Are you sure about a release version of hlm 2 being done? If they ported to a C++ engine in 2013 for 1, why would they release with GM in 2015... also I don't think its irrelevant, I just wouldn't want to tout them as an advocate for a product because they stopped using it as soon as they had the resources to
If their success was achieved while using GM, then that's a huge positive for GM and all that matters. They were under market pressure to get their game onto a lot of platforms fast and wanted to focus on their next game so they paid Abstraction to do all their ports and take over development. They had the resources to do this. This isn't an option for any of us and it's not a problem any of us are solving for. Our problem is creating a great game with limited resources and HLM/HLM2 validate GM as a choice.
This is how the development went.
Hotline Miami 1:
- GameMaker version of Hotline Miami 1
- Converted version of Hotline Miami 1 including 'GameMaker simulation' as one big thing
- PhyreEngine
and for Hotline Miami 2 it's:
- GameMaker version of Hotline Miami 2
- Converted version of Hotline Miami 2
- GameBaker (Conversion tools and GameMaker simulation)
- SilverWare
And why Gamemaker for HLM2:
Does make me curious though, why was it built in GameMaker again in the first place if it would be ported to Gamebaker and Silverware?
"Jonatan (from Dennaton games) has years and years of experience working with GameMaker so it made sense for him to keep working in that environment. Also our tools don't offer much in the way of authoring the game itself, they're merely designed to create a runtime environment for the converted GameMaker game to run in."
It's important to note that they never stopped using GameMaker.