Game Launcher Creator. The software that has come so far in so little time.
2016 is when I first started developing it. Originally, it started out as a bit of a hobby project. The main reason I started it? FPS Creator. Yes, you heard me right.
I’ve been a marginal fan of TGC, also known as ‘The Game Creators’ since their inception. Lee Bamber, the chief, actually did some work with Clickteam many, many moons ago. We here, still have a good relationship with Clickteam. Clickteam are pioneers in the game development industry. Known for their original ‘Klik n Play’ which was the world’s very first “Game Maker” software which required absolutely no programming or coding. They pioneered and created the “Event Editor”. In fact, they stand firmly by their innovation so much, they trademarked it.
If you’ve never heard of Clickteam, you should check them out. Clickteam Fusion 2.5 and 2.5+ are leading software developments that have been in progressive development for 30 years! It’s too easy to get into game development with their products and many famous games have been made with their software including the likes of Five Nights at Freddy’s.
The Game Creators, they took the 3D route. They created their own DarkGDK, which is a development kit for C++. It aligns smoothly with their DarkBasic Pro. They also created a software called First Person Shooter Creator (FPS Creator). Back in 2008/2009, I followed and used the software, pushing it to its limits. They opened it up for modding, meaning we could take things further than the base engine which opened many doors. However, this was just a little side hobby thing and to be honest, it was an enjoyable experience back in the day.
Fast Forward a few years and TGC, rather than creating an FPSC 2, they decided to completely write a new engine from scratch. They got a lot of funding via Kickstarter and eventually someone came along and donated a vast amount towards its development. Then was born, GameGuru, swiftly followed by GameGuru Max.
From Hobby Project to Commercialisation
Being a massive fan of their products, because their products aligned with the same ethos as Clickteam, I grew frustrated out of a few things out of my control, and so did many other users. With FPSC, you could build top quality levels but there was no way to “string” your game together easily. So eventually, I combined the two. I developed the game with FPSC, but then used Fusion to create an application to string all the levels together, thus giving the finished game a linear track to follow.
Then I thought, why not just develop a dynamic tool for everyone to use? It is at this exact moment when the seeds for Game Launcher Creator were born. At the time, I was deeply invested in working, doing client work here and there. I was still doing audio production for commercial radio too, but I was also deep in the world of software and application development, and game development to an extent. So I had to do this “on the side” in my spare time.
It wasn’t even called “Game Launcher Creator”. The original title for the application was “InterFPSC” and here is a very rough screenshot from it…
It was a very poor rough mock up of how I originally wanted it to look. Please bear in mind, when I first thought of this tool to develop, I didn’t have all the fancy rigmarole time of “sketching ui” etc. I just wanted to dive in and get stuff done, using placeholder art and then polishing up later on. Looking back now, it was an honest pile of 💩. The way Game Launcher Creator looks today, just looks absolute gold next to this. Take a look…
It was only about 3 months into development I thought to myself, why should I limit this tool to just FPS Creator users? Surely I could cater it for a much wider audience. So I did and long story short, ultimately, Game Launcher Creator was born.
Again, at the time I released V1, I had zero plans to maintain it (it was feature complete), but after a few sales started trickling in, users were asking for new features and new options.
At the time, I was still actively teaching game development at my own Academy and across Universities online so time wasn’t on my side, plus I never originally wanted to create this uber-epic software piece that would take up my entire life.
The main thing is though, I actually did finish the project and sold it for a reasonable $24.99 and it sold well.
One thing I do miss from GLCV2 is our ogre. He was the branding and icon for Game Launcher Creator V2.
Believe it or not, I did this myself and believe me when I say, my artistic skills are NOT the best. I thought it looked pretty cool though and I do miss the GLC Ogre. I hope, if there’s ever a GLCV4, that I will bring the Ogre back.
We can’t do it with V3 because it just doesn’t fit the aesthetic of the software, so right now, we are on a new branding level. But if GLCV4 ever does get developed in the future, highly likely it will… then we will definitely be bringing the Ogre back.
The Curse of Success
The aim of Game Launcher Creator V1 was a tool that would allow game and app developers to be able to quickly design and develop a launcher for their indie games made with Fusion, Godot, GameGuru, FPSC and all the other engines. It had a very basic update system built in but no patching system.
In fact, if you want to read more about the actual history of Game Launcher Creator, click here. That page contains way more in-depth information about the progression. The aim of this post I’m writing is to let you see into my world a bit and see everything from my eyes.
Once the gamers had picked it up, all of a sudden, we are not only targeting game developers now, we are also targeting gamers themselves. FiveM took off massively and the Gamers took GLC with it. Before we knew it, our little Discord server with about 20 members inside of it was up to 300, then 500 then 900. Time went on, GLC was now my full time project, no longer just a side project. It grew and grew into what it is today and we are still the number one game launcher software on the market. We have been around too long now to be knocked off that top spot. We were the original pioneers and we will continue to hold that title so long as we continue development of our software range.
It seems strange to look at how my life changed without me actively making decisions. I kind of just ‘melded’ into this new way of life. No longer full time teaching at the Academy nor the Universities but instead, just concentrating on this masterpiece software.
The only downside to having a software product that is highly sought after by thousands around the world is, time. Time will always be the bane of my life.
Don’t get me wrong, even when the chips are down and life seems pretty crappy, I just look at what I’ve made of this business and the products over the last 7 years. It delights me to no end that we have so many users of my baby; Game Launcher Creator. From Minecraft Gamers to Big Dev Studios using the software. We even have development studios using the software that are using customised runtime versions of AOPS, the game patching system. Yes, they literally hired me to create a custom version of the runtime exclusively to work how they wanted it to for their projects.
I absolutely love doing what I do and I love all the people I’ve met along the way. I’ve made some new friends, real good friends on our Discord. These kind of friends were we support each other, they never want for much and by god are some of them patient, especially with me (you know who you are).
Reaching the Top Spot in Software Development
You may not believe it, but this is what success really looks like. Some users have even said to me “Why are you selling your software so cheap? I expected it to be way more than it is”. The answer to that is, because even though I need to make money to keep myself and my family afloat, I still have a love and dedication to Gamers and Indie and Professional developers out there. Those that are looking for that software that will help their lives and help their work. I appreciate that and what they’re doing.
I am not rolling in the millions, if I was, this landscape would look a lot different. Just because we are the number one software choice in the world for custom launcher development, does not mean we make $4,000,000 a month. Honestly, if we did, I probably wouldn’t have these bags under my eyes right now 🥴
The way I see it is, we can be number one in the world but still be humble with our pricing because not everything is about money. The SMELL of success is not smelling the 20 dollar bill you just got out of the cash machine, the smell of success is this right here. The ability for me to write this to over 8000 loyal users and the new ones joining us every week. The smell of success is when I look in our #showcase channel in Discord and see what creations people have made with MY software product. It’s that kind of stuff that makes you feel successful 😎
The Future; What Beholds
So the reason I am writing this article today is not to give you a history lesson, per se. It’s to reach out to you to let you know what’s going on because I know we have been a little quiet on stuff this year.
First thing is first, please be rest assured that we are still working around the clock. There’s not been a GLC update pushed out since February this year and there’s a good reason for that. Firstly, there’s no “show stopping” bugs that need squashing, there’s no critical issues that’s stopping users from designing and developing launchers. There’s a few minor issues that have been squashed, but the reason why is because the next GLCV3 update that is going to drop, is an absolute monster of an update.
I have introduced a new feature to the software editor for all versions and that is a new “built-in library” function. It’s a new tiny window that sits to the left of the editor and it enables you to quickly switch to buttons, graphics, gifs and videos from our own built-in library that you can quickly drop into your launchers, speeding up development time even further. Here is a screenshot of it… (You can click the image for a bigger preview)
That’s basically how it will look. At the top is a dropdown where you can click and select from Buttons, GIFs, Images and Videos. Just select one, double-click it and into your launcher it goes where you can then move it around, layer it, shape it… do whatever you want to it.
The second thing is, the Icon License error, I have finally squashed! It was THAT notorious of a bug, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what it was that was causing it. Then, the big revelation, first my defence… GLCV3 is a HUGE software application. It consists of MANY lines of events and code, literally tens of thousands. Eventually, I figured out what it was, but only by luck. You see two years ago when it was in beta, I used a temporary variable name for debugging purposes when testing the software. Months later, I developed the built-in icon compiler and low and behold, it uses the same variable name. Now, this doesn’t cause an issue 90% of the time because the debug variable never gets changed. It’s only in very rare cases where a user does something specific that the variable will change and that’s what has been happening. So that has finally been squashed, saving lots of frustration.
Now, on to the Launcher Login Plugin (which is still available for pre-order). Some of you may be wondering why this is taking so long, well, aside from the fact of having to run the business, websites, servers, emails, discord support and development of the other things we have going, the Launcher Login system is just one of many other features and plugins we are developing.
I’m not going to give you a huge sob story about this and that but let me promise you one thing, everything will be finished and released by year end.
I’m not just talking about the launcher login plugin here, I’m talking about that, plus the new Minecraft Pro plugin, plus the new Patreon plugin, plus the SDK and the huge GLCV3 update to boot.
So before 2024 ends, here is what will 100% be completed and released:
- Launcher Login System
- Minecraft Pro Plugin
- Patreon Plugin
- Developer SDK
- Massive GLCV3 Update
The reason I know, 100% that these systems will be ready and published before year end is because, I want to start 2025 with a clean slate. I don’t want anything from 2024 lingering into 2025. I want to wholeheartedly ensure that when I wake up 1st Jan 2025, there’s nothing to worry about, nothing on the immediate “todo list” and absolutely nothing that’s going to keep me up at night wondering myself “when will this be completed for?”.
This is a promise I’m not only making to you, but to myself also. 2025 HAS to be a clean slate, with nothing outstanding. This gives me a clear head to think about what 2025 will hold for us in terms of going forward with new products and new innovations.
One of the realms I want to get back into is Game Development. I’ve personally developed many game engines over the years, 24 years to be exact. I’ve done many game ports for popular titles like FNaF and AVGN. I think it’s about time ByteBox Media got on the game development train and started development of a serious project. And as a brucy bonus, obviously we want you all involved, so stay tuned for that because that’s next year. Let’s get 2024 out of the way first please 😊
