It is good time to make the Construct great again

Interesting thoughts all, but I have to say, for us the more we add to the free edition, the fewer sales we get. Open-source projects use a different model where most of the product is free, the titans of the industry like Unreal can rely on revenue from royalties of major commercial titles, and some other tools are backed by billion-dollar corporations who don't necessarily care about running things at a loss. I think we're actually relatively unique in being an independently run, small/medium-scale commercial business with subscriptions, and making a success of it. However we also have to make sure that's sustainable, and in its current form, it is. Unity are losing about a billion dollars a year at the moment so clearly they're thinking "this is unsustainable, we need more revenue fast", and look where that's ended up, and I think that's a good reminder of the importance of having a sustainable business.

That's why I stick with C3 as my main engine <3 responsible, caring, front-runner owner that DOES keep it new and interesting for us devs.

I can't tell you how many updates this year have come out a day after I've thought "you know, I need that, that's a cool feature" and BOOM there it is, you made it.

You're absolutely knocking it out of the park, Ashley. Keep it up!

I completely agree; all the attention is going to Unreal, Godot, and Game Maker, but I don't see any mention of Construct anywhere. It seems like it's lacking presence.

Quick Google search for "2D game engines 2023" and Construct was one of the first ones .... but ok ............

[...] how about a periodic Scirra organized C3 game jam. Every X month Scirra holds a Construct 3 weekend game jam where C3 is free to use for that weekend and the 1st price is a C3 license.

Just in case Scirra is considering this option, please simply use itch.io to host the jam https://itch.io/jams instead of doing your own thing on Construct.net or something. Itch is where the devs are looking for jams, that's how we get new talented people taking a look at Construct.

I would definitely significantly expand the capabilities of the free version.

What is there to lose in the process? It would motivate many more people to try Construct. And if someone really wants to build a serious game with commercial intentions, they will buy the paid version afterwards.

It's just not fun to try a tool that you know beforehand you can't really create anything useful with it.

As I said, there is nothing to lose. No one is going to secretly develop a AAA title just because the limitations of the trial version are no longer so pointlessly restricted.

here are few my opinions what Construct can do to spread words

1. in the free version don't provide build service and Increase the free events OR make it unlimited events for free users because. and yes this system will have some cons like people can work without pay and then can build by just paying single month. but in this case you can force people to buy yearly license and this is also not good. (just ignore first point)

2. Provide FREE license to gaming Youtubers OR such youtubers who make content like game development and they will promote you product by making content on construct 3. You can do this by creating a form which youtubers will apply and then you can check their channel and give them FREE license. I know few companies did same thing to promote their product.

these 2 things came in my mind So I did share.

You want the 99 that didn't to love your product. So forget the Unity types and go after the 12 year olds who's parents buy RPG maker for them.

I don't necessarily agree. The 99 don't look at products to know which engine to choose, they look at games they love and try to replicate them. With close to no successful indie titles made with Construct, the 99 will flock to Game Maker, RPG Maker and Unity instead.

In fact, only reason I ever used Multimedia Fusion 2 was because of I Wanna Be The Guy and only reason I switched to Construct 2 was because of I Wanna Be The Boshi.

What I mean is that while Construct's accessibility is a big plus, alone it doesn't sell the engine. Convincing power users will make the engine look more capable, and will in turn motivate beginners to give it a try.

Another recent example has been Five Nights At Freddy's making a horde of new users flock to MMF2 in the past 5 years. Undertale made ppl flock to GMS and Friday Night Funkin made some beginners want to learn Haxe!

What brought me to Construct was it's simplicity. I started out with RPG maker, but I also wanted to make non-RPGs, so I went with Game Maker for some time, but Game Maker never really clicked for me. Eventually I started searching around, iirc for things like "2D game engine" etc. Construct popped up and it was clear really quickly that "this is it". Basically this video on the homepage sums up what exactly hooked me: Logic that my smooth brain could understand. construct-static.com/videos/v1155/construct3/simple-event.mp4

I also gave Unity a try a while ago, didn't like it. I also tried Godot here and there, didn't like it either. Construct just hit's a spot other engines don't hit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also people calling Construct "for kids" is silly, that's like saying pencils are for kids and "real artists" use wacom tablets. I don't mind a small community as long as this is enough for Construct to be developed further, but I can see that a big community has its benefits.

As for Godot, it's really a scarily good competition I'd be "worried" about. Entirely free, powerful, light-weight, open-source and apparently get's money for further development thrown at it for free because unity CEOs are deranged. What Construct needs to find is what sets it apart from Godot and what justifies the price tag.

I'm perfectly comfortable in my nieche of making no money with construct, I don't wanna leave that comfort zone and learn a new engine just to make no money with a different tool. :)

I can't believe what Unity is doing. Charging $0.20 per install, and its applied to past games too.

WhackyToaster I started on game maker too.

In regards to Godot, one very big strength with construct 3 is it is javascript HTML5 only. Javascript is the assembler of our age, and it was a good gamble to bet on it. Picking your target and doing it well is better than kind of doing 4 or 5 languages and 3d and 2d and an invented GD script like Godot. You can find anything in javascript and it is also very optimized on every platform.

yours

winkr7

WhackyToaster I started on game maker too.

In regards to Godot, one very big strength with construct 3 is it is javascript HTML5 only. Javascript is the assembler of our age, and it was a good gamble to bet on it. Picking your target and doing it well is better than kind of doing 4 or 5 languages and 3d and 2d and an invented GD script like Godot. You can find anything in javascript and it is also very optimized on every platform.

yours

winkr7

Very true. Whilst there can indeed be some quirks with html5 (then again, every engine has quirks), it seems much better to specialise in one area rather than going haywire with all different languages.

I can't believe what Unity is doing. Charging $0.20 per install, and its applied to past games too.

It isn't charging for past installs. It only charges for installs after the new pricing begins in 2024. It will only charge if you the game has been BOTH installed 200,000 times AND you have made x amount of money.

As stated a number of times, 90% of unity users won't pay a cent. There are issues with this model especially in the mobile market, but unity is also responding to feedback, so there is that. Construct 3, on the other hand, charges whether or not you are successful and refused to listen to the community on the pricing model.

Also people calling Construct "for kids" is silly, that's like saying pencils are for kids and "real artists" use wacom tablets. I don't mind a small community as long as this is enough for Construct to be developed further, but I can see that a big community has its benefits.

It isn't silly when the primary target of c3 is kids. The engine is explicitly made for beginners and Ashley has explicitly argued against rising complexity in the form of features that would aid power users and enhance scalability, on the grounds that beginners would be turned off.

He isn't wrong, he knows his market, but construct is for kids. Its also for hobbyists and a few professionals too, but even though construct is touring complete, that doesn't mean its the right tool for the job. You CAN build a skyscraper without power tools, but that doesn't mean its going to be easy.