In-Editor download actions feature

[Lane]

At some point I'd like to have a built in Online Action Browser in Playmaker, to make it easier to download official action packs like this...

I noticed this from an older pathfinding post and think it would be a great feature to have in Unity. A built in browser that lets you download the official Action Asset Packs from the wiki and load them directly, like a miniature version of the asset store but just for convenient access to the wiki page links, basically.

[jeanfabre]

Hi,

 I will make it happen, if no one else do it before me . We need such ecosystem very badly, the wiki and forum as totally unsuitable for the current demand and growth.

 So YES, we need this, but I need to be very careful, cause If I commit into doing something like that, it will shadow playmaker own system and potential revenue avenues somehow, and building/maintaining such ecosystem will become a full time job, or at least a very involving part time, so I need to think about how I can turn this ecosystem into something profitable for the developer and people running it, while not making it feel like a rip from your end or cross Alex because he wanted to do this eventually.

 I think micro payment or yearly subscription are the two main ways, I don't want any adverts or things like that. So what do you think? micro payment, like 50 cents per action or something ( with your usual coupons and deals if you participate, share your own actions back etc etc), or a yearly subscription, like $10, but with unlimited access and download. I guess a combination of both possibly, with a initial trial of 50 actions, which is more than enough for many indie developers.

basically, I can't commit into such involving system without getting money, that would not be viable for me as this is my job in the end, I am a full time  freelancer doing just that: Unity and playmaker. I estimate the cost of the initial development to around $7000, which is ruffly a full time month of proper development, so I need this kind of money either up front or in the long run to make it worthwhile... you see my problem?

Doing the math, there is around 3557 members on the forum, which is likely the same number of playmaker developer with a license. So if 40% of them subscribe to this yearly, It would create a income of $14 000 per year which would largely cover for the time to spend on this, maintaining the system, making it evolve, provide outstanding custom support ( anything less would be a failure...). but I am not sure how realistic this number is, in a time where everyone expect free services and support, and where basically, they already paid for playmaker license, why should they pay for more on top. That's where a initial 50 actions for free could make it less difficult for the playmaker user to acknowledge as something useful and fine to pay for.

your thoughts on making this a viable and positive system is more than welcomed.

bye,

 Jean

[Mayhem]

A yearly subscription to constantly updating old and new Actions for like 10 Bucks? Hell, count me in!

[Mayhem]

No, jeanfabre, i think you're wrong at one point:

but I am not sure how realistic this number is, in a time where everyone expect free services and support, and where basically, they already paid for playmaker license, why should they pay for more on top.

We paid a PM-License, yeah and got all the Standard-Actions for Unity. But we can't really demand, that you and the others make all the Custom Actions for different PlugIns (NGUI, SmoothMoves, PoolManager, etc.) as fast as possible and for FREE!

I think the most PM Users are dependent on you and some other Action-Writers, so i think it is just fair to accredit your work.
We ( a small two-people team) have very small income, but we are willing to pay for good stuff: and the support here is awesome.

[Red]

If i may make a suggestion? nesting it within the Playmaker drop-down menu... is that do-able?

Also, maybe have a slot in the playmaker drop-down for third-party action pack functions so maybe being able to clean up the bar a little bit and slip the Array maker functions into that menu (seriously, i think if there is no issue with licensing that it ought to become stock with PM.)

[jeanfabre]

Hi,

@mayhen: yes, I am playing the devil advocate with myself . I need to make a survey on this site, with a poll thread to see where we are at on that matter, and what people would find acceptable for this ecosystem.

You should be aware at this point that I am actually contracted to help and provide support to playmaker members by PlayMaker. So in some way, what appears free of charge to members is actually part of PlayMaker investment in providing support, just so you know how great and serious Alex is about providing you with quality service. I spend around 2 hours per day on the forum and writing actions, then as part of my own spare time, I work on arrayMaker and other cool stuff that I still reinject in the forum and wiki as part of my own contribution, so going one more step for me is going to be a big commitment as I will then not be able to accept large projects where full time production pace is expected, and it's very difficult to say no.


@Red: yes, that would be ideal indeed, that this would be totally embedded within playmaker editor and action browser, but that would only be the case if PlayMaker does it. Else it will be a separate window. In all cases, as far as I can see where it is going it will definitely feature a special tab, because you will be able to login, submit action, rate, provide feedback, view the action you have downloaded, purchased have related links for a given action, a lot of meta data will likely revolve around a action hosted on such ecosystem, and a simple list of custom action will never be enough.

We are looking here at building the Unity asset store but for playmaker...

bye,

Jean

[Lane]

I was thinking of something much simpler like drawing a list of information from the wiki page where action packs are already hosted and downloading them from there, then saving a list of ones you have downloaded so you can import them easily from a dropdown instead of having to go find them either on your hdd or the wiki.

Then for the reviews etc, users could just login to the forum and write reviews through the wiki comments or something to that effect. Much simpler I think. The bigger idea is definitely something I thought could happen but something else that is much simpler would be sufficient for convenience.

[Red]

@Red: yes, that would be ideal indeed, that this would be totally embedded within playmaker editor and action browser, but that would only be the case if PlayMaker does it. Else it will be a separate window. In all cases, as far as I can see where it is going it will definitely feature a special tab, because you will be able to login, submit action, rate, provide feedback, view the action you have downloaded, purchased have related links for a given action, a lot of meta data will likely revolve around a action hosted on such ecosystem, and a simple list of custom action will never be enough.

We are looking here at building the Unity asset store but for playmaker...

bye,

Jean

An asset-store based system? I think that's a brilliant idea... though, I do hope that this won't have the same immidiate effect on the Playmaker community that it had on the Unity community (since when the asset-store first launched, a lot of people refused to help out like they used to because it would represent a potentially lost sale... though, it's gotten better recently but there are still some users that are a bit blunt and unhelpful.)

This is not to say that i think that an action-store should be discouraged, heavens no... i do think it would help encourage a lot of improvements and really add to the end-user experience. though, as one that's doing tutorials, if i do use one in the scene, i hope there can be a web-link that the action-store can generate so that i can at least post a link in the description of my videos so that users are at least able to purchase the same actions (though in the interests of being fair to my viewers, it'd be more for things that i just cannot do with stock playmaker... that's one of the bigger criticisms that has been leveled against one rather well-known tutorial video channel in that when the asset store went live, they were more advertising than they were helping people learn to use Unity.)

I hope that if this is done that this can be a fair profit-sharing venture... though i'm not a programmer (so this wouldn't really help me financially... just sayin') I do think that if there was a small cut of the profits that Hutong was able to take for the costs of keeping the action-store up and running, assuming it's a fair split, it'd be definitely worth it.

and further, if this monetization strategy does go forward, would it be possible to also have a "template/asset-pack" section? if we're talking all things PlayMaker, why not?

[jeanfabre]

Hi,

 I hear you. that why I think Unity makes a huge mistake by not allowing recurrent payments on the asset store. When y user pays for a license, that user will never represent a source of income anymore, this is a something that a lot of developers and start up forgets... and down the line, it becomes not viable if the system is not consitently growing to have new users everyday.

 My number one priority if I ever hit the asset store or create such system is outstanding support. I can not imagine anything running properly without this in mind. that's why I never released anything yet on the asset store... cause I know I would not be able to keep up with support. ArrayMaker would sell well, parseMaker and DataMaker would do well too, but I don't go to the asset store, even as a free asset because it means you have commit to support in a very serious way.

this playmaker store, ( I prefer "ecosystem") would become a lot of more than jsut an action repository, yes, templates, samples, utilities, tips, developer network, you name it. all this would go in one way or another.

bye,

 Jean