Although Linux is the developer’s favorite operating system for programming, there are many programs, especially advanced IDEs, that are not compatible with it. This is due to the absence of certain APIs, such as DirectX or .NET Framework, and the incompatibility of compilers with this operating system. But nevertheless, YoYo Games has not wanted to miss the opportunity to hug the users of the penguin and, although it has taken years, it has finally just released the first version of its video game design software, GameMaker Studio 2, for this operating system.
YoYo Games, a company currently owned by Opera, is the creator of the GameMaker Studio program. If something about this program should be highlighted, its main strength is the ease of creating games without knowing any programming language thanks to its drag & drop design system. In addition, for users who want to go one step further, GameMaker offers its own programming language that is very easy to learn to exploit its full potential.
Until now, the GameMaker Studio 2 editor was only available for Windows and for macOS. However, from now on, we will be able to download it for Linux as well. Specifically for Ubuntu.
At last, GameMaker Studio 2 comes to Linux
YoYo Games just released a new beta of its editor, 2.3.4. This new version brings a good amount of internal fixes and improvements, but the most important thing is that, finally, Linux users will be able to download and install this program to create their own video games from it.
Those responsible for this IDE, for now, they only guarantee support for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, so it is likely that in other distros this IDE does not work properly, in addition to not receiving any type of support outside the Canonical ecosystem. Also, it must run on a native operating system, no virtual machines.
In addition, you have to take into account some faults and limitations of this new version of the programming IDE, such as:
- The editor can hang randomly, especially when copying any text more than 7 times.
- You can only create games for Ubuntu, nothing for other operating systems.
- The debugger does not work.
- Cache cleaning can cause problems.
- The installer does not create file associations, nor can these be configured by hand.
- Random errors when saving or exporting projects.
We can see the list of official changes, and all the known errors in this new version for Linux, in this link.
How to test the Linux version
Although GameMaker has always been a paid program, since a month ago, YoYo Games decided to open it to all users to download it and use it completely free. You only have to pay for the modules to compile the games in case you want to distribute and market them. Of course, a great opportunity for all those who want to take the first steps in this program without having to spend a large amount of money.
The new version 2.3.4 of GameMaker Studio for Ubuntu can be downloaded, in .deb format, for free from here. If we are Windows or macOS users, the latest available version of the program (2.3.3 right now) can be downloaded for free from this link. Of course, we will have to register and login.
