Distribution do you need the studio professional verison to make money off your game

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crazybloodmonkey

Guest
so i'm just thinking ahead here i haven't made anything that is worth anyone's money but i might one day so i'm just wonder if i have to spend the 150 dollars in order to sell my games on steam or whatever. for some reason i can't find the answer to this, it probably has been answered about 1000 times anyway just wonder if it's possible to profit using the free version or not
 
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seanm

Guest
If you can make an exe. yes.

Can you make a game worth selling? mostly up to you.
 
A

Aura

Guest
The Standard version of GM:S can be used for commercial games. Here's what the licence says:

1.1. Subject to these terms you may install and use:

the versions of the Software described as "GameMaker" for personal, non-commercial and commercial use; provided you have paid the applicable licence fee.

In each case "use" of this Software shall be to create computer programs ("Stand-alone Applications").

The Stand-alone Applications you create with the Software may be used by you as you wish without payment of any licence fee or royalty PROVIDED THAT such Stand-alone Applications comply with these Terms including without limitation as set out in clause 3 below.
(You can read the complete text by opening GM:S and going to the License tab)

That means you can easily make money with the free version of GM:S. What matters more is the platform(s) it targets. The Standard version is strictly limited to PCs. But majority of the gaming market has already turned to mobile devices years ago, so you're going to miss potential audience and customers if you stay limited to PCs.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
You're legally able to make money using the free version, but the paid versions has extra features.
 
F

Fodderbot

Guest
There are a number of features in the professional version that make it easier to produce a well polished game.

The first one for me is the ability to better optimize your final product through the use of texture groups. Having worked in the game industry for quite a while I can tell you that this is huge on the graphics optimization side of things.

If you want to work on a team eventually source control is vital.

As for marketing : If you want to sell on steam, steam api integration is essential,
if you ever want to sell to target platforms like Iphone or Android you'll need those target modules.

These are just a few of the reasons, not to mention great forums and a really helpful developer community, and fairly decent documentation.

Sure you can write a basic game but to really make it perform, to sing as it were, I would suggest the pro version.
In the long run its just a pittance, if your really serious about game development.
And, why not support a company that supports us so well? They need to eat as well. even if its just pizza in front of glowing monitors, late at night, using keyboards with the lettering worn off. :)
 
M

MishMash

Guest
so i'm just thinking ahead here i haven't made anything that is worth anyone's money but i might one day so i'm just wonder if i have to spend the 150 dollars in order to sell my games on steam or whatever. for some reason i can't find the answer to this, it probably has been answered about 1000 times anyway just wonder if it's possible to profit using the free version or not
Normally, when you get to a point where you are creating things that are worth money, spending $150 on the professional version is negligible. No matter what, it would end up being a good investment as it would give you additional features that would save you time and enable you to create a better end product.

Sure, you could publish things with the free version, but then you have things like the splash screen and all the limitations will just make it near infeasible/difficult to make a game with a reasonable amount of content.

If you are in a position where you plan on attempting to make money from a game, if you have any serious desire to, and the quality is good, you can almost guarantee that you will be aiming to make more than $150 because if you spend months of work on something only to make a tiny amount by selling, its really not worth it (you'd be better off just releasing a game for free at that point, having more people play and enjoy it, build a following and gaining an extra portfolio piece with a little more meat behind it.)

What i'm saying is that when the time comes that you are serious about selling games, $150 will really not be much of a barrier. Most reasonable distribution platforms have an upfront cost for creating a developer account anyway, so this is also something to bear in mind.

From a slightly indirect point of view, I do really want you to take the time to think about why game development appeals to you. I think its fair to assume you are relatively new to game dev and haven't really created any large projects yet. This is fine, and its fantastic that people are doing this, its a great thing to get into! Though being straight to the point, starting game dev with the sole intention of wanting to make buck as quickly and as early as possible is the wrong attitude. So many people come on here thinking they can easily make the next angry birds and all they care about is the money at the end of the tunnel. Enjoying the process, enjoying learning, designing and really getting deep into it should be the main focus. If you ever hope to get through a large project, you have to enjoy the process and enjoy what you are doing, otherwise it'll just crash and burn.

The other important thing is you should never undervalue the merits of just creating free games for fun. It's a shame that this community has started to drift away from that, though just creating things for fun and having the opportunity to try out a wide range of different styles and concepts is a really great way to evolve as a developer :)


So to sum everything up, if you have to even ask that question, you aren't in a position where you are ready to be thinking about selling games, sorry.
 
Mostly, all the paid features of GM: studio are about exporting your game to a different platform.
You're free to make money however you like as long as you own the rights to the assets you're using in your game. Paying for the professionnal version of studio will allow you to spread your game to wider audiences.
 
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Matheus Alexandre

Guest
Wow, a game made on free version.

You can sell your game, i cant believe that you can make a good game on the free version. Anyway, you can sell your game.
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
My understanding is that you can sell your game with the free version. If you can make a game that sells, go for it. The paid software won't guarantee that you make money, though it can help to make your game better in some ways. In my case, I own the Master Collection, and at this point it was kind of a charity to Yoyo as I haven't made a penny off it yet(though I've had fun).
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
There's two free versions... the Lite versions has so strict limitations it's more or less impossible to make something good in it, but the registered-but-still-free Standard version has most of them removed. Both still allow you to sell your games and earn money, but the Lite version will give you a worse UX as well as watermarking and stuff that makes your game seem pretty nonprofessional... so going that extra mile won't hurt.
 
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