Better GS Game Engine

Vanny_Arts

I own and use many 2D Game Engines,.
I know GS is only a beta for now,,,I have been working and trying to build a game for 3 days now. I could say it's been a pain for me to built 1 stage. It's not easy as they say in the videos. Even the basic things like walk and jump is been hard. Well there's some samples included in the engine,,,but those samples are very terrible, the only 1 that is o.k is the shoot em up templet.

But this is my list of suggestions on what can make GS better or need;

Main library:
.Objects
.Player
.Backgrounds
.Enemies
.FX
.Music
.Misc
* not all together like in GS

Parallax Backgrounds
Layers window with their own settings (like photoshop) I have seen this in many Engines,
The coding windows needs settings for different views(you need to see more codes fit in the window)
Sprite/tile/behaviors Editor
Fonts setting/preferences for better view.
Stand alone builder.(if this could be possible)

The level editor needs to have tools in the browser:

.clone or multiply tool
.Selection tool with multiple selection
.Zoom tool from 0-%200+ * not 50% ,100%, 200%
.grid square and isometric
. switch to flip different editors
.

When the player or objects needs to collide or communicate with others,,,,why not make a display selection of pictures instead of text. Or in any other commands.

in GS scenes/scene/layers<------ this is crazy,,,, To save space and memory in games.... tiles are use. So... in order to make a long stage you need a lot of tiles,,,, right!!! why this layer window keeps every copy of the same tile that you put in the scene or stage???? why not just 1. Why is this necessary? in my stage that I'm building i could get around 1000+ tiles why would I need to get track of all this tiles,,,plus it takes a lot of space for me to find other objects inside this window/layer.

I don't want GS to be like other engines,,,,,, I want it to be better. So.. they need to see what makes the other engines special about them and what are their down side. Plus of-course listing to their customers demand.

The launch of the GS engine is near with a price,,,, them why not make good suggestions =D

This beta of GS is very ruff,,,, but I'll buy it if they come with a polish engine.

quantumsheep

Firstly, hello Vanny and welcome to the forums. Don't mind the rest of us - we smell a bit, but have hearts of gold

I can certainly understand your frustrations with GS, but I think you're expecting a bit much to be honest.

Firstly it's still in Beta.
Secondly, I can test my games on an actual ipod/iphone
Thirdly, I'll be able to SELL my games on the platform of the moment.
Fourthly, it's FREE.

I'm sorry you've been struggling with a game for three days now. That can suck, but read the forums, read the wiki, try things out and you'll start to learn. I made a game in under a week which you can find here: http://gamesalad.com/game/play/5948

As with most things in life, the more you do something, the better and faster you become at it.

I'm not blind to GS's shortcomings, just a little more forgiving. I'd personally like a restart feature, a save feature and a high score feature. It's these missing features that are holding me back to be honest more than anything else.

Still, I'm having a lot of fun experimenting. I came up with an idea for a 'platform' game after reading the posts of people having difficulty with jumping. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do, and, of course, it allows me to learn even more about how the application works. I'll try and post a tutorial if I get something working and if I have the time!

I think the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. And other such cliches. But you get the point I'm trying to make, I'm sure!

Cheers,

QS

SDMG

Hi quantumsheep, Hi Vanny_Arts

quantumsheep firstly you are right
Secondly, You(!) can test your game, but "normal" members are not allowed...
Fourthly gamesalad is free... compiled versions of your games and the preview software will cost a fee... sorry correct me if i am wrong...

I think gamesalad is the easiest existing gameengine with iphone-support!
Which other gameengines or frameworks supporting the iphone do exist?

I know iTGB and Unity... both are much more complicated and you have to learn unityscript, C++ or C#... for absolut non-programmers like me these are no alternatives...

With Gamesalad i have created my very first game in 10 Days and i think this is stunning fast...

just my 2 cents...

Unfortunatly my game has no highscore

(Please excuse my english)

LARS

Oh, come on! GS is awesome even in beta - motion, physics, layers - that's enough to build a really cool game! I would very like to see there a grid-style game support(with arrays, pathfinding etc), but the best of all is iphone testing and porting, that we all are waiting for)

There's a lot of defects now, but for me it's a one more reason to think) Think about logic of the game...you may not be able to program, but you must be a programmer in soul, to make a really fast, optimized game!

Except that, there must be an idea for an interesting game...if it's missing - unity, iTGB will not help too)

P.S. Suggestions:
- grid
- arrays
- zoom (it is hard to manage small actors on the scene)
- public variables (There are only private variables in Actor Attributes, I can't change one actor atribute from event of another)

Thank You.

quantumsheep

Lars - you make a good point about public variables - I find, however, that thinking *around* these restrictions is part of the fun

"You must be a programmer in soul" - I personally don't think so, but I understand what you mean.

SDMG - Yep, I can test stuff on iphone, but everyone will be able to do that soon, which is why I included it. And yes, it will cost a fee to compile and preview, but you don't *have* to do that - you can make a perfectly functional game without doing that!

I've tried pretty much every game making program out there, and GS is the easiest to use by far, and we all have suggestions for improvements, which can only make things better. It's just so fast and easy to use you can have something working in minutes if you try!

Personally, I think that knowing which platform (iphone) you're aiming for, along with its limitations and the hope of publishing your games for sale on the app store is the clincher for me

LARS

"I find, however, that thinking *around* these restrictions is part of the fun " - Yeah, but if i try to make multicharacter game(ex. Strategy, RPG) - there will be a lot of "trash" in global Attributes

"publishing your games for sale on the app store is the clincher for me " - for Me too

ibone

The trouble is, as good as you may think gamesalad is, or as good as you think it could be in the future, after jumping on the bandwagon, wading in, getting involved, learning the programme and creating some game prototypes, you then just sit on your hands and wait, you wait for some sort of snippet of information that could lead you to believe that in some distant time, you may be able to preview on the iphone or in some distant universe you might even be able to pay to create the app from your prototype.

quantumsheep

ibone - I understand your fears and frustrations, and believe me, I share a lot of them.

The thing is, software development takes time, and while we'd all love for GS to be fully released, the reality is that we have to have a little patience, and yes, a little faith.

Even if it was ready, *right now*, how many games do you have finished that you honestly think you could publish?

Personally, I'm hoping for a 'fall' release - enough time to get a game or two finished, submitted to Apple, and on the virtual shelves in time for Xmas!

As to this distant time, in some distant universe, where you're able to preview on the iphone and pay to create an app from a prototype, I would say that this is closer than you might think. Why?

Well, because I've used the iphone preview app, as have a few others. It's not perfect yet, but I understand that it's still in Beta. So yes, it works, but needs a little work.

Additionally, have you played the game 'Flutterby' yet? It was made with an earlier version of GameSalad to that which we're using right now, and you can buy it. On the app store. Through iTunes. Right now.

If that isn't proof of concept, I don't know what is!

Vanny_Arts

// Hi SDMG/Quantumsheep and everybody.

LOL It's me again and yes I'm still trying to master GS these last couple of days and nights LOL GRRRRRR I can't sleep.

LOL I'm not putting down GS or anything,Quantumsheep what I wrote are just suggestions only. This is the the Roadmap and Suggestions forums. That's why I wrote ** I know GS is only a beta for now ** I understand how ruff a beta can be,,,,, Hey it's the begging and the birth of a new engine. I know it's not the full version of an engine ,a lot thing can be missing from a beta.

No I'm not expecting much from a free beta, But I do expect much when it comes with a price. But everything that is good,,,, takes time and sometimes money =D.

My frustration is that even though I have work in 7 different engines(full and beta) on PC/Mac with some knowledge how to create the basic of a game. GS have been the most painful for me,,,now imagine those who never have work on an engine before? How are they gonna feel?

I know it's a beta and it's free. There is nothing to complain about this. But like many who have come and will come to this site because of a video or commercial saying that GS is easy to create games with; and The easiest game maker for the Mac OS X. * Home page *.

So.. That's what frustrates me more to find what it isn't (( YET )).

=D But I will keep working with GS. I know it will get better in time.

LOL No,, I don't think the GS team smell,,,, and do believe Quatumsheep that you guys have hearts of gold. My respects for those who works hard in this life and engine.
But I thank you very much for your reply but my post was just some suggestions that's all.

Just don't build a forum for cry babies because than you will hate me been there all the times =D.

Well,,,, You might be asking; What have I been creating this couple of days and nights besides crying in here =D !!!!! Just to let you know guys I already build a stage of 8,000x464 long with 1 none parallax background(( 597k total )). My player already walks,jump and shuts . I just need to create some enemies AI witch I know it will be more crying and gray hair for me =D. I have all the material ready for this stage and most of this material are hand pixel witch I have been improving.

PS.

Does anybody knows if there any way to share screen shots in these forums?
Will ever be a tutorial/download page?

CodeMonkey

Hey Vanny,
I thought I'd chime in, since its 4:45am here and I may probably be a little groggy still.

We appreciate your concerns and input. There are some tutorials on the wiki, and its mostly open for everyone to add tutorials. There just isn't a tutorial on formatting a tutorial.

Sous Chefs like QuantumSheep are just non-Gendai Games(the name of the company who makes GameSalad) employees who have shown great strides in using GameSalad Creator. And since it is much easier than recoding the forums to give them Gold Star Stickers for the good job they've done, I just gave them a new title which happens to come with perks from us in the form of extra help when they need it and the GS Viewer beta.

Vanny_Arts

=D I would like to say 1,000,00 thanks to everybody for your reply in my post.
Specially to QuantumSheep and CodeMonkey.

Thanks Codemonkey,,,, 4:45am LOL yea I'm here around the time too reading and getting data as much as possible.

=D I got to work hard,,,, maybe I'll get a title too,,, LOL maybe someday.