@Photics - When Unity 3D was first released, it was showcased by Apple at the Apple developer conference They are well aware of Unity, and I am sure Game Salad too. I think Unity kicks Game Salad ass completely, but in all honesty I can see Apple buying Game Salad and not Unity.
Why?
Because look at the iOS platform. Remove about 60% of the apps that are clearly junk (fart apps, auto dialers, hot asians, etc). Then you have probably 10% that are well done professional quality (AAA) titles and titles done buy seasoned Indies. The remaining 30% are clearly made by wanna-be developers who just don't have the skills to program, let alone program an embedded device. In other words, Apple can see that many people WANT to make games, they just lack the skill and tools to do so. Apple can clearly see the demand! Enter Game Salad, it has the Apple look and feel, and clearly it is easy to use. If Apple owned it, it would be updated and can be used to produce much higher quality games. I see Unity as more of a professional tool used by Seasoned Indies and other developers who are not entry level. Of course AAA developers use the SDK and their own tools, but the market for "pro" developers is much less than the wanna-be's.
When Microsoft showcased the XNA tools, they did so with a 10 year old girl developing her first game. Apple needs to do something similar.
I think it's a good thing for all of us that GS will have some competition in a few months.
No if it was my site i wouldn't like it, i would feel like a small fish about to be eaten by a big shark and get everyone i could to sign up to a one off payment of $2000 for lifetime membership of Pro
Seriously it's good for us and maybe the wake up call they needed to get us regular updates and stuff....pause anyone?
I love GS and love you guys even more, we have a brilliant forum and i never felt so at home on any forum which makes me want GS to succeed so much more!
Game Maker has no iPhone support ...yet so we have some time to see what the guys have up there sleeve and i think the next update will be massive.
@TymeMaster, Who knows, this new mystery app in iLife could be a fork of GameSalad...
One can only dream!
@Photics, If Gendai wants to shut this (or any) thread down, that's fine. But this community is FOR developers who use GameSalad, it's not for Gendai...
TymeMaster said: I sure hope not because Game Maker sucks. If you think people hate Game Salad, you should see how much they hate the stuff made with Game Maker !
Are you talking about games made for the PSP , or just games made to run from the desktop platform?
I have a feeling, after my subscription is up. GM will be ready to go and I'll be ready to jump ship. If Gendai picks up the pace I might continue to us GS, but I have a feeling the developement time of GM is easily going to outpace GS.
Photics said: Will Apple simply buyout GameSalad and incorporate it into iWork or iLife? Wow, that would be amazing.
I don't think this will happen. Years ago - I was using RealBasic back then- there were rumours that Apple would buy Real Software, because with RealBasic it was (and is) easier to develop Mac software than with XCode. But nothing happened, and RealBasic is now more interesting for companies and less for independent developers. It was a nice environment for developing games years ago (even 10 years ago you could create games with online mode), but didn't progress in this section. Of course, if Apple would create something like iDevelop as part of iLife, that would be great. But it will never happen. In my opinion Steve Jobs wants quality software, and that's why he will go for XCode all the way. I don't think that he's keen on seeing kids developing iPhone software because it's so easy...
I don't know if they will ever make an iPhone version (people have been asking for the Mac version for 10 years now), but it's definitely fun software to play around with.
And just like GameSalad, it is limited only by the creator using it. Hopefully Darren will port his PC version of Bumps over to the Mac!
At only 20$, it's certainly worth it to try it out for a while and see if you like it.
As game creators, you should be aware of all the options available to you.
And for what its worth, I make more money from the sales of my Desktop Games than from both my regular salary and my gameSalad games combined...
Cap said: I don't think this will happen. Years ago - I was using RealBasic back then- there were rumours that Apple would buy Real Software, because with RealBasic it was (and is) easier to develop Mac software than with XCode. But nothing happened, and RealBasic is now more interesting for companies and less for independent developers. It was a nice environment for developing games years ago (even 10 years ago you could create games with online mode), but didn't progress in this section. Of course, if Apple would create something like iDevelop as part of iLife, that would be great. But it will never happen. In my opinion Steve Jobs wants quality software, and that's why he will go for XCode all the way. I don't think that he's keen on seeing kids developing iPhone software because it's so easy...
If that were true he would only allow Torque and Unity then.
One thing to note, years ago he did not have iOS and see the potential market. All there was back then is the Mac market, which clearly doesn't have much marketshare at all, let alone "kids" using it (due to expense). Far more kids had an XBox or PC, which is exactly why Microsoft seen the market for XNA. Microsoft is smarter than Apple because they were smart enough to have a separate marketplace for XNA and Pro software in their online stores. So, basically a lot has changed and there are many young people using iOS. Besides young people, there are way more amateur developers on iOS than the Mac ever dreamed of, so again we have a huge market. I think the majority of apps suck and are made by people trying to get rich overnight, and then you have the PRO apps (very small), but whats left are a lot of amateur developers who can produce decent software if given a tool. XCode isn't that tool, it is and always will be meant for pros. If apple made XCode less PRO friendly, it would piss too many people off, and that is where tools like Game Salad come in.
You take a Mac and combine Garage Band, some iDeveloper tool, and a simple paint app to create sprites (lord knows why Mac's do not ship with something like MS paint), and you have a decent amateur development environment.
Edit: Plus Apple can probably buy Game Salad for a song & dance because if Gendai turned down a reasonable offer, Apple could just ban GS apps from the app store and roll their own quickly putting Gendai out of business.
Joe we find it very hard to sell from our website and a lot of places like steam, big fish games etc simply don't want to know, we got Bumps on several big sites and it sold very low numbers, Tumble Jumble was a no no everywhere.
GML was the first programming language I learnt as it was easy, simple and linear and it allowed me to learn the basics of programming It combines a drag and drop event based system with a easy language and is a program for early drag and drop beginners right up to advanced DLL creating advanced users.
GM doesn't have a iOS side (Which is why GS is still better) but listening to a YoYoGames podcast a few months ago shows their moving in that direction (slowly) At the moment their working on a PSP compiler which is quite silly if you ask me as iOS is 10x more popular. But they mentioned iOS would be the first thing they'll target once PSP is complete
The whole apple buying GS thing - I was ecstatic when Apple bought Emagic (as they were two of my favourite companies) and the logic series. They simplified it, made it more powerful and we got the benefit of Garageband from the whole thing - so yeah I could like it a lot if it happened.
firemaplegames said: I don't know if they will ever make an iPhone version (people have been asking for the Mac version for 10 years now), but it's definitely fun software to play around with.
And just like GameSalad, it is limited only by the creator using it. Hopefully Darren will port his PC version of Bumps over to the Mac!
At only 20$, it's certainly worth it to try it out for a while and see if you like it.
As game creators, you should be aware of all the options available to you.
And for what its worth, I make more money from the sales of my Desktop Games than from both my regular salary and my gameSalad games combined...
I think the point that FMG made here was a great one, being that it took GM years to finally get the program to be Mac compatible (granted, it started with Mark Overmars by himself, I believe, and now it is a full-fledged company).
Considering the GM team still has to tackle the PSP, I can't imagine this being completed for a year at least... but I'm just guessing
Photics said: While my review was somewhat harsh, as required by journalistic ethics, the rest of this community was quite supportive.
Funny, I've been a motoring journalist for the past six years. Not once has an editor of any magazine I have worked for told me to be "harsh". I've always approached journalism with the intention of being honest.
Comments
Why?
Because look at the iOS platform. Remove about 60% of the apps that are clearly junk (fart apps, auto dialers, hot asians, etc). Then you have probably 10% that are well done professional quality (AAA) titles and titles done buy seasoned Indies. The remaining 30% are clearly made by wanna-be developers who just don't have the skills to program, let alone program an embedded device. In other words, Apple can see that many people WANT to make games, they just lack the skill and tools to do so. Apple can clearly see the demand! Enter Game Salad, it has the Apple look and feel, and clearly it is easy to use. If Apple owned it, it would be updated and can be used to produce much higher quality games. I see Unity as more of a professional tool used by Seasoned Indies and other developers who are not entry level. Of course AAA developers use the SDK and their own tools, but the market for "pro" developers is much less than the wanna-be's.
When Microsoft showcased the XNA tools, they did so with a 10 year old girl developing her first game. Apple needs to do something similar.
No if it was my site i wouldn't like it, i would feel like a small fish about to be eaten by a big shark and get everyone i could to sign up to a one off payment of $2000 for lifetime membership of Pro
Seriously it's good for us and maybe the wake up call they needed to get us regular updates and stuff....pause anyone?
I love GS and love you guys even more, we have a brilliant forum and i never felt so at home on any forum which makes me want GS to succeed so much more!
Game Maker has no iPhone support ...yet so we have some time to see what the guys have up there sleeve and i think the next update will be massive.
Darren.
One can only dream!
@Photics, If Gendai wants to shut this (or any) thread down, that's fine. But this community is FOR developers who use GameSalad, it's not for Gendai...
Of course, if Apple would create something like iDevelop as part of iLife, that would be great. But it will never happen. In my opinion Steve Jobs wants quality software, and that's why he will go for XCode all the way. I don't think that he's keen on seeing kids developing iPhone software because it's so easy...
And just like GameSalad, it is limited only by the creator using it. Hopefully Darren will port his PC version of Bumps over to the Mac!
At only 20$, it's certainly worth it to try it out for a while and see if you like it.
As game creators, you should be aware of all the options available to you.
And for what its worth, I make more money from the sales of my Desktop Games than from both my regular salary and my gameSalad games combined...
One thing to note, years ago he did not have iOS and see the potential market. All there was back then is the Mac market, which clearly doesn't have much marketshare at all, let alone "kids" using it (due to expense). Far more kids had an XBox or PC, which is exactly why Microsoft seen the market for XNA. Microsoft is smarter than Apple because they were smart enough to have a separate marketplace for XNA and Pro software in their online stores. So, basically a lot has changed and there are many young people using iOS. Besides young people, there are way more amateur developers on iOS than the Mac ever dreamed of, so again we have a huge market. I think the majority of apps suck and are made by people trying to get rich overnight, and then you have the PRO apps (very small), but whats left are a lot of amateur developers who can produce decent software if given a tool. XCode isn't that tool, it is and always will be meant for pros. If apple made XCode less PRO friendly, it would piss too many people off, and that is where tools like Game Salad come in.
You take a Mac and combine Garage Band, some iDeveloper tool, and a simple paint app to create sprites (lord knows why Mac's do not ship with something like MS paint), and you have a decent amateur development environment.
Edit: Plus Apple can probably buy Game Salad for a song & dance because if Gendai turned down a reasonable offer, Apple could just ban GS apps from the app store and roll their own quickly putting Gendai out of business.
Any secret to your success with desktop selling?
Darren.
GML was the first programming language I learnt as it was easy, simple and linear and it allowed me to learn the basics of programming
It combines a drag and drop event based system with a easy language and is a program for early drag and drop beginners right up to advanced DLL creating advanced users.
GM doesn't have a iOS side (Which is why GS is still better) but listening to a YoYoGames podcast a few months ago shows their moving in that direction (slowly)
At the moment their working on a PSP compiler which is quite silly if you ask me as iOS is 10x more popular. But they mentioned iOS would be the first thing they'll target once PSP is complete
Darren.
http://www.gamebuilder.info/world/content/click-convention-iphone-and-android-runtime
Drag n drop interface, flash, android and java export.
Been some year since I've worked with MMF2, but I'm reinstalling it right now:)
Not sure what the iPhone extension wil cost, but the MMF2 Dev version costs 450$. One time cost:)
Considering the GM team still has to tackle the PSP, I can't imagine this being completed for a year at least... but I'm just guessing
@FMG: May I ask how do you distribute your games?