What are the disadvantages of Game Salad?

duckwit

Hi,

I just joined GS Forum so I can find out about what is good/bad about it.

I am a 14-ear-old learning to make applications for the iPhone.
I hav already learned up to an intermediate level the programming language 'C' and have started on Objective-C.

Originally I was planning to use cocos2d but since I am planning a platforming game, that will be difficult without spending some money on Level Editor. (More than it would cost for a membership with GameSalad)

I want to know what the limitations of GameSalad are...
I read something about a 'Pause' feature...? Isn't one?

I really don't like the idea of not being able to customize loading screen..... but I can manage without that functionality.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Duckwit

AfterBurnett

There are many. Memory leaks, no pause, bad memory management... all of which look like are going to be fixed in the next update!

In saying that, it's still an incredibly powerful tool and if you stick within the limits, you'll be able to do a LOT with the software, and you'll be able to do it a hell of a lot faster than with coding!

At the end of the day, if you are prepared to put up with the niggles and realise that it's beta software, you'll love it. If you expect it to be a miracle tool and that it will do everything without a bit of hair-pulling, you expect wrong... but it will leave you a lot less bald than native coding ;-)

ORBZ

it's a slow engine, it doesn't support arrays or structs (well not strait forward anyhow), no way to directly communicate between actor prototypes, no functions i.e. no code-reuse, buggy, memory leaks, no xcode access so no way to add features not inside gs itself, no networking, only two collision shapes (rectangle and circle), etc.

however, it's still beta ... i expect in the next update that a LOT of these "features" will be gone.

good features:

RAPID development, things that are hard in xcode are easy in gamesalad. You can slap together a rough idea in under an hour. Easy to get into. built in physics engine that's automatic, what it does do it does very well.

final judgement: It's still in beta, when it's at 1.0 I suspect it will be a very very great engine. Don't pre-judge it just because it's still buggy. It's got a lot of growing to do but they have improved it leaps and bounds since the first time I used it last year.

Photics

duckwit said:
I want to know what the limitations of GameSalad are...

If you download the sample of my book, you can read about some of the strengths and weaknesses of the software.

duckwit

I can see how it would be a great tool for someone like me, even though I can code if I want to.
I can also do graphic design so I can create (quite good!) sprites and animations for games.

The thing that stops me is that at this age $100 is sort of 'rare'.

I'll keep an eye on the updates, if they this stuff it would be superb.

I really wish you could add your own features though.

By the way, if I create a game using the free one (Creator) can I quickly turn that into an iPhone game?

BarkBarkCo

duckwit said:
By the way, if I create a game using the free one (Creator) can I quickly turn that into an iPhone game?

Sure, I've even seen paid devs here offer to release games for free users. Although, without being able to test on your device (one of the free limitations, and the main reason I paid the $99 fee), you might end up with a buggy app.

duckwit

Unless you get someone to test it for you..... I think I am still gonna go with cocos2d because I get SO MUCH experience programming and it is a huge benefit for the future.
There is a large and active community there so I may as well go the hard way and make something that I myself created with my own code.

Thanks for the information! I will keep an eye on GS and once some things are 'fixed' I may consider it in the future.

Thanks again!

duckwit

victorkin11

When you project because big, that will hard to debug without search & other debug tools!

Keep save project with 01, 02 ..
So when GS crash, you still have your project copy!

TymeMaster

Cocos2d is good, you will like it. I did one game with Objective C and OpenGL-ES without using any third party libraries. My second game was done with cocos2D not because I don't know OpenGL, but because it makes a lot of other things easy. It removed the need for a ton of boilerplate code and having to reinvent the wheel.

In my opinion, the range of difficulty for 2D iPhone games is probably:
GameSalad < Unity3D < Cocos2D < XCode+SDK+OpenGL ES

I would also say that the power is in the same order (GS being the least powerful, but easiest).

For an artist/non programmer I would suggest either GS or Unity (Unity is much better, but slightly harder). For a programmer type I would suggest Cocos2D even if you know OpenGL!

If you want to program and are new to it, other Pro's
Unity : You will learn Javascript or C#/.NET, both of which will be good on your resume
Cocos2D : You will learn Objective C without having to learn OpenGL. Looks good on your resume and can also help you develop native Mac Apps.
XCode+SDK : Clearly learning ObjC plus the Mac development tools will allow you to develop iOS and also Mac

quantumsheep

ORBZ said:
RAPID development, things that are hard in xcode are easy in gamesalad. You can slap together a rough idea in under an hour. Easy to get into. built in physics engine that's automatic, what it does do it does very well.

So, so true.

My friend and I had our first two 'sessions' outlining our plan for 'Project AWE' this week. It's a non GS game, but I was able to throw the main game together in GS and show him a working prototype with blocks on an actual iphone in under 15 minutes.

The only reason it's *not* going to be a GS game is because we're hoping to use a lot of the iPhone's features that aren't covered by GameSalad yet.

thegwill

You may want to take a look at corona too before you make your final choice. It uses lua for scripting, easy to use and has very stable tools.