Well, I'm glad that I just read this topic. We're about to release one of our projects and now we will have to do it with PhoneGap (thinking about future builds). I'm really interested in the local build opportunities Ashley mentioned.

You won't be able to use Construct 2 or an NW.js export on Chrome OS. C2 is Windows only and NW.js only exports to MAC, Linux and Windows.

For Chrome OS, you could use Chrome Apps as export or C3 (in the future) for development.

Wait for Construct 3 and see the response first.

Why? Buying C2 now will also provide the first year of C3 for free.

C2 is worth the price. If you like the workflow, go for it.

It important to keep notes of the positive sides like this of C2/C3 as well. Thank you for sharing.

I think this is a variant on the "modular events" idea, am I right?

Since you mentioned, I'd like to ask: Are you planning on bringing the "modular events" idea to life in the future? I know it has been asked several times for C2, but can we expect this functionality for C3 later down the line?

I think the devs here could help you more if you provide a .capx file with the problem.

I'm also a teacher who teaches Construct 2 in classes, and plan to do with Construct 3 as well. Your points and concerns are valid, here's my opinion about some:

• In my opinion the free version of Construct 3 will support downloadable and private projects. These are 2 basic features that are required for serious game development. Not being able to share helpful saved projects on the forums would be a big drawback, and I can see the raging userbase if the free projects would be freely accessible by anyone. So I don't think we have to worry regarding this.

• I don't think the free version would be time limited. A user would simply register a new free account and could start over in the browser's private-mode. So this would make no sense. And from the education perspective, since many courses are indeed longer than 30 days, a time-limited version would limit the educational usage seriously.

• I contacted Scirra about using the free version in education, and they responded that we can use it, just like we could with C2. Since subscription is a no-go for underfunded institutions, this is a life saver.

• While it's not a must have for my classes, the ability to be able to use text-based programming in the projects would be indeed helpful in the educational usage.

• Sadly the reputation about visual programming is true. It's evolving surely (take the node-based visual scripting integration into one of the biggest engine on the market: Unreal Engine 4), but it's not there yet. I personally think that in a few years, well-developed forms of visual programming will be the future of software development due to the ease and speed it provides. Imagine a company that can produce working and well-designed software 2 or 3 times faster than the competition. But currently the "hardcore" developers look down on these methods. And students feel it as well. I think it's similar to when high-level programming languages were introduced (like how C developers looked down on C++ and later on Python developers for ex.).

• I'd love to read your post about the experiences you had and the suggestions you could list about how C2 should improve features to be more effective in the educational process.

While I think you might change your opinion later, I wish you good luck on your projects in the future and happy times learning Godot. That engine is great, and I hope you'll find all the things you need there. There's a tool for everyone and users should choose the one that fits their needs the most.

Good point and I think teaching people (kids) to use limited events makes their coding a lot less sloppy and they have to use logic to use events in a way that gets the most out of them instead of using a hundred events to just check sprites and do non essential tasks.

True.

I am in favour of something for users who have previously had a subscription and want to return for some quick maintenance on an old project without going in for a full renewal. We're looking in to our options for that. I am aware this is a significant consideration for many before they start using it.

Thank you for taking the time to read those suggestions. I'm looking forward what you'll come up with. I'm sure that will help a lot of potential users to make peace with the subscription model.

Personally, I'm hoping for lock-out of cloud services (to spare Scirra from additional server load from non-paying users) and updates (users will need to update to keep up with the evolving C3 and HTML5, and also for getting bug fixes) till the users renew their subscription, but letting them edit and in some form, export their projects. But that's just my opinion.

In my humble and not very professional opinion, why not have it set so that if someone is editing then it should not be editable for other members, having a text somehere "Bob is editing now...." and then when he's finished it go green, and Alice can now edit, so then it is not editable by Bob.. That along with chat should work.

That should work by saving it to a common cloud storage account and using a 3rd party chat tool for that. Then each developer can open up the project at their turn by using their own Scirra account.

But, why stop at one licencing method? I find a maintenance plan a more friendly way especially since C2's tradition has been regular updates. For example: Pay a yearly maintenance, get updates. If you stop paying, you don't get upgrades but can use the last version you paid for. If you want to take up the maintenance again, it can be taken up again for the full price or some other price you deem fair.

Another approach is to award loyalty: For example, Unity subscribers have the option to own a perpetual license of Unity after two years. This also mitigates the problem of not being able to open your files later.

I like the loyalty idea. Hell I'd happily sign up for 5 years if it meant that after those 5 years I was guaranteed a perpetual license for the software at the state it was in when my rental ended.

Great suggestions. I'd love to hear Scirra's opinion on these. They were posted in several topics, but as far as I can recall, none of these got replies from Scirra, so I'm curious what's their opinion on these.