Created in collaboration with GameSalad’s own Game Team One, Popular Mechanics has just released “Be The Spark”. Be the Spark, is a simple mechanics game that challenges the player to keep an engine running by triggering the spark plug at the right moment during the four-stroke cycle. The free app is available for download on the iTunes App Store. The “delightfully geeky” app first appeared within the monthly iPad subscription of Popular Mechanics. The app was initially conceptualized as a partnership between GameSalad and Popular Mechanics to showcase the prospects of DIY game creation, specifically with GameSalad software. Stating that, “anyone with creativity and some doggedness can use GameSalad’s software to build a game without doing any programming.”

Popular Mechanics also featured GameSalad in a previous article on game creation by John Herrman. Herrman stated that, “using GameSalad feels more like editing a PowerPoint presentation than developing a mobile application. Two hours after opening the program, I had my own side-scrolling space shooter in the can. It wasn’t quite ready for the App Store—my “spaceship” was a crude cutout of my head, and my “laser battles” took place against a photo background of my living room—but nonetheless, it was a game. A few more days of practice could have netted something presentable. It’s easy to let your imagination run away with GameSalad, which is probably the point.”

GameSalad is proud to announce that in the coming week we will be releasing a free game template and art asset pack from the Be the Spark game. The items will be available for free download on GameSalad Marketplace. We encourage aspiring game makers to use these materials and explore the world of DIY game development for yourself. Source: Popular Mechanics

Squeak’s Dreams is an iPhone game coming to the US and UK App Store on December 12, 2011. It’s the first game from three-times videogame Guinness World Record-holder and gaming journalist Justin Towell, who woke up on New Year’s Day this year with the sudden thought: “I’m going to make an iPhone game”. Not knowing a line of programming code, he bought an iMac (working extra to pay it off) and used GameSalad to bring his cheesy dream to life. Almost a whole year later, here it is, available for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPod Touch 3rd Generation and later.  Squeak’s Dreams plays like classic 2D side-scrollers of the 1990s, only with touch-screen direction pad and jump button. The control method is simple enough that anyone can pick it up, although controlling Squeak as he bounces on ripening blackberries and ivy leaves will test even the most hardcore gaming fanatic. 

Squeak’s Dreams contains an original soundtrack, composed and performed entirely by Towell, from the rock song ‘Pirate Queen’ playing on the radio in the kitchen to the beautiful and haunting piano piece that plays as you bounce through the clouds. Likewise with the sound effects – the noise Squeak makes when he jumps is voiced by Justin Towell, as are the hoverflies and the sound of the dragonfly’s wings. As the credit says: Game Engine by GameSalad™, everything else by Justin Towell. Yes, that goes for the quacks too.

Celebrating the game’s release, Towell has also written a post for Gamesradar.com entitled “10 Things I Learnt While Making a Video Game (by a Games Journalist).” This is an essential read for gaming enthusiasts that are looking to break into game development via GameSalad. Lessons learned include: You Don’t Need Coding Knowledge, Bugs are a Pain in the Ass, Optimization is a BIG deal, and many more. Official Game Trailer:

My personal favorite…the Musical/Animated Trailer:

Squeak’s Dreams Game Features: - Three beautiful naturalistic areas to explore – the garden, the river and the house - Peaceful, violence-free gameplay. The worst that happens to Squeak is a 5 Cheese penalty for touching a mouse trap. - Stunning graphics with multi-layered parallax scrolling and even into-the-screen pseudo 3D! - Photographic imagery for backgrounds mixed with hand-drawn artwork - A custom soundtrack full of real electric guitar as well as synthesized instruments - Several gameplay variations – Run about on foot, ride a dragonfly, bounce on balloons and follow a UFO through space. Only in your wildest cheese dreams! - Replay value – Can you get all three Big Cheeses from Squeak’s Dreams to truly finish the game? - Ducks that quack when you bounce on them. Purchase Squeak’s Dream on the App Store for 99 cents here.

The second annual STEM Video Game Challenge has begun accepting submissions. Students and Educators are encouraged to submit their game ideas and prototypes designed to promote science and math education. The STEM Challenge is organized by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media with support from the AMD Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Entertainment Software Association and Microsoft. In a departure from last year, the STEM will not be accepting entries from professional game developers that are not associated with a school or educational non profit.
Last year, GameSalad was proud to have one of our game developers, Daniel Caldwell (AKA SciTunes) as finalist in the competition. We spoke with him recently about his experience last year.

Hey Daniel! Thanks for taking the time to speak with us about your experience with STEM. Tell us, how did you first discover the STEM Challenge?  At the time I was teaching 8th grade science in Northern New York and I noticed an announcement on the BrainPop website which was one of the sponsors of the STEM Challenge.  What made you decide to participate?  I had been using GameSalad for about a year or more to make science games for my middle school sciTunes curriculum and so I thought it would a fun challenge to make a preK – 4th grade level game. How did you developed your idea for the competition? What was the procress from from idea to implementation like?  The idea for my sciTunes Curriculum, and by extension this game, actually came from my students a year and a half before the STEM Challenge. I gave my seventh graders an assignment to write a short story from the point of view of a piece of food traveling through the digestive system. For some reason this group of students insisted that I write a story too. At first I said, “No. I have to grade 100 of your stories!” But they were persistent and so as a compromise I told them I would write a song on my guitar and play it for them. So that led to the song “It Takes Guts!”.  When I played it for them I was astounded at their level of attention. Usually seventh graders are thinking about anything other than the science I was trying to teach them. That inspired me to use music to teach the entire human body and I began writing one song for each system (www.scitunes.com/music). Then I decided to create an entire curriculum based on the music.  My next thought was “what else captures middle schoolers’ attention (other than the opposite sex)?” Of course the answer to that was video games. I jumped on google and eventually came across GameMaker (I didn’t have a Mac at that time). Then my PC died and I got my first mac, found GameSalad and fell in love! I’ve been making games (both educational and non-educational) ever since (last 2.5-3 years). I started making games to go along with the songs.  So when I heard about the STEM challenge I already had 4 or 5 games completed. However I quickly realized that they would not work well for elementary kids. So I used the same music but created 6 human body games from scratch that targeted the preK – 4th grade learner and combined them all together in one game called “A sciTunes Human Body Adventure.” The six games were “Junk Food destroyer” (nutrition), “It Takes Guts!” (Digestion), “Immune Defenders” (Immune System), “Skeleton Tower Builder” (Skeletal Muscular System), “Blood Kart Racing” (Circulatory System), and  “Nerve Control” (Nervous System). My goal was to make all of these games playable on an iPad with only one finger. I also wanted to find the right balance between being scientifically accurate, educationally sound, and really fun. In the end I feel like I succeeded.  How did it feel to be selected as a finalist in the STEM Challenge?  Being a finalist was a great feeling. Here I was, a school teacher, in the final three against a professional game studio and a team of programmers. It felt really good to be in such fine company. It was also a wonderful experience getting to know the wonderful people at the Cooney Center, the judges, and the folks in attendance at the Atlantic Conference that we were a part of. What was the most enjoyable/fulfilling part of your participate in STEM?  I really enjoyed being in Washington D.C. and meeting all of the interesting people that were there for the event. Are there any other games or projects that you have developed or are in development right now?  Right now I am working on HTML5 games for my website. I currently have three games up (Blood Kart Racing, The I Team – Immune Heros!, and Guts Arcade). I am also working on a game in which the player has to keep the main character alive by regulating the things that your nervous and endocrine systems do for you. So will have to avoid obstacles, regulate body temperature, blood sugar levels, adrenaline levels, energy levels, etc. It will essentially use many of the same game mechanics as other time management games. I am also working on spinning platform game with one touch jump controls tentatively called “Spinja and the Mystic Dojos.” This one should be out shortly after the holidays. Thanks so much for speaking with us, Daniel. We hope you story can inspire other students and educators to participate in the STEM Challenge and explore game development with GameSalad. View SciTunes submission video for the challenge here:

Source: Gamasutra

Cenage Learning has partnered with GameSalad for a student design contest. Students under the age of 18 years old (limited to legal residents of the United States and the District of Columbia) are welcome to enter and submit their best game design ideas via “Game Art Packs.” The art packs should incorporate elements needed to create a game (e.g., objects, backgrounds, characters, animations). The art packs are designed to be used and sold on GameSalad Marketplace. To enter, upload a JPG that represents the overall look of your pack, as well as a ZIP file containing all art assets. Entries will be judged by author Jeannie Novak. Entries are due by January 15th and the winner will be announced on February 1st. In addition to other prizes, the Top 3 entries will have their art packs featured for sale on GameSalad Marketplace, and the winning entry will receive a GameSalad Creator Professional 12-month membership upgrade! For more information about this contest, rules, and how to enter, please visit Cenage’s website here. About Cengage Learning: Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. The company’s products and services are designed to foster academic excellence and professional development, increase student engagement, improve learning outcomes and deliver authoritative information to people whenever and wherever they need it. Through the company’s unique position within both the library and academic markets, Cengage Learning is providing integrated learning solutions that bridge from the library to the classroom. Cengage Learning’s brands include Brooks/Cole, CourseTechnology, Delmar, Gale, Heinle, South-Western and Wadsworth, among others.

Hi everyone, Today we’re excited to announce a partnership that will bring a brand new monetization option to GameSalad Professional developers. In the coming weeks, we will launch integration of the Kiip achievement-based rewards system inside GameSalad Creator. For developers looking for an alternative to simple banner ads, Kiip offers a unique and engaging approach to mobile in-game advertising. Based on “achievement moments,” Kiip provides gamers with real world rewards from established brands in return for their virtual gaming achievements. These achievements can range anywhere from reaching a high score, to completing a level, or winning a boss battle. Kiip seamlessly presents advertisements in a meaningful way by offering tangible rewards that are far more compelling than the typical static banner ads you see in many free-to-play games. By attaching the reward to an in-game accomplishment, developers can put more emphasis on designing achievements and control where and when the advertisements are shown, eliminating the negative association players have traditionally felt with in-game ads. Kiip is a cool alternative form of advertisement designed specifically for the mobile gaming experience. Kiip brings a number of top brands to GameSalad’s community of Professional developers, including Kodak, Best Buy, Popchips™, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and vitaminwater, among others. Kiip integration is currently undergoing final testing and is slated for launch to all Professional GameSalad members in mid-December. We’re excited to offer this new monetization opportunity to our Pro developers and hope you all are able to reap the rewards. Cheers, Steve

The International Mobile Games Awards is now open for submissions. Entering into its eighth year, this event celebrates the best mobile offers for that year. The competition features six categories: Best Casual Game, Best Sports Game, Excellence in Gameplay, Best Real World Game, Most Innovative Game, and Best Social Mobile Game. Developers are welcome to submit their own games for consideration, as well as recommend other games for consideration. Submit your game or recommend your favorite by completing this form. Entries will be accepted through January 16, 2012. Nominees will be reviewed and selected by a industry panel of judges including Pocket Gamer. The top selections will be announced on January 20th and opened for public voting. Winner will be revealed at an awards ceremony as part of Mobile World Congress on March 1st in Barcelona. Source: PocketGamer

We are proud to announce that GameSalad developer Quantum Sheep, was featured today on 148Apps.com. In the article, 148Apps’ Jennifer Allen reviews Quantum Sheep’s newest release, Sunshine- Here Comes The Sun. This is a cheerful shooter game featuring eight worlds of game play. Sunshine- Here Comes the Sun is available for iPad exclusively and sells for 99 cents. “What better way than to boost a mood than by shooting clouds with sun rays? That’s precisely what Sunshine – Here comes the Sun aims to provide and it does so with pretty enjoyable results.” “Minor niggles aside and Sunshine – Here comes the Sun is a very pleasant game to play. Everything seems like it’s been designed to invoke a smile, right down to the collection of hats that can be found and then worn by the Sun. They don’t affect anything but they’re cute. It’s those subtle touches that make Sunshine – Here comes the Sun a cut above the rest and an ideal game for all the family.”

Read more: http://www.148apps.com/reviews/sunshine-sun-review/#ixzz1dLNn4jcr

To help introduce our community to the world of Android publishing, we’ve prepared a series of Tutorials and Reference Guides for the Android Market. What follows is a part of that series, focusing on setting up your Android test device and installing the GameSalad Android Viewer.

Preparing the Device On your Phone

Settings > Manage Applications and check the box next to Unknown sources option After that go to Settings > SD Card > Phone Storage and uncheck the box next to USB storage. Finally you will need to go to Settings > Manage Applications > Development and check the box for USB Debugging Installing the Viewer on Device There are 2 ways to get the Viewer.apk on your device.

Via email Via USB

Via Email: You will need to have Gmail setup on the device you wish to install the Viewer on.

Download the Viewer APK on your machine Email the APK to yourself through Gmail On your Android Phone, open the Gmail application When you view your mail message, there should be a link for you to install the APK Click the install button

Via USB:

Connect your Android Phone to your system Open a Terminal To Verify if your device is registered with the Android Debug Bridge (ADB)

a. adb devices

To install the viewer to the device

a. dab install path/file.apk b. Where path is the full path from ~ to your apk and file.apk is the actual filename of the viewer apk

If you have problems running these commands the most likely issue is that they were not properly registered with your path variables (see steps above).
If they continue to not function you may wish to execute these commands via the Terminal directly from the Android SDK/platform-tools folder, ~/sdk/[android sdk folder]/platform-tools/ , if you chose the recommended folder setup from above. You will also need to preface each command with ./ in order to tell your system that the commands you wish to execute are in the current folder. Previewing the Project from Creator on Device Viewer for Android can communicate with your device both by USB and Wi-Fi. Via USB:

Plug in your device

a. Make sure that the device is set to charge only and does not mount the SD Card

Launch Creator and open your Project Go to GameSalad > Preferences For the Android Device Bridge choose Select and browse to the [sdk]/platform-tools folder find the dab binary and accept Click on the Preview on Android Select your device from the dropdown ENJOY!!

Via Wi-Fi:

Start GameSalad Creator on your system Ensure that your Android device and system are on the same wireless network Start GameSalad Viewer A Preview on Android icon will appear in GameSalad. Click it and select the name of your Android Device ENJOY!!

To help introduce our community to the world of Android publishing, we’ve prepared a series of Tutorials and Reference Guides for the Android Market. What follows is part of that series, focusing on the publishing flow for Android targets within GameSalad Creator. Publishing Select Android as the target platform after clicking on Publish Choose either Create New Game or Update Overview

Set Category Select “Choose File” and browse for a 512×512 .png image to use as your icon on Device Enter in a Title for the Project Enter in a Description Enter in Keywords Select Next

Platform

Enter in a Display Name for the Project Enter in a Publicly Visible Version for the Project that will be displayed on the stores as the version for your application Enter in an Android Version – This is a whole number that will be used in the background for determining updates to your application

Example: When you launch your original the Android Version will be 1. If you choose later to update, then during publish you will change this number to 2, so that once it is uploaded to the store anyone with the application will be notified of the update and the application will update over the older version as opposed to requiring the user to uninstall and install the new version.

Select Configure for Android Settings

Android Settings

Enter in an Android Package Name – This is a name that will be used on the backend to identify your application. Enable Accelerometer, if your game makes use of this Feature If you have a Keystore: Under Application Signing, Select Keystore

In the newly visible Password Field, enter in the password for the Keystore In the newly visible Alias dropdown, select the desired Alias for signing In the newly visible password field under Alias, enter in the password for the Alias

If you do not have a Keystore

Under Application signing, select Generate Keystore See the appendix for how to generate a Keystore or follow the instructions on the Android Developer Website

Verify the Keytool Location is valid – If the location is not showing as valid then browse to the proper location Verify the Jarsigner Location is valid – If the location is not showing as valid then browse to the proper location Verify the Zipalign Location is valid – If the location is not showing as valid then browse to the proper location Select Done to return to the Platform page Select Next to progress to the Video Page

Video

Enter in a URL to the desired YouTube video Select Enter Select Next to progress to the Review Page

Screenshots

Drag and Drop the desired images from the bottom Pane into the Screenshots panels Select Next to progress to the Review Page

Review

Verify that all of the data is correct based on the previous choices Select Publish Read the GameSalad Terms and Agreements and then select Agree and Upload to start the final publish

Publish and Save You will be presented with the following screens during the upload process:

Uploading Game Project Upload complete, receiving app Signing app package

If everything was configured correctly during the previous setup screens you will be shown a save successful screen that will have an unsigned and signed version of your package. (See the appendix for the differences between a signed and unsigned apk)

To help introduce our community to the world of Android publishing, we’ve prepared a series of Tutorials and Reference Guides for the Android Market. What follows is part of that series, focusing on the Google’s Android Market and Amazon’s App Store. Android Market About Android Market Android Market is a service that makes it easy for users to find and download Android applications to their Android-powered devices, either from the Android Market application on their device or from the Android Market web site (market.android.com). As a developer, you can use Android Market to distribute your applications to users on all types of Android-powered devices, all around the world. To publish your application on Android Market, you first need to register with the service using a Google account and agree to the terms of service. Once you are registered, you can upload your application to the service whenever you want, update it as many times as you want, and then publish it when you are ready. Once published, users can see your application, download it, and rate it. To register as an Android Market developer and get started with publishing, visit the Android Market publisher site: http://market.android.com/publish If you plan to publish your application on Android Market, you must make sure that it meets the requirements listed below, which are enforced by the Market server when you upload the application.

Requirements enforced by the Android Market server:

Your application must be signed with a cryptographic private key whose validity period ends after 22 October 2033. Your application must define both an android:versionCode and an android:versionName attribute in the “manifest” element of its manifest file. The server uses the android:versionCode as the basis for identifying the application internally and handling updates, and it displays the android:versionName to users as the application’s version. Your application must define both an android:icon and an android:label attribute in the “application” element of its manifest file.

The final 2 points are handled with the Android Configure setting during Publish time. Publishing Updates on Android Market At any time after publishing an application on Android Market, you can upload and publish an update to the same application package. When you publish an update to an application, users who have already installed the application may receive a notification that an update is available for the application. They can then choose to update the application to the latest version. Before uploading the updated application, be sure that you have incremented the Version Code and Version Name attributes when re-publishing. Also, the package name must be the same as the existing version and the .apk file must be signed with the same private key. If the package name and signing certificate do not match those of the existing version, Market will consider it a new application, publish it as such, and will not offer it to existing users as an update. Using Android Market Licensing Service Android Market offers a licensing service that lets you enforce licensing policies for paid applications that you publish through Android Market. With Android Market Licensing, your applications can query Android Market at runtime to obtain the licensing status for the current user, then allow or disallow further use of the application as appropriate. Using the service, you can apply a flexible licensing policy on an application-by-application basis—each application can enforce its licensing status in the way most appropriate for it. Any application that you publish through Android Market can use the Android Market Licensing Service. The service uses no dedicated framework APIs, so you can add licensing to any application that uses a minimum API Level of 3 or higher. For complete information about Android Market Licensing Service and how to use it in your application, read Application Licensing. Uploading Your App to the Android Market

Launch your web browser, navigate to http://market.android.com/publish/ and sign in with your Google Account. If you aren’t forwarded automatically after logging in, navigate to http://market.android.com/publish/Home and click the “Upload Application” button

Click the “Choose File” button next to “Application .apk file”, browse to Kilo.apkon your hard drive, and click the the “Upload” button. You can optionally upload a couple of screenshots to be displayed on the Market page for your app. Enter a title for your app in the Listing Details section (30 characters max). Enter a description for your app (325 characters max). Select a type and category for your app. Specify a price for your app. Indicate your copy protection and location preferences in the Publishing Options section. Enter your website, email, and phone number in the Contact Information section. Agree to the terms in the Consent section. Click the Publish button.

Congrats! Your app will be available in the Android Market almost immediately. Amazon Market About the Amazon Market The Amazon Appstore Developer Program enables mobile application developers to sell their apps on Amazon.com. By joining the program, you are able to market your apps to tens of millions of Amazon customers using Amazon’s proven marketing features and manage your apps using convenient self-service account management tools. Approval Process and Content Guidelines The minimum assets required for submission are:

a small icon a thumbnail (a larger version of the icon) a minimum of three screenshots that accurately depict your application

When you submit an app in the Developer Portal, the Amazon Appstore team will start the app review process. You can track the approval status of your app at any time by logging into the Developer Portal and finding your app in the “Dashboard” on the portal home page. If there are any questions about your app during the review process or determine it does not meet one of the Amazon Appstore’s acceptance criteria, we will notify you using the email address associated with your account and provide guidance on next steps. They will also notify you once your app successfully completes the testing process. At that point, your app will be published and ready for merchandising. Each app that you submit to us must adhere to the following Content Guidelines (from the amazon website)

Offensive Content: What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect. We reserve the right to determine the appropriateness of all apps and to accept or reject any app at our discretion. We also have full discretion to publish maturity ratings for the apps. Pornography: We prohibit apps containing pornography or hard-core material that depict graphic sexual acts or sexually explicit material. We also don’t allow content that drives traffic to pornography sites. Illegal Activity: Each app must comply with all applicable laws. We prohibit apps that promote or may lead to the production of an illegal item or illegal activity. Developers are responsible for researching to ensure that each app is in compliance with all local, state, national, and international laws. Intellectual Property Infringement: We prohibit any app to which you do not have the necessary rights to make a

Over this past year, we’ve made strides to bring GameSalad games to more platforms. This past summer, we debuted our first non-Apple publishing target, with our HTML5-powered GameSalad Arcade. Today, GameSalad is pleased to announce its newest platform target and Professional feature: Android publishing, available today in GameSalad 0.9.85 Beta. The Android market is far more varied and complex than the world of iOS publishing, with a multitude of Android app stores and almost innumerable devices with varied resolutions and device specifications. To accommodate this expansive market, our engineers have crafted our Android publishing system to support all the major markets, including Google, and Amazon, as well as all the latest and greatest Android devices like the Nook Color, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the soon to launch Amazon Kindle Fire. As mentioned earlier, Android publishing is being introduced as a Professional feature. Setting up the development environment, and managing multiple forms of app packages, both signed and unsigned, as well as the multitude of app stores make for a very complex and sometimes overwhelming market. We believe Professional GameSalad members have an incredible opportunity to establish themselves on the Android marketplace, and will be a perfect group to break ground for the GameSalad community. Also, like we said before, the Android world is very big place. To help orient yourself, we’ll be providing a primer to Android App Stores and Android Devices. This will help provide you with all the need to knows in terms of testing games on comparable devices, and understanding the various package requirements that can vary from marketplace to marketplace. That being said, Android publishing isn’t the only thing new in Creator 0.9.85. We’ve also made modifications for improving compatibility with iOS 5. Also, we’ve implemented some expanded functionality in the OpenURL behavior, now allowing users to select between our in-app browser and mobile Safari. The behavior will now also automatically detect iOS App Store or email links and open the proper application (App Store or Email) rather than utilizing a browser first. This is just the beginning and we’ve got a lot more coming very soon, including the second half of our performance / loading improvements, tables support, Game Center achievements, and in-app purchase. Thank you to everyone in the GameSalad community for the incredible games you’ve been producing over the last two years and we can’t wait to see what you bring to the Android marketplace. Where to go now:

Download GameSalad 0.9.85 Beta Download the iOS Viewer Download the Android Viewer

We are proud to announce that GameSalad developer MarcosXRay, was recently featured in 148Apps.com. In the article, 148Apps’ Blake Grundman reviews XRay Mobile’s iPad game Pig’s Dream. “Pig’s Dreams is an interesting take on physics manipulation games that focus on modifying the environment in order to hurl the slumbering swine through the air. The end goal is to send the piglet flying into the side of his glass cages, which are restraining his fellow test subjects. While this may sound simple in concept, the execution of the task is far more difficult. Herein lies what helps make the game so much fun.” “If the biggest issue with Pig’s Dreams is repetition, when the “fun level” is this high, there could be much worse problems to have. Plus, the “dream” world structure leaves plenty of room for expansion later on down the road. Clocking in at only ninety-nine cents, this is the kind of game that will certainly give you more than enough bang for the buck to justify an instant purchase.” The game is available for purchase for 99 cents on iTunes. There is also a Lite version available on Gamesalad Arcade.

Congrats to XRay Mobile on this outstanding review! Source: 148Apps.com

In the Gamasutra series, The Designer’s Notebook, Ernest Adams explores the the idea of game developers balancing the motivation of being either a “professional” or “passionate” employee in the gaming industry. While most game development job postings request employees with great amounts of passion and a effusive love for the gaming industry, Adams argues that what is more valuable than passion is true professionalism within the industry. Adams explains that passion is best reserved for artistic creations and “the game industry doesn’t produce works of art for the most part, and for every visionary who insists on following her own dream regardless of where it leads, the industry needs about 200 worker bees who actually make the products that sell.” The modern game developer is the unsung hero behind the scenes, coding the vision of the upper management. This is where professionalism comes in. Adams defines professionalism in the industry as: “Professionalism is about knowing your job, doing it well, and being proud of it even if you wouldn’t buy the resulting product. As the markets for games expand, fewer and fewer of our customers will have the same demographics, and interests, as game developers. Few of us are old ladies, and fewer still are little girls, but a good many of our customers are, and we owe it to them to do just as good a job for them as we do for Gears of War fans.” How do your opinions align with Adams? Is professionalism more important than passion for gaming? How do these values align with being an indie developer and working independently? Source: Gamasutra.com

We are proud to announce that Emmanuel Petti of SkyKey Games (AKA Dizko on the GameSalad forums) has been featured on Joystiq.com for his game, A Cloudy Adventure. The game is highlighted as a shining example of great indie development. In his Joystiq interview, Petti reveals the inspiration to the GameSalad developed, A Cloudy Adventure. “Specifically with A Cloudy Adventure I just wanted to make something for an accessible platform that was fun and light but wasn’t what everyone else was doing. I’ve been a long-time fan of cartoons and I think my love for them played a big inspirational role for the idea. It probably didn’t help that I spent almost every Saturday and Sunday morning with the TV on Nickelodeon watching various cartoons while I was putting this game together.”

A Cloudy Adventure is available for free on the App Store and can be played in HTML5 via GameSalad Arcade.

Congratulations to Spooky Hoofs, the October GameSalad App of the Month!

Developed by the developer, Thomas Wagner (GameSalad’s Gamesmold), Spooky Hoofs is an eerie endless runner.

Wagner is a Professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Kaiserslautern, Germany. He teaches study board of “Virtual Design”. Having a background in design, Wagner focuses on drawing and creating art assets rather than coding. He has been developing games for over 10 years now. Wagner first discovered GameSalad by playing the GameSalad made game, Doodle Destroy. Doodle Destroy opened his eyes to the amazing physics capabilities of the GameSalad engine. Originally inspired by arcade games thirty years ago, Wagner dreamed of being able to bring his own ideas and creations to life. Speaking on his inspiration, Wagner stated, “the games of my childhood inspire me and japanese pop culture. Born in 1977, I grew up with an Atari 2600, an Atari 800 XL and a Commodore Amiga, all of them making computer games become a great part of my life. I loved arcade games and I still remember how impressive I found the first pseudo 3D games from Sega in the late 80s. Today, I own nearly any console of the last decades, but unfortunately I don’t have time to play any more. I try to give today’s players some of the great experiences of those classic game titles from my fond childhood memories.” One clear childhood memory served as the inspiration for Spooky Hoofs: playing the Castlevania series.

Ominous and spine chilling, Spooky Hoofs is the perfect game for Halloween. Gamers must escort a Victorian woman to her destination in a sinister stagecoach. Along the way, you must jump treacherous gaps and battle ghoulish beasties. Spooky Hoofs is the perfect download for Halloween and is a definite GameSalad staff favorite. Billy Garretsen of GameSalad’s internal game team (GameTeamOne) raves that, “Spooky Hoofs is as fun to play as it is technically and visually striking. It is a shining example of what the GameSalad tools can be used to make in very capable hands.”

Nine days ago, the world lost a visionary who helped shape the way billions of people interact with each other. Not only did Steve Jobs change the world, he did it on more than one occasion. In time, his name will surely be placed among others who have left such an impression. Edison. Franklin. Ford. Michael Agustin, our Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder, had the pleasure of working at Apple and expressed his thoughts on Steve Jobs to our team last week, shortly after the sad news became public. After a little prodding, we convinced him to share these thoughts with our entire Community: Many of us at GameSalad were born into the PC revolution. In our lifetime, we went from typewriters to the Graphical User Interface to the Internet and then the iPhone. It is hard to imagine what today would be like without Steve Job’s influence over culture and technology.
Steve’s products had an profound effect on my own life. My first exposure to a computer was an Apple IIe in the 2nd grade, programming LOGO. In high school, I wrote my first graphical user interface framework for a series of games I wanted to build. After getting my first job in the game industry, I had enough income to buy very my own personal laptop, a PowerBook. I loved the experience so much that I found myself working at Apple a year later. To me, Steve Jobs was more than just an icon, he was a philosophy. It was hard to ignore his mad phrases in the news and in history books, such as “Insanely great!”, “Think different.”, and “Make a dent in the universe.” Steve was fired from a company he founded. He took those lessons to found two other companies, whose purchase would influence the very core of the most powerful media and technology companies in the world. Through Steve’s struggle and ambition, I learned that what you love does not have to be disconnected with what you do; That your contribution to the world can simply be what you love to make. You can’t produce great things without building a team as passionate as you and, most importantly, trusting them. And, in the end, you have one short life, so make it count. Steve Job’s legacy is a responsibility to all tech companies, that technology needs to be made accessible and make an emotional impact. It is something we at GameSalad hold very close to our hearts. The way the Mac changed command-line computing with the graphical user interface, so are we all driven to change programming and the way we build interaction.
To Steve we simply say, “Challenge accepted!” -Michael Agustin, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder, GameSalad

Billy Garretsen leads GameSalad’s internal Game Team One. He has been an independent game designer for more than ten years. He’s helped develop titles for all the major game consoles, as well as numerous games for PC and mobile platforms. His most recent GameSalad title was 2 Broke Girls, currently available on GameSalad Arcade, iOS, Facebook, and the Chrome Web Store. The original “best practices” post I created may not have completely explained the new memory management features. In this amended post, I will dive a little further into what is happening under the hood so that you may better determine how you will take advantage of these features to improve your game performance. Scene Loading Timeline The Preload Art attribute allows you to decide to load your images up front when the scene is loading or after the scene has started running. Below, you can see how GameSalad makes this work. When Preload Art is ON (default) all of your images get loaded into memory before the scene runs. The amount of time it takes to load your scene will be determined by how many actors you have and how much art is referenced within those actors.

When Preload Art is OFF for any actors, what will happen is GameSalad will ignore any references to artwork inside of the actors’ behaviors. This will improve load times, as less art is needed to be loaded into memory before the scene starts running. You will notice, though, that the art will load on the fly as needed until your scene changes. RAM Exchange and Game Performance After reading some of the confusion on the forums, it is clear that many users are expecting the Preload Art attribute to improve game stability, performance and RAM usage. While this attribute can definitely improve RAM up front it does not take care of asset optimization. If your scenes are reaching elevated RAM limits it will still be up to the developer to take measures to better optimize their art, actors and scenes. Luckily, part of the new update in 0.9.8 is a back end asset manager that will monitor your RAM and unload textures as necessary to prevent exceeding the RAM limits and crashing your game. When using the Preload Art attribute it is important to remember that even though your scene loading order is handled differently, the overall CPU and RAM usage will still be the same. In the diagram below you can see that in both cases, the textures in memory will continue to grow as your scene runs, regardless of when the images are loaded into RAM.

Ultimately it is still up to every developer to know when and how to best optimize their game for maximum performance and stability. The Preload Art attribute and asset manager are merely tools to help developers achieve their target performance numbers and will only be useful if used appropriately. A Word About NULL Textures and Optimization Tricks In the original Best Practices post for Preload Art, there were two tips included that made suggestions to use a NULL texture to trick your game into loading scenes lightning fast. This is definitely an optimization TRICK and not LAW. It is not recommended to enable this trick during your core development as it is not practical to work with “invisible” actors. Please only attempt to utilize the null texture techniques at the end of your project when you are polishing it up for publishing. Every developer (John Carmack included) goes through a huge optimization effort before their products ship. There are always tough compromises one must make: “Do I chop out animation frames? Do I lower the resolution of a background image? Do I use dynamic tinting to create enemy variants instead of unique art assets?…” The list goes on, and everyone’s challenges will be different. I hope this better explains how GameSalad handles art assets and gives you the knowledge necessary to know when and how to take advantage of the new Preload Art attribute.

Billy Garretsen leads GameSalad’s internal Game Team One. He has been an independent game designer for more than ten years. He’s helped develop titles for all the major game consoles, as well as numerous games for PC and mobile platforms. His most recent GameSalad title was 2 Broke Girls, currently available on GameSalad Arcade, iOS, Facebook, and the Chrome Web Store. In GameSalad Creator 0.9.80, developers will be able to control when their art assets get loaded into memory by toggling a new self attribute, “PRELOAD ART”, on and off in their actors. With this attribute set to true, all of the images associated with an actor will be loaded into memory at the time the scene is loading. If a user’s scene has a lot of on-screen elements and artwork loading can sometimes be annoyingly long. Though, with PRELOAD ART turned off (checked false) the user can influence when an art asset is loaded into memory through their actor logic. The Results: Significantly shorter scene loading times. Pro Technique #1: Using Null Textures and Change Image Behavior A null texture is one that contains no art – as in a fully transparent image. I create a very small null texture for almost every project I work on, as they are useful beyond this particular application. I usually keep it really small: 16×16 pixels.

One thing you can try to shorten your load times upfront is to take all of your actors in a scene and give them this null texture as their base texture. Then the first behavior in their logic stack can be a CHANGE IMAGE or CHANGE ATTRIBUTE>self.image where you set their actual texture. Right when the scene finishes loading and starts running your invisible textures will instantly load in and switch to the actual art. The switch should happen so fast that you cannot even see it, resulting in lightning fast scene loading.

Pro Technique #2: Selective/Trigger-based art loading The previous technique is a really great way to get into your scene quickly and instantly load a bulk of textures. What if you don’t want them to load all at once though? You can select precise moments for loading in new art within your scene by putting your CHANGE IMAGE, CHANGE ATTRIBUTE>self.image, and ANIMATE behaviors inside of a timer or rule condition. Timers can allow you to secretly load in art that is not seen or used until later within that scene without a big visible hitch at the time the scene starts running. Using an arbitrary timer value such as “After 5 seconds” works well unless you have specific timer offset requirements. Similarly, rule conditions that will trigger the art loading allow you to wait until a later time after the scene has loaded to introduce this new art to memory. For example, if you have background elements in a scene that do not appear until your character reaches a certain point in a level, then it is recommended to trigger the loading of the art when the player position is close by. This could look something like “If PlayerXPosition is greater than 480 then CHANGE IMAGE to BackgroundArt4.png”. Though, this will only be effective if your base texture was a null or dummy texture as described above.

Knowing when to use Preloading OFF techniques While these techniques result in lightning fast load times in between your scenes, it is important to use them wisely and sparingly. It is not recommended to attempt to load in art for an actor during a moment of intense action or logic calculations. The general rule of thumb is to get your players into your game as fast as you can from the moment they click the app icon. It is recommended to use these techniques for menus and introductory screens to get your players to the core game scenes faster. Then it is at your discretion how much art preloading occurs for core scenes; players will be more lenient if a level scene takes a few seconds to load in. Preload Art Attribute and Asset Manager: The Yin and the Yang Another feature being added to GameSalad Creator 0.9.80 is the back-end asset manager, which scrubs through the RAM, finds unused textures and automatically dumps them out of memory. This will not destroy any actors in the scene and at the time the texture is needed again, it will be reloaded into memory seamlessly. This will greatly reduce game crashes on iOS devices since the asset manager will prevent your games from exceeding the memory cap. Both of these features combined will now give users much better performance in their games and far more control over their asset optimization. Screenshot Gallery:

Late last week, our CEO Steve Felter announced a shift in priorities for the next release of GameSalad. Based heavily on valuable feedback from our community, we moved to dedicate more resources to improving the performance and power of the GameSalad engine. Today, we’re pleased to announce the first part of those improvements with the launch of GameSalad Creator 0.9.80, available now. Included in this release are the first of two major behind-the-scenes revisions to our engine’s asset and memory management. We’ve also introduced a new, powerful feature that allows developers to choose pre-loaded assets and, when used efficiently, can bring loading times down to almost nothing. We also managed to sneak in a new feature to our OpenURL behavior that means never having to leave your game, even when directed to an external URL. The new Asset Loader allows developers to select which actors will be pre-loaded into a project. The interface is a simple boolean switch, located in the attributes section of each actor. When “Pre-Load” is on, the actor will be loaded into memory at when the game launches. If “Pre-Load” is off, the actor will be loaded when it is called within the game. This feature, when used efficiently, has the power to virtually eliminate loading times for GameSalad games and will greatly improve the experience for all of our Community’s players. In conjunction with the Asset Loader, we’ve also completed the first part of our asset manager refactoring. This modification is deigned to produce better performance in-game, and prevent crashes due to memory usage. Combined with the Asset Loader, developers should be able to see a noticeable increase in the performance of their titles. Finally, we have our new In-App Browser. This feature enables developers to keep players inside their app, even when directed to an external website through our OpenURL behavior. Previously, GameSalad apps and games would have to go into multitask mode when an OpenURL behavior was activated. Now, when OpenURL is activated, the link will open via our In-App Browser. This will help keep players in-game longer and provide a better overall play experience. We’re very excited about GameSalad 0.9.80, and about the improvements we’ve been able to make to engine performance and load times. At the same time, there’s lots more to come, and we’re going to continue improving the engine and making GameSalad even more powerful as we make this final march out of Beta and toward GameSalad 1.0. Where Do I Go Now?

Download GameSalad Creator 0.9.80 Download GameSalad Viewer Asset Loader Best Practices GameSalad Marketplace GameSalad Cookbook Discuss on the GameSalad Forums

Back in July, with the release of GameSalad 0.9.6 Beta, we introduced the first iteration of GameSalad Marketplace. From the beginning, we designed Marketplace to be an online store where users could buy and sell artwork, audio, templates and other project assets. The GameSalad Marketplace mission is to provide game creators a fast and easy way to bring high quality assets and improved production value to their project as well as provide independent artists and creators access to our developer community. Until this point, only 1st party art assets have been available. That changes today. We are now pleased to announce updates to Marketplace! Included in the new features are templates, 3rd party assets, a new shopping cart function, and enhanced search and preview technology! We’re very excited to say that templates are now available. Templates are a great resource to learn the GameSalad tool and understand the building blocks to popular game types. Launching today are twenty-one excellent templates from GameSalad Community stand-outs and favorites, TshirtBooth & Utopian Games. There will be more templates launching in the coming days and weeks, so keep an eye out for more great content! We have also updated Marketplace functionality. With our new shopping cart, you’ll experience a more streamlines, user-friendly process to purchasing multiple items from Marketplace. We’ve also stepped up our search and preview functions, allowing you to preview every image within an art pack. When you put all this together, it makes for a much more friendly, intuitive shopping experience. In another significant development, GameSalad Marketplace is now accepting 3rd party submissions. We welcome you to submit your best work from a variety of art and templates styles, including: UI, characters, objects, backgrounds, animations, and more! If you would like to have your art and/or templates considered for inclusion in the GameSalad Marketplace, please send us a sample template or portfolio of images (5 images, max) to marketsubmission@gamesalad.com. We will review all submissions and we will reach out to individuals that we feel demonstrate quality work and usefulness to the community. We’re very excited about expanding the Marketplace to our Community immediately, and submissions will be reviewed on a first come, first serve basis, so get your submissions in as soon as possible. Meanwhile, there’s still much more to come for Marketplace. Be on the lookout for audio assets, like sound effects and music, as well as expanded payment options. Once again, for those in community wishing to become a seller on the GameSalad Marketplace, please submit a sample template or art work pack (5 image maximum) to marketsubmission@gamesalad.com. Where Do I Go Now?

Take a look at the updated GameSalad Marketplace Submit samples to become a Marketplace Seller