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As a young pup with a computer I remember always wanting to create a game. I was quite young, and hadn’t a lick of programming experience. It was at that point that I found out about the RPG Maker software, and while my time with the software didn’t produce anything worthy of mention, it was still an interesting experience — here was a series of conditions and a pack of resources I’d brought together to create something that resembled a game.
Welp, someone wants to bring you the “RPG Maker” for Android apps. It’s called “jimu,” and it only exists as a Kickstarter idea right now. The project — which seeks $50,000 by April 8th — will give people a tool to build Android apps using a WYSIWYG-style interface, allowing you to build your user interface, create your application flow and fill in your content with fast, quick, and easy methods. This tool would appear to be transparent, as well, as you’ll get to see all the code at work behind the brawn.
That would make it a great learning tool for anyone looking to take up Android development, and would give you immense flexibility in taking your app further than what jimu’s tools would allow. The folks behind jimu say the tool constructs code with best-practice syntax and structure, too, so it won’t be a jumbled mess for others to look at. I remember trying to build a webpage in Dreamweaver and having to look at the vomit of code it spit out, so this is one very important factor that I’m sure many will consider when they back the project.
The project — expected to deliver its earliest functional rewards by June — has a few different tiers of rewards. Access to early betas, a half-day class on Google Hangouts regarding jimu and raw Android development from a team of expert developers, and custom built apps are among the rewards users can get depending on how much money they decide to pledge. You can read more about it, and the jimu project overall, at the Kickstarter page. The video above should give you a nice primer on everything discussed so be sure to watch that, as well.
Too bad they are discussing charging $100/month to use this after it goes live. So you pretty much pay to use beta.
Thanks for your interest! Project creator here. The pricing model is tentative since we focus a lot more on building the product at this point.
As a backer, you’d get deep discount and more options. Please see below:
KS100 – $80 early birds, $100 pledge levels ($600 value)
Your choice of 1) 6 months of membership, unlimited number of apps, or 2) 12 months of membership, 2 apps ($100 per additional app per year)
KS200 – $200, $300 pledge levels ($1200 value)
Your choice of 1) 12 months of membership, unlimited number of apps, or 2) 24 months of membership, 2 apps ($100 per additional app per year)
KS400 – $400 and above pledge levels ($2400 value)
LIFETIME membership, 5 apps ($100 per additional app per year)
Great idea. Google should hire these guys!
cool
I love the idea, but I do not think the membership is sustainable
I see this being used by the average Joe, e.g. someone who would like to build something
but does not want to put in the time required to learn coding through an EDI (Eclipse or something)
The people who do will pick a real IDE
I would love to code this way but the prices seem to steep,
especially if you are not planning to sell the app…
Personally i’d like to see a different approach
Hmm..
Seems I have seen this before somewhere… Oh right it was called App Inventor from Google.
Now it is MIT App Inventor, the only difference is that App Inventor does not generate a Android Project. (i.e. Something that could be pulled into ADT.)
At the conceptual level, they are very simliar. But the details make all the difference. The interface is, in our experience, more intuitive and easier to use. The fact that it generates Java source code makes it useful for developers too.