据venturebeat报道，游戏开发工具公司GameSalad日前任命Steve Felter担任首席执行官，该公司创始人及原首席执行官Michael Agustin则负责接手首席产品官职位。Agustin将重点监管GameSalad的产品管理，而Felter则负责统领公司的运营发展。

在加入GameSalad团队之前，Felter是社交媒介市场营销及分析服务公司DigiSynd的首席运营官和首席财务总监，该公司曾帮助迪士尼公司在Facebook展开市场营销活动，让后者在Facebook网站成功吸引了1亿多名粉丝。另外，他还从事华纳兄弟公司的业务开发工作。

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与其他游戏开发工具不一样，GameSalad的游戏开发工具省略了繁琐的步骤，支持没有编程知识的人通过拖放式的用户界面，自主完成从美术到音效等一系列的游戏开发过程。不管是YouTube视频编辑人员，还是普通美工，所有人都可以使用这种降低技术门槛的工具，成为一名游戏开发者。

因为手机游戏市场的繁荣发展，超过三分之一的成年人都在玩手机游戏，手机游戏开发工具的市场行情也因此水涨船高，迪士尼最近收购了RocketPack的这笔交易就是一个很好的证明，因为后者的主要业务就是开发HTML5游戏及创建游戏开发工具。

游戏邦获悉，目前共有4500多款游戏使用了GameSalad开发工具，在美国App Store前100强榜单中，就有30款游戏是由GameSalad开发而成。

GameSalad帮助不少普通人实现了游戏开发的梦想。14岁的少年Abdulrahman Al-Zanki因为接受了好友的挑战，下载了GameSalad的免费版简化工具，经过三天努力，向App Store提交了自己的第一个游戏《Doodle Destroy》，结果该游戏目前下载量超过了100万次，甚至还登上了CNN.com的新闻报道版面。

Daniel Caldwell是一名有八年教龄的纽约科学教师，他使用GameSalad创建了一款教育应用SciTunes Human Body Adventure，最后还获得了白宫的教育杰出贡献奖。GameSalad的这类励志游戏开发故事，是Felter于去年加入该团队的重要原因之一。他认为，人人都有机会开发下一个《愤怒的小鸟》。

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游戏邦获悉，如果开发者掌握了GameSalad的基本功能，就可以选择购买专业版本的GameSalad，以便让游戏更好地创造收益。GameSalad开发工具目前下载量已达12.6万次，在过去一个月中共有400多款游戏由该工具开发而成，现在GameSalad开发的游戏在App Store中的比例为3.1%。在今年1月份，开发商向App Store提交的游戏中，有10%是由GameSalad创建的游戏。

Felter表示，GameSalad将继续简化游戏开发过程。游戏开发者当前遇到的最大障碍是实现高质量的游戏视觉效果。

GameSalad成立于2007年，创始人是Agustin、Daniel Treiman和Tan Tran，该公司至今已通过teamboat Ventures 、DFJ Mercury、DFJ Frontier和ff Asset Management融资120多万美元，其竞争对手包括专业的开发引擎供应商Unity Technologies（Unity的开发工具需要开发人员掌握相关的编程知识），以及非游戏应用开发工具供应商WidgetBox和Cabana。该公司目前有20名员工。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

GameSalad’s new CEO wants everyone to be iPhone game developers

Steve Felter, the new chief executive of GameSalad, won’t be happy until everybody can make games for the iPhone and the web.

Felter (pictured) has taken over as the top boss for Los Angeles-based GameSalad, which makes game tools that allow anyone to make web and mobile games. In contrast to other game tools, GameSalad does not require a developer to know any programming. It has a drag-and-drop user interface that a developer can use to string together the elements of a game, from art work to sound. The tools are part of a larger trend of the democratization of technology, which allows everyone from YouTube film makers to artists to become self-made creators.

The market for these tools is heating up just as enthusiasm for mobile game companies is picking up. Disney recently acquired RocketPack, which specializes in making tools and games based on the HTML5 web format. Mobile games are taking off because demand for smartphones and tablet computers is also skyrocketing. More than a third of adults say they now play mobile games.

Felter replaces co-founder and former CEO Michael Agustin, who will become chief product officer for GameSalad. So far, the business is going well. GameSalad has been used to create more than 4,500 games, including 30 games that have made it into the top 100 ranks of the U.S. version of Apple’s App Store.

GameSalad appeals to anyone who has ever dreamed of creating a game. Abdulrahman Al-Zanki, a 14-year-old student in Kuwait, accepted a dare from a friend who said he was incapable of building an iPhone game. He accepted and downloaded GameSalad, which is available for free in its limited form. Three days later, he submitted his first game to the App Store. Now that game, Doodle Destroy, has been downloaded more than 1 million times and has been featured on CNN.com.

Daniel Caldwell, an eight grade science teacher outside of Syracuse, N.Y., used GameSalad to build an educational app, SciTunes Human Body Adventure, which became a finalist for a prestigious White House education award. Stories like this are plentiful and are one reason Felter joined the company late last year.

“It’s like a lottery,” said Felter. “There’s always the chance of making the next Angry Birds,” referring to the Rovio game that has been downloaded more than 75 million times.

Once game makers get the hang of it, they can buy the professional version of GameSalad in order to better monetize the games. Agustin will focus on building out the product line while Felter focuses on growing the company. Before joining GameSalad, Felter was chief operating officer and chief financial officer of DigiSynd, a social media marketing and analytics firm. That company helped the Walt Disney Co. become hip to social media, which included growing Disney’s Facebook properties to more than 100 million fans. He also work in business development at Warner Bros.

GameSalad was founded in 2007 by Agustin, Daniel Treiman and Tan Tran. The company has raised at least $1.2 million from Steamboat Ventures (Disney’s investment arm), DFJ Mercury, DFJ Frontier, and ff Asset Management. Rivals include Unity Technologies, which makes tools for the professional and amateur crowd. While GameSalad focuses on two-dimensional games, Unity’s tools (which require programming knowledge) can be used to make sophisticated 3D games. Other rivals include non-game app makers WidgetBox and Cabana. GameSalad has 20 employees.

Games published to the web are playable at GameSalad.com, and users can choose to create apps that are uploaded to the App Store. The GameSalad creator tool has been downloaded 126,000 times. More than 400 games were launched in the last 30 days. GameSalad games are now 3.1 percent of the total number on the App Store. In January, 10 percent of the games submitted to the App Store used GameSalad.

Felter said that GameSalad will continue to focus on simplifying the game making process. Right now, the biggest obstacle is creating high-quality art for a game. The screen shots above show you can drag characters from the left hand side of the screen and insert them into the scene on the right hand side.（source:venturebeat）