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.

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 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.

 

ETA: Heard back from the developer regarding Gravity Sling, and I wanted to share some of his comments with you. My issues with lack of navigational information is not just mine alone, and he’s looking at tweaking the game to include something like that in an upcoming release. Also, no promises, but there might be a fast-forward feature so we don’t have to wait around to see if our astronaut crashes or not. Finally, the discrepancy regarding the OS requirements for Gravity Sling Lite and Gravity Sling Deluxe are because the Lite version has the In-app purchase feature, which requires OS 3.0 or later. That makes a lot of sense.

What’s inside this episode:

• An interview with Michael Agustin of Gendai Games about the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge. Make a game, win an iPod Touch.
• Also, a review of Magician’s Handbook II: Blacklore by Red Marble Games. Not just another hidden object game, this is a title to play with your kids. Even lack of replayability doesn’t get in the way.
  
• Plus, a review of Hanged by Freeverse. What happened to those lovers? What was in that letter? Did she really hang him? And, boy, do those water droplets look awesome!
  
• Finally, a review of Gravity Sling by RipTide Games. Send your astronaut round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and…well, you get the idea. But, hey, the orbits look amazing!
  

Show Notes:

• Top ten lists of the year: why they suck.
• Modern Warfare 2 gets two awards: Most sales during launch and most pirated game of 2009. Wait, you can have both?

After a week off, I’m back now so that I can play catch-up. I figure I’ll be done playing catch-up just in time to have another week off. ;-)

While I was out, Gendai Games announced the launch of their GameSalad membership program. This is a two-tiered membership program that CEO Michael Agustin talked a bit about in his interview with me recently where members can publish their games developed using GameSalad to the iPhone. The cost of the Express membership is $99 per year, intended for casual and prosumers, while the Pro membership, intended for studios and pro developers, is $1999. I question why anyone who is a “casual” developer would pay $99 per year, but there it is.

For those unfamiliar with GameSalad, this development tool allows folks to create their own games without knowing an ounce of programming code. All one needs is the design ideas for their game, although a developer can upload their own art assets and even tweak the code as necessary. GameSalad Creator is downloaded to develop custom games, GameSalad Viewer is an iPhone app that is used to view the game’s action on an iPhone in real-time through a wireless connection without having to use an Xcode build, and the iPhone export service is, well, self-explanatory.

GameSalad gives access to game developers to a community of developers and experts to rely on for help, as well as interactive media for resources.

Click here for a video of GameSalad in action.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• An interview with Michael Agustin, CEO of Gendai Games about the iPhone Early Access Program for GameSalad, a series of iPhone development tools for using GameSalad to publish your games for the iPhone.
• Also, a review of Sprouts, a lite Sim game by Reflexive Entertainment. Or is it a fast-paced time management game? You decide.
• And a review of Rainbow Web II for the iPhone. Sugar Games’ sequel for the Mac hits the iPhone, courtesy of Big Fish Games.