The indie invasion of the Nintendo eShop has only just begun. Nintendo has teamed up with YoYo Games to create a special edition of GameMaker Studio 2 that rolls out sometime this summer. Studios and indie designers that use the 2D development engine will soon be able to port their games directly to the Switch. A number of popular indies use the GameMaker engine, including Toby Fox’s Undertale, which was just announced for the Switch.
The partnership with YoYo Games signals how serious Nintendo is about courting indies. Sony made a similar move back in 2014, striking up a deal to ease GameMaker ports to PlayStation 4. According to YoYo, 200,000 people use its GameMaker Studio products every month. Games like Heart Machine’s slick RPG Hyper Light Drifter and Hopoo Games’ gritty Metroidvania Risk of Rain use the engine.
The first edition of YoYo Games’ engine released in 1999, and GameMaker Studio 2 rolled out in March 2017. It can port to several platforms, including PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS, and Android.
