Is the new multiplayer GOOD? - Thoughts on the GameMaker Beta

I tried the new GameMaker beta out, was the new multiplayer any good?
▶ Support my work: / shaunjs
▶ Info on Multiplayer and the latest GameMaker beta: • MULTIPLAYER is easy no...
▶ My live streamed dive into the Multiplayer: • Making a Multiplayer g...

[@meatbleed]

Letting users set up their own servers is such an exciting plan. Using servers at the beginning is a pretty good idea to start for simplicity's sake, though. So hype.

[@SuperGamersgames]

First, even though it's not a promise, THANK GOODNESS THEY PLAN ON DEPLOYABLE SERVERS. Second, your opinion (including the bit about Opera GX) pretty much reflects my own, so it was nice to hear Another Perspective on this.

[@InquireWithin]

Happy to hear this! I am almost done with the 1 player version of my first game and already have the plan of how I want the multiplayer version. I know nothing about how to do online multiplayers so this could definitely help get it started.

[@haulidaie]

Really informative, thanks for making a summary for people who couldn't watch the full stream! Interesting take on Opera GX too, always appreciate it when someone can look at a product objectively

[@Ciara0]

Great video, I appreciate how candid you are and to the point. I'd really love for this to get to the point where we can implement rollback netcode (akin to something like GGPO) for fighting games in gamemaker

[@AgeCreationTutorials]

Perfect summary of the new features. I had exactly the same questions in mind when working through the system for the first time. Would be great if you could take up the developer on his offer to answer your questions. It would be great to get an insight into what triggers a rollback and what is happening on the server side and the client side when a rollback happens.

[@xotmatrix]

Thank you for condensing five hours into six minutes! I'm greatly looking forward to seeing server-side APIs open up.

[@garypatterson2857]

Thanks for the great high level view of the new multiplayer functionality. I'm not sure I've a use for it yet, but maybe when I do it will have grown beyond GX and into other platforms.

[@jasonlotito]

Asking the most important question first! Thank you!!! That they want to make this something we can control and deploy is wonderful news, and makes me much more excited about investing time into learning the rollback system. Thanks!

[@treehann]

Good video, I may actually try this platform after all.

[@graffiticat8471]

i dont like the browser either, but i agree with your insights on the potential of this platform its good to see the gamemaker team make solid progress to these game changing features

[@iw365]

I quite like opera gx, but I don't use it all the time so it's a shame it's not available on other browsers right now. Was fun playing your little multiplayer game though!

[@grapeshott]

I hope I can use Gamemaker once again. I don't get time to sink hours in to GM right now.

[@Jokerwolf666]

I'm making a metroidvania game where you play as 2 characters with a full co-op option (which is also explained in the story) Hopefully this will help in some way but we could just end up making it couch co-op only depending how this goes.

[@CassidyListon]

Still having some issues with it, but yeah I'm super excited and surprised by how soon this has come out.

[@fluury]

you're a real one shaun

[@InquireWithin]

Could you at some point make a video about how to add a multiplayer option to an existing game?

[@XorDev]

Open-source servers would be epic! Fingers crossed

[@LunarcomplexMain]

So if I understand this correctly, they're working on a program you can create and build in GMS with GML to run as a "server", and then have other GMS built "clients" connect to it as like in an MMO example? If so, that would definitely help all the nonsensical buffer management I'm currently working with having GMS clients connect to a node socket server...

[@PGtheVRguy]

I really hope in the future I can use this with whatever servers I can use with Steam, I'd love to use GMS2 official multiplayer with Steam servers

[@graffiticat8471]

im guessing they will implement some sort of peer to peer technology for games to be used on steam

[@joecolvin4203]

I could see it also being done via a library package as well.

[@ApollousasBear]

So I have been messing around the rollback features and got to put together a simple turn-based game where both players pick their unit's moves at the same time and after they both finalize their choices, the units move one by one in a specified order based on the player choices. The problem that arose was that sometimes the game desyncs too much and can never catch up to both players syncing again, causing it to either semi-work while desynced (units appearing on different position on each screen, attacks not registering, etc) or stop working altogether and crash. The fact that it does not always happen (and when it does happen it is not recreatable, it happens at random) leads me to believe that it is a server/connection issue. I am not too sure how the system handles managed objects, but another possibility is that this might be caused by having too many managed objects that need to be synced. I have around a total of 30 managed objects (control objects, player units, etc) and honestly they do not sound like a lot. I do not know if you have ran into this problem yourself, but I have to say, if it is a server-related issue, the system is pretty solid. I have not run into any other problems while making the game and while yes, rollback is not the best way to make a turn-based game, I wanted to test the system out and see if it can do more "complicated" games and is not limited to just shooters, fighting games and the like. As a side note, a very interesting thing I discovered was that even if you have a non-managed objects created once, it will still be "duplicated" and created across both player screens and perhaps even more weirdly, both players can interact with it. I tested this by having the player with ID 0 create an objects that only draws a text on screen. That objects was then appearing on both screens. After, I had the other player change the non-managed object's text variable into something else, and to my surprise it worked and the change got across to both screens. So, my question now is, what is the purpose of a non-managed object if both players can "see" it and more so interact with it?

[@ShaunJS]

very hard for me to speculate on your issues but I'd guess in a turn based game you should theoretically only need a very very small number of managed objects. From what I'm aware the only thing that actually is synchronized is input, so things that gather, use and can *immediately* result from that input need to be managed (this is a lot in action games). But if a player commits to some stuff and then presses an "end turn" button for example, you're never going to get an accidental end turn input so everything that happens after that is guaranteed and doesn't need to be synced. In theory you really only need to sync the instructions being queued and your end turn input. As long as input is correctly gathered which in a turn based game is waaaaay less precise and easier to sync than in real time, the game state will match regardless so almost zero objects should need managing. I think your duplicated objects issue also might be a matter of understanding. It is certainly possible to create things in only one player's instance of the game. But if you're just checking if the player object has id zero and if so make a thing, it will happen on both. As both games contain a player zero instance that will run this. The way to do what you want (I'd imagine) would be to ask if the *local player* has id 0, and if so make the thing. This is how I got my game to draw a vignette on the screen if you are the monster player. There's a lot of ways to get that info but the way I did it was to store "rollback_event_param.player_id" in a global during the rollback start event. I quickly tested and this does work with making instances. Even a managed instance shows up only in one place when done like this.

[@ApollousasBear]

@@ShaunJS That's very interesting. Until now I was thinking of managed objects as "This is something that multiplayer applies to" but I suppose that does not make any sense. Well, thanks for the quick response, I will try rebuilding the game by having only the essential stuff being managed.

[@joLicata91]

I totally agree with you.. But I have a tought... why GMS2 does not implement lights? I think it's the basic

[@Gameact3]

Will there be a way to add discord support?

[@jameschappfillmore]

ths for the update =)

[@Schrogs]

So this only does up to 4 right now. Can this be made to be like a single player game where when you get to dungeon, it queues you to play with a group of 4 through the dungeon. And when it is over, you go back to a single player game?

[@Prajwal____]

Hello, as a gamemaker user, what do you think about godot? I tried godot but i am unable to keep up with it, and i am looking forward to get gamemaker, your guidance is important for me!

[@adamkahmann2937]

Has Gamemaker released any updates or news on this? Are they still planning for other platforms?

[@mievmo]

anyway you can make a tutorial on how to start making a tyccon/managment game :(. Please

[@NaudVanDalen]

1:19 There goes my dream for making an MMORPG. 😂

[@santi_24s]

Nice

[@NaudVanDalen]

Things definitely need to be server controller to prevent cheating. At least the worst kind of cheating like changing values using Cheat Engine and other memory editors.

[@ImFrAlex]

This is kinda off topic but I wish there was a way I could develop a game with my buddies without constantly sharing files back and fourth. Like if we could both work on one project that would be amazing.

[@ShaunJS]

using source control you can! GameMaker is fairly compatible with git, although it can be a headache to get started.

[@Ailwuful]

I'm actually thinking of switching from having used Chrome for years to using Opera GX. This browser is growing on me.

[@NaudVanDalen]

Clearly they made free exports and the new multiplayer Opera GX exclusive to get more Opera GX users since Opera bought it for 10 million dollars 1.5 years ago and they need more users since it's one of the least popular browsers right now. Sadly for them, GameMaker games aren't that popular either compared to AAA games (there are only a few handfuls of succes stories), so I doubt that it can get Opera to even compete with Microsoft Edge or Firefox, let alone Chrome.

[@chrono581]

As long as they're not adding any bullshit exclusivity stuff and you can monetize it, I don't see why you can't deploy to all the platforms. If you want to actually be a success, that's usually the best way to make it. However, my other concern is that game maker devs seemed to be concentrating on opera GX more, and it's becoming the opera GX engine which I would have a problem with. Maybe that's not their intention.

[@youngm.a.2464]

Make a fnaf Tutorial series pls!!!

[@NickDerMitHut]

I just want to mention that I won that round ^^ I mean I was the hunter and it wasn't balanced but still xD

[@NickDerMitHut]

ah right proof is my twitter banner

[@Mylazt]

is this the player who won as a hunter ON STREAM??

[@erniebeasley8521]

So a black box is just deep?

[@ShaunJS]

opaque

[@demonaxe9301]

i'll wait for windows and servers and stuff ... i'm not a fan of this browser either

[@tomfrakey6335]

first

[@doriluz]

BUT I WANTED!