Although most of your game’s features can be done within the drag-and-drop interface of GameSalad, it doesn’t hurt to learn some Android programming basics. If the templates are simply not for you, you can create a new game from scratch. There are templates for basic Shooter games, Pong style games, and even a cross platform controller template that is compatible with both iOS and Android. In GameSalad, you will find a variety of templates that can be used to quickly get started.Īlthough you do not have to use these templates, it certainly makes it easier if you have no experience when most of the graphics have already been added. With your computer properly configured for Android game development, the next step is to actually create a game using GameSalad. You can learn more about setting up GameSalad correctly in the Introduction to Mobile Games Development course that specializes in harnessing the power of GameSalad. Although this isn’t hard to do, it is worth noting as you will be required to have an Android phone to successfully test your game. Instead, you will actually install your game directly to an Android phone to perform testing and debugging. The most notable is that the Android Viewer (used to test Android games created in GameSalad in OS X) does not work on Windows machines. Since GameSalad was originally created for OS X, there are a couple of limitations when using Windows to create Android applications. This portion of the installation process does take some time as each component has to be downloaded and installed individually by the Android SDK Manager. Once the Android SDK has been installed successfully, open up the Android SDK Manager (which controls the Android versions downloaded to your computer) and make sure that you download the following key components:Īfter making sure these components are checked, click install and wait. Both of these tools are free and should only take a few minutes to download and install to your machine. Once again, follow the instructions to complete installation successfully. Follow the instructions to successfully install the Java SDK and then download the Android SDK from Google. You also need to install the Java SDK from Oracle’s website. When you’re first getting started, however, it’s not necessary to purchase a Pro license and you can do this at any time in the future. GameSalad is free to use although they do offer a Pro version for $299 that provides a host of additional benefits including in-app purchasing and Android publication. Getting StartedĪssuming you will be using a Windows machine, the first thing you need to do is download the GameSalad Creator from the GameSalad website. In fact, GameSalad was originally created for OS X (the Apple OS) but it became so popular that developers created a Windows version as well. It’s also worth noting that GameSalad works very well for creating games for the iPhone as well. However, many of the most popular games in the Google Play Store are 2-D games and you can create these very easily using GameSalad. With 3-D games becoming increasingly popular, this may seem like a significant limitation. GameSalad truly lets you focus on creating awesome games without worrying about all the technicalities.Ībout the only bad thing about using GameSalad is that is currently limited to 2-D games. Many people who are familiar with coding still rely on GameSalad and similar game engines to create games because it is much quicker than manually inputting thousands of lines of code. GameSalad isn’t just for beginners though. Using this interface, you can piece together your game graphically and assign behavior to the different elements (sometimes known as assets) within your game. GameSalad allows just about anyone to create their own Android games by using a drag-and-drop interface. If you are not familiar with these terms, the Programming for Non- Programmers course is a great place to start. Specifically, the concepts of looping and conditional execution are essential to creating games using GameSalad. Even if you have no programming experience, Android game engines such as GameSalad making development relatively easy.Įven though you do not need any programming experience to create awesome 2-D games using GameSalad, you do need to have a basic understanding of how computer programs work. Have you ever been addicted to a game on your Android phone or tablet? Have you ever thought about how cool would be to be able to create your own games? Believe it or not, by using the right tools almost anyone can create their own Android game.
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