GameSalad 2011 Roadmap
SF
Member, Chef Emeritus Posts: 35
Hi everyone,
As promised, the GameSalad 2011 roadmap is finally here!
GameSalad 2011 Roadmap
We did our best to incorporate your feedback from our feature request survey and prioritize development accordingly. Several features are considerably larger projects than others. As a result, some features will have to come later in the year, even though we realize they are a high priority to you. Our near-term goal is to get on a regular release cycle every six weeks, eventually improving to once a month.
There are a few caveats to the roadmap that I need to make clear. While we attempted to establish target timeframes to deliver each feature, we can’t guarantee with absolute certainty that we’ll hit every date. In fact, there’s a good chance that a few things will slip here and there, so please accept our apologies in advance. Our hope in providing a roadmap is that you’ll have a good sense of our priorities for the year and an approximate timeframe for when you can expect them to be available.
The big wildcard in all of this is how fast we can hire the additional technical and product ninjas needed to accelerate development. If we find those talented individuals sooner, we could feasibly accomplish more in a shorter timeframe. So check out our job openings and help us spread the word.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we need to be nimble and agile enough to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. We didn’t see the Mac App Store coming, but fortunately we were able to adjust our development schedule on the fly and include Mac publishing in the very next release. While we don’t have a crystal ball that can predict the future, we’ll do our best to quickly adjust our schedule if a cool opportunity comes up that could be potentially valuable to our community.
To summarize, there are some things that may impact priorities and timing, but I will revisit the roadmap periodically and update it as necessary.
Another topic I’d like to address is the future of the Professional account. Some of the features on the roadmap will only be available to our Pro users initially. Eventually, some Pro features will migrate to free, while others may remain Pro indefinitely. Bottom line is that if you’re a Pro, you will get priority access to all the latest and greatest features as soon as they’re available. If you stick with the free account, you may be late to the party on some things, or miss out on others altogether.
Looking over the roadmap, there are few projects you may not be familiar with that I’d like to elaborate on in a bit more detail:
GameSalad 1.0: We’ve been working hard to improve stability, usability and memory management with every release. Over the next few months, we’ll be focused on hardening GameSalad so we can finally take our beta tag off. While this may not be as sexy as some of the other features on the list, it’s necessary to get our house in order before we can start rapidly introducing new features. We don’t want a few annoying bugs to detract from what is otherwise an amazing product and user experience.
GameSalad Cookbook: A full-fledged community site designed to enrich the collective knowledgebase of GameSalad developers. Here you will be able to access our complete catalogue of video tutorials, get expert advice on your toughest questions, and help others learn the ropes of making games in GameSalad.
GameSalad Marketplace: A robust asset marketplace that will enable you to easily license and sell high-quality game assets. This will include artwork, sound, music, templates, and more.
GameSalad Arcade 2.0: A reimagining of the game playing experience on GameSalad.com. We’ll be launching a new design with enhanced functionality that will make it easier to discover, play, and share your favorite GameSalad games.
Project Masala: There are a few things we intentionally left off the roadmap as well. These are mostly stealthy projects that we can’t publicly talk about now for strategic reasons. You’ll notice an example of one of these on the roadmap called Project Masala. We included it on the roadmap because it’s coming out next month and you’ll know all about it soon enough. While I can’t say too much about it at the moment, I will say it’s one of the most exciting developments at GameSalad to date, and has the potential to change the game industry. It’s one of the features that falls into the melt your face classification I mentioned in my previous post. I’ll have more details to share next month, so stay tuned.
Now I’m sure some of you will have questions about the specifics of various features on the roadmap. I’ve asked Yoda to hang out for a while to help clarify things and answer any questions. Please understand that we can only discuss some things in so much detail at this point – so go easy on him!
We’re really excited about all the cool stuff coming down the pipe and look forward to all the great games you guys will create in 2011 with GameSalad.
Cheers,
Steve
As promised, the GameSalad 2011 roadmap is finally here!
GameSalad 2011 Roadmap
We did our best to incorporate your feedback from our feature request survey and prioritize development accordingly. Several features are considerably larger projects than others. As a result, some features will have to come later in the year, even though we realize they are a high priority to you. Our near-term goal is to get on a regular release cycle every six weeks, eventually improving to once a month.
There are a few caveats to the roadmap that I need to make clear. While we attempted to establish target timeframes to deliver each feature, we can’t guarantee with absolute certainty that we’ll hit every date. In fact, there’s a good chance that a few things will slip here and there, so please accept our apologies in advance. Our hope in providing a roadmap is that you’ll have a good sense of our priorities for the year and an approximate timeframe for when you can expect them to be available.
The big wildcard in all of this is how fast we can hire the additional technical and product ninjas needed to accelerate development. If we find those talented individuals sooner, we could feasibly accomplish more in a shorter timeframe. So check out our job openings and help us spread the word.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we need to be nimble and agile enough to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. We didn’t see the Mac App Store coming, but fortunately we were able to adjust our development schedule on the fly and include Mac publishing in the very next release. While we don’t have a crystal ball that can predict the future, we’ll do our best to quickly adjust our schedule if a cool opportunity comes up that could be potentially valuable to our community.
To summarize, there are some things that may impact priorities and timing, but I will revisit the roadmap periodically and update it as necessary.
Another topic I’d like to address is the future of the Professional account. Some of the features on the roadmap will only be available to our Pro users initially. Eventually, some Pro features will migrate to free, while others may remain Pro indefinitely. Bottom line is that if you’re a Pro, you will get priority access to all the latest and greatest features as soon as they’re available. If you stick with the free account, you may be late to the party on some things, or miss out on others altogether.
Looking over the roadmap, there are few projects you may not be familiar with that I’d like to elaborate on in a bit more detail:
GameSalad 1.0: We’ve been working hard to improve stability, usability and memory management with every release. Over the next few months, we’ll be focused on hardening GameSalad so we can finally take our beta tag off. While this may not be as sexy as some of the other features on the list, it’s necessary to get our house in order before we can start rapidly introducing new features. We don’t want a few annoying bugs to detract from what is otherwise an amazing product and user experience.
GameSalad Cookbook: A full-fledged community site designed to enrich the collective knowledgebase of GameSalad developers. Here you will be able to access our complete catalogue of video tutorials, get expert advice on your toughest questions, and help others learn the ropes of making games in GameSalad.
GameSalad Marketplace: A robust asset marketplace that will enable you to easily license and sell high-quality game assets. This will include artwork, sound, music, templates, and more.
GameSalad Arcade 2.0: A reimagining of the game playing experience on GameSalad.com. We’ll be launching a new design with enhanced functionality that will make it easier to discover, play, and share your favorite GameSalad games.
Project Masala: There are a few things we intentionally left off the roadmap as well. These are mostly stealthy projects that we can’t publicly talk about now for strategic reasons. You’ll notice an example of one of these on the roadmap called Project Masala. We included it on the roadmap because it’s coming out next month and you’ll know all about it soon enough. While I can’t say too much about it at the moment, I will say it’s one of the most exciting developments at GameSalad to date, and has the potential to change the game industry. It’s one of the features that falls into the melt your face classification I mentioned in my previous post. I’ll have more details to share next month, so stay tuned.
Now I’m sure some of you will have questions about the specifics of various features on the roadmap. I’ve asked Yoda to hang out for a while to help clarify things and answer any questions. Please understand that we can only discuss some things in so much detail at this point – so go easy on him!
We’re really excited about all the cool stuff coming down the pipe and look forward to all the great games you guys will create in 2011 with GameSalad.
Cheers,
Steve
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
cheers Kipper
(I could murder a curry!)
Send and Receive Data using your own Server Tutorial! | Vote for A Long Way Home on Steam Greenlight! | Ten Years Left
It's also good to see a warning to non-pro users. You might not get some of the features, so consider upgrading! I'm thinking that means Game Center will likely be pro-only.
An image search for the word Masala didn't provide too many clues. I somehow doubt the new feature involves food that looks like goop or Indian porn.
Image flipping will reduce the size of BOT. This is something to consider while I'm changing the level design.
I'm not sure what to do about The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook. It seems that it's in competition with the Cookbook. Considering that my book has never officially been acknowledged, I'm assuming GameSalad doesn't like it. Although, maybe it would be welcomed in the marketplace. If it's not, there are certainly new projects that I could create for the marketplace. There's a strong possibility that the printed version of the textbook will return in the Summer, when GameSalad should be leaving beta.
It's unfortunate about video. That would have been useful for BOT. That's a good option for custom splash screens too. Fall is too long to wait though.
Multiplayer is cool. I'm assuming that's Game Center related.
Overall, it looks like good stuff. It seems that GameSalad has a future. Android support is cool too. There's lots of potential there. I think AdMob should be added, so that cross-platform advertisements can be included in the games.
I think it would help people not freak out when the next awesome feature they want is pro only, and may help encourage upgrades
Send and Receive Data using your own Server Tutorial! | Vote for A Long Way Home on Steam Greenlight! | Ten Years Left
Great suggestion. I can say that there's generally a lot of discussion about that for nearly every feature, even well into testing. I'll work on trying to get that added and updated as decisions are made.
--Yodapollo
- josh
If not, you might want to consider changing that name.
Asymptoteell
No connection at all. We've had internal naming system for a while and this one happened to be Masala.
--Yodapollo
Other possibilities...
• Milkshake
• Mushroom
• Melon
• Mango
I like Mango, reminds me of Fruit Ninja
1. Sprites - I found that these are small character images, but I don't get it how it will work in GS.
2. Joints - have no idea what it even is
3. Enhanced monetization options - other way of earning? Don't get it at all
4. Tables and arrays - why do we need tables? This is not MS Word or a Website.
Not sure I can answer all of these as well as dedicated developer, but here goes:
1. Sprites - sprites allows for easier managing of image libraries, as well as lays the basis for improved polygonal collision.
2. Joints - improves movement, physics, and creating complex physics systems within the game. You can designate and establish "joints" to connect multiple actors along pivot points.
3. Enhanced monetization options - we're currently looking at easy ways for our users to integrate more revenue channels into their games.
4. Tables and arrays - this provides a more memory friendly way for your game to reference large amounts of data. For more info on this topic, I'm sure TSB and many others are happy to explain the benefits of Tables & Arrays
--Yodapollo
This is all great news for GS!! I'm super excited
Ace
That said thanks for the roadmap, even if only half of what is in there became reality I will be really happy. I hope you can push universal binaries sooner, I really need them.
________________________________
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Free high score demo here (simple) and here (advanced)
Yeah, we focused the roadmap on key milestones and feature updates. We expect performance and stability to improve with every release. GameSalad 1.0 is a significant milestone, that we feel will reflect a substantial improvement in performance and stability, as well as a few features.
Glad to see how excited you are by the roadmap.
--Yodapollo
THANKS SOOO MUCH! This has brought my hopes back to GS! In the past couple of months i have been less and less involved with gamesalad, but this changes everything!
Really excited for the Android support!
Thanks for everything!
Giacomo