GameSalad, maker of a do-it-yourself mobile-game publishing platform, is announcing today that it has teamed up with Amazon to provide tools for releasing titles on Kindle Fire tablets.
The move is consistent with rumors that Amazon plans to introduce a game console, but it is also something that Amazon must do to drive adoption of its existing Kindle Fire products.
“Amazon approached us because they were releasing new Kindle Fire devices, and one of their initiatives is to get more content for them, including indie games,” said Steve Felter, chief executive of San Francisco-based GameSalad, in an interview with GamesBeat.
GameSalad’s development platform is aimed at both professional and amateur game makers. Those who use the engine do not need to have coding experience to make games with it.
Felter had no comment on whether Amazon would introduce its own console or not. He said, “It certainly seems like something they are well positioned to do. If I were them, having a lot of content that they could port over to a device would be key. But our partnership applies to the Kindle Fire.”
“GameSalad’s tools open doors for developers and non-developers alike to harness their creativity and bring their games to the Kindle Fire family. With the new line of Kindle Fire devices, our customers will enjoy more games produced through GameSalad and delivered on premium devices, including Kindle Fire HD and HDX,” said Steve Rabuchin, general manager for the Amazon Appstore.
That deal means developers who use GameSalad to create their titles can take advantage of the Kindle line’s graphical capabilities, its GameCircle social networking, and Amazon’s in-app purchase service.
GameSalad has more than 700,000 developers, many of them indie game makers. The company will run a promotion where it will make publishing for the Kindle Fire free for a limited time. Developers who submit their titles by Nov. 30 will not have to pay the GameSalad Pro license fee. Normally, individuals would have to pay a $299 professional license to GameSalad in order to publish an experience.
The service launched in 2009. It is the engine behind more than 200,000 original titles and is already available for publishing on the Android platform. GameSalad has 22 employees, and it raised a venture round in early 2011.