Will you support Stencyl if it will start kickstarter company?

Stencyl is great but it seams without financial boost it will gone away.
May be to  start a kickstarter company?
I'm sure many users from here will support it.
Also it can help to find new users.
What do you think?

Stencyl is great but it seams without financial boost it will gone away.

What information do you base this on?

Development process is too slow.
Last update was 28 days ago, and it was very simple update and do not give anything special while so many things got to be done

There is some factors why development process got to be fast
- Adobe advice to developers do not make flash content, probably it means that browsers and abode will actively kill flash games soon FGL  is almost die too, so we can't sell flash games any more.
- Modern game require multiplayer and online but stencyl do not have build in support for this, only extension that you will apply on you own risk.
- steam games got to have very good quality now and it is better to make games for desktop in Unity and in classic indie command gamedesigner+programmer+artist+composer
- Unity 5 and Unreal is completely free now...
-  Stencyl online purchases in mobile games is still very buggy not updated to the last requirements of the google play for example not sure about appstore, adds gives very pure income so it is very hard. So I do not know how to make money on Stencyl games. i know there is still some money, but it is not very seriously.

Many others reasons.
So development got to be very fast, now this is just never ending bug test. When all bugs fixed(after several years), google or apple announcing new OS or technology and Stencyl again works with bugs and bug test starting again and again.

Just to set the record straight, prior to today's update, the last update was on February 18th and was a fix to a long standing full-screen mode bug.

It was never 28 days - I'm not sure where that's coming from. The page you download the builds from always tell you how fresh the build is.

Usually I'm watching updates here
https://github.com/Stencyl/stencylpedia/blob/master/changelog.md
And glad to hear Jon that work in progress, i really hope that Stencyl will grow up.
But please pay more attention to the old and not resolved issues with camera scrolling, monetization, lists, and effects.
Also, please add some function for distorting images, for making pseudo 3D.
If you will integrate real 3D, it will be just fantastic, but i know this is not easy, this is why i think you need good investment,  your project really deserve it because Stencyl is one of the best engine.

Unfortunately, some of our devs neglect to update that (or sometimes the updates are internal ones that aren't worth noting).

That's why it appears that way.

Usually I'm watching updates here
https://github.com/Stencyl/stencylpedia/blob/master/changelog.md
And glad to hear Jon that work in progress, i really hope that Stencyl will grow up.
But please pay more attention to the old and not resolved issues with camera scrolling, monetization, lists, and effects.
Also, please add some function for distorting images, for making pseudo 3D.
If you will integrate real 3D, it will be just fantastic, but i know this is not easy, this is why i think you need good investment,  your project really deserve it because Stencyl is one of the best engine.

I see you mention monetization, I actually think stencyl took some major steps forward here in the last few weeks. Admob adverts are now built into the engine to replace iAds, so even people to struggle to work extensions can monetize in an effective way. Even bigger is the fact we now have Heyzap advert mediation, that extension puts stencyl in line with most other game engines in terms of monetization.

obviously there are other aspects to earning money from your games, but in terms of mobile apps Stencyl is up to date in the most effective way of earning from your projects.



p.s, Stencyl is a 2D engine, implementing 3D would be a horrendous idea, I assume if would basically mean rebuilding the engine from scratch and costing a fortune in the process.

I don't really  agree with the claims about slow updates, actually Stencyl has been updating fairly rapidly last few months. I'm not really sure about comparing Stencyl with Unity or Unreal engine is fair one because Stencyl takes totally different approach compared those two. In many ways Stencyl has proved for me that it can be good development engine and developer can earn success if games are good (see Colburt for example).

I don't really think either that Stencyl would need option to do 3d, if you want do 3d, you can crab that unreal engine or unity. I would like though, that Stencyl would put effort fixing famous Jittering bug so that i could shine as viable 2d engine.

Development process is too slow.
Last update was 28 days ago, and it was very simple update and do not give anything special while so many things got to be done

There is some factors why development process got to be fast
- Adobe advice to developers do not make flash content, probably it means that browsers and abode will actively kill flash games soon FGL  is almost die too, so we can't sell flash games any more.
- Modern game require multiplayer and online but stencyl do not have build in support for this, only extension that you will apply on you own risk.
- steam games got to have very good quality now and it is better to make games for desktop in Unity and in classic indie command gamedesigner+programmer+artist+composer
- Unity 5 and Unreal is completely free now...
-  Stencyl online purchases in mobile games is still very buggy not updated to the last requirements of the google play for example not sure about appstore, adds gives very pure income so it is very hard. So I do not know how to make money on Stencyl games. i know there is still some money, but it is not very seriously.

Many others reasons.
So development got to be very fast, now this is just never ending bug test. When all bugs fixed(after several years), google or apple announcing new OS or technology and Stencyl again works with bugs and bug test starting again and again.

none of these things are really about Stencyl, they are just about game development in general. Making money from games is difficult on any engine.

"Modern games need multiplayer and online" - Not true, online leader boards are nice but look at Hotline Miami, Spelunky, Nuclear Throne etc successful 2D games made in game maker.

"Unity 5 and Unreal is completely free now" - Trust me, plenty of people using these engines and struggling to make any money at all, especially UE4. Whats the last successful indie game you heard of made in UE4?

"steam games got to have very good quality"- thats not related to the engine.

Making a successful game is mainly about the game itself, a stencyl game can make it onto the Appstore/Steam etc but its the quality of the game that will depend on if the game makes money or not.

About the question...

As Jon said in a similar topic, one million (or equivalent collected) does not make much difference. (I do not remember the topic)

For example, $600.000 would be 12 x $50.000 = 12 months of 1 master professional and expenses.

I think also that money it does not solve. I would like that Stencyl uses the Cocos2d framework. Why should amount much more in quality, community and value.

But I do not know how is the issue of license for it. Perhaps a partnership with Chukong Technologies Inc. and Cocos Creator.

I think Stencyl can not compete with other major companies in code issues, performance and portability for everything new that comes up. Because this requires time, information, experience, money, structure, community and etc.

Stencyl can stand out in what he does of best, which is the editor software and organization of code and information.

Stencyl can create something much better that Cocos Creator. But if Stencyl no do something similar, Creator Cocos be develops more and absorbs more public - although not be as good editor. At the same time, can arise the new and better version of Construct which is its main competitor (Not to mention Unity).  Leaving to Stencyl only the position of engine for beginners - that is the image that one has to Stencyl outside the community - but that can be really what Stencyl want be.

It's not a criticism negative. Because all that has already been done with Stencyl it involves hard work, dedication and I recognize that. And of course all this is not so simple, because it involves much more stuff. I refer to Stencyl relationship with external and future reality, not internal. 

Despite this sounding half dreamer, and completely disregard all that is being done, I think that  there is some reality in that.

Stencyl took a difficult and risky decision when moved for Haxe and Openfl. It worked. Otherwise, probably would have disappeared. I think now approaching something similar.

Because of this I thought in Cocos2d. Another way still cloudy would be WebAssembly.

Perhaps this is something that brings more problems than solutions, but that's what I thought.

"steam games got to have very good quality"- thats not related to the engine.

I actually disagree with you about this one. Current Jittering problem i have been eager to shout here is strongly related to engine and is engine problem. And playing jump&run games with bigger screens than iPhone 5s makes games done with Stencyl look really bad because movement looks like jerky.  So this one is quality problem related to underlying engine. Sadly  we can't even really predict when it will be fixed (it should be fixed in openFL Next, but how long will it take to get it integrated on Stencyl?)..

"steam games got to have very good quality"- thats not related to the engine.

I actually disagree with you about this one. Current Jittering problem i have been eager to shout here is strongly related to engine and is engine problem. And playing jump&run games with bigger screens than iPhone 5s makes games done with Stencyl look really bad because movement looks like jerky.  So this one is quality problem related to underlying engine. Sadly  we can't even really predict when it will be fixed (it should be fixed in openFL Next, but how long will it take to get it integrated on Stencyl?)..

I haven't been following this bug since I'm mainly doing mobile games, is it present in this game, its bigger than an iPhone 5 http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/669405

Does it still happen if you use a smooth camera set up?

At the same time, can arise the new and better version of Construct which is its main competitor (Not to mention Unity).

Stencyl took a difficult and risky decision when moved for Haxe and Openfl. It worked. Otherwise, probably would have disappeared. I think now approaching something similar.

Because of this I thought in Cocos2d. Another way still cloudy would be WebAssembly.

Actually i don't really see much problems if comparing Stencyl with Construct 2 or maybe Gamesalad, but engines currently got huge problems especially on mobile side so i don't really see much problems on that side.. Gamesalad anyway is probably close to close down and they have lately kicked out lot's of people.. And Construct 2 struggles with many problems in engine which seems to not get fixed.. https://www.scirra.com/forum/time-to-move-forward_t169075
So in my opinion Stencyl is doing really fine compared those others..

I don't really think switch to Cocos2d would be answer to problems. It would require Jon to rewrite whole program again once more and that would mean there would be lot's and lot's of bug fixes to be fixed after release.. I really think that openFL 3.x is maturing nicely and i see it will make Stencyl shine once it will be integrated fully on engine and ofc when openFL foundation get it works as smooth as possible..

I haven't been following this bug since I'm mainly doing mobile games, is it present in this game, its bigger than an iPhone 5 http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/669405

Does it still happen if you use a smooth camera set up?

Yes it's clearly visible if you play super DD in iPad.. Or visible and visible, as you know there's not much screen camera movement in super DD but for example in first worlds last scene (marked with skull) where you run away from rock you can see that screen is not scrolling smooth at all, it's jittering or jerky.. As i said, it's not that visible on iPhone 5s which got much smaller screen but it's disturbingly clear on iPad size screen.

I don't really think switch to Cocos2d would be answer to problems. It would require Jon to rewrite whole program again once more and that would mean there would be lot's and lot's of bug fixes to be fixed after release.. I really think that openFL 3.x is maturing nicely and i see it will make Stencyl shine once it will be integrated fully on engine and ofc when openFL foundation get it works as smooth as possible..

Yes. Construct 3 is just a promise. And Gamesalad always be just marketing.

But and Cocos2d-haxe?

My main point is can render hundreds of characters on-screen and can make less limited games.
And can also import animation with bones. And use several other Cocos plugins: google play, analytics, etc.