So, me and other users have been discussing about construct popularity on the the construct community discord server. The study of use increase or decrease of a game engine is a complex topic and there are a lot of factors that surround it and I do not claim to be a expert on the area.
That said, some users there ended up agreeing on a specific point that may be holding back construct as a more popular engine, construct 3 free version limitations.
Why is that?
With so many choices for game engines - and with a lot of them even having the option to code things using visual scripting - I myself, a c2 and c3 user for more than 5 years, find that it's hard to convince new devs to try using c3 free version due to their limitations. To be honest it's hard to even convince myself to convince new people to try the engine with limitations like:
- - 25 maximum events
- - 2 maximum layers
- - special effects
- - use of families disabled
I honestly think those limitations makes it hard to make a small project or even to start to getting to know the engine a litle better. As for now what I can see is a lot of users trying the engine and giving it up too soon because they strugle to create simple games with it.
Also, This sentiment of not feeling confortable enough to recomend construct 3 for new devs seems to also be shared by others users.
I understand that the free limited version exists for a reason and that scirra, like any other companny, needs to make construct a profitable project to be able to maintaim it. That said, I think that decreasing the limitations of construct 3 free version may be a nice way to help increase the engine popularity (thus consequently making construct 3 a more profitable software).
Those are my personal opnions on what would be a great update on construct 3 free version limitations:
- - Increase the number of events to at least 500 (or maybe even 1000?) - I believe most dev would soon reach this free limit and would need to purchase a license as soon as it get serious on a project meanwhile these are enough events for new users to confortabily experience and get used to the engine.
- - Increase the number of layers to 5 - Same reason as for the increase of the events
- - Unlimited use of effects for the free edition - I see no reason to limit the use of effects given the others already existent limits
- - Enable access to families - Families is such a great feature and I think limiting the access to it might end up creating bad pratices on users using free edition that'll latter upgrade to a paid license, since they might get used to not use it in scenarios that would be better to.
That all said, I was wondering and hopping if Scirra staff would be willing to take feedback from me and other users about this matter and if a update on the construct 3 free edition limitations would be possible.
Thanks!
P.S.: I think it's worth saying that I'm already subscribed to construct 3 and I do not plan to ever go back to c3 free edition, so the only reason I'm creating this post is because I want construct user base and community to grow.