This article details the required versions of the various tools and SDKs that GameMaker Studio 2 uses.

We do not recommend using third-party tools ahead of what is listed below - Studio won't know how to support them properly and you may give yourself build errors or even IDE instability.

Be aware also that for everything below we only offer support for physical machines running a single OS natively - not any variant of VMs (including Parallels on a Mac), Bootcamp, "Hackintosh" Macs, or emulators, etc.

The following sections refer to IDE v2.2.3.433 using Runtimes v2.2.3.341. If you're not on this version, we'd recommend you update and then follow this guide.

For the Windows IDE

• See general system specifications in the popup on the GMS2 info page
• Visual Studio 2015 or 2017 is required when building Windows YYC or anything to do with UWP or consoles - see the target's own section below for specifics
• Note VS2015/VS2017 requires Win 7 with SP1 or above - it won't install without at least SP1
• A separate physical Mac is still required for targeting Mac and iOS - see the target's own section below for specifics. We would highly recommend this Mac is connected to the PC using Ethernet, rather than WiFi, as this can result in issues when building large projects for YYC.

For the Mac IDE

• See general system specifications in the popup on the GMS2 info page
• Please don't use macOS or Xcode beta builds as soon as they are released, as beta builds are often subject to large changes and an issue in one version may not be present in the next update - we will only look at Apple's "GM Candidates" and release builds
• Xcode is required to be installed separately before you can test/create Mac and iOS packages - see the target's own section below for specifics
• Using GMS2 2.2.1 and above, Mono v5.10.1.57 is required for building any projects - if for any reason this fails to be installed automatically by GMS2 you can download the installer from http://gm2016.yoyogames.com/MonoFramework-MDK-5.10.1.57.macos10.xamarin.universal.pkg
• Using any version up to and including GMS2 2.2.0, Mono v4.8.0.520 is required for building any projects - if for any reason this fails to be installed automatically by GMS2 you can download the installer from http://gm2016.yoyogames.com/MonoFramework-MDK-4.8.0.520.macos10.xamarin.universal.pkg
• However, if you installed Apple's recent Xcode command line tools updates (Mojave or Catalina) and now find that your builds do not work, then you need to use 2.2.3 and https://download.mono-project.com/archive/5.20.1/macos-10-universal/MonoFramework-MDK-5.20.1.19.macos10.xamarin.universal.pkg
• An Apple Developer account is required before you can test/create Mac and iOS packages, as you will need Xcode to sign the application as per Apple's requirements
• A separate physical Windows PC is still required for targeting Windows, UWP or consoles - see the target's own section below for specifics. We would always recommend this PC is connected to the Mac using Ethernet, rather than WiFi. 

For Building/Running Games

General

• For 2.2.2 and above, Spine 3.7 is required for exporting your sprites - older Spine formats may throw errors when importing/compiling or may not behave as expected in-game
• For 2.2.1 and older, Spine 3.4.02 is required (not newer versions)
• Steamworks SDK 1.42 if you're doing Steam builds (please use ONLY this version)

Windows (setup guide here)

• Windows 7 with SP1, 8, 8.1, or 10
• For building VM you don't need anything extra, but for building YYC you will need Visual Studio 2017 or 2015 (Community Editions are fine)
• For using GMS2 itself: XP and Vista are not supported at all, nor is a fresh Windows 7 install without SP1
• For playing games: XP is not supported at all. Vista and Windows 7 players will need to ensure they have DirectX 11 installed, otherwise the game will not run. Certain functionality in the game, like security when doing HTTP requests and using any third-party extensions may prevent the use of Vista/Win 7 (or might require you to install the final Service Pack), and we are unable to do anything about this.

Mac (setup guide here)

• Please don't use macOS or Xcode beta builds as soon as they are released, as beta builds are often subject to large changes and an issue in one version may not be present in the next update - we will only look at Apple's "GM Candidates" and release builds
• In general, we would always recommend using the latest non-Beta Xcode release, as this is the version Apple want you to be using. If this is not supported on your Mac, then we will try to support you as long as we can, but Apple will eventually stop your machine from being able to build App Store apps and there is nothing we can do about this.
• Xcode 10 (which requires macOS High Sierra 10.13.4+) is required for connecting to/building for macOS Mojave devices. This also requires GMS2 2.2.0+
• Xcode 9.2 (Sierra) and 9.3 (High Sierra) also support the AppStore, but don't support Mojave, so are not really recommended unless you definitely don't want Mojave support / are not developing for the AppStore. You might need to also use an old GMS2 (2.1.5) to make this work, as we do not support this old Xcode version now.
• Anything older than 9.2 needs to be updated, otherwise your builds will fail.
• Please note, if you're using the Windows IDE, we would highly recommend the Mac is using Ethernet, rather than WiFi, as this can result in issues when building large projects for YYC.
• For playing GM games, OS X 10.9 or later is required for AppStore games and OS X 10.7 or later is required for non-AppStore games
• All games are 64bit-only as of 2.1.5
  

Ubuntu (setup guide here)

• As of GMS2 2.2.1, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit is the only distro we support.
• Up to and including GMS2 2.2.0, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64bit is the only distro GMS2 supported.
• Other distros can generally run the game packages GMS2 generates with no issues, and may also be used when building projects inside GMS2, but we do not offer support for this.
• 2.2.3 and above require the "nproc" package to be installed on the Ubuntu machine when building packages. This is installed by default in Ubuntu, but might not be tere if you have customised your install or installed by default in other distros, so be aware you might need to install this other package.
• All games are 64bit-only as of 2.1.3.

Android / Amazon (setup guide here)

• You will need to install Android Studio 3.4.1 (the current stable version) and configure it as per the setup guide linked-to just above this line.
• We no longer recommend the old "SDK Manager" method of installing your Android SDK on Windows. If you have issues with your existing setup, please change to using Android Studio.
• Android API 28 (SDK build tools 28.0.3, NDK 18b, Google APIs) - Betas of API 29 are not currently supported. This is being investigated at the moment. Please stick with 28 until GMS2 2.2.4 is released.
• Requires Java JDK 8 - It is currently not possible to use JDK 9 or above, as the version of Gradle GMS2 will call doesn't support this. Please stick with 8 until GMS2 2.2.4 is released.
• Games can be built using 64bit as of GMS2 2.1.5.
• Minimum SDK version is 16 for Build Tools 28+, 14 when using Build Tools 26+. If using older tools, you can leave this at 9, but be aware Google Play will not accept this apk.
• If building for YYC using NDK 17c or above, the Minimum SDK version is 16. Note: GMS2 2.1.4 and 2.1.5 only support up to NDK 16b. Please update.
• Please note, some third-party extensions may require you to raise the minimum SDK version to their requirements, as will enabling "Run Lint code analysis".

Recommended Game Options settings:

Please note that if you have enabled "Run Lint code analysis" lower down on that Game Options page, you may find that in order to make projects build okay you will need to adjust the above values - always refer to your own Lint report for the specifics (the location of this report file is written in your compiler log).

iOS (setup guide here)

• Please don't use iOS or Xcode beta builds as soon as they are released, as beta builds are often subject to large changes and an issue in one version may not be present in the next update - we will only look at Apple's "GM Candidates" and release builds
• In general, we would always recommend using the latest non-Beta Xcode release, as this is the version Apple want you to be using. If this is not supported on your Mac, then we will try to support you as long as we can, but Apple will eventually stop your machine from being able to build App Store apps and there is nothing we can do about this.
• Xcode 10 (which requires macOS High Sierra 10.13.4+) is required for connecting to/building for iOS 12.0 devices - if your phone is 12.2 or higher, you will need Mojave and a newer Xcode in order to connect to that device
• Xcode 9.3 (which requires macOS High Sierra 10.13.4+) is the only other version which supports the AppStore, but it doesn't support iOS 12, so is not really recommended
• Xcode 9.2 is if you're only developing for non-AppStore/non-commercial testing purposes, but not recommended. You might need to also use an older GMS2 to make this work, as we do not support this old version now
• Anything older than 9.2 needs to be updated, otherwise your builds will fail
• iOS 10.0 or above is required for playing games (Xcode doesn't build for older iOS versions now)
  
• Please note, if you're using the Windows IDE, we would highly recommend the Mac is using Ethernet, rather than WiFi, as this can result in issues when building large projects for YYC.

tvOS (setup guide here)

Due to how our licensing server works, tvOS will actually show up in Target Manager for all IDEs 2.1.5 and above, but it is only 2.2.3+ which will work.

• Please don't use tvOS or Xcode beta builds as soon as they are released, as beta builds are often subject to large changes and an issue in one version may not be present in the next update - we will only look at Apple's "GM Candidates" and release builds
• In general, we would always recommend using the latest non-Beta Xcode release, as this is the version Apple want you to be using. If this is not supported on your Mac, then we will try to support you as long as we can, but Apple will eventually stop your machine from being able to build App Store apps and there is nothing we can do about this.
• Xcode 10 (which requires macOS High Sierra 10.13.4+) is required for connecting to/building for tvOS 12.0 devices - if your TV is 12.2 or higher, you will need Mojave and a newer Xcode in order to connect to that device
• tvOS 13.0 is currently announced as requiring Catalina (not even Mojave), so we would advise against installing this beta on your Apple TV device.
• tvOS 12.0 or above is required for playing games

UWP (setup guide for PC, for mobile, and for Xbox One)

• Visual Studio 2015 or Visual Studio 2017 can be used
• Windows 10 SDK 10.0.14393.0 is the SDK we suggest using, but newer versions may be required by some functionality/extensions in your project
• Whilst our tools include support for Windows 10 Mobile packages, Microsoft themselves don't support these phones now, so we cannot guarantee how long they will still allow store apps, etc.

Consoles

Please note: you will only have access to the following links if your YoYo Account is licensed as a registered console developer.

• PS4
• Switch
• Xbox One