YoYo Games are delighted to announce that five lucky people will be given early access to the Closed Beta of GameMaker: Studio this March. On the 1^st of March 2012, all those that have liked the YoYo Games Facebook page (www.facebook.com/yoyogames) will be entered into a prize draw to win entry into the Closed Beta of GameMaker: Studio.

Five closed beta invites are up for grabs and the winners will be picked at random and notified on the 2^nd of March. To qualify for the lucky draw, visit the YoYo Games Facebook page at www.facebook.com/yoyogames and click on like.

We are pleased to announce that Reflexions, our casual puzzle game is now available to download free-of-charge from the GetJar website.

Reflexions is a brilliant and beautiful neon puzzler that involves players rotating mirrors to navigate a ball of light around each level, whilst avoiding obstacles and collecting diamonds to proceed to the next stage. The game features 40 levels set across four worlds and 20 unique achievements to unlock.

 Reflexions on GetJar

Reflexions is also currently available on the Android Market and Apple App Store, priced at £0.69 (GBP), €0.79 (EUR) and $0.99 (USD).

Please welcome Nocturne aka Mark Alexander to the YoYo Games Team this week! Mark (previously a moderator on the GMC) has now joined us to 'head up' the documentation of all things GameMaker such as helpfiles, tutorials, demos and wiki.

Mark is a 39 year old computer geek from Scotland whose love affair with computers started a long time ago with the dear old zx81, Mark has had many jobs such as musician, croupier, photographer, bouncer... but programming has always been a passion throughout his life. Mark has been a strong advocate in using GameMaker now for a long time (even managing to actually make a game or two!) and an active and valuable member of the GMC for a couple of years. So much so that we didn't want to lose him entirely on the forum so we made him an Admin :)

Please give him a warm, official, community welcome!

The GMC Game Jam winners have been announced and it's a tie for first place! Congratulations to TrueValhalla and Ziggler1 who will each recieve a copy of GameMaker:HTML5 amongst a host of other prize goodies.

1st place:

Disillusion by TrueValhalla

A minimalistic, kind of abstract platform game with a focus on exploration.

Break The Facade by Ziggler1

Help bridge the gap between the two opposite worlds moving obstacles in one world to alter the other. 

3rd place:

An Inconvenient Facade by RetardedLemon

In a world where nothing is what it seems, can you find a way to move on?

The full list of the order of winners and their games to download and play can be found here  Thanks to all 60 entrants, what a fantastic, creative lot you are! We particularly like the compilation video of all the game entries by GMC member theSnidr who kindly put together below :)

We are pleased to announce that the ad-free version of Skydiver Drop Zone is now available to download for free from the GetJar website.

Skydiver Drop Zone is an addictive arcade style split second reaction game requiring lightning quick fingers. In Skydiver Drop Zone players must leave their skydiver to free fall for as long as possible, before opening their parachute just ahead of the point of no return and guiding them safely to the drop zone.

Skydiver Drop Zone on GetJar

Skydiver Drop Zone is also currently available on the Android Market and Apple App Store, priced at £0.69 (GBP), €0.83 (EUR), $0.99 (USD).