Required SDKs For Old "GMS2" Versions

YoYo QA Dept
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This article details the required versions of the various tools and SDKs that old(er) releases of GameMaker required. 

You will not be able to use third-party tools ahead of what is listed below, as GameMaker won't know how to support them properly and you may give yourself build errors or even IDE instability - if you need to use newer SDKs, you need to use the newer releases.

  • For general system specifications you will require, please see the popup on the GameMaker info page. (If you are a Mac user, please also see the requirements for Xcode further down this page, as while old versions of macOS may work perfectly well with GameMaker itself, you would be blocked by Apple from submitting your games to the App Store if you cannot use a current Xcode version.)
  • For help with any file/folder permissions, network issues, or antivirus clients, please see this FAQ on the files/URLs GameMaker needs to be able to access.

Be aware also that for everything below we only offer support for physical machines running a single OS natively - we do not support any variant of virtual machines, including Parallels or Bootcamp on a Mac, "Hackintosh" PCs, or Windows emulators on a Linux distro, etc.

 

Which GameMaker Versions Does This FAQ Cover?

Please also be aware this FAQ is only relevant for versions older than IDE Version 2022.8.0.34 (using Runtimes Version 2022.8.0.50) - if you need the setup instructions for any newer version of GameMaker, please see the main GameMaker Required SDKs FAQ instead.

If you do have issues with the old version you're trying to use, we'd strongly recommend you return to using the current release rather than following this guide, as we cannot offer support for older releases.

 

Contents

 

Setting Up The Windows IDE

  • Visual Studio is required when building Windows YYC, Windows x64, and anything to do with UWP or consoles - see the target's own section below for specifics, as you will need to use specific old Visual Studio releases to match what GameMaker required back at the time of the release you're trying to use.
  • Note Visual Studio 2015-2019 require at least Win 7 with SP1 - it won't install on Windows 7 without at least SP1 (and nothing older than Windows 7 is supported at all).
  • If you are using Spine images in your game, then GameMaker 2.3.7 and above requires your files to be exported with Spine runtime 4.0 specifically. Older versions of GameMaker require specifically 3.7. No other versions are officially supported (your images may work fine, but we cannot guarantee this).
  • A separate physical Mac is still required for creating games for macOS, iOS/iPadOS, and tvOS - see the target's own section below for specifics. When targeting the Mac, we would highly recommend both machines are connected to your network using Ethernet, rather than WiFi, as this can result in issues when building large projects for YYC.
  • A separate physical Ubuntu machine is still required for creating games for Ubuntu - see the target's own section below for specifics, as you will need to use specific old Ubuntu versions to match what GameMaker required back at the time of the release you're trying to use.

Apple released a change with Catalina 10.15.4 which means 2.2.5 and older cannot connect to a Mac, so if you need to stay on 2.2.5 you must use the Mac IDE to do builds for Apple platforms. (We would of course suggest you simply update to the current GameMaker release instead.)

 

 

Setting Up The Mac IDE

  • Old versions of "GameMaker Studio 2" (those versions before we changed the name to just be "GameMaker") require Mono 6 to be installed on your Mac, otherwise you won't be able to build any projects - if for any reason this fails to be installed automatically by GameMaker you can download the installer from https://download.mono-project.com/a...-MDK-6.10.0.104.macos10.xamarin.universal.pkg
  • Similarly, as of v2.3.7, GameMaker has native support for running on M1 architecture Macs - if you did previously enable "Open using Rosetta" inside "Get Info" for the GameMaker executable in old GM releases, please uncheck this OS setting now, as it will cause unwanted results.
  • Whenever possible, we would recommend you leave case-sensitivity off when setting up your macOS machine (which is the default when installing macOS), as whilst we removed this requirement from GameMaker itself as of v2.3.0, we cannot control what the external build tools SDKs require, so you may find some platforms will still fail to build projects.
  • Xcode is required to be installed separately before you can build any "Apple platform"  packages - see the macOS and iOS/iPadOS/tvOS sections below for specifics, as you will need to use specific old Xcode releases to match what GameMaker required back at the time of the release you're trying to use.
  • An Apple Developer account is required before you can use Xcode, and you will need Xcode to build and codesign the application as per Apple's platform requirements - and this developer account will need to be the paid version if you want to give your app to anyone else (only dev testing on your own machine is free these days). If you are a school/business, you only need one Apple account - you don't need one per student/staff member!
  • If you are using Spine images in your game, then GameMaker 2.3.7 and above requires your files to be exported with Spine runtime 4.0 specifically. Older versions of GameMaker require specifically 3.7. No other versions are officially supported (your images may work fine, but we cannot guarantee this).
  • A separate physical Windows PC is still required for creating games for Windows, UWP, and any consoles - see the target's own section below for specifics.
  • A separate physical Ubuntu machine is still required for creating games for Ubuntu - see the target's own section below for specifics, as you will need to use specific old Ubuntu versions to match what GameMaker required back at the time of the release you're trying to use.
  • When targeting Ubuntu machines, we would highly recommend both machines are connected to your network using Ethernet rather than WiFi, as WiFi can result in issues if you are building large projects when using YYC.

 

 

Setting Up The Ubuntu IDE (Beta Only!)

The 300 Beta IDE is not suitable for a production environment in these older releases - you should only use the current Ubuntu IDE Beta release and refer to the main GameMaker Required SDKs FAQ instead.

  • This early beta IDE is specifically for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS versions and no other distro is offered any support - it may work if you can install the .deb, but we will not answer tickets about other distros or customised kernels, etc., as we are only interested in Ubuntu feedback.
  • You must have Mono 6 installed first (it does come with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, so you should have it already). Beyond that, GameMaker will try to install any required components during the installer process, so ensure you are connected to the internet first.
  • A separate physical Windows PC is still required for creating games for Windows and any consoles - see the target's own section below for specifics.
  • A separate physical Mac is still required for creating games for macOS, iOS/iPadOS, and tvOS - see the target's own section below for specifics. When targeting the Mac, we would highly recommend both machines are connected to your network using Ethernet, rather than WiFi, as this can result in issues when building large projects for YYC.

 

Steamworks Support

  • If you are using a GameMaker version 2022.2.0 -> 2022.6.1 along with our Steamworks Marketplace asset, then your Steamworks integration comes entirely from the asset plus your SDK install. Please check the asset's store page for which SDK version it requires.
  • If you are using a GameMaker version before 2022.2.0, then your Steamworks integration is built-in. SteamworksSDK 1.42 is required if you're doing Steam builds. No newer versions are officially supported.

 

 

GameMaker's Supported Export Platforms

 

Windows  (setup guide)

  • For building VM packages you don't need anything extra to be installed, as GameMaker includes everything required.
  • For building YYC packages you will need Visual Studio 2019 or 2017 installed on your PC also (Community Editions are fine) and configured as per the relevant section in the setup guide above.
  • Note that VS2019 is not supported in anything older than GameMaker 2.3.1 and so for older GameMaker versions you will need VS2017

For simply playing GameMaker games: XP is not supported at all. Vista and Windows 7 players will need to ensure they have DirectX 11 installed, otherwise the game will not run.

Certain functionality in the game, like secure websockets support in networking or various elements of security when doing HTTP requests, will prevent the use of Win 7 and Vista (or might at best require your players to install the final Win 7 Service Pack) and we are unable to do anything about this. Similarly, using any third-party extensions may have the ability to restrict this also, so please speak to the asset/extension author if you have any issues with older versions of Windows and your game.

GameMaker 2.3.1 to 2022.6 allowed the individual developer to pick 32bit/64bit. Prior to GMS 2.3.1 all games were 32bit-only.

 

macOS  (setup guide)

Note that you will likely not be able to build packages suitable for store submission if you're using a GameMaker version old enough that you needed to use this page rather than the "current releases" one - Apple require a newer Xcode than almost all releases covered on this page can support, so if you're doing Apple development we would simply suggest you update your GameMaker version to the current release and follow the regular setup FAQ.

  • As far as GameMaker 2.3.0+ and local-device building/testing is concerned, Xcode 12 was required. Therefore, you will also need macOS Catalina or newer in order to install Xcode 12.
  • All code-signed macOS apps built after July 31st 2019 are now required to be uploaded to Apple and notarised once they have been built. For detailed info, please see our FAQ about Apple's "notarization" policy on recent versions of macOS.
  • You must code-sign your packages, otherwise Gatekeeper will say it's damaged and ask to delete it on Mojave and above.
  • Xcode 11 is the last version supported by 2.2.5 or older, so please update your GameMaker.
  • If you're trying to use a newer version of Xcode or macOS than mentioned immediately above, then you will need to update your GameMaker version also!

For simply playing GameMaker games: OS X 10.9 or later is required for AppStore games and OS X 10.7 or later is required for non-AppStore games. All games are 64bit-only.

 

Ubuntu  (setup guide)

  • Betas from 2022.300 / Stable from 2022.3.0 now require the Steam Runtime, linuxdeploy and AppImage tools to be installed as well. See the above linked setup guide for more details.
  • GameMaker 2.3.0 up to 2022.6: supports Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 64bit and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit. Ubuntu 22 is not supported.
  • In GameMaker 2.3.1+, you also have the option of building ARMv7 packages by simply targeting an ARMv7 device when you do your build.
  • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit is the last version supported by 2.2.5 or older, so please update your GameMaker.

For simply playing GameMaker games: Ubuntu 16 or later is required. Other distros can usually run the games GameMaker generates with no issues, but we only state support for Ubuntu, so if you have issues playing games on these other platforms you will need to investigate this yourself. All games are 64bit-only.

ARMv7 architecture support is available for games built with GameMaker 2.3.1 or newer if the developer built the package using an ARMv7 device.

 

Opera GX (now called GX.games in newer versions)  (setup guide)

  • Emscripten SDK v3.1.9 is the only version which will work in your GM versions

As part of GameMaker, everyone has the ability to publish their games to our GX.games community (for free) so that anyone else can play or indeed buy them.

Your games will only work in the Opera GX and Opera browsers, and you should always use the latest stable versions of these. Only Desktop versions of those two browsers are supported, as mobile support is only in newer versions of GameMaker.

There are no additional tools required to build VM projects (there are for YYC development), but be aware you must have the browser installed first in order to test your games, otherwise you will be shown a website asking you to install Opera GX.

Note that this is a high-performance target much closer in functionality to Windows/Mac/etc., than it is to the HTML5 target.

 

HTML5

There are no additional tools required to build HTML5 projects, and the module supports a wide range of current browsers: all Chromium-based browsers (such as Opera/OperaGX, Chrome, Edge, and Vivaldi), plus Safari and Firefox. Mobile variants of all of these are supported also.

Please note that old IE 11 is not fully supported because it does not support WebGL, and some older mobile device browsers may have the same issue. However, you can usually run games in these browsers if WebGL is disabled in Game Options within your project.

 

Android (and the old Amazon Fire target)  (setup guide)

  • Android Studio Chipmunk (2021.2.1 Patch 1) is the last supported release - trying to use newer Android Studio versions will fail, as they have moved files around a lot.
  • Inside Android Studio, install "Platform" 33.0.0 and NDK "side-by-side" 24.0.8215888 and then these two are the values to use inside Game Options in GameMaker when building your projects
  • Build Tools version is blank for API 30+ because Google have changed this so you specify the Compile SDK value and the Android SDK works out the correct build tools you need. If you're compiling with API 30+, then any version you type here will be ignored by Google's tools.
  • Minimum SDK version is 16 for API 28+ and anything built for Android YYC. (Be aware Google Play requires you to use API 30 or above when submitting!)
  • Please note some third-party extensions may require you to raise the minimum SDK version to their requirements, as will enabling "Run Lint code analysis". If your project fails to build, review your whole compiler log for the exact versions you require.
  • Only GameMaker 2.3.7+ support Android Studio versions newer than 4.2.
  • GameMaker 2.3.3-2.3.6 supports Android Studio 4.2 specifically.
  • If you are using 2.3.2 or older you need to stick with Android Studio 4.1, otherwise you will have errors running keystore commands.
  • You can always download older versions of Android Studio from Google here.

For simply playing GameMaker games: GameMaker itself supports a wide range of Android OS versions, but Google Play does not (and Amazon requires fairly recent APIs also). You may find that you can build and test using old devices and old API versions, but you would not be able to publish these on some stores, and there is nothing we can do about this.

64/32bit device support depends on what the game developer chose when they built the version you're trying to play - however all recent versions of GameMaker only offer 64bit, to comply with Google Play's store requirements.

 

iOS/iPadOS/tvOS  (iOS/iPadOS setup guide) (tvOS setup guide)

Note that you will likely not be able to build packages suitable for store submission if you're using a GameMaker version old enough that you needed to use this page rather than the "current releases" one - Apple require a newer Xcode than almost all releases covered on this page can support, so if you're doing Apple development we would simply suggest you update your GameMaker version to the current release and follow the regular setup FAQ.

  • As far as GameMaker and local-device building/testing is concerned, Xcode 12 and iOS/tvOS 14 was required. Therefore, you will also need macOS Catalina or newer in order to install Xcode 12. However, you will need to be using at least Xcode 13 to submit to the AppStore (see the link in the point above for up-to-date info).
  • Please note that whilst Xcode 11 will still build projects for iOS 13 and all the way down to targeting iOS 9 or older, Apple doesn't support anything older than iOS 10 and super-old devices often can't access the AppStore, so there's no real commercial need to do work to support them, and in order to submit to the AppStore you need to support all the newer iOS versions... So please don't test using only old devices!
  • If you're trying to use a newer version of Xcode or iOS/tvOS than mentioned immediately above, then you will need to update your GameMaker version also!

For simply playing GameMaker games: iOS 10.0 or above, tvOS 12.0 or above, iPadOS 13.0 or above. All games are 64bit-only.

 

UWP  (UWP on PC setup guide) (UWP on Xbox One setup guide)

Please be aware this target has been removed from August 22 releases onwards - in the newer versions, please use the GDK extension in combination with a regular Windows build instead (see below for an important point on this).

Whilst GameMaker's Indie Subscription and above include support for Windows 10 Mobile and Xbox One console packages, Microsoft themselves don't support this platform as of December 2019 and there is no way to publish your games. Accordingly, we do not offer support for using Win 10 Mobile phones or Xbox One consoles and we cannot say how long Visual Studio will continue allowing you to test on local devices.

  • 2.3.4 and newer require Visual Studio 2019 (Community Editions are fine to use).
  • 2.3.3 and older requires either Visual Studio 2015 or Visual Studio 2017 (Community Editions are fine to use). Additionally, in these old versions, Windows 10 SDK 10.0.14393.0 is the SDK we require rather than the latest version, but note that newer versions may additionally be required by some functionality/extensions in your project.
  • If you wish to use our GDK extension available in newer GameMaker releases in order to support Xbox Live functionality in Windows games (i.e., to replace UWP), then please note that you need to be an approved GDK developer with Microsoft before you will be able to request the extension from us or use it in your games - more information on the GDK system and applying for ID@Xbox can be found here.

For simply playing GameMaker games: Windows 10 or the current Xbox One firmware is required. All games are 64bit-only.

 

 

Consoles

Please note you will only have access to the following links if you have been approved for the specific platform. If you wish to unlock access to a console (and can prove you're a licensed console developer!), please follow our Help Article that will explain the Application Process for Console Access.

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