Game Maker Studio 2 is the most advanced software on our list and can intimidate newbies. However, it is by far the easiest professional-level game engine to learn and has been used by many indie developers to create games like Hyper Light Drifter, Momodora, Katana Zero, and more.
The key to Game Maker Studio 2’s accessibility is its streamlined, object-based scripting. Instead of programming your games from scratch, the built-in editor lets you program character behaviors and game systems with simple drop-down menus based on Game Maker Studio’s unique scripting language. There are tons of tutorials out there to teach you the basics of the engine, as well as sample projects to get you started, and community-created assets to use if you’re new to creating your own.
The only downside is that the skills you learn while creating games with Game Maker Studio 2 don’t necessarily translate to other engines like Godot, Unity, and Unreal as they use popular programming languages like C # which allow for greater complexity. However, since Game Maker Studio 2 supports 2D and 3D games, you can easily create all of your games in Game Maker Studio 2 as long as it suits your needs.
Game Maker Studio is free to download and use, but you have to pay to unlock certain features and publish your games. You can buy a one-year license for $ 39 that lets you publish to Windows and Mac, or a perpetual license for $ 99, the iOS, Android, Amazon Fire devices, Ubuntu, HTML 5, and the Adds publishing support for the Windows Universal Program. Game Maker Studio 2 also offers publishing tools for PS4 / PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One / Xbox Series X / S, but each requires a license that costs a whopping $ 700 a year – or you can get them for $ 1,500. Bundle dollars per year. That’s pretty high, but on par with the console release costs you’ll see with other professional software.
