Söderström said that he created Hotline Miami with Games Maker, because it let him make the game fast. He also said that it doesn't need that much programming knowledge to use. He said it was a lot slower than other engines, and is quite limited. They had some problems with Games Maker, because they were using an old version. Weldin claimed he liked games that were just games, but Söderström wanted the player to think about the game's meaning. 