Tools for Beginning Game Developers - Other Game Creation Tools
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Meanwhile, over at gamesalad.com, a different kind of design experiment is taking place. Here a growing team of new developers are cutting their teeth in a tool-based downloadable game-building environment. Once again the emphasis is on developing the vital base skills and thought processes that underpin good game design. These can easily be transferred to more sophisticated development environments later on.
Although graphically rudimentary and restricted to 2D, Game Salad encourages a high degree of creative expression. This is witnessed in the range of games on the site, which covers the spectrum from shooters (Lambo – the tale of a desperate sheep) through dungeon crawlers (Darkwood) to sims (World War Tree) and the Asteroids clone Space Rocks.
The GameSalad creator is simplicity itself to use. You just choose a template – options include basic platform, shoot-em-up and breakout styles – and GameSalad will present you with a basic environment and cast of characters. The rest is up to you.
The drag-and-drop interface allows you to add and change the properties and behaviors of any element in the game, or replace them with entirely new ones of your own. It’s a flexible, powerful system that gets people up and running quickly and that encourages experimentation and learning.
The GameSalad drag and drop interface encourages you to use your imagination.
Probably the biggest constraint to the spread of GameSalad is that both the web plug-in and game creation tool are currently available for Mac OS only, although Windows versions are in development.
With tools such as these becoming increasingly available, and with the web likely to rival dedicated consoles in the complexity and variety of games it can deliver as the future unfolds, it’s tempting to wonder whether a profound change might be taking root in the gaming world. It’s too early to say that the days of the major game companies are numbered. But unless the likes of EA follow Sony’s lead in embracing the full potential of game creation software, they could find themselves losing touch with the host of independent and aspiring game developers who have something fresh to say on the subject.
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