplace tells me I can't have it unless I have a GMS2 license?
Can't help you with this as I don't use 1.4 anymore and I own GMS2 so I've never received that message.
Hopefully someone else who has used Google Play with 1.4 can chime in and help you with that one.
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
Why do you need to post links to show your error messages?
Because the error messages themselves contain links:

Code:
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
* What went wrong:
A problem occurred configuring root project ''.
> Could not resolve all dependencies for configuration ':classpath'.
   > Could not resolve com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.2.0+.
     Required by:
         project :
      > Could not resolve com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.2.0+.
         > Failed to list versions for com.android.tools.build:gradle.
            > Unable to load Maven meta-data from https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/build/gradle/maven-metadata.xml.
               > Could not GET 'https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/build/gradle/maven-metadata.xml'.
                  > Remote host closed connection during handshake
      > Could not resolve com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.2.0+.
         > Failed to list versions for com.android.tools.build:gradle.
            > Unable to load Maven meta-data from https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/android/tools/build/gradle/maven-metadata.xml.
               > Could not GET 'https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/android/tools/build/gradle/maven-metadata.xml'.
                  > Received fatal alert: protocol_version
* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
BUILD FAILED

I'm not sure I'm even to the point where these errors can be addressed yet, because I know I have to get the Google Play Services extension imported first.....


Does anyone know how I import the Google Play Services extension?
 

chamaeleon

Member
Does anyone know how I import the Google Play Services extension?
In a couple of months it will be moot point with 64 bit architecture being a requirement to publish in the Google play store and gms 1.4 will not have that ability.

Edit: geez, you mentioned it in the first post.. Ignore this noise.
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
Yeah... the 64bit thing..... That's why, before that happens, I want to at least get my stuff compiled with the most recent versions of the tools I have available.


The problem I was having with being unable to download the Google Play Services extension seems to have.... stopped being a problem. I don't know why, but I just went and visited that page again ( marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/2008/google-play-services ) and this time there was no message telling me I needed a GMS2 license, and it let me "add it to my account." I didn't re-login or anything -- it just worked this time *shrug*

.... Although at the moment I am posting this, the YoYo marketplace seems to be having problems and producing an error message, "something went wrong" (o_O)


Anyway, now I'm looking at updating my SDK stuff, because that extension page told me I need "Google Repository." The SDK tools are wanting to update a bunch of other things.... So I'll see how this goes....
 

rIKmAN

Member
Yeah... the 64bit thing..... That's why, before that happens, I want to at least get my stuff compiled with the most recent versions of the tools I have available.


The problem I was having with being unable to download the Google Play Services extension seems to have.... stopped being a problem. I don't know why, but I just went and visited that page again ( marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/2008/google-play-services ) and this time there was no message telling me I needed a GMS2 license, and it let me "add it to my account." I didn't re-login or anything -- it just worked this time *shrug*

.... Although at the moment I am posting this, the YoYo marketplace seems to be having problems and producing an error message, "something went wrong" (o_O)


Anyway, now I'm looking at updating my SDK stuff, because that extension page told me I need "Google Repository." The SDK tools are wanting to update a bunch of other things.... So I'll see how this goes....
Have a read through the GMS 1.4 Required SDKs article to make sure you are using the recommended versions of the various tools and SDKs.
Then follow the GMS 1.4 Android Setup Guide to get everything setup correctly, or at least have a read through it before you start.
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
Thanks for the helpful link. It is probably a good idea for me to go through and check all that stuff again.

It looks like the last version of Android SDK I have installed was 5.01 API 21 (and a bunch of earlier versions as well), so I need to update that to at least API 23+, which will be Android 6, minimum.

It looks like I really only need one version (the most recent I choose) installed.....


Since I haven't messed with this in so long, I'm going to ask advice.

Should I go ahead and delete all the older APIs that I have installed (for Android 5, 4, 3, 2)? it looks like I should.


And having dealt with updating things in general, I know it's often true that "if it's not broke, don't fix it" because newer versions often cause problems with older systems.... So should I get the minimum version called for (API 23 for Android 6) or should I go ahead and get the latest non-preview version, API 28 for Android 9? That Android Setup Guide page has an image showing 7.1.1, API 25 being installed.

I feel like later versions of Android shouldn't have problems running the older stuff created for 6, but it's possible older versions of Android may have trouble running stuff created for version 9? I'm not sure if this is the case with Android -- it's just a general issue with updating things. It may be that "all older versions are contained within the latest version" with Android, so older devices won't have problems running stuff created with the most recent API.

Anyone else using GMS 1.4 have a preferred API version for any particular reason?



(also, https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/ is still not working.... If I click anything on that page and all I get is an error. It's not just me, is it?) EDIT: it's working again. EDIT EDIT: no, I was wrong, there are still errors depending on what I click on.
 
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FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
If you're publishing for Android, GMS 1.4 should be completely out of the question at this point because it cannot produce the 64-bit APKs that Google Play will require starting this August. Given how GMS 1.4 has been past sunset for almost a year now, your only recourse is to upgrade to GMS 2 ASAP.

Mobile game development is NOT a genuinely passive income, stop treating it like one. Read the news on it and test the compiles at least monthly.
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
Ignoring that noise as chamaeleon suggested... does anyone have a helpful comment on my previous post?
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
So... I just installed the versions of things that were shown on the setup page (and no higher, when given the option), because it says on that page, "Note that whenever possible you should stick to the versions we specify in that FAQ, as newer versions may be unsupported. Google do update the SDK/NDK pretty frequently, so be careful just grabbing the latest stuff."



Now.... can anyone tell me how to import the Google Play Services extension into my project?

In the marketplace, it was "added it to my account" (it's got a check mark next to it) https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/2008/google-play-services

But.... what the heck does that mean, and how to I import it to my project?

I have logged into GMS using my Yoyo account which is linked to that, but I cannot seem to find any way to import the extension, or to actually download it, or any instructions on what to do next in GMS 1.4 (in GMS2 there is supposed to be a "My Library" which doesn't seem to exist in 1.4).

The message I get when I try to compile just says "download it and drag it onto the IDE."

Anyone know how I can actually do that?


(P.S., game actually compiles now as long as I don't try to use YYC, so at least I'm making progress.... I'll have to look into that YYC thing in addition to getting the Google Play Services working, if someone can help me with that).
 
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A

aGameDev

Guest
Getting back to this....

Just to update, as I mentioned in another topic focusing on the Google Play Services extension, I had to use an older version that a user modified, which you can get from here: https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/google-play-services-fixes.60947/

And I updated my stuff with these versions (necessary for that extension):

Min SDK: 14
Compile SDK: 26 (That's Android 8)

Build Tools: 26.0.3
Support Lib: 26.0.0

For "Target SDK" I left it at "16" ... because I'm not completely clear on what that means. It looks like it should be safer to leave it at a lower version number so that new features are not accessed -- new features might make it incompatible with older versions of Android?..... I'm certainly not needing to use any new features in my old, simple games.


I also updated these things suggested from the requirements page mentioned earlier
(I'm on Win7 64 bit):

ndk-r16b (64 bit)
"17c releases after support for 1.4 ended and so is not actively supported"

jdk1.8.0_102 (64 bit)
"but also you do need to be using a fairly recent Android SDK in order for it to support Java JDK 64bit"

(I just wonder what specific version is called for when they say "fairly recent")



Now here is the issue I am having. I may need to make a new topic for this, since it's may be a bit specific, but then again it might be related to the things I'm updating..... But this may get lost within this big topic....

When I compile for standard Android/Fire everything seems to work fine when I copy/install the APK to my tablet.

But when I compile for YYC, if I try to run the APK on my Android 6 tablet, all I get is this error:

Screenshot_20190607-225212.png

While it was compiling I did see that it said "building for Arm7" or whatever..... And obviously it is selected to compile for ARMv7 in the Global Game Settings. The only thing I change is selecting "Android/Fire (YYC)" when compiling... and then my tablet will no longer run it.

However, I tried the same APK on some old Android 4.4.2 and 4.0.4 devices, and it ran fine.

What's up with that?
 

pipebkOT

Member
why are you targeting sdk 16 (api 16) if your tablet is using android 6.0 ( api 23)?, also, by targeting an old api as 16 you are just limiting yourself and the people that will want to play your game. the best choice is targeting as high as posible to make it compatible with most devices.

new features might make it incompatible with older versions of Android?
no, that's not how it works, retrocompatibility policies of android makes all older versions below the target version compatible.

also you need to target api 27 or higher to be able to publish your game in google play.


but i don't promise you that changing the target api will fix that error message since i don't use yyc.
 
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A

aGameDev

Guest
why are you targeting sdk 16 (api 16) if your tablet is using android 6.0 ( api 23)?, also, by targeting an old api as 16 you are just limiting yourself and the people that will want to play your game. the best choice is targeting as high as posible to make it compatible with most devices.



no, that's not how it works, retrocompatibility policies of android makes all older versions below the target version compatible.

also you need to target api 27 or higher to be able to publish your game in google play.


but i don't promise you that changing the target api will fix that error message since i don't use yyc.
Ahhh, thank you. That's useful information.

Ok, so I will need to update my SDK to at least API 27 (Android 8.1).

Do you have a preferred version you use? Should I just go up to API 28 (Android 9) or even API 29 (Android 10)? I'm just interested in any insights there might be from other people still using GMS 1.4 for Android.


EDIT: Well, this page says,
https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/develop/target-sdk

"Starting August 1, 2019, Google Play requires that new appstarget at least Android 9.0 (API level 28), and that app updates target Android 9.0 from November 1, 2019. Until these dates, new apps and app updates must target at least Android 8.0 (API level 26)."
 
A

aGameDev

Guest
I guess I should append this info to the end of this thread too (I just posted it to another thread where a user encountered the same problem I had when trying to use Android 10 SDKs).

I couldn't get SDK 29, for Android 10, to work.

But I have found that these versions work:

Target SDK: 28 (Android 9)
Min SDK: 14 (This is minimum required for the Google Play Services extension I am using)
Compile SDK: 28
Build Tools: 28.0.3 (be sure to download this separately from SDK manager, of course)
Support Lib: 28.0.0 (this just... is included with other things you should already have, apparently)

So, Android 9 SDK may be the highest version supported by GMS 1.4, at least from my experience.


Though, I note that the first time I tried to compile with these versions, it failed with an error about java (it did seem to download a lot of java things during compile), but I then cleaned the target (broom icon) and tried again and it compiled successfully.

And as another note... it ALWAYS pops up a window (no matter what SDK versions I have used) that says "compile failed" yet in the compile area in GMS it says BUILD SUCCESSFUL (assuming I don't have any actual errors), and indeed the APK is created. I guess it's possible it thinks the compile failed because the process ends with an error about "no devices or emulators found" or something, which I think is related to sending the APK to the YoYo Runner app... which I haven't been using.
 

rIKmAN

Member
So, Android 9 SDK may be the highest version supported by GMS 1.4, at least from my experience.
I would assume this to be correct given that when Android was updated it usually required a 1.4 update to go with it to add support for the various build tool changes that were needed.
 
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