Why is GameMaker Studio so much more popular than Construct?

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  • Just saw the subscriber amount on Reddit for GMS being 30k and for Construct 1k. Why is that? GMS doesn't seem half as good or maintained as Construct and Construct even has visual programming and is a lot more beginner friendly. Even when people talk about game development they always mention all the engines but Construct. Is it the price, marketing or what? Thoughts?

  • Of the top of my head.

    1) It is developed by a pretty beefy studio, look up YoYo Games.

    2) It's older and was well established before being bought by YoYo Games and even before Construct 2 gain notoriety.

    3) Some very popular games have been made with it.

    and my personal favorite, a perk of being older...

    It has the better name!

    Seriously, if you know nothing about making games and want some sort of piece of software that will help you achieve that goal, what would you search for?... probably some sort of game making program some might even type for game maker straight away. It is the best name.

  • actually construct very popular. Most of html5 games are made by construct.

    here source

    https://twitter.com/moonscript/status/994253456658513920

  • I think the main reason for the difference is most Construct users don't sign up to the reddit page. I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from the number of followers on social media (especially since some companies pay to increase their follower counts)

  • DiegoM Raises good points. Most importantly that there is a vast array of legitimate full-scale multi-platform commercial games & successes made with GM. Construct doesn't exactly have that right now, but it's well on its way. In fact it was revealed not long ago that Cyber Shadow (made in C2) is being published by Yacht Club Games (Shovel Knight), which I think is a testament to "what game engine is the best?" being a loaded question.

    The biggest argument I've seen for GM is that is uses "real coding". Many people think visual programming is a beginner-only thing for beginner-only game engines. This isn't totally true...but it's not totally untrue either...but neither is the "real coding" part so blah.

    Ultimately I'm a bit baffled cause I've tried using GM / GMS / GMS2 multiple times over the years and I think it's terrible. I have a lot of friends who use it too and, well, they all hate it...but according to them it's their only option -- Unity and frameworks are too complicated, Construct and others are too limited.

  • The GMS game portfolio has the strongest console lineup next to Unity, you can't knock that level of mainstream penetration.

    It also doesn't hurt that their name is very well optimised for search, and finally, it's not a bad product! I endlessly prefer Construct, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't see the merits of GMS

  • Games that became hugely popular like Undertale, Hotline Miami and Gunpoint will draw attention to the software. Last time I used Game Maker was in 2005, in fact I bought Construct 2 because I was looking for a better engine for creating games, Game Maker seemed ancient to me. Maybe they've taken steps toward keeping it up to date in recent years but Construct is here now and does everything I need.

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  • I wonder what the actual subscriber numbers for C3 are, but I have the feeling that Ashley/Scirra do not want to disclose this.

  • Those are all some good points! And I see from the graph by Eren that it's a lot more popular in general. But for the most I was just baffled that people barely mention Construct even though I heard as well that a lot of people use it for making and then selling games to websites like Kongregate.

  • The name does have a lot to do with it. Construct is a very generic term. One annoyance for me after the rebrand is that it got harder to search construct related information via google, using construct instead of Scirra. That might not have anything to do with adoption though... Maybe "Construct Games" would be more obvious? Probably silly to rebrand again right now though.

  • Ultimately I'm a bit baffled cause I've tried using GM / GMS / GMS2 multiple times over the years and I think it's terrible.

    I had a similar experience. I ended up choosing C2 because it was much easier to get started making games. Also, GM's Drag-n-Drop is more limited than Construct's event system and I wasn't in the mood to learn a new language, especially a proprietary language for a single app.

    The new prices of GMS2? Forget about it. In order to do everything that C3 does, you would have to pay...

    Desktop $99.99

    GMS2 Mobile $399.99

    GMS2 UWP $399.99

    GMS2 Web $149.99

    -----------------------

    Total = $1049.96 USD

    That's 10 years of C3 subscriptions. I'm sure C4 will be out before then. ;)

  • Ultimately I'm a bit baffled cause I've tried using GM / GMS / GMS2 multiple times over the years and I think it's terrible.

    I have actually made a few "games" with GM (sadly lost to the sands of time) and while I don´t think it´s terrible, when I tried C2 it just instantly clicked with me in a way GM never managed to. The rest is history.

    I don´t think GM is terrible, just not for me.

  • I have actually made a few "games" with GM (sadly lost to the sands of time) and while I don´t think it´s terrible, when I tried C2 it just instantly clicked with me in a way GM never managed to. The rest is history.

    I don´t think GM is terrible, just not for me.

    I agree, i have used GameMaker Studio 1/2 in the past, I think construct does alot of thing better (GUI,Instance Management, Visual Programming, Engine Updates ....). and things are more intuitive, and it's super fast to add feature/prototype your game. and with the hard work Scirra is doing adding new features/ bug fixes as quick as they do... It's just a matter of time before one of the many talented people using construct make a hit game, and give the engine recognition.

  • I think that the fact that Construct 2/3 does not generate an exe (it does not do it without NWjs) and has to rely on external technologies has some importance.

    In addition to the subscription, most escape this payment method.

  • In addition to the subscription, most escape this payment method.

    I mean... the subscription thing... I dunno how impactful it really is. It´s really not that expensive and basically exports to anything from the getgo (except Switch, sadly... But at least there is chowdren)

    Gamemaker does export to Switch, for 800$ per year. I mean, we´re talking about 8 years C3 subscription money.

    I feel like a lot of people get way to hung up on the whole "subscription" thing, no matter how cheap it actually is. Considering that a 2 hour visit to the cinema costs what... at least 10 bucks without popcorn? Translate this to a C3 license, unless you use C3 less than 10 hours A YEAR, you get easily more "hours per thing" out of C3.

    But still, people hear subscription and get triggered. You literally have to not use it at all for an entire year to consider it anything close to beeing "wasted money". Doesn´t matter, it´s a subscription, reeeee.

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