Finally after nearly 3 months of work Zwoptex 1.0 is live.
You can see the entire new website here: http://www.zwoptexapp.com/ and read the release notes here http://www.zwoptexapp.com/releasenotes.php.
With 1.0 I am announcing that Zwoptex is now a commercial product with a fully functional 7-day trial. After 7-days it will require a $24.95 purchased license key to continue using it.
I know this may not come as kind news to some of my users and I understand that. I have been struggling to find ways to continue high activity of development on Zwoptex and support myself financially so I had to go into the commercial scene. With that in mind the Flash version still does exist and will be free to use and I have no current intentions to remove it.
With anything new there may be some glitches or hiccups. Please be patient should any arise and I’ll address them as soon as I can.
-Robert
Nice! bought a license as soon as i saw this.. this tool is SOOO useful!
Thanks!
Chris.
Actually, I was expecting it to be a commercial product for a long time now. Given how frequently you made updates, how fast it was developed and how polished it became over time. What finally gave it away for me was when the new dummy-website appeared on http://www.zwoptexapp.com
So big congrats! You have a great product, a certain must-buy and a fair price (maybe a bit underpriced but maybe that’s just me).
I’m going to buy two Licenses because that’s what it’s worth for me.
I forgot, I think the 7-day trial is unexpectedly short. You might want to consider making it a 14 or even 30 day trial simply because it is much more common to try out shareware for 14-30 days.
I know that some developers might only use it to do their spritesheet work within a couple days (I know I have) but then again, if you can do it in 14 days you can as well do it in just 7 days. I think Zwoptex has no alternative so for the next project those developers will be back and paying for it.
Hi Robert, congrats on the new site – looks sleek
I already saw you replied me on Ray’s blog, but still wanted to add my 2 cents. Don’t get me wrong – developer myself long time and I know how important is to actually monetize one’s efforts. However as GamingHorror said Zwoptex does not at the time have an alternative when developing for Cocos2D – therefore when one is learning about programming with Cocos2D has no choice but to either buy Zwoptex or manage without it. And you know that one cannot learn to make games with Cocos2D in 7 days (though a great book title, lol) while he has the trial period for Zwoptex. If one finds a way to learn and manage his sprites without it, what would be the selling line for Zwoptex then?
Anyhow, I didn’t try for a long time Zwoptex, but reading the comments on your blog seems people are very happy with it – wish you tons of luck
Marin
Hey Marin,
I’ll agree there is little alternatives for sprite packing. Not just related to cocos2d but to the entire 2D game community in general. Most of them do basic packing and do not support many of the features Zwoptex does specifically trimming transparency, allowing rotation, and lastly powerful layout algorithms.
When one is learning cocos2d and either low on funds or “toying” I’d recommend using the Flash Version as it is nearly as feature complete as the desktop version though missing a few features as not to make the desktop version worthless compared to it.
I have a lot in store for Zwoptex more than just a simple sprite packer but more a general workflow tool that will make any 2D OpenGL based project much easier to work with if using Zwoptex. It’s selling point will always just be the amount of time it can save a developer/designer.
If in the end it gets killed by competition so be it but I’m going to try my best to make sure it has offerings that no other app provides.
-Robert