Installation Guide
GameMaker is designed for use on macOS and Windows desktop computers.
You can download the GameMaker installer on the GameMaker Website and install it. Once installed, the first time you run GameMaker you may be prompted to update before being able to use the product.
After any updates have been installed, you will be able to log in and use the IDE.
It is worth noting that - depending on the licence type that you have - you may be required to install additional components or follow additional steps to set up and use GameMaker for specific platforms. For full information on what each platform requires, please see this article on the GameMaker Helpdesk: Required SDKs.
Stable, Beta and LTS
The version you download from the Download page should be the current Stable version of GameMaker. The page also has a "Beta" version available which is used to showcase or test new functionality before it goes into a final stable build, as well as an "LTS" version that gets only bug fixes.
The full version details are as follows:
- Stable: This version is the one you would be using for general development and is recommended for use with any commercial product. It may lack certain features available in the Beta versions, but this is because they haven't been fully tested or require additional work.
- Beta: The Beta version of GameMaker is for those that wish to try out new features before they get added to the Stable build, or for those that require a coming fix for an issue. It is not recommended that you use the Beta build for final game production unless it contains an important fix for a bug that is holding up your project. You can get a Beta build of GameMaker from the GameMaker Website, and it can be installed and run side-by-side with the Stable build. Please note that if you are running GameMaker through Steam then you will not have access to the Beta build of the product using Steam itself, although you can still download and use the desktop version.
- LTS: Long-Term Support gives you a fixed version of GameMaker that only receives bug fixes and no feature updates. This is useful for long-term commercial projects that want to avoid the changes that come with major feature additions, and only require fixes to engine bugs.