Required SDKs for GameMaker's 2022.0 LTS Version

YoYo QA Dept
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This article details the required versions of the various tools and SDKs that the 2022 LTS release of GameMaker requires. 

Due to the very nature of an LTS release, 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 do need to use the regular monthly releases (at least until whenever we do update the LTS to support those newer SDKs).

Please note also that in terms of submissions, you always need to be aware of the requirements documented on the Monthly SDKs FAQ, as these are beyond our control and may require you to use a Monthly release if a platform holder updates their rules.

  • 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?

This FAQ is only relevant for IDE Version 2022.0.2.51 using Runtimes Version 2022.0.2.49 - if you actually need the setup instructions for a regular "monthly" version of GameMaker, please see the main GameMaker Required SDKs FAQ instead.

If you are using an older 2022.0 LTS release, then most of this guide will still be correct for you also, but if you are just starting to use GameMaker, or if you're having any issues with your install of an older release, we would of course recommend using the version mentioned a few lines up. 

 

Contents

 

Setting Up The Windows IDE

  • Visual Studio is required when building Windows YYC and anything to do consoles - see the target's own section below for specifics.
  • Note that recent versions of Visual Studio require Windows 10+ and the very old Visual Studio 2015-2019 require at least Win 7 with SP1.
  • If you are using Spine images in your game, then GameMaker requires your files to be exported with Spine runtime 4.0 specifically. 
  • 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.
  • A separate physical Ubuntu machine is still required for creating games for Ubuntu - see the target's own section below for specifics.
  • When targeting Mac/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 Mac IDE

  • Please don't use macOS/iOS/tvOS/Xcode "developer" and "beta" builds - Apple's beta builds are often subject to large changes and an issue in one version may not be present in the next update. Be aware we will only look at Apple's "GM Candidates" and fix issues present in their release builds.
  • 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, 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, and this has its own minimum OS version Apple will allow you to install it on - see the macOS and iOS/iPadOS/tvOS sections below for specifics
  • 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 requires your files to be exported with Spine runtime 4.0 specifically.
  • 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.
  • 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.

 

 

Steamworks Support

 

 

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 2022 (Community Editions are fine) installed and configured as per the relevant section in the setup guide above.
  • If you wish to use our GDK extension 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: All games are always 64bit.

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.

XP is not supported at all. 

 

 

macOS  (setup guide)

  • Xcode 15 or above is only supported by 2022.0.2+
  • Older versions of LTS only support older versions of Xcode which Apple no longer allow to submit apps, so please update if you haven't already
  • Be aware if you're trying to use a newer version of Xcode than mentioned immediately above, then you might need to use a Monthly/Beta version of GameMaker also!
  • Please note that in terms of submissions, you need to be aware of the requirements documented on the Monthly SDKs FAQ, as these are beyond our control and may require you to use a Monthly release

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)

  • Supports Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64bit (preferred) and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 64bit (also useable).
  • No other versions or distros are officially supported.

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.

 

GX.games (setup guide)

  • All releases up to and including 2022.0.2: Emscripten SDK v3.1.9

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.

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 (setup guide)

Please do not immediately update your Android Studio setup whenever updates are offered, as Google like to move files around and this breaks GameMaker support - always check here first!

  • 2022.0.3 will support newer versions of Android Studio suitable for submitting with
  • Please note that in terms of submissions, you need to be aware of the requirements documented on the Monthly SDKs FAQ, as these are beyond our control and may require you to use a Monthly release
  • Do not use Oracle's Java - follow our setup guide!
  • Please always use a 64bit device when testing (including emulators)
  • 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.
  • Note that the below information is historical/only relevant if NOT submitting to Google Play - Google Play submission requirements mean you need to use a GameMaker version listed at the top of this section!
  • 2022.0.2 supported Giraffe patch 2 as well as the older releases - Inside Android Studio install Tiramisu's "Platform SDK 33", "Android SDK Build Tools 33.0.2" and NDK "25.2.9519653"
  • 2022.0.1 supports Electric Eel (2022.1.1 Patch 2) and Dolphin as well as the older Chipmunk release - Inside Android Studio install Tiramisu's "Platform SDK 33", "Android SDK Build Tools 33.0.2" and NDK "25.2.9519653"
  • 2022.0.0 needs Android Studio Chipmunk (2021.2.1 Patch 1) - Inside Android Studio install Tiramisu's "Platform SDK 33", "Android SDK Build Tools 33.0.2" and NDK "24.0.8215888"

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.

All games are 64bit-only.

 

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

  • Xcode is required to be installed on the Mac and set up correctly, so see the macOS section above for specifics
  • Please note that in terms of submissions, you need to be aware of the requirements documented on the Monthly SDKs FAQ, as these are beyond our control and may require you to use a Monthly release

Our docs and the GameMaker IDE do not refer to iPadOS as there currently is no fundamental change compared to regular iOS and so GameMaker's iOS packages work perfectly fine on iPadOS. We will obviously monitor this going forward and react if Apple make a breaking change, but for now just bear in mind if you have "iOS" you have "iPadOS" 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.

 

 

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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