Exclusive: GameMaker Multiplayer Features And Function Names Revealed

Multiplayer functionality in GameMaker: Studio will soon be reality if a recent tweet from Micheal Dailly, head of development at YoYo Games, is anything to go by. The tweet includes a photo that appears to depict six game clients running side-by-side, demonstrating a multiplayer game that does not require the developer to set up a server themselves.

Dailly later commented that the “theory” was to allow for cross-platform multiplayer functionality, potentially enabling mobile gamers to interact with those using a PC. When available, peer-to-peer multiplayer functionality will be demonstrated with an example game to be included in GameMaker, possibly the same one featured in the tweet. The new features will be added to GameMaker: Studio in an update next week, however this will not be version 1.2 as many expected.

Game Maker Blog has been given exclusive early access to GameMaker: Studio’s new multiplayer functionality. The names of the networking components shown below are not final.

Built-in multiplayer functionality has been a long-anticipated addition to the popular GameMaker: Studio IDE. Due to new challenges faced with developing cross-platform games, real-time network communication has not yet been a feature of the software, and the lack of such functionality is often regarded as one of the most significant remaining holes in the GameMaker experience.

In the past, usage of application extensions (DLLs), such as the immensely popular 39dll by Australian developer Luke Graham, have been used to develop GameMaker online games as far back as 2004.

One notable example is Slime Online, released in 2007 by veteran GameMaker user Ingo Liebig (better known as “BlaXun”). The 2D platformer series became iconic within the GameMaker community, however development was ceased in 2012.