Hi everyone, I've been a lurker on these forums for quite a while, never really posting much. But today after interacting with Scirra on twitter I thought I'd share my experience on why I'm really happy with C3 (and subbed for a license as soon as it was available.)
So, over the past 8 years I've messed with lots of game software. Gamemaker, Unity, MMFD, Torque, and a few other tools. Never really got anywhere with it. I found out about Construct Classic quite a while ago and ended up with a C2 license a couple years back. Even though I was absolutely useless at messing with it it became one of my favorite tools.
My problem was I never finished projects with it. Never, since buying it in the first place, did I publish a C2 project. And I regret those wasted years of improperly using the software.
When I first heard about the two big changes coming to C3 earlier this year I was extremely skeptical, and thought, this is probably the end of Construct for me. I just thought I'd move on to something else, like GMS 2. However when the jam was revealed, and the chance to test C3 fully (I never used it earlier in the beta, I didn't want to be chained by the limits) I thought I'd give it a second chance.
And I'm glad I did.
I took part in the C3 Jam, and posted my first ever public game last week. What had seemed like huge weaknesses with C3 (being browser based) became a huge boon in a new mobile development setup I was using - doing a lot of switching between computers. My only problems with the engine were a few annoying bugs, which I'm sure are probably fixed or mostly fixed by now.
My thoughts on C3 had been going downhill until I got to take part in the jam, and got to experience serious use of the tool.
The way Scirra allowed us to make our games public and free to do what we wanted with was also a huge benefit. I got to spend a few days rapidly updating my game as people found bugs of varying degree. It was a fun challenge that I'd never had a chance to experience before. And I hope I get to do that again soon.
So I think people shouldn't be quick to dismiss a tool like this. I already found good use for some of the new features exclusively in C3.
I know some people don't like the subscription model, but did you see the amount of content Scirra released for C2 for even the earliest adopters to get for no extra gain. It must be much healthier for the company to know that if they continue to release valuable updates that their users will continue to support them.
And then even getting to the price of subscription. For a personal user it works out at about €7.50 a month. That's about the price of 4 cheapish coffee's where I live, maybe even cheaper. It's not in any means an expensive piece of software, in fact I believe unity pro costs more than C3 does over a year, every single month. And 2 months of Adobe CC will cost you more than a year of C3. And that's before you even mention the educational discounts.
The 1st year discount for previous licensed C2 users made the deal even better.
What I believe is that Scirra have earned my trust to have myself and hopefully many others as customers this year - and if they continue to do as good a job as they did with C2 I will be sticking around longer than that year.
So all in all I'm proud to support C3 - the first software I ever published a complete game in