MERGED - all splash screen discussion

Why do the Unity staff keep telling us we're wrong instead of listening to what we're telling them?

 

@RichardKain not to mention that without a splash screen on pro versions, "personal" is the only edition people are going to see. It's already clear that someone is using a non-pro version because there is a unity brand splash screen

Regarding what's being said about 'Personal' and 'women's hygiene' and marketing... I'm not bothered by it because I have actually seen 'Personal' editions of software before. As a hardcore computer nerd, I think I'll stick to software's branding instead of marketing. I actual wouldn't mind multiple usages of this word to cause turmoil and hardship to marketing companies

Or you could use Unity exclusively for marketing feminine hygiene products.

 

Because they don't care about the community, their needs and wishes. AND that is the difference between this corporation and EPIC. They listen, they consider and they implement. About 98% of wished features are implemented into unreal which in 2 subversions. Cant imagine that something will ever happen here.

 

Or a game about feminine hygiene products...hmmm.


Educational?

 

I don't know what you mean by this?

if you are trying to monetise a user who closes your f2p game in the opening 3 seconds, I don't think they are someone who would invest lots of money into a free game.

Oh, we are always listening; ive forwarded several threads from these forums to people who should get their eyeballs on them when they get a chance.

And we don't flat out tell people "you are wrong!" as thats too aggressive. We try to be democratic as possible with people who may be disgruntled in getting everything for free.

 

Unity Intimate Edition™
*plays Barry White album softly in background*

 

You must say "Unity Intimate Edition" in a soft, sexy tone.

The picture: Brilliant!

I want HIM as my splash screen! Please?

 

Not a huge fan of it saying "personal edition" but whatever, its not like the upgrade to 5 isn't worth it. And the splash screen is way better in every other way

 

I think every single post you have made has been pro-UE4 and anti-Unity. And most of which you are posting isn't true; we always listen to the Unity Community and we probably have the largest field team of any engine/framework who go out and interact with all types of developers, visit game studios, deliver trainings, interact on forums and sit and listen and ask and question and communicate and process what people want of Unity. We have made alot of changes to please alot of people (Free/Pro Feature Split, WebGL being Free, iOS/Android for Free, Subscription option, Oculus in 4.x Free, better UI tools, 2D Support, better rendering tools etc etc) and these are based on all the feedback we collect and gather from everyone we speak to.

Of course, if you want to talk about UE4 all the time, they do have their own forums for that sort of thing.

 

I don't know what a F***en problem with this splash screen for Unity Technologies. It's easy to remove the inscription and just leave the Unity logo. This decision will be good for all of us. Or maybe leave a possibility to write the text a user wants. Every person can has a his/her own inscription on the splash. What the hell? Our discussion has no sense in reality. It's Unity Team that should do something with this problem. But I really doubt they will do something with that - and THIS IS A TRUE PROBLEM! We will probably have "personal" - we want it or not. I completely don't understand such an attitude when that what users say isn't important. For me as a developer, it's something incomprehensible.

 

I must agree that unity did good thing but still me a bit worry that Unity simply ignore potential problem with illegal 'personal' word meaning in software commercial world....

 

Unity Let's Get Closer Edition™
Unity Ladybits Edition™
Unity Entre Nous Edition™
Unity One Night Stand Edition™
Unity Toothbrush at Her Apartment Edition™

later...

Unity Friendzone Edition™
Unity Just Not That Into You Edition™
Unity Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Edition™

 

OK so Unity's listened to everyone wanting pro features for free and gave them that. Now Unity 5 personal has been out for a day, you're accusing Unity of not being fast enough or listening to your demands. Have you heard yourselves? Are you not slightly embarrassed how you're coming across?

 

Educational & terrifying for male consumers. I wonder if this is what Sarkeesian meant by making games & gamer culture more woman friendly...

 

About time we terrorize male consumers. LOL

Just kidding, don't want to start a war.

 

I am 100% sure our legal team would have checked first before releasing something with 'Personal' in the name. Why is calling software 'Personal' illegal?

 

because of non-commercial meaning in software world. You see this isnt settled as law so theoretically no problem but practically 'personal' is relatively popular word for non-commercial product.

 

Ah, so it isn't illegal to call it 'personal'? Why did you imply that it was?

Surely what its called doesn't matter? You now have access to the full engine feature set for totally free to go and make all the games you ever wanted to make and not give Unity a single penny (Until you hit big then you'll have to be a one-off Pro license).

 

I'm not trying to monetise a user in the first 3 seconds. Something off-putting in the first 3 seconds means some will get no further and have a chance to to see the value in the game, while many others will be starting on the back foot.

I found this term negative even before it was pointed out it often refers to products for cleaning, grooming or stimulating sensitive parts of the body.

 

Iam a unity user since 2010. Even if my forum joined shows different. In my opinion the updates, upgrades in unity are too slow. The game sector is a fast breathing entity. Missing features, bugged features mean your product is behind his time. Since Unreal came out, I cross-develop with both engines for UBI Germany. And I can tell you that the EPIC listen to its community. Heck, they even giving you the source code, so you can participate and include missing stuff. Why does UT not open their source code? Maybe my words a a little bit harsh, but they true. I love unity for what it is. A engine for simple, mobile friendly indy games. But UT want's more. They want to be playing in the AAA backyard. But for that they need to change there quality team, the update cycles

 

well my fault i should be more strictly but please, with all respect, dont turn things upside down, ok ?

EDIT i see u added some words... well generally agree but remember, this word cause NON-ZERO chance that my any commercial action with 'personal' edition will be blamed because any serious customer will consider me as pirate which is uncomfortable

 

Last I checked the Unity 5 updates were weekly.

 

We have released over 20 5.0 Alpha builds, over 20 5.0 Beta Builds and 4 5.0 Release Candidate Builds over the past year. Also, we have released weekly patch releases through Sustained Engineering (About 34 so far?) and 4.5 and 4.6 (And backported things from 5.0 to 4.6) oh, and thats not including all of the Console builds that have been shipped too.

That works out at atleast 60 updates of Unity in the past year which is 1.15 updated Unity every week! Oh, and in going forward, our patch releases will be supporting both 4 and 5 so that number will be even greater in 2015.

If that isn't a fast enough update cycle in terms of features and bug fixes and pre-RC builds, I don't know what is.

 

Ok i figured it all out..
"Made by the Best Game Engine on Earth"
There! Solved. Print it!

 

LOL

Unity It's Not You It's Me Edition

 

ah and if you dont belive and think me as non-serious please look there http://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/rebrand-personal-to-indie
one day and cca 750 already, this evidence that this 'personal' isnt the best word in software world...

 

Actually updates for bug fixes are generally patched every couple of weeks or sooner, and would you be prepared to OpenSource your game for everyone at the forums to steal you intellectual property, why don't you make the first move in uploading all your project for everyone and maybe Unity will follow your lead!

 

No not at all. The value of my purchase has gone down considerably.

 

Just to double check.... the animated splash screen is for non-mobiles, right? The mobiles splash screen would still have to be a static image?

 

Passive aggressive much? All you're doing is demonstrating you don't understand what the issue is.

 

Actually, I'm a Pro user, but I don't like the term Personal on the Splash, I think the animation looks cool, just remove the Personal Edition all together, when I went Pro I didn't replace the splash screen on my game for ages as I was proud it was made in Unity, but Personal Edition does sound a little confusing on the splash, Powered by Unity is cool. Just my opinion...

However, I very much doubt it would in any way affect sales or user opinion, it's the product that counts, I mean if the splash screens had that much weight, half the hollywood movies these days are cluttered with awful splash screens.

 

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Which means you are not right. And I am not right. I feel for you but going around being angry isn't making your game the brilliant game it wants to be.

 

Really, the splash screen says 'Personal'? Most certainly tints the perception of work/products released with the 'personal edition.'

Unity 5 appears to have conceived a clever way to offer up the moon, 'the democratization of the engine', but mix it with just enough incidental stigmatization (scarlet letter if you will), 'oh look, isn't he cute, he's trying to be a professional developer too..." to shame previously free edition users (feature restricted, but certainly not openly branded as hobbyist), into going Pro simply to avoid being branded as not professional.

This new tiered release is extremely clever and arguably underhanded. The new CEO (whatever his name is), is a man to be reckoned with. "Take all the pro features you crave, boys and girls...but let's see how pro you feel each time you, a colleague or a client launch your work."

I wonder how many 'personal' users are indies trying to build their business, striving to breaking the $100k ceiling one day. The 'Personal Edition' splash makes that more difficult. Unity Free didn't tip your cards...it just acknowledged Unity, the company. "Made with Unity,' wasn't something you needed to explain, it was something you could be proud of.

None of this matters if you're just a guy/gal/guys/gals trying your hand at making games, but for small devs trying to get to the 100k + level, it will. And make no mistake, this it is a very well-considered and intentional labeling that UT management understands has implications. This is a line in the sand type move meant to motivate users to pay up. None of this takes away from the product and hard work that went into it, bravo to all involved.

At least Epic allows you to feel pro as you work your way up to 100k in receipts. What is self-image and professional perception worth to you? Here endeth my rant. Enjoy GDC.

 

You're a mod here? Seriously? If you don't have any issue then leave the thread and post about something you actually DO care about.

 

Not just your opinion. I raised my own opinion about it on beta as well. It seems nobody really likes the tagline, but people feel they could love the logo animation in *both* free and pro (in some cases!).

I'm a pro owner and 100% I will be removing the splash. I would have kept it if the wording was different. Just my 2p.

I didn't say I didn't care about it

 

Oh yes another refrence to epic. Thanks.

 

How about a open roadmap with community feedback?
https://trello.com/b/gHooNW9I/ue4-roadmap

How about open the source code for community participation?
https://www.unrealengine.com/ue4-on-github

How about a submission voting for the asset store so we don't get 472 new FPS controller?
https://trello.com/b/x2AEJP0x/ue4-marketplace-submissions

 

Well, I intend to use it to my advantage. I will make fun of the name on my blog and my website and make sure our perspective customers know that we have invested a lot of time and money into this game are are NOT just kids playing with a tool. I would honestly prefer Unity Free since I see no bad connotations with Free but I know that would really stir up things here.

I might just "borrow" Wetcircuit's post above, giving her credit of course. Maybe I need to replace the guy with a less futuristic model. lol

I want to believe it wasn't as underhanded as some say, just a mistake. Time will tell.

 

My only complaint regarding the splash screen is how it is being handled for Unity Pro users when publishing to mobile. After paying $1500 for Unity Pro 5, it is insulting to force a "Personal Edition" splash screen on us if we publish something to mobile. Unity needs to either include the mobile add-ons in the standard $1500 license or give Pro users a Pro splash screen when publishing to mobile. I should not have to pay an extra $3000 in order to publish to mobile without a "Personal Edition" splash screen.

 

You can deliver Community Feedback through here: http://feedback.unity3d.com/
We have a rough Roadmap but don't have a fancy page with it on. Brett, our VP of Engineering, says we will get it back. For now, you can watch this:

We have already said many times why we cant open source everything (Middleware integration etc). But we are Open Sourcing more and more areas of the engine to community contribution such as Unit Testing Tools and UI!
Links:
http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/08/20/more-open-source-initiatives-from-unity/
http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/09/16/getting-started-as-a-contributor-to-our-open-source-projects/
https://bitbucket.org/Unity-Technologies

I think we would rather give everyone a chance to make an asset and sell it on the store rather than a 'vote to be sold' system.

 

ah thanks for your feedback. At least a few steps into the right direction.

 

Especially not a war where Sarkeesian would be your Ally ._. Could you really stand against JonTron, TotalBiscuit, JimSterling AND Phil Mason!?

"Unity: Epic Unreal Edition"

Well people with a real reason against it seem to be primarily female. Maybe everyone in charge of naming this stuff is male, thus there is blissful ignorance of what 'Personal' is used to market.

 

I'm not so concerned about the splash in the simplest case, where somebody ONLY uses the personal edition. Although I understand the issue with the wording. What I'm a little more irked by is that having desktop Pro only means you export mobile versions where the splash screen (which is nice) says you don't, and paying another $1500 for that particular platform doesn't really do much other than remove the splash screen, since desktop Pro already has the benefits (why is the cost of EACH mobile add-on still as much as the core product anyway?).

This isn't something that makes me lose sleep at night, or a burning cause that I will pester people to sign petitions for every spare moment I have, but I took some votes out of the hopeless cases with 1 or 2 votes and dumped them into this as a sympathy vote

 

I'm not a UE fanboy, I find the UI odd and annoying to spend time in. But the business model is clean. 'Pick us, get the full boat, pay 5% over 3k/per Qtr.' I don't pick them, but only because of the odd feel of their UI. Funny that's all you took from my post.

I tend to agree with Telia. I think Free had less bad connotations. I think folks here forget, the business of business is to earn. Pear down all the hoop-la of a GDC announcement and you have a corporation that exists to earn, not be altruistic. So when you run into a seemingly selfless act, a give-away of epic (sorry, there's that word again), proportion... you need to look for the hook. Likefree software to schools... that happen to collect big data that is resold to 3rd parties. Nothing is free, and the more it seems free, the closer you need to look. Perhaps underhanded was a bad choice. Certainly brilliant. It seems to give poor/cheap users so much, and only adds a scarlet letter to everything you produce. Knowing how brand sensitive, how label sensitive we are as a culture, particularly tech folk...do anyone actually doubt that choice wasn't well-considered and intended to shift the herd? It's smart as hell...but, then of course, we're back to underhanded.

 

100% of marketing people are male, or so it seems. At least the times I meet any women hovering around that department anywhere, they're actually in sales (and a minority), because the two departments are so often smushed[1] together.

[1]I'm also surprised my spell-checker didn't have any issue with this word, so I'll stick with it!

 

couldn't agree more. kudos, you nailed it

i've been saying the same things in another thread.

the way this was done, feels a bit insidious to me.

"for all of you whining users that have been complaining for years about the lack of features in the free version, here you go folks, it's now functionally the same, but we're definitely going to let your users know that you didn't buy into our pro version"..

because, shrug, that's how it feels.

how about just "Made with Unity" or "Powered by Unity".

end. of. story.

why introduce a type of 'class/version warfare' into this when whatever version your offering is made with, is functionally the same?

 

Time to change that. With hunky men mascots and so forth!

It's up to women to notice that this forum is actually run by women (Aurore and Sara) and has strong women developing (you!)

 

I don't believe that statement regarding only females a having real reason is correct.

My reason for not liking the "Personal Edition" tag line is that it adds another variable that I have to factor in to my analytics.

Lets take a hypothetical example where I release a mobile game. I get 100 downloads and retain 50, so I've lost 50 potential customers. Now was that 50 because the game is crappy? Or is it because they see "Personal Edition" and won't give it chance because for whatever reason related to what they read into "Personal Edition"? Or did I lose 2 because of a perceived negative connotation and 48 because I suck? I can't know because its an unmeasurable variable.

 

What's wrong with Epic? it's a really good tool for my job. As a developer with a long experience I see which tool I need. It has nothing to do with "Fanboying". I'm not interested in personal conflicts.

 

like i said before, another made up hoop to jump through..