tenrdrmerMember, Sous Chef, Senior Sous-ChefPosts: 9,934
chaley said: It'd be great if the layer naming bug was fixed. It's SO difficult to keep track of all of my layers and what's on them when they're named things like "layer 6."
hahaha this made me laugh. Sorry no offense intended. Its just funny how people attribute everything as a bug.
Yea, I just tried that & it worked. ...My bad. I'm just used to re-naming layers in Photoshop where the response to the double click is instant. I'll just have to get used to the GS way while I'm in that app.
Besides fixing the bugs of the present release, these are (some of) my wishes:
- Actor Folders, based on actor tags. Every time a tag is made, a new folder with the same name is automatically created in the actor panel (and vice-versa). Many of you surely know how annoying it is to browse among many tens of actors.
- AND + OR. Possibility to mix ANDs and ORs in the same rule. Quite a basic feature I'm surprised is not yet present.
- X and Y ACCELERATION attributes (self)
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts (for inserting most used behaviours, for navigating the project, ect.). Also a basic feature, which would improve the workflow a lot.
- Antialiasing (stating and dynamic). Pretty much like Flash does. I think this feature is necessary for doing serious graphics. (for the ones who don't know much about the "aliasing" issue, just notice how hugly the borders of your actors look when they are slightly rotated...)
Besides fixing the bugs of the present release, these are (some of) my wishes:
- Actor Folders, based on actor tags. Every time a tag is made, a new folder with the same name is automatically created in the actor panel (and vice-versa). Many of you surely know how annoying it is to browse among many tens of actors.
- AND + OR. Possibility to mix ANDs and ORs in the same rule. Quite a basic feature I'm surprised is not yet present.
- X and Y ACCELERATION attributes (self)
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts (for inserting most used behaviours, for navigating within project, ect.). Also a basic feature, which would improve the workflow a lot.
- Antialiasing (static and dynamic). Pretty much like Flash does. I think this feature is necessary for doing serious graphics. (for the ones who don't know much about the "aliasing" issue, just notice how hugly the borders of your actors look when they are slightly rotated...)
I don't want you to work on any new features until you are able to locate and fix all of the long list of known bugs, some of which are absolutely critical issues with the basic backbone of the behaviors (nested Rule behaviors that are not working properly, Interpolate not working properly, etc, etc, etc).
I beg of you to place every member of your team on a mission to produce a stable, and at least relatively bug-free, release version of GS. No additional features matter when the underlying development tool is broken!
Also, it would be nice if you could fix the actor editor, in which often the behavior 'boxes' get stretched way out off the right side of the GS editor window, and they become un-readable. In some cases with Rule behaviors that contain more than one test condition, some of the test conditions get pushed off to the right of the screen where they are not even visible. This needs fixing before you add anything new.
I beg you with all of my heart...... please release a stable, bug-free version of GameSalad before adding any more new features. And when you do add more new features, please resist the temptation to release a new version until you have done some solid QA testing on it. Thank you, and best wishes.
Something that I think would be fairly simple, but would save me a ton of time:
A Change Position behavior. It would take an expression for the X and Y position of the actor it's dropped into. This would save about 12 clicks between dragging two Change Attribute behaviors in, clicking through the actor/position/X and then the actor/position/y and then setting the expressions for each. It's something I think I have to do on just about every actor of consequence in my projects.
I would love it if the keyboard behavior: (1) did not take up the whole screen but worked like it does in Safari (i.e., just a small entry box, maybe even allow us to pick the size and style/graphic of the entry box) so that we can see the rest of the scene to which it will apply; (2) could utilize an autofill feature (e.g., when user starts typing a name it could start autofill from a list of names the programer has specified)--of course would need tables to utilize such a feature so that would have to come after we have tables.
A stable and solid SDK is the best thing you could work on right now. If I have a bug in my game I want to know that it's something I've done wrong (so can fix), not wonder whether the SDK is playing up again (so have to find a work around or maybe even ditch the feature I wanted to add).
So after that...
Being able to add established 3rd party tools would make GS a more serious SDK. e.g being able to add Papaya Mobile, a publisher's own network, Urban Airship etc
Perhaps something equivalent to a custom HTML widget in wordpress would be a good idea.
Having a completely closed system is not good for developers. GS probably attracts a lot of people new to making games. As those people get more serious about game development they'll start needing more reasons not to look into other SDKs.
An improved creator would be nice. I always have few prototype actors and loads of unlocked instances. So a layout that enables being able to find and switch between/and or view instances quickly would be good. (So that includes getting rid of the memory leaks or whatever it is that slows down the loading of pages the longer you work on a game in one session).
But prob best to have a couple layout options to suit different people.
And +1 for arrays.
As a side note I'd rather wait 2 or 3 months for a solid build rather than have a rushed build every month. I'm sure the majority of GS users would agree.
This has been a big one over the years what about video support? Also more things for the free users there is no way my parents are gonna spend $499 on this for me and I have no job And if i had a job i would save up for a car.
-Visually identify unlocked actors in the scene editor. -Add a global preference setting to the Creator to turn on/off the capability to unlock actors.
Both of these features would be very helpful for beginners.
tenrdrmerMember, Sous Chef, Senior Sous-ChefPosts: 9,934
mrglockling said: This has been a big one over the years what about video support? Also more things for the free users there is no way my parents are gonna spend $499 on this for me and I have no job And if i had a job i would save up for a car.
As if the access to produce a published Application is not enough? Come on man. Be appreciative for what they have given you. If most of us had our way Free users would not be allowed to publish to anything but the web. The Pro Features are primarily for monetizing the App. not to make a better game.
tenrdrmer said: As if the access to produce a published Application is not enough? Come on man. Be appreciative for what they have given you. If most of us had our way Free users would not be allowed to publish to anything but the web. The Pro Features are primarily for monetizing the App. not to make a better game.
I understand how much work they put into this!! it was just a suggestion.
super easy stuff masks(c'mon how can any image editing related prog not have this? ) more system access image save/load (so people can save images of their screenshot to post on Facebook) and easy ones such as microphone input, GPS coordinate, led light, vibrate, camera/camera overlay just to name a few. i'm imagine they are super easy (relatively) to implement like the keyboard and system time that you guys gave us. and will give us a lot more freedom. thanx for your consideration.
ultima said: super easy stuff masks(c'mon how can any image editing related prog not have this? ) more system access image save/load (so people can save images of their screenshot to post on Facebook) and easy ones such as microphone input, GPS coordinate, led light, vibrate, camera/camera overlay just to name a few. i'm imagine they are super easy (relatively) to implement like the keyboard and system time that you guys gave us. and will give us a lot more freedom. thanx for your consideration.
I want to update my gamesalad games without the fear of more bugs... I guess this is what we get for putting our development eggs all in one basket!
my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..
waymanharris said: Can you see the pattern..... "Let me guess, thats why they call it BETA". LMAO
They have a solution for this now , while you at the "my app works fine" state , don't update , you can publish it with your version , and only when the next stable build comes , update .
I know you are frustrated we all were , but the ability to publish with older builds takes this frustration away (at least for me) .
i disagree, if i was to choose game salad for the rest of my programming life or for the next 5 years... yes load times/ performance and frame rate... it is the most important. But knowing the weakness of the platform, it's essentially going to be always behind on features and development (just the nature of a GUI of a native programming language) I won't be banking on making a living on Gamesalad.
To be more reasonable. i'd use it as a start, to learn the in and outs of the app store, to figure out what sells or not and to get familiarize with basic scripting. and once i got games going that works i'll hire programmer full time.
I guess different people is gonna have different opinion. but you wouldn't buy a timex digital watch to go to a business meeting. and asking timex to design a watch that's all about performance and accuracy is just un-reasonable. now I might get flamed by people who say Gamesalad is not Timex, but the fact is that it is, it's designed to be a game developing platform for the rest of us (meaning mass market) just as timex is designed for the mass.. I'd eventually want a rolex, if i want performance and accuracy.
now back to Gamesalad... just like timex i think any mass market product should give users more features fast and change fast to always keep up with trend... look at any automotive industry for example, cars that changes style every reason are the ones that is targeted towards mass market... it's all about exploration, it's about trying new things.. so if gamesalad is to focus on performance and load time i suggest that it markets to a different market (semi-pro) for example... and judging from the logo, the annoying publish sound and childish like personality i suggest that it stay a "exploration" platform that keeps introducing new tools ... you can't be both timex and rolex just as you can't be both lexus and scion...
all in all.. GS either grow up to be a "luxury/performance" brand... or it keeps it's fun and playful childishness and give us all the tools to go wo and wow with... it's just unreasonable to expect both or ask them to change who they are...
(now i do know that performance is less than desired.. but that's why when you code in native language you'll learn to optimize the memory and CPU usage. I rather gamesalad to keep it's focus than to fumble around and not know where it's going like it is now roadmap for new tools.. and actually going back and forth on performance and android... it's a mess. HAVE FOCUS)
I hear what you're saying Ultima, the logo, publish sound, child appeal etc do make you wonder whether its been given away for free in a packet of breakfast cereal!
But... I think its fair to say there are a good many semi-pro users of GS, the bulk of those probably never even come near these forums.
In my humble opinion all these new features sound great - but it needs to sit on a rock-steady base. If performance isn't addressed now then 6 months down the line we'll have 20 new whistle and bells features with a straining base engine that'll pump out a neat 12fps! ;-)
rite, not saying that i'm a semi-pro user. but any day not checking on the forum to see if there's update is a good day for me. and spending as much as 10 mins on it just makes my day go down the drain with all the negative comments and childish remarks.
anyway. i guess you are rite that we don't want to have 12fps. but there can never be a benchmark as to how good the performance and framerate can be. everything is relative... but at least that's the aspect that you can control into designing into your game. we will always have CPU and memory constrain and compare to 20 years ago we are much better off.. we can always be given more processing power and smooth gameplay. but people will always find ways to make games that will thirst for more power and performance.. so i guess in an ideal world we always optimize our script and image and the architecture of the game so it is as efficient as possible. but without "bells and whistle" (standard phone functions if i was to have my way) there's is simply no way to optimize or utilize.. things are just not there. so i'd rather have more tools (well at least new tools once every while after we almost mastered the old ones) to play with.. than having very few tool that we constantly having to hone our skills with. (i think that would be more ideal for coding platform such as corona because it does take quite a bit of time to master)...
anyway thanx for your constructive feedback as well i doubt any of what we said will be read by the higher ups anyway haha, just our own rambling amongst ourselves.
I would love to get 'mass copying' (system like) of actors from one layer to another, 'cos sometimes when i add like 50 platforms and then in order to keep them behind other actors i have - to one by one -move them to another layer. Or maybe there is some way to do that but my ignorance makes me cry?
(in relation to the post above) the ability to search would be nice too. sometimes you have hundreds of actors and some old and some new and when you delete old ones sometimes it's a pain to find where it's referenced unless you have photographic memory.
Comments
Besides fixing the bugs of the present release, these are (some of) my wishes:
- Actor Folders, based on actor tags. Every time a tag is made, a new folder with the same name is automatically created in the actor panel (and vice-versa). Many of you surely know how annoying it is to browse among many tens of actors.
- AND + OR. Possibility to mix ANDs and ORs in the same rule. Quite a basic feature I'm surprised is not yet present.
- X and Y ACCELERATION attributes (self)
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts (for inserting most used behaviours, for navigating the project, ect.). Also a basic feature, which would improve the workflow a lot.
- Antialiasing (stating and dynamic). Pretty much like Flash does. I think this feature is necessary for doing serious graphics. (for the ones who don't know much about the "aliasing" issue, just notice how hugly the borders of your actors look when they are slightly rotated...)
Thanks!
Ciao
Where all the files you ever put into gs are!
I beg of you to place every member of your team on a mission to produce a stable, and at least relatively bug-free, release version of GS. No additional features matter when the underlying development tool is broken!
Also, it would be nice if you could fix the actor editor, in which often the behavior 'boxes' get stretched way out off the right side of the GS editor window, and they become un-readable. In some cases with Rule behaviors that contain more than one test condition, some of the test conditions get pushed off to the right of the screen where they are not even visible. This needs fixing before you add anything new.
I beg you with all of my heart...... please release a stable, bug-free version of GameSalad before adding any more new features. And when you do add more new features, please resist the temptation to release a new version until you have done some solid QA testing on it. Thank you, and best wishes.
A Change Position behavior. It would take an expression for the X and Y position of the actor it's dropped into. This would save about 12 clicks between dragging two Change Attribute behaviors in, clicking through the actor/position/X and then the actor/position/y and then setting the expressions for each. It's something I think I have to do on just about every actor of consequence in my projects.
Search array.
Random array.
search First, last.
Delete
empty
get at
add
remove
That would allow creation of different type of games.
So after that...
Being able to add established 3rd party tools would make GS a more serious SDK. e.g being able to add Papaya Mobile, a publisher's own network, Urban Airship etc
Perhaps something equivalent to a custom HTML widget in wordpress would be a good idea.
Having a completely closed system is not good for developers. GS probably attracts a lot of people new to making games. As those people get more serious about game development they'll start needing more reasons not to look into other SDKs.
An improved creator would be nice. I always have few prototype actors and loads of unlocked instances. So a layout that enables being able to find and switch between/and or view instances quickly would be good. (So that includes getting rid of the memory leaks or whatever it is that slows down the loading of pages the longer you work on a game in one session).
But prob best to have a couple layout options to suit different people.
And +1 for arrays.
As a side note I'd rather wait 2 or 3 months for a solid build rather than have a rushed build every month. I'm sure the majority of GS users would agree.
Also more things for the free users there is no way my parents are gonna spend $499 on this for me and I have no job
-Add a global preference setting to the Creator to turn on/off the capability to unlock actors.
Both of these features would be very helpful for beginners.
my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..my app works fine... then I updated it... and it has bugs "Performance lagg"..
I know you are frustrated we all were , but the ability to publish with older builds takes this frustration away (at least for me) .
Roy.
which was for september
+
IMPROVED PERFORMANCE
+
IMPROVED FRAME-RATES
These are so important, the rest can wait
To be more reasonable. i'd use it as a start, to learn the in and outs of the app store, to figure out what sells or not and to get familiarize with basic scripting. and once i got games going that works i'll hire programmer full time.
I guess different people is gonna have different opinion. but you wouldn't buy a timex digital watch to go to a business meeting. and asking timex to design a watch that's all about performance and accuracy is just un-reasonable. now I might get flamed by people who say Gamesalad is not Timex, but the fact is that it is, it's designed to be a game developing platform for the rest of us (meaning mass market) just as timex is designed for the mass.. I'd eventually want a rolex, if i want performance and accuracy.
now back to Gamesalad... just like timex i think any mass market product should give users more features fast and change fast to always keep up with trend... look at any automotive industry for example, cars that changes style every reason are the ones that is targeted towards mass market... it's all about exploration, it's about trying new things.. so if gamesalad is to focus on performance and load time i suggest that it markets to a different market (semi-pro) for example... and judging from the logo, the annoying publish sound and childish like personality i suggest that it stay a "exploration" platform that keeps introducing new tools ... you can't be both timex and rolex just as you can't be both lexus and scion...
all in all.. GS either grow up to be a "luxury/performance" brand... or it keeps it's fun and playful childishness and give us all the tools to go wo and wow with... it's just unreasonable to expect both or ask them to change who they are...
(now i do know that performance is less than desired.. but that's why when you code in native language you'll learn to optimize the memory and CPU usage. I rather gamesalad to keep it's focus than to fumble around and not know where it's going like it is now roadmap for new tools.. and actually going back and forth on performance and android... it's a mess. HAVE FOCUS)
the logo, publish sound, child appeal etc do make you wonder whether its been given away for free in a packet of breakfast cereal!
But... I think its fair to say there are a good many semi-pro users of GS, the bulk of those probably never even come near these forums.
In my humble opinion all these new features sound great - but it needs to sit on a rock-steady base. If performance isn't addressed now then 6 months down the line we'll have 20 new whistle and bells features with a straining base engine that'll pump out a neat 12fps! ;-)
HAVE FOCUS - performance and framerate!
GS can be used as a professional tool. More potential than just a scratch pad IMO.
anyway. i guess you are rite that we don't want to have 12fps. but there can never be a benchmark as to how good the performance and framerate can be. everything is relative... but at least that's the aspect that you can control into designing into your game. we will always have CPU and memory constrain and compare to 20 years ago we are much better off.. we can always be given more processing power and smooth gameplay. but people will always find ways to make games that will thirst for more power and performance.. so i guess in an ideal world we always optimize our script and image and the architecture of the game so it is as efficient as possible. but without "bells and whistle" (standard phone functions if i was to have my way) there's is simply no way to optimize or utilize.. things are just not there. so i'd rather have more tools (well at least new tools once every while after we almost mastered the old ones) to play with.. than having very few tool that we constantly having to hone our skills with. (i think that would be more ideal for coding platform such as corona because it does take quite a bit of time to master)...
anyway thanx for your constructive feedback as well
(in relation to the post above) the ability to search would be nice too. sometimes you have hundreds of actors and some old and some new and when you delete old ones sometimes it's a pain to find where it's referenced unless you have photographic memory.