@CodeWizard I have a question that seems to be unanswered in this thread and in the terms and conditions;
What happens to our data that has been uploaded to our account on the publishing server if we cancel a basic or pro subscription?
Up until now it looks like data retention has been unlimited which has been a great thing.
A scenario:
1. A user buys basic or pro and use that for some time and uploads their creations to the publishing portal.
2. The user cancels the subscription (and no longer use GameSalad for X months)
3. The same user comes back months later and buys basic or pro again - will that users content still be available on the publishing server?
Wow!! I take a day out at hospital, to let doctors poke things up my bottom while students watch, and when I get back ...a new explosive thread appears!!
Again.... Wow!! Huge news from GS... taken a while to read through it all and digest, but overall, I have to say its mostly long overdue and good news as far as Im concerned.
Firstly... congrats on getting rid of Steve... whether he left of his own accord, or was forced out doesn't really matter. The fact that he's gone is enough. I think most of the awful decisions and u-turns that have cost GS dearly over the past 3-4 years have been down to Mr.Felter.
Having worked at a couple of game studios in the past that were destroyed by the decisions of CEOs that thought they were brought in to run the companies for the gains of shareholders, over creating a good product, I have a lot of sympathy for the staff that have had to work under such management and the sudden and often puzzling changes in strategy that they force down the line. Hopefully the company politics that GS has so obviously been suffering, can now end, and a new more stable future begin.
I have high hopes now that GS is under the control of people that have a Games Software background...
Secondly... New pricing structure. Works for me. Not a lot to say
Thirdly... Graphene, being put on hold... Hmmm... I was quite vocal about my worries and concerns for GS when Graphene was announced... so I have mixed feelings on this. I still believe it was dangerous to split limited resources, but glad that when push came to shove, continued development of the current GS engine has taken priority. It does bring up further concerns though as to how damaging the split and developing of two platforms has been to the company...
On a good note though... hopefully with the priority now back onto the GameSalad engine we should expect to see many of the long requested interface and tool features start to appear... snap to grid, multiple copy and paste of actors, layer controls, not having to open up an actor to edit its co-ordinates etc etc etc. Or will excuses continue as to why the editor interface cannot be brought out of the Dark Ages?
But yup... big big news overall...
I just hope this is finally where GS turns itself around, and not its last stand. Theres been lots of changes, bad decisions and incidents that have seriously dented the companies image and trust amongst developers... this NEEDs to be different, and not just another upheaval for the user base to have to contend with. I fear that for many, it could be too much... but I for one think its been a long time coming, and wish the team well under the new management.
Now to renew Pro... and take some more painkillers (for the injury, not to numb the shock of the news)
Would be nice if Basic users can only publish to the arcade that GS do something to make sure they can hear the games sounds. Pro as well I guess I'm just saying the Arcade was my only publishing platform make the Arcade work better for them.
I have definitely seen excellent progress and focus on the Creator I am so grateful to GS for doing this...as far as Graphene on hold....it was something to look forward to but no loss to me anyways. I can tell you is it ever does come out and I can only use it for 15 days that would be a bummer...but in reality I bought Creator with no free use before I purchased it...I decided to learn it so I bought it. Same thing with my Apple account...didn't even have a game yet but got the account.
Maybe GS should have the 15 day challenge as well.
If the only publishing option for Basic paying subscribers is Arcade, then it needs some love and attention... ideally it needs to be a true, fully working HTML5 publishing option, otherwise it really doesn't make much sense.
Why would people pay to only be able to publish to a hobbled target platform? Just doesn't make sense.
Maybe it will be the driving force to get proper HTML5 publishing working?
@Chunkypixels said:
Oh... and yup... like others have said....
If the only publishing option for Basic paying subscribers is Arcade, then it needs some love and attention... ideally it needs to be a true, fully working HTML5 publishing option, otherwise it really doesn't make much sense.
Why would people pay to only be able to publish to a hobbled target platform? Just doesn't make sense.
Maybe it will be the driving force to get proper HTML5 publishing working?
The arcade adds very little value. It would be better to take it back behind the barn and shoot it and focus all efforts on the GS creator instead.
@Chunkypixels said:
Oh... and yup... like others have said....
If the only publishing option for Basic paying subscribers is Arcade, then it needs some love and attention... ideally it needs to be a true, fully working HTML5 publishing option, otherwise it really doesn't make much sense.
Why would people pay to only be able to publish to a hobbled target platform? Just doesn't make sense.
Maybe it will be the driving force to get proper HTML5 publishing working?
They will actually pay to use the Software itself, which is totally legitimate IMO.
What bother me the most is how long GS will stand... I don't mind paying, even if it was more, but I'd like to invest my time in something that's gonna be there for a long time.
@Armelline said ...It would seem that all of these things need some love and attention if Basic is only going to be allowed Arcade publishing!
I totally agree, it's all been needed to be addressed for some time and now that that will be the only publishing options for basic users I truly hope all of those items are addressed and quickly, in particular the full HTML5 publishing that (hopefully) would not be tied to only the arcade.
@Socks said:
My plan was to flood the MarketPlace with very low quality Flappy Bird templates and use the money to get back onto Pro, but looks like the MarketPlace might not be happening now, or at least not in the same form (third party hook up?) - so I'm going to have to work the streets again, I said I would never go back, but it's that or sell my collection of faberge eggs.
So what is happening to the Marketplace? I got an email about it but I'm not sure I can post that here. If the Marketplace really closes I would be very disappointed. I loved making artwork and templates next to my own games the most. And it gave me some nice extra money. I don't really care if (I say if) gamesalad costs more. As long as I can get that money back from selling stuff. Making games is (next to my hobby) also my business. Is there a post about the marketplace somewhere? I can't find it... cheers!
@MarcMySalad said:
The arcade adds very little value. It would be better to take it back behind the barn and shoot it and focus all efforts on the GS creator instead.
+1 Absolutely my feelings too, concentrate on the core product.
I don't think I'm telling tales out of school when I say Graphene wasn't a split as the guy doing 99% of the coding on it is now the CEO. It's very promising software yet still a ways away. I would suspect the hold is based on the fact the main architect is pretty busy shaping the company to his vision and that is priority one. I'm very confident @Codewizard will prove @Chunkypixels wrong with Graphene as seeing is believing
I understand gamesalad's decision regarding revenue goals. My third pro membership just expired, and wanted to wait to go pro again when the features I need are available in the stable build. With graphene still far away from release, and the limited options gamesalad still has, including features that were planned but take to much time to come out, I think it is time for me to move on to Unity 5. I will stick around for a while, but most probably I will leave this community in the near future... I will see how everything goes.
@francis.charland@videotron.ca if you were to ask my wife how long Ive been bitching about the bad decisions GameSalad has made, and how long Ive been worried that they won't last another year... well... she'd tell you its been around 5 years...
...and they're still here. Just about...
Doesn't stop me worrying about it... and the 5+ years I have invested... but in the end, no software tool is safe and gonna be around forever.
GS definitely know how to play a dangerous game though... but hopefully the new management, and change in direction is finally going to change all that, and bring more trust, a better tool, more stability and more profits to the company. If it doesn't, then at least my wife probably won't have to listen to me bemoaning GameSalads sudden and often baffling changes in direction for another 5 years...
@Chunkypixels said:
francis.charland@videotron.ca if you were to ask my wife how long Ive been bitching about the bad decisions GameSalad has made, and how long Ive been worried that they won't last another year... well... she'd tell you its been around 5 years...
...and they're still here. Just about...
Doesn't stop me worrying about it... and the 5+ years I have invested... but in the end, no software tool is safe and gonna be around forever.
GS definitely know how to play a dangerous game though... but hopefully the new management, and change in direction is finally going to change all that, and bring more trust, a better tool, more stability and more profits to the company. If it doesn't, then at least my wife probably won't have to listen to me bemoaning GameSalads sudden and often baffling changes in direction for another 5 years...
Lol, I totally understand that. Let's head for another 5 + years!
@francis.charland@videotron.ca said:
They will actually pay to use the Software itself, which is totally legitimate IMO.
Existing members/users, maybe?! But I don't think new members are going to pay and sign up just to use the software itself, paying little attention to the publishing options. One of the things I look at when looking at similar development packages is what my publishing options are.
If I came to GameSalad as a new visitor/developer and saw I had to pay $19 a month and for that I could only publish to the GameSalad Arcade I'm almost unlikely to invest any time or money in GameSalad.
I don't have a problem with the Pro account and I may upgrade to it again after August (the full year, not monthly payments) I just don't see the basic account working or enticing many newcomers to GameSalad
Does strike me as a tad ironic that the month Apple finally lets us develop and test for free to our hearts content on all our fruity devices GS once again throws a mega curve ball which bucks the “take as long as you want to learn… it’s free” trend of all major/minor/totally-obscure development toolsets.
I have always thought a sensible pay to publish to stores solution made the most sense but it seems a real shame that all the young enthusiasts will now fall off the GS boat as the tool stops working after 15 days.
@jamie_c said:
. . . now that that will be the only publishing options for basic users) . . .
It will cost a basic user just $10 to publish to iOS, if you are working with Basic you need only to find an additional $10 to publish to iOS, saving people $10 (whilst simultaneously removing any monetisation options) shouldn't really be reason enough to divert GS resources away from Creator in my own opinion.
@socks said ...shouldn't really be reason enough to divert GS resources away from Creator in my own opinion.
I understand what you're saying BUT if the company is promoting a product as being able to successfully publish games as HTML5 it should work well as expected, just like publishing to iOS, Android or any other platform. If a new Basic user signs on, tries to publish to HTML5 and has problems, why would they think iOS or other platforms would be any more successful?
@The_Gamesalad_Guru ...nothing to really prove me wrong about... I voiced concerns that diverting assets to creating a secondary development platform might not be such a great idea, when the company already had a very good one that still needed issues fixing.
Im in no doubt that Graphene could very well turn out to be something amazing... Im just glad that sense has prevailed and making GameSalad better has become the priority.
Like I said though...I have mixed feelings... so Im not 100% one way or the other with regards to Graphene. It had many features I would have loved to have seen in GameSalad. But it just didn't seem to make sense from a commercial standpoint... one or the other would have suffered for the other to survive and grow. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that having two platforms in development at the same time probably didn't do anything to help with internal company politics...
No point scoring... no need to prove anyone wrong...
@KevinCross said:
I don't have a problem with the Pro account and I may upgrade to it again after August (the full year, not monthly payments) I just don't see the basic account working or enticing many newcomers to GameSalad
Which sadly tells how the company really need those subscriptions to keep going.
@The_Gamesalad_Guru just to clarify a related point.. Unity 3D Personal is free to publish as long as you make less than 100k.. I know they must be crazy.
@jamie_c said:
I understand what you're saying BUT if the company is promoting a product as being able to successfully publish games as HTML5 it should work well as expected . . . .
I suppose what I am saying is what @MarcMySalad was saying, maybe they shouldn't, maybe they should sideline Arcade/HTML5, or better force it into a bag, kicking and screaming, and throw it over a cliff . . . the core product seems to me to be mobile gaming/app focused Creator, if there are now calls to improve the Arcade then that necessarily means focus and resources, once more, switches away from Creator, so after years of dreaming for really pretty basic improvements (I'm no longer talking about custom fonts and joints, but issues like not having a white default text colour or actors being placed on sub-pixel positions and so on), the wait would continue as Arcade is rebuilt for XXX months, and undoubtedly something else will come up in those XXX months (iPad pro new resolution, new split screen modes from Apple, new publishing requirements from the App Store . . etc) which will see the focus kept away from Creator.
@jamie_c said:
If a new Basic user signs on, tries to publish to HTML5 and has problems, why would they think iOS or other platforms would be any more successful?
Agreed, it's a bad advert for GS to have a poorly functioning Arcade.
Comments
Yearly subscription still exists, just like before.
Yes you are correct. I expressed that wrongly. I meant you can pay yearly if you choose to or monthly and you are not tied to a yearly subscription.
Free Mini Games and Demo Templates
Thanks for clarifying @neoman and @Socks
@CodeWizard when that free trial period starts...i mean after update to Mac Stable Release 0.13.26 . or is it already started
You beat me to it socks. I was gonna say unity is not free either.
Guru Video Channel | Lost Oasis Games | FRYING BACON STUDIOS
Wow! Nice move on the monthly basis! Been waiting for that.
TQ Gamesalad, you guys are awesome.
@CodeWizard I have a question that seems to be unanswered in this thread and in the terms and conditions;
What happens to our data that has been uploaded to our account on the publishing server if we cancel a basic or pro subscription?
Up until now it looks like data retention has been unlimited which has been a great thing.
A scenario:
1. A user buys basic or pro and use that for some time and uploads their creations to the publishing portal.
2. The user cancels the subscription (and no longer use GameSalad for X months)
3. The same user comes back months later and buys basic or pro again - will that users content still be available on the publishing server?
@CodeWizard Sent you an email.
By the way the link to the "Learn More" basic account isn't working when pressing it from: https://gamesalad.com/upgrade#/
When on the https connection the link to the "Learn More" page link is: https://gamesalad.com/creator/basic
Removing the s from http works:
http://gamesalad.com/creator/basic
Wow!! I take a day out at hospital, to let doctors poke things up my bottom while students watch, and when I get back ...a new explosive thread appears!!
Again.... Wow!! Huge news from GS... taken a while to read through it all and digest, but overall, I have to say its mostly long overdue and good news as far as Im concerned.
Firstly... congrats on getting rid of Steve... whether he left of his own accord, or was forced out doesn't really matter. The fact that he's gone is enough. I think most of the awful decisions and u-turns that have cost GS dearly over the past 3-4 years have been down to Mr.Felter.
Having worked at a couple of game studios in the past that were destroyed by the decisions of CEOs that thought they were brought in to run the companies for the gains of shareholders, over creating a good product, I have a lot of sympathy for the staff that have had to work under such management and the sudden and often puzzling changes in strategy that they force down the line. Hopefully the company politics that GS has so obviously been suffering, can now end, and a new more stable future begin.
I have high hopes now that GS is under the control of people that have a Games Software background...
Secondly... New pricing structure. Works for me. Not a lot to say
Thirdly... Graphene, being put on hold... Hmmm... I was quite vocal about my worries and concerns for GS when Graphene was announced... so I have mixed feelings on this. I still believe it was dangerous to split limited resources, but glad that when push came to shove, continued development of the current GS engine has taken priority. It does bring up further concerns though as to how damaging the split and developing of two platforms has been to the company...
On a good note though... hopefully with the priority now back onto the GameSalad engine we should expect to see many of the long requested interface and tool features start to appear... snap to grid, multiple copy and paste of actors, layer controls, not having to open up an actor to edit its co-ordinates etc etc etc. Or will excuses continue as to why the editor interface cannot be brought out of the Dark Ages?
But yup... big big news overall...
I just hope this is finally where GS turns itself around, and not its last stand. Theres been lots of changes, bad decisions and incidents that have seriously dented the companies image and trust amongst developers... this NEEDs to be different, and not just another upheaval for the user base to have to contend with. I fear that for many, it could be too much... but I for one think its been a long time coming, and wish the team well under the new management.
Now to renew Pro... and take some more painkillers (for the injury, not to numb the shock of the news)
I called it...Basic and Pro Versions ! :-)
Would be nice if Basic users can only publish to the arcade that GS do something to make sure they can hear the games sounds. Pro as well I guess I'm just saying the Arcade was my only publishing platform make the Arcade work better for them.
I have definitely seen excellent progress and focus on the Creator I am so grateful to GS for doing this...as far as Graphene on hold....it was something to look forward to but no loss to me anyways. I can tell you is it ever does come out and I can only use it for 15 days that would be a bummer...but in reality I bought Creator with no free use before I purchased it...I decided to learn it so I bought it. Same thing with my Apple account...didn't even have a game yet but got the account.
Maybe GS should have the 15 day challenge as well.
Complete Guide to iOS Publishing {} Complete Guide to Mac Publishing
Oh... and yup... like others have said....
If the only publishing option for Basic paying subscribers is Arcade, then it needs some love and attention... ideally it needs to be a true, fully working HTML5 publishing option, otherwise it really doesn't make much sense.
Why would people pay to only be able to publish to a hobbled target platform? Just doesn't make sense.
Maybe it will be the driving force to get proper HTML5 publishing working?
@CodeWizard Any chance of an official update on the plans for the state of Arcade?
It would seem that all of these things need some love and attention if Basic is only going to be allowed Arcade publishing!
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support
The arcade adds very little value. It would be better to take it back behind the barn and shoot it and focus all efforts on the GS creator instead.
They will actually pay to use the Software itself, which is totally legitimate IMO.
What bother me the most is how long GS will stand... I don't mind paying, even if it was more, but I'd like to invest my time in something that's gonna be there for a long time.
I totally agree, it's all been needed to be addressed for some time and now that that will be the only publishing options for basic users I truly hope all of those items are addressed and quickly, in particular the full HTML5 publishing that (hopefully) would not be tied to only the arcade.
http://jamie-cross.net/posts/ ✮ Udemy: Introduction to Mobile Games Development ✮ Learn Mobile Game Development in One Day Using Gamesalad ✮ My Patreon Page
So what is happening to the Marketplace? I got an email about it but I'm not sure I can post that here. If the Marketplace really closes I would be very disappointed. I loved making artwork and templates next to my own games the most. And it gave me some nice extra money. I don't really care if (I say if) gamesalad costs more. As long as I can get that money back from selling stuff. Making games is (next to my hobby) also my business. Is there a post about the marketplace somewhere? I can't find it... cheers!
Ow, and @CodeWizard congratulations!
Lump Apps and My Assets
+1 Absolutely my feelings too, concentrate on the core product.
I don't think I'm telling tales out of school when I say Graphene wasn't a split as the guy doing 99% of the coding on it is now the CEO. It's very promising software yet still a ways away. I would suspect the hold is based on the fact the main architect is pretty busy shaping the company to his vision and that is priority one. I'm very confident @Codewizard will prove @Chunkypixels wrong with Graphene as seeing is believing
Guru Video Channel | Lost Oasis Games | FRYING BACON STUDIOS
I understand gamesalad's decision regarding revenue goals. My third pro membership just expired, and wanted to wait to go pro again when the features I need are available in the stable build. With graphene still far away from release, and the limited options gamesalad still has, including features that were planned but take to much time to come out, I think it is time for me to move on to Unity 5. I will stick around for a while, but most probably I will leave this community in the near future... I will see how everything goes.
@francis.charland@videotron.ca if you were to ask my wife how long Ive been bitching about the bad decisions GameSalad has made, and how long Ive been worried that they won't last another year... well... she'd tell you its been around 5 years...
...and they're still here. Just about...
Doesn't stop me worrying about it... and the 5+ years I have invested... but in the end, no software tool is safe and gonna be around forever.
GS definitely know how to play a dangerous game though... but hopefully the new management, and change in direction is finally going to change all that, and bring more trust, a better tool, more stability and more profits to the company. If it doesn't, then at least my wife probably won't have to listen to me bemoaning GameSalads sudden and often baffling changes in direction for another 5 years...
Lol, I totally understand that. Let's head for another 5 + years!
Existing members/users, maybe?! But I don't think new members are going to pay and sign up just to use the software itself, paying little attention to the publishing options. One of the things I look at when looking at similar development packages is what my publishing options are.
If I came to GameSalad as a new visitor/developer and saw I had to pay $19 a month and for that I could only publish to the GameSalad Arcade I'm almost unlikely to invest any time or money in GameSalad.
I don't have a problem with the Pro account and I may upgrade to it again after August (the full year, not monthly payments) I just don't see the basic account working or enticing many newcomers to GameSalad
Does strike me as a tad ironic that the month Apple finally lets us develop and test for free to our hearts content on all our fruity devices GS once again throws a mega curve ball which bucks the “take as long as you want to learn… it’s free” trend of all major/minor/totally-obscure development toolsets.
I have always thought a sensible pay to publish to stores solution made the most sense but it seems a real shame that all the young enthusiasts will now fall off the GS boat as the tool stops working after 15 days.
It will cost a basic user just $10 to publish to iOS, if you are working with Basic you need only to find an additional $10 to publish to iOS, saving people $10 (whilst simultaneously removing any monetisation options) shouldn't really be reason enough to divert GS resources away from Creator in my own opinion.
I understand what you're saying BUT if the company is promoting a product as being able to successfully publish games as HTML5 it should work well as expected, just like publishing to iOS, Android or any other platform. If a new Basic user signs on, tries to publish to HTML5 and has problems, why would they think iOS or other platforms would be any more successful?
http://jamie-cross.net/posts/ ✮ Udemy: Introduction to Mobile Games Development ✮ Learn Mobile Game Development in One Day Using Gamesalad ✮ My Patreon Page
@The_Gamesalad_Guru ...nothing to really prove me wrong about... I voiced concerns that diverting assets to creating a secondary development platform might not be such a great idea, when the company already had a very good one that still needed issues fixing.
Im in no doubt that Graphene could very well turn out to be something amazing... Im just glad that sense has prevailed and making GameSalad better has become the priority.
Like I said though...I have mixed feelings... so Im not 100% one way or the other with regards to Graphene. It had many features I would have loved to have seen in GameSalad. But it just didn't seem to make sense from a commercial standpoint... one or the other would have suffered for the other to survive and grow. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that having two platforms in development at the same time probably didn't do anything to help with internal company politics...
No point scoring... no need to prove anyone wrong...
Which sadly tells how the company really need those subscriptions to keep going.
@The_Gamesalad_Guru just to clarify a related point.. Unity 3D Personal is free to publish as long as you make less than 100k.. I know they must be crazy.
I suppose what I am saying is what @MarcMySalad was saying, maybe they shouldn't, maybe they should sideline Arcade/HTML5, or better force it into a bag, kicking and screaming, and throw it over a cliff
. . . the core product seems to me to be mobile gaming/app focused Creator, if there are now calls to improve the Arcade then that necessarily means focus and resources, once more, switches away from Creator, so after years of dreaming for really pretty basic improvements (I'm no longer talking about custom fonts and joints, but issues like not having a white default text colour or actors being placed on sub-pixel positions and so on), the wait would continue as Arcade is rebuilt for XXX months, and undoubtedly something else will come up in those XXX months (iPad pro new resolution, new split screen modes from Apple, new publishing requirements from the App Store . . etc) which will see the focus kept away from Creator.
Agreed, it's a bad advert for GS to have a poorly functioning Arcade.
#KillArcade