Update Fee

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bigsofty

Ok, I have been thinking about this.

Gernot mentioned that he may request a small payment to cover his costs for keeping his platform test equipment up to date. This sounded pretty fair to me but what's the general consensus?

What worries me is that Gernot does not get any income for working on extra features for GLBasic, its not just bug fixes I am talking about but true code that saves me and you time. The new GUI is a good example of this.

Should a small annual payment be optional? Well I think it should because not everyone has the spare cash lying around, also if you want to donate then you should be allowed to.

Ok, please vote and let everyone know how you feel.
Cheers,

Ian.

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC.  As potential programmers, they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."
(E. W. Dijkstra)

spacefractal

updates should been free (example from v10.0 to v10.1), but version upgrade (example from v10 to v11) is no problemo to cost.
Genius.Greedy Mouse - Karma Miwa - Spot Race - CatchOut - PowerUp Elevation - The beagle Jam - Cave Heroes 2023 - https://spacefractal.itch.io/

Quentin

my vote is No

Reason:
I fear, further costs for major releases will frighten off many people. I agree, it's a pity, that Gernot will not earn anything for new features. But take only a small look in the world of software development:

Visusal C# Express + Xna --> free
Mingw or Visual C++ Express + several bibs for game programming --> free
Java --> free
...

Of course, I don't know any other environment supporting so many platforms like GLBasic does, so imho it's worth to pay for, but ... see "reason"
It's not a question of logic, but of psychology, I guess.

Minion

Quote from: spacefractal on 2012-Mar-27
updates should been free (example from v10.0 to v10.1), but version upgrade (example from v10 to v11) is no problemo to cost.

That system wouldn`t really work very well. What if version 11 is release, but Im in still version 10 and I find a bug, and report it. Which version gets fixed ? If version 10 gets fixed then you need to maintain 2 (and more) versions. If you upate version 11, then minor bug updates no longer are free.

Kitty Hello

Magix (music maker and such) do not fix any bugs at all. Bugfix=new version = pay extra.
Disgusting.

Here at work we have some pay-per-year contracts for support. Maybe I start sending newsletters to registered customers when new versions are available and insert a donate button for the upgrade, which would be free, though.


spacefractal

That happens in many apps as well as Kitty wrote. GLBasic did have about 20 minor releases to mainstreme glbasic, which is really good. So its does not do often to do a v11.

Howover alternative the GUI version could of course cost some money to get that extension when its is out of beta. Its dosen't need to been free and there would been no version conflict.
Genius.Greedy Mouse - Karma Miwa - Spot Race - CatchOut - PowerUp Elevation - The beagle Jam - Cave Heroes 2023 - https://spacefractal.itch.io/

bigsofty

Even an optional donate button would be good IMHO.
Cheers,

Ian.

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC.  As potential programmers, they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."
(E. W. Dijkstra)

Slydog

#7
I'm fine with whatever method you decide.

You could give GLBasic away for free (there's a free version now correct?).
And, convert to an in-app-purchase payment model!
You want 3d commands?  $20
Polyvector? $20  -   Sound? $20  -  File IO? $20  -  Font Editor? $20
Ha, only kidding, but I can see a time where desktop apps do this!

You need more money, understandable.
You could offer your expertise in a consulting fashion.
There are (maybe) those of us who would pay for one-on-one advice and code suggestions for our games.
Especially at crunch time.

Offer GLBasic totally for free (as an optional payment type) and when users are finished their game, they get you and your company to host the game, and you go through Apple and the other app stores and handle the submissions and compiling etc (or share up a Mac and allow remote access to it and get the user to compile himself).  Charge an extra 20%, so the user gets 50% (Apple for example).  Problem is there may be a lot of work for little payback.  A fully automated system would help.  Advantage to user:  No need to buy Mac, Apple Dev Fee (and other dev fees), App submission head-aches, etc.  And/or a PC app store, host the various GLBasic games for a fee.

Merchandising?!  GLBasic hat?  I'd buy one!  I don't get beat up enough!  :D

Donations may work.  Not sure how much money you would collect.  I'd chip in.

Pay for a feature.  Do you really want a new feature added? 
Offer (or start a bounty) Gernot $200+ and he may consider it! ha - Really I would so do this!
[Edit]  It's like a donation but with an incentive. 
Ha, right now I would donate $50 to remove that annoying splash screen that always seems to be in the way!  :P
My current project (WIP) :: TwistedMaze <<  [Updated: 2015-11-25]

Kitty Hello

50$ for a slash screen option. Deal! :P

Gary

Quote from: Slydog on 2012-Mar-27

Ha, right now I would donate $50 to remove that annoying splash screen that always seems to be in the way!  :P

I will split that cost with you Slydog, I thought it was just me on my computer that seems to have the splash screen up for 15 seconds after you have opened the project :) how about a check box for registered users in a settings menu to turn splash on/off?

Personally I would go for the major upgrade fee like when V11 comes out and can build directly to iOS on a PC or a new platform is added. Most standard bugs are resolved before a major update is done and its only the big new feature that introduces new issues.

I use quite a few programs that give you free updates for a year and then you have to renew and they don't have the option that GLB has of a functioning free version that will let you test paid features before committing to the purchase

spacefractal

the splash screen in editor is skipable by a click. So no real issue for me at all.

The donate button is allways nice for those that whant, and yes most standard bugs would been fixed before the next major upgrade anyway.
Genius.Greedy Mouse - Karma Miwa - Spot Race - CatchOut - PowerUp Elevation - The beagle Jam - Cave Heroes 2023 - https://spacefractal.itch.io/

Wampus

Quentin made a very important point.

Quote from: Quentin on 2012-Mar-27
...take only a small look in the world of software development:

Visual C# Express + Xna --> free
Mingw or Visual C++ Express + several bibs for game programming --> free
Java --> free

When it comes to something like PC specific app development a combination of Visual C# and Xna for free is a sweet kicks ass option. However! As soon as you include compiling for multiple mobile platforms the prices of development tools go up, way up.

GLBasic is cheaper than the competition in the category of multiple mobile platform compilation while generally offering a lot more platforms to compile for than other packages. It has those two advantages. It has a market niche.

To follow the industry trend and gain more interest perhaps PC-only compilation could be free, including all the premium features. Charge for multiple platform compilation instead.

Also, like I mentioned in another thread, promotion is a major issue. Quite a chunk of the high cost of the other multi-mobile dev tools goes into funding marketing. I'm not suggesting GLBasic does that for many, many reasons I don't think I need to go into. It is important to make contact with new users though. I think promotion could really use a boost (from us, the users)

fuzzy70

I think I am right in saying that all (if not a vast majority) of platforms have free development environments available to them, excluding developer fees for publishing like iOS for example. Apple has Xcode, Windows/Phone the Visual Express range, Android SDK etc etc. Obviously all of them are tied to there respective platforms & converting your project to run on another platform requires a lot of work if not a complete rewrite in some cases.

GLBasic certainly has a niche in it's ability to target so many platforms with little or no modification to your code assuming you plan ahead that you will be targeting more than one platform & each ones strengths or weaknesses.

There are so many options available regarding purchasing GLBasic but finding one that suits the majority might be the hard part. Other than the current option of free Windows/Linux/Mac with 3D/Net/Inline + Mobile available as a purchase there are ones like Wampus mentioned (free PC inc Premium & charge for Multi), or similar to what Slydog mentioned pay per feature or even platform for example.

The latter example is good in the respect that if someone wants to target just iOS or Android they can just purchase the respective parts. However, implementing that model as in pricing etc might be difficult from the point of view of just how much to charge for each part, which parts do you split out of the core i.e 3D/Net etc, the IDE knowing what the user can or cannot target & so on. Also how you market it can be problematic if it is not clear exactly what you are getting for free or paying for. I have been on some sites in the past where I have had to place another order or download something else due to poor explanation of what was required for my needs.

Personally I am interested in PC/Linux/Android with inline at a later date when I learn more. iOS,  cannoo etc I have zero interest in due to not having the platforms to test them & have no interest in 3D or net either so the separate Modules would be perfect for me, but the current option of getting all with one payment does mean I do not have to worry or think exactly what I can or cannot do.

In essence everyone will have their own ideals on how or what they want from GLBasic & purchasing options.

Lee
"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"
- "These go to eleven."

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

MrTAToad

One thing that would need to be done if compulsory or voluntary payment chosen is perhaps make all betas available for testing (and possibly feedback) before the proper release...

Kitty Hello

Excellent idea. Sort of VIP licenses.