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Oh I see, I was expecting comments on the blog posts to be on the blog posts. Never mind. I have added your info to the Project Spark in 2018 blog post.

I tried everyone of the free game editors you posted.  Here are my thoughts:https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker - This one needs to be installed on your computer.  The interface reminds me of Adobe products with many windows full of information.  I would need to spend a lot more time with this one to see how good it is.  Created a sprite and was trying to figure out how to make a level (map) to use so didn't even get to the programming part.http://www.gamemaker3d.com/ - Not bad.  The code can look confusing, but you are also given the option to edit the script directly.  This will not be for novices though. Pretty good overall.http://www.sploder.com/ - Keeps telling me to install latest Flash Player, even after I install and reboot.https://www.appsgeyser.com/ - Only allows you to customize already created game templates.  You only get to change the pictures used and not edit the game in any other way.http://flowlab.io/ - This one is a good one for making 2D games.  The editor is very user friendly and you can make a game pretty quickly. For Little Big Planet fans (like myself), the behaviors use the "wire attach" method for connecting logic. Cool!

As odd as this sounds, I think Microsoft just tries to stay relevant. Their creative days have not been seen for awhile.Playstation was big so they made the Xbox (which in my opinion, was it's best during the 360 years, now the interface is a mess).Sony had a Walkman that was big so Microsoft made a Zune.Google was big, so they created Bing (which I worked for several years ago)Little Big Planet was... well... a little big (HA!), so they made Project Spark!My strong opinion is that the decision maker at Microsoft is surrounded by "yes men".  No matter how bad the idea, they agree to do it.I think they are desperately trying to find something else that can make them good residual money like Windows (I mean, it is a business).  I hear they are losing money every year on the Xbox and gaming division. Back to what has been said before, once they got MineCraft and saw that Project Spark was not making them money or getting people to buy their system, they dropped it.It's a shame they would not let us pay for our own server to share games.  I'm surprised they don't have it set so you can pay a monthly fee to keep a server running.  I think many of us would pay.Well, that's my opinion and rant. The facts I do not know.

Hello LadylexUK!No, I have not tried any of those (but will be looking into them). I have been using Scratch to satisfy my game creating urge - https://scratch.mit.edu/For example, I made this silly space shooter for my co-workers (hence their faces).  You won't understand the inside jokes, but it's still a fun shooter. Sadly, it's nowhere near the fun I had with LBP and Project Spark, but it's pretty powerful for as easy as it is to program.  You'll pick it up right away if you don't already know it.At first I thought it was pretty limited, but when browsing other's creations, I found some unbelievable games!  It's nice you can go in and see their programming too.Let me know if you know of Scratch already or if you plan to check it out. 

Well, the idea was to edit the blog post....

Thanks for your post. Just to add that anything that is made available to download is for PC users only. Xbox users cannot use Sparkshare, cannot download the game via a link and cannot add any assets or affect any fixes.

Hi LadyLex!Just wanted to ping about this blog entry: https://schoolofkode.wordpress.com/project-spark-in-2017/1. The link to download will always be available through my own created downloader, as I have saved the package on my server2. Noxious Bog biome missing: There's a fix I made available on my forum to bring back the missing assets http://projectspark.ch/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=192 . Some have reported problem after using, some have donated a few bucks for the result, I cannot say what goes wrong for some.3. Missing asset names: Fixed by my patch, same a Noxious Bog4. Official forums: We have salvaged them and have a working copy of them. We mostly kept all guides5. sparkshare.org is not me, I'm hosted on www.projectspark.ch, not that you wrote it, but many have told me they got lost finding SparkShareCheers, and happy new year!

One of my favourite Project Spark Community levels does not have a playthrough video. If you have it could you make a playthrough video for YouTube so I can add it to the archive?

I agree. It had no momentum after the interest at E3 because they bought Minecraft and just had no interest in promoting Project Spark any more. Also, it did not know whether it wanted to be a kids game or a serious game making tool. It sort of teased us with the possibility of making something great but then put lots of roadblocks in the way such as the prop and terrain limits, the inability to change certain things in kode (like the terrain material slots, or the clothing on the characters, or recolouring individual channels), and the inability to add your own music or 3d models. Some of this I understand, but I always felt that Project Spark built on the idea that it was a drag and drop level creator, rather than a creative application.

After watching your video on this topic, I think the lack of promotion definitely hurt the sales and reach of the game, personally I only saw a single trailer which was at E3 I believe. On top of that, the lack of support in the game for advanced creations made it impossible to make anything big or noticeable different turning away the majority of players, especially the younger audience, it's a shame because it could have been something amazing.