How long did it take...

Everwild

Hey, folks! As you can see, I'm new, but I will have you know that I have been lurking creepy-uncle style for a few weeks. My husband and I started using GS a little more than a month ago, and we've already got several games in late stages of development. Big thanks to folks like Tshirtbooth and Tenrdrmer for all of their magical forum postings that have helped get us to this phase.

As I said, we have several games going. Super-ADD. I find this really helpful since we're learning, once we get to a roadblock on one game, we can switch to another before we get frustrated, and probably know what we're supposed to do by the time we go back to the first one. One of my games is coming along much faster and simpler than I expected, and I'm quite elated. I have another one though that I'm really excited about that I know is going to take a loonng time. But it's going to be worth it. It's a game I would totally pay for to play, and though the going is slow, I'm enjoying putting it together.

My questions are...
When you started Gamesalad, did you have any prior game design/coding experience?
From the time you installed, approximately how long before you had a finished game?
How long before you were able to make sales (if any)?
Any hurdles or cautionary tales? Helpful epiphanies?

These are just general questions to satisfy my curiosity, so don't worry that my game making may in any way hang on your answers, because I'm hooked now anyway. This is fun.

Also, bonus round: what do you think about Gamesalad in conjunction with Tycoon style games? Too complex?

jonmulcahy

I had my first game submitted 6 weeks after finding gamesalad. I made back the $500 it cost for iPhone publishing ( not even pro! ) in a month or so. I had some programming experience, but nothing that would have ever allowed me to build something as complex as Z. Helpful tips? Plan ahead. I have a notebook per game that I use to diagram levels, sketch menu designs and just plan the game. It's infinitely helpful.

Braydon_SFX

Well, I had my first game released about 5 months after coming to GameSalad. I started dozens of small project to help me learn. Some I even thought of releasing. However, I didn't want to just make a tap the button game, so I spent more time learning and building. I had no previous experience with game development.

Yep, @jonmulcahy said it - plan out the entire game prior to building it. I can't count how man times I had to go back and recode something because I didn't plan ahead or I thought of something better. If your doing a level based game, create all the elements in your game on one scene before creating dozens of scenes and figuring out that something won't work.


Just suggestions.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Braydon

BoyGeniusStudios

I have been working on my first app for the last 4 months, and I just finished it yesterday. I hope it does well enough to pay for my developer license and artwork.

Everwild

Awesome, thanks for your replies. We have a notebook we keep handy at all times, it's where we dump our ideas, flesh out levels, and then get distracted and put things on the back burner if we know we don't have the technical aptitude to complete it yet. Some things just have an idea thrown in there, and sometimes we'll lay awake in bed and write out a game, line after line, attribute after attribute, down to fine details before we get back on the computer. Lots of glorious chicken scratch! One thing is for certain - we're not going to be hurting for ideas any time soon.