Yesterday I signed up for the new indie level membership at GameSalad.com. It was a very reasonable $99/yr registration fee. The indie membership is called their Express Membership.For the $99 I am given their GameSalad Project Editor which reminds me a bit of the Flash interface. It is made up of scenes and “actors” which are controlled by behaviors. Alot of the process seems to be simplified into point and click. You have to attach some code logic to these various widgets but so far it doesn’t seem overly complicated.
Also, they provide the GameSalad Viewer which starts out as an xcode project that you can compile and run on your ipod/iphone. It allows you to test your games natively on your device. This also seems to be a straightforward process. From inside the GameSalad Editor you choose to launch your project for iPhone and as long as your desktop and device are connected to the same wifi network the game is installed and runs on your device.
I should note that anyone can download and begin creating games with the GameSalad Project Editor for FREE. But you need a membership in order to get access to the GameSalad viewer which is really essential to testing the performance of your games.
There is also a PRO membership for $1999/yr but from what I can tell currently the only differences between the Express & the Pro memberships are the ability to change the splash screen (which for indie membership must remain the Created By GameSalad logo) and the ability to have URL Links embedded in the app. Both are worthwhile features that I would very much like to have but at this point I’m not willing to part with an additional $1900. You can add your own splash screen after the GS Logo if you wish anyway. The Pro membership also comes with some support incidents but they provide documentation, user support forums and a how-to wiki.
I’m excited to dive into the world of games and GameSalad is the most cost effective way I have found for a rank amateur like myself to get started in game development. I should mention that recently Unit 3d has released a free version but it is significantly more complex. Unity’s features are much more robust but the learning curve from what I hear is huge.
Get more info on GameSalad and their iPhone program from 
