Hi.. plus a couple of questions.. (iPhone/Game Salad)

condra

Hey everyone.

I'm fairly new to iphone development, having just decided a week ago that it's something I want to do.

I have some goals but I'm not sure if I'm taking the right route, because there seems to be many ways to go about this. I was focussing on Objective C for the last week but discovering Game Salad today kinda threw me.

Hopefully someone can take the time to point me in the right direction.

My goals:
Create and sell some basic iPhone games, starting with a simple puzzle, and eventually creating a 2D adventure game.

Timeline:
I am hoping to achieve this within a year.

Previous Skills:
Some basic Javascript/CSS/HTML/Java
Advanced Illustrator/Photoshop
Pro Audio/Music etc

What I'm doing right now is reading two books concurrently.
1 - Programming In Objective C (Stephen G Kochan)
2 - Beginning iPhone 3 Development (Apress)

How is that so far?
I don't know C or C++, so the first book is giving me a good primer I think.

I just came across Game Salad today, and I'm wondering if Game Salad negates the need for me to learn Objective C, XCode, etc... (or if Game Salad and programming knowledge complement each other)

Considering my main iPhone development focus will always be games, should I just drop the other books and concentrate on Game Salad?

Finally, I'm a bit confused at the pricing schemes and the way products are finished and delivered.

Will Game Salad allow me to create a fully featured, well optimized 2D iphone game, which I can sell independently in the App Store?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Yodapollo

Condra,

Welcome to GameSalad!

It's always great to see new members introducing themselves on the Forums. To answer some of your questions:

1. There is no coding required for creating games with GameSalad. I won't say coding is bad, just time consuming and can be very confusing and frustrating to learn. If you want to make a GameSalad, being a programmer or coder certainly won't hurt, but it is in no way a prerequisite to making a quality iOS game with GameSalad Creator.

2. As for the pricing - GameSalad is entirely free to download and use. You can create games for the iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, Safari browser, or a Mac for free. No paid GameSalad membership required, no rev share. In order to publish to Apple's App Store, you will need a personal Apple iPhone Developer Account with Apple. I believe those start at $99/year. You can gain access to additional monetization features within GameSalad by signing up for the GameSalad Professional membership at $499/year. This includes iAd integration, promotional linking (URL forwarding), and priority technical support.

3. GameSalad will definitely let you create quality 2D iPhone games, and we do not require a revenue share or paid membership of any kind in order to do that. Creating and publishing a game with GameSalad to Apple's App Store doesn't cost a dime, outside of your membership with Apple. We've had developers make incredible games with GameSalad Creator and have experienced amazing success. Several apps have even cracked the top 100 paid apps on Apple's App Store!

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks again for introducing yourself to the GameSalad community. Welcome and we hope you enjoy your stay!

- Yodapollo

condra

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I think I will focus most of my energy on Game Salad now, but still get to grips with some more generic coding tasks when I have time.

You have given me the golden key.
My journey starts here.

Photics

condra said:
I am hoping to achieve this within a year.

A year?!

GameSalad would let you achieve those goals in a few months! I started using GameSalad in February. Three weeks later I had my first app completed. In June, I had a featured iPad app — Commove - it's a puzzle game. You can create puzzle games and 2D adventure games with GameSalad.

You don't need to code, but it's important to understand how the software works and it helps to have a strong sense of logic and creativity.

Yodapollo said:
It's always great to see new members introducing themselves on the Forums.

Actually... Yodapollo, this post concerns me. The health of the forums concern me too. Why is it so slow around here? The basic version of GameSalad is free. Shouldn't it be more busy around here? Why is it so hard for people to believe that you don't need to code? I don't think the world is getting the message of how awesome GameSalad is.

Is everyone really busy making games?

StormyStudio

welcome to the forum...

You can definately acheive your goals, with GameSalad, I made my first proper game 'Quake Builder' in about 4 months of working on it in my spare time. Its 2d physics based puzzler, with 20 unlockable levels, sounds, graphics etc etc...not made mega bucks, but more than paid for any outlay of software and apple account. Also had over 100,000 downloads of the lite version... which is kinda cool for me...

...you got some pretty good replies there..'Yodapollo' the main forum spokesman for GameSalad, and the other 'Photics' the writer/publisher of the Unofficial GameSalad text book.

Good luck on the road to the apple store

condra

Thanks Photics and Stormystudio for the replies.

Good vibes in this forum! I also love the simple, refined feel to the GameSalad website/forum/documentation etc.

Hopefully I will be able to give something back to the community here at some point in the future.