gameframe

Quick links: documentation · itch.io · GM Marketplace
Versions: GameMaker: Studio 1.4, GMS2.2, GMS2.3/GM2022+
Platforms: Windows, Windows (YYC)

This extension gives GameMaker games a custom window caption+border that act like a native one.

That includes the minimize/maximize buttons, moving/resizing the window, common (and less common) keyboard and mouse shortcuts, and even the window shadow and rounded borders on Windows 11.

Having a custom border+caption subsequently allows for a few things:

• Toggling window border on demand
• Supporting exclusive fullscreen, borderless fullscreen, and windowed modes.
  (which more and more players expect from you as time goes on)
• Not freezing the application while the user is dragging the window around.
  (essential for competitive online games)
• Customizing the title bar and/or border.
  (now that it's game code that's drawing them)

What's interesting here

A lot of this extension is pretty normal code, really - buttons, callbacks, variables for customization. Not complex, but there's a bunch of it.

Default icons and animations are stylized to look akin to Windows 10, which also took a little while. And apparently UI scale doesn't just scale component sizes by X%? That's fun.

On other hand, a native window shadow on a borderless window turned out to be a surprisingly high-effort feature consisting of multiple poorly documented WinAPI tricks.

Building

See BUILD.md

Meta

Author: YellowAfterlife
License: Custom license (see LICENSE)