Community Voice: On Basic Add-ons

News & General Discussion
1

So I want to start something and see how it goes, instead of waiting till something crops up, I want to occasionally ask about your feels about things.

We get a lot of feedback from everyone on here and I’d like to throw out some topics every now and again. As a little test run the first (lamely) named Community Voice segment is on Basic Add-ons. There is no poll because I think reading accounts is more insightful, what do you think about them? Do you have one? Do you want one? What have you made with them?

Discuss your fingers off but keep it clean, no arguments on what is the best, just your experiences with them.

2

I haven’t used them for anything non-trivial yet. I got them free, but I was considering buying them, so the timing was really good. (I did pay to upgrade Android for 4.x, though.)

I plan to create basic games with them for a while, and then for my big game, I’ll end up buying the Pro addons for the features.

In retrospect, I tend to feel they should be like PC, where the most basic one is free (or very close) and the Pro costs more because it has the heavy-hitting features. I don’t regret the money I’ve spent on them.

I love that Unity is one of the best choices for indie devs because you can get started for free and then pay for the big features once you’re well on the way, or even after you’ve made some money. The mobile add-ons don’t follow this philosophy, though.

3

A stop-gap measure - the real issue being UT’s pricing in general IMO.

4

By basic add-ons are you talking about the basic version of like the iOs/Android licenses? Sounds like it. … I downloaded my free copies of iOs/Android when Unity were giving them away… but honestly haven’t used them at all, yet. Planning to use the Android license for something on Ouya, without which I’d have no way to get started selling games on there. So I appreciate that. I’m glad these cheaper licenses do exist, although they’d probably be more approachable for the solo indie trying to get starting with no minimal cash, if they were maybe at a lower price point. I don’t have much more to say on it though.

5

It’s funny you ask because just recently, I did consider getting the Flash basic add on. I have the Unity Pro, iOS Pro, Android Pro and eventually will get Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 Pro (whatever you’ll call that when it is released). With Flash … well … Flash is just … not something I’d want to waste money on but I might run into clients that absolutely need me to do a Flash build, and then I might just not be able to use 3.5.7 … and in that case, I’d get that basic add on. If I liked Flash, I’d have the Pro thing in no time … but … yeah … Flash :-/

That said, I guess in general the Basic add-ons are awesome because not everyone can afford going Pro on everything, and IMHO, the features offered are quite sufficient (and you can always upgrade when you need to).

Maybe “Unity (free)” should be called “Unity Basic”. Seriously, having “Unity” for the free version and “Unity Pro” for the paid version probably has caused most weird descriptions evvaarrr … probably because no one (except maybe UT marketing :wink: ) wants to say “Unity” when they are referring to “Unity (free)”.

6

That’s an interesting point jashan.

Are there also any cases of anyone wanting to buy basic just to try it out/learn something new?

7

I bought iOS basic last January mostly to learn with and test ideas with. I used it mostly for prototyping ideas that would work only on the iPhone. I did release a title with it, though, so it wasn’t purely just playing around with it. I did also pick up a free Android license but haven’t done anything with it yet.

@jashan Perhaps it could be called Unity Indie :wink:

8

I think $400 “just to try it out” is a little bit expensive :slight_smile:

9

…or
Unity Free the actual version, Unity Basic (or Indie) the actual + shadows :wink:

10

Like several others I picked up Android and iOS basic for free during the promotion. Never actually used them, but having basic iOS I think meant I could get the upgrade to Pro iOS for cheaper, so bought that when upgrading from Unity 3 to 4. Which has been great since i’ve started doing some AR apps on iOS, so I think it worked out well for all concerned.

I’m not sure I would ever have bought the basic versions though, I feel if I needed those platforms I’d probably just go Pro straight off. However what I did like was when basic was free as it gave me a non-time limited ability to play or test them out which I could only really get otherwise by registering a new Unity trial or requesting a trial.

I think the Basic versions are useful though, firstly for those who don’t need all the Pro features as it offers a lower entry price, and it means Unity can do stuff like the free promotion, which defiantly gained favour with myself and did more or less lead me to investing in iOS Pro.

However what i’d really like to see are completely free versions of Android, iOS and Flash Pro, but where they are heavily restricted to prevent commercial use. So maybe time trial on published projects (not the addons), time limit per run (e.g. 15 mins), heavily watermark, with a constant full screen overlay etc. Stuff that makes them impractical for use in a any sense commercial or otherwise, but perfect for trying out and getting to grips with these systems.

For example I have had several projects where I would be tempted to try and publish them to Flash. However although the Flash beta was impressive I found very few of my projects would compile or be usable without serious changes to the codebase. Further more I felt that without having an eye on developing projects to be published to Flash and therefore be able to test out Flash publishing periodically that trying to do so at the end of development is rarely going to work.

Having a free version of Flash Pro even with severe restrictions built in towards being unusable for an actual release would be perfect. As I could develop projects from the start to support Flash publishing and then offer the client the opportunity to switch at the end of the project. At which point I could purchase the Pro upgrade safe in the knowledge that the project will compile and build without any additional effort.

Of course in a commercial environment it only take a few projects to make it viable to purchase Flash Pro anyway, but in the case of Flash and I think mobile too, the risk of buying it upfront without knowing if the projects are going to be suitable is a bit high. Obviously Adobe’s change of heart on the licensing also helps greatly for the case of publishing to Flash too.

11

My 2 cents.

Unity Free.
Unity Indie or Basic (The actual Free + shadows)
Unity Pro

Android (IOS) Free. The actual Basic
Android (IOS) Indie or Basic ( The actual Basic + UDP networking )
Android (IOS) Pro

No ideas for the others plateforms.

JP

12

I bought 3.5 basic for iOS a short time after they were released for free (within 2 weeks) , for some reason at the time I thought it would mean free upgrade to the basic version of iOS for unity 4 but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Got it to teach myself how to get something up and running on a phone, would rather learn testing like that as I go than trying to learn two different workflows.

13

One idea is to give anyone that bought the pro version of the addons in 3.5x the basic version for free in unity 4 this creates a chain of ownership. You see the biggest hurdle is getting someone through the door i.e. having access to your product. When you own addons its much easier to convince yourself to “upgrade” to the pro version because you already have an investment in the product even if it was freely given its still feels like ownership. This works on all products including games, offer a “free” version where you can upgrade to the full version and you will get more conversion rate more than if they had to buy the game or product cold.

To know how this will work for unity look at your own internal statistics after you gave the basic version away for free and see if the upgrades increased. Don’t worry about the percentage of people who got the free version compared to those who upgraded because you would have saturated that statistic with people who would have never bought the pro version all you need to find out is if the amount of people who bought the pro version increased.

A good point about giving the basic version away to anyone who had the pro version in 3.5x is that your focusing on people who in the past paid for the pro version, so out of all the people in the unity community who might buy or upgrade they are the ones who you have the most chance with.

Hope this helps

14

I don’t own either of the add-ons but they do seem pretty good value for money, when you think of what your getting in unity its really not a lot in the grand scheme of things. I will probably purchase the android add-on at some point.

The only thing that puts me off it a bit is from what I understand if you have unity free and buy android basic the unity splash logo is still displayed at start up? And I guess it goes away if you buy unity pro? Its not the end of the world by any means, but I kind of feel like if im spending £260 on a game engine license there wouldn’t be any splash screens / watermarks.

Correct me if im wrong though, from google searching a while ago, this seemed to be what happened!

15

I think it’s a perfect price.

16

I have been using iOS Basic for a long time now. Hopefully I’ll be able to upgrade to Pro sometime… But I’m glad I bought Basic and don’t think it overpriced.

The biggest problem with Basic is the splash screen. It is so common now that it is like watching the same advert again and again for players. I think a large-watermarked splash screen would be more appropriate for Basic as there is a cost for the product.

Has the free offer that was on last year given Unity data that suggests offering the Basic versions for free would be a good move?

I think the ideal option would be to replace Basic and Pro with Asset Store components. This offers the choice to buy the engine bits you need and gradually build to the full package, rather than a big one-off sum. I have suggested this before, and the reply was support issues would become more difficult regarding bug fixing. But I would have thought it is the same with third-party items from the Asset Store? I would have spent more if I could buy components, I’m sure the same is true for many others.

17

I’ve had the iOS and android basic licenses since the free giveaway last year. I haven’t published anything yet, have several prototypes, but have been too busy.

I’m still using 3.4.2f, if it were free to upgrade them I’d just bite the bullet and install 4.0, and hope I could get everything running again.

I have talked to/referred people very interested in getting started with Unity but I have to refer them to the browser/pc/mac version and tell them to hang on and see if there’s ever a free giveaway again.

The android platform doesn’t seem as worthwhile as the iOS, android pro will probably be the last one I buy.

It would be really cool if you guys just had a referral program, like if you’re referred by a user/sponsor/friend you can get a key to android basic, and you still sell it for $400. I wouldn’t give away both versions, I’d keep iOS exactly how it is, but maybe half the android basic to get people up and running on a mobile license, once they release a game they’ll likely be interested in pro or branch out to iOS at least…

18

IMO , it should be half price , 400$ is too much for what’s still a hobbyist tool . Someone who’s lacking money who wants to make an android game, can’t since theirs a 400$ cost to try .

I probably wouldn’t of gotten into android dev if it wasn’t for the unity give away .

19

I would like some free versions, or at least make the basics upgraded to version 4 for free

Finally made the decision to update to Unity 4 pro, but still only have the basic versions of ios/android for version 3, so that’s not ideal, although the upgrades are cheap, they are more than I would like to spend, considering I’ve already invested a significant amount in Unity purchases already (especially since I havn’t made a cent back yet - this is my choice of course… I chose to work on a game that takes me years)… granted this is a pc game and im not planning on using the licences for now. I will at some point.

20

iOS basic is a powerful tool, more so than people give it credit. You can create any type of game you want, including massive full 3d rendered games with only a moderate sacrifice from pro. I’m quite pleased with iOS basic, multiple licenses are beyond my budget but the prices are fair.

I’m not sure if the leap is big enough from basic to pro, but I will admit the real time shadows are desirable.