Game Maker Studio: Standard, free upgrade

Posted by Astryl on Nov. 26, 2013, 4:09 a.m.

Thanks to RC for pointing this out to me.

YoYo Games has decided to allow GM:S Free users to upgrade to Standard for… free.

To do this, install that standalone version of GM:S Free (The Steam version will not work), then choose the Beta Update channel and let it update.

Don't choose a license yet (If you've already chosen the Free license beforehand, just delete the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Game Maker Studio folder to reset it, and reinstall).

After the update, the launcher screen will provide you with three license choices. Free, for Free. Standard, for Free, or the upgrade to Professional (For not-so-free).

Doing this upgrade also shaves $50 off any future upgrade to Professional.

Why is YYG doing this? It's kinda obvious. Unity comes along and starts providing 2D functionality out of the box, allows all sorts of exports to various platforms for free, and is generally doing a better job of providing tools to hobbyist game developers.

Took 'em long enough to figure out that their gypped 'Free' version was unusable.

Anyway, enjoy everybody.

Comments

KyleKubik 10 years, 12 months ago

Ahh, yes. YoYo's special brand of ForeverTM

However, standard will go back to costing money soon, but if you got it during this deal, you'll keep it.

In other news, I've heard talk of people being able to get the upgrade through steam. I haven't been able to confirm it, but its worth looking at.

Castypher 10 years, 12 months ago

I think I got Standard a while ago when it was $10 to upgrade, so this doesn't seem to apply to me.

Pro being $50, however…. Well, can anyone confirm what makes Pro worth buying?

KyleKubik 10 years, 12 months ago

Kilin, the only reason pro is 50$ is because its always 50$ to upgrade to pro from standard. thats not a special deal.

The main things pro adds are useful tools for working on a team, as well as the ability to add modules. Its not very useful by itself, but its the only way you'll ever export to anything other than mac/pc

LAR Games 10 years, 12 months ago

WAT. D:

I paid for this… After such a long time of being on the fence about it too.

Why couldn't they have done this before I decided to buy it?

Kunedon 10 years, 12 months ago

They're experts at timing things so you spend money on their product before offering it for free

KaBob799 10 years, 12 months ago

The channel choice thing might appear in the background so try minimizing GM:S if you can't find it.

Toast 10 years, 12 months ago

How do you people script in GML, it's absolutely disgusting and this is coming from the worst computer science student ever.

@LAR HA, life is a bitch and then you die. You remember a few months ago when we were all complaining about how bitcoins had gone up in value and we had missed the boat because it wasn't going to happen again? THEY'VE FUCKING JUST TRIPLED

@Kunedon Technically that's true of every successful business ever

TRUE STORY

As a perpetually sad child, before I knew about Game Maker, I used to move little shapes around in a publishing software package and pretend that it was a turn-based strategy game about pirates, etc

LAR Games 10 years, 12 months ago

lol. Thanks toast.

Astryl 10 years, 11 months ago

Oh yeah, this is apparently happening:

Cue the crappy Angry Birds clones… oh wait, one of the included demos is already that. NEVER MIND.

Glen 10 years, 11 months ago

Wait, so what was the point of me buying it for $100 last year? -.-