utopiangames said: I think it's morally wrong to charge $2000 every year for something that's free (after a 1 off payment) with all other engines.
URL, iAds, Custom Splash for $2000 a year = no thank you. (and we made more than $2k in 2 days with Bumps so it's not about the money, we think its just wrong...very wrong).
These features should be in a single version of GS and all for the same $99 price.
Do away with Pro make one version for $99 a year and stop being greedy.
Even if we were rich we wouldn't buy Pro just on principle....just my 2 cents.
Darren.
Wow, I would beg to differ. Completely differ.
Nobody is compelled to buy the pro membership. This is a free market (I'm a liberal by the way) and GameSalad can charge what they want. If their business model doesn't work, they will go out of business. But how is it "morally wrong" for a business to charge any price they want , especially when there is competition and it's not a basic necessity product.
They are a business, not a charity. I too wish it were less expensive, but that is their call... their business.
utopiangames said: I think it's morally wrong to charge $2000 every year for something that's free (after a 1 off payment) with all other engines.
I'm surprised by your stance. If you think $2000 is not a good value, that's your right to think so. I don't think that price is competitive. However, I think it's inaccurate to say $2000 per year is morally wrong. If you continue to grow, you could be making $100,000 a year. You don't think that's worth $2000 a year?
There's nothing morally wrong with their pricing plan. Do you really think your game would have been as successful without GameSalad? It's not just the easy to use software. It's the community. Gendai Games is even marketing your game. It costs money to update the software and run this website. I've seen NYC consultants charge far more money for far less work.
You're a GameSalad success story. Why aren't you enjoying your success? $2000 in two days, with more money still coming in, I'm doubtful that I would be as cynical.
At first I was doubtful that Pro was worth the money. Yet, with iAds, you only need to generate like $5.50 a day to get your money back. From what's been disclosed on these forums, that doesn't seem like a hard target to hit.
But i also agree that $2000 is a bit overpriced when you can get the same features from xcode for only $99. Not only that, xcode is far more powerful than gamesalad. You may only see a gamesalad hit like bumps once in a while. And you can have 20 years of GS express for $2000 while 1 year of pro is $2000 (thats $40,000 after 20 years lol)
The only good thing about gamesalad thats making me stay is that its very straightforward and simple. I already started learning the basics of coding, and that stuff is making my brain hurt. Im commited to keep on learning tho, it'll be very helpful in the future
Photics said: I'm surprised by your stance. If you think $2000 is not a good value, that's your right to think so. I don't think that price is competitive. However, I think it's inaccurate to say $2000 per year is morally wrong. If you continue to grow, you could be making $100,000 a year. You don't think that's worth $2000 a year?
There's nothing morally wrong with their pricing plan. Do you really think your game would have been as successful without GameSalad? It's not just the easy to use software. It's the community. Gendai Games is even marketing your game. It costs money to update the software and run this website. I've seen NYC consultants charge far more money for far less work.
You're a GameSalad success story. Why aren't you enjoying your success? $2000 in two days, with more money still coming in, I'm doubtful that I would be as cynical.
At first I was doubtful that Pro was worth the money. Yet, with iAds, you only need to generate like $5.50 a day to get your money back. From what's been disclosed on these forums, that doesn't seem like a hard target to hit.
It doesn't matter how much we earn we won't be buying pro until it comes down to either $99 a year or at worse $1000 one off payment. So no we don't think it's worth $2K a year.
Gendai Games marketing Bumps? i must of missed that sorry, all i saw was a blog post.
At the end of the day we think it's far too expensive but it's up to them like you say.
I love GS love the community and love what there doing but over charging for simple to add functions is where we draw the line.
They would get tons more users, if they merged pro with express and made it $250. Since hardly anyone actually buys pro they wouldn't lost any $$$ and since 99% of the population uses express they would actually make alot more. If everyone had url forwarding we could easily make another $150 a year to cover the slight price increase. Not to mention with iAds picking up steam, it really wouldn't take that much more effort.
I always thought of the Pro version the same way as design219 describes it.
If you are making Apps for a client, they will demand that you make them a "white label" product. For legal reasons, it cannot have any other companies' logos on it.
You can factor in the cost of the subscription into the budget for the project.
I have used a lot of software like this. I bought Torque Game Builder a few years ago which had the same exact stipulations. 499$ for Indie with their "powered by Torque" splash screen, or pay $1499 to remove their splash screen.
Director and Flash used to require the "made with macromedia" icon on all the products you produced with them. Same with Apple and Quicktime. If you wanted to remove these logos, you had to pay a fee.
Most of us are just indie devs here, but if you do app development as a real business - with an office, utilities, a team of artists, programmers, rent, advertising, health insurance for your employees, 401K, a receptionist?, etc. etc... $2000 is nothing.
Of course you certainly don't need all of that, but by the same token, you cannot invite Viacom over for a professional meeting in your bedroom.
artonskyblue said: But i also agree that $2000 is a bit overpriced when you can get the same features from xcode for only $99.
That's not exactly true. You still need to implement those features into your code. You can either do that yourself, pay a programmer to do it, or pay a company like Gendai to do it.
artonskyblue said: Not only that, xcode is far more powerful than gamesalad.
I understand what you mean, but I actually think the opposite is true. GameSalad's power comes from its ease of use. Xcode might be more flexible and give you deeper access to the code, but that means nothing if you cannot utilize it.
To answer the OP, I have made $30,000 so far with GameSalad. I have been using this software since December. I have a Pro license that I won in a contest they held back in January. In four months, I will renew the Pro license.
Comments
Nobody is compelled to buy the pro membership. This is a free market (I'm a liberal by the way) and GameSalad can charge what they want. If their business model doesn't work, they will go out of business. But how is it "morally wrong" for a business to charge any price they want , especially when there is competition and it's not a basic necessity product.
They are a business, not a charity. I too wish it were less expensive, but that is their call... their business.
There's nothing morally wrong with their pricing plan. Do you really think your game would have been as successful without GameSalad? It's not just the easy to use software. It's the community. Gendai Games is even marketing your game. It costs money to update the software and run this website. I've seen NYC consultants charge far more money for far less work.
You're a GameSalad success story. Why aren't you enjoying your success? $2000 in two days, with more money still coming in, I'm doubtful that I would be as cynical.
At first I was doubtful that Pro was worth the money. Yet, with iAds, you only need to generate like $5.50 a day to get your money back. From what's been disclosed on these forums, that doesn't seem like a hard target to hit.
But i also agree that $2000 is a bit overpriced when you can get the same features from xcode for only $99. Not only that, xcode is far more powerful than gamesalad. You may only see a gamesalad hit like bumps once in a while. And you can have 20 years of GS express for $2000 while 1 year of pro is $2000 (thats $40,000 after 20 years lol)
The only good thing about gamesalad thats making me stay is that its very straightforward and simple. I already started learning the basics of coding, and that stuff is making my brain hurt. Im commited to keep on learning tho, it'll be very helpful in the future
Gendai Games marketing Bumps? i must of missed that sorry, all i saw was a blog post.
At the end of the day we think it's far too expensive but it's up to them like you say.
I love GS love the community and love what there doing but over charging for simple to add functions is where we draw the line.
Darren.
If you are making Apps for a client, they will demand that you make them a "white label" product.
For legal reasons, it cannot have any other companies' logos on it.
You can factor in the cost of the subscription into the budget for the project.
I have used a lot of software like this. I bought Torque Game Builder a few years ago which had the same exact stipulations. 499$ for Indie with their "powered by Torque" splash screen, or pay $1499 to remove their splash screen.
Director and Flash used to require the "made with macromedia" icon on all the products you produced with them. Same with Apple and Quicktime. If you wanted to remove these logos, you had to pay a fee.
Most of us are just indie devs here, but if you do app development as a real business - with an office, utilities, a team of artists, programmers, rent, advertising, health insurance for your employees, 401K, a receptionist?, etc. etc... $2000 is nothing.
Of course you certainly don't need all of that, but by the same token, you cannot invite Viacom over for a professional meeting in your bedroom. That's not exactly true. You still need to implement those features into your code. You can either do that yourself, pay a programmer to do it, or pay a company like Gendai to do it. I understand what you mean, but I actually think the opposite is true. GameSalad's power comes from its ease of use. Xcode might be more flexible and give you deeper access to the code, but that means nothing if you cannot utilize it.
To answer the OP, I have made $30,000 so far with GameSalad. I have been using this software since December. I have a Pro license that I won in a contest they held back in January. In four months, I will renew the Pro license.