GameMaker GameMaker no longer free!

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James Korsean

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I am very surprised I see no other forum posts talking about this! Why did Yoyogames make GM 2's free edition way worse than GM 1's! This screws over so many people including myself. I teach a GameMaker course at my local CoderDojo, a place where people come and volunteer to teach kids how to code. And now my class is going to have to be either shut down or it will be drained of students because I have to tell them "You can't export and share your games now with Gm 2". What student would come to a class knowing what they learn and what the make they can't share?! Please Yoyo! Don't do this! I get you're trying to push Gamemaker 2, but please push it in a manor that doesn't drive new learners away! Why couldn't you just make the free edition of GM 2 the same as the free edition of Gm 1?! With GM 1 I could tell my students "You can make whatever Windows game you want, and the only limitation is it's Windows only and you have a very short non-intrusive splash screen!". These reasons were also why I got into GameMaker! These reasons seemed like a jackpot of simple game-engines to me! But now I have to tell them "You can run it only on windows and you can't even export it to share, you can only run your game when you're in the game engine." Please Yoyo! Even though I already have a GM 1 professional license I feel like I should switch engines because I supported a company who would do this!
 

The-any-Key

Member
The students could send the project and you can compile it. You could setup a computer that auto-compile the projects. Just a backup plan if yoyo dont allow window export.
 
You can still teach through GameMaker: Studio 1 (I do at Coding Pirates in Denmark, which sounds to be somewhat the same as your CoderDojo). It hasn't all of a sudden become illegal to use. A couple of the kids has bought GameMaker: Studio 2 themselves, and since the code base is almost the same there is no trouble in teaching them as well.

If you NEED to use GameMaker: Studio 2, you can negotiate a deal with YoYo Games (to get a discount, I know they do have such deals for schools and the like) :)
 
J

James Korsean

Guest
You can still teach through GameMaker: Studio 1 (I do at Coding Pirates in Denmark, which sounds to be somewhat the same as your CoderDojo). It hasn't all of a sudden become illegal to use. A couple of the kids has bought GameMaker: Studio 2 themselves, and since the code base is almost the same there is no trouble in teaching them as well.

If you NEED to use GameMaker: Studio 2, you can negotiate a deal with YoYo Games (to get a discount, I know they do have such deals for schools and the like) :)
CoderDojo has stopped the sale of GM 1 free license keys. The only way to obtain GameMaker 1 now is to buy the $100 professional version of GameMaker 2. I can have students still install GameMaker 1 but in order to use it you need to have a license, and you used to be able to get a free license where it's only limitations were it was Windows only and you had a splash screen in your game. But now like I said, they stopped giving those out to try to push GameMaker 2 onto everyone. But the free version of GameMaker 2 doesn't let you export your games to share, so it's not anything like GameMaker 1's free license. And also I'm not sure about the educational deal. If I am correct they meant for things like schools where you download GameMaker onto all of the school computers. But in Coderdojo students bring their own laptops. We could then install the educational versions on their latops but soon enough if more students come we may run out of how many times we can install it, or say if a student tries out our class and doesn't like it, that is 1 key use absolutely wasted on their laptop. And to what "The-any-key" said, I only own a GameMaker 1 professional license, I can't even export on GameMaker 2 because I'm not going to blow money on ANOTHER GameMaker license not but 5 months after I got the first license! So because the students can only use GameMaker 2, if they sent me their project files I could do nothing with them unless i blow $100 on a license, which I can't right now.
 
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jb skaggs

Guest
I have worked with non profits for years, in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the USA. What I always found interesting is how poor kids (Im talking about rural delta region of Arkansas 90% minority, 30% unemployment, etc) could not afford things like books, school, or food. But they always had high dollar shoes, $80 hats, pimped out rides, and nice cell phones. People will buy what is important to them. It's called vestment. Concerning food, they would say could not afford $10 for rice, milk, and eggs- but go and spend $20 at McDonalds.

A volunteer coding school does not mean the kids or students have no need to be vested, it means that you are volunteering your time and expertise for free. Asking them to invest what amounts to a few meals at McDonald's is not asking alot. And if they are truly destitute setup a scholarship and get local business to fund it. They will.
 
J

James Korsean

Guest
I have worked with non profits for years, in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the USA. What I always found interesting is how poor kids (Im talking about rural delta region of Arkansas 90% minority, 30% unemployment, etc) could not afford things like books, school, or food. But they always had high dollar shoes, $80 hats, pimped out rides, and nice cell phones. People will buy what is important to them. It's called vestment. Concerning food, they would say could not afford $10 for rice, milk, and eggs- but go and spend $20 at McDonalds.

A volunteer coding school does not mean the kids or students have no need to be vested, it means that you are volunteering your time and expertise for free. Asking them to invest what amounts to a few meals at McDonald's is not asking alot. And if they are truly destitute setup a scholarship and get local business to fund it. They will.
Having students buy the licenses just wouldn't fit CoderDojo well. In our CoderDojo we encourage students trying out many things, back when I used to go as a student I would hop around to a different class each month, not because the last one didn't suit me, but because I wanted to try out everything. And this is very very common among today's students. I see kids who did Arduino hop over to Web Design then hop over to Code.org then Arduino and then Code.org again, always going somewhere else each month. Not to mention all of these classes require no price tag on the student. But it just seems like a large leap to make a family pay $100 dollars to buy the license for a class their kid may not even enjoy. Why would a parent pay that $100 fee when they can just have their kid go to the Web Design or Arduino course for free.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
There will be an education version of GMS2 released in the future (see here, at the bottom of the page), but I can't give a timescale or a price for it. You'd need to contact YYG personally for that... however at the moment there will not be a "free" version like 1.4. YYG have stated this multiple times, and given explanations why in other topics (essentially, it just wasn't cost effective), although the Trial Licence may be expanded in the future to lift or change some of current the restrictions.
 
J

jb skaggs

Guest
Having students buy the licenses just wouldn't fit CoderDojo well. In our CoderDojo we encourage students trying out many things, back when I used to go as a student I would hop around to a different class each month, not because the last one didn't suit me, but because I wanted to try out everything. And this is very very common among today's students. I see kids who did Arduino hop over to Web Design then hop over to Code.org then Arduino and then Code.org again, always going somewhere else each month. Not to mention all of these classes require no price tag on the student. But it just seems like a large leap to make a family pay $100 dollars to buy the license for a class their kid may not even enjoy. Why would a parent pay that $100 fee when they can just have their kid go to the Web Design or Arduino course for free.

Why would a parent pay $100 for Nike when Walmart sells sneakers for $15 or get them for free at Thrift Shop? I understand where you are coming from. That is where the scholarship would come in. Having a vestment is a very good thing. I started my non profit in 1989, in that time I first started out with the attitude "They can't, and they won't, or Why would they?" if I didnt do everything for them. When I quit trying to be their provider, and instead became their mentor the program blossomed. Sure if YoYo wants to give you a free license for your class fine. But in reality you can't expect others to shoulder the costs of your program, if you want to have other shoulder the cost then get out to your crowdsourcing, and local churches, businesses and raise the capital. Better yet have the kids do it.
 

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
CoderDojo has stopped the sale of GM 1 free license keys. The only way to obtain GameMaker 1 now is to buy the $100 professional version of GameMaker 2. I can have students still install GameMaker 1 but in order to use it you need to have a license, and you used to be able to get a free license where it's only limitations were it was Windows only and you had a splash screen in your game. But now like I said, they stopped giving those out to try to push GameMaker 2 onto everyone. But the free version of GameMaker 2 doesn't let you export your games to share, so it's not anything like GameMaker 1's free license. And also I'm not sure about the educational deal. If I am correct they meant for things like schools where you download GameMaker onto all of the school computers. But in Coderdojo students bring their own laptops. We could then install the educational versions on their latops but soon enough if more students come we may run out of how many times we can install it, or say if a student tries out our class and doesn't like it, that is 1 key use absolutely wasted on their laptop. And to what "The-any-key" said, I only own a GameMaker 1 professional license, I can't even export on GameMaker 2 because I'm not going to blow money on ANOTHER GameMaker license not but 5 months after I got the first license! So because the students can only use GameMaker 2, if they sent me their project files I could do nothing with them unless i blow $100 on a license, which I can't right now.
First..... You can do a lot with the GMS2 trial, and yes you can't export - but you can share project files. If you want to create a final exe, then you'll need to by the desktop export. You do get the Pro version of GMS1.x when you buy GMS2.

Second. You can still buy the education version of GMS1, but yes...it's for for school use/machines only, installing the education version onto personal machines is a breach of the EULA. GMS2 education pricing will be announced shortly.

Lastly. Your GMS1.x will keep working, no one is forcing you to upgrade.

If a child doesn't know if they'll enjoy it, then use the trial version - that's what it's for. There is more than enough there to allow them to get a taster of it, and making an EXE is not a requirement of "getting a taste" of it.
 
S

Storyteller

Guest
i do want to speak up in favor of releasing a very limited desktop only exe.
there is something about going to grandma and your school friends and showing off 'an actual game'
from a business standpoint, it may be difficult, however, I think if you impose strict resource limits, it would not detract from sales, rather possibly increase them. this has always been the appeal of GM. I know you guys have to eat and buy shoes too.

that said, i hope in the future, down the road, you consider this.
 
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