GameMaker expands with more free options, replaces two subscriptions with one-time fee

YoYo Games' popular 2D engine, GameMaker, is now free for non-commercial on all non-console platforms.

Breaking the news in a blog post, GameMaker head Russell Kay explained YoYo will also be introducing a new one-time fee that will replace the current 'creator' and 'indie' subscriptions to better meet the needs of hobbyist and indie developers.

"Nothing changes for developers targeting the consoles, our Enterprise subscription remains the same," he added.

Kay, who's also senior product director at YoYo Games' parent company Opera, said the pivot is the company's way of thanking the GameMaker community and a response to the "awkward moves" made by others in the space. We suspect we know who they're talking about.

"Since we joined the Opera family, GameMaker has seen a three-fold increase in its active users. Lots of young people came to try GameMaker, over 6,000 games were published on gx.games, and as a result of the product evolution, GameMaker is now better than ever," he wrote.

"We have seen other platforms making awkward moves with their pricing and terms, so we thought, what if we did the opposite, something that could actually be good for developers? Our success is measured by the number of people making games."

Kay added the new pricing structure reflects GameMaker's commitment to making development more "accessible and flexible." He said the free non-commercial version will now serve as an entry point for beginners, while the new one-time fee is for more "curious" creators.

The pivot means GameMaker has now ditched two of the three subscription tiers it introduced back in August 2021, shortly after it was acquired by Opera for around $10 million.

This isn't the first notable announcement YoYo Games has made this year. Back in May, the company outlined plans to bring AI integration and mod extensions to GameMaker this year.