GameMaker Online Leaderboard Tutorial

What you will build

• A game that sends scores to an online leaderboard
• A screen that requests and displays player rankings
• A hosted leaderboard managed from your GMDB dashboard

Step 1: Create your GMDB project

Register for a free GMDB account, add your GameMaker game to the dashboard and enable or configure its leaderboard service. Keep the project identifier and any required credentials ready.

Step 2: Submit a score

After a player finishes a round, send their score using the documented GMDB leaderboard submission endpoint. Use the HTTP request function in GameMaker to make the request.

Step 3: Request the leaderboard

GameMaker can make an asynchronous HTTP request to the public leaderboard endpoint. The following example demonstrates the request-and-response pattern. Replace the URL with the documented leaderboard URL and query parameters for your project.

Controller object — Create Event

leaderboard_request = -1;
leaderboard_json = "";

// Replace with your project-specific URL from GMDB docs.
var _url = "https://www.gmdb.co.uk/data/get_leaderboard.php";
leaderboard_request = http_get(_url);

Controller object — Async HTTP Event

if (async_load[? "id"] == leaderboard_request) {
    if (async_load[? "status"] == 0) {
        leaderboard_json = async_load[? "result"];
        show_debug_message(leaderboard_json);
        // Parse the returned JSON using json_parse() after
        // confirming the response structure in the docs.
    } else {
        show_debug_message("Leaderboard request failed");
    }
}

The request above is an illustration of GameMaker HTTP handling, not a complete configured GMDB integration. A real request needs the correct project details and any required parameters.

Step 4: Display the scores

Parse the documented JSON response using json_parse(), iterate over the returned scores, and draw each player name and score in your leaderboard interface.

Common problems

• Empty leaderboard: confirm your project identifier and that scores have been submitted.
• HTTP error: check the full URL, request method and authentication.
• Unexpected JSON: log the raw response before attempting to parse it.

Build it faster with GMDB

GMDB provides hosted online services for GameMaker projects. Create a free account, configure your project, and follow the service documentation to connect your game.