People's experiences with templates?

Richongs

Hey everyone: I have been looking through the Marketplace and another webste that sells GS templates. I was wondering what has been everyone's experience when they bought the templates?

I intentionally left this as a BROAD question since I want to know people's experiences... thanks...

TheGabfather

I'm really bad with templates. I'm the type who learns better through understanding the logic behind the problem and solution, and then implementing on my own.

But to each his own. If you're not sure, why not give the free templates out there a try first and see if you can learn better by looking at actual code, than by just discussing pseudocode with people.

UtopianGames

We have a lot of happy customers and offer fast free customer support but why don't you start by downloading some of our free templates to check us out?

Xmas space invaders is a popular free one and most of our templates have notes and or video to help the user understand everything.

We also have a free resource centre so you have everything in one place, pc version is also available on request.

Darren.

Tapcodia

There are 3 sites i go to for templates. If i can't find what i need, i code. But why re-invent the wheel. I love picking templates apart and seeing how they tick. And some templates save me tons of hours. Instead of prototyping and testing then tweaking etc, i can just grab some tested and perfected code, throw it in my project, tweak it a little and use the time i saved towards something else.

Richongs

I just started with gamesalad, and am thinking it might be easier to develop a game by buying a template and customizing it than for me to learn coding from the BEGINNING and trying to write a game myself.

Ie, I started watching and reading tutorials. Hence, there would be a learning curve to build a game that I want to develop. Most likely, it would save me time (And probably patience too) if I bought some templates and customized them.

deadlights

I've spent over $500 on templates so I think I can speak intelligently about this

By far, DBA templates are the best, as are Gamesalad official templates. I've also bought every package from GSHelper but they're not as well documented and not quite as "clean" as others. Not trying to trash anyone's products, just saying that I find DBA's easier to work with. I haven't tried Stormy Studios but I'll check them out as well.

I find that if I'm stuck on a project, referring to a template can really help.

imGua

I'm using one template for minigame in my game. It was hard to integrate but it was worth it. Also I've bought Zanda template from DeepBlueApps and was disapointed since it had some bug's. And when I wrote to DeepBlueApps, they didn't fix it. They adviced me to fix it myself.

Bad wolf Guy

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Wingmanapps

Ive bought my fair share of templates. Mostly out of curiosity!

But the problem with templates is that they are often build with previous versions of gamesalad. So there are bound to be some problems with some of them.

With that in mind I find they can be a good inspirational source, as long as you take the time to personalize and put your own footprint on them.

UtopianGames

@imGua I can't remember your mail and don't think zanda has any bugs, it certainly didn't when we released it so can you remind me?

Did you require extras and we were too busy?

Several members have gone on to make amazing games using the Zanda template.

We bend over backwards to help customers so I'm surprised to hear your not happy and we wouldn't of said clear off fix it yourself

Darren.

StormyStudio

I obviously sell (and give away for free) a growing collection of templates on my site but I'll try my best not to be too biased..

There are users who will benefit greatly from starting out with a template, or taking certain bits of logic to use in their own games. Others I'm sure do better taking the time to learn GameSalad from the ground up so they understand why every attribute is created, why each rule is setup the way it is, its an enjoyable process in itself and how I learnt. Also obviously templates made with older versions of GS will not always have the latest features (i.e. be universal, make use of tables, new behaviours), but the rules should always work still and be useful for any project.

There's no guarantee that a template you purchase is going to be easy enough to use as skill levels vary but they will contain the rules needed to make the project advertised. I think its safe to say most sellers of templates will do their best to assist you with an email or 2 if you struggle with the basics, also most templates will come with a video or text instructions to get you up and running.

I like to think they are helpful for users completely new to GameSalad who want to be able to look through a project and see what makes it tick, or build on it to make themselves a game. Or with the likes of my 3D blocks template think it is a pretty unique bit of work that can be worked into any project.

I've bought a couple myself over the years and advised a friend at work to buy one of DBA's early platform templates as he had dreams of making a cool game but did'nt want to start from scratch... in the end his project failed to get done.. but it allowed him to check out the setup of rules and see how much work is involved in a game.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Although, I prefer to design and write my own code, I do enjoy and use the snippets of clever code posted in example form on the forums. For example I used @tatiang's table row randomizing algorithm. The reason I don't use templates is because I can build highly integrated code and can code extremely fast. Having said that, templates are a good place for new people to start building games. This just depends on ones goal. If you want to develop a game rather quickly, templates are a solution. If you want to acquire a great and detailed grasp of coding in GS then doing the hard work of learning, testing and plodding will in the end make you a more proficient coder sooner. It takes about a year of the second method to become a really solid coder in GS. Leaning on templates will extend that time frame out as you're missing out on the concepts of designing and learning how to structure great code on your own.

BazookaTime

I started off just using templates to learn and I have always had good luck with DBA and GSHelper. I tend to not use templates as much now because I tend to make games where there is not a template for them. Dice, Pinball ect.

Peter_Olafson

I've purchased two templates, a puzzle template to learn the snapping and "layer switching" technique and a boggle game for use of the 60,000 word dictionary. But you won't find anything in my itunes store that looks like the purchased templates. I've seen some bad reviews from customers who purchased two games that were the exact same play with different graphics. So use/learn the logic but carbon copy game play can burn you.

imGua

@imGua I can't remember your mail and don't think zanda has any bugs, it certainly didn't when we released it so can you remind me?

Did you require extras and we were too busy?

Several members have gone on to make amazing games using the Zanda template.

We bend over backwards to help customers so I'm surprised to hear your not happy and we wouldn't of said clear off fix it yourself

Darren.

http://creashock-studios.com/xlam/Zanda.pdf

The_Gamesalad_Guru

I read that link and Darren was trying to be supportive and guide you to make a minor adjustment. It seems in the end it was a GS issue. This is why with my clients I have a clause that states I am not responsible for known GS issues that cause performance issues. How I contract a resolution is to send the file to GS support as the third party arbiter to send a response on wether it's a coding mistake or a GS issue. This is why I've turned down three projects recently that are sim city type data games as it's known GS doesn't do large data scanning well. I recommended the client find a different development environment for a game like that where they can build arrays. My interpretation of the exchange, and I don't know Darren so I'm not biased, is he made a reasonable attempt to help you.

imGua

It seems in the end it was a GS issue.

Previous two bugs wasn't GS bugs. Those bugs shouldn't be there in a fist place, at least he really should off fix those and make new version of template.

Bad wolf Guy

That's one heck of a support system. Well done Darren, never knew it was that good!

UtopianGames

Thanks guys, i try my best and i know some users are absolute beginners and some can do a bit but i always try and help best i can.

@imGua send me an email with the invoice and i will give you a full refund as your clearly not happy with the template.

Darren.

VGX

I bought quite a few templates from @DeepBlueApps and never had any issues. I think the problem is the way people use it. They don't know how to solve a problem they done so they blame the template. (I know that might not always be the case so forgive me if I'm sounding harsh)

Also templates are there for people to learn from, I don't understand these people who submit these temps without doing any work thinking they gonna "get rich" quick. This forum is full of lazy thieving bastards.

@Richongs People's experiences with templates? Every person is different, there might be someone who is smart and can learn quick from it or someone who is a slow learner and struggle from time to time. So it all depends on you. There are a bunch of videos on youtube just search for - TShirtBooth, GSHelper, UtopianGames or GameSaladCookbook, stuff might look a bit different but its all pretty much the same thing. Over at DBA site there are loads of free templates to learn from.

Don't worry about other peoples experience's, your experience is the one that matters