Artpunk's Forum Posts

  • So after Kongregate's initial reply saying they had no plans to make a plugin for C2, I had followed up to ask if they could come to the forum to discuss their position and to possibly engage with Ashley. I received this response from Kongregate customer support:

    [quote:livncsos]

    Hello,

    I have posed your questions to the developers but I haven't heard any response. Sorry!

    Regards,

    Ragnar

    Community & Support

    So I persisted, and tried to encourage them to engage with the C2 community, but it seems certain that they want nothing to do with making a Kongregate plugin for C2, and they are not even interested in coming to the forum to discuss it either.

    Just posting to put a line through that option.

    Hi ASHLEY. You previously posted:

    [quote:livncsos]I would much prefer for Kongregate to develop and publish their own C2 plugin... I'd encourage you to go to Kongregate about further support.

    Given that we have explored this and Kongregate now seems to have pretty much ruled your preferred option out, does this change your position at all? Is there any chance the official Kongregate plugin could be updated by Scirra?

  • I took at look at the API documents for Kongregate today and the public client side calls don't really seem to be that difficult to implement. Seems to me that since Kongregate is a portal, they do most of the heavy lifting like posting the interstitial ads and such over top of your game.

    Given that I have never used Kongregate before, It'll take some time to mess around with that too.

    Won't guarantee anything but the simpler client side api calls don't look too difficult to implement...

    So broknecho are you serious that you'd want to have a look at this?

    As irbis already posted, rexrainbow is the dev who has said he'd be interested to do a kongregate plugin for us, but he is unable to work on it until about 3 months away.

    Maybe you could do as much as you are comfortable with, and rex could pick up where you stop when he has time?

    >

    > On topic, I think rexrainbow should setup a Patreon page and we could rain some bucks on him.

    >

    It's a great idea. If he's into this.

    Im certainly happy to put some money down for who ever wants to work on this.

  • No problem guys. Happy to do that cos I want to be able to use an updated Kongregate plugin too.

    I'd be interested to hear a response from Ashley now that Kongregate seems to have ruled out the possibility of their maintaining a plugin.

    I also really hope a representative from Kongregate comes to the forum to either state their position why its not feasible for them to make a plugin or to communicate with Ashley... maybe the two parties can still meet half way. I asked them to come over. So lets see what happens.

  • What do you mean by free for all?

    I mean it should be free, users dont have to buy it. Make sense?

  • Just to follow up. I did reply to the Kongregate Customer Service. I linked them to this thread again and asked if they would be able to come and make a statement about why its not feasible for them to make a plugin for the C2 community. I also asked if they would be prepared to engage with the Construct 2 owners directly to try to reach some kind of compromise that would see an up-to-date plugin created for the C2 community.

    I will post when I get a response.

  • >

    > ...I'm really interested what answer you'll get from Kongregate.

    >

    Me too but I'm not letting my hopes fly too high :\

    So I got a response back from Kongregate last night, unfortunately it's not good news.

    [quote:2kzdid9a]Hello,

    Thank you for contacting Kongregate Support. Unfortunately, we currently do not have plans to build an API for Construct nor do we currently have the resources to even do such a measure. Sorry!

    Regards,

    Ragnar

    Community & Support

    http://www.Kongregate.com

    Just for the record, I didnt actually ask them to 'build an API for Construct', I asked "would they be prepared to develop and maintain a plugin for Construct2 that would allow C2 games to use the Kongregate API". Thats how I phrased my request to them. Hopefully thats worded properly and isn't confusing..?

    Anyway.. By that response they are not interested in making a plugin for Construct 2. I could persist a bit and send a message back asking what it would take to get them interested? And what about if Ashley met them halfway somehow... It might actually be useful to have Ashley communicate with them, to explain to them it might not be as much work as they fear or something?

    If it turns out we can't get Kongregate interested and Ashley is still not able to update the current out-dated plugin. That only leaves one option: to organise a developer from the forum to make a Kongregate plugin.

    As I posted previously:

    ...I spoke to a known plugin dev about this and he said he would be interested to make a kongregate plugin but he can't do it for at least 3 months as he is snowed under. So on the downside thats ages to wait... <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cry.gif" alt=":cry:" title="Crying or Very Sad"> But on the upside, if that particular guy was to make it, it would be awesome coz everything else he makes is A1!

    So this is definitely an option. And Id say it's actually a very good option because the dev in question has an extremely good reputation and track record with all the other plugins he has made. So ive no doubt he would do a great job with it.

    So to all you guys who know Kongregate a lot better than me and know exactly what you would want in a plugin, why dont you list out the features that you would ideally want an updated Kongregate plugin to have. Then we can gather them altogether and it can serve as a guide for the developer when he starts work.

    To start off, I request that:

    -The plugin should be free for all to use. Not a paid plugin.

    One final thing. If you are someone who would use this plugin would you be prepared to put some money down for the developers time? I certainly would, and I think its fair enough to give him some money, if he is prepared to make the plugin available for free and keep it maintained and up-to-date with any changes Kongregate might make. If a bunch of us threw in $5-10 for a one off payment, maybe on completion of the plugin or something, I think that would be fair. But this can be discussed.

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  • Oh of course its not that bad hahah. I just wanted to lighten up the mood with some sarcasm of my.

    Sarcasm and irony is what keeps my sanity in one piece.

    This way or another - I got my fingers crossed.

    Yeah I knew u were foolin', made me laugh

  • >

    > > He's already stated his position. ...

    > >

    > Oh, I don't know how I overlooked that. Thank you.

    > I'm really interested what answer you'll get from Kongregate.

    >

    Me too but I'm not letting my hopes fly too high :\

    Its almost like RPG Maker asking Valve to make a Steam plugin for them. Even if we'll get a reply it'll probably be like:

    "And you are... who? And why should we care again...?"

    ...Man I dont know if its that bad!

    But yeah I have no idea what their response would be. I sent them a link to this thread saying we were discussing it a lot on the forums and please come and participate in the conversation... maybe if we can get a representative from Kongregate and Ashley talking it could lead to something... I'll definitely post any response I get back.

  • Anyone knows any free basic music maker tool to compose the first concepts for a game? It hasn't have to be complicated or full with professional options, just some basic instruments like piano, guitar, flute and drums.

    Did you see the promotion on the Scirra blog for a music making program called Starlight? I have no idea if its any good, but its the right price (assuming the promo is still good)

  • I think the developers were clear about that they want this plugin updated. Ashley , what's your take on this? Can we expect it?

    He's already stated his position. From the first page:

    I would much prefer for Kongregate to develop and publish their own C2 plugin, since there are hundreds of third-party services out there, it's a constant burden trying to maintain them, and it's not our API/service (they obviously know their own platform better). Our plugin was developed a few years ago when we were just trying to get off the ground and offer some extra options to developers. I'd encourage you to go to Kongregate about further support.

    I emailed Kongregate this evening asking them if they would consider making a plugin for the C2 community. Will post any reply they send.

    I am concerned for your health — I think your should turn the putie off and go lie down for a little while. Good lad.

  • Kongregate didn't sell us Construct 2 , Ashley and Tom did. So its not Kongregates responsibility to fix problem with C2.

    That's like asking McDonalds what happen to your Burger King order, it doesn't make sense. I know you want to protect C2 but telling them it's ok to come with excuses not to solve problems is ridiculous.

    No I think you're missing the point. I think Ashley's idea is these other platforms can benefit from allowing C2 games easy access to their platform or service. The idea is to convince these other platforms that there is a large C2 user base making great games, which are a perfect fit for their platforms / service, and that they can benefit / profit / generate income etc on the back of the games made in C2.

    An example is Appodeal. Go to this link: http://appodeal.com/sdk and look under 'Frameworks'.

    They have plugins that are platform specific for Unity, Unreal 4, GameMaker and C2. They have developed those plugins themselves to allow people using those Frameworks to get easy access to their ad service. The benefit to them is the more games using their ad service, the more income they generate. So its worth their while to invest time making plugins for us.

    The same argument is valid for Kongregate. By making a plugin specifically for Construct 2 users that allowed C2 games to utilise all the features of the latest Kong API, they increase their revenue... Every C2 game on Kongregate, generating ad revenue is putting money into their own coffers.

    This line of thinking doesnt really work when applied to the C2 official IAP tho...

  • ...So Kongregate should develop a plugin that doesn't profit them...

    Well I think the argument would go something like, Kongregate would stand to profit from making a plugin for the C2 community because

    they would see a steady stream of oustanding, cutting-edge revenue generating games published on their platform from C2 devs. Therefore it would be a good investment for them.

    For the new people who just joined , us veteran developers already figured out developer "Cranberry" is really Tom and Ashley in disguise a long time ago.

  • One thing I've forgotten to mention.

    Kongregate Kreds. It's basically like InAppPurchase from Mobiles. Spending real money on virtual goods. That's the biggest and most profitable source of any income. The catch is - in most cases its a headache to setup and maintain. But not in case of Kongregate. Because they do all the paper work, hosting and billing FOR you. The only thing YOU do - is to enable such features in your games. Its a Kongregate exclusive thing. Clicker Heroes, the flagship of Kongregate - is making around 80% of its profits from that Kreds IAPs.

    Aaaand, surprise, surprise - that's something the Kongregate API/Plugins also does not have.

    You can read about it here:

    New API features explanation

    [ur=https://docs.kongregate.com/docs/concepts-virtual-goodsl]Kreds/IAP explanation

    Well we need that too!

    I emailed Kongreate just now begging them to have pity on us and make a plugin we can use. Ill post any responses I receive. I also linked to this thread in case someone from their end wanted to come participate.

    Also, I spoke to a known plugin dev about this and he said he would be interested to make a kongregate plugin but he can't do it for at least 3 months as he is snowed under. So on the downside thats ages to wait... But on the upside, if that particular guy was to make it, it would be awesome coz everything else he makes is A1!

  • Yeah... a lot of people are complaining about this. Ive just been reading this thread about the need for the Kongregate plugin to be updated. These guys are saying how the Plugin hasnt been updated for 4 years and doesnt allow C2 users to access the latest ad features on Kongregate, like rewarded ads and video ads etc... so we are cut off from potentially higher earnings on that platform..

    Another problem Ive been looking into is how to get ads onto iOS games built with XDK... as far as I can discover there just isn't any easy way to do it (ie with XDK) ever since Apple's ad service was discontinued (iAd I think?)...

    In that thread I linked above Ashley states his preference to get third parties to develop plugins for their platforms specifically for C2, because they have a better understanding of their platforms and can do a better job with less effort that he can. I guess I can see his point of view. And there is evidence of that happening, like Appodeal for example has a plugin specifically for C2 which people seem to be using with no problems. So thats great, we just need more of that. Also I understand the C2 devs need to prioritise and at this point C3 trumps keeping various plug-ins updated.

    rainbowrex makes a good point in the same thread... saying the way forward to is to put requests into the addons subforum, asking for developers to make plugins to fill the gaps. Maybe we need to pass the hat around, scrounge up a few dollars and pay a developer to build a couple of key plugins that everyone is demanding?

    I have to say, while I can see Ashley's point of view, it's a bit demoralizing to work really hard to make a game (8 months in my case), get close to the end and then realise "wait, there's no longer an easy way to get ads on iOS?.... ugh what do you mean the IAP plugin is broken?.... what's that you say? The Kongregate plugin is 4 years out of date and we can't get access to the higher earning features available in the latest Kongregate API... well crap!"

    But anyway... moaning aint gunnu help. Ashley has stated his position. So the options are:

    1. Contact the platforms and ask if they can develop plugins for the C2 community.

    2. Try to wrangle smart, coderly types into making much needed plugins with promises of adulation and possibly some moneys... ?

    or for the brave:

    3. Anyone wanna learn to make a plugin?