There are a number of different versions of GameMaker:
Studio available for you to use, and each one is designed to
scale to the level of programming experience of the end-user,
either with the GameMaker product or in general. All
versions can compile to Windows, but apart from these compile
targets each available version is different as detailed below.
Should you wish to upgrade your current version of GameMaker:
Studio, you can do so through the YoYo Games web
site.
This version is free to download and use, as it is designed to
permit the end-user to test the functions of the product before
upgrading to a more powerful version. If you have used previous
GameMaker products and are thinking about upgrading to
Studio then you can use this version to see the differences between
it and previous versions, or if you have never used
GameMaker before (or are new to programming) then this
version is an excellent place to start.
The following limits are present in the FREE Standard version of
GameMaker: Studio:
- No Configurations
- No Extra Target Modules
- No Texture Groups
- No Audio Groups
- No Source Control
- Missing features in the image editor:
- no spare page
- no creating, saving nor loading of custom palettes
- no onion skinning
With the professional version of GameMaker: Studio all limitations are removed and you can experiment with all the features of the program:
- Configurations for specific clients or builds
- Texture Group and Audio Group control for optimising your games and apps
- Source Control for working in teams using Subversion
- Android test target for testing your project on Android devices before buying the appropriate target module
- Mac OSX and Ubuntu targets as well as the Steam Workshop (requires the Steam version of GameMaker: Studio)
- The possibility of buying extra target modules, currently:
- HTML5
- iOS
- Android/Amazon Fire
- UWP (requires the Master Collection)