So I’m looking at Unity for making an iOS game, but is it really $400 if you want to make a game for iOS?
I thought that with Unity Free you could export it to an iOS game for free.
My concern is that if I dont make back the $400 dollar investment, then all I accomplished was loosing money.
Yes Unity iOS Basic is $400 which is still quite cheap considering you get the engine for free. You essentially “unlock” iOS build option. If you doubt you make $400 than perhaps do web/standalone builds first.
No then you can make another ios game… trust me $400 is very cheap for the capabilitys of unity
Ok, so I could make a PC version of the game, make money on that, then when I have the money, port it over to iOS
Would that be a good plan?
Also, the licenses are lifetime correct?
Yes, the licence doesn’t expire. But you will only be able to upgrade until the next full number (Unity 4.0), at which point an upgrade is usually half the purchase price. But I think that will be a while yet.
The license is lifetime in the form that it won’t expire.
But it only entitles you to free updates for the major version you bought, so if you buy it now it will be free updates for Unity 3.x, no 4.0+
Sorry but not realy, it seems like the money is in IOS and onless you are reasonably known then you cant get EXE downloads, and kongregate pays shit all 
I can see where you’re coming from. That kind of sucks though. Maybe I could get it in some indie game competitions (it’s a long shot).
Truth be told I’m only 17, so I’d be happy with not really making a lot of money, but I certainly don’t want to lose any!
Perhaps you could create a good demo and turn to crowd funding for an iOS license? You’d have a better chance earning funds that way than you would with competitions xP
That’s what I’ll probably end up doing. Hopefully I can get some of that Kickstarter magic 
Should you take that road, remember that promotion can really aid in your success. Remember Double Fine? They initially got their campaign advertised by a few game media outlets before getting further advertised by the entire internet! Haha. Exposure (and a nice cover post + good rewards) is the name of the game.
You pretty much have to make an atrocious game to not make back $400, or be entirely hopeless beyond all salvation at marketing.
You will not get the same kind of covorage as dubble fine… they are famous, and are basicly the best at that kind of game.
Sorry but you need to jump into the deep end, buy IOS and make your app. i doubt a kickstarter is going to get you anywere… but i guess it is worth a try.
On wich platform? IOS?
Double Fine’s campaign was just an example of how exposure can help in crowd funding ventures. It was in no way a comparison or suggested goal
Since I don’t have the $400 right now, I think what I may do is use UDK to publish a small app to generate enough revenue then switch over to Unity.
I actually think that’s a good plan. If you have a mac even better since it’s rather easy to sell on the Mac App Store (although you still have to pay 100 bucks to get the dev program, same goes for iOS btw, so you have to keep in mind it’s 400 for unity and 100 a year to stay in the app store.
I would recommend to do some quick dirty games, test the waters, host them in Kongregate but don’t expect to make money. The point is actually to gain experience. Don’t waste too much time on a big project, just make something small first. The goal is to learn the gotchas of unity quick, so once you start the real masterpiece you will pour your heart into, you already know the environment and a lot of the gotchas.
Once you make something GOOD, show it to others, get opinions, and once you get very strong positive feedback, try to sell it via Union. If it’s worth a dime, they will try to get it to sell. They will get a cut of the sales and you may make the 500 bucks you need to get into the iPhone App Store after a couple of months (if it’s good.)
Keep in mind the “may”. Nothing is certain. Start this as a hobby and only spend money if you are willing to say goodby to that money. You MAY make it back, but its less painful to only spend money you can afford losing.