Business licence

Does the Business license come with any heightened support?

I just signed a pretty big contract last night. I am torn between using C2 and Torque 2D for this project.

It would be a lot faster for me to just use C2, But I am afraid of hitting some unforeseen wall, and not getting the help I need to complete this on time.

If I make the jump between personal and Business licence would I get some other type of support? Like maybe I can actually submit a support ticket to Scirra if I hit a dead end?

I think the extra fee for the licence would be worth it, if I got responses from a Scirra representative.

Most of the questions I have are if features actually exists. I am not asking to be spoon fed the information. Simple yes/no, and a keyword to search for is all I usually need.

Playing forum games to get information is what I expect from some half baked GNU project, not a commercial software package.

As a licence holder, I am pretty upset to see non-licensed people getting official responses before licensed people.

I was guessing you were the same guy (Killer_PumpkinZ) in the Steam group that posted this:

"The advertising for this project is a complete falsehood. They claim you can create games without programming. Well, that is complete nonsense. When you set your digital watch you are programming it. When you set your microwave oven to stop at a certain time you are programming it.

What they are trying to say, is that you are not using any formal, or proper programming languages. You do use their event system to program this product. It is a visual programming system.

You also need to have an understanding of game logic, and game programming.

You also need basic algebra skills for the most basic of operations too, to do anything of merit you will also need to understand and be able to program algorithm.

Next up is what you actually get when you buy this product. Well other than the locked tools being unlocked, you get absolutely nothing. The support is basically you asking other clueless noobs on the forums for help. Which brings up the paradox of "you need to search before you ask", then when you search and find something and ask a question, you will get yelled at for "necro-ing " a thread.

And then we have this falsehood of just pressing a button and porting your games to iPhone and all the other market places. This is completely false. You need to design your game from the ground up, for the platform you are going to be selling it on.

The node-webkit export claims that you can start making desktop applications, this is only true if you do not have any functions using the file system. The node webkit is just a stripped down version of chrome, so you are just using a browser and you are not actually publishing any native applications. So you get all the security crap, and poor rendering too.

The company is grossly understaffed. There are some really valid and important questions are left for the community to answer. It is all a big popularity contest on who gets blessed with a company response.

They need to pay a few moderators to go around and look for unanswered questions from their paying customers.

Giving this company my money was a big mistake. I honestly though there would be some level of post purchase support.

TL:DR; If you want to make a game, you will need to learn some sort of programming. Paying for a game engine like this one will get you nowhere if you do not actually know how to make video games.

Once you do learn how to make games, you can pick from a few hundred kits just like this one, only they are free and open source.

You will get the same level of help, and you will get the same bullsh-t from the free forums.

So, if you want to make games, and you do not want to conform to some bullsh-t maxims list on how you should talk to even ask questions, save your money and play with Ogre,Crystalspace,Irrlicht,Scrolling game development kit, the blender game engine, and a slew of others that will not cost you a cent."

After checking the other aliases of Killer_PumpkinZ, there is a joJoe, so i'm guessing i'm addressing the same person.

My friend, i wouldn't even know how to start replying your very aggressive and deceitful post.I hope somebody joins this conversation and contributes more than i will.

Why would you say the advertising of this project is a complete falsehood?

The Construct team has NEVER advertised that their licensed versions get some special support over the non-licensed one. They encourage the support using the forum, and whether you like it or not that's a fact and due to the understaffed situation that you so rudely pointed out, i think they cannot commit to more than that for the time being.

That doesn't mean you have to conform with the support situation. I think you're always free to suggest Ashley some other ways to address support and ask them what's are the plans for this in the future, but they certainly have never advertised falsehood in the past.

I'm not even going to fall into an argument with you about the semantics of programming. That's just you trying to troll.

When somebody is trying to find a software where you create something without programming, i'm betting most of the time they are avoiding "proper programming languages" <img src="smileys/smiley5.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> Not logic or arithmetic that most of us are expected to get in basic education.

Did you have a problem with the basic algebra skills required?

Also i'm having the feeling that SOMETHING happened that triggered all this dissatisfaction in you. In January 10, 2013 you posted:

"10 Jan 2013 at 4:31pm

I feel funny even asking this. C2 is the best purchase I have made in the last few years, and is worth every cent."

And just today you posted in a thread:

"I love how ideas can grow on forums. Just plant a little seed and watch it grow."

What happened?

I'm thankful for the forums and the community. I would actually prefer if the scirra team concentrated on our concerns about c2, and making it better than spending time on the forums.

I say this because the community is so good and knowledgeable. Maybe if the community wasn't as good, I would agree with the OP. I would also agree if it was scirra staff answering all the questions in the howto forums that have been asked 100 times. Thankfully, the community steps in so they don't have too.

You get what you pay for. $400 for a business licence is very very reasonable. I am not sure why you get so upset that non-licenced users also get answers, always check out the forum before you buy anything. C2 is so easy to use that if you have any prior experience you will be making games after only hours. However, I do hope that the rise in popularity of C2 does lead to more support and more improvements. The IDE could do with quite a few improvements. Also I would love to sea a roadmap to see what the developers are thinking of doing.

I am not saying anything bad about the forums.

I have been very happy with this forum , and the help.

I am asking about if I get any other type of support with a business licence over a personal licence.

Do we get official responses? Do we get a higher level of support?

I think it is pretty cool that the non-licensed people get help too.

I just feel that they are giving the non-licenced people more support because they do not have their money yet. They do not get anything else out of helping me, they already have my money.

The Business license doesn't come with any additional support. We're a three man company (a designer, a programmer, and a web developer) and we just don't have the resources to offer anything more than we do at the moment I'm afraid. However we do our best to be responsive to questions sent to support@scirra.com, and we are regularly on the forums but with 300+ posts a day it's impossible for us to read and respond to every single thread. We have a comprehensive manual and lots of tutorials which hopefully can answer most of your questions.

The license isn't really for support, that part is free for everybody.

The license is for when you make a profit from the use of the product.

I can tell you what little extra support is needed is timely, and efficient.

Keep in mind there are two people running this.

edit: ninja'd....

Thank you Ashley, Letting me know that I can send Scirra an email is very reassuring.

The scope of my next project requires that I buy a business licence, I do not plan on even using the support Email.

The manual is great, and the documentation is outstanding. The product it top notch.

I just needed to know that I could actually ask, if Google, and the forum search fails me.

You guys might have another business licence sale in coming week, your time replying to me was not wasted here.

Thank you very much. <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />