7 replies to this topic

[juriw]

Hello,

I am at the begining of an new course at uni. The course is Game Design, and we are being lectured in GM and the book, The Game Makers Apprentice.

I use my Mac for Java programmering, other study related things and work. But I was wondering if it is a good idea to use GM4MAC, or should I go the "safe" way, via bootcamp (win7)?

Thank you.

Best regards,
Juriw

[SapperEngineer]

GM4Mac is just as stable as Windows version is. (Though keep in mind that it is version 7 of GM rather than 8 (Windows)). You can use LateralGM to convert Windows GM8 games to GM4Mac, but transparency will be goofed up.

Also, keep in mind that all Windows extensions won't work on the Mac version, and there is not a very large porting community (It seems that ugriffin and I are the only people writing Dylibs).

With all of this in mind, I still think that GM4Mac is better than just bootcamping the windows version. The Game Maker's Apprentice should still apply to GM4Mac, as long as it's not using extensions.

Edited by SapperEngineer, 03 September 2012 - 08:07 PM.

[Dark Matter]

I would definitely use Bootcamp. GM7 is really horrible to use on Mac — it seems unfinished and uncared for. It has many UI-based bugs and is not pleasant from a user's perspective at all.

[dannyjenn]

If you have Windows and Bootcamp already on your Mac, use that. While the Mac GameMaker is "stable", it's outdated (being version 7), it gets errors frequently (at least mine does), it's got some bugs, and improving it is not one of YoYo Games's top priorities.

But if you're going for a Windows version and plan to register it, you might want to consider Studio rather than 8.1. With Studio, you can create Mac apps in addition to Windows exes, and it leaves you with the option of saving for even more platforms if you pay extra. But to save a Mac app file with Studio, the Windows and Mac must be running simultaneously, so you can't use BootCamp for that.

Edit - all that being said, GameMaker for Mac works fine for me. I have yet to register it, but all Pro functions can be used in Lite so this works to my advantage.

Edited by dannyjenn, 06 September 2012 - 04:18 AM.

[giga970]

If you have a newer Mac, you can use Parallels Desktop. then you can use GameMaker 8.1, or Studio. The new $50 dollar price point is a great. I've been using GameMaker: Studio with Parallels and it works beautifully. I can make Windows and Mac apps with ONE computer, as opposed to two. With bootcamp you can't compile to Mac, because the Mac is... technically off. You can probably get a student discount for Parallels, and a copy of windows (although you probably don't need to buy windows. Because my desktop PC didn't come with an install disk, I just downloaded an ISO from an approved Microsoft source, and then used my PC's product key. I followed these directions from PC World, really helpful.)

[juriw]

Thank you all your the replies. I have chosen to run bootcamp win7, it's okay after I have scripted the keyboard, so that everything is like OSX on the keyboard Then I wont mess up when typing/copy pasting and so on

At my course we are 35 students, and about 80% are mac users, some of them said that a new GM4MAC is scheduled to be released in 2013, can anyone confirm this ?

Best regards,
Juriw

[Dangerous_Dave]

At my course we are 35 students, and about 80% are mac users, some of them said that a new GM4MAC is scheduled to be released in 2013, can anyone confirm this ?

There is no plan for a new GM4Mac, just a new, multi-platform product YYG are calling GM: Next. I think you'd be very, very lucky to see this in 2013.

[Dark Matter]

At my course we are 35 students, and about 80% are mac users, some of them said that a new GM4MAC is scheduled to be released in 2013, can anyone confirm this ?

There is no plan for a new GM4Mac, just a new, multi-platform product YYG are calling GM: Next. I think you'd be very, very lucky to see this in 2013.

I wouldn't say "very, very lucky". But I do agree it's probably more likely to be 2014 than 2013, unfortunately. YYG seem to be taking the approach of working on Studio mainly whilst slowing creating their new product, which is good from the perspective of those of us who have Studio, but the features that have been "hinted at" with GM:Next (especially multi-platform support) seem very enticing.