Unity is free now!
Monkey Archive Forums/Digital Discussion/Unity is free now!
| ||
| Obviously not the pro version but fair enough! http://blogs.unity3d.com/2013/05/21/putting-the-power-of-unity-in-the-hands-of-every-mobile-developer/ |
| ||
| I had thought it *was* free. Was that only on Windows? |
| ||
| It was/is free, but only the Desktop platforms. Now its iOS and Android addons, and they also mention Blackberry 10 and Windows Phone 8 addons will be free soon too. |
| ||
| yeah their free but missing a few key features which is fair enough they still need to make their money some where. |
| ||
| Drink the koolaid, get 90% there, and then be prepared to shell out $1,500 for Pro (Desktop), another $1,500 for iOS, and yet another $1,500 for Android. I still am not sure how this helps the Indies? I see they also have a Pro Subscription now for $79 per month, so you could get to the 90% level, jump on a subscription and finish the 10% as quickly as possible? IMO the biggest thing standing in the way of using the "Free" version for mobile deployment would be the lack of Build Size Stripping. An annoyance would be you can't create a custom Splash Screen so your app will always show the Unity splash. But I think the Build size could get in the way of mobile success. You can review the comparisons of the two versions here: https://store.unity3d.com/ IMO, the revenue share model is better for Indies, something that kicks in when revenues hit $60,000 or higher off a given title. I do realize though that this sort of program is a lot more difficult to manage, but if you go Pro, you pay the same price (probably more with volume discounts) per license compared to the large studios. Just FYI, the base empty iOS Unity Player code on an empty project is about 13MB, you can get that down to 6MB by using the Pro version's "Build Size Stripping" features. I haven't built an iOS app with Monkey yet, but I am assuming a "hello world" Monkey iOS app is going to weigh in at something like 1 banana or so, nonetheless a far cry smaller than bundling a Player like Unity. |
| ||
| Rev share is good if you don't have something worth selling, don't think you will make much money, don't have any money to invest into anything. Paying up front is worth it. For what you can make, Unity's prices are still pretty trivial. $5,000 to get everything publicly available per seat is 0.005% of what a top selling app would make, and you only need to pay that once - not per app. Rev share is per app. If you have no money then do rev share. When you have money invest it where it makes sense to invest in. And if you have no interest in 3D don't bother with any of those and use Monkey! |
| ||
| Paying up front is worth it. For what you can make, Unity's prices are still pretty trivial. $5,000 to get everything publicly available per seat is 0.005% of what a top selling app would make, and you only need to pay that once - not per app. Rev share is per app. The majority of indie devs will not have a top selling app, they will have a mid-to-low ranking range of apps that will make them just enough to get by, if that. $5000 should not be disregarded as a trivial amount - that will massively eat into the profits of any typical indie studio. |
| ||
| The majority may but that's not a rule. Pick what's right for you and do what you want. If you are driven to make top selling apps you are more likely to do so than the rest. $5,000 is trivial when you are making $5,000+ a day (I say that as - if Unity helps you to make the $5k a day, then it's a no brainer to spend the $5k to buy it). It's possible. |
| ||
| How many apps are making $5000 per day? |
| ||
| Not many. Si did say he was still making about $2K a day after 1 year on New Star Soccer. Definitely the exception but great to see a Monkey app getting it done. |
| ||
| Most suck honestly. My point is it is possible and if you are doing this as a serious business you can make clear decisions based on viability of revenue. Buying Unity is a solid investment if you personally can do what it takes to use the tools it has to make something which you can profit from. |
| ||
| Dish out $5k for Unity, then what? You'll need assets, either get a nice 3D app or buy assets, music. So your investments don't stop with just Unity-- if you're really that serious about it. I have a feeling most Unity people are part-time indies, and $5k is a lot for a part-time investment. |
| ||
| In some ways this could come back to bite Unity. Imagine there will be a group of developers that are excited about the "Free" version for all the mobile platforms. They end up deploying apps on the App Store or Google Play that weigh in at 18 megs. If these apps are not optimized and generally bloated in size (using the free version for deployment) end users are going to figure out that the fancy Unity splash window means "Stay Away". Same sort of thing happened with Adobe AIR apps it was a big red flag for end users. |
| ||
| There are clearly people only interested in making games as a hobby. There are also people interested in making games as a business. If what you can spend helps you make more money spending money makes sense. They will spend more if it helps them to make more. Selling things at higher prices is much easier for a tool maker to make money than lower prices. For every 50 copies of Monkey sold Unity only needs to sell 1. Which is easier? You don't have to spend the 5k at once. You don't even need to spend anything to make your game for free. When you have something really good and you have high confidence it will sell well on all of the platforms it would be stupid not to get the platform licenses. I'd use Unity if I wanted to make 3d games but I don't think it's necessary for what I want to make. If the loading screen made people instantly delete the app then it would be incentive for a dev to upgrade, so in the end good for Unity. |
| ||
| If what you can spend helps you make more money spending money makes sense. "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" --Robert Browning. @Soap, you are basing your idea off of the prediction that an app will make lots of money. there's no such guarantee. there's nothing. what i am saying that commitment to an app is much much more money than Unity alone. so if you're willing to buy Unity, you should be willing to buy 3DMax as well, Adobe Creative Suite, a professional music composer, a professional artist, and a professional programmer. if you are truly confident, you need to be only the producer/creative director. By the way-- i've been a producer for big productions, and i must say $5k is a big deal to us as well (plus computer, plus office, plus IT, plus server...). |
| ||
| >there's no such guarantee. there's nothing. You can't guarantee, but you can make very informed decisions. If you already have a massive mailing list of people built up from doing other things than Unity projects who are target for the thing you would make with Unity that is a whole lot better than shooting in the dark. Following trends and making things people will obviously want is a hard way to fail. But it's difficult for people to look past themselves and their own tastes so often you have crap apps which no one wants because the developer made something just for them without getting any feedback or listening to negative feedback. There are tons of things you can do to move closer to being more likely to succeed. No one knows you? You have no capital? You're clueless about making things which people want? Probably a bad idea to invest in Unity. >you should be willing to buy 3DMax as well, Adobe Creative Suite, a professional music composer, a professional artist, and a professional programmer. I don't own 3DMax, I own all recent versions of Photoshop (have no need for the others), and I'm self trained in art (and many other things) and do hire people work with me professionally. My primary source of income is selling the stuff I make. I've considered buying Unity but I just don't need to. Monkey does everything I need right now. $5k is a big deal on its own to most indies, but if do your market research, build a large list of fans, do your due diligence then you can make smart investments which pay out. There are still people out there who spend the money and then do everything else wrong. Just buying Unity isn't magic, but it is a tool which can allow you to do certain things relatively easily and allow you to make more money than the license cost if you are driven to do so. Tool makers targeting hobbyists is dumb pure and simple for the reasons illustrated in this thread. While I appreciate the low pricing of Monkey, it could be sold for much more and marketed better to sell better. Unity charging a higher price allows them dominate financially. They make a ton of money from licensing. There are a lot of people buying. Their community vastly outnumbers Monkey's even with Monkey's lower price. There are a lot of people using Unity in hacky ways to make 2D ways and it's needless, plus they spend thousands more from the licensing and the extra content they probably purchased to make 2D less painful, but they are the people who want to do this professionally and they are willing to invest the money even when it's not a clear path to success. |
   |