Ludum Dare 49 partners with GameMaker Studio 2 which offers free access and learning resources

September 20, 2021

London, Ontario, Canada—Interactive Snacks today announced a partnership with Opera GX and GameMaker Studio 2, the multi-million downloaded 2D game development engine, to support Ludum Dare 49 and its future game jam events.

As part of its mission to make game design more accessible, GameMaker recently removed the free trial limit, making it completely free for anyone to access its powerful tools and functionality. At Ludum Dare 49, GameMaker will once again be free to use, but will also offer free exports to everyone participating in this hugely anticipated development event.

The partnership will also see Opera GX, GameMaker and Interactive Snacks collaborate more closely on the development of future events, where Opera’s technology will help give creators even more reason to join the event and showcase their creativity.

“GameMaker has always been an extremely popular game jam engine, as it enables participants to rapidly turn creative ideas into working prototypes,” said Russell Kay, CTO of YoYo Games. “Which is why we’re proud to be partnering with Interactive Snacks to support Ludum Dare and hopefully make entering this prestigious event more accessible to creators of all levels.”

“GameMaker is a tool with a long history in Ludum Dare” said Interactive Snacks founder Mike Kasprzak. “We’ve seen many games conceived in our event grow into successful commercial games, and many of those were made in GameMaker. We are excited to be working with Opera, and look forward to seeing what you create.”

Ludum Dare 49 takes place on the weekend of October 1st-4th.

You can learn more about Ludum Dare by visiting ludumdare.com.

About Opera and Opera GX

Opera is a global web innovator. Opera’s browsers, news products and fintech solutions are the trusted choice of hundreds of millions of MAU worldwide. Opera is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (OPRA). https://opera.com

In 2019 Opera launched Opera GX, a browser built for gamers with features that include countless customization options, sound effects, background music, a gaming-inspired design, as well as CPU, RAM and Network Bandwidth limiters that make the browser less resource-hungry and leave more of the computer’s resources for gaming. Opera GX has seen tremendous growth over the past year with a user base of more than 9 million highly engaged monthly active gamers. Opera GX’s user base grew 350% between 2019 and December 2020 and it continues to grow at a fast pace. In June 2021, Opera GX became available on mobile devices as the world’s first mobile browser designed for gamers.

About GameMaker Studio 2

GameMaker Studio 2 is the fastest and friendliest cross-platform game development technology out there. GameMaker Studio 2 has been completely redeveloped with usability and efficiency at its core, allowing artists and game creators to make games within a single code base and then publish them to run natively across multiple platforms including Android, iOS, HTML5, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Windows Desktop, OS X, Ubuntu, Windows UWP.

The GameMaker family of products has been downloaded more than 10 million times since 2012. Game Maker is part of the Opera Group. The team behind it is based in Dundee, Scotland and was acquired by Opera in January 2021.

About Interactive Snacks

Founded in 2020 by Mike Kasprzak, longtime game industry veteran and caretaker of the popular Ludum Dare “game jam” event. Interactive Snacks Limited is a Canadian company that operates Ludum Dare. Ludum Dare is a trademark of Interactive Snacks Limited. Learn more at interactivesnacks.com.

About Ludum Dare

Established in 2002, Ludum Dare is one of the longest running events of its kind. Ludum Dare is an online event that challenges creators to make a game from scratch in a weekend. Every year, creators from around the world come together to make thousands of original games as part of the event. Learn more at ludumdare.com.