While Unity’s controversial decision to charge developers an installation fee, other graphics engine companies have expressed their views on the fee in different ways. This time it was GameMaker who decided to change its pricing policy, and in favor of the developers. The company behind the game development engine is now offering GameMaker free for non-commercial use, with a one-time fee replacing the subscription model for commercial use.
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Since August 2021, Scottish developer YoYo Games’ game engine has been free to use, but developers wanting to export or publish their game have had to pay a subscription fee of $9.99 per month for platforms, not including the ability to export to consoles. If you want your game to run on consoles, the cost is $79.99 per month for all platforms, including consoles.
Now, as announced in a new developer blog post, the payment model has been changed to make it cheaper for commercial developers and completely free for non-commercial developers.
GameMaker is now “Absolutely free to download and forever supported for non-commercial use.“, according to the FAQ page. Developers will be able to export their games to PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and the web without having to pay any fees unless they plan to make money from it.
If they decide to sell the game, they will have to pay for a single commercial license of $99, as opposed to the previous monthly subscription that allows them to sell the game on PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and the web. If they want to sell their games on consoles as well, the $79.99 monthly subscription fee will still apply.
GameMaker will now also allow non-commercial educational games to be exported to all formats, including console, for free, provided the developer creates an educational account.
“We’ve seen other platforms make strange moves regarding pricing and terms.said Russell Kay, head of GameMaker, referring to Unity’s controversial charging plan announced in September this year. “So we thought: what if we did the opposite, something that could actually be useful for developers? Our success is measured by the number of people creating games.»
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Source : Married Games
