In January 2021, the web browser company Opera announced it was getting into game development by acquiring GameMaker Studio. The game developer toolset is popular in the indie game development scene. Today, GameMaker announced a couple of changes that will make it easier for both mature and pro game developers to use those tools.
In a blog post, GameMaker announced that anyone can now use the tools to make non-commercial non-console games for free. In an even better deal for professional game developers, GameMaker will now only require a one-time fee of $99.99 to use it to make commercial games, again for non-console platforms. Previously the company charged a monthly fee for the same privilege.
The company also posted an FAQ page on these changes. It states that current GameMaker commercial non-console users on the old Creator or indie pricing plan will be able to get a discount, or even a free Professional license if they have already paid money under those older subscription plans.
In the blog post, GameMaker head Russell Kay takes a bit of a dig at rival game development tool company Unity, who earlier this year tried to push a per-install fee on developers that used its tools. That plan backfired with the majority of Unity developers protesting that move, which caused it to backtrack on most of those plans.
Kay wrote:
We have seen other platforms making awkward moves with their pricing and terms, so we thought, what if we did the opposite, something that could actually be good for developers? Our success is measured by the number of people making games!
So…
Here we are – Happy Thanksgiving!
GameMaker will also make all of its asset bundles free to use for everyone. There will still be an Enterprise subscription price plan for developers who want to use the tools to make console games.
GameMaker has been used to make acclaimed indie games like Hotline Miami, Undertale, and many more.