someone please back me up here.. why can't we have pro publishing settings/options for HTML5?

part12studios

I think its great that HTML5 is a possibility with game salad, but isn't it kinda amateurish to force all games to 1. be on the gs arcade and 2. including the cluttered "wrapper" around the game (gear, like, etc..)

With all the effort it took to get GS to work well in HTML5, why is this feature so handicapped? I need to be able to make games (using a pro license) for web sites and such as an alternative to flash, but since i have no control over stage size.. the crap that gets wrapped around each game and where the game sits.. this perfectly viable platform is worthless for web games.

I'm about to evaluate Stencyl because it seems to offer flash and html5 options. I have clients I could be helping with game needs via GS, but because the publishing of HTML5 is so restrictive I can't grow my business. I really like GS (i have a pro license) but for me to fork out another $500 next year, I need to know that I'm not missing out on business opportunities.

I really just can't imagine it would be that hard to allow a borderless HTML5 version. I'm not even asking for flash.. HTML5 would be ok, but what I need to be able to do is make a game that:

1. doesn't require GS arcade distribution (optional)
2. allows me to determine the size of the stage (even at least some preset options, but something more than tiny landscape)
3. has none of the border stuff that ever GS arcade game has.. just load the game.. i don't need a gear icon.. or a facebook like feature. etc..

for the free license folks i totally understand.. but to really help add more value to a pro license, this (I think) would be a relatively small request for a big return.


Thanks
Caleb

LeonardDeveloper

Yes,
I really agree on this!,
Jack

arcticsunrise

yup i asked for this pretty much the minute i put my game to html5 - its all just css wrapper from the server side and im sure that it could be removed if you are a pro user.

scitunes

totally agree

Photics

Considering it's a trivial amount of work to fix this issue, I'm starting to wonder if it's intentional. Think about all the free games GameSalad now has for their arcade. If we could export GameSalad games to HTML5, and publish them on our own websites, we could build our own online arcades. We would be in competition with GameSalad's arcade.

Why should that matter if GameSalad is basically game creation software?

Even though $499 seems like a lot of money to us, is it enough money for GameSalad? I don't think so. If there are 5000 people paying $499 a year, that's roughly $2,500,000. That sounds like a lot of money, but there's like 40 people on the payroll. With benefits, salary and other staffing expenses, it could easily be $55,000 per person. When other expenses like office supplies, rent, electricity, hardware, software and other typical business expenses are added... GameSalad might actually be losing money. That doesn't even count the millions of dollars invested in the company.

I don't know exactly how many subscribers are paying for GameSalad. (5000 is just a round number to play with.) Yet, I'm thinking it's not a lot of money with subscriptions. Many of the pro subscribers actually paid $99. Right now, I'm not planning to renew at $499 a year. The software would need dramatic improvements. Proper HTML5 exporting, with custom sized projects, would be an improvement.

So, is GameSalad starting to look at other sources of revenue. Kiip and the Arcade could bring in a lot of advertising dollars... but isn't that at the expense of the developer? Right now, where's the incentive for a GameSalad developer to freely give their game to the GameSalad Arcade? Additionally, what if I'm not interested in Kiip? What if I just want to use AdMob?

While GameSalad gives freedom to developers with quick and easy game development, issues like this tarnish the reputation of the software. Even though Game Center has been out over a year, I still don't have the ability to add Game Center achievements, networking or voice chat to my Game Center games. I still don't have the option to create universal binaries, even though I've posted how that could easily be done with GameSalad. (The iPad has been around for almost two years. It shouldn't have to be this hard.)

That's why I think GameSalad should step up and focus. A lot of the new features are not very robust. I can't even use Android publishing because of the sound issue. Instead of skipping ahead with Android, wouldn't it have been better to improve HTML5 publishing or iOS publishing?

$499 might seem like a lot for a hobbyist game developer, but it's nothing to a professional level game developer, web developer or graphic designer. If GameSalad just focused on improving HTML5 for professional use, it could be revolutionary software. Flash is dying, so there's a big demand for easy to use HTML5 authoring software. Wallaby, Edge, Hype, Swiffy... can't GameSalad beat this? I think it can, but not with half-baked features or saddling developers with limited functionally and forced branding.

I am aware of iStenyl. It's not as easy to use as GameSalad. But unfortunately, what other options do I have? At least with iStenyl, I have the ability to add my own customizations. At least I have the option to work around the limitations of the software.

I've been waiting for years to see GameSalad improve, but there always seem to be these wacky issues. I'm astonished that GameSalad thought it was OK to launch Android publishing with such a bad audio issue. It makes it hard for me to be a defender of this software... to be enthusiastic about using this software.

It shouldn't have to be this hard. GameSalad should know these things and anticipate the needs of their customers. Otherwise, they're going to lose those customers. Playtime is over. The competition is coming and they're hungry. GameSalad might miss out on big opportunities because of easy to fix issues like this.

kolabo

@part12studios

In the same situation. Can't use GameSalad for client work until we get those features.
KEEP AT IT GAMESALAD TEAM! You're close, but not quite there.

part12studios

@photic yea i'm pretty new to GS (3-4 months) but i love it soooo much.. i really and truly do.. thanks for sharing a little about the cons of Stencyl.. I know that GS raised several million dollars in investment capital in recent months.. so clearly that have a good sales pitch for investors to get on board..

I want GS to be something awesome.. and yea if they could deliver more features that let me grow my business.. i would pay more... want me to give you another $99 for HTML5 publishing? done...

what they should consider also is instead of charging an annual subscription, they should do some kind of per app pricing.. something cheaper than the licence.. but more profitable in the long run.. i hope to make 5 games in the course of this license... if i paid $200 per game submitted (no worry about a license wearing out) i'd be giving GS $1000... $200 giving me the pro features.. again.. with no pressure of time being wasted developing the games because fast or slow the price is the same..

anywho... back to the HTML5 issue.. it must be deliberate because it just seems hard to believe // out some code to hide the border and custom canvas sizes is far from a complex issue.. again.. empower the pro users.. raise the price if you really need too, just deliver us more ways to make money.. and we'll gladly pay..

I'm paid up as a pro user for the next 11 months.. so i guess GS has some time to make good on the many needed new features

Clock

agree on this one too!!

tkulla

I know the last post on this was a while ago, but for Pro users this really should be an option. I can't see a technical hurdle that would prevent it, so it must be for some other reason. In a competitive marketplace though I'd like to see GameSalad as good as it possibly can be.