Game Salad!
Nov. 14th, 2010 01:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
errantemberSo I'm currently investigating this thing that lets non-progammers create iPhone and iPad games. It's called GameSalad, and in my few hours of estimate, it fucking rocks. The super-popular Angry Birds was made with it, and has sold millions of copies. It was at the very top of the iPhone chart for some time.
I started with a very simple Asteroids style game. You rotate, you shoot, you thrust, and you can teleport, just like the original. In about two hours, having never played with GameSalad before, I made the following changes:
o There are now two weapons. A slow-fire that shoots in four direction, and a fast fire that kicks the ship backwards slightly with every shot.
o A thruster sound effect and graphic, previously absent.
o Removed extra asteroids to make testing easier.
It's all point-and-click, and quite simple. While the fact that I have extensive programming experience certainly helps a bit, it's something anyone with a passion for making their own games could pick up, even if they had zero coding experience. And that's the point. You make a little change, you hit the Play button, you see if it does what you expect or not. It's definitely the coolest piece of technology I've seen in a long time, and it may well be my gateway to a new career.
I started with a very simple Asteroids style game. You rotate, you shoot, you thrust, and you can teleport, just like the original. In about two hours, having never played with GameSalad before, I made the following changes:
o There are now two weapons. A slow-fire that shoots in four direction, and a fast fire that kicks the ship backwards slightly with every shot.
o A thruster sound effect and graphic, previously absent.
o Removed extra asteroids to make testing easier.
It's all point-and-click, and quite simple. While the fact that I have extensive programming experience certainly helps a bit, it's something anyone with a passion for making their own games could pick up, even if they had zero coding experience. And that's the point. You make a little change, you hit the Play button, you see if it does what you expect or not. It's definitely the coolest piece of technology I've seen in a long time, and it may well be my gateway to a new career.
