Why doesn't Spine Ess have the features that even Trial has?

rwyn

Essentials is almost useless and you know it too. You are basically forcing people to buy the way more expensive version of Spine. While I believe it's an amazing product and a must have if you work with 2D enviroment, why Spine Essentials is useless and it's basically exists to steal users' money? Capitalism at its best, can we say?

Spinebot

Spine Essential is designed to be a more affordable option for users who do not need the advanced features available in Spine Professional. While it lacks certain features like meshes, constraints, and audio, it still provides a robust set of tools for basic 2D animation. The trial version allows users to explore all features but does not allow saving, which is intended to let users evaluate the software before purchasing. The Essential version is not intended to be useless but rather to offer a cost-effective solution for those who do not require the full feature set of the Professional version. Users can upgrade to Professional at any time by paying the difference in cost.

Nate

The Spine Trial has all features (except saving). If Spine Essential also had all features, it would be the same as Spine Professional.

Spine Essential is a low cost version that has limited features. It is far from "useless". The difference between developing a game without using Spine Essential and doing so using it is huge. It lacks advanced features in Spine Professional but it provides the basics and that can be useful for many things.

We suggest learning the basics first anyway. Many get bogged down with advanced features before learning the basics. Misapplying the advanced features makes a huge mess of your projects. You can upgrade to Professional for the difference in price any time in the future, so money spent on Essential is not lose, and certainly not "stolen".

This is all done with Spine Essential:
http://esotericsoftware.com/files/Gamasutra-Carlos-Cavalcante-Tips-to-create-funny-and-juicy-character-animations-with-Spine-basics/

Spine Essential also provides a lower cost way to use the Spine Runtimes. Licensing Spine grants rights to use the Spine Runtimes. Sometimes people will obtain Spine exports from others and want to use the Spine Runtimes. They can purchase Spine Essential to do so, even if their Spine exports use Professional features.

We believe in the value Spine provides, including our top notch support. You are getting answer from the owner of the company 2 hours after you post. Also consider that we do not charge for updates. You get ALL future updates for free, for life, without needing to pay again. We do a LOT of updates:
http://esotericsoftware.com/spine-changelog/archive

If you don't believe Spine provides enough value to warrant its price, feel free to consider alternatives (none of which are very good). Also consider how much of your time it would take to develop something similar (a lot of time), and how much your time is worth.

Please note that this forum is a friendly place. You won't be rude here again.

rwyn

Firstly, there is nothing "rude" here <long rant removed>

Nate

Calling us thieves is both rude and ridiculous. We are open to constructive criticism but you won't make our forums unpleasant. If you wanted to have a conversation in good faith, I would be happy to do that. Since you don't, we won't. Feel free to try again later.

I answered your rudely asked question above. Most people want Spine Professional for the advanced features, but Spine Essential is not useless and makes sense for some.

I don't see how you think our approach "feels just like Adobe years ago". We provide first class support, we are responsive and listen to users, you get all future updates without subscription nonsense. We are pretty much the opposite of Adobe in every way.

I understand you don't like what you feel is a high price for the value Spine provides (and continues to provide via many updates over a decade and counting). I respectfully disagree. We charge what we feel is a fair amount for our considerable and continued efforts and the value we feel it provides.