I guess the plugin is not even v1 as Brent mentioned.
Splash screens are definitely not portrayed as amateurish. Nearly every AAA game released on PC/Consoles has the splash screen of the engine they used to create the game (i.e. unity, unreal etc).
Most see it as a point of pride (myself included), and i’d say less than 1% of users actually bat an eyelid to splash screens.
Hey guys! I’ve been a Corona developer for quite some time. I’ve developed a number of very popular tools for Corona. I’ve also made a couple of games, published one, and am in the process of making a couple of much more ambitious ones. I absolutely love Corona. That said, keeping repetition of what everyone else has said to a minimum, I’ve gotta say the way this was done (no warning, sudden announcement, $99 to remove an ad from your existing projects) was not so great.
I will always put some form of “made with Corona” in my games–I’m very grateful to Corona, and I’m fine with showing it. I’m willing to do a “made with Corona” splash screen. That said, I’d love to be able to be in control of what it looks like and not just “now you must show a bright orange splash screen for a few seconds before your game starts.” The two games I’m working on are really quite big and fairly “artsy.” I consider having a splash screen of this sort equivalent to showing an advertisement at some point during a game–it’s fine for some games, but can you imagine LIMBO or Undertale popping up an advertisement?
Again, I do not mind splash screens or giving credit to Corona, but I really, really want to be in control of what it’s like. In a game like mine (beautiful, sort-of-experience-based dark fantasy immersive goodness), an orange stock “Powered by Corona” splash screen just doesn’t work. Consider making a separate plugin tier (say $49 or so) that allows you to create a custom splash image that says “powered by Corona Labs” somewhere but can be designed by yourself. I don’t know how that would work; maybe you could have somewhere we can pass splash screens by the advertising team to see if they’re acceptable.
Also, before anyone jumps down my throat for not being willing to pay $99 to remove the splash screen, let me just say… I’m 17 years old, in my first semester of college, and my game is being completely made by myself with a friend doing the art. As ridiculous as it sounds, no, I do not even have $99 to remove a splash screen. Really. My entire programming venture, which has been around for about five or six years, has had a budget of about $100 total–$50 for the vector graphics editor I use, $30 for Mainstage 3 for the expanded GarageBand instruments, and $20 margin because I’m sure I used it somewhere.
- Caleb
@VARUN.RAJA:
Then Corona guys need to update pricing table, where explicitly says No splash for enterprise.
I have to agree with the large majority of people posting in this thread, I do not like this ‘feature’ and feel that the move was sneaky. Why not be honest with the people who have been loyal customers to your platform? Why not simply say sorry guys we messed up moving from subscription to free and actually need more money. Attempting to hide this in a Marketplace plugin is deceitful.
A question : What happens if I continue using an older daily build to submit the app I’m due to publish this week? Is there some new apple requirement that will result in rejection?
A question : What happens if I continue using an older daily build to submit the app I’m due to publish this week? Is there some new apple requirement that will result in rejection?
I have the same question really.
Here is the answer to your question:
To better outline the context of this: When Apple enabled iOS 10 submissions following their September 7, 2016 keynote event, one of the updates was additional automatic scanning of files in the app bundle to detect potential issues. With this new process in place, everyone who submitted a Corona Simulator or Corona Enterprise build started getting a failure message from Apple due to problems with “app thinning.”
https://coronalabs.com/blog/2016/09/14/submitting-apps-to-apples-itunes/
This is the issue I’m having. I updated to the most recent build so I can support iPhone7 / iOS10 a couple days ago, and was shocked to find this new Splash Screen. It’s no coincidence that this update is timed with the new release of iPhone7 - we are essentially forced to comply.
My project is for a very large client, which will probably bring a lot of great press to Corona, but this new splash screen is having them lose all confidence in the future of the SDK (along with the new ad pinching model). In order to move forward with the project, I’m forced to spend the $99/year myself, rather than price gouge my clients. It’s just a sad day for Corona users.
I’ve been using Corona since 2012 and have paid plenty for subscriptions in the past. This type of bait and switch is going to force me, my clients and many other developers to switch to Unity - it’s just difficult to convince anyone otherwise at this point. This company is a sinking ship that consistently makes poor decisions.
My frustration and annoyance with Corona aside…
What does all this mean in terms of the files we need to include when submitting to apple? And creating splash screens? Do we still need to include all the launch image sizes and orientations? And list them in the UILaunchImages for ios in build.settings? Or is this obsolete? Where is the documentation for this?
A very large client who baulks at paying $99 ?
Seriously now, a lot of people are taking this way too far.
If said large client used Unity, they’d pay a lot more than $99 to show their own splash screen.
Developing an SDK of this size costs a lot of money. Developers can’t put food on their families table with their good intentions alone.
The product has to take in income to pay the people working on it.
It’s that simple.
@Abdou23, here are the resources Brent mentioned:
https://docs.coronalabs.com/api/library/display/newEmitter.html
(look for the composite.normalMapWith1DirLight and composite.normalMapWith1PointLight entries).
@varun.raja.30 are you doing Simulator builds or Enterprise builds? I can get the team to look into this for you.
@juliusbangert Our splash screen has no effect on Apple’s use of UILaunchImages. You could produce your own which would show before the splash screen. The documentation is in the Project Build Settings guide: https://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/distribution/buildSettings/index.html#launchimage.
Rob
For guys using Corona since the beginning, it’s a new step (it used to be 99 per year, then 195 per year per platform, and so on). Having to pay 99 dollars a year should not be a problem (may be in some countries where 1 dollar is lot of money ?). The way it has been announced is not good. Hope this extra revenue can help Corona improve the Text engine and the widgets (I made a dream…)
The $99 is not the point. The point is the message it sends - yet another change of business model. Is Corona SDK going to be around in a year so we can continue to service our apps or is it going to fall off a cliff when they run out of new owners willing to take a punt on it?
We know Corona is great, but people making the decisions at big companies don’t, all they see is Corona Labs changing hands yet again.
Observation: worst roll-out strategy ever. I can understand that Corona Labs is a tech company, staffed by programmers probably doing double duty on all sorts of responsibilities, but is there no-one there with a business degree?!
Non-issue: sure, I’ll pay the $99 to remove the not-so-attractive nagware.
Immediate concern: build 2950 came out on 9/16, I built and published an update on 9/17, the blog releases details of the splash screen on 9/19 indicating that it’s effective as far back as build 2949. My published app does not currently appear to have this new splash screen, but is it going to “phone home” and download it and start displaying it eventually?
Ongoing concern: after having paid the $99, can the splash be ENTIRELY eliminated - ie, not one of yours, not one of mine, just gone COMPLETELY, WITH NO STARTUP DELAY ADDED? This will be a big deal.
I think the biggest and only reason we’ve seen several changes in business model is that every single time Corona attempts to charge in any way, shape or form for their product, this exact thing happens.
A vocal minority goes nuts and makes them out to be the new satan and attempts to force Corona to reverse the decision.
They are being fair in my opinion. Trying new things to get the balance worked out (balance between what the users are happy with and what makes financial sense for them) and are not digging their heels in with a system that people deem too much.
Since we really have no choice how about adding the option to at least chose your logo in a color that would be more aligned with the colors in the app - instead of the current pumpkin orange!
A metallic silver and/or gold, or simply setting a fill in color the user sets in the settings.
This would make the Corona splash screen a bit more palatable!
This is a Chinese style of promotion 
… A new plugin to remove a new feature :P You and me and everyone here are noticed now.
A beginner doesn’t care a 3 sec splash.
A developer doesn’t care $99/year for an everyday tool, and Corona worth it.
Corona, too much thinking…
Developers, you worry too much because you are too tired. :D 
I’m a Chinese and this happens to me daily.
@enterprise subscribers, you should not be seeing a splash screen. Please email support AT coronalabs.com if you are and let them know your particulars (build #, Android or iOS, simulator or native build, etc.)
@davebollinger, to the question about the build you shipped prior to our announcement, I need to verify that. For your other concern, if you purchase the plugin, and you do not provide your own image, there should not be any delay.
Rob
Fine, but there’s a right way to do things. Put a blog post up a month before announcing the changes, giving developers time to make a decision and Corona time to get the splash screen 100% right and customisable. Don’t sneak it into a daily build 3 days before the announcement.
For anyone with app thinning issues who were using an older build, we had the same problem and Apple sent us an email saying they’ve identified the issue on their end and were reprocessing the builds that failed so we’re not certain you need the latest build to submit successfully to the app store at this time.