steamworks.gml VS Input

Basically what the title says. I know that there is YALs dll, but it doesn't work anymore with the newer versions of gamemaker. [1] [2]

To add to that: When Yoyo releases the Steamworks extension and it is still missing some features (like networking, lobbies, matchmaking) then I recommend YellowAfterLife's Steamworks Extension and the accompanying example project.

Choose your platform. I chose to use YellowAfterlife's Steamworks.gml wrapper. It locks me into the Steam platform and porting the game to another console or platform would require a ton of work. On the plus side, Steam handles a lot of the networking (inviting friends, creating lobbies, etc) for me, and it requires minimal effort from the player. You can, of course, choose a more universal approach that uses sockets and IP addresses, but that often requires the player making modifications to their router's firewall, trusting apps from unknown developers, exchanging IP addresses, etc. Steam uses UDP hole punching, so as long as you're playing with other Steam players, there's way less friction.

Thank you! The online works with YAL's marvelous steamworks extension :) (and with a lot of sweat and pain, but that's another story) https://github.com/YAL-GameMaker/steamworks.gml

Input is a commercial-grade library and is being used in Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon and Samurai Gunn 2 and many other titles. It has extensive documentation to help you get started. Inputs strips away the boring repetitive task of getting controls set up perfectly and accelerates the development of your game.

Do yourself a favour and check out / use Input by Juju Adams.

- Input: The game works seamlessly with controller or mouse and keyboard. I used JujuAdams' Input 5 to handle inputs from various controllers. Setting up key rebinding was easy and is good for accessibility. It's great for multiplayer and cross-platform, if I decide to do those later. I wish I had known about Input a long time ago.

Another one I love is Input (although it's a bit of overkill for most games): https://github.com/JujuAdams/input

If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d look into Input. It’s had an amazing amount of work put into it to make it as compatible as possible with input devices, has keybindings, etc. Definitely a timesaver when it comes to player input.

Turns out that this is a harder question to answer than you might expect. Input has a bunch of tools that you might find useful, but if you want the specific solution for keyboard constants that GM doesn't have natively then you'll find it here.

Consider checking out this comprehensive, easy to use and free input library: https://github.com/JujuAdams/Input