macOS Game Options

This section outlines the different options available to you that control how your macOS game projects will be compiled. The different sections are:

General

Mac General OptionsIn the Product Information section, the first thing to do is fill in the Display Name of your game then fill in its, App ID, Version Number, Build NumberApp Output file and the Copyright details. The App Output is the location to which your game installation files go to on your Mac development machine. When you create your .app.zip, that file can go anywhere (the location you specify when doing the save dialogue is not the only copy made of that .app.zip), but the .pkg and other files are left in this folder, permitting you to test local installations via Terminal in such a way as to simulate Mac Store purchasing, etc.

Here you also need to give the Team Identifier that you wish to use for signing the final application that GameMaker creates for you. Setting it here will override the Team ID that you have supplied in the macOS Preferences. After the Team Identifier you also have the option to supply the Signing Identifier, which is required by Apple for all non-appstore applications (like Steam games, for example).

Then you have the option to Disable file system sandbox. Checking this will disable the GameMaker sandboxing for saving and loading files, permitting your games to access files from anywhere on the system running the game. This option is unchecked by default, as we recommend that you maintain the GameMaker sandbox for files on all systems and when checked, some save/load areas may still not be available depending on the OS-level permissions. For more information on the sandbox, please see the pages on the GameMaker File System.

You can select the architectures that your final YYC build will support. "Min Version" is the minimum version of macOS that the game can be played on.

Graphics

Mac Graphics OptionsThe graphics options are those that you should configure to determine how your game will use the graphics card of your target Mac. The following options are included for you to modify:

Finally there is the option to set the size of the texture page. The default (and most compatible) size is 2048x2048, but you can choose from anywhere between 256x256 up to 8192x8192. There is also a button marked Preview which will generate the texture pages for this platform and then open a window so that you can see how they look. This can be very useful if you wish to see how the texture pages are structured and to prevent having texture pages larger (or smaller) than necessary. For more information on texture pages, please see here.

NOTE: Be aware that the larger the size of the texture page, the less compatible your game will be on PC's with lower specifications.

Images

Mac Images OptionsThe images section is where you supply the images that your game requires. For Mac, you need to supply an Icon file (that must be in .png format and 1024x1024px) and a Splash Screen (which can be .png, .bmp, .jpg or .gif format). The splash screen will be shown while the game loads.

For DMG packages, you can supply an Installer Background image which will appear as the background of the DMG installer.

It is worth noting that GameMaker has a Project Image Generator tool which can be used to automatically create all the images required for all the different target platforms your game is being compiled to. If you use this tool, you should revise the images created to ensure that they are what you require.

Packaging

Mac Packaging OptionsIf you wish the finished game to be App Store Ready then you need to check the Build for Mac App Store option, but be aware that this will only function if you are a registered Developer and have the necessary certificates. Under that are the app Permissions which you should only check if they are true as Apple can reject your app if they are checked when they are not needed or vice-versa. These options simply permit your game to use the http_ and url_ functions. It is worth noting that if you wish to support GamePads in your game then the option to create an App Store ready package should be off.

Finally, you need to select its App Category (for more information, see here).

Social

Mac Social OptionsThis option is for using the Apple Sign In Extension on Mac. You can get this extension from the GameMaker Marketplace, and the extension itself contains full instructions for use. If you are not using this extension then you should not tick this option.