[quote=353330:@Chris Verberne]Dear Oliver Scott-Brown,
Visited the PowerMode website a few times now, also tried downloading the 64 bit version which tells me it is not available. Those forums are empty and your licence agreement page, sounds a little harsh.
There are already many excellent game engines available on the market. When I read about PowerMode, it looks like a clone of Fusion, Construct 2/3 which already are established game development tools. Besides of those two, there are Unreal, Infinity, GameMaker, Unity and more.
From the content of the PowerMode website, I fail to see what the PowerMode tool has more to offer than the others. Where it stands out and shines above the others. Myself I am using Scirra Construct 3 for game development for our small daughter of 8.
I installed the 32 bit version and looked at it for… 3 minutes then I closed and de-installed. This is what is wrong with your free version :
1 During the installation process I already received a warning.
2. When I selected the suggested directory for a new project, I could not choose the directory in a visual way. However when I clicked on “OK” then I open dialog showed up.
3. I do understand the reason for deactivating the “build” option, but what I do not understand is why the “Run” function is not working. In this way it is impossible to test the game created in PowerMode.
4. The User Interface looks obsolete and very clumsy. For example, when i want to watch th tutorial “Pong” only 1/4 th of the upper left section is visible.
5. When I want to restart the game again, I got the error that I first have to reconfigure the server.
6. When a promotion ends, just don’t view it any longer. The way I was forwarded it sounds like you want to punish those which where not fast enough.
And lastly your promotional message “Fully visual game development tool with learning concepts found in no other tools”. Here you are claiming to be superior above the other already established tools. Where Oliver, where does your tool stands above the others? Maybe my thinking is too limited and narrow, but I cannot see where the learning concepts are a match for the others. There are already thousands of tutorials for Construct. Where are the PowerMode tutorials? There are more features missing than Undo and redo alone.
There is really nothing which let me switch from Construct ot PowerMode. Construct 3 while still in beta (PowerMode is alpha when I understand correctly;, so you are charging for your users to be alpha testers) is already fully working. It works by using events and behaviour and is completely visual.
When PowerMode is so easy to learn and the website claim, will our small one succeed in creating her first game in PowerMode? While she can with guidance make very simple things in Construct, she will surely fail in PowerMode. The whole PowerMode interface is completely not intuitive. Lastly, using Xojo for creating a game development tool is a bad idea and PowerMode exactly reflects the Xojo weakness in this area. While Xojo is an excellent tool for creating applications, it is not suitable as game development tool because of its RAD nature. The other tools are written in C++ for the simple reason of speed and way of coding.
You can disagree with me but then I ask you; how many paid users do you have? Why is there nobody on your forums?
In this review, I expressed my personal views as a game creator on PowerMode. Nevertheless, you created PowerMode as a kid which is a hugh accomplishment for which you receive my highest admiration and respect. I am sure everybody here will agree with me that you are already very skilled and talented. I am sure when you continue developing your programming skills, we will not have seen the last from you! From me PowerMode will receive 3 stars out of 5.
To conclude, I suggest to work together in a small team. This will make it easier for you to stay focused and motivated. Within the team the workload will be shared and everybody can concentrate on each individual task of the project. It is something to consider because nowadays and especially in game development, people are working in teams.
I wish you every success with your new passion for music. Don’t give up your dreams, stay motivated, focused, believe in your talents and most importantly go to the finish.
Chris[/quote]
Wow thanks for this feedback. And I agree with a lot of your criticism which is my reason for open sourcing it. There are bugs and yes I should definatly have a team but this is a lot of work for one person who has never worked in a team before. It is now officially open source. I do not charge for this tool.
https://bitbucket.org/oliversb/powermode