Stencyl Pro - Splash-free Flash games, publish to desktop and more

Read about it here.

In a gist, Stencyl Pro gives you the following...

- No forced Splash Screen / Badge
- Custom Preloaders for… Mochi, CPMStar, Newgrounds, Custom SWF
- Publish standalone desktop games (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- Priority Support forums
- Automatic-entry into the Android & HTML5 betas when they begin


Here's where Stencyl Pro falls inside our lineup. Stencyl Studio is a combo deal that combines iOS Pro and Stencyl Pro into a single package.





Pricing and availability are mentioned in the post.

With regarding to the education discounts for Stencyl Studios, does it matter what course you are in or for students in general?

We just care that you're currently enrolled as a student or are currently in a teaching position at a school or college (we always just ask for a student/faculty card).

So If I purchase a bundle package, will it carry over once 2.5 is released? I am getting ready to pay for stencyl pro and the iOS as a bundle, but honestly, If I am going to have to pay again for a pro android and HTML5 pro account, I don't see the point in paying right now. I honestly have no desire to publish anything for iOS, unless working with another developer that has their sights set on it. (one could say I loosely boycot apple and its store)

Seems like a bundle package is the way to go, for my intents, but I am aprehensive until I know whether or not my bases will be covered when android support is in full public effect.

Guess I got to start saving!

Finally!! Stencyl Pro!! I've been waiting for that and the Android export for the longest..

I will be making my purchase to Stencyl Pro next week.

Alternative Licensed Publishing / Non-Licensed Publishing Proposal

This is great, except I can't throw down the subscription fee unless I know I have games that can be released on the different formats properly, and there's no way that I can know if they will work properly if I can't build and test them (and in some cases, even make sure all the API features of a site I'm publishing on are working 100% correctly).

My goal is to have a library of unreleased games that I'll be able to release and publish the moment I purchase the subscription, rather than purchasing the subscription and then starting to develop games while the value of that subscription is ticking away. This way, I will be able to alleviate the financial pressure of purchasing the license without being able to earn it back in a reasonable period of time.

From the comments of other users, I can see that I'm not the only Stencyl game developer working on a considerably slim budget.

So I'm requesting an alternative Licensed Publishing / Non-Licensed Publishing.

-Licensed Publishing would essentially be publishing the game as one normally would with all their licenses and features. Without the license, they would only have Non-Licensed Publishing available.

-Non-Licensed Publishing: Force the Preloader and the logo to be at the beginning,  and a "STENCYL - NOT LICENSED FOR PUBLISHING" watermark and/or scrolling marquee throughout the game. This way, it will be clear that the game is not meant for publishing, but the developer will still be able to test all the features and functionality.

I like Stencyl, but at $199/year for just Flash and IOS, I am concerned what it's going to cost once I start adding platforms. I like the scene designer and being able to drag-and-drop blocks, but if I'm looking at hundreds and hundreds of dollars per year just to export to more than Flash and IOS, the scene designer starts to lose some of its luster. Monkey, for instance, publishes to Windows and Mac native binaries, Flash, IOS, HTML5, Android, and XNA for a one-time $120 purchase fee with lifetime updates. Monkey already has apps on XBox Live, and titles like Zombie Trailer Park and New Star Soccer to its credit. Also, I've been using Blitz Research languages for nearly a decade, so I know they are in it for the long haul.

I have one completed game with Stencyl, and another in the works, and I'd like to keep working with this tool, but it's starting to sound expensive next to the other options. I know you have a lot of fans who will disagree with me, but I doubt I'm the only person thinking this.

I like Stencyl, but at $199/year for just Flash and IOS, I am concerned what it's going to cost once I start adding platforms. I like the scene designer and being able to drag-and-drop blocks, but if I'm looking at hundreds and hundreds of dollars per year just to export to more than Flash and IOS, the scene designer starts to lose some of its luster. Monkey, for instance, publishes to Windows and Mac native binaries, Flash, IOS, HTML5, Android, and XNA for a one-time $120 purchase fee with lifetime updates. Monkey already has apps on XBox Live, and titles like Zombie Trailer Park and New Star Soccer to its credit. Also, I've been using Blitz Research languages for nearly a decade, so I know they are in it for the long haul.

I have one completed game with Stencyl, and another in the works, and I'd like to keep working with this tool, but it's starting to sound expensive next to the other options. I know you have a lot of fans who will disagree with me, but I doubt I'm the only person thinking this.

I also have Monkey and Blitz3D, while you can export to many formats with Monkey, it's a programming language of it's own. I still rather use Stencyl over Monkey due to it's simplicity and how fast you can get stuff rolling. Stencyl was designed for gaming creation with minimal coding in mind. I agree that Stencyl Studio and iOS is pretty steep in the pricing range, but hopefully the team can think of something before that time comes.

i think there's no comparision in what stencyl can do. is simpliest and easy to use, the support is very good and the toolset is progressing to a pro grade that will set stencyl as the definitive drag and drop tool to make games.

i think the price is fair enough, since we need to support the developers to keep the good work. beyond that, comparing the prices between other toolsets make me think that stencyl has a average price and is not overpricing his costumers.

Guys if you think $200 is steep, then I would suggest you take a gander around the net and find a cheaper yet equal alternative. If you find it, great, but I have yet to see anything.

Torque is more expensive.
GameSalad is more expensive.
Unity is WAY more expensive.
Corona is more expensive.

Don't forget that making Flash games is still free (with splash screens) and you and develop and test with iOS for free.

Don't forget, that this is a nice al-la-carte set up which almost no one else does. If you, like me, have no interest in making desktop games then Stencyl Pro is not something you need to buy. For me Stencyl costs me only $150 and when Android support rolls around I'll be able to buy into that at a discount.

Think of it this way guys, Jon needs money so that he can keep Stencyl going. $150-200 is a small price to pay for such a great tool.

Im not complaining about the price. Im trying to figure out if its worth getting the bundle now, as opposed to after 2.5 when the bundle would have more in it, and if the bundle would have a different cost at that time.

I just want to know if Im going to get a better deal now, or six months to a year from now is all.

Don't forget that making Flash games is still free (with splash screens) and you and develop and test with iOS for free.

I think that this is a 'killer' feature for Stencyl; for no charge whatsoever, you can develop and release games for Flash and, if you want to remove the Stencyl 'splash screen', it's a mere $79/year for Stencyl Pro (or $50 one-off if you get it very quickly; I think Jon put out a 'last call' yesterday). That is an absolute bargain by any standards. Certainly the $50 is bordering on 'pocket money' pricing and I'm not surprised that Jon is moving to the yearly subscription model.

If you want to develop for iOS then, again, that is completely free; you can learn Stencyl and develop a finished product for zero dollars. Only when you want to publish an iOS app, do you have to subscribe to Stencyl iOS Pro. The only caveat, which is out of the hands of the Stencyl team, is that if you want to test on a device, you will have to pay $99 annually to Apple for a developer licence. Again, that's not a lot of money anyway.

Whilst, in the strictest sense, I did not need to subscribe to any Stencyl products yet, because I am still learning, and do not expect to be ready to publish anything that is financially viable until the end of this year, I considered it important to start paying for Stencyl now. There are two reasons for this:

1) I want Stencyl to be a viable product, and that will only happen if people are sending money in the direction of the Stencyl team.

2) I think that the pricing is very fair and, in the case of Stencyl Pro, the $50 upgrade 'early adopter fee' was an absolute bargain, with the very generous offer of it being a one-off fee rather that a subscription.

In fact, if anyone has subscribed to iOS Pro and has not paid the $50 for Stencyl Pro and is hesitating, I would say do it now, if Jon is still accepting orders at that price; it's a giveaway. If nothing else, it will be providing funds for the future the development of Stencyl. Even if you didn't want iOS Pro, it might be worth subscribing for $150, then paying the $50 upgrade for a a total of $200. Whilst the iOS Pro subscription would expire in 12 months, you would still be left with a perpetual licence for Stencyl Pro. The alternative is to wait and then pay $79 (increasing to $100 at some point) every year.

I can understand the disappointment for 'very' amateur developers (I consider myself an amateur); an annual subscription adds up but, unfortunately, I cannot see that Stencyl would be viable in the long-term without a suscription  model. I can see that a lot of (probably young) Stencyl users would like to publish iOS games, and the pricing may be out of their reach; $150 for iOS Pro + $99 for the Apple developer licence = $250 but, if those users develop a good game for Flash, using the free version of Stencyl, they can then can then subscribe to one of the Pro versions and start to make some money. Or, just pay for the $99 developer licence from Apple, and develop a complete iOS game with testing on an iOS device, and then pay the Stencyl iOS Pro subscription when the product is ready for publishing.

Im not complaining about the price. Im trying to figure out if its worth getting the bundle now, as opposed to after 2.5 when the bundle would have more in it, and if the bundle would have a different cost at that time.

I just want to know if Im going to get a better deal now, or six months to a year from now is all.

If I was close to making a payment for Stencyl, but wasn't sure, then I would do it now. Note Jon's offer of $50 'upgrade' from iOS Pro to get a perpetual licence for Stencyl Pro. I think that alone makes it worth subscribing now (that is assuming that the offer is still open).

Although there is no way of predicting the future, I think Jon has been very generous with the pricing of Stencyl and, although this is entirely my opinion, I am sure that existing subscribers will be given the opportunity to upgrade to the other exporters (e.g. Android, HTML5) for a discounted fee.

Stencyl is still young, but the dedication of the Stencyl team is clear; many projects like this would have run out of steam by now, but the constant development and improvement of Stencyl, along with Jon's (and the team's) professionalism and dedication, indicates to me that Stencyl is in business for the long-run, and I am sure that they will look after their early-adopting customers as well as they can.

One thing that we can be fairly confident about, is that the subscription prices will not be going down (in fact, the Stencyl Pro pricing is already indicated as being an introductory price of $79 going up to $99, and the one-off, early-adopter upgrade, with a perpetual licence will no longer exist)!

Guys if you think $200 is steep, then I would suggest you take a gander around the net and find a cheaper yet equal alternative. If you find it, great, but I have yet to see anything.

Torque is more expensive.
GameSalad is more expensive.
Unity is WAY more expensive.
Corona is more expensive.

I have taken a gander around  used most, if not all, of Stencyl's realistic competitors.

ITorque is $149, that is not more expensive than iOS Pro. That is, in fact, the exact same price, except you only pay it once. So, I only shell out the not-more-expensive price of $149 once, not once per year.

Gamesalad is more expensive, at $299/year. However, that allows Mac and iOS publishing, as well as Android publishing.

You said "equal" then listed Unity. Let's be realistic, Unity is not only in another league, it is in another universe. Also, a couple weeks back, Unity was giving away Unity Mobile licenses for free, and many of us took advantage of that.

Corona is also more expensive, but not by much if you're buying only for one platform, such as iOS. Also, Corona is another product with many proven big(ish)-name titles to its credit. Again, I think Corona is a bit beyond Stencyl, at this point.

Monkey, as I mentioned, is not more expensive. It is lacking the scene designer, but the Blitz community is amazing and it won't be long (if it hasn't happened, already) before someone integrates some of the more popular map editors with Monkey. Yes, Monkey requires coding, but I think it still clearly deserves to be considered a competitor for this part of the indie market. Monkey, also, is a one-time expense rather than a subscription.

GameMaker is only $40 - again, a one-time price - for Mac or Windows. GameMaker Studio, which is currently under development, is tentatively priced at $99 and will publish to Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and HTML5.

Don't forget, that this is a nice al-la-carte set up which almost no one else does.

Unity, GameMaker, and Torque all come a-la-carte. Monkey includes it all for a lower price, which is at least as good as coming a-la-carte.

Think of it this way guys, Jon needs money so that he can keep Stencyl going. $150-200 is a small price to pay for such a great tool.

I am not knocking Stencyl or the developers. I think Stencyl is a good tool with potential to become very good, or even great. However, I think for the money they are talking, there are better alternatives. You say $200 is not too steep, and I say I agree. If I were getting iOS, Android, Flash, HTML5 and binaries for $200, I would have already laid down my money. Hell, if I were getting any three of those for $200, I would have already laid down my money. If it were $149 plus $xx/year for additional support, or if I paid $99, now, and had to pay for major-version upgrades, I'd also be OK with that. I just think the current pricing model is off. Obviously, in the end, it isn't going to be up to me, but I don't think it hurts for the devs to hear what I have to say on the subject.