How to put a GameMaker game on Steam
2 min read
By Eduardo Orellana ·
GameMaker uses YoYo Games' official, open-source Steamworks extension. Import it (the Marketplace build is the recommended one; GitHub has newer, less tested releases), download the Steamworks SDK from Valve's partner site and extract it to a short path, then in the extension's options set the SDK path and your App ID. Run with the Steam client open and signed in. Build for Windows, upload with SteamPipe. GameMaker's runner already handles Steam's restart check, so the DRM wrapper is not needed.
One extension, maintained by YoYo Games
GameMaker's Steam support lives in an official extension rather than the IDE itself. It is open source, maintained by YoYo Games, and covers achievements, stats, the overlay, lobbies, cloud and more.
Setup
- Import the Steamworks extension, preferably from the GameMaker Marketplace.
- Read the setup guide in the extension's Included Files (also on its wiki).
- Download the Steamworks SDK from Valve's partner site and extract it somewhere short, such as C:\steamworks\sdk.
- Open the extension in the Asset Browser: set the SDK path in the build options and your App ID in the application options.
- Run with Steam installed, running and signed in.
Shipping
- Build for Windows (and Ubuntu if you target Linux and the Deck).
- Steam's DRM wrapper is not needed: GameMaker's runner uses Steam's restart-if-necessary check.
- Upload the build with SteamPipe and set it live; see our SteamPipe guide.
- Projects from older GameMaker versions: some Steam functions became asynchronous; check the extension's migration notes.
Where Flockbay fits
Flockbay builds games on Godot, and its AI can read a GameMaker project's GML and rooms and rebuild it in Godot 4. Its publishing tools work for a GameMaker game too: the Steam page as a .zip, trailers, posts, ads on your own accounts, free in beta until 1 December 2026.