Social Game Creator

But there are several important precursors to The Sims and the social simulation genre. Firstly, the game's creator Will Wright acknowledged the influence of Little Computer People, a Commodore 64 game from 1985. The games are similar, although The Sims is described as having a richer gameplay experience. JeopardyLabs allows you to create a customized jeopardy template without PowerPoint. The games you make can be played online from anywhere in the world. Building your own jeopardy template easy. Just use our simple editor to get your game up and running.

With a global market generating $100 Billion this year, it's no wonder that many people want to get in on the game app action. But getting rich off of the App Store is only one of the many possible motivations! Who knows, you could simply be interested in creating something fun for your friends, or actually building a lasting piece of digital art.

Whatever the reason, this quick guide will show you what tools you can use to create a video game that's playable on iOS and Android. Please note that we also have a complete overview of different game engines here, some of which even allow you to create games for consoles and desktop!

So what do I need to get started?

While we usually focus on app makers, you'll notice that none of them are actually good for building games. What you'll need instead is something called a game engine, or a dedicated software for creating games. Unlike app makers, you need to install them on your computer, which leads us to the first item in our checklist:

Social Game Creator Software

• A computer: you will need to install the game engine on your PC or Mac. Note that some game engines are only PC or only Mac. They don't work on both.
• A smartphone (or two): you will need to test the game on your desired platform. It's worth ensuring it plays nice on both an iPhone and an Android phone if you want to reach both markets – and it's worth trying on low end devices too!
• A developer account: to submit your game app. It costs $99 per year for the App Store and $25 for life with the Play Store. Unlike with app makers, you'll be in charge of updates and making sure the game works on all devices. This could mean several new updates per year.
• A way to create art: Whether you are going 2D or 3D, you will need game assets. You can find a ton of free resources online and some game companies have got their own marketplaces. But the best way to make your game stand out is to create things like the characters, background, music and menus yourself.

And a game engine too?

Yup. That'll be your main tool. And now that you're going down the rabbit hole of game making, you'll see that there are a number of solutions, from the very very basic to the extremely sophisticated. Roughly speaking, you can categorize game engines with the following features:

• Game templates: the easiest way to get started – and also the most limiting. You won't be able to change anything about the game except the characters, backgrounds, music, that kind of thing. In short, the mechanics of the game cannot be tweaked at all. For example, AppyPie or ChupaMobile offer templates (these are online solutions, by the way).

GameSalad is a drag and drop editor that also offers game templates

• Drag and drop: this is the best method for beginners. You have a list of behaviours (if this happens, then that happens) and you can just apply them to your game objects. For example you create a 2D square and create a behaviour that says 'if I press on the screen, the square jumps'.
• Visual scripting: a more advanced solution that gives you all the flexibility of code without having to code. You basically create 'nodes' that represent actions or events for your game objects. This creates a kind of diagram that represents everything happening in your game window.
• Coding: the pros will tell you this is the only serious way to get complete control over your game, especially if you want it to be complex. And if you're interested in a career as an game developer, you might as well start learning while doing! The good news is that some game engines offer their own simplified scripting language that makes it easy to grasp the basics for beginners.

Can I make any kind of game?

Technically speaking yes. But of course that depends on your amount of time and dedication. However, it is worth noting that beginners will probably have more success creating mobile games such as:

• Puzzles / Word games
• Casual games
• Platformers
• Arcade games

More complex 3D game genres such as FPS (first person shooters) or a MMO (massively multiplayer online games) will not only require some code, but they are also not necessarily the best suited for playing on a smartphone or tablet.

Which game engine should I choose?

This is the big question, and obviously it will completely depend on your level of skills and the kind of game you want to make. But below is a quick overview of some of the engines we think would be the best suited for you, listed in order of complexity.

GameSalad

GameSalad falls into the drag and drop category, and it features an intuitive interface as well as very good documentation for beginners. The way it handles 2D physics is perfect for mobile games, and it's worth noting that you can publish your results to iOS, Android and even desktops. They also have a 'mobile viewer' app to let you test your game on different mobile devices!

Watch how to get started with GameSalad in 15 mins.

Main features: drag and drop, game physics, good documentation, has marketplace, comes with basic game templates. Ad monetization supported with the pro version ($25 a month). The basic version is $17 a month, but you get 50% off the pro plan as a a teacher, student, or military personnel.

GameBuilder Studio

Using visual scripting, GameBuilder Studio might be a bit more intimidating than GameSalad, as can be demonstrated in the tutorial video below. However the documentation seems equally good and exhaustive, and you can even take a free udemy course online to get started with the basics. The program is also fairly cheap, costing a full price of $99 for the pro version, and $199 per year for the pro plan with all the features + tutorials and extra plugins.

Watch how to get started with GameBuilder Studio in 15 mins:

Main features: visual editor, game physics, plugin marketplace, good tutorials, create 2D animations (or integrate with Spine for powerful 2D animations). Ads, multiplayer and other advanced features are supported with the Pro version.

BuildBox

This one is a newcomer on the game engine scene, but it's making big claims. Buildbox has listed 100 games made using their platform that entered the top downloads in the App Store, including classics such as The Line Zen and Color Switch. It is drag and drop, and also comes with some basic templates to get you started. On the plus side, the interface is really nice and the features seem very robust, if a bit limited. On the downside, the subscription is very expensive ($99 a month or $84 if paid yearly).

Main features: drag and drop, game templates, great UI, 2D graphics (sprites) editor and animator.

ClickTeam Fusion 2.5

Moving on to the drag and drop and visual scripting method now, ClickTeam Fusion has been helping people create games since 1994! It is worth noting that they are not exactly focused on mobile games, and in fact you will have to pay extra to build your game for iOS and Android. However, one big pro of the program is that it has a big and enthusiastic online community, so you should be able to find the answer to any question you have about how to create your game. It also has a visual editor so you can create art directly in the program. Oh, PC only though.

Main features: drag and drop, visual scripting, PC only. Good online community and tons of extensions available.

GameMaker Studio 2

We now reach GameMaker Studio 2, a powerful solution that created hit games such as Hyper Light Drifter and Hotline Miami. On the plus side, it comes with a visual editor so you can create and animate the pixel art directly into the program, making it the engine of choice for artists. On the downside, you will need to code. Luckily, they use their own simplified language called GMS2. The documentation is also excellent. Like ClickTeam Fusion, it is also geared towards desktop computers and consoles, and you will have to pay for the full version ($399) to export your game to Android or iOS.

Main features: visual editor and animator, simplified code, powerful features. Excellent marketplace full of assets and extensions.

Stencyl

Stencyl is an interesting engine based on the MIT Scratch project. A few years ago, MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) developed a visual programming language to teach students how to code, and it is the same method that Stencyl uses. The elements are designed to fit like a puzzle so you will get a good understanding of how code works when you learn it. While it isn't exactly a powerful engine, it's definitely a great solution for simple 2D mobile games, and it seamlessly exports to iOS and Android.

Main features: visual scripting language, good for learning how to code, subscription model ($199 a year to publish to mobile platforms and desktop).

Unity

You're now looking at a very powerful engine that uses a known scripting language (C#). By the way, you will be in company as Unity is the engine used by a ton of indie companies as well as AAA studios, from games such as Temple Run to Assassin's Creed. And the good news is that you won't necessarily have to code to create your game in it. This is because you can find a number of plugins for Unity that use a visual editor. These solutions are not always beginner friendly, but it's a start. They include FlowCanvas, uScript, Adventure Creator or PlayMaker. And Unity not only lets you build to iOS and Android, but you could also port your game to consoles and desktop!

Main features: free to use until your game makes more than $100K, paying visual editors, popular with indie developers, huge asset store, great tutorials and documentation

Unreal

The main competitor to Unity, Unreal is also a powerful engine used by AAA studios for games such as Abzu and Kingdom Hearts III. It comes with a visual editor called Blueprint, and it's known to push the limits in terms of beautiful graphics, even for mobile games. Like Unity, you can publish your game to desktop and consoles as well as iOS and Android. The downside is that Unreal created quite heavy games that target high-end mobiles. It's also a complex beast that you will need months to understand and get to grips with.

Main features: comes with visual editor, good for big mobile games, free to use and 5% royalty if your game makes more than $3000 per quarter.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, it's worth noting that there are many levels of what you can call 'a game app'. If you want to use a ready-made template, you can. If you are more serious about game development, it's also fully available to anyone with a computer, a bit of time, and online resources. And there seems to be more and more solutions available all the time.

So the good news is that you won't necessarily have to code to create your smartphone game, especially if it's a simple one. And the better news is that the best games, especially in the mobile world, are not necessarily the most complex!

Any questions? Feedback? Would you like us to feature another solution for creating game apps? Let us know in the comments below!

23 Nov 2016

4 Nov 2016

We have a multiverse of speakers coming to our metaverse event, GamesBeat Summit: Into the Metaverse. A couple of our latest speakers include Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith, CEO of R. Talsorian Games; Geoff Keighley, creator of The Game Awards; Siobhan Reddy, head of Dreams creator Media Molecule; and Richard Bartle, a pioneering researcher on AI in games and online gaming. (You can sign up here.)

Our metaverse conference takes place on January 27 and January 28, just after our Driving Gaming Growth conference with Facebook on January 26. And yes, those dates are correct, as we had so much interest that we extended the event by a day. Our theme is worth explaining, as we all know the metaverse is stuff of science fiction. Why the heck would we do a gaming business conference on this subject?

Well, the Zoomverse isn't the place where we want to spend the pandemic. We're still sheltering in place and playing games like Call of Duty: Warzone. But we don't have a way to be as social as we once were. I can't wait to be in the metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.

Judging by the demand for our event, a lot of people feel the same way. We could dismiss the metaverse, or the Xverse, the Magicverse, the Omniverse, the Holodeck, the Oasis — whatever sci-fi name we want to give it — as pure fiction. But we have come a long way since Will Wright, the famous game developer, said that 'a dog-eared copy of Snow Crash' is the business plan for every startup in Silicon Valley.

Many Silicon Valley technologists and game developers have thought about the metaverse and how to make it, but more as a hobby, a pipe dream, or a night job. But we need it now more than ever, and an increasing number of tech and game leaders are thinking about this as their day jobs.

Above: Geoff Keighley is the creator of The Game Awards.

It's not just a hobby or science fiction anymore. It's a realistic alternative to the Zoomverse, which isn't very compelling as a replacement for physical reality. Will this new wave propelled by the pandemic take us into the real metaverse? Will we find the glue that ties it all together so the metaverse isn't Babel? Will it be open? We hope to answer some of the questions at our event.

That's why we're doing this event, and we are so grateful to be able to get a host of great speakers. You can see the names on the preliminary agenda below. But our latest speakers include futurist Cathy Hackl, Sam Englebardt of Galaxy Interactive, Ian Livingstone of Hiro Capital, Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming Partners, Dean Abramson and Sean Mann of RP1, Toby Tremayne and Ryan Gill of Crucible, Akash Nagam of Genies, Rony Abovitz, Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop, Ted Schilowitz of Paramount Pictures, Lauren Bigelow of IMVU, Meaghan Fitzgerald of Facebook Reality Labs, Jessica Freeman of Microsoft/Minecraft, friendship expert Shasta Nelson, Timoni West and Danny Lange of Unity, Bruce Grove of Polystream, John Burris of IMVU, Tanya DePass of I Need Diverse Games, Frederic Descamps of Manticore Games, Raph Koster of Playable Worlds, Jason Wilson of GamesBeat, Ronan Dunne of Verizon Consumer Group, John Hanke of Niantic, Joost van Dreunen of NYU, Vicki Dobbs Beck of ILMxLab, Siobhan Reddy of Media Molecule, Jamil Moledina of Hexagram, Mythical Games John Linden, Chris Swan of Unit 2 Games, Alon Dayan of Unbotify/Adjust, Hilmar Petursson of CCP Games, Philip Rosedale of High Fidelity, Andy Vaughan of Dolby, Mike Minotti of GamesBeat, Kyle Wiggers of VentureBeat, Richard Kerris of Nvidia, XR consultant Raffaella Camera, Christoph Fleischmann of Arthur, and Hendrik Lesser of Remote Control Productions.

Our previously announced speakers include uber-geeks such as Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and other visionaries who are investing heavily in the metaverse, like Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki; Gumi CEO Hironao Kunimitsu; Schell Games CEO Jesse Schell; Fable Studio CEO Edward Saatchi; Nvidia media and entertainment general manager Richard Kerris; Manticore Games CEO Frederic Descamps; and High Fidelity CEO Philip Rosedale.

Here's what the metaverse agenda looks like on January 27 and January 28. And don't forget we've got a ton of great speakers talking about Driving Gaming Growth on January 27 in a partnership with Facebook.

Above: Peter Levin is cofounder of Griffin Gaming Partners.

January 27 preliminary agenda

8:20 a.m. – 8:40 a.m.
Introduction
Into the metaverse
Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat, read Snow Crash when it came out, and he saw it inspire a wave of Silicon Valley startups. With the exception of Second Life, that early wave failed. Now, more than two decades later, the tech and gaming world is invoking the metaverse and the Oasis of Ready Player One in their business plans for next-generation simulated worlds. He'll set the stage.

8:40 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
The Stepping Stones to the Oasis
Gumi has built a big business with mobile games like Brave Frontier in the Japanese market. But these games are but stepping stones for the real ambition of CEO Hironao Kunimitsu. He wants to build the Oasis, and he has assembled a variety of assets and investments to make it happen. That includes investments in games, blockchain technology, and virtual reality. How long will it take to fuse it all together into the
Oasis?

Hironao Kunimitsu of Gumi
Moderator: Dean Takahashi

9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Ready Player 10
Dave Baszucki wants to build the Oasis. He has teamed up with Ready Player One author Ernest Cline to promote the idea of an online place where we work and play and entertain ourselves. They're quite serious that the metaverse is a practical possibility that we can build soon, and it is part of Baszucki's business plan. And with more than 150 million monthly active users, he has one of the most credible paths to getting to the metaverse first.

Dave Baszucki of Roblox
Moderator: TBD

9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Why we need an open metaverse
Tim Sweeney has been a proponent of the metaverse for years, and his company is trying to build parts of it inside Fortnite. Epic's acquisitions have served that purpose as the company tries to be one of the private companies that matter in the metaverse. But Sweeney also feels a strong responsibility to the whole industry, and his approach — from antitrust lawsuits to major speeches advocating openness — is helping shape how everyone views the huge opportunity before us. We'll have a fireside chat to probe into this advocate for the open metaverse.

Tim Sweeney of Epic Games
Moderator: Dean Takahashi

10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Blueprints for the open metaverse
The technology behind the open metaverse. It may be tough for a single company to build the metaverse. The building blocks are here today, but each piece may be in the hands of game startups, tech companies, or big companies in the gaming ecosystem. We'll have a panel to help identify the path to the metaverse and the tech that needs to make it happen. Will we make it happen without walled gardens?

Dean Abramson of RP1
Toby Tremayne of Crucible
Sean Mann of RP1
Moderator: Ryan Gill of Crucible

10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Investing in the metaverse
Investors are making their own moves in an attempt to manifest the metaverse. They want to get in early on the far future, but they also have to finance startups that will prove practical today. How early should they be, and what is the right avenue and technology to get there? Should they invest in games, platforms, VR/AR/XR, blockchain, or pure infrastructure? We'll find out from our panel of investors who see the metaverse as a theme for their investment strategy.

Sam Englebardt of Galaxy Interactive
Ian Livingstone of Hiro Capital
Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming Partners
Moderator: Eric Goldberg of Crossover Technologies

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Virtual beings and the metaverse
If we're going to have a metaverse, we need virtual beings represented in it, and they can be embodied either by real humans or artificial intelligence. Edward Saatchi, CEO of Fable Studio, has been running the Virtual Beings Summit to gather all of the relevant parties for creating emotionally aware, AI-enhanced virtual people in a variety of markets. These believable virtual beings are critical for an authentic metaverse, and we'll explore what it takes to create them. We'll discuss everything from non-player characters with AI to virtual concerts.

Edward Saatchi of Fable Studio
Akash Nagam of Genies
Moderator: Dean Takahashi of GamesBeat

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Will VR unlock the promise of the metaverse?
Virtual reality has been the obvious path to the metaverse, with its immersive simulation and ability to make us feel presence, or the idea that we are somewhere else. For years VR has been lauded as the clear path toward unlocking the promises of a metaverse, but we are still waiting. Will VR, or perhaps augmented reality or mixed reality, deliver on the dream in the long run?

Jesse Schell of Schell Games
Cathy Hackl
Moderator: Stephanie Llamas

12:00 p.m. -12:30 p.m.
Making the metaverse personal
Moderator: Geoff Keighley
Mike Pondsmith of R. Talsorian Games and creator of Cyberpunk

Above: Founder of Magic Leap Rony Abovitz.

12:30 p.m. -1:00 p.m.
Notes from our science fiction future
Richard Taylor and Rony Abovitz collaborated to bring a future vision of Cinematic Reality to life, with early examples happening on the Magic Leap One Spatial Computing System, with experiences such as Dr. G Invaders. Join them in a discussion about how to bring cinematic story-worlds to life, and what still needs to happen to feel like you are in a persistent, sentient Xverse – and how the writers of fantasy and science-fiction will need to push beyond current thinking, as the reality of science continues to chase the imaginations of creatives.

Rony Abovitz, board member of Magic Leap
Richard Taylor director of Weta Workshop
Moderator: Ted Schilowitz, Paramount Pictures Futurist in Residence

12:30 p.m. – 1 p.m./1:30 p.m.
Roundtables

1:00 pm -1:30 pm
Making Friends in the Metaverse
Socializing and making friends in a virtual world can be very different than in real life. As people spend more and more time in virtual worlds, developers need to begin prioritizing social experiences and interactions for players. How are friendships best developed virtually? Can meaningful friendships naturally form in digital environments? A panel of experts will discuss these topics and more as we explore the subject of making friends in the metaverse.

Lauren Bigelow of IMVU
Meaghan Fitzgerald of Facebook Reality Labs
Jessica Freeman of Microsoft/Minecraft
Moderator: Shasta Nelson, Friendship Expert

1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Breaking the 4th wall
A discussion on how game technologies are welcoming new audiences into virtual worlds.

Bruce Grove of Polystream
Elina Arponen, CEO of Quicksave Interactive
Si Lumb – Futurist
Moderator: Wanda Meloni

2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
The tools for the metaverse
Timoni West of Unity
Danny Lange of Unity
Moderator: Charlie Fink

2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Transmedia and the metaverse

Mark Long CEO of Neon Media
Jeff Gomez Starlight Runner Entertainment

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Blockchain and the metaverse
Arthur Madrid, CEO of Pixowl
Moderator: Dean Takahashi

3:30 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Town Hall
Our keynote speakers — Hironao Kunimitsu of Gumi and Tim Sweeney of Epic Games answer questions from the audience about the metaverse. Dean Takahashi of GamesBeat will moderate the session.

4:15 p.m.
Reception and Networking

Above: Hilmar Veigar Petursson has been CEO of CCP Games since 2004.

January 28 preliminary agenda

8:40 a.m. – 8:55 a.m.
Introduction

8:55 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.
The Economy of the metaverse
John Burris of IMVU

9:15 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
The evolution of bots and future predictions
Alon Dayan, founder of Unbotify at Adjust
Moderator: Dean Takahashi

9:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Metaverse startups
Startups show us the way. They always try to leap forward and free us from the shackles of the past. The metaverse is a very big idea, but startups are biting off chunks of it today and executing on their dreams. Their belief is that the metaverse will be a multiverse, or a collection of worlds built by a whole collection of companies and projects and consortia, and they believe that startups will get there first. We'll hear from a few of them on this panel.

Tanya DePass of I Need Diverse Games
Frederic Descamps of Manticore Games
Raph Koster of Playable Worlds
Moderator: Jason Wilson of GamesBeat

Above: Siobhan Reddy, studio director, Media Molecule

10:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
5G and the metaverse
How will new technology unlock new entertainment experiences?
Ronan Dunne, CEO of Verizon Consumer Group
John Hanke, Founder and CEO of Niantic
Moderator: Joost van Dreunen, founder of SuperData

10:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
From Storytelling to Storyliving in the metaverse
The metaverse could bring about the transition from storytelling (one way communication) to storyliving, where you're in a world making meaningful choices that drive the narrative forward. World building is at the very core of this mission. Storytellers have an opportunity to remake what they do with the metaverse in a way that transcends individual platforms and devices and allows us to tell stories that are connected and complementary across locations, in-home, and in ‘theaters of the future.' As famous science fiction author Ursula K. LeGuin once said: 'There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.' Get ready to step inside the story like never before.

Vicki Dobbs Beck of ILMxLab
Siobhan Reddy of Media Molecule
Moderator: Jamil Moledina of Hexagram

11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Creative play as a destination
More and more of people's time is being spent in online digitally connected experiences, and the line is continuing to blur between creators and consumers. This panel looks ahead at how the metaverse impacts these current trends, and the technologies behind it.

Mythical Games CEO John Linden
Chris Swan, Publishing Director, Unit 2 Games
Jacob Navok, CEO of Genvid
Moderator Wanda Meloni

1145 a.m. – 1215 p.m.
Diversity and the metaverse
Stanley Pierre-Louis, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association
moderator: Dean Takahashi

12:15 p.m. – 12:45 a.m.
Eve Online: A blueprint for the metaverse
Creating virtual worlds that are more meaningful than real life has been CCP Games' mission since the conception of EVE Online, a game that has and continues to blaze a trail for some of the more advanced concepts at play in virtual societies. To achieve this, CCP has pioneered technology and design that facilitates emergent behavior, empowering people with compelling means of self-expression. In this discussion, CCP's CEO Hilmar V. Pétursson will talk about how the Eve universe's complex player-organised social structures and vast player-run economy sets a blueprint for the metaverse, as well as sharing insight into the R&D that CCP has been conducting in recent years.

Hilmar Petursson of CCP Games
Moderator: Mike Vorhaus of Vorhaus Advisors

Above: This may be Richard Bartle on Skype. Or maybe his virtual character.

12:45 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Listen to the metaverse
Sound is an integral part of the metaverse. High Fidelity has 3D audio that creates a space for the metaverse, where you can listen to a large group of people, or zero in on just a couple of people at a time. How can sound make the metaverse as immersive as it needs to be? We'll find out more in this panel.

Social Media Creator Free

Philip Rosedale of High Fidelity
Andy Vaughan of Dolby
Moderator: Mike Minotti of GamesBeat

1:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Enterprise and the metaverse
Nvidia Omniverse is a virtual platform where engineers, designers and researchers can collaborate and simulate physically accurate worlds to test their designs. Arthur is creating VR for enterprises. And big companies like Accenture are also building VR meeting places. Is the enterprise going to be the path to the metaverse?

Richard Kerris of Nvidia
Raffaella Camera, formerly of Accenture
Arthur CEO Christoph Fleischmann
Moderator: Kyle Wiggers of VentureBeat

Content Creator Social Media

1:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
The Ethics of the metaverse
Richard Bartle of the University of Essex
Moderator: Hendrik Lesser of Remote Control Productions

2:15 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.
Closing session
Dean Takahashi

Game Creator Free For Kids

2:20 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.
Networking

Social Game Creator