Very disappointing... $99 a year?

SlamminSam

I'm new to this program, just downloaded it and thought "Cool, these nice people have put together this program for beginner iPhone Developers to make it easier for them."

As that may be true, I was extremely disappointed when I realized that I was unable to publish a game onto my iPhone without paying $99+ a year.

I am not going to use this software, I already own the iPhone dev software, I'll just learn another programming language.

Thanks anyways...

Rob2

did you think it should be free for some reason?

UtopianGamesLtd

$99 a year is nothing, even your worse selling game/app should make that back in 12 months.

Infact pay the $99 if you don't see a return in 12 months look me up and i will give you $99

Darren.

SlamminSam

@Rob2: Yes, publishing to iPhone I did. I also think (at first look) the program is a little basic, I like to be able to edit every single little thing, and don't prefer drag and drop. It was just nice it had templates.

@UtopianGamesLtd: Great point, didn't think of the profit games could return.

Just expressing my opinion, I'm not dissing the program, just saying this isn't what I wanted.

Great news, Game Maker Developers will soon have the ability to port their games onto iPhone and iPad, soon I will hopefully be able to do this.

Happy developing!

Dhondon

Yes, paying for software sucks. All software should be free, including games:)

goliath

@Darren I wish you offered me that offer my good man... Spacescape (which I think is a decent first attempt at a game) has yet to make 50 bucks let alone 100 and it's been out since June....lol. Hopefully my next game will put me in the green.

UtopianGamesLtd

@SlamminSam Yes i'm keeping a VERY close eye on GameMaker myself.

@goliath hang in there m8 our game Jungle Bug has only just covered $99 and that took me 2 months to make :P but as we release more and more games they get better and better and in return more and more sales...well that's the plan

Darren.

SlamminSam

@Dhondon: Exaggerate much? All I said was that you shouldn't have to pay to test it on your iPhone. That's all. You SHOULD have to pay to unlock ALL of these software's features, just not iPhone testing. That's my opinion, I'm sticking to it.

@goliath: Hang in there, if your games don't seem to be good quality, look at quantity. Make plenty of games, chances are you will be able to put yourself back in the green before you have to fork out another $99 which'll put that green line up even more. :P

SlamminSam

@UtopianGamesLtd: wow, we wrote the same thing to goliath. :P haha.

goliath

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I appreciate it.

Photics

SlamminSam said:
All I said was that you shouldn't have to pay to test it on your iPhone. That's all.

For example, if your game use more than 60 MB of RAM, the game will crash on many iOS devices... but the Preview mode will run normally.

I don't think that part of your message was clear. However, that does seem like a valid concern. You could create a great game in the previewer, purchase an express license for GameSalad, and then realize it doesn't work.

Although, GameSalad is awesome software. While most people here seem to think Pro is too expensive, I'm not surprised that you didn't get sympathy for complaining about Express. The software is amazing. Despite growing competition in this market, it's still my favorite iOS SDK. Learning Objective C... a language that is pretty much useless outside of Mac-land... was not fun. I'm happy that I spent $99 on GameSalad and I saved space in my brain for more important things.

beefy_clyro

@slammingsam - to test on your iphone directly is such a great feature, its effortless and saves so much time building an ad-hoc version each time to see small changes! $99 a year is great value for what you get

Rattlehead

While I realize that $99 can be hard to come by for a few people, I am still surprised at how much I hear of it being brought up as a barrier to entry into an app store that could potentially earn them that back and more; regardless of how populated it is now.

When I look at how much it costs me to buy my tools for .NET development - component licensing, offsite source code repositories, server licences... blah, blah, blah... - the $200 it cost me to get into game development seems pretty trivial.

peachpellen

@beefy - I totally agree. The ability to test directly on your phone with no f'ing around is worth $99 on it's OWN, IMHO.

@Rattlehead - I agree with you as well. Before I bought GS I was totally broke. I worked extra hard for 3 months and managed to scrape together the money for GS and Apple licenses - if I can do it as someone who is classed as "living in poverty" I don't think it is that big of a deal. (I'm not a total hobo - more of a struggling artist hobo, lol.)

jonmulcahy

You gotta remember you cant test you apps on the iPhone unless you buy the apple developer account too. It's free to program with xcode, but you need to pony up to get device testing, and app submission. I think GS is just following their example.

giacomopoppi

@SlamminSam
I think that you can't complain about the price GS offers!
99$ (+99$ of apple developer) is nothing compared to what you have a chance to earn.
Go along and learn another programming language... it will take you a long time before you have a chance to earn good money

Photics

jonmulcahy said:
I think GS is just following their example.

I think that's good logic. It seems fair when you think about it that way. You need a provision profile to put the GameSalad viewer on an iOS device, so that's already $99 to Apple. If you're that determined to make iOS apps, another $99 shouldn't really stop you.

stanimation

Best $99 bucks I have ever spent!

iDeveloper

SlamminSam said:
I'm new to this program, just downloaded it and thought "Cool, these nice people have put together this program for beginner iPhone Developers to make it easier for them."

As that may be true, I was extremely disappointed when I realized that I was unable to publish a game onto my iPhone without paying $99+ a year.

I am not going to use this software, I already own the iPhone dev software, I'll just learn another programming language.

Thanks anyways...

Guess you don't realize you need to pay $198 total. Both $99 for GameSalad AND Apple Dev Program.

GingerBGames

Hello GS'ers,

Generally I will stay out of these forums debates, but I feel strongly about this one. For anyone, ANYONE that feels $99 is to much to create games you've had on your mind since you were a kid and get them out there, that's crazy. Gamesalad is by no means perfect mind you, but $99 and you're off and running. They have templates to learn from, great features. I'm not going to list them but i'll say only one, Drag and Drop. Come on people, drag and drop. The community of Gamesald users are so helpful, too many to list. I personally have had a few of the GS seniors personally help me out on a few of my games. I've been programming for years, from COBOL to now COCOA for iphone and ipad. I've decided I'm dropping the COCOA, this Gamesald is just to great. A game that would've taken me 8 months to make, now can take me only two months. I love this.

My only thing is I'm still not very good with graphics, but that's another topic. To get back to the $99, I've submitted my first game to Apple I believe the end of April this year, I was up I think the second week in May. I've got a couple games up since then, I've made my Gamesalad AND Apple memberships back and then some. For someone that has to work on multiple projects (like me) this is a great tool. I can easily go from one to the other without having to read threw a hundred lines of code to catch back up with what I was doing.
$99 just isn't that much in the scheme of things. "They're all schemers" - Heath Ledger as The Joker.

conrad74

Personally, I have not even thought about $99 as being too much to be able to publish a game. The way I see it, Game Salad is going to want to make money somehow. I much rather them charge $99 to publish the game rather pay $99 up front to buy the software. This way I can use the program and see if it is for me. If not, no loss. If it is for me (which it is) once I get my first game done, I will have no problem forking over the $99 to publish the game.

You may want to try it out before jumping to any rash decisions about the $99. You could go ahead and learn another program language but I would happily rather pay the $99 so I don't have to. Game salad may look really basic on the outside but once you dive in, you can see the potential and how powerful this game creation tool really is.

I didn't think the $99 would be upsetting to some. If anything, I thought the $1999 for the pro membership...

SlamminSam

Cool, I'll have another look at the software and rethink my thoughts about it. Thanks guys!

daniel.robert.campbell

Wow...this post is the very definition of "flame bait".

If you were not going to use the program, just don't use it. No reason to troll a forum with your disdain.

BeyondtheTech

Daniel, I believe it was very clear in his message right above yours that he was going to "have another look at the software." I don't believe he was trolling, he just didn't understand the complete investment that was required to fully publish his product on the AppStore.

chosenonestudios

BeyondtheTech said:
Daniel, I believe it was very clear in his message right above yours that he was going to "have another look at the software." I don't believe he was trolling, he just didn't understand the complete investment that was required to fully publish his product on the AppStore.

The flamer that flamed the flamer just got flamed himself. The person defending the flamer who flamed the community attacked the flamee becoming a flamer.

F**k everythings on fire.

daniel.robert.campbell

BeyondtheTech said:
Daniel, I believe it was very clear in his message right above yours that he was going to "have another look at the software." I don't believe he was trolling, he just didn't understand the complete investment that was required to fully publish his product on the AppStore.

I actually had just read the first five posts or so. Regardless, his first post was not in a question form but in a statement of detriment. I'm glad to see people managed to convince him otherwise though.