Thanks all for the continued feedback and perspectives .
Sorry to disappoint, but there’s nothing we’re announcing today about our future plans! As previously mentioned, Hype v4.0.0 will be perpetual-license based with upgrade pricing and for the Mac only.
When it comes to supported platforms and pricing models, we have thought deeply about how they fit into our strengths and overall strategy. We are continually re-evaluating as new information is available.
(All that non-answer said, I personally don’t see a world where we’d solely ever be subscription pricing!)
Thank you for making it sort of clear and also leaving some wiggle room.
As I made repeatedly clear, I as a "professional" would gladly pay for "pro" features and support using a subscription. Having the regular version be an one-off base price would then also satisfy regular users and people with limited demands, that just want to animate something quickly.
Could be a nice compromise. Finding the right balance in putting features in the regular or pro and re-evaluating these distinctions on a regular basis is certainly key in either case (up-sale or subscription).
I just want you (Tumult) to be well feed and able to run the team you need, and if your software enables or enhances me to make a living as a "professional" I am most happy and willing to share some of the value you helped me create, on a regular basis (or via upsale if subscriptions are not happening at all.).
Best regards from Berlin.
PS: Is this a statement? Is this a love letter in disguise? Either way thank you.
Definitely - in fact the whole reason for doing Standard and Pro was to a) be able to keep entry into Hype affordable while still being able to be aligned with the value of the product and b) allow a way to do a v2 -> v3 upgrade to recoup dev costs without an upgrade in the traditional sense. We don't have a price change for v4 planned, though there will be better upgrade paths for users of v1-v3.
Given FutureSplash Animator 1.0 (now called Animate CC) had a MSRP of $250 in 1996, it is interesting to see how software pricing has changed. Adobe used to charge $600 in the CS days for their standalone apps. I know Sketch experimented with $129 pricing but it seems that they hit a ceiling at $99, leading them to pursue their quasi-subscription strategy.
It is always interesting to chase after the mythical model that can allow for both optimal affordability and company growth.
No, thank you @MaxZieb, your presence here elevates the community and is motivation personally to make Hype better.
Try having a relationship with a fellow blackbelt who is higher ranked than you, and you both step on the training floor and she says “100 pushups on the knuckles NOW” Thats a statement!
(ok I promise to stop posting about this effective immediately)
The same goes with photography. In days of old, when knights were bold and an Adobe licence cost a fortune, people photographed using dia film. Very expensive. Nowadays it is not unusual to take incredible numbers of pictures per day at no cost at all. Many people have come to the strange conclusion that certain things in life should be free. Happiness and love are the best things we have and are free, health is invaluable. Software should never be free. Each new major version should cost, 1, 2, 3 etc. Subscriptions, so called ”pro versions”, NO! You cannot subscribe to everything in life. Pay and it is yours. Don’t pay and you can stay without a new version, but keep the old one. Make the new version good, better, the best and people will pay! Look at the Adobe monopoly. People pay and pay and get new versions with changes smaller than the smallest ants. Very negative. And when you run out of money, you have nothing, time to sleep in the street. Inhumane.
True, but there is not only one way todo subscriptions. Have a look at “Agenda”. You get to “keep” all updates while you where subscribed. That doesn’t exclude security updates afterwards as it just limits access to new features on an universal downloaded and updated app and is an additional incentive to renew but let’s you pause until you deem it worthwhile to renew. It also let’s you just renew because you want to support the app/company.
it's always interesting to compare with other software, that's why I left Edge animated for Hype years ago. You tried Saola? did you compare it in key features with hype?
I can’t claim to be an expert in Saola. Having moved to Hype a few years ago it is clearly my software of choice. Nevertheless, my policy is always to try out the alternatives and keep an open mind.
Being an educator I am also obliged to provide alternatives for my many students who don’t use Macs at home (about 70%). Our college labs are entirely MAC based.
Saola 2.0 is in many respects very similar to Hype and has largely the same feature set. It has a similar workflow and structure. Multiple timelines, support for media, JavaScript control, (more) vector shapes, sprite sheets, responsive screens and so on. Menu based events and actions are fairly similar, though Saola offers a few useful additions such as toggle play pause sound, toggle visibility and such.
Nevertheless, I am much more comfortable with the Hype interface and feel that it is a more mature program
All said, I personally would never change. I think Hype is by far the best tool out there for its purpose. However, as I’ve said many times in the past, ignoring the Windows user base is ignoring a massive market, and that is great pity as well as a potential financial loss.
Most art and design students are not proficient in scripting. Same goes for many designers.
Generally speaking, I think it would be great if Hype allowed a simple plugin solution of widgets to expand the capabilities. This could be a great opportunity for small developers.
Correct, however I was referring to the built in interactive menus. There is no automatic menu for turning the visibility or sound (or video) on and off.
I spent ten minutes playing with Saola. In the same way as hype you can start audio. There's no menu option to stop it though, which made me laugh out loud!
All I can see are the same toggles that Hype has for visibility, and quote honestly, the export options being limited solely to HTML is a major weakness of this software.
What Saola DOES have, however, is
vertical alignment of text
the ability to adjust the volume of individual sounds
a decent IDE including autocomplete for code editing, auto-bracketing, and more
the ability to export resources from the project
Seriously, how hard is it to add these features to Hype?
congratulations for the gentleness, do you do so with everyone?
there is a group of users who actively participate in the development of hype with suggestions and testing; it's the right way to turn an idea into a software and the tumult guys listen to everybody. Join the beta tester group if you care
.
, your presence here elevates the community and is motivation personally to make Hype better.
”
