Before You Create a YoYo Account
Firstly, thank you for your interest in using GameMaker for Educational use. If you wish to access GameMaker for Education use, you will first need to create a YoYo Account.
For the educational use of GameMaker, a staff educational email address is required for the creation of a YoYo Account (usually something that uses the domain of your school and not a generic @gmail.com/@hotmail.com etc. email address). This is so we can verify that the educational version of GameMaker will be used for educational purposes.
IMPORTANT! If you have already have a personal YoYo Account then you will need to make another one specifically for the Education Licence, as you cannot mix Education accounts and Private accounts.
The email that you use for the YoYo Account will be the one that gets linked to the Education licence, so make sure that you sign up for the account with the correct email for your institution. To futureproof your Education account i.e. if a teacher retires or moves to another school, we recommend using a shared email address like gamemaker@ourschool.com or licensing@ourschool.com rather than a specific teacher's email address. This will make it easier for any new teachers to have access to the account.
If you already have a YoYo Account with a GameMaker Studio 1.4 Education Licence assigned to it, then this account can be used instead of creating a new one.
Creating a YoYo Account
A YoYo Account is required in order to purchase or use any of the GameMaker licensing options. Once you have made your account, you can use it to purchase GameMaker (Education) Licences or assign current licences to be used in your classroom.
To create an account simply go to https://accounts.yoyogames.com/login
Here you will be prompted to either Log In to your account or Register for a new account. To start the registration process click the Sign Up Now button (as highlighted in the screenshot above).
You will then be asked to enter an email address to be associated with your YoYo Account and set a password. Please note: your password must use 8 to 64 characters including 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 digit and 1 of the following special characters #?!@$%^&*-
Please then confirm you are at least 13 years old, and are either at the age of majority in your home territory, or if you are not at the age of majority in your home country but you have obtained your parent or guardian’s approval and consent by checking the first checkbox. Please note, if you are teaching students who are under the age of 13 or the age of majority, this section does not relate to them. You are creating an account that will be used as the Education Licence Management account, therefore this checkbox only relates to you, the account holder. Your students will not need to create their own accounts as you will later create seat IDs for them to use. We'll cover this later in the Creating and Managing Seats guide.
Lastly, please then read and agree to the User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy by checking the second checkbox.
Before you can apply for your Education Licence Management account, you need to complete all of the steps to create a standard YoYo Account.
Education specific steps can be found below, following the standard YoYo Account creation process.
Clicking the Sign Up button on this screen will then send an activation email to the email address you have signed up for the YoYo Account with.
Please read through the email and follow the instructions where you will be asked to click (or copy and paste into your address bar) the activation link associated with your account.
Activating your YoYo Account
After clicking the activation link in your activation email you will be taken to a page similar to the one shown below, where we activate your account:
With your account activated you will then be asked to follow 3 further steps to complete the set-up of your profile. These 3 steps are:
- News Preferences
- Account Security
- About You
News Preferences
The News Preferences stage allows you to pick and choose which type of news updates you are interested in being kept up to date on. These updates will be sent to the email address associated with your YoYo Account. Please note, you can change these preferences later on the Email Preferences page, if you change your mind. We suggest that you at least subscribe to the Educator News and GameMaker News emails to keep up to date with all the latest offers, events and updates related to GameMaker.
Please note, you can also choose to Unsubscribe from emails at this stage however please note that you will still receive some operational emails that are essential to the smooth running of GameMaker, or your account.
When you have chosen your News Preferences please click the Save and Continue button to progress.
Account Security
The Account Security stage allows you to set a Security Question and Answer which will allow our Helpdesk team to validate your identity, if you lose access to your account.
While not mandatory for regular YoYo Accounts, Education accounts must use 2-step authentication so we would recommend setting this up for your account now, using the 2-step authentication methods on offer. If you do not set up 2-step authentication at this stage you will be required to later on, when we convert your account to an Education account.
The 2-step authentication methods we offer are:
- Authentication via email - an authentication code will be sent to the email address associated with your YoYo Account which you must then enter when prompted when logging in
- Authentication via an Authenticator App - Authentication apps like Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator or WinAuth can be used where a code is generated on your chosen app instead of sent to the email address associated with the account
To set these methods up, please follow the instructions shown on the Account Security screen, depending on the method you have chosen.
When you have completed your Account Security setup please either click the Save and Continue button or the Skip Step button (bearing in mind you will need to set this up later when we convert your account to an Education account).
About You
The About You stage allows you to enter some more identifiable information that will allow the Helpdesk to validate the ownership of your account should you lose access to it.
Setting a Username at this stage will allow you to log in to your account in the future with that username instead of your email address. While you do not need to enter your First Name or Last Name at this stage, you may be prompted to when making a purchase.
The Skill Levels help us to determine the most appropriate type of supportive content to send you via email, to help you get started.
When you are ready, please click the Complete Profile button.
Applying for an Education Account
Congratulations on creating your YoYo Account. After the first time you have completed your profile you will be shown a screen similar to the one below:
Now that you have your YoYo Account please choose the Register as a School link on the welcome screen (shown above) or submit an application to have your account converted to an Education account by contacting us through the following link: https://accounts.yoyogames.com/contact-us#education
When your details have been received, we will be in touch with you to finalise the verification process (which may require further information from you or the institution you represent).
When we receive that request, and have verified the software will be used for educational purposes we then convert your YoYo Account to an Education account, activating the educational pricing and granting you a free, permanent Teacher licence. The Teacher licence has the same functionality as a Desktop/Educator licence and is for evaluating the software, testing the setup process and for teaching use. Pricing information can be found on our Education Page.
There are Learning Resources that may assist you in learning how to use GameMaker.
Next Steps: