State of GameSalad on 12-1-2016

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  • ArmellineArmelline Member, PRO Posts: 5,365
    edited December 2016

    @Clock said:
    To be honest, GS is an ideal tool for beginners... [+rant]

    I never understand posts like this. I may not always agree with @blob, but he's at least trying to bring about positive change. His posts add to the discussion. Posts like this - and @Clock is far from the only one - where someone who has "left" GameSalad posts just to criticise and undermine it, serve no purpose. If you are so unsatisfied with GameSalad... leave? GameSalad has a lot of problems, and has had for many years. But every single one of them has been flogged to death by now. There is literally nothing positive to be had from returning to the forums to rag on it some more. All it does is weaken GameSalad for those who choose to stay and use it. It's just petty.

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited December 2016

    @adent42 said:
    @Japster so for the short term we won't be working on the Windows engine port, mostly because we need to get through the Google Play stuff, then loading screen bugs, and then taking a look at scene loading times again.

    We're currently not planning that far ahead for the engine to avoid releasing a roadmap that we may end up breaking. I will say that some code has been done with this (beyond getting the native preview in the Windows tool). I personally haven't looked at the code because I'm running on Mac and my HDD doesn't have the space to bootcamp. I want to put a Windows exe high on my list after looking at the other issues, so we'll keep you posted.

    I'll try to get through the listed stuff sooner so we can get the Windows exe running sooner than later, because I'd love to see our games on Steam!

    As a general question to help with future planning, would you rather had Windows EXE as soon as it's done, or would you rather wait a bit longer until we integrate the steam libraries, which is why most people want Windows EXE.

    BTW - Thanks for the answers and response @adent42! - much appreciated - just not had a chance to post a thank you back yet... (Busy working on a quirky 'Parcel Monkey Simulator 2016' game after getting motivated thanks to being acknowledged and answered!... :wink: )

    Once again, thanks for this - I cannot stress how much I personally could really, really do with proper, fast, EXE support to hit better markets than this fickle mobile one!)...

  • clmhclmh Member, PRO Posts: 24

    Wow... I'm really busy with my "regular" job at the moment so I don't have much time to work on my GS projects and check the forum very often but this doesn't look good... Thanks @Two.E for summing up this long discussion although my not so good level in english doesn't allow me to appreciate all the subtle levels of irony ;)

  • imGuaimGua Member Posts: 1,089
    edited December 2016

    @adent42 said:
    @Japster so for the short term we won't be working on the Windows engine port, mostly because we need to get through the Google Play stuff, then loading screen bugs, and then taking a look at scene loading times again.

    We're currently not planning that far ahead for the engine to avoid releasing a roadmap that we may end up breaking. I will say that some code has been done with this (beyond getting the native preview in the Windows tool). I personally haven't looked at the code because I'm running on Mac and my HDD doesn't have the space to bootcamp. I want to put a Windows exe high on my list after looking at the other issues, so we'll keep you posted.

    I'll try to get through the listed stuff sooner so we can get the Windows exe running sooner than later, because I'd love to see our games on Steam!

    As a general question to help with future planning, would you rather had Windows EXE as soon as it's done, or would you rather wait a bit longer until we integrate the steam libraries, which is why most people want Windows EXE.

    @adent42, Definitely Windows EXE as soon as it done. I've published couple games on steam and I can say that game doesn't need full steam integration to find success there, but market is getting more crowded every day.

  • MantoManto Member Posts: 796

    Haven't read all the posts here, but any hope for editor plugin support in the HTML5 editor? E.g. custom scripts for actor placement.

  • Two.ETwo.E Member Posts: 599

    "I'm getting too old for this ..."

    Hello. Very much glad it made a few laughs, some people's day, and hopefully turned the thread in a more constructive direction. Also - Reference.

  • jay2dxjay2dx Member Posts: 611

    @Two.E haha made me laugh :)

    Something I want to say to every one, stop worrying! You know, I only came to GS because I wanted to:

    make a flappy bird clone fast!
    "I did"
    I released said clone!
    The gameplay was great for a flappy bird clone,
    it took me two weeks to make,
    It made me no money! Roughly £200

    But I stuck around making other games because it was fun,

    I have two to release soon! Taking 2 years to make!

    Then I'll move on,

    Because!

    It's just a game engine and there are many!

    It's your games that will make it, not the engine, don't be so worried! Look at super Mario run that uses unity!

    Just learn something else if your not happy here :) your creativity will prevale :)

  • HypnorabbitHypnorabbit SingaporeMember Posts: 272
    edited December 2016

    Very prophetic @jay2dx and true. I also hope Gamesalad realises its true potential in the next year. This is an unbelievable tool that can achieve so much, I just hope their education strategy and successes allows them to revert back to providing for the hardcore followers who have supported them all this way. I'm far from hardcore, I'm just a useless user who jumps into the conversation twice year, but I see some really dedicated people in the forums who have made amazing games and contributed worthwhile thoughts to the discussion - and I feel for them.

    Here's to the future.

  • jay2dxjay2dx Member Posts: 611
    edited December 2016

    Yes @Hypnorabbit I don't actually show my games in the forums to be honest for fear of them being copied before I'm ready to release but what I'm achieving with GameSalad is so beyond what I thought I could do with it, once you understand it's intricacies and learn to work with them it's great, I think people will be surprised with what I am to release :) hopfully

  • cgrios88cgrios88 Member, PRO Posts: 3

    Will the HTML5 version look like the Mac Creator or the Windows one? Also how will this affect publishing to different platforms?

  • ArmellineArmelline Member, PRO Posts: 5,365

    @cgrios88 said:
    Will the HTML5 version look like the Mac Creator or the Windows one? Also how will this affect publishing to different platforms?

    The Windows one, and as far as GS have said so far, it'll not affect publishing, other than speeding up the process as you won't need to upload files.

  • bjandthekatzbjandthekatz Orlando, FlMember Posts: 1,375
    edited January 2017

    I've been with GameSalad for over 5 years and have definitely sent the creator change through its years. I can only think of positive thoughts when thinking about it, because it was the program that sparked my interest in programming. I quickly downloaded it, and proceeded to watch hours of TShirtBooth's youtube videos (wayyyy back in the days). It became obvious to me that I was serious about this whole thing, so I upgraded to pro and bought some templates. I spent months developing, and countless hours reading/asking questions on these amazing forums. I was finally completing one of my childhood dreams, making my own game! Purchasing, what seemed like, an endless amount of developer subscriptions, I was finally able to publish my game. I was checking the iOS Review App every second I got that week. Finally it was approved and published on the App Store. Little did I know this was the start of my addiction.

    I started purchasing DBA's templates like crazy and ripping them apart. They really helped me learn a lot of neat tricks, and stuff that would further me in the development sphere. Living on the forums, I read almost every new post and answered what I could. I constantly cloned popular games in GameSalad to see how features were created, and realizing how the game was created. These small cloning projects took a few days at most, and would vastly expand my thinking, and memorization of features. The quick prototyping was great.

    Its been a great 5ish years, and the physical proof of that is that there are currently 16 games sitting in my published portal. Without using a single line of code, I have been able to create 16 games, which in my eyes are of good quality (most likely not to others). Some of these have been spontaneous ideas, and others have been long thought out projects. GameSalad let me accomplish this.

    In the end, this all started because of a video by a youtuber explaining how to create a simple menu scene, and since then I have had nothing but gratitude for GameSalad. Shortly after the staffing changes, delayed & obvious broken features, and faults of the engine, I began expanding my knowledge of other programming languages. I quickly picked up on the languages and have been going full throttle ever since. I began using GameSalad as its intended prototyping for a while, but after the lack of snap to grid, among other things, I devoted more and more time away from it, while still checking in, and creating a small game every once in a while to stay familiar with the software

    In an overview, GameSalad has served me well, and in the end - its a tool to get the job done. For me it is not efficient to use it anymore, and with the move towards an HTML client, it is pushing me even further. Its been great to be apart of this amazing community, and be able to bring my dream to life. The knowledge I've gained from using the creator can't be measured, and I am so thankful for it. I guess this post serves as my formal goodbye letter. Thank you to the community for everything you've done, the countless late nights helping me fix my small mistakes, the reinforcement, and lastly the critiques. I could not have asked for a better forum to kickstart my development career.
    Goodbye,
    -Ben (Bjandthekatz)

  • Bowhill GamesBowhill Games Member Posts: 191

    @Armelline there going to base it on the windows creator really? iv not used the windows version in quite some time I purposely brought a mac to get away from it.... it was horrible compared to the mac version.

    (site currently under construction)
  • ArmellineArmelline Member, PRO Posts: 5,365

    @Bowhill Games said:
    @Armelline there going to base it on the windows creator really? iv not used the windows version in quite some time I purposely brought a mac to get away from it.... it was horrible compared to the mac version.

    It has some definite advantages - like being able to edit an actor's attributes without having to go into it. But I too strongly prefer the Mac version overall. Hopefully they find a middle ground that draws from the best of both versions!

  • ForumNinjaForumNinja Key Master, Head Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 554

    @Bowhill Games @Armelline

    The Windows version has a lot of workflow advantages over the Mac tool, though the visual look of it is inferior. Since it has the nicer workflow, we decided to start with the general layout of the Windows version and make improvements.

    We're definitely taking the best features from both versions, and we're improving a lot of the aspects that needed improving. To list just a few of the improvements that are already added:

    • There's zoom functionality
    • You can have multiple actor tabs open to quickly switch between actors that you want to view
    • (In regards to the point above) If you have an instance of an actor open, it tells you what scene that instance is on, and you can edit its logic when viewing a different scene if need be
    • There's a button in the layers tab to hide individual actors for easier visual editing (and we want to have this option for entire layers as well, though it's not added currently).

    We're getting pretty close to having the UI all laid out the way we think is best, and will have a build in the not too distant future for the early test group to give feedback on.

  • jamie_cjamie_c ImagineLabs.rocks Member, PRO Posts: 5,772

    @ForumNinja, any chance of getting in on the early test group (or any test group)?

  • ForumNinjaForumNinja Key Master, Head Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 554

    @jamie_c Sure! I'll make a list of any additional long time users that are interested (you included) and when we have the version to send out for feedback I'll send it to that list as well :)

  • Braydon_SFXBraydon_SFX Member, Sous Chef, Bowlboy Sidekick Posts: 9,273
    edited January 2017

    @ForumNinja said:
    @jamie_c Sure! I'll make a list of any additional long time users that are interested (you included) and when we have the version to send out for feedback I'll send it to that list as well :)

    Count me in. B)

    Very excited to hear that there will be a zoom feature AND the ability to have actor tabs.

    #timesaving

  • jamie_cjamie_c ImagineLabs.rocks Member, PRO Posts: 5,772

    @ForumNinja, sounds great. I'm looking forward to giving it a try and offering feedback!

  • MantoManto Member Posts: 796

    @ForumNinja said:
    @jamie_c Sure! I'll make a list of any additional long time users that are interested (you included) and when we have the version to send out for feedback I'll send it to that list as well :)

    Would be nice to join as well! :)

  • ForumNinjaForumNinja Key Master, Head Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 554

    @Manto Sure thing! All 3 of you are now on the list, and I'm sure with your various backgrounds you'll be able to provide some great feedback ;)

  • ArmellineArmelline Member, PRO Posts: 5,365

    @ForumNinja said:
    @Bowhill Games @Armelline

    The Windows version has a lot of workflow advantages over the Mac tool, though the visual look of it is inferior. Since it has the nicer workflow, we decided to start with the general layout of the Windows version and make improvements.

    Can't argue there! My biggest issue with the Windows version, if I'm honest, is how ugly the actual layout of the logic is. The general workflow is good and I hop onto the Windows version any time I need to edit the self attributes of a lot of actors on a scene. So long as the logic doesn't look as ugly as in Windows, I'll be happy :D

    • You can have multiple actor tabs open to quickly switch between actors that you want to view

    This, this I am loving.

    • (In regards to the point above) If you have an instance of an actor open, it tells you what scene that instance is on, and you can edit its logic when viewing a different scene if need be

    This too.

    • There's a button in the layers tab to hide individual actors for easier visual editing (and we want to have this option for entire layers as well, though it's not added currently).

    And this.

    We're getting pretty close to having the UI all laid out the way we think is best, and will have a build in the not too distant future for the early test group to give feedback on.

    Eager to try it!

  • MantoManto Member Posts: 796

    @ForumNinja said:
    @Manto Sure thing! All 3 of you are now on the list, and I'm sure with your various backgrounds you'll be able to provide some great feedback ;)

    Great! Thanks!

  • fmakawafmakawa Member Posts: 565

    @ForumNinja I might not be high up as some of the people above but would love to be part of any test group. I use the Windows platform so its right up my alley

  • ForumNinjaForumNinja Key Master, Head Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 554

    @fmakawa I've added you as well.

  • HypnorabbitHypnorabbit SingaporeMember Posts: 272

    Please add me, GS user of 7 years and would love to test. Very keen.

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