GameSalad 0.9.7 - iOS Keyboard, Device Clock, and Debugger

YodapolloYodapollo Inactive, Chef Emeritus Posts: 447
edited November -1 in News from the Dev Team
GameSalad 0.9.7 is here!

In this latest update, we've introduced a number of new features, primarily focused enhancing development for iOS devices. We've opened up access to the iOS keyboard for text input functionality, as well as provided developers with access to the device clock. We've also built the first version of the GameSalad debugger.

iOS keyboard functionality has been a highly requested feature for some time, and it's very exciting that we're finally able to bring it to you. By allowing players to enter in custom text fields, developers can add an incredible amount of replayability and personal enjoyment to their titles.

Access to the device clock has also been highly requested and the sheer amount of options it opens up to developers made it an easy choice to integrate. Now, developers can build time specific unlockables and events, or even create day and night cycles within their games.

The final major feature introduced into 0.9.7 is the new debugger. Now, when developers playtest their game, they get a small window that tracks Game Attributes, allowing them to better detect and diagnose issues within their game before publishing. From this window, creators can immediately tell is boolean switches are being triggered, or if certain attributes are constraining properly.

In addition to the new features, GameSalad 0.9.7 also makes significant strides in our push toward 1.0 by eliminating a number of outstanding issues and bugs. Among the fixes are issues relating to crashes on iOS devices running 3.x versions of the iOS operating system as well as audio issues relating to Game Center integration.

For a full list of fixes and features, please check out the full Release Notes.

Helpful Links:

    Download GameSalad 0.9.7 Creator
    Download GameSalad 0.9.7 Viewer
    Read the Release Notes
    Tutorial on iOS Keyboard Functionality
    Tutorial on Device Clock Access
    Discuss GameSalad 0.9.7
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Comments

  • IsabelleKIsabelleK Member, Sous Chef Posts: 2,807
    Great update guys! I play with new features since last beta, and I love them :)
  • JohnPapiomitisJohnPapiomitis Member Posts: 6,256
    TheMoonwalls said:
    Great update guys! I play with new features since last beta, and I love them :)

    +1 been having alot of fun playin with the new features last couple weeks!
  • SparkyidrSparkyidr Member Posts: 2,033
    I just did a little bit of a wee when I read the debugger stuff.

    :)

    YAY!!!!!! 'bout time!
  • hdeandahdeanda Member, PRO Posts: 55
    Yay! Love it.
  • jonmulcahyjonmulcahy Member, Sous Chef Posts: 10,408
    Awesome!

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  • BlackbirdStudiosBlackbirdStudios Member Posts: 493
    That's great! Can't wait to get started with it! Did it fix the lion compatibility problem?
  • ChobbifaceChobbiface PRO Posts: 491
    This is perfect! I just needed clock access, great work!
  • RHRH Member Posts: 1,079
    debugger sounds awesome! gonna check it out now.
  • theCodeMonsterstheCodeMonsters Member Posts: 359
    Thank you guys so MUCH!!! All we need now is in-app purchasing and this will officially be the best Platform and the easiest to make iOS games! (And I'm sure non of us would mind some Push-Notifications ;)
  • PhoticsPhotics Member Posts: 4,172
    Yodapollo said:
    provided developers with access to the device clock.

    Wow... it's too neat. I thought there would be like a unix timestamp. Instead, it's broken down by category. That's useful for certain things, but that makes things harder for something like farmville. If I want to check that 60 minutes has past, that means I have to check for the minutes, hours, days and years to ensure a proper value.

    If I planted a tomato on December 10, 2011 as 12pm, and that data is saved... what happens if I return to the game a month later? If I'm just checking for the hour, and I return at 12pm, it's like nothing happened. If I just checked for the day, again... it's the 10th. It's as if nothing happened. If I check the month, it's now January... is the game going to be confused? Is it going to think that I went back in time?

    I realize that GameSalad wants to protect developers from scary coding, but this approach actually creates more work. A single time attribute would be better for game development.
    Yodapollo said:
    We've also built the first version of the GameSalad debugger.

    This isn't useful because it doesn't continuously update. Simply using Display Text is actually easier.

    Is everything OK over there? This was a long wait for just three minor additions. And of the two that I tested, they could have been done better.
  • theCodeMonsterstheCodeMonsters Member Posts: 359
    @Photics Dude. These may not be the best updates ever, but its just like iOS 5 for the iPhone. There going back and puttin in the features they should've had from the beginning. They're cleaning things up. And Besides its not even like they're out of beta yet. As soon as they are. THEN you can expect some serious new kick trash features.
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    About to play with the new features...It's like opening a birthday present!

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  • NesesitaGamesNesesitaGames Member Posts: 160
    This is SO awesome. Thank you, guys, for all your hard work! The iOS keyboard access is just what our new game needed!
  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,390
    thecodemonsters said:
    @Photics Dude. These may not be the best updates ever, but its just like iOS 5 for the iPhone. There going back and puttin in the features they should've had from the beginning. They're cleaning things up. And Besides its not even like they're out of beta yet. As soon as they are. THEN you can expect some serious new kick trash features.

    Well said.

    As im sure you and every other member of this forum is aware ... Photics is NEVER happy, about any new feature, anything implemented at all, its always neggy! Photics, i think you need a hug, a role model or some !@#$%!
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  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,390
    Oh and congrats guys, well done, im sure these features will be very handy ... the dreading update to come though when opening older projects that arent finished and bricking my pants in anticipation that it may break something ... eeek. haha
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  • PhoticsPhotics Member Posts: 4,172
    beefy_clyro said:
    Photics is NEVER happy, about any new feature

    Not true.

    Anyway... the device clock attributes can do what I think it should do. I just have to write a formula for converting the human-readable information into a Unix Time Stamp. Then once I have that formula, I can just cut-and-paste whenever I need it. Maybe I'll post an article about this on my site later today.
  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,390
    Photics said:
    Not true.

    Anyway... the device clock can do what I think it should do. I just have to write a formula for converting the human-readable information into a Unix Time Stamp. Then once I have that formula, I can just cut-and-paste whenever I need it. Maybe I'll post an article about this on my site later today.

    Haha come on ... sorta true right? almost always true ... right? ;)
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  • sdsmith64sdsmith64 Member Posts: 221
    where is the template/demo for device clock? I see the one for iOS keyboard functionality....
    great update by the way!!
  • PhoticsPhotics Member Posts: 4,172
    beefy_clyro said:
    Haha come on ... sorta true right? almost always true ... right? ;)

    I think if 0.9.7 had GameCenter Achievements... better OpenURL support (expressions and post/receive web data)... AdMob or some other alternative to iAds... launched better forum software... and got moving with the GameSalad Marketplace, my reaction today would be different.

    I don't like being the Piers Morgan of the GameSalad community, but this is how I see it. The Summer is almost over. GameSalad is supposed to be leaving beta, so I thought that we'd be seeing a lot more impressive updates by now.
  • MPCavMPCav Member, BASIC Posts: 81
    This is great news, thanks for the update.
  • giacomopoppigiacomopoppi Member, PRO Posts: 914
    Best update of the year! Well done GS! :)
  • BlackbirdStudiosBlackbirdStudios Member Posts: 493
    Photics said:
    I think if 0.9.7 had GameCenter Achievements... better OpenURL support (expressions and post/receive web data)... AdMob or some other alternative to iAds... launched better forum software... and got moving with the GameSalad Marketplace, my reaction today would be different.

    I don't like being the Piers Morgan of the GameSalad community, but this is how I see it. The Summer is almost over. GameSalad is supposed to be leaving beta, so I thought that we'd be seeing a lot more impressive updates by now.

    I agree with you, but I do think that we also have to take into consideration how hard it is to code a software that helps us avoid coding an iPhone App. People sometimes fall behind on schedules, it happens. I agree that those features should be ready, but I think that they cut back some on workforce as well, (I heard from someone who used to work at GS) so I'm sure that they're doing the best that they can.

    Cheers,

    -Matt
  • BackUpAndDownBackUpAndDown Member Posts: 685
    Awesome! I can't wait to try the new features out.

    Keep up the good work GS staff!
  • giacomopoppigiacomopoppi Member, PRO Posts: 914
    @Yodapollo Does the debugger only monitor game attributes or also actor attributes?

    Thanks,
    Giacomo.
  • youngster9youngster9 Member Posts: 326
    For the debugger will we need to put the behavior for it so that it will pop up or will it automatically track everything and we just need to open a window?
  • PhoticsPhotics Member Posts: 4,172
    BlackbirdStudios said:
    I agree that those features should be ready, but I think that they cut back some on workforce as well, (I heard from someone who used to work at GS) so I'm sure that they're doing the best that they can.

    WHAT?!
    Wow!

    I started working on a formula to convert the clock attributes into a unix timestamp. It's complicated. There are things like leap years... and leap seconds... to worry about. Instead of going back to 1/1/1970, it might be easier to just use the time that the player started playing.
  • MammothMammoth Member Posts: 640
    Is the sound bug fixed?
  • gyroscopegyroscope I am here.Member, Sous Chef, PRO Posts: 6,598
    Yoohoo and ha! Excellent stuff, thanks! :-)

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  • StormyStudioStormyStudio United KingdomMember Posts: 3,989
    woop woop....
  • PhoticsPhotics Member Posts: 4,172
    Wow... so adding clock attributes is not such a trivial task. Here's what I found out...

    While typing this post, I checked for a current unix timestamp. It was 1154899033. That's 1,154,899,033... over a billion seconds! GameSalad... it doesn't like numbers so high.

    If you enter 1000000000 into the expression editor of a display text, the result will be...

    1e+09

    What does that mean exactly? Well... I played with the debugger to better understand what was going on...

    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 10
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 1000
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 10000
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100000
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 1000000
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 10000000
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100000000
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 1000000000
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 10000000000
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 99999997952
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 999999995904
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 9999999827968
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100000000376832
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 999999986991104
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 10000000272564224
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 99999998430674944
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 999999984306749440
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 9999999980506447872
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100000002004087734272
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 1000000020040877342720
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 9999999778196308361216
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 99999997781963083612160
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 1000000013848427855085568
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 9999999562023526247432192
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100000002537764290115403776
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 999999988484154753734934528
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 9999999442119689768320106496
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100000001504746621987668885504
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 1000000015047466219876688855040
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 9999999848243207295109594873856
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100000003318135351409612647563264
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 999999994495727286427992885035008
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 9999999790214767953607394487959552
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 100000004091847875962975319375216640
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 999999961690316245365415600208216064
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 9999999933815812510711506376257961984
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): 99999996802856924650656260769173209088
    Log(Actor: Actor 1): inf

    Each row is supposed to be 10 times the one before it. GameSalad gets confused with a hundred billion. Perhaps the unix timestamp wasn't included because it's such a large number.

    If I make a farming game, I'll have to be creative in figuring out when plants decay or are ready for harvesting.
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