"Normal" apps with Gamesalad (Or?)

dammie

Dear,

As i can see now it is not possible to make normal apps with gamesalad.

Are there any programs like GameSalad for making "normal" apps like a news app or a weather app or something???

TIA!

Thunder_Child

Yea that weather app thing..."normal" apps...GS is not tailored for making those. I don't know of an "AppSalad" maker. Lol

However...there are some apps that can be made without it being a "game". After all you can input text...you can write to tables...GS it a fine calculator...you can build certain UI's with it. Making a news app like you mention. That would be difficult as there is currently no way for GS to go out and find a remote .plist or RSS feeds to display. Maybe a feature request might help but they seem to focus on game oriented features and unless that happens to facilitate "normal" app creation I don't see it being added to their road map. But...you never know.

Lovejoy

You can make some non game related apps, like fart apps for example.

jamie_c

There have been a few non games apps I've seen made with gamesalad.

pHghost

My most popular app made with GameSalad is not a game. What exactly is it you are looking for?

Saying:

@dammie said:
like a news app or a weather app or something

is quite generic and vague. Some things are possible, some are more complicated, and some (for the time being) impossible.

Thunder_Child

@pHghost just the name weather app leads me to what I use regularly being a storm chaser. Typical weather app would include being able to locate users position and give information for that users "viewing area". This is one of the most common uses of a weather app. Next would be to choose a location by typing in a "favorite location"...and then do the same...also to "pull" information from a weather service provider such as Weather Underground to see current conditions as well as fill values for a forecast. Immediately...as I discovered you just can't do this. The best I was able to do when I tried making one is using the Open URL behavior to open a page from a site. This requires you to literally....find every NWS (National Weather Service) page across the country and provide a link. Then if you want to say....provide a link to the NOAA Weather Radio for a certain coverage area...you have to link those a s well.

I personally was trying to make a weather app using GS for just the "Tornado Alley" area of the mid western U.S. And quickly found this to be nothing less than extremely difficult as the sites are not mobile friendly and the Open URL behavior....internal browser does not provide a function for zooming in.

Also the audio links to weather radio continue to play even if the weather app is closed and then you have to open safari to close them. Plus I contacted the NWS...as they have an office (HQ) here in Tulsa, Ok USA and they specifically stated that only Weather Underground has a special permission to provide links to the NOAA weather radio towers and unfortunately....WU does not allow linking via apps to THEIR sites as it is against their EULA.

I've downloaded Xcode projects via 3rd party for a weather app and they are ok...obviously with no Xcode experience your not going to be able to modify them to be tailored to our needs. The weather app and GS is a messy app IMO.

Also with a news app....you need to be able to have an admin panel to make your own news casts...via a website or .plist or RSS feed and as far as I know GS does not provide functions to do this. Now....I did find the EASIEST way GS could help us do something like this is to simply provide an RSS feeder/reader or whatever. A person can create a Facebook page and find the RSS feed ID and paste it into a RSS reader and BOOM....you have your self a whole slew of non GS news/video players and such.