Should I leave, and if so, where to?

scottwood

Ease of use/speed of development, and the availability of good quality, comprehensive learning materials and game templates were the reasons I chose to start with Gamesalad. These criteria remain crucial.
I’m almost through Jamie Cross’s excellent book, and starting to feel confident I can achieve what I need to do. However, after seeing so many posts from disaffected or departing veterans on the forum, and with only a few days left on my trial, I’m wondering if I should move to another development system such as Gamemaker Studio 2 or Construct 2.
I'm aiming to create reasonably simple resources for an e-learning site. I’ll be doing this by adapting existing templates and adding in multi-choice questions for the user to answer to continue the game. The games will be playable on my website for members, but I’d also like to offer them on the various app stores.

Toque

You would have to try them and see what’s best for you. I have made a few online education games and GS worked quite well for it.

People are frustrated because they actually love GS and want it better/ fixed.

Probably any engine will do what you described easily including GS.

scottwood

Thanks for responding. Good to know you found everything worked well, thats very encouraging. GS seems better suited to my needs than the other systems I've looked at, and I've spent days working through the book - so I will probably persevere. Gamemaker looks very tempting, but I think GS will be quicker - which is important right now. I may consider a switch if things don't work out or I get more time to mess about.
Initially I could not find any learning resources that appealed for gamemaker, but I have since found some courses on Linda, and they are usually pretty good.

fmakawa

I'd say stick around. The things frustrating the veterans are things I think you dont have to worry about it now but later perhaps. Personally, I'm giving it 6 months. I already use other platforms (that use code like Unity and Godot) but GS is my go to for simple stuff. I could be tons better than it is tbh

jamie_c

Thanks for the kind words about the book, I'm glad you've found it helpful. At this point if Gamesalad seems to fit your needs I'd say stick around too. The forums here can be super super helpful but at times they are also filled with drama that is best avoided. I'm not real active on them these days but still try to keep up to date on developments.

Japster

@fmakawa said:
I'd say stick around. The things frustrating the veterans are things I think you dont have to worry about it now but later perhaps. Personally, I'm giving it 6 months. I already use other platforms (that use code like Unity and Godot) but GS is my go to for simple stuff. I could be tons better than it is tbh

@scottwood - I have to agree, much as I hate the current state of it from my viewpoint - for your purposes it does still seem the best/easiest solution, if I'm honest...

Icebox

yep stick to gamesalad , they will improve the html5 engine ( web games) and ios performance rocks with gs , for simple games android performance is good . It is also the easiest visual scripting based engine out there.

If you want great web performance go with construct but it suffers alot on mobile games. You will regret it once you spend time trying to optimise everything to end up with 50 fps on mobile.

if your willing to code go with unity as 2d games are easy to make + you can add 3d once your comfortable using the engine.

But for your purpose i would stick with gs it is the best for what you want to achieve

PhilipCC

@scottwood I would wait to see what response GS give to all the posts and comments made in the last week about the problems users are having.

If you can, give them until the 3rd of Jan. considering this lame excuse about the holiday season.

Then if you decide to continue with GS, only take a basic subscription paid monthly to see what transpires. If you don't see anything encouraging, like problems rapidly resolved, try something else.

You may avoid a lot of grief, frustration and wasted time and money.

pHghost

It always comes down to your expectations. If what you see in GameSalad is enough for you at this moment, it's a great platform to start making apps.

The problem comes when you've outgrown the simple ideas and want to take things further; then you run into a wall.

Japster

@PhilipCC said:
@scottwood I would wait to see what response GS give to all the posts and comments made in the last week about the problems users are having.

If you can, give them until the 3rd of Jan. considering this lame excuse about the holiday season.

Then if you decide to continue with GS, only take a basic subscription paid monthly to see what transpires. If you don't see anything encouraging, like problems rapidly resolved, try something else.

You may avoid a lot of grief, frustration and wasted time and money.

I have to admit, this ^^^ is very sound advice....

RThurman

@scottwood said:
I'm aiming to create reasonably simple resources for an e-learning site. I’ll be doing this by adapting existing templates and adding in multi-choice questions for the user to answer to continue the game. The games will be playable on my website for members, but I’d also like to offer them on the various app stores.

GameSalad will be great for your needs. And as GameSalad continues to grow in the education arena -- you will fit right in!

And I agree with you about Jamie Cross's excellent book! I will be using it again next semester to teach educators how they can make instructional simulations/games for their students. (And how to teach game development / CS concepts to their students.)