Website Planet had the chance to sit down and chat with Tan Tran, Co-Founder and CEO of GameSalad, a game builder that enables gamers to visually and rapidly develop their own video games without scripting We discussed how the company started, the challenges they faced, and got some expert tips for all online business owners
Before GameSalad, Tran co-founded Gendai Games Inc., where he took on various operational responsibilities. He has also worked as a programmer and analyst at Hotels.com, developing web applications, and has experience in backend development from his time at FundsXpress Financial Network
Let’s introduce GameSalad to our audience. What is it and how does it work?
GameSalad turns gamers into game creators We’ve built a no-code video game creation platform that lets anyone build video games for iOS, Android, and the web without requiring extensive coding knowledge. Creating a Game is super easy thanks to the drag-and-drop interface that simplifies the game development process.
GameSalads uses terms that are easy to understand to make things easier to understand.
Game objects are “Actors” and they are laid out on a “Stage”.
Add your own images, sounds, and fonts to customize your actors.
You program actors by dragging “Behaviors” on to them
Your actors can perform different behaviors based on “Rules”
You can give your Actors different “attributes” to represent things like score or health
Finally, testing your game is as simple as pressing a big green “Preview” button.
You can even preview your game on device using our GameSalad Viewer app. This transfers a copy of your game from the app to your mobile device for instant play!
How did it all start, and what are your achievements to this day?
GameSalad started in 2009 with a plan of building “youtube for games”, but that changed with the announcement of the opening of the iOS app store With that, we pivoted providing a system to make it easy for anyone to realize their dream of building and releasing a video game
Fast forward to today, thousands of games have been released through our platform helping people realize their dreams of building a game, a new career, or even entrepreneurial independence. Students around the world have access to Computer Science regardless of their age, gender, or background, thanks to GameSalad’s out-of-the-box solution.
Some popular games “Made with Gamesalad”
The Secret of Grisly Manor – One of the first GameSalad games to hit millions of downloads, an atmospheric point and click puzzle game.
Spooky Hoofs – A Castlevania inspired infinite runner.
Escape 3D: The Bathroom – hit number one on the app store listings.
Flying Cyrus – An infamous Flappy Bird clone featuring Miley Cyrus’s head flapping her tongue in place of a flapping bird.
Roll Turtle – Won several “Best of” awards in Taiwan.
How does your mission differ from the other companies in your niche?
With a focus on user experience rather than power features, GameSalad aims to empower as many people as possible to realize a dream of building a video game or to gain confidence in their ability to code.
In contrast to companies like Unity which cater more to professional game developers, we offer a visual no-code platform that makes it easier for anyone to create games, even without programming experience. There are actually two versions of the software – one for developers and one for education – to serve both professional game creators as well as students and educators looking to learn game development.
Besides that, GameSalad is strongly focused on the education market, with its software being used in many schools and universities to teach game development. This differentiates it from companies that are primarily focused on professional game development. However, GameSalad is really for anyone looking to build video games.
Who are your typical clients and what problems do they have when they come to you?
Our thesis was to create a way to allow video games to become an accessible form of personal expression. We aim to build tools so easy to use that people can quickly realize their vision or at least realize enough of it to help sell their idea and bring more resources to bear. We’ve seen people pursue passion projects, find new artistic outlets, and share aspects of themselves in a unique and interactive way.
GameSalad has introduced teens in Nigeria to coding, helped women find new careers in tech in the Philippines, and allowed people to bootstrap into entrepreneurial independence. Some of these entrepreneurs go on to found ongoing gaming studios. Some build agencies that help gamify customer engagement, recruiting, or training GameSalad is their “secret weapon” to get results quickly and keep costs low
“The GameSalad platform enables students to get up to speed quickly and create complex games that are of their own self-expression.” Dr. Smadar Bergman, Teacher, Benito Juarez Community Academy
And what makes them eventually choose you over your competitors?
Our unique intuitive visual programming model allows many aspiring game developers to find success in realizing their vision where they fail in other platforms. Many of our users “graduate” to more sophisticated platforms, having built confidence in their ability to program. Some still come back to GameSalad for smaller projects for its delightful ease of use and rapid results.
Can you share one success story from your customers? What was their pain point, and what results did they get thanks to GameSalad?
Recently one of our partners, Gamification Nation, built a game for a pharmaceutical company in Europe They were looking for a unique and engaging way to recruit new employees Gamification Nation had an idea to build a “Tinder” style game experience where players are “matched” to the company based on how they “swiped” on various value propositions
Working with a GameSalad community member, GSHelper Studios, the app was prototyped and delivered in a matter of months The last I heard, the client saw significant improvements in conversion over conventional recruitment campaigns
What do you see in the future of your industry, and how do you plan to cope?
I’d like to talk about two trends I see as important to the future of GameSalad and our industry at large.
As gaming has become more normalized in our personal lives we see gamification becoming an integral part of business activities. A well crafted game teaches about the world of the game and how to navigate it through one of the most fundamental forms of learning: play
From internal corporate process training to teaching customers about your product, gamification has a lot of untapped potential as a way to educate. The standard bearers of gamification, leaderboards and achievement badges, are just the tip of the iceberg.
We’d love to see more people pick up GameSalad to quickly build games that are informative, timely, and most importantly, fun! We’re working with a few partners to build a library of game templates that will make it easy for people to plug in their own artwork and domain knowledge to build fun games that educate and engage
As for the game tools industry, we’re facing the same challenge and opportunity that every other industry touched by tech faces: AI – From content generation to coding, AI is going to open a lot of doors for anyone who wants to build tech products.
On the other hand, there is a lot of discussion on how GenAI will take away creative jobs and flood the market for creative work. It definitely will in the short term, but I also believe that our taste will adapt. We’ve already seen this with how Youtube and TikTok have changed our attitude towards screen time. The glut of content (much of which is of questionable quality) didn’t completely “destroy” traditional media. Instead, it increased the value of both authenticity and quality storytelling.
Once the AI novelty wears off (and I think that has already started), people will stop caring about how content is produced and caring again about how it connects to them. I’m not saying there aren’t going to be risks and growing pains, but I believe that in the long run we will adapt.
For me, the biggest short term potential of AI is in increasing access to knowledge. GameSalad was primarily built to remove the barrier coding presented to potential video game creators. Before GameSalad was conceived, learning to program used to either take a 4 year degree or a laser focused dedication that few had. In the intervening years we’ve seen the skills needed to release an app and get a job go from 4 year degrees, to 4 month boot camps, to 4 hour-long videos on youtube, to 40 minutes with no-code tools
Ratatouille was fresh in our minds when we founded the company in 2009. We were not under the illusion that everyone could make a video game, but we hoped that GameSalad could empower anyone to try.
AI is the key to the next evolution of that vision. With AI, everyone now has access to an infinitely patient teacher, available at any time, with a vast knowledge base. Not only a teacher, but a writer, artist, and mentor… A single person with little knowledge but an inquisitive mindset has all the tools they need to start realizing their vision now.
We’re not there yet, but GameSalad intends to be there as we work to integrate AI tools that will empower even more people to realize their dream of building video games
With over 13 years of experience in SEO and managing content websites, he has coordinated over 5000 product reviews and interviews with the biggest names in eCommerce, web hosting, cybersecurity, SaaS, AI, and online marketing, to provide newbies and experts with untapped, actionable insights from the top experts in the industry on how to build and grow websites.
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