New CEO Introduction
bdusing
Member, PRO Posts: 2
Hello everyone! I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Brent Dusing, and as you guys have heard, I'm the new CEO here at GameSalad.
I know there have been questions about the future of GameSalad and what our education focus means to you. Here’s some info about what we’re currently working on and plan to do.
CodeWizard is continuing to work with GameSalad, and as you might have seen in his post, we’re hoping to have a test build within the next week or so that will fix the slowdown issues on the latest Mac OS.
Alongside hiring, we’re building a curriculum to help educators teach GameSalad in the classroom, and it will be ready for when schools start up again. GameSalad, as it sits minus the slowdown, is a great tool for educators and really fills a niche in the market in a couple of ways:
- GameSalad is great for teaching coding concepts and problem solving skills without all the syntax of code.
- GameSalad is very easy to get started with and use, especially with a little guidance from a teacher.
Even though we’re going to be more focused on education and providing for / selling to schools, we won’t forget about our awesome community and developers. We have plans to fix any major issues in Creator itself as well as maintaining support for the 3rd party SDK’s etc.
Although we won’t be working short term on Facebook integration or other larger features that mainly benefit just developers, the features that we will be working on will benefit you guys just as much as education users. To give you some ideas about our development priorities, here’s a couple near the top:
- Fix the performance issues that have arisen in the Mac version. This means the horrible slowdown that El Capitan 10.11.5 introduced and beachballing that occurs when opening large actors.
- General usability improvements. Some examples include basic things like snap-to-grid and zoom.
I hope this helps put your minds at ease, and feel free to ask questions! I’ll try to get to them when I have time today.
Comments
Welcome and good to hear!
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Welcome! Nice!
Welcome, Brent! Great to have you on board and looking forward to seeing how things develop!
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Awesome news!
Welcome, sir!
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Couple of questions:
Will users be recompensed for the two or more weeks they've been unable to use GameSalad? I luckily didn't upgrade but many did and have paid for weeks of being unable to use the software. I'm not suggesting a blanked gifting of weeks, but something is surely necessary here.
This one is perhaps more for @CodeWizard. The Facebook integration was in a nightly. Is it that much work to shift that code over to the current stable version?
As someone who spends a lot of time teaching GameSalad (admittedly to adult students rather than kids) there are a whole bunch of things I'd recommend changing to make it an easier tool to learn and use for beginners. Is it worth me writing them out, or would they just go into a black hole?
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Welcome aboard. @bdusing
I'm all for improvements to the UI/usability, so long as we get continued updates to support the newest OS's both for the creator and for publishing. It sounds like that will be the case.
Looking forward to see what's in store for Gamesalad.
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Welcome, hope all goes smoothly.
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@bdusing
nice one I love the fresh energy that comes out of that statement also that we Indie Devs. do not get pushed away as this is my job since 3 years now full time any other decision would mean the end of my carrier. (going back as hired game designer or become the best pizza baker of Germany)
Also stability and usability sound perfect, as well keeping the monetisation sdks up to date so we can keep making money, which also will be additional motivation for students for sure.
Welcome on board Brent!
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Hi,
Welcome sir.......
A couple of questions:
1) Compensation for the weeks that Game-Salad was unable to be used ?
2) @CodeWizard : What are the plans concerning the addition of Steam ( export to .exe ). Is this something Game Salad will finally implement? Yes or no?
3) What is the road-map going forward ( 3 - 6 Months ) ?
4) Is the current business model going to be remain the same? Or are there any changes regarding pricing going forward?
5) Will communication between some staff members and the community improve? We have good hard working staff members, but sometimes communication is not there.....
Well, I have more questions, but this is just a start.....once more, Welcome Brent.......God Bless...
Sincerely,
Sunday
I don't want to be the wet blanket here but...I guess I will anyway.
It looks like not much is in store for GameSalad. All that's been promised (of relevance to the majority of developers here, anyway) is that the current Creator will be fixed, and will continue to be 'fixed' in the future as updates in other software demand it.
I don't want to understate the value of snap-to-grid and zooming, those are great! But other than that, I see clear evidence that the future Creator will look just like the present Creator.
I don't understand how 'features' for education will be inherently different from features in general, unless they aren't truly features at all.
I've seen this cycle in the community where we get really happy and excited when an announcement of any kind is made...but then there's silence from on high, creating a nervous energy that quickly turns into vocal unrest. Finally, someone steps out of the office to share a few words and all is great again. Wait a week and repeat.
Thank you and welcome!
I understand you will be focusing on education which is fine.
Please advise if you will ever focus any time into Google Play Services. There's workarounds for everything else, but this is really the only thing holding back my games from being fully complete and competitive.
Why teach students Apple and Amazon leaderboards and such but not Google? It may be a better selling point to educators if you have a fully functional and compatible tool first.
You're right, but my expectations are low. I've been around here for 5 yrs, I know how things go.
But to me as long as the software continues to stick around and I can use it how I can right now, that's good enough. With UI improvments added on, even better!
There are many other Frameworks/SDK's/Engines vastly more supported and feature rich than Gamesalad, i'm sure Gamesalad knows this. I'm sure many other developers realize this as well. I'm sure most people know this. But for now I need to use Gamesalad, so this is good news to me.
If there current plans don't fit your current needs, go find another tool.
edit: And to add on to this, I can easily see how GS pivoting to a education market makes sense, I've learned plenty about coding logic and code structure from the tool. Even code syntax and operators for LUA and with custom collisions JSON formatting etc.
It's a nice tool to ease into that world.
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@bdusing Welcome ! This is great , i have a question, after your done with fixing performance issue and improving usability , will we ever get a chance to request new features as normal developers in the future ?
-Hey teacher?
-Yes Jimmy?
-Why can't I fully integrate my games into Google Play which is more than half of the smart phone market worldwide?
-Because GS doesn't care about that Jimmy, you will have to start studying Unity or other competitors' products instead.
-Well then I guess I will drop the class and switch to Unity 101
...
Two days later no one is in class and Gamesalad isn't selling at all and you have no backup money from the non-education pro users since you didn't look into their requests. Then you're livin on the streets.
In conclusion, to run a lucrative company, ensure the original goal is complete before shifting and abandoning all feature requests to try and sell it elsewhere.
sorry ranting
I didn't mean to attack you in my post, apologies if it read that way to you. It's always true that if a tool's current plans don't fit someone's needs, they should go find another tool. I don't dispute that fact but it shouldn't be a reason to not voice concerns or reactions, right?
I shouldn't have quoted you on looking forward to GameSalad's future, that must've sounded confrontational. I, too, am looking forward to GameSalad's future. Cheers!
@bdusing,
Welcome aboard, Brent. We are glad to hear from you.
I understand GS' focus on education given the potential market size and demographics, so the education angle is a natural fit. That said, we encourage you to actively listen to the existing developer base, which is smart, demanding of a quality platform, and eager to help as you may later read about the forum's voluntary beta testers.
You mentioned third-party support. Please keep this option on the table, as the existing community can come up with some great ideas; just search for forumer Manto's thread on a Level Editor for a recent example of what some good brains out there can do.
Finally, frequent periodic contact with the forum, even if just to say Hello, is most welcome.
Best of luck!
Marcos
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Welcome to the team Brent. Slip on your helmet, keep your hands inside the car at all times and hold on tight. This is gonna be the ride of your life.
@armelline As an experienced user, those thoughts would be great to hear! There's likely some overlap with our current ideas, but extra feedback is always welcomed. I'll have @ForumNinja reach out to you.
One of our new hires (Carlos) will be working with other staff members in the near future to create a Roadmap that will be visible for you guys. The two biggest priorities right now are:
There's been some discussion on changing pricing, but we haven't come to any decisions yet. The SaaS model will be staying.
We are aware that Google Play Game Services is the most voted for feature request, and as such we will look into implementing it in the future, but it will take some time since we have other development priorities to resolve first i.e the slowdown for El Capitan 10.11.5 users.
Yes. I’ve tasked @ForumNinja with being the main point of contact for the forums, so if you want us to see something be sure to tag him.
The fix for the slowdown in El Capitan seems to be the go-to space filler when asked about anything involving the future. The general understanding around here is that the slowdown will be resolved in about a week, so then what do we make of all the answers here that are focusing on it?
Thanks for the post @bdusing
My only questions for clarification would be
"maintaining support for the 3rd party SDK’s"
I'm assuming this means features that have already been given that we develop for and rely on won't get dropped as updates are needed to continue to support them? Such as (reward ads, Game Center, IAP, twitter, etc)
In other words we should have no fear of developing with a reliance on these things and having them disappear.
Second:
"Although we won’t be working short term on Facebook integration or other larger features"
by "short term" are you implying that this is just the focus for right now, yet once you get into more schools, get Gamesalad back on its feet, and make the creator more friendly for people to use, that it could likely be in your plans to go back to keeping it updated with features?
Lastly:
I would, alongside this community, encourage to remind you that keeping Gamesalad a competitive tool for developers to use is only going to benefit it as an educational tool. Both with a thriving community and more educational opportunities.
I know a number of high school students making professional quality games and seeking to make money. If Gamesalad is still a viable development tool, many of the students who take classes and fall in love with the software will convert to paying Pro users. However if it is not up to par, they will simply go to something like GameMaker, or Unity and huge opportunities for future growth will be lost, you'll simply be making more customers for those platforms. This is going to be especially true if you seek to get Gamesalad into colleges. College students won't want to learn on an inferior platform.
Wishing the best for Gamesalad in the future, hope to be able to stick around and use it for projects to come.
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Welcome Brent.
Folders !
Good Luck.
Socks
x
Shouldn't it be this order?:
The fact that your priorities are the wrong way round doesn't give me that much faith in the future.
Congratulations Brent. I wish you and my beloved GS all the luck it needs.
Get a license server solution for schools is my advice.
Welcome Brent! Great to hear from you.. Very much looking forward to a fix for the slow-down since os x 10.11.5 update..
Cheers mate
@bdusing and @ForumNinja .. Congrats Brent.. I have few questions that needs answers.. can you elaborate this point "Increase the number of schools that use GameSalad".. as what it means you all will focus marketing and sales for educational.. what about development? I only see @CodeWizard as a developer within the company so I expect very less development in terms of progress or updates?..
Also, I don't see that you elaborate on improving the GS on development (increasing development staff) as it has been always the case? You just mentioned fixing the GS and few GUI and full stop.. so I don't see that you plan to make or add features GS as you focus is on education only. That is why I am not planning to make new games until I see good future or improvement as from development side on you rely on one person..
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Seeing as they don't hold each other up (one being development and one being marketing/sales) I don't think the order matters that much. I went ahead and just made them bullets.
Look as long as we can still publish to iOS when the big education stuff kicks in I'm happy still!thats my main worry that GS switches from a publishing platform to an education only platform, I mean, it's it's just about teaching there will be no need to have a tool that you can publish with!!
Hello @bdusing and welcome to GS! I think the community has answered most of the relevant questions above. My votes are for the creator fix and Google Play Services.
I hope your educational focus doesn't leave this community behind. I foresee the creator being fixed and then radio silence from here on in, as you focus on recruiting schools. Please don't let this happen!
Take it from me, I've lurked as a PRO for 5-6 years and rarely contributed to discussion - this is my fault.
You've got the best community here and I hope you can nurture it!
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