State of GameSalad on 11-13-2017
ForumNinja
Key Master, Head Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 554
Hello everyone, we know you guys are quite overdue for an update and we appreciate your patience! Things have been incredibly busy at the GS headquarters.
High Sierra
We are still working on fixes for High Sierra compatibility. We've got a beta build right now that (outside of 1 display issue) is fully functional, and you can pm me or @adent42 for a download link to it to use in the short term.
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We are also aware of the deadline coming up for making some changes to how banner ads are displayed (so that they work with the new iPhone x). This is also being looked into and we'll give you some more info when an update is out.
Web Version
We appreciate you guys giving the web version a try and giving us feedback so we know where to improve it.
Importing of larger projects is going to happen once we finish implementing behaviors, which is going pretty fast and we hope to have it done pretty soon. Basically, since most larger games are going to be using at least some of the unimplemented behaviors, we figure it would work best to get the remaining behaviors done first.
There's currently a version in testing with a lot of nice updates:
New Features
- Undo
- Added a setting for the changing of actor size when an image is applied to it.
Previously: When an image was added the actor would change its width/height to match the image
Now: Through the setting you can choose to have the actor resize to ½, ¼, ⅔, or the full size of the image being applied
UI Updates / Changes
- First pass of tighter UI elements (affecting behaviors, lists in the library, attributes, etc)
- Dragging of actors starts on "mouse down" and doesn't require a click first.
- New Ways to Organize Behavior Library (Unsorted [the default alphabetical], By Type, By Usage)
- If a behavior is disabled, it's errors become warnings now.
- Warning on deletion of attributes referenced in a behavior.
- Support for basic expression validation.
- New UI for hiding / showing sidebars.
- Settings/profile stuff is now also available at the top-right of the page for more intuitive access.
Implemented Behaviors
- Accelerate Towards
- Buzz
- Change Velocity
- Change Size
- Close App (formerly Quit Game)
- Pause Music
- Play Music
- Stop Music
- Show Banner Ad
- Show "More Games" Ad
- Keyboard Input (Now labeled: Show Text Input Dialog)
- Load Attribute
- Log Debugging Statement
- Open URL Action
- Rotate To Angle
- Save Attribute
- Save Table
- Path Find
To expedite release for next week, a few of these behaviors may drop off the list if they fail testing, but things look good so far.
Bug Fixes
- Firefox can now see actor previews. Number fields in behaviors will have more space.
- Ability to type in negative numbers in fields (you could paste whole negative numbers or use the increment/decrement before to get negative numbers but you couldn't just type a '-')
- Uncommon bug for sorting actors and scenes should be fixed.
- Fixed bugs with layer reordering.
We’ll continue listening to your input for new web version to find things you most want added / tweaked.
Comments
Nice to see an appearance and a little update! Keep it up!
Thanks for the update. Glad to hear you're tightening some of the UI elements. Look forward to seeing it.
An active update is very welcome, thank you! I might be in the minority here, but I'm excited about the web version. I bought a Mac exclusively for GameSalad dev four years ago and have pretty much ONLY used it for that. I have multiple PC desktops and laptops and I often find myself wanting to fiddle with GameSalad but being unable to do so unless I remote into my mac (Chrome Desktop Remote ftw)... I think a web version makes sense on a number of levels.... looking forward to more...
I'm afraid that for such a long-awaited (timely or knee-jerk reaction?) update from GS Alex, the above is all I'm reading about the Mac (and Win) creator that my project NEEDS to run on - as I'm guessing it'll be a while before the Web Creator can run it without issues...
High Sierra compatibility is admittedly very good to hear, but obviously is most important for those people who upgraded.
However, I personally REALLY needed to hear that stuff like the ads functionality in RevMob are being URGENTLY worked on / RevMob liased with if necessary, and things like performance in Android (my iOS version is fast enough to be releasable ONCE I can implement reward video ads okay, but on Android it chugs along, even on a virtually empty (app-wise) and freshly process and memory optimised S7 Edge...)...
Still feeling pretty screwed in terms of what I can do atm, just sat here waiting for that RevMob fix, and confirmation that other ad networks are going to be confirmed working (ie. Chartboost selected meaning an app hangs when unable to retrieve an ad etc)...
@Japster The ad network sdk's should be updated alongside the update with banner support for iPhone x's (presumably before the deadline of the 20th)
Hi @ForumNinja - In that case, I'm cautiously optimistic...
Thanks for the confirmation, I'm feeling better about this update now!...
@ForumNinja Great news for us, thank you very much guys.
But, honestly, the update that interests me are the ads (update the Sdk tapdaq or try to run them at the same time as the Admob banner and interstitial)
@ForumNinja Your beta build doesn't allow me to edit actor attributes either in Prototype or Instance. It's just blank. I'm using last week's GameSalad-1.25.81-beta.
Could you please advise?
is iOS 11 supported ??
@Hypnorabbit That's the one issue with it currently. The attributes in the Inspector won't display until you add a new attribute (which you can then delete).
Thanks for the update, hope to see some of the new stuff soon.
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I've been failing to get reward ads working with either Chartboost or RevMob in the past few weeks, after numerous successful implementations with both in the past, so hope the SDKs for both are being updated!
Between this and the implementing of missing behaviours that were holding me back, you might just get me swapping to the web tool as my primary soon!
All sounds great, glad things are moving forward, even if slowly!
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Thanks for the update @ForumNinja
I am so grateful for this!! You have made our team so happy. I truly appreciate your time and effort on our behalf.
Thank you,
Erin McBride
By chance are there any plans to update Windows Creator as well or is it pretty much an "as is" wor the Win product until the online version? Thank you.
I would expect "as is." The only reason the macOS version is getting some "love" is because it's unusable at the moment on High Sierra. But it's simply a compatibility update.
It looks unlikely we'll have an update for the admob banner ads placement in time for Admob's 20th November deadline.
I'm wondering if we should remove banner ads from our iOS games completely rather than risk having our Admob accounts closed down? What do people think?
I asked this question. They didn't give a clear answer.
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Its a shame because Ive swapped out all my games from Chartboost to Admob because Chartboost is breaking games so now we have to close down Admob too....
@unbeatenpixel , @gingagaming
I sent a message earlier to Admob about this so will see if I get a reply - I was hoping there may be a way for them to prevent delivering ads to the iPhoneX only, but think it'll be a case of having to to remove banners on iOS completely for now.
Maybe today will be update day...
I'm really hoping that the ad network support and implementation is going to get some love soon. It really holds GS back for devs looking to make a buck or two by publishing games. In particular I'd like to see support for more ad mediators like Fyber and the inclusion of Facebook Audience Networks, which is currently one of the most important.
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I'm waiting for this update, that depends on i continuing to pay for gamesalad.
I am Agree with you... the part most important for me.. is this point [ Advertisements ]
I work with android studio but i love gamesalad for create games simples.
Does anyone know if we remove the banner Ads ad unit within Admob whether it will cause issues in our current apps that call for those ads?
I'm guessing that the app will continue to make the call for a banner ad, but nothing will be delivered by Admob (and hopefully the app will continue to run ok)?
This seems the easiest way to remove banner ads for now.
Im not sure in Admob but that is the issue with Chartboost, if you have the SDK installed in the app and call an advert and the campaign is paused or non existent, it will freeze your game. You should be able to pause campaigns when you want stoping and starting campaigns in chart boosts portal but you can't, it freezes your game.
Yeah that's my worry - but I think it's the only option short of republishing every game without the SDK which I'd rather not have to do! Hopefully it'll act similar to being offline and just not display anything.
@gingagaming - if you don't mind me asking, what are you planning on doing?
I would like to get an answer regarding Admob too, I really can't afford to remove Admob from all my iOS apps but I can't risk leaving them in, in case they ban my account for violating this new iPhone X Policy.
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@Glass Frog - Yeah from what I have read in the past Admob do take any breaches of their policy very seriously and can often close down accounts without notice when it happens.
@gingagaming @Glassfrog
I've just tested removing the Admob Ad Unit for one of my old android apps. The app plays as expected without crashing and banner ads are no longer displayed.
Hopefully this means removing the Ad Units for iOS won't result in crashes too! (but can't test as I don't currently own iOS device).
I tested iOS still works fine, banner ads gone.