board game help!

cptongsg

I'm trying to design a simple turn base board game. how do I get my player limit to move per turn & move to limit area? I trying to get start but this is my 1st major obstacle as I can't find article or tutorial on that. Pls help me, any guru out there?

rebump

Apps that rely on spatial relation and/or sequences of app elements to other elements (i.e. things that would usually be implemented in a data structure such as an array, linked list, tree, etc.) are not the easiest to code with GS. The lack of "switch"/"case" statements and/or simple arrays makes decision making for these types of games *way* more difficult than it should be (for now).

cptongsg

no wonder I don't see tutorial on that... sad.... Have to drop my board game idea... Thks Rebump!

synthesis

Stick to action and physics games for GameSalad
Flash CS5 will have iPhone export publishing in it...
Save data driven games for that.

Last rumor I heard suggested an earlier than expected lateSpring to Mid-Summer release of CS5...due to extremely high interest in the iPhone XCode generator they are putting into it. All rumor though.

cptongsg

you r right! At the time been will stick to action game 1st. Action game can be pretty fun too! hopefully gs can come out something for board game in near future. CS5 wil chk it out. Thks synthesis!

rebump

Well, if you are going to be checking things out, you may want to check out these dev apps:

Appcelerator

PhoneGap

You build your app with HTML5 (w/Canvas) and JavaScript. That app would run on a web site where users view it with an HTML5 compliant web browser. This face is just a side benefit (or not if you think the web version could hurt mobile app sales).

Those apps above can then take your HTML5 / JS app and convert it into a native stand alone mobile phone app for many mobile platforms (i.e. iPhone, Android and Blackberry). By native, I say they are not just web apps that run in the mobile web browser but actual mobile phone GUI based apps.

I think board games, strategy games, simulations, etc. would get along famously in that setup.

You could do action games too but I think GS would have it beat hands down in ease and speed. Finally, when GS is out of beta and a few of the things it is missing have been added, I think GS will be the choice for ease and speed for more than just action and physics games.

rebump

In my post above tshirtbooth's, I say "This face is just..." when it should say "This fact is just..."

Darn typos.

JGary321

CS5 will be doing what GS does. It will actually be creating a .app for you to submit. So you would write your code in Flash & it would convert it. Apple can't really decline those apps, otherwise GS apps would be declined as well.

You would still have to learn Flash to do it though (which I have no interest in doing)

GS will still be fulfilling it's mission which is 'Game creation for the rest of us' ie...Those who have neither the time nor patience to learn it.

cptongsg

Guys, great infomation! Gs still the easiest for me as i have no idea of programming. But I think to create more complicated game it however need some coding knowledge. Luckily got this forum with great ppl ard to ask!

synthesis

@TShirt...
Your link refers to Flash running in the browser I believe.
I am meaning that CS5 is supposed to support actual XCode...and will publish files to then run through the SDK and publish as an iPhone app.
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/

They will operate as apps...not flash swf's.

@JGary
And yes...you will need to know Actionscripting.
GS will still be MUCH faster in development execution...even though its abilities are limited. Both softwares will be relevant...just will need to be applied in different methods for different styles of games.

For example, in Flash...you would need to build all the physics from scratch (unless Adobe offers physics tools built into the release) where in GS, its already integrated into the background.

GS is probably 10 times quicker for physics games...but when it comes to data based apps...just as a turn based game...Flash will be more appropriate.

JGary321

For me I have no knowledge of any type of programming, so all my eggs are in one basket. I doubt anything will be as quick as GS in terms of start to finish development. It can only get better from here. I'm sure more data type things will be added in the future. (hopefully)

synthesis

Don't count on that...I doubt that have plans anytime soon to integrate databases.
It kinda goes against their concept of "KEEP IT SIMPLE".

To be honest though...GameSalad is probably the most exciting and potentially game changing software to come out in the last 5 years. The last FANTASTICALLY WONDERFUL software I discovered prior was Sketchup and 1 year later...Google bought it.

I've been waiting (and searching) for over a year for something like GameSalad to show up...and Voila!!! Let's just hope their XCode secretly generated doesn't trash our apps and crash the market's devices and get all of our companies blacklisted by the marketplace. I think once they get the performance and stability issues resolved...GS will be HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@JGary...
Checkout Sketchup if you haven't...its REALLY cool AND SIMPLE TO USE vector based 3D software. Used properly...it can give your GS graphics a major boost.
relevant thread:
http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=3898#post-22820

sdpardue

like rebump referred to in the 2nd post in this thread, a switch/case statement and arrays would enable us to create other types of games much more easily.

and a while/repeat, too, please??? and some text manipulation??? if the PRO version contained some added programming features, it would be a no-brainer for me.

a board game would be much easier with these. so would a lot of things.