iGame Radio

GameSalad, Inc has announced a new publishing option for developers using the GameSalad Creator tool for iOS and Mac game development. GameSalad Accelerator pairs developers with established brands to publish games.

GameSalad Accelerator has launched with initial partnerships with R.R. Kidz, Famigo Games, and Boom! Studios. In fact, GameSalad and Boom! Studios have also announced the release of Stan Lee’s The Traveler in Split Second Mayhem, the premiere title of the Accelerator program. Split Second Mayhem was produced as a collaboration between GameSalad, Boom! Studios, and POW! Entertainment. Developed by D7 Studios, and published through GameSalad Accelerator, Split Second Mayhem is available on the App Store today.

In addition, independent GameSalad developers may submit their own original titles for publication under the Accelerator brand. Submitted titles will be reviewed for participation in the program.

For more information, developers can contact GameSalad and apply to join the Accelerator program through the GameSalad Accelerator website.

GameSalad has unveiled a new “Free to Make” subscription program for developers using the GameSalad Creator, a free, visual-based game creation software platform that enables any user to develop games without prior programming knowledge. Concurrent with this announcement is the release of GameSalad 0.9.0 Beta.

In the “Free to Make” model, a Basic subscription is offered for free. The Professional subscription includes everything in the Basic version, plus iAD functionality, promotional links, and priority tech support for developers, and costs $499 a year. Current Express and Pro users have the option of upgrading to this Professional membership level for only $99 for the first year. This “Legacy User Upgrade Offer” expires Dec 31, 2010.

For either subscription, developers will continue to publish games under their personal Apple iPhone Developer accounts, which will still be required in order to publish and test their iOS creations on Apple devices.

This new subscription model was launched concurrent with the GameSalad 0.9.0 Beta, which features a redesigned Dashboard and Pubishing Wizard. Gendai Games, creators of GameSalad, claim that users can now manage their online portfolios, get the latest GameSalad news, and submit their games to the App Store with significantly more speed and ease.

Both GameSalad 0.9.0 Beta and information about becoming a member are available from the GameSalad website.

UPDATE: Gendai Games has finally made an official and more comprehensive statement regarding this issue in both the forum thread and their company blog. They assure everyone that, after “extensive research”, they believe that everyone using the GameSalad tool should have no problem continuing to publish their games to the App Store. However, to secure this, they intend to release “updates to the GameSalad tool in the near future to further reinforce that clause 3.3.1 of the iPhone OS 4.0 Agreement will not be an issue for GameSalad or the developers who use it.”

GameSalad is the third major middleware game developer to possibly be affected by Thursday’s iPhone OS 4.0 announcement that included the controversial change to the developer agreement, “Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited”.

We’ve already talked with both Unity3D and GarageGames about their thoughts. So, where does GameSalad think they fall in the agreement?

Michael Agustin, CEO of Gendai Games, the developer of the GameSalad tool, told us that he, as other middleware developers, has not had any indication from Apple that anything has changed. Further, he stressed that if changes were necessary, Gendai Games would easily be able to make the alterations necessary.

“Gendai Games have always had a good relationship with Apple, and they have not indicated to us that things will change,” said, Michael Agustin. “GameSalad is architected in such a way that we anticipate no problems adhering to the iPhone PLA.”

However, if one looks on the GameSalad forums, one finds a slightly different story. The forum thread regarding this issue is, as of this story printing, eleven pages long, and shows no signs of slowing down. The posts within the thread contain all manner of speculation as to the fate of GameSalad, Gendai Games, and the games that these developers have created using the tool.

Two posts have been made by a representative of the company on the forum thread, and neither are quite so positive or reassuring. The second one, posted two days ago, says in part:

Another day, another few logs on the fire. Hurray for rivalries! Dunno if it’s much consolation, but our original 3 statements stand, with a slight modification.

1) We’re still looking into it.
2) We still don’t think it will be a problem.
3) We’re clever. And clever people always have a plan.

Well… it’s not technically true. Clever people don’t ALWAYS have a plan. But if they don’t, they can come up with them very quickly. Keep the faith!

We were surprised to see a more conservative and somewhat uneasy post by the company in the forums then what had been made to us. With something this controversial and frightening for the developers using the tool, we would have thought that a more comprehensive statement would have been made by now to the company blog or this forum thread. Regardless, we will keep you up to date regarding this controversial and fascinating topic.

Update: Unity’s CEO made an official comment on the Unity blog this afternoon regarding the situation and what Unity is doing about it.

Yesterday’s iPhone OS 4.0 announcement created great excitement about the possibilities for developers and users of the new iPhone OS. Who couldn’t be happy about accessing folders, multitasking applications, and a Game Center. The excitement was visceral…until the SDK posted and developers began looking at the new developer agreement. Like pouring ice water on a fire, the rage was quelled, and murmurings of worry began.

Specifically, this post by John Gruber, in which he pointed to a particular clause in the agreement, 3.3.1, which states:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

That last phrase, “Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited” is what you will see everyone quoting on forums and blogs around the Internet the past 24 hours. It calls into question many popular middleware tools, such as Torque 2D for the iPhone, Unity 3D, and GameSalad, and whether games developed using them would no longer be allowed on the App Store.

It’s popularly believed and echoed in many forums that this is a move specifically made by Apple to outlaw Flash on the iPhone. In truth, there is a Flash-to-iPhone tool that Adobe is debuting next Monday in Adobe Professional CS5. But Steve Jobs has long held that Flash degrades performance on the iPhone, and stated categorically yesterday in response to a question that there would be no Flash for the iPhone OS 4.0.

Developers have been flooding into forums wondering if they will have to stop using their favorite tools. More worrisome, some have implied or stated outright that they might be willing to ditch the iPhone and move onto Android development (curiously, we’ve not seen anyone mention Windows 7 development yet).

Unity Technologies’ Tom Higgins has adopted a wait and see attitude. “We don’t have enough information just yet to warrant any…response to the matter,” he said. “The main problem here is that while we can interpret the new agreement terms we really need to have a sit-down conversation with Apple to hash out details and get confirmation about their intent…”

He reminded everyone that “…in prior releases new terms were introduced then changed before the final release so nothing is set in stone just yet.”

Unity CEO David Helgason is also waiting for more from Apple. “We’ve had no indication from Apple things are going to change for Unity,” he said. “We have a great relationship with Apple and will do everything we can to comply with its terms of service so we can provide uninterrupted service to our more than 120,000 users.

Apple has not made an official statement yet regarding the interpretation of the clause, nor how it affects these middleware products. Speculation of what may happen runs the gamut from Apple targeting only Flash middleware to belief that Apple will pick and choose who to target. Universal hope is held that Apple will clarify the clause soon.

Gendai Games has announced the availability of an update to their GameSalad SDK that now supports game development and publishing to the iPad. GameSalad 0.8.4 is downloadable now, in time for the iPad release of April 3. Gendai Games intends that developers will be able to get current iPhone games updated in time to make them available the first few days of the iPad’s launch.

GameSalad allows developers to create games without having to have prior knowledge of programming code to do so. The tool’s features include a drag-and-drop interface, robust behavior system, and fully-integrated physics. Developers can then publish their games to the Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, and now iPad.

This build of GameSalad also includes a host of updates and new features as well. New features include interpolation of behavior for more flexible behavior modes and the ability to change scene behavior options to streamline scene transitions.

For more information, you can check out the GameSalad site.

Gendai Games, in conjunction with IDG and the Macworld Expo, announced the winner to the 2010 GameSalad Challenge. Stunt Squirrels by Fire Maple Games won the Grand Prize of the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge. Stunt Squirrels, a fun new physics puzzler, features blasting death-defying daredevil squirrels safely to a goal, while navigating tricky mazes and high-flying obstacles.

Joe Kaufmann of Fire Maple Games was interviewed by iGame Radio during the Macworld Expo. “GameSalad is hands-down my favorite new software! I have been able to create two popular iPhone apps in less than four weeks. This would have been absolutely impossible without GameSalad,” said Joe Kaufmann. “Being involved with the MacWorld 2010 GameSalad Challenge has been a truly great experience, and I am honored that I was able to take home the Grand Prize!”

The GameSalad Challenge itself involved participants from around the world sending entries in that had been developed using the GameSalad tool, which allows developers to create games for the iPhone, web, or Mac. All entries can be viewed and played at the GameSalad site.

In addition, Gendai Games announced several other categories, including audience favorite and judges’ favorite.

Audience Favorite: Bork’s Adventure by Elie Hang, Justin Knapich, and Ben Knapp, Stunt Squirrels by Fire Maple Games
Judges’ Favorite: Bork’s Adventure by Elie Hang, Justin Knapich, and Ben Knapp
Best International Submission: Stairs by Strobanik

From the press release:

Special thanks to our judges: Michael Agustin (Gendai Games), Jakob Wilkenson (Aurora Feint), Omaha Sternberg (iGame Radio), Zachary Waibel (Tricky Software), and Sean Vanaman (Telltale Games), Peter Cohen (The Loop).

Stunt Squirrels, and two other entrants, Kill the King and Traffic Ninja, are available now on the App Store.

You can hear all of the interviews of the developers who attended the GameSalad Challenge by clicking on the link!

 

The final day’s interviews from the floor of Macworld 2010 is now available.

What’s inside this episode:

• An exclusive interview with the finalists of the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge that attended Macworld. Including Joe Kaufman, developer of Stunt Squirrels, Elie Hang and Justin Knappich who developed Bork’s Adventures, and Steven Hoffman who developed Traffic Ninja.

The Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge finalists have been announced. Hosted by Gendai Games, creators of the web-based iPhone and Mac game development tool GameSalad, the Challenge encouraged participants to submit games created using the tool for judging by individuals from the Mac and gaming communities (including yours truly).

The Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge Finalists are:

BORK’S ADVENTURE by Elie Hang, Justin Knapich, and Ben Knapp.
THE CAT RIDES THE ASTROBUS by Drew Daycross and Jamie Potter.
KILL THE KING by Eastbound Studios.
STUNT SQUIRRELS by Fire Maple Games.
TRAFFIC NINJA by Steve Hoffman.

Judges for the contest included Michael Agustin of Gendai Games, Jason Citron of Aurora Feint, Omaha Sternberg (I wonder who that could be??), Zachary Waibel of Tricky Software, and Sean Vanaman of Telltale Games. All five finalists’ games are available to play free on GameSalad, but three of the five have already launched completed version on the App Store: Kill The King, Stunt Squirrels and Traffic Ninja.

“I was really impressed at the diversity present in the submissions for the GameSalad Challenge,” said [the incredibly smart and fantastic looking] judge Omaha Sternberg, producer of the iGame Radio Podcast. “There were some real creative ideas in game design, art, and sound. There are budding game developers growing in the GameSalad community.”

The GameSalad development team will be exhibiting at Macworld Expo next week. All attendees can also stop by the GameSalad Bar, booth #1478, to play the finalists’ games, attend the training session available on the GameSalad tool (including tips and tricks), and even participate in mini-game jam sessions held daily on the show floor. Winners of the game jams will receive a GameSalad Express Membership.

The Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge winner will be announced during an award ceremony at the GameSalad booth on Saturday, February 13th.

 

ETA: Apologies, everyone…with all the whirl prepping for Macworld, the wrong episode had been playing here. Fixed now.

What’s inside this episode:

• A review of the long awaited Bioshock, by Feral Interactive, the FPS that pits you against the insane inhabitants of the underwater city of Rapture, and their Little Sisters.
  
• Plus, a review of Crush the Castle, a strategy shooter of sorts for the iPhone. See yon castle fair? Now go beat it down with thy trebuchet in tiny bits!
  
• Finally, a review of Groovin’ Blocks, a musical puzzler that brings new life to old Tetris-clones worldwide. Bring ‘em down to the beat, and multiply your score. Because I love my C64. Well, that should have been one of the lyrics to the song, I think.
  

Show Notes:

• The trials and tribulations of being a Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge judge. Pity me.
• The Apple iPad. Did you think I’d talk about anything else? Oh, and the cool games we might see….Plants vs Zombies…oooooooooh….

Music Notes:

• Michael Hu-wong featured music on the show from Fizzball. You can get more information about Michael Hu-wong’s work from his site Game Noise.
• Steven Johnson featured music on the show from Escort Wing.

Now I can reveal an awesome piece of news, and on my birthday, too! I am one of the judges for the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge! Woot. Gendai Games CEO Michael Agustin asked me to judge a couple of weeks ago, but now that it’s confirmed, I can make an official announcement.

This means I’ll be participating in the judging of who knows how many cool games from all across the world, because the Challenge has also been opened up to international participants. I’ll be judging alongside Jason Citron of Aurora Feint and Zachary Waibel of Tricky Software. Jason is creator of a great social gaming system for the iPhone, and Zachary develops iPhone and Mac games, working on, among other things, Spore Origins for the iPhone.

I’m going to have a lot of fun with this. I’ll keep you updated as the Challenge progresses.