Different editions, income limits, is that new?

[CrayonDude]

Have been planning to buy Chipmunk Pro for a while, and today I took a look at the Chipmunk Pro info page again and noticed a lot of different editions and income limits. Did this change happen recently, or have there always been this income limit?

[slembcke]

We added them just this week and haven't had time to put out press releases and such yet. We were basically told by everybody that sells similar things that we needed to have an even cheaper version (Chipmunk Indie) for the indie that is just starting out as well as bigger established companies (Studio and Enterprise). Basically that we shouldn't be trying to lump them together because you'll both lose sales to the really small devs and you'll feel like a dupe when somebody huge like Disney or Nintendo comes along and buys a single license.

[CrayonDude]

Thanks for the information, I certainly understand the rationale behind having different editions.

There are some inconsistencies in the licensing terms between pages you probably want to correct. In the comparison chart it says "net yearly profit exceeds $100,000 USD", while on the license page it says "with a gross income of more than $100,000 USD per fiscal year". Is the limit actually on the net profit or the gross income?

In our case, being a 3-man consulting firm who plans to have a go at iOS games in the periods between regular consulting contracts we would need a Studio license before we have any income from iOS development at all. Would you consider a different model for the Chipmunk Pro edition tied to income generated by iOS apps? For example it being a valid license until your iOS apps have generated enough profit to buy a studio license?

[AndyKorth]

My apologies, CrayonDude. Gross income is correct. Thanks for pointing out that error, I'll fix it asap on the webpage.

We're not really interested in tying the income limit to specifically iOS sales.. It tends to lead you into large collections of strange rules for "Does advertising income/in-app purchases in my app count against the income limit? What about subscription stuff? What about the stuffed animals and other tie-in products I made about my game?" UDK has rules specifically stating all these things count (and they want percentage royalties). We'd rather keep things simple, since we're a small company and don't want to spend money on lawyers, and it also makes it easier for us to do cursory compliance checks.

On the plus side, the new licenses are also more clear about only needing a single license for your 3-man firm and all the games you are interested in making.

[CrayonDude]

One more question if you don't mind; on the comparison chart the "Chipmunk" edition looks like it has an income limit, while the license page/source code/documentation says the C-library is distributed under the MIT license. Which is the correct one?

[slembcke]

Oh, yes that is another typo. It should have no income limit (like with the logo requirement). Thanks for pointing that out.

[aashish]

Hi slembcke -
>>It should have no income limit (like with the logo requirement).

To confirm what you are referring to is -
Chipmunk C (MIT license) should have no income requirement restrictions.

Thanks

[slembcke]

It should have not have an income limit. The page is fixed now.