Furry Ball render engine now offers a F2P style credit system. First of its kind?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

I just came across this link at CGTalk
http://furryball.aaa-studio.eu/news/furryballRt13AndCredits.html

And apparently, this is the first time that I’ve seen where the developer of a render engine creates a system that is more akin to F2P mobile games than production software.

Basically, you start by having 30 credits, and for the first 30 hours of usage you can do things such as make images or animation with no watermark for commercial use. If you use them up, you can either buy more credits or wait a month for 50 new credits (so yes, it even has something akin to a timer).

I do wonder though, if this ends up being successful, will we start seeing things like IAP and mystery boxes as well (such as being able to unlock a feature not purchased yet for use in one file)? In a sense, you end up having the production equivalent of Candy Crush, Angry Birds, and the other big mobile games (they might even call it Free2Use since you don’t actually ‘play’ them).

Don’t get me wrong, this type of thing if done right could be a good deal for a lot of people, but like the cloud stuff it’s not always the case.

So is it a good idea or is it rather an ominous glimpse of one possible future for production apps.?

2

“Students and hobbyist have time, but NO money. So, when you will cooperate with us and you will be active, you can receive free Credit every month.When you are a busy freelancer or studio, you will need use FurryBall more than 50 hours per month.”

Also getting credit by sharing tutorials and blogs.

What a smart way, to get more user base, also people will render less and produce more quality stuff, render smartly.