Now that Unity5 is out "free for all platforms" and unity PlayMaker cheaper than Gamesalad PRO...
AcidSlug
Member Posts: 9
So many engines have suddenly become all FREE (what comes to features) that it is very hard to choose Gamesalad anymore when starting a new game project. Especially free Unity 5 + PlayMaker (Cheaper than Gamesalad PRO) is a perfect, easy and more versatile choice for any game dev.
Is Gamesalad going to react to this in someway? Just worried, because 299/year for PRO sounds now almost robbery compared to other products. I do wish Gamesalad will live long!
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I don't think game salad has anything to worry about. $299 is still very cheap, especially since they give it away for free, and it's really not targeting the same people as Unity. those engines are a whole different ballgame.
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I agree with @jonmulcahy, the target markets are so different Gamesalad is fine the way they are. If you want to learn to program you've always had lots of other solutions, many of which were free or at least very inexpensive. I think the big draw for GS's market is the ease of drag and drop more than the price.
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My only worry for GameSalad is that the news of these other engines going free is going to place more scrutiny on competing engines, and anyone who downloads GameSalad right now is going to have an exceedingly poor experience. Hopefully it doesn't end up damaging GameSalad's reputation in the face of such renewed competition.
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Maybe it will be more pressure to make Graphene even more awesome!
http://jamie-cross.net/posts/ ✮ Udemy: Introduction to Mobile Games Development ✮ Learn Mobile Game Development in One Day Using Gamesalad ✮ My Patreon Page
it's still 4.5k to remove the bogus splash screen, though.
If you can code, then why are you even here?! Because Unity is for hard seasoned coders and I just cant get my head around that yet!
I do wish Gamesalad offers a subscription service, maybe with Graphene because Epic with Unreal Engine saw a huge uplift in subscriber numbers.
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your comparing oranges and apples.
Yep, that's my current choice for game development. I'm sure Graphene will react to that pricing, otherwise I'm not sure how they will survive in the current market.
Plugins like Playmaker, allows you to make games in Unity with no coding.
Shadows Peak is an atmospheric psychological horror that explores the dark side of a player.
I've asked exactly the same yesterday. Corona SDK also free now and Scirra's Construct 2... Playmaker's Unity is "coding" free.
At least we deserve a price cut reward for our loyalty.
And why is that? Gamesalad as well as Unity/PlayMaker are coding free choices to make games.
Sorry man your wrong about this! the other engines want 5% royalties for any monies made per quarter over £3000, that's the new unreal 4 engine and unity is similar in this respect.
Gamesalad is free already and they do the same with having their own adverts within, I think what they need to do is not restrict pro, ie let people use pro feature but have their adverts present if you haven't paid! this would make sense as a response!
I've been playing around with various game design engines lately and I will agree GS need to step up their game, the new proposed GS engine will no doubt do this but as you say "at what cost" and when!
depends what you want to make though 2d/3d, as I have a VR game im working on in unreal, GS cant do that!
I said "FREE (what comes to features)".
Do you know how long it takes to make a game? You can probably have have a good game finished in about 3 good days of work with Gamesalad vs have a very buggy game in about 9 days with other engines. A good examples it took flappy bird 3 days to be made with what ever engine it was with made, and with Gamesalad it can be made in 1/3 day. If you feel like spending that extra time to get the same amount, be my guest. Also I would like to note that some of Game engines mentioned have revenue limits.
Yes I do know how long it takes to make a GOOD game and it certainly takes more than 3 days. If you consider Flappy Bird as your quality standard, good luck.
This was not attack against Gamesalad, why would I do that? I am just bringing up that so many have changed their pricing policy and giving pretty much EVERY FEATURE for free to game devs. I know there are revenue limits and other payment policies, but this was about FEATURES, like I said in my first message.
What comes to revenue limits of 100k (which Unity has). Does it really matter in that point that you actually have to pay for pro license? Or you wanna pay first and then make a game that just might succeed (Gamesalad)?
Personally, I managed to recoup the cost of my Pro licence in just one app. So for me, there's value for money. Unity is a great piece of kit, but I don't have the time to sit down and teach myself C++ to get the basics.
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You really don't need every feature to make a good game or app. If your not making many downloads with free a few more features are not going to change that. More options would be nice but I hate monthly bill. I want to buy it and be done with (at least for a year). I would also like to point out that Gamesalad has more than double the developers of corona so they must be doing something right.
If you want to make money it best to keep you bottom line as high as you can get it. Apple already take 30% also that 5% comes form your 70%
Here is some math
I have an app let call it hop boy. (Idk if that is a game or not) it is 1.00 on the App Store. I got 100,000 downloads. So how much money did I make.
Without 5% percent royalty (Gamesalad)
You get:$.70
Total:$70,000
With tools: $69,700
With 5% royalty (unreal)
You get $.655 per app
Total:$66,500
With tool purchase:66,500
P.s. I know flappy bird is not a good game it is just the first game that came to mind for example.. And with Gamesalad it can only take 3 days (72 hours) to make a good game.
Unity and PlayMaker allows you to do your "good" 3 day games as easily as Gamesalad without coding. You are comparing Gamesalad to Unreal engine in your post.
Anyhow, everything you are talking about is mostly case sensitive stuff. Also, you obviously let the available features of your chosen tool to direct your game design process which I find a bit odd, but I understand it, if one does not have the knowledge of other tools. I personally like to design the game and then pick the right tool for it, the one that allows me to build it like it was first designed.
I am not saying you can't do games with Gamesalad at all. You can, I've done some, I still use it to demo basic ideas and game logic to myself while designing the game. Choosing the Gamesalad as your final tool to make the full game happen, it's not that obvious choice anymore.
Any of the three engines (Gamesalad, Unreal, Unity) can make a "flappy bird" game in 3 days with "drag and drop" type building. It really comes down to personal preference and what you know best. Choose the tool you feel most comfortable with for your needs. Pricing on any one of them is fair, and Gamesalad offers most of the engine for free anyway.
The other thing you have to take into account is the risk associated with GS changing pricing structure.
Epic can take the risk because they have plenty of funding and other ventures beyond the engine.
Unity is the number one indie (if not number one overall) engine right now, again playing with pricing won't hurt them.
If Gamesalad changed structure and it didn't bring in more profit, well that could easily destroy them. Considering the junk most people make in GS, I don't think profit sharing would help much.
Best bet is to wait for Graphene to come around.
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Unity has historically dropped their price to free prior to the new version coming out. So the free users typically are running the outdated versions right?
Negative - the price model for Unity 5 is to allow a relatively complete full version to be available for Free* for single users.. Should user wish to have the pro-elements such custom splash screens and team coordination, users have the option of the previous $1500+addl. platforms in a la cart format or by paying a $75/ month fee..
See th details here -- http://unity3d.com/get-unity
-- J