#Gamesalad games how to
#Gamesalad games trial

If you have an idea for an app or game you would like to make, no need to know in-depth knowledge of Objective-C or Swift, or a different programming language. GameSalad offers the ability to develop apps easily, by using drag and drop abilities. GameSalad takes the coding away, allowing game developers to create apps easily and the ability to focus on other aspects such as design. Coding in multiple languages depending on what you are looking to build.

#Gamesalad games trial

In short, I highly recommend checking out GameSalad’s free trial to see if it’s a good fit for your classroom, as well as exploring the wide variety of support resources that exist.If you have ever looked into developing apps, or if you currently develop apps, you know that creating apps means coding. My personal opinion is that GameSalad works best in later elementary on up, but I do know teachers who have implemented it as early as kindergarten in their classroom. The support materials are wonderful and the team has gone out of their way to create a highly detailed curriculum that is chock-full of resources for teachers to use in their classroom. If you’re looking for a way to help teach students about CS principles and other STEM areas like physics and mathematics, GameSalad is an excellent fit. And if that wasn’t enough, the enormous range of support through YouTube and GameSalad Academy is there to help as well. They provide everything a teacher would need to plan, implement, support, and evaluate the use of GameSalad in the classroom. Overall though, the curriculum and support resources for GameSalad are excellent.

#Gamesalad games how to

That’s a really rough overview of the basic organization of GameSalad, but again, there are so many support resources and videos out there that I don’t want to spend too much time getting into the nuts and bolts of how to actually use the software. You can get incredibly detailed and specific into the level of control you have over the game physics, and there really is not a whole lot you can’t do with GameSalad, especially in terms of 2-D game design. On this Scene you would have many actors, some that you could control with your mouse or keyboard, others that would be programmed to interact in certain ways, others that would represent walls or floors or whatever your game might include. Once you click the start button, that would take you to a new Scene (maybe Level 1 for example). The start button would be an actor (something that does something, or causes an action to occur). For example, you might have a title screen, which asks your users to click a start button. In short though, for those wondering how GameSalad actually works: Scenes represent the different pages or screens or levels of the game. I would recommend following that up with the Scenes video and the Actors video. The team is also finalizing their alignment with the K-12 CS Framework as well. Specifically, GameSalad's curriculum aligns with the new ISTE standards, various state CS standards, including the TEKS in Texas. They also include template files, graphics, audio, tutorial videos, assessments, planning calendars, and anything else you’ll need to work through the various projects.

That being said, we will still spend a little time exploring the basics of how GameSalad works.Īs mentioned in the video, K-12 teachers who purchase an education version of GameSalad will also be provided with a detailed curriculum to help support and scaffold the implementation of GameSalad in the classroom.Įach of the lessons centers around a driving question or problem, and offers a variety of standard/objective-aligned activities to help students move through game design. That was about 4 years ago though, and it’s wonderful to see the curricular connections and educational support the team has added since then.ĭuring this review, I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of GameSalad as much as I usually do, because there’s so many different ways to use the app, and there is a ton of support already out there for working with the software. When I used to teach 5th - 12th grade computer science and applications, GameSalad was a big hit with my students.