Distribution Is this legal?

[FlatulenzaFiamm]

Greetings my comrades!
Today I ask a different, rather weird question.
Who knows me for all the threads I posted about GameMaker, knows that I still have the 8.1 version. Yes, the REALLY old version of GameMaker.
I recently started working on a project and since it was little, I thought that could have been a nice thing to post it on NewGrounds!
The problem is that the site only accepts .swf and .html files, not .exe.

Since GamerMaker 8.1 can only do executibles, I ask:
Is it legal to give the project file to someone who has GameMaker 2, and render it has .html? Always if GameMaker 2 can read .gmk files of GameMaker 8.1?

That's it, I only have this question for now.
Thank you for the answers, don't call the popo.

 

[RefresherTowel]

Yes, the REALLY old version of GameMaker.

Pffft, you gotta go earlier than that to surprise us mate

To answer your question though, it's against the TOS:

3.7. Exporting Content. If you hold the appropriate level of GameMaker licence, you may export your Publisher Property to applicable third party platforms such as iOS and Ubuntu as permitted by us (further details can be found at www.yoyogames.com). You agree that any such exporting is at your own risk and may be subject to additional terms and conditions depending on the applicable third party platform, which we suggest you read carefully before exporting any content. In no circumstances are you permitted to export a third party's content or export your own content via a third party's GameMaker licence.

YoYo Games User Agreement

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT This document explains the legal terms and conditions that apply when you use GameMaker, the YYG Platforms and any content or services a...

www.yoyogames.com

 

[nacho_chicken]

IIRC it's against the terms of service to get someone else to compile a project for you with a module you don't own. Not that that necessarily makes it illegal, but you'd have to consult an actual lawyer to find the answer to that question. Regardless, GMS2 can't open .gmk files. You'd have to do one of the following:

• Do it the "intended" way by going .gmk -> Open in GMS1, convert to .gmx -> Open that in GMS2 and convert to .yyp
• Find a third-party editor to convert it to a compatible project

But honestly, there have been so many changes from GM 8.1 to GMS2 that for a lot of projects it's not even worth it to convert vs. recoding from scratch. You'd have to change tons upon tons of incompatible code.

 

[TsukaYuriko]

While that isn't illegal, it's certainly not allowed. You'd be putting both your license and the license of whoever exports the game for you on the line, as a breach of the EULA would get the involved licenses revoked.

... that's not to mention that GMS 2 doesn't read .gmk files, so you'd have to port that from GM8 to Studio 1, then to Studio 2.

 

[Yal]

Even before reading this topic, I got the old adage "if you need to ask, the answer is no" in my head. I expected some sort of weird publishing deal scam but I guess my gut instinct was correct.

There's a whole bunch of potential issues with this idea:

• Rendering a Game Maker project for someone else using an export they don't have is against the EULA.
• Whoever does the conversion also needs a GMS1 license, and you can't get those anymore (there's an opensource clone of GMS1 but it's a trainwreck that stopped getting support after GMS2 was released, and it's probably against the EULA as well)
• Importing a GM8 file into GMS2 forces it through two sets of compatibility functions and potentially broken functionality, so chances are you need to redesign a lot of things to work at all, much less run well enough too function properly in the notoriously slow HTML5 port
• Keep in mind that some functionality is disabled or limited by design in the HTML5 port too... for instance image_alpha / image_blend will create new copies of the sprite every time they're used if WebGL isn't enabled, you can't use show_message(), and you can't create savefiles. If your game relies on this kind of stuff it will not work even if the code is sound in theory.

My recommendation? You could upload your game to Itchio or Gamejolt instead of trying to squeeze an executable-shaped peg into a flash-shaped hole. You won't get the same '90s cred, but you won't get a massively inflated debugging workload either.

 

[FlatulenzaFiamm]

Ok so I might just wait until I have enough spare money (and reason) to buy GM2 and do this kind of stuff.
Thank you all for clarifying!