workflow improvements

EwokPD

Hello being a new game salad user some of these suggestions may have work arounds so far however i have noticed a number of repeating operations i do on a day to day basis where the UI is seriously slowing down productivity and wondered if there was either a way to work round such issues - or whether such tweaks could be implemented. Thanks.

1 - selecting actors - i find selecting actors a little clumsy.
a - if i click on a small actor in the working window it often resizes it or moves it (this leads onto another suggestion later)
b - when selecting with 'Scene' - 'Layers' palette - opening my tab which i have used to keep the scene neat - i can select what i want eventually by slowly scrolling through every item clicking on each actor- (assuming lots of actors) - i then work on the actor and am ready to select the next actor to work on - when i click back to go to the previous menu - all menus are reset so again i have to click scene - layers - open tab - scroll through all actors to one i want. Ideally when i click back the UI should be in the same place it was on my last click. While this might not seem like much to some it adds 3 clicks to every action i do x 1000 actions a day... its a lot of lost productivity.
c - when selecting actors in the layers palette - could we scroll through the selected actor using arrows keys rather than having to click each one individually?

2 - lockable atributes - i find myself when selecting actors on the main game screen by left clicking on them accidentally, rotating, resizing and moving them - can we have a lock check box per attribute. that way i can select by clicking without risking having to reset size rotation and position each time.

2 - placing actors - is there a grid based placing system that allows me to place actors on whole number units? more often than not i want an actor at a specific x,y cord ( 26, 189 for example) i hardly ever need an actor at 26.839844, 189.2812, working with precise layout with pixel gaps between things would be made easier if actors would have an option to lock to the nearest whole number.

3 - preview - when i use the preview button in a scene i preview the scene i am currently looking at - if i go into an actor tweak on that scene and then preview from within the actor i preview the first scene in the game - this mean for tweaking actors and testing using preview, i constantly have to tweak a setting, then come back out of the actor, then preview, then go back into the actor and tweak the setting some more. Would it not be better to remember the scene i had open with i selected the actor to tweak and preview that scene? Again saving valuable click time.

4 - attributes - i would love a way to drag and drop attributes into a folder structure for easier management - currently if i have designed a system - then worked on a lot of different systems and then find i need another attribute for the first system, the attribute is added at the end of the list and therefore is not in the same place as other attributes used in that system. from a project management perspective and being a terrible self confessed neat freak i find this awkward :P

5 - images tab/sounds tab - would benefit greatly from a folder structure, managing a project with a large number of image files can be tricky

That is all i can think of today -thanks.

tatiang

All very good suggestions and things that frustrate many of us on a daily basis. GameSalad is a tremendous program and it's my hope that the interface gets a serious upgrade next time around.

ultima

yes we different viewing structure, and a return to previous "page with all of the same window open" when returning, right now everything resets . lockable layer would be nice. also paste in game place(in different scene.)

The_Gamesalad_Guru

They are releasing a new interface in the spring.

MotherHoose

ah the nature of the beast! believe in giving us the easiest way to code and Lua, GS does a fantastic job!
in workflow realm the limitations, I believe, are native to Lua …
'Back' can reference the scene in the sceneEditor … but, the Attribute panes always revert to default state

so we, for now, have to go beyond the newbie workflow

if your Actors are in most all scenes as in levels, the default attribute pane works fine
when you add an actor … drag it to the top row so it easy to select and work with
or 1st create a genericActor with the designPhase behaviors you need … and [option]Drag to right of it to create a new copy as a new actor

But, if your project has many, many scene specific actors (point and click; RPG; etc.)

1. when you open a newProject:
    fill in somethings on the ProjectInfo … especially a title
    open initialScene 
    just below the actorPane see: (All      ) click it and click Manage Tags…
    add some designTags such as logo/title; scene1; scene2; HUD; weapons; 
    then back and click that (All) again select the tag for the area you want to work and create the actors there
    of course the GUIstate isn't maintained but just clicking All and the tag you are working in gets you to where you were

    * actors that are in many scenes can be dragged to the appropriate tags
    * you are only adding tags … text to each actor and game Actor's Tags doesn't add much to file 
    * try to never reference the dummyTags in your game … you'll want to delete them in your final revision

some other tricks:

2. use gameAttributes to track/control flow of game  Index type EX: scene/level#  and gameFlow
    use sceneAttributes to track/control flow of scene  Index type EX: flow/score etc.

3. do most of your designPhase previews in the sceneEditor Preview and not the toolBar one
    if you pause the sceneEditor Preview … you can drag or arrowKey move actors around; or drag-resize 
    (the new stuff will be applied to that actor's X,Y or W,H)

4. add to all your prototypeActors an index attribute: my#
    it will be good for control of genericActor like BG  
    EX: changeAttribute self.my# To: scene# 
        when self.my# =1 -changeAttribute: self.Image To: 

5. any of the attribute panes can be enlarged by dragging the littleButton above the Library section 
        handy to see all the behaviors rather than scrolling!
    in any actor, you can add a changeImage behavior and comment it off …
        easier work with a list of imageNames and correct image
    if you are using changeAttribute self.Image this is very handy … 
        and when you get the correct name, just delete the changeImage behavior

6. setting a whole number X,Y  is not necessary, as at any given time, with any movement of the actor, the value maybe decimal
    you should set X,Y values on a prototypeActor 
    then in the actor attributePane, where greyed out means actor currently has prototype values 
        (that you can change at whim)  … the position is a white area
    highlight it and click the Revert to Prototype at the bottom of that pane … 
    this is especially good for BG actors
    or if you want to keep actorInstance in a horizontal/vertical row/column  
        just highlight the X or Y under position and Revert the one

Ultimately, you can create a template for your newProjects and include your logo images, null image, logoSound; BG actor; genericActor; tags; whatever
save with name: [space] myNP (be sure to fill in the Project Info title … [space] phoneLand or whatever)
drag that project to GS.app Package > Content > Resources > Templates
then when you open GS your template(s) will appear in the New and you just click and work!
( [space] is important in the list/name so yours appear before the demo ones)

And, oh! I too , strongly wish for GS's GUI to maintain my state!


@};- MH