It’s been said many times: a platform is nothing without a solid app ecosystem. Microsoft knows this and has worked hard to grow the Windows Phone Store. Amazon knows this too, which is why the company recently partnered with GameSalad, a provider of mobile game development tools, to help boost the Kindle Fire game development community.
GameSalad’s professional game development suite, which normally costs about $300, is being made available free to developers interested in building games for the Kindle Fire line of tablets. In particular, the GameSalad suite is optimized for the Fire OS 3.0 ‘Mojito’ release. Features include drag-and-drop integration with Amazon’s In-App Purchase and GameCircle APIs, in addition to priority tech support with 24-hour response time and app monetization.
Interestingly, this announcement comes shortly after details emerged regarding Amazon’s upcoming smartphones, one of which is said to run the Fire OS. It’s hard to say if this push for game development is a way to give the Fire OS a good selection of games at the time of the phone’s release, however, since Amazon has yet to acknowledge its existence. In fact, the company flatly denied all phone rumors back in September.
"GameSalad is excited to work with Amazon to make it easier for developers to create games for Fire OS and get them discovered in the Amazon Appstore," said GameSalad CEO Steve Felter in a statement. "Kindle Fire tablets are incredibly popular and as its user base continues to soar, demand for high quality indie games continues to increase. Developers can now tap into that marketplace more quickly, easily and now for free using the GameSalad platform, offering consumers a wide variety of top indie games."
Developers that submit their games by Nov. 30 will also receive a free one-month GameSalad Pro license for each game submitted. This allows developers to deploy and monetize their apps in other marketplaces as well.
Edited by
Alisen Downey 
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