Today, we’re launching GameSalad Creator for Mac 0.9.93 Beta
. Included in this release are some powerful expansions to existing features that will help your games stand out more and perform better on the App Store. With 0.9.93 we’re introducing Read/Write Tables and Resolution Independence for tablet devices. We’ve also included a substantial expansion to Playhaven options for Pro users, as well as a revamp of its integration for Free users.
Writeable Tables:
By making Tables writable at runtime of a game, we’ve opened up a wealth of opportunity for GameSalad designers. Now, the tables of your game can be rewritten and/or added to based on the logic of your game. This feature offers incredible power in terms of replay ability for your title.
For example, if you have a puzzle game, designers could set up logic to dynamically create level scenarios based on math, rather than rely on preset values in the tables. New level data could generated on the fly, as the game runs, and create a unique playing experience every time players pick up your game.
Writeable tables could also be used for advanced statistic management and record keeping. Using our new behaviors, designers can now utilize tables to manage level data for players in RPGs, or saving stats and achievements.
We’ve achieved writeable tables through the addition of four new behaviors within Creator:
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- 1. Add/Remove Row – This behavior will enable designers to dynamically add or delete rows of data from a table.
- 2. Change Table Value – Enables designers to replace one cell value in a table with a new value.
- 3. Copy Table – Allows designers to create new tables based on existing ones, so as not to complete undo default values and tables.
- 4. Save Table – With the save function, designers can easily enable changes made during gameplay to be saves and utilized again during a new play session.
With Writeable Tables, the possibilities are near limitless!
Expanded Resolution Independence:
With 0.9.93, we’ve increased the maximum image dimension to 2048, thus providing support for the iPad 3’s native retina display or 2048 x 1536. We’ve also included our Resolution Independence System to also work for iPad settings, allowing you to take advantage of higher-end resolutions (iPad 3) without sacrificing performance on older devices (iPad, iPad 2).
Resolution Independence on iPad works the same as it does for iPhone. Build for the higher resolution, with Resolution Independence selected on your project. When you go to publish, GameSalad will create smaller resolutions for older devices to be included in the build. These smaller images will be used on older devices incapable of utilizing the hi-res versions.
Playhaven Plus:
In addition to Writeable Tables, and Resolution Independence for iPad, we’ve added a slew of customizable options for Pro Users regarding our Playhaven monetization system. Now, Pro Users can choose to include a “More Games” button, allowing players the option of when to look for other games. We’ve also enhanced our “Interstitial Screen” options, now enabling Pro Users to activate interstitial screens as Scene changes of their choice.
This option is enabled when adding a Change Scene, Reset Scene, or Pause Game behavior is called upon. All three of those behaviors now include a checkbox called, “include interstitial”. Checking this box will call up a Playhaven interstitial advertisement. Leaving the box unchecked will carry out the behavior as before.
For free users, we’ve also enhanced the Playhaven experience. Free users will no longer have interstitial screens activate between their Custom Splash screen and the start of game play. Instead, we’ve activated a small “More Games” button which pops up across the bottom of a game’s splash screen. The button will go away before the game launches. Also, interstitial ads will trigger at random during scene transitions within the game.
These interstitial ads will no occur during every scene transition and are set with a 25% random chance at appearing. Overall, this should result in a much more enjoyable experience for our Free users and their players.
GameSalad Creator for Mac 0.9.93 Beta also includes a number of fixes, such as the tiling issue mentioned above. All the fixes and changes can be found in our full Release Notes. We’re also still hard at work at our PGFc engine, as well as migrating much of our Windows Creator interface into the Mac Creator.
Where Do I Go:
