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Discussion What can we expect from GMS2 this 2019?!

xDGameStudios

GameMaker Staff
GameMaker Dev.
Since nothing was yet said regarding the roadmap! (we are already past half the first month).
I wanted to ask YYG development team what the community can expect for 2019?
 
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TheSpydog

Member
(we are already past half the first month... AKA 1/3 of the Q1).
I think a 1/6 of the way through the first quarter is a little premature for panic, especially since YYG has said they're currently working on updating the roadmap. I'd expect that to be published reasonably soon.

YYG has been pretty communicative about what's coming in the next update, namely Spine 3.7 and font rendering updates. Not to mention a slew of bug fixes and probably some other stuff too. Beyond that, it sounds like the Sequences feature is on track for release this year.
 
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Taddio

Guest
The Sequence thingy was announced for 2019. I'm not quite clear on what it does in detail, but from what I gather, it looks like a keyframe-based animation tool, which would be awesome for cutscenes and stuff like that.
 

TheSpydog

Member
You're right, it's a totally fair question! I've just seen a lot of inflammatory topics on the GMC about "the future of GM" / "is GM doomed" / "is YYG ignoring us" that got quickly flooded with angry people airing their grievances with the software and the direction YYG is taking. (Often with valid reasons, but with a fair share of unproductive ranting too. ;) ) I misinterpreted the exclamation marks in your topic title and OP as "panic" in the same vein as these other topics and felt it wasn't fair in this particular instance because YoYo has actually been pretty transparent about near-term updates for GM. I'm sorry for sounding harsh in my phrasing, though!
 

JeffJ

Member
Yeah, the roadmap is coming! Sorry for the wait. I can say that from the feedback we've received and the survey responses that GML improvements are top of our list in 2019.
Ross, please please also finally find the time to reintroduce some of those most basic things we've been sorely missing ever since GMS2 was introduced, too. It really is the small things in day-to-day operations you feel the most. Proper project search (including ignore comments), multiple file import and local asset package import are among some of the most critical.

Here's a more comprehensive list:
https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.p...oved-over-to-gm2-yet.38689/page-3#post-269035
 

Cameron

Member
Ross, please please also finally find the time to reintroduce some of those most basic things we've been sorely missing ever since GMS2 was introduced, too. It really is the small things in day-to-day operations you feel the most. Proper project search (including ignore comments)...
You should check out GMEdit https://yellowafterlife.itch.io/gmedit from YellowAfterLife, if you haven't already. It's what I use now and it has the proper project search you've been looking for.
 

JeffJ

Member
You should check out GMEdit https://yellowafterlife.itch.io/gmedit from YellowAfterLife, if you haven't already. It's what I use now and it has the proper project search you've been looking for.
I am aware of that, but would prefer to stick to solely using the first party IDE as intended. The fact that people are having to use third party tools made the community (like the one you linked to and then the one that allows for multiple resource import) to do basic stuff that we've always been able to do in GMS1 says a lot.
 
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immortalx

Guest
That's why I believe it's important to have support for external editors. It's probably too late to ask for that because of the way that the project file reads the resources and because of the non standard way that the resource tree lists things, that do not reflect the physical folder structure on disk. Currently only GMedit can handle that and give meaningful names to events. With every other editor you have to memorize what things like mouse_11.gml means...
I believe that YYG could switch to such a more standard scheme of handling assets and source files and offer some way to migrate older GMS2 projects.
Don't get me wrong, the internal editor isn't all that bad, but people love their editors and in cases like emacs, vim, etc they've put hours into customizing them and cannot easily switch to anything else.
 
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QatariGameDev

Guest
Thanks for the Roadmap news
rmanthorp

All I wish for 2019 Roadmap, To have more support and options for Mobile Game Development, Including but not limited:

1-Easy ways to implement GUI & screen scaling system, for rapid mobile game development.
2- Virtual-Mobile preview testing for Windows builds, No need to export and compile your game for the fast development process.
3- Native mobile camera access, mobile photos, files, etc...

And much more concerns I already addressed in my previews thread:

GMS2 & Mobile Game Development challenges!
 

gnysek

Member
Native things would enlarge EXE/APK etc., which is a bad idea in fact. Lot of GMS features should be a kind of "plugin", which isn't added to executable if not needed.
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
Native things would enlarge EXE/APK etc., which is a bad idea in fact. Lot of GMS features should be a kind of "plugin", which isn't added to executable if not needed.
And that is best supported with GML improvements :)
 

kupo15

Member
Ross, please please also finally find the time to reintroduce some of those most basic things we've been sorely missing ever since GMS2 was introduced, too. It really is the small things in day-to-day operations you feel the most. Proper project search (including ignore comments), multiple file import and local asset package import are among some of the most critical.

Here's a more comprehensive list:
https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.p...oved-over-to-gm2-yet.38689/page-3#post-269035
Yes please, add ABC sorting of resources AND texture/audio groups. The groups are mess with the dropbox being ordered by creation....yet its compiled in ABC order which I find funny
 

gnysek

Member
Using dropbox for GMS is like using public lockers as wardrobe - never trust it :p Git is much better (especially if used outside of GMS2).
 

JeffJ

Member
That's why I believe it's important to have support for external editors. It's probably too late to ask for that because of the way that the project file reads the resources and because of the non standard way that the resource tree lists things, that do not reflect the physical folder structure on disk. Currently only GMedit can handle that and give meaningful names to events. With every other editor you have to memorize what things like mouse_11.gml means...
I believe that YYG could switch to such a more standard scheme of handling assets and source files and offer some way to migrate older GMS2 projects.
Don't get me wrong, the internal editor isn't all that bad, but people love their editors and in cases like emacs, vim, etc they've put hours into customizing them and cannot easily switch to anything else.
Again... While I get your general point, what I am asking for are things we've already had in GMS1 for close to a decade. We are not talking about esoteric or special needs here, for which people should be expected to use external editors - we are talking about the most basic of IDE functions (which, again, has always been there and was simply a glaring omission when they made GMS2). I agree that for anything more than the basics it's not fair to expect much more from YYG, but seriously... You need to support the very most fundamental stuff. This is not asking for anything that we haven't already had for... Well, always.
 
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immortalx

Guest
Again... While I get your general point, what I am asking for are things we've already had in GMS1 for close to a decade. We are not talking about esoteric or special needs here, for which people should be expected to use external editors - we are talking about the most basic of IDE functions (which, again, has always been there and was simply a glaring omission when they made GMS2). I agree that for anything more than the basics it's not fair to expect much more from YYG, but seriously... You need to support the very most fundamental stuff. This is not asking for anything that we haven't already had for... Well, always.
Jeff maybe you misunderstood me. The best of both worlds would be having a powerful internal editor AND proper support for external ones. Who wouldn't want that?
All I said was that every other engine (regardless of having or not an internal editor) allows you to program in an editor of your choice. In addition to that, the structure of the project generally reflects the structure on disk. That allows for a workflow that anyone who has programmed in any language, is familiar with, and is not the currently enforced way of only programming through the IDE.
So my point wasn't abandoning the editor and I'm all for having it improved.
 

Cameron

Member
I am aware of that, but would prefer to stick to solely using the first party IDE as intended. The fact that people are having to use third party tools made the community (like the one you linked to and then the one that allows for multiple resource import) to do basic stuff that we've always been able to do in GMS1 says a lot.
I understand where you are coming from and don't disagree with your points. My post wasn't to take any of the steam out of your complaint as it is valid and yoyo should be providing that basic search parameter in the IDE. I was just trying to help you find a solution in the meantime. I'm personally not a big fan of using external IDE's either, mainly because my experience with many of them has been less than pleasant, for example dealing with Visual Studio was a real hassle for me. That being said, I found GMEdit to be a delight, it doesn't require installation, is lightweight, elegant, intuitive, simple and is designed to work with GMS1.x and 2.
 
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MarceloP

Guest
I do agree with @JeffJ, I'm missing those things. 2 years in I've obtained GMS2 and that's how I feel, basic stuff missing.
Another thing that I'd love to see, is Webgl not breaking every single core update that GMS2 gets. I could tell you right now at least 3 or 4 functions that the documentation doesn't say a word, but they don't work AT ALL on Webgl. I was forced to make shaders and other workarounds only to do stuff that on the Test/Mobile was running fine, but the core function didn't work on Web. Reported all of them, usually I get no answer or it takes forever to be fixed and, by the time it happens, new 4 core functions have gone broken again.

Anyway, I can assure you that me and my team waste at least 2 or 3 days when we have to reformulate all our code or create workarounds to fix things that run perfectly on Mobile and Test(windows) platforms, but simply don't work on Web deploy.
 

gnysek

Member
Sequences for December? Is that a joke? Seems that there will be no new features for whole one year, only bug fixes? (tvOS - another platform about which everyone cares... except Apple is really planning game console).
 

TheSpydog

Member
Sequences for December? Is that a joke?
The way I interpreted that was that Sequences are due for sometime later this year. The roadmap's second half of 2019 is fairly sparse in terms of details, so I imagine some features like Sequences and GML improvements can be shuffled around as needed, depending on how long development takes.

Seems that there will be no new features for whole one year, only bug fixes?
There are definitely plenty of features coming, even if they're not all relevant to everyone's interests. I don't use Spine personally, but I'm glad those who do will get the latest and greatest version. Saving gifs at runtime sounds useful, and the ability to toggle the sandbox and save/load local asset packages are long-requested features that many GM devs are excited for.

(tvOS - another platform about which everyone cares... except Apple is really planning game console)
My understanding is that tvOS is very similar to iOS in terms of architecture, so I assume that most of the work that goes into maintaining the iOS platform will carry over to the tvOS module as well. (Barring the interface changes, obviously -- the Siri Remote is very different from the touch screen of iOS devices.) And besides, the Apple TV is actually pretty cool, albeit niche. :) I'm sure GM games will find a nice home there.
 
Yeah, to be honest I was disappointed with the roadmap. I was expecting more and was surprised sequences was at Q4. But then again, stability fixes would be great since my GMS2 keeps crashing multiple times (when I try to make an executable out of my game) and I have even lost code which was frustrating but had a backup which really saved me.

I thought sequences would be at like Q2 or at least Q3, lol.
 

gnysek

Member
It may be that Sequences beta will be Q2, as bugfixing them may take some time, since it's a big feature. Mac beta was for 4-5 months, while it was only to check which C# features under .Mono aren't working good on Mac while works on Windows, as code is the same. But as sequences are tootaly something new, a long beta will be more than welcome, so I still believe we gonna check it in April/May.
 
Oof, sequences Q4. I remember them showing it off... what, six months ago? And saying we'd probably be looking around January to actually see it working... I was excited for those. Hopefully they get that done sooner rather than later.

Whatever though. I won't complain. Nice to see a roadmap, at least! =)
 
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Mendel

Guest
Thanks for the Roadmap news
rmanthorp

All I wish for 2019 Roadmap, To have more support and options for Mobile Game Development, Including but not limited:

1-Easy ways to implement GUI & screen scaling system, for rapid mobile game development.
2- Virtual-Mobile preview testing for Windows builds, No need to export and compile your game for the fast development process.
3- Native mobile camera access, mobile photos, files, etc...

And much more concerns I already addressed in my previews thread:

GMS2 & Mobile Game Development challenges!
This is literally all the things I want!
 
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