1. The latest group pioneering the pack of
forward-thinking technology developers is
GameSalad, Inc., an Austin, Texas, based
team. Founded by four passionate partners
in 2007, the group says they’re not just do-
ing this for the money. “We built Game-
Salad on the premise that game creation
should be fun and easy for everyone—not
relegated to the technically elite,” said
Michael Augustin, co-founder and head
of product. Since tossing their first-of-its
kind software into the matrix, the privately
held company has been vibrating smart-
phones and tablet PCs all across the World
Wide Web. With their free drag-and-drop
creation tools, anyone who has ever wanted
to produce their own game, from the savvy
developer to the inexperienced gamer, now
has the opportunity. And already, their
flagship product, GameSalad Creator, has
been utilized to create over 11,000 games,
including more than 35 of the top 100
games in Apple’s U.S. App Store, according
to a company press release. And with the
addition of HTML5 publishing capabilities
in June 2011, the company has empowered
developers to expand beyond the popular
iOS platform and target a market of over a
billion people with web-enabled browsers.
To put it plainly, they are on the cutting
edge, and investors recognize this.
The company announced their recent
funding of $6.1 million, which is in addition
to a first round $1.2 million seed support.
They are backed by Steamboat Ventures,
DFJ Mercury, DFJ Frontier and FF As-
set Management. GameSalad, Inc., has
offices in Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles,
and plans to open doors on a new location
in San Francisco very soon. “Our inves-
tors were excited about the opportunities
presented at Austin’s SXSW Accelerator
conference in July 2010 by the intersection
of gaming, social media and technology,”
said Michael Augustin, co-founder and
head of product. “Gaming has become a
dominant form of entertainment and has
driven rapid growth of new mobile and
social platforms. Through our free, easy to
use game creation tools, GameSalad makes
it possible for everyone to participate in
this zeitgeist—something that our investors
found highly appealing.”
An attractive feature of GameSalad’s
development tools is its user friendliness:
No coding is required to create a game,
which is the distinct quantum leap the
G
aming is all the rage, so much so that it has
colored our culture with new euphemisms such
as “killing two pigs with one bird,” a reference
to the immensely popular game “Angry Birds.” As
new communication devices such as tablet PCs are
introduced and in higher demand, so are inventive
applications and software.
What is it about gaming—the phenomenon that
began its movement back in the 80s when it emigrat-
ed from arcades to living rooms—that has children
and adults alike entranced in an artificial world?
The evolution from joysticks to touch screens to now
controller-less motion detection, the technology
developers who transport us to other virtual galaxies
have driven the worldwide popularity of gaming to
well over a billion end users.
company has made with its proprietary
software delivery. Gone are the days of
complex technology left to the devices of
geeks in the lab. For comparison, the no-
coding-required development is likened
to the drag-and-drop concept of blogging
software offered by companies like Word
Press. The popularity of blogging exploded
because of the ease of use and accessibility
to online publishing. The difference here
is that unlike many blogs that are posted
and never read, most game applications are
purchased and, of course, played.
Following are a few case
studies of developers who
have used GameSalad tools
to publish their own
popular games:
• Abdulrahman Al-Zanki, a
14-year old student in Kuwait,
created his first game using
GameSalad tools after accepting
a dare from a friend who claimed
he was incapable of building an
iPhone game. Three days after
downloading GameSalad, Al-Zan-
ki submitted his game to Apple’s
App Store. Doodle Destroy has
since been downloaded more
than 1 million times and has even
been featured on CNN’s website.
• “Daniel Caldwell, an 8th
grade science teacher outside of
Syracuse, NY has a passion for
developing educational software.
His latest creation, SciTunes Hu-
man Body Adventure, was built
with GameSalad and is now a
finalist for the prestigious STEM
Award, presented by the White
House for excellence in educa-
tional software.”
• The owner of BeanSprites,
LLC spent 8 years as a registered
nurse before exploring the world
of iOS game development. Until
then, she had never before seen
a line of programming code.
After discovering GameSalad on
the web, “she has never looked
back.” One year later, she has
produced more than 40 titles
for iOS and is now a full-time
independent game developer in
Southern California.
• To learn more about how
you can create your own game
today, visit GameSalad.com and
download the free app. PC users,
sorry—GameSalad software ap-
pears to be available exclusively
to Mac users.
68 • • SUMMER 2011 defymag.com
We Got Game(s)GAMESALAD DISHES OUTTHE FUTURE OF
GAMINGTECHNOLOGY AS PERSONALIZED
GAME DEVELOPMENT BECOMES AVAILABLETO
VIRTUALLY EVERYONE, FOR FREE
By David Meacham