3D Action Adventure Kit - Commercial Licensing Removed
by Lorne McIntosh · 06/09/2009 (6:47 pm) · 21 comments
Hello everyone!
After a long discussion regarding the 3D Action Adventure Kit (3DAAK) licensing cost and passionate feedback from the community, we have decided to completely remove the $4999 commercial licensing fee. This also applies to those who have already purchased the kit. In other words, you are free to release/publish your game anywhere for any price you choose and you are not required to purchase any additional licensing.
Once again, thank you for the continual support and constructive feedback through email and on our forums. We really hope to see some amazing games made using our kits. Please direct any questions or thoughts to info@ubiqvisuals.com or our forums.
Lorne McIntosh
After a long discussion regarding the 3D Action Adventure Kit (3DAAK) licensing cost and passionate feedback from the community, we have decided to completely remove the $4999 commercial licensing fee. This also applies to those who have already purchased the kit. In other words, you are free to release/publish your game anywhere for any price you choose and you are not required to purchase any additional licensing.
Once again, thank you for the continual support and constructive feedback through email and on our forums. We really hope to see some amazing games made using our kits. Please direct any questions or thoughts to info@ubiqvisuals.com or our forums.
Lorne McIntosh
#3
We were very happy with out decision to purchase the kit back when we thought that we still had to pay another $5,000 to release our product... I can safely say that we are exstatic now! I sincerely hope that this decision will remove the final barrier, stopping many people from purchasing this kit. The time it saves in development of the basic systems alone, is well worth the $500 license fee, and the fact that the systems are so sound just support that.
I give this kit 4 1/2 very solid stars! (You would have gotten all 5 stars if the character and animation source files were provided in 3DSMax format also) ;)
06/09/2009 (7:36 pm)
This is awesome news Lorne! Thank you. We purchased the 3DAA kit shortly after it was released, for use in our latest project and have been using it during the last few months in live development. This kit is very sound and does a good job of covering the basics for an Action/Adventure oriented game. Granted, there will always be things you have to modify and add in, but for a "starter kit" this does a great job and has helped smooth our develop process along by not having to worry about many of the "basic genre gameplay mechanics" and allowing us to concentrate more on the actual game systems and content!We were very happy with out decision to purchase the kit back when we thought that we still had to pay another $5,000 to release our product... I can safely say that we are exstatic now! I sincerely hope that this decision will remove the final barrier, stopping many people from purchasing this kit. The time it saves in development of the basic systems alone, is well worth the $500 license fee, and the fact that the systems are so sound just support that.
I give this kit 4 1/2 very solid stars! (You would have gotten all 5 stars if the character and animation source files were provided in 3DSMax format also) ;)
#5
06/09/2009 (8:35 pm)
yeah we have moved on to T3D as well. 
#6
Are there any videos you can let us see?
06/09/2009 (11:46 pm)
@Syllus, What game did you develop using 3DAA kit, if you can tell us?Are there any videos you can let us see?
#7
I wish you luck in the journey of the kit, I hope it goes well for you. Just wish you would consider a Indie price line for those of us who are not at studio level yet, but do want to get to that level such as myself. I read the other blogs about the price, and yeah, sounds like everyone is saying about the same thing all around. Strong product yeah but sticker shock hit me hard when I seen the price.
@John: Goto their home page or check out their past blogs they have vids of it all over the place if you look hard enough :o)
Will
06/10/2009 (3:25 am)
Will we ever see an Indie pricing on this kit now that the $5k has been dropped? I really like the kit, but the price is way more then what I'm willing to invest into it right now into this product and will we see a new price or upgrade price for the T3d engine version or is that free upgrades for those who buy the TGEA version?I wish you luck in the journey of the kit, I hope it goes well for you. Just wish you would consider a Indie price line for those of us who are not at studio level yet, but do want to get to that level such as myself. I read the other blogs about the price, and yeah, sounds like everyone is saying about the same thing all around. Strong product yeah but sticker shock hit me hard when I seen the price.
@John: Goto their home page or check out their past blogs they have vids of it all over the place if you look hard enough :o)
Will
#8
Hey there John. We are currently in development of a game that makes extensive use of 3DAA kit, it is not done yet, nor is it yet ready to show. We hope to be to the point that it can be "shown" publicly a bit, within the next 3 months.
I am afraid that I cannot yet give out any real information on it at this time, but I will again say that we have been very pleased with the 3DAA kit up to this stage and it has saved us a lot of man hours in tedious work for underlying mechanics. Which I am sure you know, is a very good thing for any small self funded game studio/team attempting to make a name for themselves. :)
I am sorry I cannot give you more right now but it just is not time yet
06/10/2009 (4:07 am)
@John Hey there John. We are currently in development of a game that makes extensive use of 3DAA kit, it is not done yet, nor is it yet ready to show. We hope to be to the point that it can be "shown" publicly a bit, within the next 3 months.
I am afraid that I cannot yet give out any real information on it at this time, but I will again say that we have been very pleased with the 3DAA kit up to this stage and it has saved us a lot of man hours in tedious work for underlying mechanics. Which I am sure you know, is a very good thing for any small self funded game studio/team attempting to make a name for themselves. :)
I am sorry I cannot give you more right now but it just is not time yet
#9
06/10/2009 (4:11 am)
Wow. That's a steal if you're going to try to make this style of game with TGEA. There's no way you could contract getting this much work done for $500, and very few people could do it on their own, even if they only paid themselves $5/hr. Great deal!
#10
I don't know, the kit, after playing with the demo feels a lot like resources you could find here on the board. I've already installed the advanced camera which is something like whats in the kit here, just more edited up. Still, very pretty and a lot of eye candy and nice layout and very professional kit I will admit.
Just don't feel like a lot for the investment, but hey, that's just me. Your right about contracting work, it could get costly, and yeah, if you contracted that same kit, you prob couldn't do it for under $500. That I have to agree with you on. Oh and just for the record, not trying to say its a bad kit, nor bash the kit, so please don't take anything I said the wrong way :o) Just feels a bit pricey for my taste.
Will
06/10/2009 (5:21 am)
@ Brett:I don't know, the kit, after playing with the demo feels a lot like resources you could find here on the board. I've already installed the advanced camera which is something like whats in the kit here, just more edited up. Still, very pretty and a lot of eye candy and nice layout and very professional kit I will admit.
Just don't feel like a lot for the investment, but hey, that's just me. Your right about contracting work, it could get costly, and yeah, if you contracted that same kit, you prob couldn't do it for under $500. That I have to agree with you on. Oh and just for the record, not trying to say its a bad kit, nor bash the kit, so please don't take anything I said the wrong way :o) Just feels a bit pricey for my taste.
Will
#11
Not at all, Will. This kit solves some very specific problems pretty well, and obviously it comes some very nice art content. In contracting terms, the art alone is probably $500. Still though, I know what you mean. Just because this solves someone's problems sufficiently and cheaply, doesn't mean it has to work for you.
I am excited to see this compatible with Torque 3D of course, but what I'd really like is to see someone get a really nice game prototype together with it. I've always been a fan of the genre.
06/10/2009 (5:32 am)
@Will: Quote:Oh and just for the record, not trying to say its a bad kit, nor bash the kit, so please don't take anything I said the wrong way :o) Just feels a bit pricey for my taste.
Not at all, Will. This kit solves some very specific problems pretty well, and obviously it comes some very nice art content. In contracting terms, the art alone is probably $500. Still though, I know what you mean. Just because this solves someone's problems sufficiently and cheaply, doesn't mean it has to work for you.
I am excited to see this compatible with Torque 3D of course, but what I'd really like is to see someone get a really nice game prototype together with it. I've always been a fan of the genre.
#12
What I assume: Ubiq realized their pricing was unrealistic for top-figure-on-product monetary gain from this community. A better chance to sell 10 at $500(without the 5k overhang) than 1 at $500 + 5k overhang.
06/10/2009 (10:00 am)
What I read: we're doing you guys a favor here! no 5k price tag!What I assume: Ubiq realized their pricing was unrealistic for top-figure-on-product monetary gain from this community. A better chance to sell 10 at $500(without the 5k overhang) than 1 at $500 + 5k overhang.
#13
06/10/2009 (2:23 pm)
Sounds good to me! Now I need to save up for the kit once again! Hope to be purchasing it soon!
#14
A kit can/will be sold as many times as possible. And it's what the developer made and nothing more, you have no say in the development of it.
With a contracter, hes creating what you want, when you want it, for you only.
Two completely different things.
06/10/2009 (5:34 pm)
People should stop comparing the price of a kit to contracted work.A kit can/will be sold as many times as possible. And it's what the developer made and nothing more, you have no say in the development of it.
With a contracter, hes creating what you want, when you want it, for you only.
Two completely different things.
#15
back on topic, really nice and I think I'll check it out in the near future...
06/10/2009 (11:06 pm)
^^^^^-----I contracted him to say that :-)back on topic, really nice and I think I'll check it out in the near future...
#16
(1) Develop proprietary physics that are exactly what we need for Torque on our own
(2) Have a 3rd party developer do the work
(3) Accept some compromises and use a 3rd party library like Havok or PhysX.
In just about every case I've seen, approach (3) makes more sense than (1) or (2), but developers often shun it because they view their own effort as nominal, or they underestimate the work involved in scoping out (1) and (2). What the seller makes on the product by selling it multiple times is irrelevant to the end user. Build, have built, or buy questions come up constantly in both game and engine dev.
06/10/2009 (11:11 pm)
@Neill: Well, I think it's a very apt way to look at purchasing any 3rd party code / content / middleware. We do it all the time with Torque 3D. For example, does it make more sense for us to:(1) Develop proprietary physics that are exactly what we need for Torque on our own
(2) Have a 3rd party developer do the work
(3) Accept some compromises and use a 3rd party library like Havok or PhysX.
In just about every case I've seen, approach (3) makes more sense than (1) or (2), but developers often shun it because they view their own effort as nominal, or they underestimate the work involved in scoping out (1) and (2). What the seller makes on the product by selling it multiple times is irrelevant to the end user. Build, have built, or buy questions come up constantly in both game and engine dev.
#17
It is up to each person to decide if this, or any other kit, addon, tool etc works for their needs. Personally, I know what my time is worth as a programmer and I saved a lot of money by buying this kit. :)
06/11/2009 (12:21 am)
Quote:Build, have built, or buy questions come up constantly in both game and engine dev.This is very true, and not just in game related development. I work for a software company and we have these discussions all the time with 3rd party control libraries. And also in agreement with Brett, most of the time we do in fact end up purchasing the control library because it is just too costly in comparison, for them to pay me or one of the other developers salary during the time it takes to make said tool or component when it can be bought for a couple hundred bucks, implemented in a matter of hours, or sometimes minutes, and work can continue on the actual product rather then spending time on a UI component, or other small piece.
It is up to each person to decide if this, or any other kit, addon, tool etc works for their needs. Personally, I know what my time is worth as a programmer and I saved a lot of money by buying this kit. :)
#18
06/11/2009 (10:42 am)
I recently purchased this pack after the announcement here. I just wanted to add that the ledge grabbing, wall hugging and climbing implementation were handled very well.
#19
So for me personally it is a cost savings.
@ JC Smith, Your project went to T3D right? The code is written for 1.7.1, so are you porting it?
06/11/2009 (8:08 pm)
For the cost, $500 is less than what it would cost for me to hire a programmer to write this code for my game. So for me personally it is a cost savings.
@ JC Smith, Your project went to T3D right? The code is written for 1.7.1, so are you porting it?
Torque 3D Owner John E. Nelson