Should I?

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

**UPDATE** - This thread is essentially finished.  I will not be making any changes and the two products mentioned below will continue to be paid only.  If you need to get the source code for either product you can always contact me via PM and I can work out a deal with  you.

Dear Community,

I am considering releasing two of my (currently) paid products as free products, but I need to know if would be useful to you.

Image Sheet/Sprite Helpers (currently $5)

https://marketplace.coronalabs.com/corona-plugins/image-sheet-sprite-helpers

This plugin allows you to use (essentially) the same code to create image sheets, images, and sprites with the sprite sheets from any of these tools:

+ Texture Packer

+ ShoeBox

+ Free Texture Packer 0.2.4

+ Leshy Sprite Tool

Read more about this plugin HERE

See sample code HERE

Patcher (currently $10)

https://marketplace.coronalabs.com/corona-plugins/patcher

This plugin allows you to download and execute scripts. This in turn will allow you to fix bugs in existing scripts by superseding them with downloaded scripts, or to extend your app by adding new functionality. Warning: Be sure to follow the developer guidelines for individual stores regarding downloaded scripts.

If you feel like you’d get a lot of value out these, let me know.

#2

I’ll be using patcher shortly, as far as I’m concerned it’s a must-have for anyone releasing apps into the wild with Corona. $10 is a snip, perhaps people just don’t know it exists?

#3

a product worth using is worth paying for, provided the price is reasonable.

free is nice but I find it hard to believe, someone serious about what they are doing, see this as the selling point.

all want to make money spending nothing.

if thats the goal they should do the work themselves

its the better way anyway

but many dont seem willing to go through the task of learning the craft, or even open the online documentation.

script copy paste solutions and free step by step guides are frequently requested on the forum.

make em pay for their lazyness!  :ph34r:

there is no such thing as a free lunch.

your pricing seems fair to me so i wouldnt change a thing.

i’ll pay for it if and when i need it.

cheers RG!

#4

While I, or the team that I am working with, do not currently need those plugins, I agree with nick and anaqim in that if one does need those plugins, your prices are more than reasonable.

In case someone really does need them, I would like to believe that 5$ or 10$ shouldn’t be a problem.

#5

I am going to use patcher soon. I would keep charging $10 dollars. I have scripted a video of using patcher with Gamesparks, I just have to record it. I would not change the price. All you are going to get at $0 dollars is a bunch of people using it for free and expecting support.

#6

When I first looked in the marketplace to see what kind of plugins were available, one of the first things I noticed was that a large percentage of what was on the home page at the time, had your name on it. This told me two things:

  1. There must be value in releasing plugins for this thing, because this guy has loads.

  2. This guy must know what he’s doing, because most of these plugins are his.

For somebody like me who only has the one plugin up there, free content would be a way of provided something that people can look at and decide, hopefully, that my code is well structured and warrants a price tag against the bigger plugins. But as per my above points, the sheer amount of content you have up there gives you that same credibility. I don’t think you have reason to provide anything for free.

#7

+1 to not releasing your plugins for free.

Seriously - the prices are so low anyway, if anyone has some use for the plugins, he/she will happily pay for them. You’re doing so much support on the forums and and giving away so much of your time anyway, even Rob sometimes has a hard time matching this, and it’s part of his job.

I understand there’s always the idea of increasing the number of users but I think there’s also the problem that, the more you give, the more it’s getting an expected baseline without gratitude for what’s already given.

#8

How about free until a certain limit then paid?

#9

How have I not noticed this plugin before…?  I agree with others that this seems like something that is amazingly useful for anyone releasing builds on the stores. There’s nothing worse that rolling out a build to 100% of users, only to find that there is a typo somewhere that was missed during testing and crashes the app for most people.

I actually thought it was 100% against both stores terms to use non-embedded script in an app, so I’m glad that is not the case (unless you completely change the app’s behaviour of course).

I’m assuming that there is no way to have the plugin read encrypted script files to make them less user-readable? I know that ultimately if someone is determined to crack your code they’ll find a way, but it’s still nice to make them work for it if possible :slight_smile:

#10

Alan,

encrypted (pre-compiled?)

When you say encrypted, do you mean pre-compiled?  If so, then there should be no problem reading compiled scripts as long as you compile them using the scripts for Corona plugin making.  I do this all the time when demoing to clients.  i.e. I pre-compile key scripts then send them a zip of the project demo.

Rules, rules, rules

For the longest time it was against the rules for the iOS store.  Since Swift took off however, they seem to have loosened up the rules a bit.  So, I say, do it, but with caution and as you say, don’t change the behavior of your app, just fix bugs and add minor features.

#11

What about free and paid version?

The free version helps to decide that the paid version (with more functionality) actually needed for the end user or not.

…

I have a question about the patcher plugin.

What do you mean about last paragraphs at the end of this article? 

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/07/apple_relaxes_developer_rules/

Janos

#12

@bali,

Thanks for the feedback.

  1. There is no way I can make a free and paid version.  i.e. If it is free, there is no reasonable way to add code that forces folks to pay for it in production games and apps.  Also, reducing functionality would simply make it not work.  

Please note, my plan, if I were to release it free, was to release the source code which is pure lua.

  1. Be aware, I didn’t write the article.  Are you referring to this long sentence?

“The change does seem to loosen the requirement on downloaded code, specifically around the framework and language of the downloaded interpreted code, which means that other scripting languages not using Javascript language are allowed for injection, such as Lua, RubyMotion, and the like.”

If so, I assume it is saying, you can do essentially what this plugin lets you do.  Download Lua code and execute it.

If not, please quote specifically what you are asking about and I’ll try to answer/clarify.

#13

Everyone - Please be aware this is settled.  The suggestions are predominantly that I not do anything and leave the products as paid.

This is the easiest plan for me and I’m happy to do that.

#14

thank you

Both 1. and 2. is clear. 

#15

I’ll be using patcher shortly, as far as I’m concerned it’s a must-have for anyone releasing apps into the wild with Corona. $10 is a snip, perhaps people just don’t know it exists?

#16

a product worth using is worth paying for, provided the price is reasonable.

free is nice but I find it hard to believe, someone serious about what they are doing, see this as the selling point.

all want to make money spending nothing.

if thats the goal they should do the work themselves

its the better way anyway

but many dont seem willing to go through the task of learning the craft, or even open the online documentation.

script copy paste solutions and free step by step guides are frequently requested on the forum.

make em pay for their lazyness!  :ph34r:

there is no such thing as a free lunch.

your pricing seems fair to me so i wouldnt change a thing.

i’ll pay for it if and when i need it.

cheers RG!

#17

While I, or the team that I am working with, do not currently need those plugins, I agree with nick and anaqim in that if one does need those plugins, your prices are more than reasonable.

In case someone really does need them, I would like to believe that 5$ or 10$ shouldn’t be a problem.

#18

I am going to use patcher soon. I would keep charging $10 dollars. I have scripted a video of using patcher with Gamesparks, I just have to record it. I would not change the price. All you are going to get at $0 dollars is a bunch of people using it for free and expecting support.

#19

When I first looked in the marketplace to see what kind of plugins were available, one of the first things I noticed was that a large percentage of what was on the home page at the time, had your name on it. This told me two things:

  1. There must be value in releasing plugins for this thing, because this guy has loads.

  2. This guy must know what he’s doing, because most of these plugins are his.

For somebody like me who only has the one plugin up there, free content would be a way of provided something that people can look at and decide, hopefully, that my code is well structured and warrants a price tag against the bigger plugins. But as per my above points, the sheer amount of content you have up there gives you that same credibility. I don’t think you have reason to provide anything for free.

#20

+1 to not releasing your plugins for free.

Seriously - the prices are so low anyway, if anyone has some use for the plugins, he/she will happily pay for them. You’re doing so much support on the forums and and giving away so much of your time anyway, even Rob sometimes has a hard time matching this, and it’s part of his job.

I understand there’s always the idea of increasing the number of users but I think there’s also the problem that, the more you give, the more it’s getting an expected baseline without gratitude for what’s already given.