In this article we give the required steps to set up GameMaker on Chromebook devices. Before you begin please ensure you have a GameMaker Account and are connected to the internet.
Please Note: This is a beta application. Betas may contain bugs which could corrupt your projects and may also introduce legitimate project format changes which stop you opening the project again in other versions. Accordingly, we would strongly suggest that you backup all projects before trying them on a beta.
Installation
Prior to installing GameMaker
ChromeOS requires you to enable a Linux subsystem in order to be able to run other forms of Linux apps, such as GameMaker and the build tools it depends on. Therefore, we need to enable this first of all.
Go to the bottom right of the desktop and bring up the settings menu (the cog wheel).
On the left panel select the Developers option:
Turn on the Linux Development Environment:
This will start an installation process (It may take a few minutes, depending on internet speeds) and then you should be left looking at a Terminal window and ready to go.
If it did not launch Terminal for you already, then you can now activate Terminal from the ChromeOS launcher whenever you need to:
Enable GPU Support (may be enabled by default in recent versions of ChromeOS)
Navigate to the page chrome://flags/#crostini-gpu-support on the chromebook and enable the crostini GPU Support flag
Dependencies
Installation of software on a Linux system often requires dependencies. Put simply, these are libraries and other files that are required by the software you'll be installing to work properly. To install the dependencies for GameMaker (listed in our Setting Up for Ubuntu guide) run the following in your terminal:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential openssh-server clang libssl-dev libxrandr-dev libxxf86vm-dev libopenal-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev zlib1g-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev ffmpeg libfuse2 curl nproc -y
$ sudo mkdir /opt/steam-runtime/
$ curl https://repo.steampowered.com/steamrt-images-scout/snapshot$s/latest-steam-client-general-availability/com.valvesoftware.SteamRuntime.Sdk-amd64,i386-scout-sysroot.tar.gz | sudo tar -xzf -C /opt/steam-runtime/
$ wget https://github.com/linuxdeploy/linuxdeploy/releases/download/continuous/linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage
$ sudo install -m 0755 linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage /usr/local/bin/linuxdeploy
$ wget https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/releases/download/continuous/appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage
$ sudo install -m 0755 linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage /usr/local/bin/linuxdeploy
Install GameMaker
Download our latest .deb installer here and save this somewhere on your machine.
Ensure that a Terminal window is open before launching our installer, as this is required for running the Linux environment.
Then run our .deb installer by double clicking in a file explorer or by running the following commands in terminal (at the time of writing, the current version is 2022.1100.0.248, so that's what's written below, but your version number will be different) :
cd <download_path>
sudo apt install -y ./GameMaker-Beta-2023.600.0.356.deb
Allow this process to complete, accepting any prompts to install or to access your network, etc.
Running GameMaker
On completing a successful install you can now access GameMaker from the application launcher (the circle in the bottom left of the taskbar)
Submitting Bug Reports
Assuming your issue is not already mentioned in the release thread here, the process for filing bug reports is no different to the regular release: please use the contact form linked-to inside GameMaker, as shown below.
Make sure you check the known issues table and the list of FAQs on the contact form before clicking that you still need to submit your bug report - you may not need to send us anything!
Also ensure that you pick the correct version number and include any logs or sample projects as requested - please assume that we will request your logs and a small sample project which just shows the issue and do include these when filing the issue, as we will want to get your issue fixed asap.
So we are able to quickly replicate your issue please ensure you provide the following information when submitting your ticket :
OS/Platform :
CPU :
GPU :
Language Keyboard :
Language Settings :
Timezone :
You'll be able to check these using neofetch, if you have it installed:
sudo apt install neofetch # Installing neofetch is completely optional
neofetch -s #takes a screenshot. Can be run without '-s' and pasted into the ticket
If you don't have or would prefer not to have neofetch then you can retrieve these details using the the browser. Open a new tab and type: chrome://system and hit Enter. You'll be able to simply search the page for the required field ( Ctrl + f)
Please be aware we need a .yyz export of your sample project, not simply the .yyp "project structure" file on its own. Use File > Export to generate a .yyz before making your ticket.
Where can I get support/help?
Anyone wanting coding help and advice can get assistance at any time from the GameMaker Community forums. Please note we do not offer coding/design support on the Helpdesk or bug-reporting facilities - you will be asked to make yourself a GMC thread and ask there.
Of course, whenever you need them you can see our various installation and platform setup guides right here on the Helpdesk.
If you believe you have identified a GameMaker bug (not one in your own code!), then please Report a Bug.