Amazing engine, but the free tier needs the modern update for hobbyists.

I really love Construct 3. The visual event sheet system is incredibly clean, and it is easily one of the fastest tools for prototyping 2D game concepts. However, the current limitations on the free tier make it very difficult for students, hobbyists, and young creators to learn or finish projects. I highly recommend that Scirra considers a dual-licensing model, similar to an MIT license for non-commercial use. Making the entire software 100% free for entirely non-commercial games would change everything. Specifically, they should allow unlimited events, full access to all features, free exporting to all platforms (including Windows), and completely free use of asset store items, as long as the project is not making money. Under this model, developers would only be required to pay for a professional subscription and pay the asset creators if they decide to sell or monetize their games commercially. Opening it up this way for non-commercial hobbyists would cause an explosion of new users and make Construct 3 the ultimate tool for the next generation of game developers.

That would most likely put us out of business.

I think we're unique in the industry as being one of the only independent, self-funded game development tools. We're not backed by a billion-dollar company or investors. It gives us the freedom to avoid being obliged to do things like ram unnecessary AI features into the software, but we do need to make a living and pay our bills.

Thanks for the honest perspective, Ashley. I understand the massive server and business costs of keeping Construct 3 running independently right now.As a compromise for the future, would Scirra ever consider releasing a stripped-down, 100% offline desktop version of Construct 3 under an MIT license once Construct 4 eventually comes out?By cutting out cloud saves, remote previews, and cloud build exports, it wouldn't cost Scirra a single penny in server fees. It would preserve Construct 3 forever as a legendary free tool for students and hobbyists, while your main business completely shifts to focusing on paid subscriptions for Construct 4.

It would probably still put us out of business. On the whole if people don't have to pay then they won't. If you give people a free option they can use instead of paying, then naturally a lot of people will just choose that and then we potentially lose out on a whole load of sales and then we might not be able to sustain the company.

Thanks for the honest reply, Ashley. I completely understand why protecting Construct 3's business model is your top priority. However, it is truly heartbreaking to see so many passionate young students and hobbyists priced out of game development today. Many simply cannot afford ongoing monthly subscriptions, forcing them to abandon their dreams of learning to code before they even start. Since Construct 2 is already a retired legacy product, would Scirra please consider re-releasing it under an MIT license with all features and exports fully unlocked? It wouldn't hurt Construct 3's revenue since it lacks modern web features, but it would give these struggling kids a permanent, free lifeline to create. Re-releasing it this way would preserve Scirra's incredible history while saving a generation of broke student developers who just need a chance to learn.

I’ve been using Construct since around 2008, back when Flash dominated the indie game industry. I’m happy that Scirra and Construct 3 managed to survive, and I’m currently subscribed to Construct 3.

I just hope the Construct community can grow bigger, similar to GDevelop. I know it’s hard to compete with an open-source community, but it also makes Construct harder to recommend to beginners.

I really appreciate how the Construct team continues to improve the platform with new features and updates, but I also hope they can focus more on growing the community. That’s just my opinion.

By the way, I prefer the Construct 3 interface over GDevelop’s. I mostly use Unity for external paid projects, while I use Construct for personal projects and experiments.

Construct has a time-unlimited free edition you can use as much as you like. You can do small scale experiments and learning projects within the free edition limits. The pricing is around the same as a Netflix standard plan, which I think is reasonable.

Respectfully, comparing an educational tool to a Netflix subscription completely misses the reality for a broke student. A teenager without a credit card or a steady income can’t just opt into a recurring paywall, and a heavily restricted free tier doesn't give them room to actually learn and build real projects.

Gatekeeping a retired, legacy product like Construct 2 doesn't protect Construct 3's revenue—it just alienates the next generation of creators. Forcing passionate kids out of your ecosystem means they are going to take their talents, their future success, and their loyalty straight to completely free, open-source alternatives like Godot and GDevelop. Thank you for the final answer, but it's clear the future of indie game dev belongs to platforms that actually welcome beginners.