Install GameMaker Studio on Linux [Step-by-Step]

Table of Contents

GameMaker Studio is a popular game development tool used by many indie game developers around the world. It provides an easy-to-use interface and powerful features that allow developers to create their games without having to write code from scratch. While GameMaker Studio is primarily designed for Windows users, it is also available for Linux. In this article, we will walk you through the steps to install GameMaker Studio on Linux, so that you can start developing your own games on this platform. We will provide you with a detailed guide that covers everything from downloading and installing the required software packages to configuring the GameMaker Studio environment on your Linux system. Whether you are an experienced game developer or just starting out, this article will help you get up and running with GameMaker Studio on Linux in no time.

What is GameMaker Studio?

GameMaker Studio is a game engine that helps game developers create 2D and 3D games. It has an interface suitable for those with and without programming skills. It uses a proprietary language, GameMaker Language (GML) as its programming language. This language is similar to C initially, but has a simpler syntax and was specifically designed to make game development easier.

GameMaker Studio is used to create mobile, desktop and web based games. Game developers can make games that run on different platforms like Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and HTML5. GameMaker Studio provides a set of ready-made resources for game developers, these resources can be used to speed up the game creation process.

In this article, we will explain how to install GameMaker Studio on the Linux operating system.

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Steps to install GameMaker Studio on Linux

Installation is recommended for the popular linux distribution Ubuntu. "Supports Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64bit (preferred) and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 64bit (also available) " For this reason, we will explain the installation steps on Ubuntu 22.04. Now let's start the step-by-step installation.

Step-1: Update Package List

Update the package list before you start the installation, so you don't encounter any problems with the package installation:

$ sudo apt update -y

Step-2: Install Dependencies

For installation on Ubuntu 22.04, install the following package dependencies:

$ sudo apt install build-essential openssh-server clang libssl-dev libxrandr-dev libxxf86vm-dev libopenal-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev zlib1g-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev ffmpeg libfuse2 curl -y

Step-3: Install the Steam runtime libraries.

Create a directory for the Steam runtime libraries:

$ sudo mkdir /opt/steam-runtime/

Then install the Steam runtimes in the created directory:

$ curl https://repo.steampowered.com/steamrt-images-scout/snapshots/latest-steam-client-general-availability/com.valvesoftware.SteamRuntime.Sdk-amd64,i386-scout-sysroot.tar.gz | sudo tar -xzf - -C /opt/steam-runtime/
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:--  0:00:01 --:--:--  0  642M    0 3036k    0     0  1350k      0  0:08:07  0:00:02  0:08:05  1  642M    1 8012k    0     0  2462k      0  0:04:27  0:00:03  0:04:24  
...

Step-4: Install the linuxdeploy

Get linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage with wget:

$ wget https://github.com/linuxdeploy/linuxdeploy/releases/download/continuous/linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage
--2023-04-07 22:31:54--  https://github.com/linuxdeploy/linuxdeploy/releases/download/continuous/linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage
Resolving github.com (github.com)... 140.82.121.3
Connecting to github.com (github.com)|140.82.121.3|:443... connected.
Connecting to objects.githubusercontent.com (objects.githubusercontent.com)|185.199.108.133|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 13214912 (13M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage’

linuxdeploy-x86_6 100%[=============>]  12,60M  3,72MB/s    in 3,4s    

2023-04-07 22:31:59 (3,72 MB/s) - ‘linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage’ saved [13214912/13214912]

Then install:

$ sudo install -m 0755 linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage /usr/local/bin/linuxdeploy

Step-5: Install the AppImage

Now get appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage with wget:

$ wget https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/releases/download/continuous/appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage
--2023-04-07 22:34:33--  https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/releases/download/continuous/appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage
Resolving github.com (github.com)... 140.82.121.4
Connecting to objects.githubusercontent.com (objects.githubusercontent.com)|185.199.109.133|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 8811712 (8,4M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage’

appimagetool-x86_ 100%[=============>]   8,40M  4,41MB/s    in 1,9s    

2023-04-07 22:34:36 (4,41 MB/s) - ‘appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage’ saved [8811712/8811712]

Then install:

$ sudo install -m 0755 appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage /usr/local/bin/appimagetool

Step-6: Download and Install GameMaker Beta

Download the .deb package for installation on Ubuntu. Visit the official page and right click on the latest version, copy the link:

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Then get the .deb package with wget:

$ wget https://gms.yoyogames.com/GameMaker-Beta-2023.200.0.299.deb
--2023-04-09 23:49:15--  https://gms.yoyogames.com/GameMaker-Beta-2023.200.0.299.deb
Resolving gms.yoyogames.com (gms.yoyogames.com)... 104.18.244.218, 104.18.245.218, 2606:4700::6812:f4da, ...
Connecting to gms.yoyogames.com (gms.yoyogames.com)|104.18.244.218|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 156384376 (149M) [binary/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘GameMaker-Beta-2023.200.0.299.deb’

GameMaker-Beta-2023 100%[===================>] 149,14M  2,81MB/s    in 55s     

2023-04-09 23:50:10 (2,72 MB/s) - ‘GameMaker-Beta-2023.200.0.299.deb’ saved [156384376/156384376]

Start the installation with its dependencies:

$ sudo apt install ./GameMaker-Beta-2023.200.0.299.deb

Installation takes place within a few minutes.

Summary

In this article, we have installed a version released as Beta. You can get help from the GameMaker Community page for problems you encounter during installation and for more information.

GameMaker Studio is a popular game development tool used by many indie game developers around the world. While it is primarily designed for Windows users, it is also available for Linux. To install GameMaker Studio on Linux, users need to follow a few steps.

First, they need to update the package list on their Linux system. Next, they need to install dependencies and the Steam runtime libraries. After that, the linuxdeploy tool is installed, which is used to create an AppImage package of GameMaker Studio. Once the AppImage package is downloaded and installed, the user can then proceed to download and install the GameMaker Beta.

By following these steps, game developers can start using GameMaker Studio on their Linux system to create their own games. With this guide, users can easily install GameMaker Studio on Linux and take advantage of its powerful features to create their games without any issues.

Feel free to comment on any problems you encounter during installation.

References

help.yoyogames.com - Setting Up For Ubuntu