GMS2 Required SDKs

YoYo QA Dept
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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 VMs (including Parallels), Bootcamp, "Hackintosh" Macs, or emulators, etc.

 

The following sections refer to IDE v2.2.2.390 using Runtimes v2.2.2.302. 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

 

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
  • 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

  

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 no run

 

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
  • 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 older GMS2 (2.1.5) 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.
  • 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 run the game packages we generate and may also be used when building projects inside GMS2, but we do not offer support for this.
  • All games are 64bit-only as of 2.1.3.

 

Android (setup guide here)

  • Android API 28 (SDK build tools 28.0.3, NDK 18b, Google APIs)
  • Requires Java JDK 8u131 (64bit) - It is currently not possible to use Java JDK 9.0.4 as Gradle doesn't support this currently, so please do not use this version.
  • 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 might 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.

Android Studio will automatically update your installation for you, but if you're using SDK Manager you will need the following packages only:


 

Recommended Game Options settings:

To get the version number you need to supply for "Support Library", open Explorer at %USERPROFILE%\.gradle\caches\modules-2\files-2.1\com.android.support\support-v4 and just look at the names of the subfolders here.

For older support libraries 13.0.0 to 25.3.1, the folder to look in can be found here instead: [Your Android SDK install folder]\extras\android\m2repository\com\android\support\support-v4

 

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
  • Xcode 10 (which requires macOS High Sierra 10.13.4+) is required for connecting to/building for iOS 12 devices
  • 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 games (Xcode doesn't build for older iOS versions now)

 

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

  • Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2017 can be used
  • Windows 10 SDK 10.0.14393.0 is the SDK we suggest using

 

Consoles

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

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