Yesterday Gendai Games launched the iPhone Early Access Program for its drag-and-drop iPhone gamemaking package GameSalad Creator.

We caught up with CEO, Michael Agustin, to find out more about the development of the technology and what future plans the company has for it.

Pocket Gamer: When and why did you come up with the idea for GameSalad Creator?

Michael Agustin: The idea for GameSalad started while I was a tools and Artificial Intelligence (AI) developer in the console games industry.

One of the first tools I developed was an application that would allow someone to create a flow chart describing the AI of a Non-Playable Character (NPC) and test it immediately on a development console.

Previously, the process was quite tedious, taking at least 30 days to develop and test in code. However with the tool I produced, the AI for a NPC could be conceived and implemented in 30 minutes.

Working directly with professional game designers gave me the chance to experience firsthand the power of well-designed tools.

As my interest in game design tools increased, I found myself researching game creation programs for non-programmers within the education field, and I was impressed with how intuitive they were.

Before long I found myself applying for graduate school to study game design tools and processes. During my studies, I witnessed the explosion of social media sites such as YouTube and how tools like iMovie and portable digital video recorders enable people to take the centre stage.

I wanted to facilitate the entire story of media creation, online distribution, and sharing but for video games, and I sought to make it accessible to the average person who has no programming knowledge. At the time, no one had really put all the necessary puzzle pieces together, so my team and I decided to go for it. And that's how GameSalad was born.

Did you have any existing technology or is it written from scratch?

Early on we created several prototypes to test the concept and experiment with the design. Afterwards we started fresh, drawing on the lessons learned from early prototypes.

The GameSalad engine is purpose-built from the ground up for modularity and portability. GameSalad also leverages open-source technology and standards, including XML, Lua, Box2D, Cocoa, and OpenAL.

Does it support any other platforms than iPhone and web, and why did you choose those?

Currently the iPhone and the web are the two ways that you can publish a GameSalad developed game. We chose to go that route because they are the most accessible platforms for indie developers to make games for - also the most affordable.

The decision to publish to the iPhone was really a happy result of good timing and circumstances: our tool was already running in an early form on the Mac when Apple announced the iPhone SDK. It was pretty much a no-brainer to start working on what ultimately would become our iPhone publishing system.

Does it support OS 3.0 features such as push notifications and micro-transactions?

At the moment, we do not have support for these features, however we are continually assessing what our users want in terms of additions or enhancements and use that to help us prioritise what gets worked on next.

Our plan with GameSalad is to continue building on it and exposing features and tools that would best serve the community and developers.

What about other complex features such as multiplayer and the social networking platforms such as OpenFeint and Scoreloop?

Multiplayer is a high priority for us and one that we will focus on after launch. GameSalad has a certain style, or language, that is consistent throughout the entire tool, one that focuses on ease of use and accessibility. Before we release any new feature, especially one as complex as multiplayer, we want to ensure that its implementation maintains this consistency.

We are still in the process of evaluating APIs such as OpenFeint and Scoreloop. However we are definitely looking to integrate with popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to facilitate things such as logging in, sharing activity, invites, and matchmaking.

How difficult has it been to get a system working where games made with GameSalad can be submitted to the App Store?

From the ground up, the GameSalad engine was designed to be adaptable to a variety of platforms. Additionally, many of us here at Gendai Games have experience publishing iPhone or iPod touch apps.

Creating a system to deliver GameSalad games for publishing on the App Store has been comparatively trouble-free and we expect it to be so with games that our users publish. Once a game has been converted to Xcode, the process to submit to Apple for inclusion to the App Store is exactly the same as with other iPhone developers.

What has been the most difficult thing to get right?

Finding a good balance between power and simplicity is a constant challenge. GameSalad needs to provide powerful features to enable the creation of interesting and compelling games. However, if these features introduce too much complexity, it may put off potential game creators.

We have to design each feature carefully, so that we can introduce it without impacting the simplicity and ease-of-use that is consistent throughout GameSalad.

We also take very seriously the process of user-testing for our iteration process. Much of this could not have been done without the help of our fantastic community who are very active on our website.

How will you make money?

While the tool is free for anyone to make games with, the ability to create a version of your game for publishing to a platform like the iPhone requires the developer to be a subscribing member.

[An Indie membership is $499/year and a Pro membership $1,999.]

One thing we want to make clear is that any game made for the iPhone is completely owned by the creator. They receive an Xcode project just as if it were coded from scratch which can then submitted to the App Store. We do not take any royalties from games made with GameSalad so 100% of the profits (minus Apple's cut of course) belongs to the developer.

What's the reaction been like and how many downloads and active developers do you have?

The reaction has been phenomenal. We have more than 10,000 members and unique downloads of the tool, around 4,000 of which came within the matter of seven days after the announcement of iPhone publishing in early September.

We are very amazed by how well the news of GameSalad is spreading throughout the community and are grateful for the word-of-mouth advertising that our members are doing for us.

How complex and varied are the games you can make with GameSalad Creator?

As more people try out GameSalad, we start to see a growing variety of games that can be made. We've been seeing platformers, racers, shooters, physics based games, and even tower defense games.

Many times we've been quite surprised to find games uploaded to our site that we did not even realise were possible to create with GameSalad - for example we've seen sim games and even music and rhythm games made with the tool.

Currently GameSalad supports the creation of 2D games, but as we continue building on the tool and our list of supported platforms, we plan on expanding its features to include support for 3D game development.

When do you plan to release a version that can handle 3D?

Not anytime soon. As our goal has always been ease of use, we want to continue refining 2D game development in GameSalad before we add the additional complexities that are inherent in a 3D game engine: XYZ coordinate systems, support for 3D modeling and animation, texture mappings and optimisations to name a few.

These are challenges not only for us, but for our users as well, many who are using GameSalad as their springboard into game development. We wish to grow with our users in this respect, by increasing our feature-set as they learn and grow.

Thanks to Michael for his time.

To find out more information about the different membership, go to the GameSalad Creator website.