This is a great game engine. Sure, the UI is a bit outdated, not very intuitive, and overall it has an underground/DIY vibe that doesn't match the shiny rebranding - for now, because development is very active.

Don't expect the software will make all the work for you. It's not a game generator, it's a game engine. You will need to learn how to use it. And yes, it will require programming. Don't believe the "no programming required" crap every publisher throws at you. Even if it's visual scripting, it's still programming. You will need to think. A lot. And you will need to design your game. Nobody will do that for you.

But with a little patience, you can make wonders. Coming from Clickteam Fusion (which is also pretty good, but very different), I bought GG Maker for its 3D features, and I'm really happy with it. I wanted to make a 3D adventure/exploration game, and it has everything I need. Basically, with a bit of tweaking, I was able to create my own 3D tilesets, and use it as a voxel game editor.

It's a rather RPG-oriented engine, but with a bit of creativity I'm pretty sure you can use it for anything. GG Maker seems very versatile. I find the visual scripting system quite refreshing after Fusion's neverending columns of checkboxes. And the community is awesome. Here on Steam, and on http://engine001.com you'll find a team of very dedicated and helpful people.

About the price tag: please, shut up. You can export your games to Windows, Android, and even to HTML5. You can run 3D games in your browser. Do you know how much similar exporters cost for other engines, like Clickteam Fusion or Game Maker? Pretty much the price of GG Maker, except you also have to pay for the software, of course. Do your maths.

Yes, I definitely recommend GG Maker.

First of all, due to the fact that you can download the demo version from the 001 Game Creator store page (directly to the right of the "Purchase" button) and actually try the software yourself... This is more of an FYI about 001 Game Creator (or a defense case for its relevance) then a full-on in-depth review, for now.

Good Ol’ “Double-O-One” Game Creator (is that how to say it? I’ve never known if it’s pronounced James Bond style or if it’s supposed to be “Zero-Zero-One” or something like that) Anyway, If you've never used 001 Game Creator, it's like if RPGMaker and Gamemaker Studio had a baby. Not, quite as easy to use as RPGMaker but it is arguably more versatile like Gamemaker. Just to be clear, I used to love 001 and back then it was legit but I must admit, the software hasn’t quite stood the “test of time” as it is pretty dated by today’s game designing standards. Honestly, if you want truly the fastest (and easiest) game design software, your best bet is RPGMaker MV (since it now uses javascript and has mobile and html web development capabilities) and if you’re going to spend the time learning 001 Game Creator then you might as well just devote that time to learning Gamemaker, Construct 2 or Unity (or some actually relevant software). Sadly, the 001 Game Creator community doesn’t really seem to exist anymore and it’s hard to find answers through tutorials that seem like they haven’t been updated (or looked at) in years. The lack of community involvement is the real tragedy in my opinion. I hate to say it, but even their website is exactly how it was when I was a kid, it’s like an online time capsule of the 2000s! Now, I know that what I’ve said seems like I should be giving 001 Game Creator a negative review... However, (as I sort of alluded to a second ago) I’ve been using 001 for years now (pay no attention to the puny hours I've put into the Steam version thus far) so this is basically a thumbs up to that software and all the memories I have with it. But, don’t completely write it off, there are still a lot of really neat features that 001 offers: Setting up levels is a breeze and character, enemy and npc implementation is still my favorite compared to any other game design software. As I mentioned before, it’s the community involvement that has had the most detrimental effect on 001. It is up to us whether 001 Game Creator flies high or fades away.

With all that said, the Steam version of 001 Game Creator gives you access to features not available in the free version:

• License to sell your game, which is extremely important because games made on the free version of 001 Game Creator are not licensed to be sold.

• Mobile and web browser development capabilities.

• Steam treatment so you get fun little achievements and it will log how many hours you painstakingly pour into your game. (You know you love it, don't act like you don't ;P )

Considering 001 Game Creator Ultimate edition retails for around ($250) this edition is a pretty good deal (especially on sale)! The nice thing is if you are using the free version of 001 Game Creator; all files, assets, games made on the free one are fully compatible with this version (Obviously!) In conclusion, I would just create your game with the free version of 001 Game Creator, if you actually make something and want to sell it (or want to develop for mobile/web) then go ahead and buy this version.

The pros and cons of my review is solely based on my experience with this game engine, nothing more:

PROS:
-it is a great engine to make fast game prototypes
-it has a very wide library of events to ease the mechanics of your games
-the default assets and perspectives will aid you to try out different designs(from pixel art to 3D, from platformer to isometric, etc)
-the game templates are really helpful and ease up some tasks that are time consuming (such as calculate the movement of the player or setting the collision areas of the objects)
-altough there are many few tutorials (writen and videos), those there are very interesting and useful
-the most important: if you have some budget to spare, you can pay for personal training or for custom gameplay scripting

CONS:
-visual scripting it is not as friendly as one can expect; the scripts can become very messy (altough you try to organize your scripts, it can be hard to follow the tree of events)
-it is not as easy to figure out how to tweak the values of the events to achieve some particular effects (I tried for many months to avoid the horrible floating platform effect of the 3D perspective, I tried with all the camera and maps events, and nothing)
-the HORRIBLE floating platform effect in 3D and isometric perspective (and I think that it is the same for platformer): I cannot do nothing to constrain the camera to the limits of the maps, and to not show that immense and creepy void that gives all the 3D maps the visual aspect of a piece of a terrain floating in the nothingness... (I tried not only camera and map events but also parallax, also searched for all the tutorials and forums that I can find but nothing)
-the wiki has not any in-depth explanations of the many functionalities of the game engine; the built-in information of the engine is the same as the wiki and it only offers in its majority just descriptions instead of examples or more in depth explanations
-in adition, there are very few tutorials
-I am a hobbyst in game development but have some background on coding with Python as well as some experience with visual scripting with OpenSpace 3D (as a hobbyst too, I may add), but the visual scripting of 001 was often confusing
-the most important: if you DO NOT have some budget to spare, you CAN NOT pay for personal training or for custom gameplay scripting. I understand that, as a company, it has to have strategies to generate profits, but for indie developers could be very hard to access to these services

I do not regret buying the engine, and I must say that it is enjoyable for prototyping some basic games, but when I tried to accomplish some complex actions, I was frustated.

The first 5 hours into this program I would have giving it a NO! I have made small games, but always through code (C++, Angelscript, Lua, etc..) I wanted to try something new that didn't require me to reinvent so many simple things, (simple A.I., pathfinding, inventory, networking)

Alot of other engines, seemed to always be missing something important, that required either a hack or very professional knowledge of programming. This engine, basically has them all, every little feature you can come up with is there, even if its not, custom data structures are available once you get the hang of things.

Now that I have some time with this engine I am finding a groove, it's far from perfect, but everything is really.

My biggest cons, I share with some other reviewers, the ui is not the best, it's not a "ugly" problem, it's the clutter. If you are a digital artist this may come more naturally to you, as there are buttons upon buttons, and when you open something, there is SO MUCH going on. As a coder I initially found it intimidating and just hard to see through the mess, steps that were so simple through code like adding custom graphics are a multi-step pain in the a**.

Another problem I have is when I go to look at some visual script, to see what is going on and how to customize it and reuse it, its like looking at a road map of a country and navigating it makes it difficult on large scripts to see whats interacting with what, where as just code is so much easier to read and learn from.

So in closing, why the YES vote, because those small annoyances I know how to work with most of them and I have a great deal of it figured out, and still so much more to learn, but the engine is worth it, every penny, it's all there, the game you want to make, networking just works, pathfinding just works, a pretty in depth interface/gui editor, lots of placeholders to build a game and replace graphics later, test almost instantly on mobile, layers, and automatic z-sorting for sprites, its just there, and it just works! It's a pain to learn, but anything worth while should be hard, give it an honest chance you can make something awesome to share, I'm well on my way ;)

Let's be honest. GG Maker is maintained by an one person team. It seems like a gorgerous idea, but we have to point that the software is somewhat limited. Yeah, you can make a considerable sort of games in this software, but you can't expect a 100% smooth experience with it, at least for now.

In short therms, GG maker is a good software. I have to admit that it introduced me to the world of programming and game developing, so i owe some part of my current carreer to it, but you can expect and WILL encounter tons of bugs, and some of them are really annoying.

I do NOT recommend this piece of software. The developer is not taking his or her paying clients seriously and poorly developing this tool. Although he/she is making a big fuzz out of every little bug-fix that appears sporadically. Support is bad and ("join discord and ask in there") is all I got. Also, if you give a fair but slightly negative comment in the Steam forum this developer will report you every single time and in time will get you banned. To the developer: if you want the opinions of your clients you can expect a negative answer as well as a positive answer. I had both since I bought this software. A negative answer is NOT by definition disrespectful. The game we are developing with this is going to be made with Unity now. Good luck.

update:

The post from the dev below is either a blatant lie or he/she has no idea what his colleagues are doing. It doesnt matter which option it is, it says enough.
I was permanently banned because of my opinion and like i said, there was no cursing, slander or threats just positive and also some negative remarks. I also had multiple conversations over this matter with Steam support and they told me it was up to the devs/moderators of the 0001 Game Creators forum to issue a ban like this and NOT Steam support or Steam moderators, so again that is either a lie or he/she does not know what is going on.
After all the time passed since the ban I understand you guys just want to look good with the comment down below and i can't blame you, you'll need it.

Good luck and have productive and fine day.

Update (again)

Thanks for dragging this out even further. I was never contacted personally by any of you, i was just informed after one negative comment that i was disrespectful against the devs and therefore banned Thats it, thats all.

Like i said, a negative comment is not by defenition a disrespectul comment, and the comment in question was by no means intended and written as such.

Somebody got pissed off and retaliated.

Again, you have no clue what you are talking about. You can post more excuses down below, my (negative) review only gets more attention this way and exposes the true nature of your company and it's childish behaviour toward it's paying customers.

Put all your energy and time into getting your product and customer service better instead of dragging this out even further. It's wasted time and energy.

God bless.

ENG:

This is like a upgraded version of RPG Maker tool but, much more! It's just a awesome little a game maker tool what raise your a game quality on next stage.

High a recomented this one! :3


FIN:

Tämä on kuin päivitetty versio RPG Maker työkalusta mutta, paljon enemmän! Tää on vain mahtava pieni pelinteko ohjelma, joka nostaa sinun pelisi laadun seuraavalle tasolle!

Korkeat suositteluni tälle ohjelmistolle! :3

If you ever wanted to make a game, especially a classic perspective RPG, a platformer, 3D or even the next Binding of Isaac, this is for you. It's pretty good - I've been using the original (Engine 001) for years.

Good for making campy little games to send to your homies in mysterious executables. Used this a load as a kid before it came to Steam. Probably not capable of creating anything worthy of selling, so if you're looking to
L A U N C H !
Y O U R !
C A R E E R !
then you should probably look elsewhere. I'd recommend Unity. Pretty shallow learning curve. But that's really where this piece of software differs from others. This piece of software, if you want to make something "okay", has just about ZERO learning curve, so you can dive right in.

Okay have fun byyyye.

As a beginner in game development, I recommend this software to anyone who wants to learn to make a variety of games, with a rather easy to learn interface and scripting system. While some say the interface is 'outdated,' It is still easy to look at, and most importantly use! This program comes with extensive documentation, so you can always have something to look to if you forget what does what.

The mapping system is very nice. There is a small learning curve when it comes to the layers, but it is easy to get past. The lighting system is wonderful, and easy to use. you can set the color, radious and even effects like a strobe effect to it.

Can you make your dream game with this software? Of course! Currently there isn't any online multiplayer that can be accessed easily, but you can make old-fashioned local multiplayer games with split screens and multiple controls. (up to 4 players, not bad!) You can make tower defence, rpg, action, platformer, card, board game, racing game, and a whole lot more. If you are willing to put the time into learning this engine, (which shouldn't take long) you can most definitely make your dream games.

What did I dislike about GGMaker? The lack of built-in tutorials. While it brings you through the basics, I'd love to see more on advanced topics, and taking some of the communities tutorials implemented.

If you want to try-before-you-buy, go to the GGMaker website and click on the 'download trial' button. And you can go to http://www.engine001.com/tutorials.htm and look through to see what you can learn. They also have a forum where you can ask questions if you are having difficulties.

My Rating: 8.5/10