Introducing myself - and some Newbie Questions (of course!)

Storycrowd

Hi All,

I'm excited this morning to have found GameSalad! I work as an independent freelance Web Designer (in Salem, OR, USA), and while I like the work, I am always looking for new ventures to try. Creating a game with GameSalad seems like a great idea for so many reasons.

Anyways, a couple newbie questions, if anyone cares to help me orientate myself. This seems like a pretty great forum community and I am super-glad of that...I know how much difference that can make for learning and for motivation.

1) I'm a Windows user, 99% of the time. I do have access to a pretty new Macbook Air, though (my wife's). I would prefer to work on Windows, but if working on the Mac Creator is a million times more preferable, I would probably go that route. I also like the idea (if it makes sense) of writing on Windows, then 'porting' to Mac for compiling (sorry if I am getting some terminology wrong here). Would that make sense at all, or is the GameSalad Mac Creator's set of features just so good that I should probably learn and create directly on a Mac?

2) Along the same lines - I'm wanting to develop for iOS. Is that even possible with the Windows creator? Does my "create on windows, compile on Mac" theory help with this problem, at all?

3) Regarding submitting an app for Apple approval - it seems like the GS team works pretty hard to make sure the engine is compiling compliant code, and as such, most of the time, getting Apple approval for your app should be pretty easy (if you've done a good job and tested-tested-tested). Am I right in thinking this? -- or is the approval process more tricky than that?

4) I won't lie to y'all - I'm looking to make some money, if I'm going to teach myself game design. It does sound like a lot of fun, but at the end of the day, I've got some mouths to feed and my time is valuable, so I'd hope for a return on my time-invested. Any success stories out there, or anybody want to shoot down my hopes right away for me?

I appreciate the community taking the time to say hi and help point me in the right direction as I start learning (gonna go watch tutorial videos now).

Thanks,

Steve aka Storycrowd

Braydon_SFX

Hey and welcome to the community! We're happy you've joined the mad house.

1. Yes, use Mac if possible. It's much easier and learning the tool will be too considering that most of the video tutorials were recorded with the Mac UI.

2. You can build for iOS on Windows, but again, it's just more work if you already have access to a Mac.

3. It's not that hard as long as you follow the guide lines. Approval usually takes 7-10 days.

4. There are a lot of success stories with GameSalad. However, don't think you're going to get rich quick! It's a lot of work and you need to take risks in the business. I'd search around and see if you can find any stories. I know currently, there are some users who have a few apps that are in the top charts on the Amazon App Store.

Best of luck! Looking forward to seeing what you push out there!

Braydon_SFX

Beat you to it, my friend! @uptimistik‌

Hopscotch

@Storycrowd, a big welcome to you. You are on your way to having lots of fun!

jamie_c

Welcome and I agree that you should stick to the Mac version.

Storycrowd

Thank you all for your welcomes and special thanks to @Braydon_SFX for his in-depth responses. So, looks like first things first...I will have to talk my wife out of her macbook tonight!

I will search the forums for my motivation "success" stories too. I don't want to be all over-zealously hopeful about the millions I will make with my games....but hope of $ is motivation too, of course. So I will get learning, thanks again everyone.

JScott

Welcome, I'm pretty new, but I'll go against the flow and say use Windows if you have a better Windows machine (that's my case). Or, try both. I think there are some improvements in the Windows interface over the Mac, but it's true that the update focus is on the Mac program.

I just switch to Mac when needed, myself. It's pretty seamless, but you will need to test on your Mac and tweak a few things before ios publishing.

That's been my experience so far, but I have a nice PC with a big monitor vs. an old MacBook, so makes sense for me.

Cheers.

Storycrowd

Welcome, I'm pretty new, but I'll go against the flow and say use Windows if you have a better Windows machine (that's my case). Or, try both. I think there are some improvements in the Windows interface over the Mac, but it's true that the update focus is on the Mac program.

I just switch to Mac when needed, myself. It's pretty seamless, but you will need to test on your Mac and tweak a few things before ios publishing.

That's been my experience so far, but I have a nice PC with a big monitor vs. an old MacBook, so makes sense for me.

Cheers.

Thanks for this @jScott. Honestly that workflow does have a lot of appeal for me as well. I wonder if anyone else has specific opinions or experience in developing primarly on GS Creator for Windows - but then publishing on GS Creator Mac? I'm curious to know what the differences are, what key features might be missing, etc etc etc. Thanks again.

Hopscotch

I agree with @JScott, especially while learning GS, the Windows version will do just fine.

@jamie_c did a nice comparison between the two versions:

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/58898/gamesalad-macintosh-and-windows-interface-comparison

I jump between the Mac and Windows versions all the time, the layout is different, yet functionally the same. So jumping between the two or switching to Mac later should not be a problem.

jamie_c

I work on the Mac version pretty much exclusively but do run a copy of the Windows version to trouble shoot for students in my classes.

The main reason I suggest using the Mac version is since you (well your wife) owns a MacBook it will just make things much easier for you when it comes to publishing since iOS apps must be published from a Mac.

I've not had the experience personally but have read on the forums that there have been some compatibility issues when moving a finished game from their PC to a Mac to publish. I don't think it was anything that couldn't be fixed but if you could avoid that kind of hassle at the 11th hour by just developing on your Mac to start with, why not.

Storycrowd

Thanks to you both @jamie_c and @Hopscotch for your insights. *Buying chocolates for wife*...