As some of you may know, the Steam Summer Sale had just went on and there were a lot of great deals but it wasn't just games but software.
Couple significant software items that were on sale were GameMaker, RPGMaker and one I had not heard of but piqued my interest, ClickTeam Fusion 2.5+
Teaser video
I chose Fusion as it seemed fairly straightforward and balanced for application as well as game development. It could potentially be a solution for Hive Downvote Rewards or other Hive blockchain apps with it's Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) connector.
I was reviewing tools and there is also an RPC client but not sure if it is sophisticated enough to deal with signing operations. It would likely be helpful for queries and such.
Altogether, it was a hefty sum that I paid for the entire package to include one exporter (iOS).
- ClickTeam Fusion 2.5 w 2.5+ addon $84 buckaroos
This is the base software plus addon that includes features such as having parent-child relationship for events which makes it easier to keeps things organized on your project timeline.
Relevant meme
Believe it also has additional debugging features included
- Developer Upgrade $179 buckaroos
The main reason I purchased this is so I may actually own the rights to the software I produce but the upgrade also comes with a myriad other features and also resources (sprites, sounds etc)
- iOS exporter $49.99 buckaroos
I would have preferred the html5 or Android exporter had been on sale instead. I'm not an Apple guy but sure there is a good market for apps produced on their platform. Plan on budgeting for purchasing a basic iOS device for testing.
Why did I decide to go with visual coding?
Some may be critical and say well you can do app development with a web framework and not have to pay a dime. While this is true, I am not a coder / scripter. Not a software or web developer although I understand a fair degree of it at a high level due to related studies.
Think of it like this
Let's say my goal is a completed puzzle and I can do this one of two ways. I can learn to fabricate each of the puzzle pieces on my own which would take an undetermined amount of time.
Or I could leverage an application in which all the puzzle pieces exist already and I merely have to figure out how to put them together. I think this analogy is apt and I have opted for the latter.
That isn't to say there are not limitations to using "prefab" software. One such limitation is the ability to use a maximum of 260 variables at any given time. Generally, I do not need to use that many in the scripts that I create but there is always the possibility that it could become an issue.
The big picture is that this software is to rapidly deploy games / applications which people can use and find enjoyment. Sooner rather that later.
Thanks for reading. No ETA on when things will really get rolling. Have a backlog of home issues that need to be tended and keeping up with the girls and garden has proven quite time consuming. Looking forward to when I get something out there for yall.