Actually i purchased C3 prior to the discount message and sent in an email to ask if i could get a refund on my purchase, never got a response, probably "lost in the email" world, but i haven't bothered to bother them about chump change refund, a $100 annual fee really isn't much, less than $10 a month and it pays them to keep building on the app, so i am not squaking about the price, honestly i think i owned C2 for over a year and never really enjoyed it, then i got C3 and i simply love it because of the mobility to use my iPad, although with some current limitations and bugs, but whatever, I got through about 75% of my game development just on my tablet, having to do the rest on my computer due to those limitations i am talking about, but what other engine on the planet offers you to program on your iPad? zip that i can see, not U3 or Unity, as examples.
Personally, i program for a living, have for decades, started in aseembly, wrote my own compiler, used LUA to allow others to program into my stuff through scripting, wrote in Ansi C through Pascal and Fortran, up through tons of other languages, i find this stuff they did rather interesting and it is really just a hobby to make games. I can logically see every place and how this thing works in my mind as i work through issues, i just have a hell of a time relating what i am finding problems with to Ashley and her team, given up on several attempts at communicating the problem and moved on to try to find other solutions until i run into solid brick walls, then instead of posting yet another bug report on the exact same problem I've had all along, i just ask the community for input.
For the most part, i find the community very forthcoming and very helpful.
But to do things takes money, to expand takes money, they need to get paid, just like everyone else in the world has bills, so do they, and $100 a year for the work they are putting out, isn't asking a whole lot, consider it more of a support group than an annual subscription.
Little bit about me here, but as far as this engine goes, i'll keep chugging at it and have fun with it, i enjoy supporting companies that really make a difference, and they do.
linkedin.com/in/jbwood