We were reminded in March by a GameMaker Community topic that jailbroken iDevices are useless for testing iOS games made with GameMaker Studio. If you weren’t already aware, here is a recap; section 7 of the GameMaker Studio FAQ simply states that jailbroken devices can not be used, “sorry”.

Jailbreaking is a process that removes software restrictions on an iOS device and gives the owner root control. This is usually an automated process achieved by using a downloadable program. One major aspect of jailbreaking is that it allows for installation of non-iTunes store content, which makes it a favorable host for pirated mobile software.

Jailbreaking is popular amongst a fair few; a good several million device-owners at least. Though in comparison with non-jailbroken devices, it is very much a minority action. Still, now and in the future, there will be GameMaker Studio owners with a jailbroken device wondering why YoYo Games, the company developing the software, blocks them from testing their games. But why don’t jailbreaking and GameMaker mix?

First, most software-based businesses don’t want to attract a market of people who may support piracy or “hacking”, for lack of a better word. YoYo Games faces its own challenges resisting piracy, and the company doesn’t need to indirectly fuel that fire by welcoming users they may consider unsavory.

Besides this, YoYo Games can’t be seen devaluing GameMaker’s reputation by allowing people to avoid the developer fee that Apple requires from everyone who wants to make legitimate iOS applications. Who knows what hot water YoYo Games could get into if they began pandering to a breed of illegitimate developers who wanted to build bogus software. Reaction from Apple? Bad press? Actually, maybe good press?

If you are hoping YoYo Games might change their stance on jailbreaking, don’t hold your breath. It would be a disappointing and risky move on their part if they were to be more lenient with this issue. Although it might seem like they are getting in your way, YoYo Games are being professional and giving you a hint; if you are going to commit to developing mobile software, you need to smarten up and stick to official avenues.

To be fair, not all people who jailbreak will steal games and media – with the system opened up, it is possible to make great customizations to iOS itself, and install unofficial free apps from developers who target the jailbreaking community. The bad news is Apple really, really doesn’t like jailbreaking.

To use a massive cliché, Apple has its own ecosystem in a secret walled garden. You know what you are buying into when you take that iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch home with you. If you decide to “rebel” against this and tweak the device to your extended liking, you may enjoy some benefits (depending on what you consider beneficial) but you will also experience negative repercussions. For those on the GameMaker scene, one repercussion may be that you can not fully utilize your beloved game development software. Maybe it’s time to hit that restore button.

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A new module for GameMaker Studio has been announced. GameMaker Studio: Tizen will be entering beta sometime between the 22nd and 24th of May, and will be available for free to everyone who has purchased GameMaker Studio: Professional or GameMaker Studio: Master. However, once the beta ends, GameMaker Studio: Professional users will be required to purchase the module if they wish to continue using it.

Tizen is a Linux-based operating system which is backed by Intel and Samsung amongst others, and is seen as a way to cut industry ties with Google’s popular mobile operating system Android. However, the platform is still in its infancy and is not yet a prominent force within the mobile markets.

From the official Tizen website:

“Tizen is an open source, standards-based software platform supported by leading mobile operators, device manufacturers, and silicon suppliers for multiple device categories such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks, in-vehicle infotainment devices, and smart TVs. Tizen offers an innovative operating system, applications, and a user experience that consumers can take from device to device.”

Tizen OS on a prototype Samsung phone

It’s unlikely that GameMaker Studio users will show significant interest in this platform until it is more established. Since Tizen heavily embraces HTML5 technology, developers may be tempted to simply purchase GameMaker Studio’s HTML5 module instead. Many GameMaker Studio users are already making money with HTML5, a platform which is proving itself to be both commercially viable and suitably capable.

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In what is becoming a routine occurrence, the official GameMaker community forums have been hacked yet again. The forum’s homepage was defaced, and other parts of the forum were rendered completely inaccessible.

It appears as if YoYo Games, the company who are developing the GameMaker program, quickly closed the forum to limit further damage, though as the attack is reportedly a zero-day exploit it may be difficult for them to isolate the vulnerability and prevent additional defacement.

Game Maker Blog recently interviewed the hacker who was responsible for a prior attack which compromised the usernames, emails, and plain text passwords of over 200,000 forum members. We’ve confirmed that the same hacker is responsible for today’s attack, and he has claimed that he has (again) downloaded the forum’s database.

Here is a screenshot of the defaced forum. It includes links to a GameMaker chat room, Skype account, and Twitter account.

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Battleships Forever is an action-packed strategy game with a lot of depth, but also some glaring design flaws.

This game really broke my heart in a lot of ways. There’s incredible, unquestionable potential here. The action is compelling, the real-time strategy (RTS) is intense, and there’s just enough to play around with in this game to make it enjoyable. However, some of the finer touches that need to be in place to make it a shining product are just not there.

Batttleships Forever has two main modes: Skirmish and Career. Career is your standard RTS campaign, serving to ease you into the experience and teach you about this very complex game. Skirmish is more arcade shoot-em-up type of play, with endless waves, a monster space station, and even the option to play as the bad guys all featured in the sub-challenges.

You have three classes of ships from the tiny patrol ships, to middling but powerful destroyers, to the awesome titular battleships. Each group has several models to choose from with different features and configurations designed for varying styles of play. One battleship is made with large front-facing walls that maintain invulnerability shields to provide a buffer for the rest of your fleet, while another may be nothing but a can covered in guns made to broadside opponent with brutal efficiency.

Gameplay in Battleships Forever is akin to a lot of the sea-combat games out there like Sid Meier’s Pirates or Leviathan Warships. Your aim for most of the game is determining the best positioning in order to balance defense, offensive capability, and future maneuvers once the enemy starts to take evasive action. Overall the gameplay is largely neat and refreshing, giving a different take to a more traditional sort of nautical combat simulation.

However, there are some significant defects that hold the game back from being a major breakthrough. The granularity of being able to select individual ship sections and weaponry to either defend with or target makes for a lot of misclicks. Your average battleship has well over 20 pieces that are hidden in layers of neon wireframe, and picking the strut connecting to a major turret bay is difficult even if you manage to zoom all the way in and focus on one ship. While the zoom function is handy for these situations, the real problem is the interface itself which feels sluggish and unresponsive, especially when you constantly need to jostle the camera around to make quick decisions.

And for the main sidebar: never have I seen such a brilliantly blinding neon green. I hope you don’t need detailed information on your ship, your equipment, your abilities or your target, because trying to pick out anything resembling text on that awful white-on-chartreuse menu will slowly eat away at your retinas as you go. A definite design no-no.

Despite its flaws, Battleships Forever is certainly worth playing. It’s a fun experiment in expanding the complexity of the space-borne RTS, taking some old formulas and combining them into a fun little package. With the capability to also create custom ships and campaign missions it has everything you’d need to make a really rock solid title. But without some attention to detail this game will simply be enjoyable, not exceptional.

Download Battleships Forever on PC »

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Over at Touch To Start, another blog in this network, we’re giving away over $1000 of game development software. Prizes include GameMaker Studio Professional with a module, Construct 2 licenses, assorted audio and art assets, and copies of the book Making Money With HTML5.

Entering the draw is quick and easy.

Click here for more information »

Good luck everyone!

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YoYo Games have just announced their biggest competition to date, with cash prizes valued at $35,000, and additional software prizes worth up to $85,000.

The ‘Win Big’ competition requires entrants to use GameMaker Studio to create games for Windows 8, submit them to the Windows Store, and have them pass Windows Store Certification before 28th June 2013. The competition lasts for just under 2 months and is open to both new and previously-created games alike. While this puts a dampener on the concept of genuine competition, at least one cash prize is offered for the “best new game”.

To enter, a Windows Store Developer Account is required, however YoYo Games are offering 200 free developer accounts to entrants.

Cash prizes include:

• $10,000 for 1st place
• $5,000 for 2nd place
• $1,000 for 5 x 3rd place prizes
• $5,000 for best new game
• 50 x $200 runner up prizes

Additional software prizes are also available.

Furthermore, since this competition is for GameMaker Studio users only, YoYo Games are offering a discounted upgrade from GameMaker 7, 8, and 8.1 to GameMaker Studio Professional for only $50, as opposed to the usual rate of $99.

Terms and conditions apply.

Will you be entering? Leave a comment below.

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CEO Sandy Duncan has offered a first look at the brand new company logo for YoYo Games, the creators of the GameMaker Studio game development engine.

The new logo features a modern, minimalistic, and professional design. A subtle abstraction integrates the characters “YY” to form the shape of a yoyo. The logo is entirely gray-scale, with the exception of the company’s signature green note.

Check out the new YoYo Games logo »

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In mid-April, GameMaker community member Gor2kidder suggested he was planning to get a GameMaker Studio tattoo to demonstrate his passion for the game creation engine. Many commentors were skeptical or dismissive of the concept, and didn’t actually expect him to go through with the act.

However, today it was confirmed that the super-fan has indeed tattooed the GameMaker Studio logo onto his arm. Here are the pictures to prove it.

[Show as slideshow]

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Just over a month ago, Game Maker Blog reported that the popular GameMaker Community forums had been hacked. YoYo Games, the company who own the GameMaker program and operate the board, estimated that between 5000-8000 user accounts had been compromised by a password logging script.

They were wrong.

Game Maker Blog has hosted an exclusive interview with the hacker who stole the credentials and passwords of over 200,000 community members.

Prior to starting the interview, it was vital that the individual proved that he was who he claimed to be. Appropriate proof was provided, and we are very confident that the information provided is accurate. Minor changes to phrasing have been made to improve readability and clarify context.

Continue reading for our full interview with the GameMaker Community forum hacker.

“Thank you for contacting Game Maker Blog. Why did you decide to write to us, and what do you hope to achieve by doing so?”

“I saw the official forum topic about the hack and cringed at the amount of misinformation that was present, and especially the attitude of prominent community member NakedPaulToast. Since the topic is now locked, this seemed like the easiest way to convey the truth.”

“Details on how the hack was achieved are scarce. How did you gain access to the login script on the forum server?”

“Basically, one of the forum administrators used the same password on his own site which I hacked, so I retrieved the password and logged into his account on the GameMaker Community forums. Escalating from that to system level access is rather trivial.”

“Were you able to access the database?”

“The login script itself has to have access to the database, so why would it be safe? The web server executes PHP code which needs user credentials to connect to the MySQL database. Thus the web server has ‘direct’ access to the database.

In the forum topic NakedPaulToast seemed to convey that being able to modify a login script does not mean the database was/can be compromised. It can and was compromised. I downloaded the entire database.

In addition, I modified the forum’s login script to store plaintext passwords in the now-famous ‘log.txt’ file. I also changed the forum’s code to force everyone who’s password wasn’t recorded in ‘log.txt’ to logout and log back in.”

“How many plaintext passwords did you gain access to in total?”

“211,016 users and their hashed passwords were compromised, and of those passwords 96.8% have been cracked so far in addition to the 2163 unique plaintext passwords which were recorded by the login script.

The forum software, IP.Board, uses the md5(md5($salt).md5($pass)) algorithm, which is basically a triple MD5 hash with unique randomized salts. With a GPU you can achieve 3 billion tries per second easily. Most of the passwords were cracked using dictionaries and mutations.”

“Which administrator had their site compromised originally, and which site was it?”

“Trollsplatterer. His site www.trollsplatterer.be was in his profile and thus lead me to compromise it and retrieve his password. The site was compromised through a simple SQL injection.”

“What do you plan to do with the acquired data?”

“I’ve so far sold the data to a friend to be used to compromise Runescape accounts and sell the gold on them for good money (according to him). Personally I’ve used it to gain access to the email accounts of a few individuals.

Because of the relations of GameMaker creator Mark Overmars, the board actually contains quite a few high profile users. These are ideal to have in your database bank to compromise other sites.”

“Are you a GameMaker user yourself?”

“Yes, and I have been for a multitude of years. Ever since I took up hacking years ago I’ve been wanting to hack the GameMaker Community forums just for the fun of it. Hacking websites you visit is the nectarine of life and unimaginably fun and exciting.”

“How would you sum up the way in which YoYo Games handled the situation?”

“They downplayed the situation or are even more incompetent than I thought.

First of all, no other announcement than the topic on the forum was made. Second, they could’ve easily determined how long the script had been running by looking at the modified files and especially the creation date of ‘log.txt’. Third, they have done nothing else than reset admin passwords and upgrade the forum software to prevent this from happening again.

The incompetence of the GameMaker Community forum administrators led to their security downfall.

Security audits anyone?”

Game Maker Blog was criticized by both community members and YoYo Games staff for suggesting that the forum hack may have affected all 200,000+ members of the board, with YoYo Games employee and shareholder Mike Dailly quoted as saying “the post on GMB was vastly over-exaggerated” and “sensationalized”, further claiming that the compromised data was “virtually useless”.

Given that YoYo Games were getting ready to attend GDC 2013 just as news of the hack came to light, it seems very likely that they did indeed downplay this massive security violation. As the issue was not addressed thoroughly, thousands upon thousands of users are currently not aware that their username, email address, and plaintext password have been compromised.

Community members expressed concerns on the matter: “I think consumers knowing if their data is secure is more important than the GDC…”

At the very least, YoYo Games should send an email to their mailing list subscribers to alert them to the breach. The user-base should be given complete and utter priority, and it certainly seems like we haven’t been.

Click here to contact YoYo Games »

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Today we’ve launched a brand new feature for the site which will help you stay updated with the latest GameMaker news – without having to check for new posts every day. We will be sending an occasional newsletter to readers that sign up for our mailing list. This newsletter will include an overview of the most interesting and most important news that we have covered recently, plus it will instantly alert you to time-limited discounts and giveaways. We will even be including exclusive content and free stuff for subscribers!

To join the newsletter, look for the “subscribe” button in the sidebar to the right. It only takes a few seconds to sign up. Game Maker Blog does not spam, and you can easily opt-out at any time.

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