@bscotch/gamemaker-releases

GameMaker Releases

GameMaker releases new builds fairly frequently across several release channels (e.g. beta, stable, and LTS). Each release includes two separate artifacts: an IDE installer and a Runtime. Release notes are listed separately for each artifact type and release channel.

This package centralizes all of the official GameMaker information (for Windows versions) into a single structured document. It is used by Butterscotch Shenanigans to keep an up-to-date, centralized history of releases. These are uploaded as GitHub releases.

Latest releases document: https://github.com/bscotch/gamemaker-info/releases/latest/download/releases-summary.json

Requirements

• Node.js 16+

Installation

npm install @bscotch/gamemaker-releases

Usage

import { listReleasesWithNotes } from '@bscotch/gamemaker-releases';

// Get info for all releases, including IDE and Runtime, across
// all channels, with release notes. The first run may take a while,
// since there are many files that need to be fetched. These are
// cached for future runs, however.
const releases = await listReleasesWithNotes();

Background Info

Artifacts

GameMaker releases are made up of a pair of artifacts: an IDE and a Runtime. While each IDE has a "matching" Runtime, you can specify any Runtime you want for the active IDE (though not all will work with any given IDE version).

The IDE artifacts are installed via an installer, while Runtimes are installed via the GameMaker IDE or via other installed Runtimes. In other words, you cannot manually install Runtimes.

Release Channels

GameMaker artifacts are released into one or more of several channels. Each channel has a separate RSS feed describing the GameMaker versions available in that channel.

• Long-Term Support (LTS) Releases intended for maximum stability, with infrequent feature changes.
• Stable Releases intended for typical use-cases. The schedule is roughly monthly, and new features are delivered regularly.
• Beta Releases intended for games in early stages of production, where new and relatively-untested features are delivered rapidly. The schedule is roughly weekly.
• Dev (Unstable) Releases intended for internal use or rapid delivery of new features. Not recommended.

Release Feeds

GameMaker releases are described by RSS feeds and JSON files whose URLs are listed inside those feeds. These RSS feeds are the same ones used by the GameMaker IDE to determine when new IDE and Runtime artifacts have become available.

There are distinct feeds for each platform supported by the GameMaker IDE, for each release channel. The IDE and Runtime have separate feeds.

IDE Feeds (Windows)

• lts: https://gms.yoyogames.com/update-win-LTS.rss
• stable: https://gms.yoyogames.com/update-win.rss
• beta: https://gms.yoyogames.com/update-win-NuBeta.rss
• unstable: https://gms.yoyogames.com/update-win-NuBeta-I.rss

Runtime Feeds (Windows)

• lts: https://gms.yoyogames.com/Zeus-Runtime-LTS.rss
• stable: https://gms.yoyogames.com/Zeus-Runtime.rss
• beta: https://gms.yoyogames.com/Zeus-Runtime-NuBeta.rss
• unstable: https://gms.yoyogames.com/Zeus-Runtime-NuBeta-I.rss