GameSalad

GameSalad Creator is an authoring tool developed by GameSalad, Inc. (formerly Gendai Games) aimed primarily at non-programmers^[1] for composing games in a drag-and-drop fashion,^[2] using visual editors and a behavior-based logic system. It is used by consumers and creative professionals such as graphic designers, animators, and game developers^[3] for rapidly prototyping,^[4] building and self-publishing cross-platform games and interactive media. The application runs on Mac OS X for producing games for iPhone, it also runs on Windows which is optimised for producing games on Android devices although games developed on Windows have to be converted to Mac OS files to be published to the App Store, web browser-based content in HTML 5, and Android applications.^[5]

On December 21, 2009, Macworld Expo partnered with Gendai Games, the developer of GameSalad, for the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge to promote Mac and iPhone game creation before and during the Macworld 2010 conference.^[6]

On November 20, 2010, GameSalad unveiled a new "Free to Make" model, making basic membership free to all users, including iOS publishing.^[7]

On June 11, 2012, GameSalad unveiled a Windows port of the Mac program, allowing Windows users to create games for iPhones. The basic concept is the same, however major changes to the layout were made and some features are as of yet unsupported.

Between October 3, 2012 and November 27, 2012 GameSalad laid off approximately half of their staff.^[8][9]

Behavior system

GameSalad provides a graphical user interface for describing the rules and the behavior of game objects, called Actors, without knowledge of programming or scripting languages.^[10] Behaviors are components of an actor that can either instantaneously or persistently affect the actor depending on rules that compose them. The application comes with a library of behaviors (for movement, changing attribute states, affecting collision, saving, etc.) that can be inserted into rules and other behavior groups to create new behavior.

Other major features

• Multi-Platform publishing - GameSalad has one common web-based interface for publishing to multiple platforms such as the iPhone or Mac. GameSalad can also publish to Android based devices such as the Nook, to Windows 8 as a Metro style application, and to the web as an HTML5 widget.^[11]

• Tables/arrays - Users can use tables to access mass amounts data efficiently. These tables are readable and writable.

• Real-time editing - Users can edit a scene while the game is running. The initial state of actors can be toggled to be displayed translucently to show their original orientation when the scene started playing.^[11]

• Game preview - GameSalad has a specific preview mode for debugging and testing the performance and memory usage of games on the desktop and the iPhone. A viewer application can be installed separately onto an iPhone so that users can click a toolbar button in GameSalad to upload games onto the iPhone over a wireless network.^[11]

• Scene editor - Users can place and manipulate actors in a scene. Actors are added to the scene by dragging and dropping. Actors in a scene can be organized into different layers to change how actors are visualized (rendering order, parallax scrolling, etc.).^[11]

• Integrated physics - GameSalad uses a rigid-body physics simulator for handling realistic motion and collision. Users can manage and optimize how objects collide by organizing actors with tags. Users can choose to have an actor collide with a group of many other types of actors.^[11]

• Expressions - For advanced users, GameSalad has an expression editor to define complex behavior and state changes with mathematical expressions and a library of functions.^[11]

• GameSalad website - The gamesalad website has a marketplace for users to buy and sell sprites, graphics, and more content that appears in the bottom left hand corner of the creator. The forums are a place to ask for help, answer people's questions, announce your game, etc. The cookbook is a site to look up a question if it is already asked or ask a question if the question is not asked. The Marketplace is a page to sell or buy electronic files such as GameSalad Project Files, graphics, audio, etc.^[11]

References

External links

• Official website
• Official tutorials