Teach instead of Show in Cookbook!

delorianhayzedelorianhayze Member Posts: 55
edited November -1 in Working with GS (Mac)
I'm not entirely sure if the cookbook is made by the creators of GameSalad, but if it is, can you PLEASE start teaching instead of showing?! All of the tutorials do nothing to educate. You click around and just say, "Do this, do that, now click here, then add this..."
For someone who is completely new to the creator, how am I to learn when all you're doing is telling me what to click on with literally zero explanation.
I used to be a teacher and have recently begun doing online tutorials. I would never, ever, create tutorials like the ones featured in the cookbook. In one of the tutorials the narrator says things like, "Okay now input these numbers... I could explain the math but that would take a long time." That's almost a direct quote. If I don't understand the formula I'm inputting or the math behind it, or even what its function is?- How am I to implement it into my game unless it's LITERALLY EXACTLY like the game you're making?
I believe in your product and your forums are incredible. But please, if you can, please start making tutorials for those of us who don't even know where to begin.
Many thanks as always!
DH

Comments

  • PhoticsPhotics Member Posts: 4,172
    delorianhayze said:
    I believe in your product and your forums are incredible. But please, if you can, please start making tutorials for those of us who don't even know where to begin.
    Many thanks as always!

    Here are two links that might help...

    http://photics.com/books/gamesalad-textbook
    http://photics.com/helpful-list-for-gamesalad-developers

    Also, I think GameSalad is working on improving this issue...
    http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=34169
  • tenrdrmertenrdrmer Member, Sous Chef, Senior Sous-Chef Posts: 9,934
    I will admit it was irritating on the videos I watched to hear. I could explain the math to you but I don't have time so just do this. The math is where I struggle the most so it would be nice to get some good explanations of the math.
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  • tenrdrmertenrdrmer Member, Sous Chef, Senior Sous-Chef Posts: 9,934
    tshirtbooth said:
    delorianhayze, you make a good point. The issue is youtube only allows so long for a video. And you have to make sure you get it all in there with out the time running out.

    They should be able to get approved for longer videos. Youtube actually sent me a message asking if I would like to be able to have meals beyond the 10-15 min limit.
    Warning There was an error rendering this rich post.
  • keweworkshopkeweworkshop Member Posts: 377
    I would love to hear more "why" instead of just "how". But even the way they are, the videos are priceless and have gotten me farther than I would have ever gotten on my own.
  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
    I enjoy Tshirtbooth's video's and I use them often! I credit him for helping me to understand how to use GS. Keep up the great work! Learning anything begins on step at a time. You have to start by doing simple sets stuff, like moving a box, changing and creating ATT et... No one can teach you anything in 2 seconds. If you look closely at the video's you will find the techniques he shows apply to other processes as well you just have to understand logic.

    Guru Video Channel   | Lost Oasis Games | FRYING BACON STUDIOS  

  • mtinglemtingle Member Posts: 41
    i would mostly disagree with the sentiment of the poster. t-shirtbooth's videos get straight to the point and I have to say almost without fail have given me the clue to solving the issue I had. over and over again. thats good enough for me.

    I think what your after is a kind of guide book or GS for dummies (I'm not being disrespectful here) kind of thing. This too would be good but for what they do these youtube videos really hit the nail on the head for a single narrow problem to solve.

    I've a feeling that once you get used to GS the vids will start to be of more use. I've seen the one with the maths quote and I was glad he skipped it as it had no relevance to the nub of the problem that I was trying to solve.

    I've listened to a lot of youtube instructional videos and t-shirtbooth is a rather good teacher IMO as these things go.
  • LumpAppsLumpApps Member Posts: 2,881
    I don't agree on the not explaining math part.
    It is not something that should be explained In the cookbook. It would take ages to explain math and there are loads of places on the interwebie explaining math.
    My 2 cents.
    I learned loads from the videos do nothing but kudos from me.

    Cheers,
    Ludwig

    Lump Apps and My Assets

  • RThurmanRThurman Member, Sous Chef, PRO Posts: 2,881
    I agree that the videos and demos (and of course this forum) are a tremendous help to learning GameSalad. I've learned so much in the past few months! And I absolutely am fascinated with GameSalad. What a great tool!

    I hope this is not considered hijacking a thread but I have been very interested for the past couple of weeks in writing a 'dummies' kind of book for GameSalad. It would be geared to absolute beginners. Would anybody see the need/interest in a book with the following chapters? Should I even consider it?

    RThurman

    -------------------------
    Here would be the proposed table of contents (some chapters are shown in more depth than others):

    Introduction
    Part 1. GameSalad Basics
    --Chapter 1. Why You Want to Make Games In GameSalad
    --Chapter 2. Getting Comfortable With the GameSalad IDE
    ----Hello World!
    --Chapter 3. A Big Picture Overview of How Things Work
    ----Actor Oriented Development
    ----Attributes – Everybody’s Got ‘Em
    ----Behaviors – Everybody Wants ‘Em
    Part 2. Learning How to Create Games in GameSalad
    --Chapter 4. Altered States – An Adventure in Adventure Games
    --Chapter 5. It’s Alive! Making Actors Interactive
    --Chapter 6. It Won’t Be Long ‘Til You’ll Make Pong!
    --Chapter 7. Wallbuster – A Breakout Game
    --Chapter 8. Invaders – Look Out Below!
    --Chapter 9. Jumpers – We’re Moving Up!
    Part 3. Enhancing Your Games
    --Chapter 10. Keyboard Input and Audio Output
    --Chapter 11. Look At All The Pretty Particles!
    --Chapter 12. Sensing Actor Positions and Controlling the Environment
    --Chapter 13. Storing and Retrieving Data
    Part 4. Phenomenally Phun Physics
    --Chapter 14. Vectors, Acceleration, And Gravity, Oh My!
    ----Working With Vectors
    ----Calculating Vectors from dx and dy
    ----Calculating Acceleration
    ----Fun With Ballistics----
    --Chapter 15. Actor Motion
    ----Newton (Sans the Figs)
    ------Newton’s First Law
    ------Newton’s Second Law
    ------Newton’s Third Law
    ----Newton and Vectors
    ------Hot Air Balloons Fall
    ------Adding Hot Air
    ------Adding Wind, Rain, and Fire
    ------Don’t Tie Me Down!
    ----Drivers Ed
    ------Checking Keys
    ------Turning the Car
    ------Making an Even Better Car
    ------Making an Even Better Driver!
    ----Lost in Space!
    ------Captain! We’re Caught In A Gravity Well!
    ------We’re Pulling For You
    ------If One Planet Is Good . . .
    ------We’ve Got A Tractor Beam!
    ----Landing On The Moon – Putting It All Together
    Part 5. Advanced Topics
    --Chapter 16. Do It Again – Loops
    --Chapter 17. Do It More – Arrays
    --Chapter 18. Do It With Legs – Joints
    Part 6. But Wait! There’s More!
    --Chapter 19. Finding and Fixing Errors
    ----Debugging Tools
    ----Logic Errors
    --Chapter 20. Ten Math Concepts Every Game Developer Should Know
    ----Random Number Generation
    ----Velocity (What it is and What it is not)
    ----Acceleration (Rate of Change)
    ----Calculating Distance
    ----Projecting a Vector
    ----Generating a Vector
    ----Compensating for Gravity (The Law of Universal Gravitation)
    ----Newton’s Second Law (Force, Mass, and Acceleration
    ----Combining Vectors
    ----Sophisticated Vehicle Motion (Speed, Power, Mass, and Drag)
    Part 7. Appendices
    Glossary
    Index
  • old_kipperold_kipper Member Posts: 1,420
    @RThurman. I would be very interesting in whatever you wrote in a longer format as your posts and insights have been more than useful. The problems you seem to address are ones of methods that are not often addressed elsewhere and if you took it beyond basics I'm sure many would benefit from your possible project. That is not to say that other sources are not useful, but you seem to do it very well and additions to the body of knowledge is always welcome. Please do 'bring it on!'

    Kipper
  • JPickardJPickard Member Posts: 477
    A thought I had the other day is a Master Template, a canonical one, and a version that gets passed around to volunteers which will be edited and joined into the canonical one. Each Scene illustrated and annotated thouroughly to show/explain one concept at a time. Scene 1, for example might simply be a grid of squares of ideal actor sizes in the 8x8 8x16 16x16... etc modes...
    Next scene: how to place an actor and make it act on gravity...

    etc...
  • RThurmanRThurman Member, Sous Chef, PRO Posts: 2,881
    old_kipper said:
    @RThurman. I would be very interesting in whatever you wrote in a longer format as your posts and insights have been more than useful.

    Thanks for the nice words Kipper! I wasn't exactly fishing for compliments (but they are nice to get). I was just trying to see if there is any interest in an extreme beginners book. And I do mean book! The the videos, demos, and forum are incredibly, helpful. And I really learned tons of great stuff from Photics' well done e-book. I just wanted to know if there was a need for a good old fashioned book (like made with paper) that absolute beginners could use. The Table of Contents was supposed to convey the topics I think GameSalad neophytes need to get up to speed the quickest. But perhaps the chapter titles don't convey the topics as well as I thought they would.

    Also, I am hopeful that the folks at GS headquarters are preparing some great teaching materials. It seems that there are a lot of interesting things planned for the near future.

    RThurman
  • old_kipperold_kipper Member Posts: 1,420
    @RThurman, if you get to the point where you do go ahead and are interested in some illustrations or a section on design/graphics/animation I would certainly interested in covering those topics. I know its outside of the straight programming side, but I do feel that it might also be useful.

    cheers kipper
  • RThurmanRThurman Member, Sous Chef, PRO Posts: 2,881
    @old_kipper That sounds like a great idea! I'm pretty bad at graphic design / illustration and could use some professional help.

    Lets see what the GS folks release in the next few weeks and then see if there is an opportunity to contribute a written/illustrated work for absolute beginners.

    RThurman
  • mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
    From the recent survey they sent out, it looks like they are taking steps towards this and even if it never comes to fruition, they are considering webinars, etc.

    Ace
  • RThurmanRThurman Member, Sous Chef, PRO Posts: 2,881
    @Ace -- Yes they seem to be moving in that direction. It's a good move. The more training materials (in different formats) the better.
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