What is Default Splash Screen?

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#21

@david668

Plenty of other SDKs have a splash screen. Off the top of my head, the two most popular are Unity and GameMaker. For Unity, the cheapest plan to remove a splash screen is $395 per year. For GameMaker, it is a one time fee of $149, but you also need to shell out another $600 to be able to export to iOS and Android. Both of these tools are a lot more popular than Corona, and Corona could use a much needed boost in brand awareness.

Corona is still offering the core sdk for free and all they ask in return is that you show an image at the start of your app for a couple seconds.

And just out of curiosity david668, how do you monteize your apps so that you can continue to fund your server costs and Apple license?

#22

They have been earning from other business models such as the Corona Card/Enterprise. In addition, they also take a cut from the many monetisation plugins they released lately.  It is not just about the $99 which I agree is not a very big sum.  To me, it is about how this has been communicated to us (sudden inclusion in a crucial daily build that we have no choice to use if we were to submit to App Store) and also what is current status of this platform.  Are they just looking to make more profit or is this an attempt to save the platform from dying. We need something clearer from the team rather than just announcing via a daily build release update as a new feature.

#23

Hi everybody,
This is a competitive market where it takes a lot of effort to remain the best platform for cross-platform 2D development. Corona is not an open-source hobby project where we (Corona Labs) can casually tinker away at whatever we feel like working on, perpetually and forever. Corona as a core product and development platform remains free, and asking developers to show a splash screen to help raise awareness about Corona seems reasonable, as does asking $99 per year to let you remove our logo or replace it with your own

@bramvbilsen, I think we will be open to alternate artwork ideas. We are discussing having a competition for splash screen designs. We’ve just started talking about this, so we don’t have any information yet.

@unicode, we see it as a feature. The splash screen control when purchased allows you to have your own image as a splash screen. Many people have struggled with adding this to their app in the past. For Android builds, you were limited as to what you could do. Splash screens now work nicely in a cross-platform manner.  We are looking to add features to it going forward.

@3denator, the splash screen is a Corona Labs logo with text that reads “Powered by Corona Labs”.

Rob

#24

One question: is $99 per account, so covering all your apps or $99/year per app?

#25

I agree it could have been communicated much better (basically they couldn’t have handled it worse than they did).  And I am well aware of their other ways the monetize through taking parts of the ad stream which I have major issues with that I’ve never gotten a good answer to (like where the ads come from and how can we have some modicum of control over the types of those ads that are appearing in our games).

#26

@PXL artificer, it’s per user, not per app.

#27

I realize this is a tough pill to swallow when you’ve become so accustomed to Corona being completely free, but like Rob mentioned, this isn’t some open source side project. It takes real engineering man power to keep Corona up to date in the constant growing mobile space.

$99/yr is a drop in the bucket for what you’re getting in return. This monetization approach should have been the done a long time ago.

#28

As long as the splash screen looks really good, I don’t see a problem at all giving Corona Labs some free promotion. It’s a great platform we’re all getting for free right now!

Besides, $99/year to remove or customize the splash screens for ALL your apps is really nothing if that’s the only cost involved in using the platform.

#29

Guys, I don’t disagree that it’s fair for Corona to want to maximize their revenue to be able to stay alive (and obviously I don’t want them folding). However, slipping in a daily build (which happens to be a requirement for iOS acceptance) a $99/year hit is just not fully thought through in my opinion, and could have been introduced in a more subtle and gentle way. 

How about offering $50 to existing users, and $99 to new users? How about a once off fee for a single app and not per year? How about offering it to existing users but to any new apps they develop not their existing ones they have been working on for a year (and are about to submit to the app store). I think you get my point… there are many alternatives to introduce a gentle pricing model that customers (both existing and new) can get warmer to. Corona has just dropped us all into boiling water. 

Just btw, I have told MANY people about how great Corona is and how it’s a great place to learn coding and app development. It’s not like people don’t talk when you are exposed to a great product. Now what am I supposed to say? It’s a great product but it will cost you $99 / year on top of the 99/ year Apple subscription?

It takes 6 - 9 months to develop a good app before it’s released to an app store  - and thats being conservative for people who are learning and building at the same time. I think its fair to charge people who are earning revenue from their apps, not while they are learning and building. I would gladly pay more than $99 / year once my app is on the store earning money. 

#30

Except it doesn’t cost 99$ per year. It’s completely optional.

From your quoted use case… if you want to remove the splash screen *when you release your game* pay the money at that time. You don’t need to remove the splash screen whilst it’s in development

#31

David, I’m not really sure why you believe that anybody who is learning and building is forced to pay the $99? It’s optional, and having a Corona branded splash screen while learning how to build games should be one of your smallest concerns imo. 

#32

The $99/year to remove the splash screen is fine. I’m happy to pay something for this awesome development platform - paid $600 for Pro 2 years ago.

I see the buyout of CoronaLabs by Roj Niyogi - considering the fantastic development improvements in Corona these past 10 months, the staff at CoronaLabs appears to be responding well (in work output) to his leadership - found him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sniyogi

#33

Guys, I know it’s optional, but if you are a professional & skilled designer/front end developer, then having an advertisement as your splash screen is cringe worthy, and very amateur. In my case, it is a non-starter, and would be a non-optional payment I would personally have to make. If you don’t mind having a splash screen then perhaps you are building apps as a hobby and not a career, which is perfectly fine.  

My main point relates to the obtrusive, sudden and blunt way that Corona introduced this new “feature”. As a loyal and existing user I am upset. I feel deceived. I am about to submit my app to the Apple store, and have found out that my current build will be rejected if I don’t upgrade to a new build, which has a $99 catch. My app will have 2 splash screens if I don’t pay for it. Very amateur. Especially when we are trying to compete against 1000’s of other great apps.

#34

@David

I invite you to take a look at this game.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.macaque.Missiles

It was made in Unity. I know that because it has a Unity splash screen. You might think it is amateur but that didn’t stop 1 Million people on Google Play from downloading it. And when I see that Unity splash screen as a developer I think to myself, “This popular game was made with Unity, maybe I can make a popular game with Unity too.”

A splash screen will not make or break a game. It’s the actual game that the users care about.

Now, if you’re talking about a business app, then I agree with you. In my opinion a business app shouldn’t have a splash screen at all. And I also agree that Corona could have handled this announcement better and given us more time to prepare.

#35

can you postpone this decision one month from now? you should have told us so we prepare ourselfs :frowning:
can you make another version of the plugin valid for a month for USD 9.99 ? people can digest it like this…
I have taught corona sdk to hundreds of people, by this you are forcing us to move gideros.

#36

Vince, perhaps I should have mentioned I create mainly business apps (career purposes), and for my hobby (mainly for my nieces and nephews) I create game apps. Perhaps my opinion was skewed towards that then. My apologies. 

#37

Come on, it’s not a feature. If you can’t load an image and show it for a few seconds before moving on to another scene, you’re probably never going to finish an app to release in the first place.

No issues with the amount, just the way it’s been done. Man up, tell us you miscalculated the business model and this is required to keep the platform going. Don’t sneak a $99 ‘feature’ in with virtually no notice that serves to embarrass developers in front of their clients.

#38

I did not understand how this will impact, on older versions of the platform?

Why not warn about this change in advance? =(

I would have had time to prepare… So if I had agreed with the client, where it is not mentioned about this - it puts me in an awkward position right now =\

ps sorry for my english

#39

weird pink stuff, how to remove?

Y6dClx9.png

#40

I don’t mind paying $99 or showing the logo but integrating this into a build that developers are entitled to and calling it a “feature” is not cool at all. You should have informed us at least a month ago.

Also, I must say that this aggressive push gives me the impression that something is very wrong with Corona Labs and this is the last step to save Corona from going down. Hope you guys clear that out instead of being silent, fill us on what’s going on with Corona and why the sudden change of heart.