--- title: I tried GameMaker and instantly got GOTY | daily.dev description: A streamer live-tries GameMaker's Linux beta for the first time, documenting a chaotic onboarding experience: a broken temp-folder permission bug caused by... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-gamemaker-and-instantly-got-goty-whjdiydx6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I tried GameMaker and instantly got GOTY | daily.dev og:description: A streamer live-tries GameMaker's Linux beta for the first time, documenting a chaotic onboarding experience: a broken temp-folder permission bug caused by... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-gamemaker-and-instantly-got-goty-whjdiydx6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/WhJdiyDx6.png og:image:alt: I tried GameMaker and instantly got GOTY og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I tried GameMaker and instantly got GOTY **[Tsoding Daily](https://daily.dev/sources/tsoding_daily)** · 136 min read · 12 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary A streamer live-tries GameMaker's Linux beta for the first time, documenting a chaotic onboarding experience: a broken temp-folder permission bug caused by multi-user account conflicts, confusing deployment settings requiring manual installation of Steam Runtime, Linux deploy, and AppImage tool, and an hour spent just getting the engine to run. Once working, the streamer builds a simple pong-style prototype, praising the editor's object/sprite/event workflow and built-in visual scripting (GML Visual) while criticizing the visual programming paradigm as not scaling to complex software. Along the way it's revealed GameMaker (by YoYo Games) has been owned by Opera since 2021, which the streamer finds surprising given Opera GX cross-promotion baked into the new-project templates. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why does GameMaker fail with a 'cannot access vital system folders' error on Linux when switching user accounts on the same machine? GameMaker creates a temporary folder on first run, and that folder becomes owned by whichever user account ran it first. When a different user account on the same machine tries to launch GameMaker, it cannot access the hijacked temp folder and throws a permissions error, even though the app continues to work once that stale folder is deleted. _Developers debugging cross-account Linux permission quirks in game engines can find real-world fixes like this on daily.dev._ ### What extra dependencies does GameMaker Studio 2 require to build and run games on Linux? Building or exporting games on Linux requires manually installing Steam Runtime, a tool called Linux deploy, and AppImage tool, none of which ship with the base GameMaker download or get installed automatically on first run. Without them, compiling a project fails with errors like 'Linux deploy command not found,' and setup across these three pieces took roughly an hour. _Anyone weighing GameMaker against other engines for Linux support can track these setup gotchas on daily.dev._ ### Who owns GameMaker and since when? GameMaker, developed by YoYo Games, has been owned by Opera since 2021, which explains why new GameMaker projects include an Opera GX game-stream mode template option alongside standard game and live wallpaper project types. _Developers evaluating game engine vendors and their corporate backing can follow ownership changes like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@page011** · 1 upvotes > If Smii7y doesn't play your game and say "This might be game of the year" then you are not GOTY. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [GameMaker incorporates Claude Code to enable vibe coding](https://daily.dev/posts/gamemaker-incorporates-claude-code-to-enable-vibe-coding-dhnfyhquj) · Game Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Experimenting with Godot](https://daily.dev/posts/experimenting-with-godot-gpgpvuaoc) · Matt Massicotte · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux Gamers Are Finally Getting Their Own Browser](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-gamers-are-finally-getting-their-own-browser-oqbszyk6s) · It's Foss · 5 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#godot](https://daily.dev/tags/godot) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-tried-gamemaker-and-instantly-got-goty-whjdiydx6) ```json 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