Hi everyone,
Today we’re excited to announce the launch of GameSalad Creator for Windows. Since our initial launch in 2009, we set out to bring game creation to everyone, and today we’ve taken another step toward fulfilling that promise by welcoming the Windows audience to the GameSalad community.
Over the years we’ve received countless requests from PC users around the world asking us to bring GameSalad to the Windows platform. It pained us to turn away so many interested developers, and with the recent additions of HTML5 and Android publishing, supporting the Windows community made a lot of sense.
What about the existing Mac Creator?
Mac Creator and its passionate community will continue to be one of our top priorities. Windows Creator debuts with the functionality of GameSalad 0.9.92, and will achieve feature parity with the upcoming 0.9.93 version soon after it’s released to the Mac community. Going forward, our plan is to release new features on Mac first and then bring them over to Windows shortly thereafter. Both versions will eventually use our super fast native code engine that we’ll be releasing soon.
Can Mac Creator interact with Windows Creator?
Here’s where it gets really cool. You can transfer GameSalad project files back and forth between Windows and Mac machines. This means that templates and project files can be shared across the Windows and Mac community and sets us up in the future for some interesting collaboration initiatives that we’re working on. Also, if you’re a Pro member, you will have Pro membership access to both Windows and Mac versions with a single membership.
Can you publish to iOS using a Windows machine?
A Mac is still required to publish to the iTunes Store – this is an Apple requirement, sorry! We are working on a broader solution for publishing iOS games which will be released at a future date, but for now, Windows users will need to get someone with a Mac to publish their iOS games to the iTunes Store.
Woah, what’s up with that crazy new UI?
We’ve been working on a revamp of the classic GameSalad UI for a while now. We took some creative liberties with the Windows Creator in order to rethink much of our UI from the ground up. For some of our Mac users, certain elements of the new UI may be a bit foreign and disruptive to your accustomed workflow. We wanted to be sensitive to this, so the plan is to continue to gather feedback on the Windows UI, refine it over the coming weeks and then settle on a strong, professional, unified experience that will be rolled out across both versions of Creator.
Ok, I want to check this out, but I don’t have a Windows machine, what do I do?
If you’d like to play around with Windows Creator and test drive the new UI but don’t have a Windows machine, you can try using Bootcamp on your Mac. You’ll need a copy of Windows installed as well, but it should give you a good feel for what Windows Creator is like without having to purchase a Windows machine.
I’ve seen those Mac and PC commercials. I don’t want to hang out with PC people; they wear funny clothes and are behind the times. How do I know they won’t ruin our community and forums?
Take it easy! I’m a recovering PC user and can vouch that they are good people. ☺
We’re looking into creating a separate section in the forums for new Windows users so we can address their specific needs outside of the normal discussions. Who knows, you just might be pleasantly surprised by the contributions from our new PC friends, so keep an open mind and welcome them to the GameSalad community!
How do I download Windows Creator?
Sign up at GameSalad.com/windows
Access to the Windows Creator Beta is available on a first-come, first-served basis. We’ll be emailing invite codes in batches, so be patient if you don’t get access right away.
We’ll have more to share on Windows Creator and related developments in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
Cheers,
Steve
