xyloFUN said: P.S. Those of you who are not familiar with venture capital, please know that if you get 6 million, you are expected to pay back 20 to 60 million in five years or less! (My source of info on that is "The Web Startup Success Guide" which is a great book to read)
The strength of the brand also factors into that. If they're not making a lot of money, but they're very popular, then the company can still be valuable. Twitter is an example.
GameSalad needs to stop the bleeding.
1 - Good developers are strongly encouraged by their peers to move on to other SDKs, like Unity or Corona.
2 - The brand is a bit beaten up, with the GameSalad Direct® fiasco and how gamers / review websites view the brand.
GameSalad needs to encourage developers to stay and build quality games. How does that happen?! COMPETITION!
$5000 is not going to make much of a difference to venture capitalists, but it would rally a lot of developers to the software. It would generate a lot of press. It's a good way to get educators to motivate their students, as the contest could be turned into a class project.
GameSalad has to fight harder! Their marketing is weak!
Why doesn't GameSalad throw $750 at Touch Arcade and other iOS app review sites for those monthly banner advertisements? I see advertisements for Corona online. GameSalad is not fighting back!
I often consider working for them. It's a cool company, with a great product, but I'm not a fan of Austin, Texas. Maybe I should be a marketing consultant in New York. I don't like the company's reputation and I think it's a problem that can be fixed — but the solution is a strong marketing effort. Maybe they're holding back until GameSalad leaves beta.
I think that GS just needs to focus on making the tool better, and less on marketing. I don't think marketing will change much. Make a strong SDK, and that will be marketing in and of itself.
I think the problem IS the tool needs to get better. More features, less slowdown, just make it good.
xyloFUN said: you like them so much that you would work for them? WOW!
If they were a company in New York, I would have applied already.
But yeah, they shouldn't hire me. I'd make them work too hard. I'd ruin all the fun. HA HA.
I'd probably work late and add extra features for my own games...
• game.OS.Time • game.OS.info • Vibrate • Camera • Flash
Ha ha... and I wonder about that. Is GameSalad really going to be that better off if there are more successful games? What if there are a few people that start making millions of dollars with their games? How are the developers going to feel about that? If you're making a normal salary, while some guy is making millions off of your work, I imagine that's gotta be lousy for employee morale.
Stock options if the company goes public could be cool compensation though. ...and no State Income Tax in Texas is nice!
I still think marketing is better. Get lots of people using the software. Make it like a new hobby, like gardening, fishing or micro blogging. Most of the stuff on FaceBook and Twitter is useless information... but those are two juggernauts of the present day Internet.
Truthfully, most games made with other SDKs (or even plain old XCode) are not very good. It's not a problem exclusive to GS. However, what is rather exclusive to GS is that people associate the GS brand with games that aren't very good. You don't really hear this about games created with Unity, Cocos2D, Corona, etc.
The problem is two-fold. First, the technical barrier to make a GS game is low. The "No coding. Ever." slogan is accurate so the learning curve to create even the simplest games with GS is extremely low and requires little time or effort. Unfortunately, this, along with Apple's fairly lax app review process, results in a lot of mediocre GS-created games with little time/effort spent on them getting in the App Store. Other SDKs don't suffer from this problem as much because the learning curve to make simple games with them is a lot higher and, by nature, filters out people who are not willing to put a lot of time/effort into learning how to use the SDK. Because what differentiates GS from other SDKs is the lack of coding, this can't really be changed.
The second part of the problem is that it is free to publish iOS games with GS. There is no financial barrier (other than Apple's $99 developer's license fee) that filters out people not serious about game development. Sure, the pro version includes iADs, Game Center, etc., but otherwise, you can publish complete games with just the basic free version. Add in the fact that the basic free version is the one that forces the inclusion of the GS branding and it becomes pretty obvious how GS has gotten a bad reputation amongst some players and iOS game review sites.
I think GS needs to adopt Corona's model. Make the pro version the one and only account type and charge $199/year for it (or something in that range). This would create a financial barrier to filter out those not serious about game development while still preserving the fundamental principal of "No coding. Ever." This would lower the cost for current pro version users to entice them to stay with GS and the lower cost for all the pro features should definitely entice more than enough free users to upgrade to offset the price reduction. Going with the pro version only also gets rid of the GS branding requirement (that Corona does not have) so the problem of GS branding being a negative is gone too. Corona also does a cool thing where it showcases apps created with Corona. Not just success stories, but apps they think are good:
"Are you a Corona developer?
We want to showcase your game or app right here on our site. You'll be entered in our App of the Week and App of the Month contests, as well as our quarterly giveaways. Submit now!"
I probably sound like I'm a Corona fan-boy but I'm totally a GS supporter. I think GS is a great SDK but I think they can learn a lot about how to market it from Corona.
JeffreyShimane said: I probably sound like I'm a Corona fan-boy but I'm totally a GS supporter. I think GS is a great SDK but I think they can learn a lot about how to market it from Corona.
- Jeff
No, you sound like a smart man! I "liked" your post because it makes a lot of sense. The thing is that some of us saw all these things a few months ago. It never made sense to me why the company is behaving so "remote-controlled-like" all the time.
They had a great thing going but failed to get to know their target audience.
As far as Apple raising the barrier to enter ... they did already. I imagine that setting up the provisioning profiles gets rid of quite a few wanna bees so that their stuff NEVER sees the light of day?
I agree with Tshirtbooth, and I think the pricing model is right on.
GS is thinking from a marketing perspective that they need to have all eyes on GS by making the lite version of GS free, but it's hurting more than helping.
Make GS lite $199, and Pro $499, and that will help weed out some rubbish.
I still think 199/year for PRO its the best option for the Gamesalad team.
There is a good chance that you will see your suggestion become reality before the year is over. That's where the market is heading ...
Corona is getting a "beginner" book in a few days Stencyl is adding iOS export (and hopefully gets rid of the little logo)
The future looks good
There will be little room for "broken software for broke people"!
But it's never too late ... who knows? They might just have a trick up their sleeves. The re-write of the code is done for this round now they can iron out a few bugs ... and work on new ones
If gamesalad is happy with providing an entry into the world of game making, then there is always room for such a company.
I would not have been able to start without the free version and in return, I still tell others about it ... that it is ok to check out. Game making is quite a popular topic in Vancouver.
For a company that doesn't make it as easy to develop apps like GameSalad, Corona is on a roll. They offer more for less pricing on a shipping, non beta product. $199 for indie, $349 for Pro (both iOS/Android). They have daily builds, open bug base, and they add features left and right with half the team than Gamesalad and they have not even raised series B.
The co-PR with their developers and with their 3rd party developers as well. They help push their devs apps by including them on their newsletter, etc. Their CEO Carlos is active on the forum and reaching out to people and he has time to write code and run the company. He is extremely competitive. Just look at the way he is going after Adobe.
GameSalad chiefs should borrow a page from his book. Open communication is key and if you think I am full of BS his email is in the about page of his company and he will answer your email. Try it. Send him an e-mail. He will answer it.
GameSalad, with the new investment should be able to capitalize on getting a really good product out the door. Opening offices in San Francisco, down the street from Adobe, Google, Zynga, they should be able to pick up top notch engineers. I read some where that the four engineers at Corona all come from Adobe and used to work on the same team. GameSalad should be able to, with the new injection of money, recruit, and hire some of the very same folks at the same caliber of Adobe that Corona has in their team.
Once Corona comes out with their authoring tool, might as well pack it up. I heard a rumor that they just hired some OpenGL guru that was one of the original members of the OpenGL group from SGI and was principal architect at some GPU video HW company. Now if nothing else should scare people, if the rumor is true, this should put an end to any competitor that Corona may have.
Just saying, and with the usual traditional GameSala sou-chef, this will be edited.
jsaligeri said: For a company that doesn't make it as easy to develop apps like GameSalad, Corona is on a roll. They offer more for less pricing on a shipping, non beta product. $199 for indie, $349 for Pro (both iOS/Android). They have daily builds, open bug base, and they add features left and right with half the team than Gamesalad and they have not even raised series B.
The co-PR with their developers and with their 3rd party developers as well. They help push their devs apps by including them on their newsletter, etc. Their CEO Carlos is active on the forum and reaching out to people and he has time to write code and run the company. He is extremely competitive. Just look at the way he is going after Adobe.
GameSalad chiefs should borrow a page from his book. Open communication is key and if you think I am full of BS his email is in the about page of his company and he will answer your email. Try it. Send him an e-mail. He will answer it.
GameSalad, with the new investment should be able to capitalize on getting a really good product out the door. Opening offices in San Francisco, down the street from Adobe, Google, Zynga, they should be able to pick up top notch engineers. I read some where that the four engineers at Corona all come from Adobe and used to work on the same team. GameSalad should be able to, with the new injection of money, recruit, and hire some of the very same folks at the same caliber of Adobe that Corona has in their team.
Once Corona comes out with their authoring tool, might as well pack it up. I heard a rumor that they just hired some OpenGL guru that was one of the original members of the OpenGL group from SGI and was principal architect at some GPU video HW company. Now if nothing else should scare people, if the rumor is true, this should put an end to any competitor that Corona may have.
Just saying, and with the usual traditional GameSala sou-chef, this will be edited.
Jen.
Carlos is an impressive individual — great work ethic! Corona has potential. But until they actually have a drag-and-drop editor like GameSalad, the grass is not greener on the other side.
What they do have is a stronger brand. They don't have such a negative reputation.
Also, why is GameSalad so spread out? Pick a location and stay there. Why do they need offices in LA, San Fransisco and Austin? That's a waste of money that should be directed toward marketing and development.
...and engineers are not exclusive to Silicon Valley. In this market, if you can't find talented workers, you're doing something wrong.
Just saying, and with the usual traditional GameSala sou-chef, this will be edited.
Jen.
Hello Jen.
I'm your 'traditional GameSala sou-chef' (sic)
I'm glad to see you're playing the victim here. Quelle surprise!
Truth is, every post you've EVER made in the year you've been on the GameSalad forums has been to put down the software, and try and 'big-up' Corona.
EVERY. ONE.
Oh, except for one post when the roadmap was published. I guess you weren't feeling well that day, eh?
You have never asked for help with GameSalad. EVER. And in a year, you've never *made* anything with GameSalad.
That's probably why.
Something tells me you have no interest in making games. At all. So I have to wonder why you're here.
Then I look at all the posts you've made and it's boringly obvious.
I am banning you from the forums. I had some fun changing all your Corona rants and misdirections into 'I love GameSalad'. But I can't be arsed anymore. You're dull and predictable I'm afraid, and offer nothing of any use to GameSalad developers.
Because, you know, this is a GameSalad forum. Not the Corona one. Why don't you go there, eh? There's people on the CORONA forums that actually want to talk about Corona. Weird, eh?
I'm sure *some* people will yell "freedom of speech" and "I have a right to post what I want!"
Guess what? That doesn't apply here. Sorry 'n' all that.
So, it's been fun 'n' all, but I'm afraid I'm breaking up with you.
What they do have is a stronger brand. They don't have such a negative reputation.
And honestly, I have to wonder why. I've not seen any game made that couldn't be made with GS.
And the ones that I have played, that have that 'proudly made with Corona' sticker on them have been dull, prone to crashing all the time, bug ridden, and with IAP's have been gouging their customers for money.
I honestly believe that we will not see a *great* Corona game until Joe launches 'The Lost City'. He made the most successful GS game with Grisly Manor, and will repeat that success with his first Corona game.
Because, as I've said a million times, it's not the SDK you use, but the person behind the SDK.
This is a really great community most of the time. I'm proud to be a part of it. One way to repair GameSalad's reputation is to improve it ourselves by making better games.
There should be a new pro member only splash screen that goes through an approval process by vote of the community, that says "Improving GameSalad's rep, 1 game at a time."
gyroscopeI am here.Member, Sous Chef, PROPosts: 6,598
quantumsheep said: And honestly, I have to wonder why. I've not seen any game made that couldn't be made with GS.
This is a good statement and I think it's related to the core reputation problem.
1 - Corona has had more notoriety. When a 14 year old kid tops the charts, it looks good for Corona. That's a good story and GameSalad doesn't really have the equivalent success story.
2 - Why is Joe not using GameSalad? He was top GameSalad developer. So, there must be some things that GameSalad can't do. Is this still from the fallout of GameSalad Direct?
3 - Carlos has more freedom to act and speak on his forum. GameSalad does not have the equivalent of Carlos. The founders here are not as visible anymore.
4 - There have been some big bumps in the road. GameSalad Direct hurt GameSalad and helped Corona. Carlos was pretty strategic at that moment. He saw weakness in a competitor and seized it.
Yet... both companies seem to have stalled in progress. Maybe there are big things going on behind the scenes, but it's not like there are any radical changes to make me rethink the way I work. Yet, why is Corona viewed as more productive? With Corona, you either pay for third-party plugins, or you work in a text editor. I don't understand how Corona has the better reputation.
EXCEPT... people respect code... like a magician that has a box of mirrors on a stage. But all that puffery and hidden doors is just a bunch of garbage to me. With GameSalad, the programming language is English. Computers are tools for humans, so they should speak the language of humans.
This stuff frustrates me. There is a reputation problem and making good games is not enough. For every great GameSalad game there is, another hundred or more bad games can appear. People don't usually blame Microsoft Word for all the bad novels in the world, or WordPress for bad blogs in the world. Yet, GameSalad is often viewed as the scourge of the iTunes app store.
Even Tshirtbooth, while trying to defend GameSalad, kinda made things worse.
Also... when I do visit the Corona forums, it's like a Gamesalad family reunion. There are lots of people that had lots of enthusiasm for GameSalad... like Synthesis, Beyondthetech, peachpellen... but they're gone. So clearly, it's not just about hard work.
The iTunes app store is filled with a lot of bad apps, but Apple has created a way to reward quality. Is hard work rewarded here? What is GameSalad doing to encourage quality? What is it doing to attract talent?
Sure, we can work harder, but we're not the ones with a 6.1 million dollar investment. The only one that can truly save GameSalad is GameSalad!
quantumsheep said: This is a really great community most of the time. I'm proud to be a part of it. One way to repair GameSalad's reputation is to improve it ourselves by making better games. QS
I'm still one of the ones that creates taptards..now sure how crappy, but sure plain with a bit fun in them; and this still holds true while I'm on the other side coding; however, this community was so great and encouraging at the beginning and it was fun hanging around here. Now all I see/read are mainly rants about this and that...that's why I chime in a bit here and there and post a non-related topic to see how true to the core people feel about things.
Now, people complained (including me) about GS being $2000 for pro with only iAds and URL forwarding. Now that GS tool got better and GC is included...and FREE, people still complain
I've seen other SDK that will even allow you to export to Xbox and Wii...yet nobody is taking about them.
GS will eventually get out of Beta and 1.0 will be so cool everybody that left and new comes will never wanna leave again...yet people will still complain for some dumb 'feature' is missing and is not allowing them to make money.
If you're in it for the money, I suggest you hire a great graphic artist, a great story writer and an excellent coder (or in GS terms, a great Behavior component developer) and take the time to give it all your time and love to polish it and send it for QA like TSB and others have done to get a general consensus that agrees that indeed your game is great...otherwise, if you don't have money to invest in such a great game...then take your time to learn the SDK you like and have fun putting the pieces together until you feel you have created a masterpiece...at least this way if it fails, you'll be so happy and gained so much that you next game will be even better than your first masterpiece....just my humble opinion :P
quantumsheep said: as I've said a million times, it's not the SDK you use, but the person behind the SDK. QS
I just can't never argue with this sheepman...when he's right, he's right ^_^!
rdcube said: If you're in it for the money, I suggest you hire a great graphic artist, a great story writer and an excellent coder (or in GS terms, a great Behavior component developer) and take the time to give it all your time and love to polish it and send it for QA like TSB and others have done to get a general consensus that agrees that indeed your game is great...otherwise, if you don't have money to invest in such a great game...then take your time to learn the SDK you like and have fun putting the pieces together until you feel you have created a masterpiece...at least this way if it fails, you'll be so happy and gained so much that you next game will be even better than your first masterpiece....just my humble opinion :P
For me, this is what GS is about. It's about fulfilling a lifelong dream to make my own games. I remember when Asteroids and Space Invaders came out in the arcades and being blown away. Fast forward to modern times (heh) and I felt the same way again when I got my first iPod Touch and played my first iOS game. I wanted to make games like these but until GS came out, I didn't know how to go about it or if I could do it. My first game created with GS has not been a success but I had a lot of fun making it so even if I don't make any money off of anything I make, I still feel like it was worth the time I spent on it. The way I look at it, I used to spend $15/month playing WoW but since I've been using GS for the past 3 months, I don't play WoW anymore and have cancelled my account. In that way, GS is saving me money! I'll continue to make games with GS as long as I'm having a good time doing it and so far, it's been a blast! I think my concern with GS branding/marketing is that GS will not be successful enough to stick around long-term to feed my game development habit and I'll have to go back to trying to figure out how to make a button do something with XCode.
Don't get me wrong though, I wouldn't mind if my games went all indie-success Tiny Wings on me though! I'm not a monk. I haven't given up on worldly possessions...
I mimic'd parts of what JeffreyShimane said in this thread earlier and i agree with his logic...also his latest post is agreeable
At the end of the day gamesalad needs some really good games WITH the gamesalad logo remaining to draw in a large enough crowd to bring it down to $200 so that they dont need to worry about not great games having the gs logo...(as much as they would with a $500/year subscription) but maintaining a much nicer income... i think a few people here now are working on their own something special so lets see what the summer brings..but whether or not they will be recognized as gamesalad games, especially with all this doubt and rumor of prejudice its not certain.
also photics did i read some sort of poem mentioning bot's submission? edit: haiku == Machine gun blasting Sword thrust bursts robo aflame BOT app to review == /liability of derail
butterbean said: You're marketing to people with limited attention spans, and someone else can steal your wool in a matter of seconds, and they've already forgotten about you.
I think you should post screenies right away, and slowly post more screenshots telling your story, and how game development is moving along.
Check out the "Paper Monsters" thread over at T.A. I think he did a great job with his thread, and he's caught the attention of people namely because the screenshots tell the entire story, which is why screenshots are one of the most important pieces in marketing your app when it's up on the app store.
You don't have to reveal "all" your secrets with screenshots, but putting out a handful doesn't hurt.
Is it worth the risk? i dont see the benefit of posting information beforehand even if they only reveal a little.. a slightly bigger crowd informed of your game at the forums for a few days vs imitations
mangaroo said: also photics did i read some sort of poem mentioning bot's submission?
It's not ready yet. I got side-tracked by clouds today. I'm still not sure about the last level yet either. The Haiku is there in the notes section though. HA HA
In closing, it would have been more beneficial if gs would have used that splash logo wisely instead of what it is.
"Powered by" is not offensive to anyone because every car is powered by an engine so it is somewhat expected. Giving users a choice between 2 or 4 seconds would have been elegant.
The splash they ended up implementing was too limited. White does not work with everything and some apps are not games.
So in the end, they screwed up twice. Once with the design and then again with the implementation.
A better splash and better forum software could go a long way
Here is the good part. One day, they will understand this and most people will be happy
tenrdrmerMember, Sous Chef, Senior Sous-ChefPosts: 9,934
You cannot blame GameSalad for this. The mission is not Total App Creation for all. its Game Creation for all. If people chose to use a Game SDK for other types of apps then thats up to those individuals but they will just have to deal with the references to Game Creation.
Comments
GameSalad needs to stop the bleeding.
1 - Good developers are strongly encouraged by their peers to move on to other SDKs, like Unity or Corona.
2 - The brand is a bit beaten up, with the GameSalad Direct® fiasco and how gamers / review websites view the brand.
GameSalad needs to encourage developers to stay and build quality games. How does that happen?! COMPETITION!
$5000 is not going to make much of a difference to venture capitalists, but it would rally a lot of developers to the software. It would generate a lot of press. It's a good way to get educators to motivate their students, as the contest could be turned into a class project.
GameSalad has to fight harder! Their marketing is weak!
Why doesn't GameSalad throw $750 at Touch Arcade and other iOS app review sites for those monthly banner advertisements? I see advertisements for Corona online. GameSalad is not fighting back!
I don't see marketing here...
http://gamesalad.com/careers/
I often consider working for them. It's a cool company, with a great product, but I'm not a fan of Austin, Texas. Maybe I should be a marketing consultant in New York. I don't like the company's reputation and I think it's a problem that can be fixed — but the solution is a strong marketing effort. Maybe they're holding back until GameSalad leaves beta.
I think the problem IS the tool needs to get better. More features, less slowdown, just make it good.
That's why marketing is important.
you like them so much that you would work for them? WOW!
So if they'd hire you, would you want to be in the "produce" section?
But yeah, they shouldn't hire me. I'd make them work too hard. I'd ruin all the fun. HA HA.
I'd probably work late and add extra features for my own games...
• game.OS.Time
• game.OS.info
• Vibrate
• Camera
• Flash
Ha ha... and I wonder about that. Is GameSalad really going to be that better off if there are more successful games? What if there are a few people that start making millions of dollars with their games? How are the developers going to feel about that? If you're making a normal salary, while some guy is making millions off of your work, I imagine that's gotta be lousy for employee morale.
Stock options if the company goes public could be cool compensation though.
...and no State Income Tax in Texas is nice!
I still think marketing is better. Get lots of people using the software. Make it like a new hobby, like gardening, fishing or micro blogging. Most of the stuff on FaceBook and Twitter is useless information... but those are two juggernauts of the present day Internet.
The problem is two-fold. First, the technical barrier to make a GS game is low. The "No coding. Ever." slogan is accurate so the learning curve to create even the simplest games with GS is extremely low and requires little time or effort. Unfortunately, this, along with Apple's fairly lax app review process, results in a lot of mediocre GS-created games with little time/effort spent on them getting in the App Store. Other SDKs don't suffer from this problem as much because the learning curve to make simple games with them is a lot higher and, by nature, filters out people who are not willing to put a lot of time/effort into learning how to use the SDK. Because what differentiates GS from other SDKs is the lack of coding, this can't really be changed.
The second part of the problem is that it is free to publish iOS games with GS. There is no financial barrier (other than Apple's $99 developer's license fee) that filters out people not serious about game development. Sure, the pro version includes iADs, Game Center, etc., but otherwise, you can publish complete games with just the basic free version. Add in the fact that the basic free version is the one that forces the inclusion of the GS branding and it becomes pretty obvious how GS has gotten a bad reputation amongst some players and iOS game review sites.
I think GS needs to adopt Corona's model. Make the pro version the one and only account type and charge $199/year for it (or something in that range). This would create a financial barrier to filter out those not serious about game development while still preserving the fundamental principal of "No coding. Ever." This would lower the cost for current pro version users to entice them to stay with GS and the lower cost for all the pro features should definitely entice more than enough free users to upgrade to offset the price reduction. Going with the pro version only also gets rid of the GS branding requirement (that Corona does not have) so the problem of GS branding being a negative is gone too. Corona also does a cool thing where it showcases apps created with Corona. Not just success stories, but apps they think are good:
"Are you a Corona developer?
We want to showcase your game or app right here on our site. You'll be entered in our App of the Week and App of the Month contests, as well as our quarterly giveaways. Submit now!"
I probably sound like I'm a Corona fan-boy but I'm totally a GS supporter. I think GS is a great SDK but I think they can learn a lot about how to market it from Corona.
- Jeff
The thing is that some of us saw all these things a few months ago. It never made sense to me why the company is behaving so "remote-controlled-like" all the time.
They had a great thing going but failed to get to know their target audience.
As far as Apple raising the barrier to enter ... they did already.
I imagine that setting up the provisioning profiles gets rid of quite a few wanna bees so that their stuff NEVER sees the light of day?
Lite is Lite, its like selling a Demo version of a game. Stealing.
I still think 199/year for PRO its the best option for the Gamesalad team.
GS is thinking from a marketing perspective that they need to have all eyes on GS by making the lite version of GS free, but it's hurting more than helping.
Make GS lite $199, and Pro $499, and that will help weed out some rubbish.
That's where the market is heading ...
Corona is getting a "beginner" book in a few days
Stencyl is adding iOS export (and hopefully gets rid of the little logo)
The future looks good
There will be little room for "broken software for broke people"!
But it's never too late ... who knows? They might just have a trick up their sleeves. The re-write of the code is done for this round now they can iron out a few bugs ... and work on new ones
If gamesalad is happy with providing an entry into the world of game making, then there is always room for such a company.
I would not have been able to start without the free version and in return, I still tell others about it ... that it is ok to check out. Game making is quite a popular topic in Vancouver.
The co-PR with their developers and with their 3rd party developers as well. They help push their devs apps by including them on their newsletter, etc. Their CEO Carlos is active on the forum and reaching out to people and he has time to write code and run the company. He is extremely competitive. Just look at the way he is going after Adobe.
GameSalad chiefs should borrow a page from his book. Open communication is key and if you think I am full of BS his email is in the about page of his company and he will answer your email. Try it. Send him an e-mail. He will answer it.
GameSalad, with the new investment should be able to capitalize on getting a really good product out the door. Opening offices in San Francisco, down the street from Adobe, Google, Zynga, they should be able to pick up top notch engineers. I read some where that the four engineers at Corona all come from Adobe and used to work on the same team. GameSalad should be able to, with the new injection of money, recruit, and hire some of the very same folks at the same caliber of Adobe that Corona has in their team.
Once Corona comes out with their authoring tool, might as well pack it up. I heard a rumor that they just hired some OpenGL guru that was one of the original members of the OpenGL group from SGI and was principal architect at some GPU video HW company. Now if nothing else should scare people, if the rumor is true, this should put an end to any competitor that Corona may have.
Just saying, and with the usual traditional GameSala sou-chef, this will be edited.
Jen.
GS has a lot of potential. Just hope they play their cards right.
What they do have is a stronger brand. They don't have such a negative reputation.
Also, why is GameSalad so spread out? Pick a location and stay there. Why do they need offices in LA, San Fransisco and Austin? That's a waste of money that should be directed toward marketing and development.
...and engineers are not exclusive to Silicon Valley. In this market, if you can't find talented workers, you're doing something wrong.
I'm your 'traditional GameSala sou-chef' (sic)
I'm glad to see you're playing the victim here. Quelle surprise!
Truth is, every post you've EVER made in the year you've been on the GameSalad forums has been to put down the software, and try and 'big-up' Corona.
EVERY. ONE.
Oh, except for one post when the roadmap was published. I guess you weren't feeling well that day, eh?
You have never asked for help with GameSalad. EVER. And in a year, you've never *made* anything with GameSalad.
That's probably why.
Something tells me you have no interest in making games. At all. So I have to wonder why you're here.
Then I look at all the posts you've made and it's boringly obvious.
I am banning you from the forums. I had some fun changing all your Corona rants and misdirections into 'I love GameSalad'. But I can't be arsed anymore. You're dull and predictable I'm afraid, and offer nothing of any use to GameSalad developers.
Because, you know, this is a GameSalad forum. Not the Corona one. Why don't you go there, eh? There's people on the CORONA forums that actually want to talk about Corona. Weird, eh?
I'm sure *some* people will yell "freedom of speech" and "I have a right to post what I want!"
Guess what? That doesn't apply here. Sorry 'n' all that.
So, it's been fun 'n' all, but I'm afraid I'm breaking up with you.
It's not me, it's you.
Love,
Sheepy
xxx And honestly, I have to wonder why. I've not seen any game made that couldn't be made with GS.
And the ones that I have played, that have that 'proudly made with Corona' sticker on them have been dull, prone to crashing all the time, bug ridden, and with IAP's have been gouging their customers for money.
I honestly believe that we will not see a *great* Corona game until Joe launches 'The Lost City'. He made the most successful GS game with Grisly Manor, and will repeat that success with his first Corona game.
Because, as I've said a million times, it's not the SDK you use, but the person behind the SDK.
This is a really great community most of the time. I'm proud to be a part of it. One way to repair GameSalad's reputation is to improve it ourselves by making better games.
QS
Also, an old saying springs to mind: a bad workman always blames his tools.
1 - Corona has had more notoriety. When a 14 year old kid tops the charts, it looks good for Corona. That's a good story and GameSalad doesn't really have the equivalent success story.
2 - Why is Joe not using GameSalad? He was top GameSalad developer. So, there must be some things that GameSalad can't do. Is this still from the fallout of GameSalad Direct?
3 - Carlos has more freedom to act and speak on his forum. GameSalad does not have the equivalent of Carlos. The founders here are not as visible anymore.
4 - There have been some big bumps in the road. GameSalad Direct hurt GameSalad and helped Corona. Carlos was pretty strategic at that moment. He saw weakness in a competitor and seized it.
Yet... both companies seem to have stalled in progress. Maybe there are big things going on behind the scenes, but it's not like there are any radical changes to make me rethink the way I work. Yet, why is Corona viewed as more productive? With Corona, you either pay for third-party plugins, or you work in a text editor. I don't understand how Corona has the better reputation.
EXCEPT... people respect code... like a magician that has a box of mirrors on a stage. But all that puffery and hidden doors is just a bunch of garbage to me. With GameSalad, the programming language is English. Computers are tools for humans, so they should speak the language of humans.
This stuff frustrates me. There is a reputation problem and making good games is not enough. For every great GameSalad game there is, another hundred or more bad games can appear. People don't usually blame Microsoft Word for all the bad novels in the world, or WordPress for bad blogs in the world. Yet, GameSalad is often viewed as the scourge of the iTunes app store.
Even Tshirtbooth, while trying to defend GameSalad, kinda made things worse.
"I agree that most GameSalad games are crap."
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=86586&page=14
That doesn't exactly instill confidence.
Also... when I do visit the Corona forums, it's like a Gamesalad family reunion. There are lots of people that had lots of enthusiasm for GameSalad... like Synthesis, Beyondthetech, peachpellen... but they're gone. So clearly, it's not just about hard work.
The iTunes app store is filled with a lot of bad apps, but Apple has created a way to reward quality. Is hard work rewarded here? What is GameSalad doing to encourage quality? What is it doing to attract talent?
Sure, we can work harder, but we're not the ones with a 6.1 million dollar investment. The only one that can truly save GameSalad is GameSalad!
Now all I see/read are mainly rants about this and that...that's why I chime in a bit here and there and post a non-related topic to see how true to the core people feel about things.
Now, people complained (including me) about GS being $2000 for pro with only iAds and URL forwarding.
Now that GS tool got better and GC is included...and FREE, people still complain
I've seen other SDK that will even allow you to export to Xbox and Wii...yet nobody is taking about them.
GS will eventually get out of Beta and 1.0 will be so cool everybody that left and new comes will never wanna leave again...yet people will still complain for some dumb 'feature' is missing and is not allowing them to make money.
If you're in it for the money, I suggest you hire a great graphic artist, a great story writer and an excellent coder (or in GS terms, a great Behavior component developer) and take the time to give it all your time and love to polish it and send it for QA like TSB and others have done to get a general consensus that agrees that indeed your game is great...otherwise, if you don't have money to invest in such a great game...then take your time to learn the SDK you like and have fun putting the pieces together until you feel you have created a masterpiece...at least this way if it fails, you'll be so happy and gained so much that you next game will be even better than your first masterpiece....just my humble opinion :P I just can't never argue with this sheepman...when he's right, he's right ^_^!
RD
Don't get me wrong though, I wouldn't mind if my games went all indie-success Tiny Wings on me though!
- Jeff
At the end of the day gamesalad needs some really good games WITH the gamesalad logo remaining to draw in a large enough crowd to bring it down to $200 so that they dont need to worry about not great games having the gs logo...(as much as they would with a $500/year subscription) but maintaining a much nicer income... i think a few people here now are working on their own something special so lets see what the summer brings..but whether or not they will be recognized as gamesalad games, especially with all this doubt and rumor of prejudice its not certain.
also photics did i read some sort of poem mentioning bot's submission?
edit: haiku
==
Machine gun blasting
Sword thrust bursts robo aflame
BOT app to review
==
/liability of derail
http://ios-game-reviewer.forumotion.com/t14-eli-hodapp-is-taking-money-under-the-table-folks
"Powered by" is not offensive to anyone because every car is powered by an engine so it is somewhat expected.
Giving users a choice between 2 or 4 seconds would have been elegant.
The splash they ended up implementing was too limited.
White does not work with everything and some apps are not games.
So in the end, they screwed up twice.
Once with the design and then again with the implementation.
A better splash and better forum software could go a long way
Here is the good part. One day, they will understand this and most people will be happy
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