GameMaker News

IDE v2023.4.0.84 Runtime v2023.4.0.113

April’s 2023.4 release brings to the IDE: improvements to the licensing UI and an offline support fix; multiple performance fixes; string templates which allow you to compose strings with expressions in-situ inside the Code Editor; new ways to launch and clean your project, along with various other optimisations inside the IDE to help cut down on build times; another new set of filters in the Room Editor and for use in your games; plus a large number of bug fixes.

On the runtimes side there are: a selection of new functions you can use for loading sprites asynchronously, getting information on particles and structs, and also for toggling the window border on Windows games; a new event when audio has finished playing; Apple ProMotion support on those devices which have suitable screens; the ability to have a remote machine perform additional tasks required by extensions (plus several other additions to extensions support); and websockets now sends a suitable user-agent header on more platforms, which will fix compatibility issues for some stores/services. Oh, and even more bug fixes of course.

Please do check your SDKs and other external tools are the correct versions before doing any builds, as you can see from the release notes pages that several platforms have been updated for this release - you can see our Required SDKs FAQ below and the various platform setup guides that page links to in order to get all of this information at any time.

See the links below for all changes/fixes since 2023.2.1.

IDE Release Notes Runtime Release Notes

And if you have any issues running GameMaker itself, project saving/loading, logging-in and getting your license, or building your projects, see the two of these first of all:

Required SDKs FAQ User Permissions and Firewall/Antivirus Configuration FAQ

IDE v2023.2.1.75 Runtime v2023.2.1.90

This is a small-but-important update to fix the top-reported issues with the .0 release, including: hotkeys in the sprite/image editors, stretched frames in sprites not animating correctly, and that if you reused particle emitter names between two or more particle systems then they would all use the one sprite in-game.

There are a handful of other fixes also, so please do see the release notes links below for the full info.

IDE Notes Runtime Notes

IDE v2023.2.0.71 Runtime v2023.2.0.87

There are a number of very important changes and additions in this release, so it’s very important that you do read these release notes very carefully before you update or open projects in this version.

The 2023.2 release brings support for a new particle editor inside the IDE, which you can now use to create your own particle systems and add them into the room editor or your sequences, so they appear in-game as you designed them and you can set behaviours such as triggering other systems when the current one ends. There are also a selection of example effects available to choose from.

Because this is an entirely new asset type which older IDEs and runtimes have no knowledge of, if you open or create any project in this new release it will not work in older GameMaker releases. If you think you might need to use an older IDE version again in future (SDK compatibility for a released game, for example), then please do ensure you backup your project first and also read these notes carefully.

Additionally, free users can now use more of the functionality inside GameMaker - and you can even now use the majority of the GameMaker IDE without even needing to sign-in. This is most useful for brand-new users, as now you can start GameMaker and explore it before you’re asked to register a new account and sign-in - now you will only have to sign-in before you can click the Create Exe button for any targets or before actively opening functionality which requires you to be signed in, such as downloading optional runtimes (the essential runtimes will be automatically installed when you first start GameMaker). As part of this change, all account-management links have been moved to a new accounts panel in the top-right corner and the Start Page no longer says your name or when you last logged-in.

Note that this change does not affect the usual 28-day licensing requirement for users who are signing-in, nor does it remove any other occasional internet requirements. Also, if you have an existing saved Preference for which runtimes should be downloaded this will be used when you update to the new version, rather than GameMaker only downloading the minimal set.


On the runtimes side, there are several new functions for creating loop points during audio playback and for managing your audio assets and SDF fonts; the ability to select from a list of new surface formats; support for your JavaScript extensions to inject into a HTML5 game’s .html file; and important FPS fixes for Android devices which have higher refresh rate screens.

Please do check your SDKs and other external tools are the correct versions before doing any builds, as you can see from the release notes pages that several platforms have been updated for this release - you can see our Required SDKs FAQ and the various platform setup guides that page links to in order to get all of this information at any time.


See below for all the IDE and runtime changes/fixes since 2023.1.1:
IDE Notes Runtime Notes

This is a small, but very important update to the January release to fix a few of the top issues found in the original 2023.1.0 release.

It also contains a fix to show better information if you try to open a project made/updated in the upcoming February release, as the project format is changing because of the new Particle Editor feature which is coming in that release (and you can see in the Betas just now if you want).

Please do see the release notes for the full information, as again there are some very important fixes in this one:
IDE Notes Runtime Notes

IDE v2023.1.0.58 Runtime v2023.1.0.76

January’s 2023.1 release sees a number of tool changes designed to speed up project-loading and importing assets, to stop a number of long-term source control quality-of-life issues, and to reduce download/install sizes for the runtimes. There are also a number of important fixes for the Debugger crashing and using up too much memory (or mis-reporting in-game RAM usage on some platforms), plus important stability fixes for the MQTT server if you have GameMaker behind a firewall.

As you can see, there are a number of very important changes and additions in this release, so it’s very important that you do read these release notes very carefully before you update.

Within the 2023.1 IDE we have made a large number of fixes or improvements to Feather; the Image Editor has a new shortcut for converting clipboard content to being a brush you can reuse; there is now the ability to add all sprite types to your Texture Groups lists and then load/unload these extra texture pages at the same time in-game; and so you can debug issues more easily there are now HTML5 preferences for pretty-printing your code and the ability for extensions to create custom ADB logging tags when running Android games.

On the runtimes side, 2023.1 brings the introduction of several powerful yet easy-to-understand new features, all aimed at making it easier to create a good-looking and quality-feeling game: the new ”Move And Collide” collisions function can greatly reduce the amount of code required to create player character collisions really quickly; Signed Distance Field ("SDF") font support allows you to scale fonts up/down and maintain excellent quality levels, so no need to ship multiple copies of the same font at different point sizes; and the new "Tremolo" audio effect allows you to more easily achieve this type of advanced audio functionality. There are also several major changes or improvements to existing functionality - like the behaviours of statics, which now know their inheritance chain and allow you to check whether a certain function is declared.

See below for IDE and runtime changes/fixes since 2022.11.1:
IDE Notes Runtime Notes

If you have any issues building your projects (typically Android), please do first of all review your various tools installs against our GameMaker Required SDKs Guide and ensure you're still using the correct versions.