SpriteBuilder introduces subscription system

Apportable, the San Francisco-based start-up behind SpriteBuilder, has announced a new subscription system for the games development suite.

SpriteBuilder is built around Objective-C and Xcode, enabling developers to quickly create titles for both iOS and Android, with new features and plug-ins that introduce support for the upcoming Swift programming language. 

The suite will be made available via a subscription model that splits into three tiers. 

SpriteBuilder Professional is aimed at developers who require advanced tools – such as a Profiler, System Trace, Continuous Integration and a BridgeKit Generator – and will be priced at $299 per month. For $99 per month, devs can sign up to SpriteBuilder Indie, which offers custome splash screens, Component Store access and support for monetisation, ads and social networks.

Finally, SpriteBuilder Community is available for free to any user, which enables games to be ported to Android with a limited feature set and a SpriteBuilder splash screen.

Apportable is offering half-price subscriptions to the Indie level for the first year to any developers that sign up during GDC, bringing the monthly fee down to $49. The tech will be demonstrated at the firm’s booth – No.1218 – at the GDC Expo.

"We wanted a business model that would make the most sense to our open-source community, which varies greatly in team size and project scope," said Apportable CEO and co-founder Colin Jackson. "We reached out to our most active SpriteBuilder developers for feedback on the pricing model, and they were very supportive of the three-tiered approach."

For more GDC 2015 news, head to www.develop-online.net/gdc