awesome-gamemaker
A curated list of awesome libraries, snippets, guides, and projects for GameMaker.
https://github.com/bytecauldron/awesome-gamemaker
Last synced: 14 days ago
JSON representation
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Networking
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Recommendations
- Patchwire-GM - The network library from gm-core if you want to use this implementation without the entire gm-core suite.
- HTTP GML - Receive GET requests and upload files in GML.
- GMNest - Socket.IO extension for HTML5 games.
- MultiClient - Non-dll, multiple client launcher for network development.
- GM Networking - Very simple network code demonstration.
- Rocket Networking Engine - Easy low-code multiplayer engine.
- Multiplayer Networking Tutorial - Wizirdi. 
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Particles
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Recommendations
- Particle Editor - Create particles with an easy UI and export into GML code.
- Advanced Particles - A particle implementation that comes with its own delta timing methods.
- Particles Wrapper - A simplistic particle system wrapper that is designed to make creating particles fun and easy.
- Pulse - A library to create more complex particle emitters, systems and particles.
- Burrn - Built-in particle system that uses the particle asset built into the IDE.
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Pathing
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Recommendations
- Aquila - A* Pathfinding implementation.
- Grid-based Pathfinding Scripts - Flexible pathfinding system with 3 different algorithms.
- Pathfinding in graph - Shortest pathfinding system in (weighted) graph, using Dijkstra algorithm.
- A-Star-Pathing - Another A* pathfinding implementation.
- A-Star-Pathing - Another A* pathfinding implementation.
- PathPlus - Enhance GameMaker Paths with CatmullRom and Bezier Interpolations.
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Physics
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Recommendations
- On Slopes and Grids - A tutorial to implement 45° slopes.
- GMS2 Platforming System - GameMaker implementation by Ben Allen and an expansion on Shaun Spalding's original 1.4 platformer tutorial.
- Verlet Integration Library - Verlet integration by Sarek Lambert.
- Top-Down Movement & Collision - Robust object-based collision system from Pixelated Pope.
- On Slopes and Grids - A tutorial to implement 45° slopes.
- Loj Hadron Collider - A robust, pixel-perfect collision engine.
- Inverse Kinematics Extension - A library for working with inverse kinematics.
- GMVerlet-Integration - Verlet integration example used for visuals.
- On Slopes and Grids - A tutorial to implement 45° slopes.
- GMPhysX - Adds NVIDIA PhysX to GameMaker for physics-based 2D/3D games. 💸
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Sequences
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Recommendations
- Sequences Tutorial - Shaun Spalding. 
- Making Splash Screen Sequences - Mash Arcade. 
- DuplicateSequence - Make a deep copy of sequence assets/structs for editing at runtime.
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Shaders
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Recommendations
- TransFX - Transition Library.
- Post-Processing FX - 50+ high-quality, customizable effects. 💸
- BJRTFX - Zik's CRT Utility Shader.
- bktGlitch - Glitch shader.
- H O R R I - F I - VHS Shader.
- Cyberpunk Hologram Effect - Create and customize your own holographic effect using this easy-to-implement asset.
- Depth Sorted Silhouettes - Example project to demonstrate shader-based depth sorting silhouettes. Tested on PC, Mac, HTML5, and Android.
- GMShaders.com - Shader tutorials from Xor. Originally hosted at "xorshaders.com".
- 1PassBlur - Blur Shader with adjustable radius.
- Bokeh Blur - Extension of the 1PassBlur which provides a different look. Similar to a real lens blur. Although it's much slower than 1Pass or Dual-Kawase.
- Dual-Kawase - Blur Shader that limits radius but is very efficient.
- Xor's Halftone - A wonderful, versatile halftone shader. Lots of tweakable settings.
- Fire-Fun - Some fun magic fireballs.
- Jump Flooding - Jump Flooding Algorithm for GameMaker made with shaders.
- Shader Tutorials - Gaming Reverends. 
- Shader Tutorials - DragoniteSpam. 
- Voronoi - Sampled pixels on a Voronoi diagram.
- Outline Shader - Outline shader.
- Chameleon - Palette Swapper.
- Xpanda - Include code from external files in your shaders.
- Shadertoy to GameMaker - Convert shadertoy.com GLSL shaders to run in GameMaker.
- Outline Shader - Outline shader.
- Shader Tutorials - Gaming Reverends. 
- Shader Tutorials - DragoniteSpam. 
- Lens Distortion FOV - Useful FOV depth effect. 💸
- Fast Blur Area - Fast alpha blur shader effect in two lines of code. 💸
- Transitions Pro - 42 customizable transitions. 💸
- Sketch Cartoon Shader - Turn your game visuals into a drawing/sketch style. 💸
- 2D Water Reflections - Customizable water object to easily display reflections. 💸
- Shadertoy to GameMaker - Convert shadertoy.com shaders to run in GameMaker (GLSL ES).
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Sprites
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Recommendations
- ASESync - Automatically syncs aseprite files in GameMaker.
- AESnips - A sprite playback system.
- phgen - Placeholder asset generation.
- Disarm - A spriter skeletal animation at runtime.
- PixelUpscaler - Pixel art upscaling shader for awkward resolutions for GameMaker.
- conveyorbelt - Similar to ASESync. Export Aseprite files to GameMaker sprites.
- Collage - Texture page builder and image manager. Mimics GameMaker's texture page packing while offering higher flexibility.
- Disarm - A spriter skeletal animation at runtime.
- GM Animate - Sprite animation manager.
- SpriteSource - Utilities for creating art asset pipelines.
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Sprite Stacking
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Recommendations
- Beginners Guide to Sprite Stacking - A primer on sprite stacking from Avis. Check out part 2 from dev_dwarf as well.
- Fauxton3D - Sprite stacking engine.
- Sprite Stacking Tutorials - Gizmo199. 
- Sprite Stacking Tutorials - Gizmo199. 
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State Machines
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Recommendations
- wFSM - Another Easy-to-use Finite State Machine library.
- True State - Feature-rich finite state machine to handle complex objects.
- SnowState - Robust finite state machine.
- FastSM - Lightweight alternative to SnowState.
- Pinocchio - State-based animation system.
- BehaviorTree - A simple behavior tree system.
- FSM AI - Finite state machine for NPC AI.
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Timing
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Recommendations
- wTimer - Robust alternative for alarms.
- Iota - Lightweight timestep library.
- Stopwatch - GameMaker alarm replacement.
- fuwafuwa - Easy-to-use timer system.
- Timer - Timer methods based on setTimeout and setInterval from JS.
- GMTimeLine - A pure code alternative to GameMaker timelines.
- Agenda - Schedule and delay the execution of callbacks.
- FrogAlarm - Another easy alternative to GameMaker alarms.
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Tools
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Recommendations
- Stitch - Pipeline Development Kit. Includes cross-project imports, batch-creating/updating sprites and sounds, texture page management, a VS Code integration, and more.
- YYP Maker - Makes `.yyp` files for you.
- GMSnip - Experimental tool to define unlimited code snippets in the IDE.
- GMEdit - Code editor to use in conjunction with GameMaker.
- Rubber - Compile GameMaker projects via the command line. Here's a [great guide](https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-build-36556955) on how to use it.
- vim-GML - High quality Vim syntax highlighting for GameMaker.
- sfGML - Generate GML code from strongly-typed Haxe.
- Win7 patcher for GM2024.11+ - Makes games made in new GM versions run on Windows 7.
- RerouteAudio - Organizes audio files compiled games into subdirectories. 💸
- GMLC - Runtime compiler and interpreter to load, compile, and execute GML code at runtime.
- Stitch for VSCode - Edit GameMaker projects in VSCode.
- GMLVM - An easy to use complete GML interpreter to execute GML at runtime.
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Useful Extras
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Recommendations
- Video Player Extension - Play videos. However, the latest version of GMS has video support.
- GMESCAPI - Webcam capture.
- Smile - Sentiment analysis.
- Mouse Trail Effect - Shows how to trace a line with primitives to create a colorful trail.
- GMLScripts.com - Dozens of helper scripts, organized similarly to the official documentation.
- GM48 Resources - Free resources from the community to become better at GameMaker Studio, game development and game jams.
- GameMakerHow - Another great site that acts as a GameMaker Q&A repository for various questions you might ask in GameMaker.
- obj_podcast - Gamedev-centered podcast featuring members of the GameMaker community.
- 2.3 Syntax in Detail - A full guide of the syntax features/changes in GML from Yal.
- GameMaker Garbage Collection - How garbage collection works in GML.
- GitHub Yacc to GML Fix - Tell GitHub your repo is all GML, not Yacc.
- GameMaker Discord Community GitHub - Have you made a gamemaker tool you want to share? Consider submitting it to the official Discord's GitHub.
- Source Control with Git & GameMaker - FriendlyCosmonaut. 
- Game Resolution & Aspect Ratio Management - Pixelated Pope. 
- Setting up a Virtual Machine for GameMaker - MicahTheManiac. 
- Making Attacks Feel Good - Blobfish. 
- List of GameMaker Games - A list of published Steam games using GameMaker.
- Rousr Release - Unmaintained projects from the Rousr team (in case anyone asks where OutsideTheBox/Dissonance went).
- Video Player Extension - Play videos. However, the latest version of GMS has video support.
- GM48 Resources - Free resources from the community to become better at GameMaker Studio, game development and game jams.
- GameMaker Kitchen - Another great resource for open source libraries, assets, and snippets.
- Build Automation, CI/CD - Tutorial on using GitHub Actions as a CI/CD pipeline to automate building games.
- Animated Flag - Vertex-animated flag.
- Danmaku Project - Bullet hell engine.
- OrbinautFramework - Accurate framework to make classic Sonic games.
- Starfield Generator - A script to generate starfields in GameMaker's GML language.
- CleanShapes - Antialiased primitives library for GameMaker.
- Dracula Theme - A dark theme for the IDE.
- Gruvbox Theme - A retro groove theme for the IDE.
- GameMaker Repo Badges - Fancy badges to add to your README files.
- Piano example - Example of playing instrument notes by changing pitch, using only one audio file.
- Compatibility scripts - Scripts that are used by GM when importing GM:S 1.4 projects, taken directly from runtime files.
- Pause example - Simple example of a pause screen without using surfaces.
- Tome - Automatically generate documentation sites from GameMaker projects.
- Source Control with Git & GameMaker - FriendlyCosmonaut. 
- Game Resolution & Aspect Ratio Management - Pixelated Pope. 
- BROKVN - A visual novel engine.
- AssParser - Subtitle support for video playback.
- Ultimate Optimization Tier List - Excellent forum thread on GameMaker optimization.
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User Interface
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Recommendations
- Scripture - Another easy to use, highly compatible text renderer.
- Easy And Fast Menu - Simple implementation to have a menu up and running in seconds. Seems like a great fit if you're not looking for a bigger solution like GMUI.
- Pause Menu - Another smaller implementation but has a cool animation between menu options.
- Magpie - Generic Inventory System.
- ImGuiGML - DLL/GML wrapper of Dear ImGui.
- GUI Framework - GUI implementation from Niris Games.
- Menu Tutorial - FriendlyCosmonaut. 
- Smart Clickable GUI - Pixelated Pope. 
- RTS Selection Tool - Mouse dragging feature to select pawns in an real-time strategy game.
- gooey - Sprite-based UI Library for GameMaker LTS.
- Scribble - Efficient multi-effects text renderer.
- Chatterbox - Narrative scripting tool.
- Textboxy - Simple textboxes.
- Crochet - An interactive dialogue editor for writers and programmers.
- NotificationSystem - Notifications in GameMaker.
- YUI - A UI system with live reloading, template system, data binding, and a drag and drop feature.
- Guido - Simple immediate mode GUI framework.
- GMUI-Framework - A pure GML solution to structure and control your menus, drawing parallels to .NET UI.
- GMS2-UI-Library - A Library Full of useful scripts for implementing your UI designs in GameMaker.
- Emu UI - Common UI elements (text input, checkboxes, radio buttons, dialog boxes, etc).
- zitk - Another interesting, Dear ImGui-inspired GUI toolkit. In development, but worth keeping an eye on.
- SimpleUI - Minimalistic UI framework.
- Menu Tutorial - FriendlyCosmonaut. 
- GMUI - Immediate mode GameMaker UI library, tons of UI components.
- MajorGUI - Surface-based GUI that allows 100% control over UI styling and functionality.
- LimeUI - Flexpanel system for modern, touch-friendly interfaces.
- Bento - Cross-platform UI framework.
- InteractiveBooks - Highly flexible, interactable books.
- SimpleBook - Simple book rendering framework.
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Utilities
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Recommendations
- gm-core - Foundational utility suite and a great starting point for new GameMaker projects. Comes with quality of life methods, networking tools, testing framework, delta timing, and more.
- EventGML - Lightweight and fast Node.js style Events Library.
- Twerp - Easing function similar to lerp().
- Trixscript - Juices up your game with useful functions.
- Motion Scripts - Provides replacement methods for built-in motion variables.
- GML+ - A script collection with a goal to "fill the gaps" in GML. 💸
- GMLive - Livecoding / interactive programming. 💸
- FAST - Flexible Assistant Toolkit. Similar to gm-core but comes with input and resolution handling.
- DDDEditor - General purpose game editor.
- handytools - A collection of Juju's libraries in one convenient project.
- GameMaker Scaffolding - Another cool all-encompassing template with a focus on building low-res, tile-based games.
- FrogAlarm - Another easy alternative to GameMaker alarms.
- Broadcast - Event handling library.
- Polarca - Interpolation functions.
- Dynamo - Dynamic data loader.
- Gumshoe - Simple deep file search function.
- Mathematical Scripts - A collection of math scripts.
- Seedpod - A collection of scripts to improve the GML programming experience.
- CoreExtension - A collection of CC0 programming libraries. (archived)
- Voxeledphoton's FreeGMScripts - Additional GML helper functions. Some may be out of date with 2.3+ syntax.
- Canvas - Another great solution for surface management.
- GMLodash - Functional programming in GML.
- Autoframer - Automatically handles resizing the game view across different display and window sizes.
- gml-highscorer - Highscore and trophy system.
- SSave - Simple file saving system.
- Catspeak - Cross-platform programming language for modding support.
- GMBenchmark - A tool to benchmark GML code.
- handytools - A collection of Juju's libraries in one convenient project.
- gml-highscorer - Highscore and trophy system.
- GML-Multiprocessing - A proof of concept for multiprocessing.
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Programming Languages
Categories
Useful Extras
39
Utilities
34
3D
33
Shaders
30
User Interface
29
Audio
22
Data Manipulation
22
Native Extensions
20
YouTube
17
Debugging
17
Networking
13
Tools
12
Integrations
11
Localization
10
Sprites
10
Physics
10
Levels
10
Getting Started
9
Input Handling
9
Timing
8
State Machines
7
Camera
7
Blogs
7
Pathing
6
Lighting
6
Async
5
Particles
5
Sprite Stacking
4
Community
3
Footnotes
3
Sequences
3
Sub Categories
Keywords
gamemaker
86
gamemaker-studio-2
67
gms2
45
gml
25
gamemaker-language
22
gamemaker-studio
19
gamemaker-studio-2-3
15
game-development
12
library
10
gamemakerstudio2
8
gms
8
gamemaker-projects
7
gamemakerstudio
6
game-maker-studio-2
5
3d
4
extension
4
gms1
4
example
4
framework
4
array
4
gml-raptor
3
shader
3
localization
3
alarms
3
pixel-art
3
networking
3
fmod-studio
2
struct
2
json
2
unit-testing
2
blender
2
blender-addon
2
game-animation
2
vertex-buffer
2
vertex-buffers
2
model
2
multiplayer
2
lighting
2
gamedev
2
game
2
javascript
2
tool
2
deep-copy
2
sound
2
shaders
2
audio
2
yyc
2
dialogue
2
i18n
2
api
2