Game Maker Histories

RekNepZ

GMC Historian
So I made a few topics on the old site with the history of Game Maker and GMC, so I figured I'd put them all together here (and make a few updates).

-1999. Mark Overmars, a professor at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, begins developing an animation designer called "Animo", which later becomes "Game Maker"

-15 November, 1999. Game Maker 1.1 is the first version to be released to the public, shortly followed by 1.1-1.4 .

-February, 2000. Game Maker reaches 1000 downloads.

-September, 2000. Game Maker 2.0 released.

-Early 2001. Game Maker 3.0 released. Popularity increases.

-July 2001. Game Maker 4.0 released. GM4 was a complete re-write featuring a multiplayer system and a new red logo

-2003. gamemaker.nl released as the program's first website dedicated entirely to it.

-April 2003. Game Maker 5.0 is released and includes timelines, data file resources, and a complete facelift to the interface.

-September 2003. Game Maker 5.1 released as the first version to include feature restricted to a registered version of the game (such as the new particles system). Game Maker Community released around the same time.

-Sometime in 2003. Game Make reaches 1 million downloads.

-October 2004. Game Maker 6.0 released. 6.0 introduced the first d3d functions, as well as the fonts resource and a re-written sounds system

-2005 Game Maker is featured in several TV programs and competitions, increasing it's popularity. GM6.1 is also released.

-June 2006. The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners is released as the first book for Game Maker.

-January 2007. Development of the program is turned over to new company YoYoGames, though Mark Overmars is still a lead developer



-February 2007. Game Maker 7.0 is released, though features few major changes to the actual program.



-April 2007. The official Game Maker website is moved from gamemaker.nl to yoyogames.com. YoYogames.com includes a way to upload your games, as well as a way to play, rate, and comment on games by others, as well as including it's own forums.



-November 2007. Yoyogames hosts it's first major competition with the theme "winter" and a 1st-place prize of $1000. five similar competitions follow throughout the next few years.



-September 2009. YoYoGames announces a contest to design a new logo for the upcoming Game Maker 8. We don't like to talk about this part...



-December 2009. Game Maker 8.0 is released and includes numerous fixes and improvements to the previous versions, as well as a new logo
. December also saw the launch of competition 5 where contestants were asked to create a handheld game, particularly for the PSP. This marked the start of Game Maker being used for systems other than windows. While the PSP connection eventually fell through, it lead to the creation of Game Maker Studio several years later.



-July 2010. Nal becomes the first of many people from the Game Maker community to join the YoYoGames team.



-August 2010. GM4Mac is released as the first public Game Maker version to allow exportation to a non-Windows platform. It did not include a free version like the windows version did.



-October 2010. YoYoGames releases SkyDiver Match II, it's first game to be released for iPhones. October 2010 also saw the release of The Game Maker's Companion, a more advanced squeal to The Game Maker's Apprentice.



-March 2011. Game Maker 8.1 is released and includes an improved room and various other improvements. It also required users who had bought Game Maker before the release of GM8 to re-purchase the paid version for $25.



-July 2011. New YoYoGames website is launched under the same domain. the previous site is changed to "sandbox."



-September 2011. Game Maker for HTML5 beta is released, allowing for development of in-browser games.



-May 2012. After a long wait, Game Maker Studio is finally released. Studio allows for exportation to multiple platforms, as well as multiple updates to Game Maker itself. Also in late May, the YoYoGames forums had a severe hacking, requiring them to be shut-down. In responce, Game Maker Community adds an Off-Topic section to accommodate YYGF users.



-October 2014. YoYo Games releases the Beta version of Game Maker: Player. Player allows people to play games by others and is intended as a replacement to the Sandbox.



-September 2015. Undertale is released and quickly becomes Game Maker's most popular game

Late 2000/early 2001: The first version of Game Maker Community is created as a single-board forum. The only staff at first is Mark Overmars (creator of Game Maker for you noobies), but he soon promotes Andrew Gilbert (known there as StudiosOfAndyG) as the site's first moderator.



March 16th, 2001: A new forum is created powered by EZBoard with such amazing features as multiple boards and the ability to remove posts.



September 17th, 2001: Mark O. posts this message about the 9/11 attacks;

Dear forum users,
Although I fully understand peoples feelings about what happened in the US I would like to ask you all to stop using this forum to post your opinions about it. There are other forums and places where you can ventilate your sorrow, anger or fear. Let us keep this forum to a forum about game maker.

Mark Overmars

August 12th, 2002: DT becomes the first user to be promoted to administrator.



October 6th, 2002: A new forum is started using Invision Power Board (IP.Board) due to an increase in popups and other improved features.



January 15th, 2003: The forums are moved back to EZBoard due to issues with the IP.Board site. The site gets a reskinning.



October 4th, 2003: The forums are moved to IP.Board again, this time permanently, under the address "forums.gamemaker.nl". This is the base for the site used today.



October 2003 - December 2004: GMC goes through a "dark period" in which very few topics or archive.org snapshots exist. Somewhere in this time, DT steps down as admin and is replaced by Richard and Chronic. At the end of this time, the forums are upgraded at IP.Board2.0 and a majority of topics are removed.



Winter, 2005: Damaged is promoted to admin.



August 27th, 2005: Much like Blue's Clue's "Mr. Steve", Richard steps down from his post as admin to go to college. He is replaced by Jodder



January 13th, 2007: Jodder is replaced by Smarty as an admin.



January 26th, 2007: Game Maker is taken over by YoYoGames, causing much controversy. Various YYG staff members pop in and out as admins for the next few years, YoYoJim being the most prominent.



April 15th, 2007: Following the creation of yoyogames.com as the new Game Maker website, the GMC's domain is changed to the current one; "gmc.yoyogames.com"



November 8th, 2007: YYG hosts the first of 6 official competitions. The first one's theme is "winter" and is won by 2Dcube with his game "Frozzed."



April 1st, 2008: Frustrated with the attitudes of some people on the site, Smarty resigns from his post as an administrator. He's later replaced by KC LC.



April 22nd, 2008: For YYG's third competition, the community gets to chose the theme. The winner is Qwertyman's nomination, "cooperation".



December 2nd, 2009: Due to the massive uproar against a new logo chosen for Game Maker (aka: Smileycog), FredFredrickson leads an effort to redesign it, eventually coming up with the logo used for GM8 (
)



August, 2010: KC LC resigns for "personal reasons" and is never seen again...



She is later replaced by FredFredrickson and Xot.



January 4th, 2011: Frustrated by the end of official YYG competitions, dadio suggests a community-led one that eventually turns into the first GMC Jam.



February 17th, 2012: Nocturne joins the YYG staff and begins his "reign of terror" as admin.



May 30th, 2012: After an attack on the 23rd, the YYG forums are shut down. Because of this, GMC gets an off-topic board, something that had been out of the question since after the EZBoard days, and the YYG mods join the GMC staff. Despite what many predicted, GMC kept its name.



Early 2013: Admin status is reduced to be only YYG staff, ending Chronic's nearly-10-year time as an admin. FredFredrickson, Trollsplater, and xot are also demoted.



June 2016: Nearly five months after the original planned date, and after two months of complete downtime, the site is finally moved from IP.Board to XenForo



December 17th 2019 The old IP.Board GMC is deleted

Also, here's a timeline of every moderator this site has had

Old topic (including More fun factoids + quiz from user NakedPaulTost): https://web.archive.org/web/20191207060224/https://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=644590
 
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Spasman

Member
If you want a mildly interesting footnote, the Games Showcase (gmshowcase.dk) website was also bought out by YYG when they took over for Overmars. It was a site that would end up competing with the heavy hitters at the time like GMG (Game Maker Games) and 64digits in terms of community and game hosting/feature service. I was a site reviewer and forum regular on the GMS up until it's death. (My name was Coyote back then)

I don't remember too well for the reason why but the controversial thing was they shut down the site entirely and took every game from that website and uploaded it to the sandbox without the creators' permission.

This was a slap in the face considering a lot of users favorite GM website was just shut down and then their games were being uploaded without consent. They later made an offer to take down the game, or put it under your account if you asked them but would otherwise leave it up as "Anonymous" if no one staked a claim. The sandbox still has a lot of games listed as Anonymous to this day.

A few GMS members tried to revive the site once or twice but couldn't afford it or didn't see it as worth paying for due to not having the same activity as it once did.
 

RekNepZ

GMC Historian
Oh hey Coyote! I think I remember you a bit from GMG (man, I miss that place). Nice info there. I've always wondered what happened to GamesShowcase after I saw the profile of Anonymous. I was team GMG myself back in the day.
 

FredFredrickson

Artist, designer, & developer
GMC Elder
O

Otyugra

Guest
I think it is really cool that the program has been around since the tail end of the 90s. That was the fifth generation (Nintendo 64, early Optical Disk computer gaming, Sega Saturn, Game Boy Color and PlayStation), to put things into perspective. It makes me wonder what would have been if I know about the program ten years ago and had built my skills over the years. What kind of games would I have made by now?
 

Juju

Member
2003. gamemaker.nl released as the program's first website dedicated entirely to it.
This isn't technically, pedantically, 100% correct. gamemaker.nl was a proper, and more memorable, URL that mirrored M.Overmars' GameMaker section of his personal pages (www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/) on University of Utrecht's staff hosting. It depends what you define as "website", I think. There was a dedicated space for GM and there was a dedicated forum (albeit hosted elsewhere) before gamemaker.nl.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
The expected quality for an indie game has gotten WAY higher over these years, and many things we had no way to see coming has emerged. Smartphones, for instance... and Steam. Back in those days, people were thrilled if someone just noticed their games, but nowadays everyone are trying to make a quick buck with very little effort all over the place.
upload_2016-6-26_3-48-36.png
 
R

roytheshort

Guest
Well, that's Lemon theory. It happened with the Sandbox, it happened with Steam and it happens at Gamejolt. Low prices drive away the people which make better games. Also Sturgeon's law has some truth for the free games, where 99% of everything is terrible.

If someone finds a way to filter out people making a quick buck, you've solved many more problems than just the Steam library.
 

Sammi3

Member
I personally don't like the bashing people who want to make a quick buck get because it's all subjective as to why people should make games. I see people who don't like these quick buck guys are practically just saying 'How can I stop someone else from making money so that I can make more because my game subjectively has more merit to make more money than theirs'.
 
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Sammi3

Member
None but I don't think those clone makers, unless infringing any laws, shouldn't be allowed to make a quickie game and try sell it. Again, it's all subjective as to why a game should be on the market. Mainstream game designers need to get their heads out their arses and accept this is the nature of a free market. Mobile phone companies deal with it, car companies deal with it. Let's not try to create an elitist game dev society.
 
R

roytheshort

Guest
Me not buying their games and not liking them is also part of the free market, I'm not forcing them to do anything. I'm just calling them annoying. Also companies putting in quality control for themselves is still part of the free market.
 
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Sammi3

Member
Me not buying their games and not liking them is also part of the free market, I'm not forcing them to do anything. I'm just calling them annoying. Also companies putting in quality control for themselves is still part of the free market.
Which is all up to you but you called them a problem which is unfair. They might be annoying to you and to me but they aren't a problem to game development just the outcome of a free market.
 
R

roytheshort

Guest
Which is all up to you but you called them a problem which is unfair. They might be annoying to you and to me but they aren't a problem to game development just the outcome of a free market.
Again, I know it's the outcome of the free market. I'm still allowed to whinge. I was just following on Yal's point that there's a lot of crap out there, I, as a consumer, would buy a game product from a company that finds a way around this for Indie Gaming. That's what I was saying. No state intervention. Still a free market.
 
T

TheSodaMachine

Guest
It is quite something to see that YYG has had Game Maker for 9 years, nearly twice as long as Mark O did. It amazes me how quickly it all went when I was a wee one.

Side note: I too am a former staff member of Games Showcase. What a time to be a 12-year-old kid with a program like Game Maker.

The old community is gone, and with it my old account. I suppose now is a proper time to admit that I never had a little brother.

Be well, GMC. Live long and prosper.
 
H

Heat4Life

Guest
That was awesome! I'm really glad to know a Bits of History of GM:S! :D
 

RekNepZ

GMC Historian
Just updated the mod timeline again. Note that several former mods still don't have their "GMC Elder" status.
 

RekNepZ

GMC Historian
Thought I'd do a little updating on this seeing as the old site is being taken down. Just some small things like archiving the original topic. I haven't been active here nor have I touched Game Maker in a couple of years, so I'm not really in the loop of recent events and there's likely big things that aren't on the timeline. I may update the mods timeline as well at some point, but it really hasn't changed much since the last edit.
 
But did anyone manage to archive the games and editable from 2000-2006 anything from gamemaker.nl

Been looking forever for those things
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
It's been 19 years and I still haven't found a use for timelines.
The only time I've found an use for them was in this game, which was made in GM8's Lite version. Because of some resource constraint limiting how many assets you could put in the game I had a single timeline which set a global variable to a text string (the contents of a file which was output from a level editor), then the next step a controller ran a parsing algorithm to load the actual level data from that variable - thus making me only need a single room and a single timeline for all the areas in the game.
 

drandula

Member
It's been 19 years and I still haven't found a use for timelines.
I have used once for jam game, which had waves of crabs appearing in intervals. So I basically hardcoded wave patterns with timelines. But that was just quick and dirty solution, not scalable at all.
So, if this game had been bigger project, then I would have taken different approach 🙃
 

Repix

Member
Jesus reading about KC LC again in this post.. That gave me cold blood.. Something about that is.. God.. I hate how we can just vanish.



I wish I could get updates about everyone in real time.



Also.. It's been soooo loooooong! :O I've been using these forums for 14 years? where did this time go :(
 

dadio

Potato Overlord
GMC Elder
Great work on this Histories stuff.
Minor thing of note (not very accurate but...)
At some point after GM moved to Opera, my full Mod status was removed.
I only noticed the fact months/years later because life.
You could update my thing to keep being full Mod until 2021 (Opera buyout)...
then regular member from 2021-2022.
And "GMC Jam" forum Mod from 2023 onwards (that's the only forum I can now edit - which makes sense because I was never active enough as a full Mod.)
 

Gizmo199

Member
It's been 19 years and I still haven't found a use for timelines.
I've only been able to use them as pseudo coroutines and delegates, but now it's so much easier to just do all of that in code. Haha.

Oh I did use them 1 time for a branching dialogue system.

Most of the use cases I found for them were before functions though, so they are pretty much useless now. Especially with sequences, which I believe timeliness were originally intended to be used for (like cutscenes). Surprised they haven't just deprecated them yet honestly.
 
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