Long term viability of Unity (and thus AC)?
I'm sure it's no news about the recent pricing changes that Unity is planning on implementing come 2024. Personally, I have no problem jumping ship from Unity to another engine, but the thing that gives me pause is I don't want to leave Adventure Creator behind. This tool has been very useful to me in the development of my games, and it's really the only thing that make me want to stick with Unity at this point. So my question is, is there any plans for AC to be ported/reconstructed for other game engines such as Godot or Unreal? Because if this Unity Runtime fee goes through, then I don't think it will be financially viable to build games in Unity anymore.
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Your concern is valid.
All I can say right now is that I am keeping a close eye on the situation, and will make an official announcement when I have news to share.
Thanks, Chris. I'm sure many of us here are happy to support in any way we can.
Exactly the same thing I've had on my mind ever since this hell started... There are some game devs who really rely on Adventure Creator (me!) and can't imagine working without it. Like... I wouldn't know where to start, honestly. I'd still be installing Unreal 5 already but I already have all the UIs set up in a current project, and tons of dialogues and game logic - all based on AC. And now Unity makes me feel like I'm stuck in a room with a lunatic threatening to destroy me and my family! Years of work thrown in the gutter.
It makes it even harder when I hear these changes will work backwards and I will pay them for the rest of my life for the 2 commercial games I made using their goddamn engine!
I know Unreal has its own toolkit for point & click games... but it's nowhere near as good as AC (it's my impression at least). If you ever somehow create AC for Unreal me and many others will definitely follow and it could potentially save us from this madness.
That would be the downfall of Unity. I think they will step back.
Just want to say that any Unity asset I own of course including this one, I'm willing to buy a Godot version at full price, or perhaps Unreal. (Though I would rather focus on Godot considering it can never have the kind of situation that is happening... you will always own 100% of your work in it.) Anyway hang in there everybody.
I would like to also show my support, I will happily pay full price again for adventure creator in another engine.
I started on Godot (using Escoria, a click adventure framework that feels somewhat alpha) because I didn't trust the Unity CEO. We (working with a programmer friend) had two rooms of the game working well... with average amounts of pain... but the menu was ugly, the dialog was ugly, the movement was clunky, etc. It could work, but I'd need to hire a programmer to re-invent the wheel.
However, with AC and Dialog System in Unity, I did everything myself. It is way more functional, looks way better, etc. etc... and I did it in a fraction of the time. Tools like these are the reason I was pragmatic and decided to use Unity, but I'm feeling slightly stupid now. I guess it is probably good overall, because I'm working much faster thanks to AC.
I've also used Unreal to build vast 3D worlds... so I'll follow AC wherever, but I'd love to abandon unity asap. Even if this decision won't harm me much, I know they really can't be trusted.
Promising news: Juan Linietsky, main person on Gogot, said an app store was a priority... and they created W4 to be a separate organization outside of Godot to help facilitate console ports and anything else that needs to happen outside of an open source bubble... https://w4games.com/
Also, this is promising:
Thanks all, it's good to gauge the community's feelings on this.
I picked a fine time to take a holiday, that's for sure.
Thank for starting this discussion. I guess we are all anxious and unhappy with the whole situation. AC is an important part of my game dev journey, and it is hard for me to imagine making games without it.
Still, I hope you can enjoy your vacation. ^^;
This news hit hard for devs like me that rely on AC to make gamee, and cannot code. I really hope you can keep the framework going Chris! Will do anything in my power to support you. AC rocks!
I think I've been with AC since almost the beginning! My first step into unity was because of AC! There is no tool even close to AC with so much flexibility, variety and speed of development as far as I know, and I've tried everything, especially since I'm a 3d artist and I'm not good at programming, but with the help of AC and Chris, I made some of my dreams come true and made my first game! So this is all hard for me and probably for all of you who have invested time, money and patience in mastering the skills. It would be very interesting to see, if you ever create AC for Unreal it's pretty big marketplace right after unity. I think that now it's best to wait and see the development of the whole situation, which, I hope, will end well for everyone.
I was coding messy Projects and not really getting anywhere when programming myself, until i found Adventure Creator and it reignited my interest in Game Development. It does have a learning curve aswell, but everything works so nicely because it's so fleshed out. And Unity is actually such a good and easy to use Engine.
I'll buy a "Adventure Creator Unreal" in a heartbeat, but of course switching everything over probably takes lots of time and is not an easy thing to do.
Super sad about the Situation, but Investors do what they have always done, throw Money at something and expect unlimited growth (in a limited World) and more money back forever, while doing nothing for it, other then exploiting Workers.
But these seem like they don't even know what they've invested in, it's so disheartening.
I just hope it reverts to "acceptable" terms, where we don't have to deal with this BS and atleast have more time to finish our Projects, and change Engines.
Seems like the "developers are f*ing idiots" was not enough of a PR-Disaster for the CEO.
I've lost trust in it 100%
& hopfully you can still enjoy your Holiday.
Just wanted to join the rest, I feel the same way as they do, specially what @AdventureFan said. Thank you Chris!
I agree with @snan... I do hope this reverts to "acceptable," terms. It has taken a lot of the wind out of my sails and I've kinda just been playing BG3 all day trying to not think about things.
One issue is that I was hoping to pitch to a couple small publishers, but they are all posting anti-unity things now (understandably). One is even moving their existing games over to Godot. So, this deal has really complicated things for many of us in more ways than one...
It's been a long weekend for everyone. Hopefully this has given Unity's top brass a chance to step back, and properly understand both the damage they've caused, and the absolute unworkability of their plan.
All eyes will be on their output over the next couple of days.
I'm curious how this will end... AC is the also reason I use Unity anymore, but if Chris decides to move to another engine, I will follow and buy the asset at full price again.
We just want to chime in and add our support if Chris should decide to switch engine. Paying again for such an enabling and wonderful asset is a no-brainer. These are troubled times for devs all over the world, but I remain hopeful in that AC will have a good, stable future.
Thank you for your hard work, Chris.
I can't switch at this point in development, but for future games, I'd be very happy to move to Godot if we had both Adventure Creator and Dialogue System in it. I would also consider Unreal, but with Godot we'd be sure this would never happen again.
I had been tampering with Unreal for the last few years just for animation purposes but the only thing that kept me married to Unity was AC. Ultimately, wherever AC goes, I will go too. It's a great tool and opened so many opportunities for me.