Top 5 Features of GM8

5. MagicWand

No good at making graphics? Can’t find someone to make them for you?
GM8 boasts a new MagicWand feature which will produce sprites based on any set of keywords!

Unbelievable! How does it work? This amazing piece of technology pops your keywords into Google image search for CC licensed transparent clip-art images and pulls out the most relevant result. A new window will automatically collect information for attribution and you can simply copy paste the credits into your game info!

Wait, it gets better! If you click on the ‘Generate Monster’ button, it will use a sophisticated algorithm to produce a likeness based on your description. For example, the following settings produce the monster below: skin:green, ears:leafy, eyes:yellow, teeth:ginormous, eyebrows:exaggerated.

4. Auto-name

Sick and tired of having random obscure names like obj_1, obj_2, obj_stuff? GM8 will take care of that by automatically assigning more fitting names like obj_green_monster based on the keywords given for the sprite associated with that object.

And there’s more! Scripts will be auto named based on which objects call them and what events they are called from. E.g. scr_greenmonster_collision_and_redmonster_collision_and_yellowmonster_collision_and_keypress_a.

As you can see it makes things much simpler and easier to work with. For added simplicity, the abbreviation option will shorten script names like the one above to: src_gcrcycka

3. Nav Libs

Aren’t you sick of constantly clicking on the wrong lib tabs, especially for 64 bit uses who lack the tab labels?

GM8 simplifies the drag and drop functionality by removing the pointless tabs and replacing them with navigational pages.  Now it’s easy to navigate from one lib to the next and back again. Confusion is eliminated by preventing you from randomly jumping between tabs, resulting in a layout that is kept clean and tidy. The D&D actions have also been reorganized so that the code and scripting related actions have been moved to the very last page where they are easy to locate.

Once you add an action from a nav page, GM8 will automatically navigate to the first page of actions. This is great because you always start from the same spot which makes memory recall second-nature.

2. Goodbye Softwrap

YoYo Games has had it’s fair share of troubles with Softwrap over the past couple of years, admitted by Sandy Duncan himself. GM8 will instead use a new custom built registration system. It will have two methods of payment: classic mode and arcade mode.

In classic mode, you pay $25 USD for unlimited Game Maker usage on EITHER 3 desktops OR 1 desktop AND 1 notebook AND 1 netbook OR 1 desktop AND 2 netbooks OR 1 desktop AND 2  notebooks OR  3 netbooks OR 2 notebooks AND 1 netbook.

In arcade mode, you will be required to make a payment of 25c each time you open Game Maker. If your game integrates with the built-in high score system and you run and exit your game without making it on the top 10 high score list, you will be required to pay an additional 25c to continue development.

1. ASCII DOS Mode

GM8 now has what has been dubbed the retro-geek feature, ‘ASCII DOS’ mode. This will convert any 2D based GM game into a fully functional text based game that runs in a standard DOS prompt. Graphics will be replaced by ASCII letter and symbol characters that are linked together to create the illusion of a 2D image. Normal sound capabilities are not yet supported, but GM’s new ‘Beeper’ D&D action and respective GML function will allow you to take advantage of the onboard PC speaker to create true 8 bit audio to satisfy the nerdiness in you.

As if that wasn’t enough, the ASCII DOS mode games that are published thorugh the YoYo Games website will be hosted on a remote telnet server. Now you can simply open up a command prompt on any computer and type the command ‘telnet yoyogames.com/games/mygame’ to have instant fun at work, in the classroom or on a cruise ship. The other advantage to ASCII DOS mode is games are now compressed to a micro size of just 1 kb on average (down from 2 MB) and can be downloaded by most dial-up users before they can say April Fools.