OFFICIAL GameMaker Studio 2 Version 2.3.6 Release & More

rmanthorp

GameMaker Staff
Admin
GameMaker Dev.
GET READY FOR MONTHLY RELEASES!
Good news, GameMaker is changing to monthly releases. Moving from four quarterly to ten monthly releases a year allows us to provide you with more regular updates. Though these will be smaller, we are looking to maintain or even increase the amount of features and big fixes released. On top of this, Beta updates will also be more frequent, with 2 releases a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays). This change will provide us more feedback than ever before, allowing us to better optimise your GameMaker Studio 2 experience.

FILTERS AND EFFECTS ARE COMING
The main feature arriving with update 2.3.6 is Filters and Effects! This feature gives you the ability to apply a pre-programmed Filter (basically a shader) or Effect (a shader with control code) to quickly and easily enhance the graphical output of your games. Initially there will be a selection of preset Filters that the users can choose from but we will be adding Effects and more to this over time. You can use Effects by adding “Filter/Effect” Layers in your game’s Rooms, which apply the filters to all layers that are below them. This feature will continue to grow with the ability to specify your own Filters and Effects, applying Filters and Effects to a specific layer (rather than all layers below the Effect Layer), adding a Filter/Effect Layer to a Sequence and also applying Filters and Effects to a specific area of a Sequence.

undefined



At launch Filters and Effects will be a feature available to paid users. After release this feature will be updated with the ability to create your own Filter and Effects. Following this update, a selection of preset Filters and Effects will become available for everyone to use for free! The ability to create your own and a choice from a wider selection of presets will only be available to paid users.

Access to GameMaker Studio 2 is free for all, but in order for this to work, some major features will only be available to subscribers. Other features will be available for all, but will be released to subscribers first for early access. Upgrades are still available, so please consider this if you are interested in new features. We will continue to provide access, support, and updates for free to all users.

NEW START PAGE & PROJECT TEMPLATES
When you open Version 2.3.6 the first thing you’ll notice is the new start page. This new streamlined experience was created to help you find exactly what you need with ease. Quicker access to new projects or opening existing ones. A quick look at your user details and some handy resources listed down the side!

undefined


We have also introduced Project Templates. Think of them as wireframe projects to get you up and running fast. To start, we have some official templates based on some of our tutorial content but we are working on more of these to help our users get started. You also have the option to create your own templates that will allow you to get started quickly whenever you jump into a new project. You can also share your template projects with others via the Marketplace or by simply sharing the Project Template Export .yyz file.

undefined


LINK YOUR OPERA ACCOUNT TO GM
You can now link your GameMaker Account to your Opera Account. This will make it easier and faster for you to upload games to GXC, as you will not need to login each time. We are currently working on users being able to register an account and login to the IDE using only their Opera Account. Single sign-in will be available in update 2.3.7.





To read all the changes, updates and bug fixes coming with GameMaker Studio 2 Version 2.3.6 - check out the full Release Notes here. We can’t wait to share more new and exciting upcoming features with you soon. Happy GameMaking!
 

Sad

Member
The update pace getting faster is nice and all. But after reading the 2.3.6 blog posts over here, as a perpetual license owner, I feel dejected and Sad just like my forum username, specifically these two lines:
Following this update, (...) The ability to create your own and a choice from a wider selection of presets will only be available to subscribers.

(...), some major features will only be available to subscribers. Other features will be available for all, but will be released to subscribers first for early access. Upgrades are still available, so please consider this if you are interested in new features.
Today, it might be small features, but in the futures, some major GMS2 features will be subscribers only and nothing for GMS2 perpetual license owners.

I was under the assumption of my perpetual licenses would be good for the lifetime of GMS2 and not have to think much about it until GMS3 released. After reading that, to me, my perpetual license owners are nothing more than the Free Tier features but with export(s). Some threads has popped out voicing their concerns. I'll just put them here wishing YoYoGames would at least read their thoughts on this matter:
- YoYo Games has decided to make some features subscriber-only : gamemaker (reddit.com)
- Gamemaker Monthly Updates : gamemaker (reddit.com)
-
https://steamcommunity.com/app/585410/discussions/0/3155328042352357617/

Edit:
Thank you for all your feedback and concerns in this thread. As we’ve stated before we are listening to everything and we’re happy to say that we’ll be including the subscription feature for perpetual licence holders.

We initially wanted this delay to make our subscription more compelling but we understand that our loyal users are the ones that want access to all the latest features.

Features and Effects will be enabled for all paid users. We have made this change now, simply log out and in again to GameMaker and you will be able to access the feature.

Russell
I am so glad and delighted to hear this. Thank you YYC and Opera for listening, you guys rock! :banana:
 
Last edited:
Am I correct in thinking that my perpetual desktop and mobile licence will not cover the Filters and Effects feature? From what i can see after upgrading to 2.3.6 the button for a Filter/Effect layer is greyed out.
 
It's very disappointing that GMS is heading this way. I would have accepted an upgrade fee at each major milestone (2.5, 3.0, etc) but a subscription costing £78.99 a year is too rich for my blood at the moment. I'd want to be using the software pretty much every day of the year to make it worth while.
 

Sad

Member
As mentioned in the blog. This feature will made available to everyone eventually.
Will this be the model going forward from now on? I'm fine with it as long as the eventually is within reasonable timeframe :). What I'm afraid, what are the GMS2 features that only available to Subscribers and wont be handed over to the existing perpetual owners.
 
Last edited:

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Actually, features available to subscribers only are already planned. Quoting from the first post:
Following this update, a selection of preset Filters and Effects will become available for everyone to use, even free! The ability to create your own and a choice from a wider selection of presets will only be available to subscribers.
I admit, it puts a significant dent in the "test your game for free, subscribe to export" model which was suggested in the original thread about introducing subscriptions model. In particular, the workflow can be broken when subscribers-only in-game feature is used, and then the subscription expires. It might kinda go back to the old GM model with some features unavailable until purchasing the license, except this time it's an expirable subscription.
 

TsukaYuriko

☄️
Forum Staff
Moderator
Upgrades are still available, so please consider this if you are interested in new features.
I'd subscribe in a heartbeat, but have been unable to complete the subscription process since it was introduced because credit cards are the only accepted payment method. Getting a credit card would incur more fees than the subscription itself - without even using the card for years as I have free months available - so I'm not exactly motivated to get one just to get past the subscription form and then pay credit card fees for years without having any practical use for the card. The money I'd save thanks to the free months (which is still an incredibly generous offer!) would just be spent on that instead. 😅

Is there an estimated time frame (more specific than the roadmap's "Pending") as to when subscriptions via PayPal will become available?

Also, the word "still" in the part of the post I quoted sounds a bit alarming to me. Can you share any information regarding whether this upgrade offer is planned to expire at some point, and whether it will still be available by the time subscriptions via PayPal become an option?
 
Last edited:

iampremo

GameMaker Staff
Admin
Moderator
GameMaker Dev.
I'd subscribe in a heartbeat, but have been unable to complete the subscription process since it was introduced because credit cards are the only accepted payment method. Getting a credit card would incur more fees than the subscription itself - without even using the card for years as I have free months available - so I'm not exactly motivated to get one just to get past the subscription form and then pay credit card fees for years without having any practical use for the card. The money I'd save thanks to the free months (which is still an incredibly generous offer!) would just be spent on that instead. 😅

Is there an estimated time frame (more specific than the roadmap's "Pending") as to when subscriptions via PayPal will become available?

Also, the word "still" in the part of the post I quoted sounds a bit alarming to me. Can you share any information regarding whether this upgrade offer planned to expire at some point, and whether it will still be available by the time subscriptions via PayPal become an option?
We are working on a solution for this, dont have an exact timeframe on it yet though.

In the mean time if you send us in a helpdesk ticket we'll see if we can sort something out so you can get the free months now and by the time that runs out we should have a solution in place :D
 

pmarin

Member
This feels like a slap in the face for users like me, loyal customers, that have bought a license through Steam. YoYo can change its business model, its fine, but it could always apply this policy for new users, without removing features from the people that invested into Gamemaker 2 as a pay-once solution.
 
Am I correct in thinking that my perpetual desktop and mobile licence will not cover the Filters and Effects feature? From what i can see after upgrading to 2.3.6 the button for a Filter/Effect layer is greyed out.
Yes that's correct. The feature is only available to subscriptions at the moment.
Yikes. If this is some sort of attempt to push permanent license holders into the subscription model, not cool. If there's some technical reason for this, then the update wasn't ready to go out.
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
Thank you so much, this is a very good update! Congrats!

Glad to hear that Filters and Effects will be available for permanent users as well (partially)..
I'm also happy to hear that updates will now be monthly.
 
Last edited:
I am grateful to the current subscribers for helping keep the engine alive so that we can actually get these features and faster updates. A few features being locked for supporters is fine with me!

Also, the word "still" in the part of the post I quoted sounds a bit alarming to me. Can you share any information regarding whether this upgrade offer is planned to expire at some point, and whether it will still be available by the time subscriptions via PayPal become an option?
Honestly, I think it would be ridiculous if the offer doesn't expire. Someone using the offer 3+ years from now as an example.. lol.
 
Last edited:
I am actually super happy that the filters and effects are going to get more updates. Applying it on a specific layer is going to make it really useful! I am curious though when the next update for filters and effects will be though?

Edit: Also, an outline filter/effect would be really useful. I am sure someone will upload one though, but having it as an option built in would be cool.
 
Last edited:

John4300

Member
Actually, features available to subscribers only are already planned. Quoting from the first post:


I admit, it puts a significant dent in the "test your game for free, subscribe to export" model which was suggested in the original thread about introducing subscriptions model. In particular, the workflow can be broken when subscribers-only in-game feature is used, and then the subscription expires. It might kinda go back to the old GM model with some features unavailable until purchasing the license, except this time it's an expirable subscription.
Having features behind subscription model makes "free edition" which was supposed to be "Build your game at your hearts content until you are ready to publish it" quickly feel like yet another demo version with less features of a program again, and at this rate even the old permanent licenses will fall to this category if this keeps going. Things like filters have serious impact on game visuals and even performance and gameplay, and not being able to demo them out locks free and old paid users already out of one part of making their dream games easily.

This makes me kind of fear neat "little" key features will be put more and more behind the subscription, making it pretty much mandatory to purchase in the end even to design the game you want.

While I was waiting for this to happen at some point, the push to have people use subscription is happening rather more quickly than I hoped for.

However, for a more positive note, I'm happy YYG is giving the subscription model at least more reason to happen with tighter update schedule. Long term support versions would be appreciated however.
 

Cameron

Member
I'd subscribe in a heartbeat, but have been unable to complete the subscription process since it was introduced because credit cards are the only accepted payment method.
Wait what? I haven't tried to upgrade yet but does this mean I wouldn't be able to upgrade using a bank debit card that has a credit card logo, like I would have to get an actual credit card? I may be misunderstanding this. Not sure where you are from and/or if this is the same outside my country but here in the United States our bank debit cards have a credit card logo (mastercard, visa, etc.,) and we can use them as credit cards for subscriptions. I assume I can use that if I choose to upgrade someday, can someone verify this for me?

Edit: Ignore this post it was a false alarm as made clear directly below me.
 
Last edited:

rIKmAN

Member
Wait what? I haven't tried to upgrade yet but does this mean I wouldn't be able to upgrade using a bank debit card that has a credit card logo, like I would have to get an actual credit card? I may be misunderstanding this. Not sure where you are from and/or if this is the same outside my country but here in the United States our bank debit cards have a credit card logo (mastercard, visa, etc.,) and we can use them as credit cards for subscriptions. I assume I can use that if I choose to upgrade someday, can someone verify this for me?
Normal bank card works fine, I used my Visa Debit.
You still need to add a payment method even though the sub for me is £0.00 per month due to free conversion of perm licences, but regular bank cards do work with no issue.
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
Wait what? I haven't tried to upgrade yet but does this mean I wouldn't be able to upgrade using a bank debit card that has a credit card logo, like I would have to get an actual credit card? I may be misunderstanding this. Not sure where you are from and/or if this is the same outside my country but here in the United States our bank debit cards have a credit card logo (mastercard, visa, etc.,) and we can use them as credit cards for subscriptions. I assume I can use that if I choose to upgrade someday, can someone verify this for me?
You should have no problems using your debit card since it functions like a credit card here.
 

Cameron

Member
Thanks for responses @rIKmAN and @kburkhart84.

I have another question @rmanthorp or anyone else who can answer this question. Let's say hypothetically I'm working on a group project and I purchase the subscription, giving me access to the newer features. I then use the newer feature and push it to the repository. What happens on the other users end when they fetch it, if they don't have the subscription?
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
I have another question @rmanthorp or anyone else who can answer this question. Let's say hypothetically I'm working on a group project and I purchase the subscription, giving me access to the newer features. I then use the newer feature and push it to the repository. What happens on the other users end when they fetch it, if they don't have the subscription?
Likely the IDE wouldn't be able to run the game, but it might be a case of projects getting corrupted as well. You will likely want a more official answer if you can get one. The main reason I responded is because I'm betting that somewhere in the EULA it is mentioned that you aren't supposed to mix versions between team members. Someone else may know the exact clause, but I'm pretty sure it is in there somewhere, as I've seen it in other engines. It wouldn't make a lot of sense for a whole team to work on the free version and one person to be able to finally publish with the sub license. That is why they had rules in place about making a game and then giving it to someone else to export for mobile.
 

Vertette

Member
At launch Filters and Effects will be a feature available to Indie & Enterprise subscriptions. After release this feature will be updated with the ability to create your own Filter and Effects. Following this update, a selection of preset Filters and Effects will become available for everyone to use, even free! The ability to create your own and a choice from a wider selection of presets will only be available to subscribers.
If I were working at Yoyo right now I'd quickly claim this is a late April Fools joke and cancel the plans, because you're gonna piss off a lot of people. I'm already starting to see a few die-hard GMS users looking into changing engines.
 
Last edited:

Rob

Member
I don't like this move, even if the subscription model is fairly cheap (I don't know anything about other game development subscription models but I'm going to assume it's a good price).

Did I have filters before? No.

Am I going to wish that I had the extra features that come with being a sub? I have no idea!

On the surface it's a small thing, and if we never got a new feature from now until the end of GMS2, I probably wouldn't care, so why does missing out on a few "extras" sound like a bad thing?

People don't like to be told/to think "I've already paid for something but now the goal posts have shifted and that thing wants more money from me." If it was a "DLC" it might have sat easier but it's still the same rankle.

Obviously YYG needs to make more money, and if it's a choice between this and them shutting down, what would we prefer though?
 

Posh Indie

That Guy
If I were working at Yoyo right now I'd quickly claim this is a late April Fools joke and cancel the plans, because you're gonna piss off a lot of people. I'm already starting to see a few die-hard GMS users looking into changing engines.
To be completely fair, I would be careful blaming this on YoYo Games. Opera is the "shot caller" here. Remember, YoYo Games was here for all the good times and the bad times, but typically the bad times involved an acquisition...
 
Last edited:

Cameron

Member
Likely the IDE wouldn't be able to run the game, but it might be a case of projects getting corrupted as well. You will likely want a more official answer if you can get one.
Yeah I'm not looking for speculation here but for someone who can give me an official answer, whether it be they've tested it for themselves or they work for yoyo, etc.,
 

Vertette

Member
To be completely fair, I would be careful blaming this on YoYo Games. Opera is the "shot caller" here. Remember, YoYo Games was here for all the good times and the bad times, but typically the bad times involved an acquisition...

A good sign that bad things are coming is when the company acquiring YoYo Games has a stock ticker symbol.
Whichever company's decision it might be, it's a dumb move and a lot of customers are/will be unhappy with this. The subscription model in and of itself was already very divisive, but this is just stirring the flames on top.
 
I don't like this move, even if the subscription model is fairly cheap (I don't know anything about other game development subscription models but I'm going to assume it's a good price).

Did I have filters before? No.

Am I going to wish that I had the extra features that come with being a sub? I have no idea!

On the surface it's a small thing, and if we never got a new feature from now until the end of GMS2, I probably wouldn't care, so why does missing out on a few "extras" sound like a bad thing?

People don't like to be told/to think "I've already paid for something but now the goal posts have shifted and that thing wants more money from me." If it was a "DLC" it might have sat easier but it's still the same rankle.

Obviously YYG needs to make more money, and if it's a choice between this and them shutting down, what would we prefer though?
I think that the free subs you get as a legacy user counts as "subscription". This means, at least from where I'm standing, they are hoping to have people implement these things into their games while they have the free sub and then be forced into paying for a continuing subscription in order to continue development/maintain their game/s when the sub runs out. I was under the assumption that the permanent license granted the rights to future 2.x updates, but I guess there's a carpet being pulled somewhere.
 
Last edited:

Posh Indie

That Guy
Whichever company's decision it might be, it's a dumb move and a lot of customers are/will be unhappy with this. The subscription model in and of itself was already very divisive, but this is just stirring the flames on top.
A subscription isn't always a bad thing. It provides more predictable revenue and can even save a company from insolvency (Or cautious underspending which trickles onto consumer satisfaction)... For consumers, it is less up front payment and to be fair here as well... it costs less over a reasonable length of time (As long as they don't keep bumping the cost up every year to acclimate everyone to a, "It's just another dollar..." mindset. "Just another dollar" 10 times is still a 10 dollar increase...). I get the subscription completely. The issue is that Opera is absolutely trashing everything YoYo Games built up over the years. Judging by their stock performance... I would not be surprised if investors are mad at them, too...
 

iampremo

GameMaker Staff
Admin
Moderator
GameMaker Dev.
Thanks for responses @rIKmAN and @kburkhart84.

I have another question @rmanthorp or anyone else who can answer this question. Let's say hypothetically I'm working on a group project and I purchase the subscription, giving me access to the newer features. I then use the newer feature and push it to the repository. What happens on the other users end when they fetch it, if they don't have the subscription?
This will work fine, the only things that will happen is that the filter/effect won't show up for them when they run the game and that they won't be able to edit any of the settings or add new filters to the project. The feature was designed with this exact situation in mind and it should not affect development
 

Cameron

Member
This will work fine, the only things that will happen is that the filter/effect won't show up for them when they run the game and that they won't be able to edit any of the settings or add new filters to the project. The feature was designed with this exact situation in mind and it should not affect development
Thanks for the response, much appreciated.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
wow, i didn't expect YYG to use such scummy tactics to try to push users who own a perpetual license to subscribe.
Well, my attempt to set the mood has failed just that quickly. I really don't want this to be another topic bogged down with subscription complaints. But my complaints about complaining won't help anything if people don't allow it to, so I guess after this post I should technically drop it.

Edit:

I really find the complaining to be acts of manipulation, trying to convince yoyo to change their mind threatening to not be quiet about it until they do it, indirectly.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
YYG can make it all complaints go away by simply naming it GMS 3, which would have required a paid upgrade if they hadn't switched to subscription. Then everyone will be happy. :)
In my edit you echo'd what I was suspicious of.
 

Posh Indie

That Guy
wow, i didn't expect YYG to use such scummy tactics to try to push users who own a perpetual license to subscribe.
If I can inspire one positive thing during all of this, I would like it to be the distinction between parent/child company, and clarify who "Makes the rules in the house". YoYo Games is a casualty here. The Development Team is a meat shield.

Well, my attempt to set the mood has failed just that quickly. I really don't want this to be another topic bogged down with subscription complaints. But my complaints about complaining won't help anything if people don't allow it to, so I guess after this post I should technically drop it.

I really find the complaining to be acts of manipulation, trying to convince yoyo to change their mind threatening to not be quiet about it until they do indirectly.
I can agree that hating the subscription just because "subscription" would be a shallow mindset (People are seemingly ignoring the points where it is mentioned that the subscription itself isn't the problem). I welcome the subscription. I also still like YoYo Games and the Developers. Opera, on the other hand... they have shown that they are probably an "actual evil" company (Beyond the standard "evil") at this point. Trust is lost, that's all it is on my end. I do not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, especially this fast. That's called desperation.

That said... there are some of those people complaining about the subscription just because "subscription" here right now, so I acknowledge that your issue was probably not with me, haha.
 

Ced30

Member
If I can inspire one positive thing during all of this, I would like it to be the distinction between parent/child company, and clarify who "Makes the rules in the house". YoYo Games is a casualty here. The Development Team is a meat shield.



I can agree that hating the subscription just because "subscription" would be a shallow mindset (People are seemingly ignoring the points where it is mentioned that the subscription itself isn't the problem). I welcome the subscription. I also still like YoYo Games and the Developers. Opera, on the other hand... they have shown that they are probably an "actual evil" company (Beyond the standard "evil") at this point. Trust is lost, that's all it is on my end. I do not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, especially this fast. That's called desperation.

That said... there are some of those people here right now, so I acknowledge that your issue was probably not with me, haha.
subscription is debt, a sane person doesn't want more debt in his/her life.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
I don't want to derail this topic further, i was attempting to prevent from being derailed by encouraging everyone to talk about the cool new features and not what we don't like about x, y, or, z that is unrelated to the point of this thread. The things that aren't liked are related to the subscription model, and completely surround that, new features given to subscribed users, etc, its all the same thing. It's not liking the subscription model. To say you welcome the subscription model and don't like subs getting new features sooner is just a distracting away from the real thing you are upset about - and that's the subscription as a whole. if there was no subscription, the whole issue of "why can't i get what they get as soon as they do" wouldn't exist.

I feel like saying you welcome the subscription but don't like anything related to it is very self contradictory.

If you don't like yoyo's subscription GameMaker is not the only road to getting what you need to develop games. Everyone's acting like that's all they have to turn to and so they bug yoyo to give them what they want. You don't have to stay. I use multiple engines and languages, also write my own in c++ and have pleasantly discovered it is do-able for anyone who cares enough to do it. I don't like subscriptions either, but manipulating yoyo with moaning is just making the situation that's already bad worse if you ask me, for both us and for yoyo.

Let's try to be positive, please?
 

Posh Indie

That Guy
subscription is debt, a sane person doesn't want more debt in his/her life.
Debt can't be turned off whenever you choose, my friend.

YYG can make it all complaints go away by simply naming it GMS 3, which would have required a paid upgrade if they hadn't switched to subscription. Then everyone will be happy. :)
This is probably very true. If only a big company with tons of available "paid brains" could have brainstormed this idea themselves! In fact, complete honesty here... I probably would have bought them all again, haha.
 
YYG can make it all complaints go away by simply naming it GMS 3, which would have required a paid upgrade if they hadn't switched to subscription. Then everyone will be happy. :)
Pretty much. I'm sure some number of people still wouldn't have stuck around for a sub model GMS3, but at least we wouldn't have people arguing about whether or not YYG is violating their own terms for permanent license holders.

If I can inspire one positive thing during all of this, I would like it to be the distinction between parent/child company, and clarify who "Makes the rules in the house". YoYo Games is a casualty here. The Development Team is a meat shield.
You're probably not wrong - but, they are still our point of contact when issues come up.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
@Posh Indie i'm not refering to you specifically in my most recent post in this thread, it was more of a general statement. Sorry for the confusion.
 

gnysek

Member
I remember that once there was a contest for new GameMaker logo, and the one that took 1st place, would be put by most of users on last place... and after a long discussion, they changed their mind. I wish that this time they will also find that golden mean, to satisfy most of customers.

Btw., in fact filters could be also applied by just extracting shader code from runtime folder (it's not protected in any way), and applied by layer_script_begin/end, so it's not like this feature is something that can't be achieved without switching to subscription (this time). I wonder if someone will make free marketplace asset which mimics this new feature :D
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
I remember that once there was a contest for new GameMaker logo, and the one that took 1st place, would be put by most of users on last place... and after a long discussion, they changed their mind. I wish that this time they will also find that golden mean, to satisfy most of customers.

Btw., in fact filters could be also applied by just extracting shader code from runtime folder (it's not protected in any way), and applied by layer_script_begin/end, so it's not like this feature is something that can't be achieved without switching to subscription (this time). I wonder if someone will make free marketplace asset which mimics this new feature :D
lol that's a good idea actually. we should hit up some shader devs and everyone wins, (well, not yoyo, so i have mixed feelings about it)
 
Top