• Hey Guest! Ever feel like entering a Game Jam, but the time limit is always too much pressure? We get it... You lead a hectic life and dedicating 3 whole days to make a game just doesn't work for you! So, why not enter the GMC SLOW JAM? Take your time! Kick back and make your game over 4 months! Interested? Then just click here!
  • Hello [name]! Thanks for joining the GMC. Before making any posts in the Tech Support forum, can we suggest you read the forum rules? These are simple guidelines that we ask you to follow so that you can get the best help possible for your issue.

Windows If I buy GMS2 now, Will I..

G

Guest User

Guest
If I pay the $60 upgrade to GMS2 now, will I get a steam key later on or never?
(currently own GMS pro on steam)
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
There are no announcements to be made about Steam at the moment. If you buy a licence then you should so without counting on a Steam version coming around. It might happen, it might not.
 
G

grixm

Guest
I read a post somewhere by YYG today that there is no Steam release intended.

Probably a good move in reality. Less support calls and only one version to maintain.
Damn, I think that would be very disappointing. I love having all my software on steam, it makes switching between computers super easy, and I never have to worry about licenses. I even bought Sony's video and audio workstation software over the alternatives for the sole reason that they were available on steam.
 

rwkay

GameMaker Staff
GameMaker Dev.
We have no plans at the moment for a steam release, not saying we won't do it in the future but at least for the next year or 2 we have no plans to do it... Unless Gabe turns up with a large wad of cash and gives it to us...

Russell
 

Bingdom

Googledom
I might be wrong on this, but I think you can add non-steam games to your library list. (Just like adding a shortcut to your desktop).
 

xot

GMLscripter
GMC Elder
You can launch non-Steam games that way but it doesn'the give you the benefit of Steam's CDN for fast, automatic updates.

I also like being able to have different versions of GMS1 installed via Steam and retail distributions. Handy for contract work that may require using a specific version. GMS2's swappable runtimes should facilitate that quite well, if they are cached locally.
 

rwkay

GameMaker Staff
GameMaker Dev.
@xot - they are cached locally so you should be good - you may want to untick the delete runtimes that are not used and just manage them yourself.

Russell
 
  • Like
Reactions: xot

xot

GMLscripter
GMC Elder
I always run the current beta version on Steam, and I'll install whatever retail version I need for special cases. Not sure how hard it is to roll-back the Steam version. Selecting an older retail install is very easy from the links in the release notes.

GMS2 should make that a thing of the past and I'm very happy for that.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
Surprised this thread is still going lol.
tbh when I found out you cannot make a single runtime exe with GMS2, it put me off buying.
 

Gradius

Member
@rIKmAN
The 'single runtime exe' discussed is the option to export the game and its files as a self-extracting archive .exe instead of a .zip containing the .exe and associated files (like the 'data.win', for instance).
This is probably true, it's been glitchy as hell in GM:S and the official stance has been "Don't use it ever" for ages, despite there apparently being actual fixes possible.
 

rIKmAN

Member
@rIKmAN
The 'single runtime exe' discussed is the option to export the game and its files as a self-extracting archive .exe instead of a .zip containing the .exe and associated files (like the 'data.win', for instance).
This is probably true, it's been glitchy as hell in GM:S and the official stance has been "Don't use it ever" for ages, despite there apparently being actual fixes possible.
Yeah I know what it is, but I haven't seen any mention of it not being available in GMS2, nor the warnings about "Don't ever use it" for GMS1. I've used it in GMS1 without any problems a few times.

I thought maybe @AncientPaul had missed the dropdown box to select it when you "Create Application" as it doesn't default to Single Runtime exe, at least in GMS1.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
@rIKmAN
The 'single runtime exe' discussed is the option to export the game and its files as a self-extracting archive .exe instead of a .zip containing the .exe and associated files (like the 'data.win', for instance).
This is probably true, it's been glitchy as hell in GM:S and the official stance has been "Don't use it ever" for ages, despite there apparently being actual fixes possible.
Yeah, I like a single .exe file, not a folder full of stuff. (quite frankly the main reason I dumped construct 2 was that the only export options gave you a folder full of dll's and other junk. whereas I like a single .exe file) and yes, as silly as it sounds, its a big deal to me.
 

rIKmAN

Member
Yeah, I like a single .exe file, not a folder full of stuff. (quite frankly the main reason I dumped construct 2 was that the only export options gave you a folder full of dll's and other junk. whereas I like a single .exe file) and yes, as silly as it sounds, its a big deal to me.
It's not silly at all mate, I understand your point and agree with you - I just didn't realise the option was no longer there in GMS2. Where did you see that mentioned?

There are other tools that can do the job of packing/compressing/creating an exe if that's the only reason you aren't buying.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
It's not silly at all mate, I understand your point and agree with you - I just didn't realise the option was no longer there in GMS2. Where did you see that mentioned?

There are other tools that can do the job of packing/compressing/creating an exe if that's the only reason you aren't buying.
A friend of mine bought it and that was one of the changes he mentioned to me.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
For single exe creation, use the iExpress Wizard in your System32 folder, it is what GM:S used to make the single exe, (I am the one who told Mike about it in the first place, and if it wasn't for me, they would've never implimented the feature). Another "thank you" would be nice.

You may either enter in Command Prompt:
Code:
iexpress.exe
Or open it manually via Windows Explorer:
Code:
C:/Windows/System32/iexpress.exe
It's pretty straight-forward and easy-to-use.

Message me if you have any questions. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hopefully they bring back the export to exe as I also prefer one exe file. It's not like I'm going to be making the next blockbuster.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
We've said this over and over... so, for everyone else who might search for this....

1) single executable's don't work on every platform. Microsoft changed the tool so that something built on windows 8 (and above probably) don't work on anything below that. It's not our tool, we just use the MS one. So this is a horrible choice for a standard tool.

2) zip. This isn't how normal games install and the reason for this is because on windows you can run something from the zip, and this might mean it hasn't gotten all the assets DLL and packages installed it needs in the proper place. So again, not a great default choice.

3) Installer. The only guaranteed way to get a game onto someones platform. It'll install all the DLLs, DX runtimes - everything you need. Hence, the default. if we didn't pick this one, we'd get loads of support questions asking why their game doesn't work.
Number 1 is the reason why you can't make single EXEs and it's not ever going to be added to GMS2 afaik.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
The Windows 7 version of iExpress Wizard is backwards compatible, I tried it on Vista and it worked fine. I assume for XP the same goes. I also tested the same exe on Windows 8 and 10. Both worked. Would it be legal if I redistributed the Windows 7 iExpress Wizard and its dependencies ("iexpress.exe", "makecab.exe", and "wextract.exe") so that Windows 8 and later users could still have backwards compatibility with their single exe distributions?
 

Juju

Member
Since you're the one who found this miraculous solution, it sounds like you're the sole expert on the matter.

Likely a question better directed towards Microsoft's lawyers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: xot

rIKmAN

Member
Since you're the one who found this miraculous solution, it sounds like you're the sole expert on the matter.

Likely a question better directed towards Microsoft's lawyers.
And still nobody has given him another 'thank you', he must be fuming lol!

@Samuel Venable - I wouldn't recommend distributing anything that comes as part of Windows, but emailing them the question wouldn't hurt.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
Since you're the one who found this miraculous solution, it sounds like you're the sole expert on the matter.

Likely a question better directed towards Microsoft's lawyers.
Being aware of something's existence doesn't make anyone an expert. In a more broad sense the question could be "are Windows system files ok to distribute?" I'll contact Microsoft about it and see what they say. :)
 

Mick

Member
Good to know about iExpress, I often create a single runtime executable with GMS1.4 and it has worked well since I use Windows 7. Since the option of creating a single runtime executable is not available in GMS2 I just now made a wrapper tool for iExpress to speed up the process of converting a zip file created by GMS to a single runtime executable. You can download it and try it out (it needs .NET 4.5). I'm not sure if it works for other versions of iExpress than the one bundled with Windows 7 though.

http://www.gamephase.net/download/772/

The tool is very easy to use, you just start the tool and choose a zip file to convert and an executable will be created with the same name in the same folder as the zip file. Alternatively, you can drag and drop a zip file to the GMSZipToExe.exe (or a shortcut of the tool), and the same conversion process starts (this way the tool is automatically closed after the conversion).

One thing I couldn't figure out though was how to replace the icon of the created executable. How is it done in GMS1.4, anybody?
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
@Mick

You may use Resource Hacker to replace the default icon, as the first option that comes to mind. You can get it for free available here:

http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

You may also use XN Resource Editor and numerous other tools. Or Google for an icon replacer, some which are free, some aren't.

As long as you use it to modify the single runtime exe generated by iExpress, and not the game exe inside it, you are not breaking the EULA. You can also rename the singe runtime exe's extension to zip and it will be a normal zip file that will have the game inside and can be viewed or extracted using Windows Explorer.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Mick

Member
You may use Resource Hacker to replace the default icon, as the first option that comes to mind. You can get it for free available here:
Thanks for the tip, I know about resource hacker, I would like to find a way to automatically replace the icon of the single runtime exe from the game exe since this is a "single-click" (kind of) solution.

I will look for a command line icon extractor / replacer.
 
Last edited:

TheMagician

Member
Great work, guys! I've always liked the option to create a single runtime exe - definitely not for distributing the final game (I can understand Mike's objections against that) but for quick testing on my machine.

I don't know how other people tested their multiplayer games locally apart from quickly creating a single exe and then start that multiple times - since you can't run two clones of your game from within GMS.

PS: Thank you @Samuel Venable :)
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
Great work, guys! I've always liked the option to create a single runtime exe - definitely not for distributing the final game (I can understand Mike's objections against that) but for quick testing on my machine.

I don't know how other people tested their multiplayer games locally apart from quickly creating a single exe and then start that multiple times - since you can't run two clones of your game from within GMS.

PS: Thank you @Samuel Venable :)
Your welcome.

Yellow Afterlife made running two instances of your game possible, at least for Windows users. Though it was made for GMS1, I'm not sure if it would work in 2.x, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

https://yal.cc/gamemaker-testing-two-game-instances-at-once/

Edit: Ninja'd by Dogarooski
 
G

Guest User

Guest
Well folk, I just tried out gms2 for the first time and I spent 2 hours playing with it (thought I'd check it out then buy it tonight)
I may get banned for this but oh dear.. I thought it was awful, so very confusing and really annoying to use. Needless to say, I'll be sticking with gms1
(sorry devs, no offence intended)
 

zetao

Member
Steam's servers faster and stable...It has servers all over the world.
I own GMS master on steam,download and update just need few minutes.
I like to try GM2 and consider to upgrade or not.
But i download GM2 spent few hours and couldn't installing runtime at all...btw i live in china ...
A steam release,no matter how long,please.:)
 
Top