MonoTouch Student Licenses – Libgdx on iOS for cheapers

Posted by Mario, on October 12, 2012, 9:40 pm, under iOS, libgdx.

I just found out that students enrolled at accredited universities can get a student discount for a MonoTouch Pro license. You’ll only have to pay 79$!

Get one, the price point is really really low. For comparison, a Unity license for iOS is 400$ per platform, Corona is 199$, Marmelade is 149$ per platform, etc. That makes libgdx by far the cheapest (free for desktop, Android, browser, 79$ for MonoTouch on iOS) of the managed solutions. C++ frameworks like Cocos2D-x or Gameplay SDK are of course without any kind of cost. They don’t work in the browser though. So pick your poison.

Note that you’ll also need an Apple developer account, which is 99$/y. You’ll need that for any option if you want to publish on the App Store.

Also note that you don’t have to get MonoTouch to test your app in the simulator.

We’ll try to get iOS support into gdx-setup-ui and our build asap so you can start playing around with it. It’s still a little rough around the edges, but we got a lot of games running already.

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  • semtiko

    Fuck, why i’m not a student )))

  • Fisherman

    Am I reading this right? Apple developer account for 99$ per year? wtf? NO WAY Im gonna stick to Android like forever with only 25$ once for lifetime

  • semtiko

    Fisherman, 99$ – it’s not a money for big platform. If you make cool games, you can earn more money from iOS. And iOS-devices is not fragmented. Very long story, just believe: 99$ – it’s normal )

  • http://www.chrismweb.com ChrisM

    Yeah, Android is “fragmented” – with the several different screen sizes…. terrible – you have to scale stuff… hey, heard of the various ipads and iphones options that they are now starting to get? “gasp” fragmentation. ;)

    Great job Mario and the team!

    I would only ever deploy to iOS if I had a proven popular game on Android- it would be stupid not too (looking at you tiny wings, halfbrick studio, ect). Someone will just copy your game concept, provide it for that platform, and make the money you would have been making (fruit slice).

    But it’s great that LIBGDX can now deploy to iOS directly! Means if I do have something popular, I won’t have to start coding from scratch.

    So now what platform won’t LibGDX compile to? Dos, and openBSD? ;)

  • AngelusWeb

    I know you’re joking, ChrisM, but I wouldn’t even joke that LibGDX can port to a “ridiculous” number of platforms. It still doesn’t port to any mainstream handheld/consoles, nor does it port to Blackberry or Microsoft’s latest foray into the Mobile world.

    I wish the market would totally kill off Microsoft/Blackberry at least in the mobile realm, but the fact is that countless people buy those devices. And each one of them is taken out of our market (Android/iOS).

    Microsoft seems really serious about this Surface tablet thing. I hope it flops, but I’m afraid they’ll probably squeeze out 10% of the market or something, and those people will all be unreachable as it stands now.

  • Fisherman

    I guess you are right guys but for an indie developer who has 2-3 apps on the store do you think its worth the risk porting them to iOS? well it depends on how good the app is but again i dont know…

  • Dave H

    I know this is a stupid question, but can someone explain to me what the relationship is with monotouch Pro and LibGDX in terms of deploying games in the iOS platform? It sounds like monotouch is required, but looking through the link I guess I still don’t see *why*.

  • semtiko

    Dave H, i think your question have a very “deep” answer to discuss here. Quick – you can’t simply run you app on the iOS platform, if you use not Objective-C/C/C++ language, because this is native languages for iOS, like Java/C/C++ for Android. Just read what is MonoTouch in the web. libgdx – it’s framework, MonoTouch – it’s not framework ) This is “layer” between iOS and you app writen in C#. And here you have new question – “wtf, i don’t write my app in C#, i don’t wanna buy this tool”, but here you need more information about IKVM and more tools…. again – bad place for discussion ))

    Fisherman, 2 very big differences between AppStore and Google Play:
    1) Peoples with iOS-devices accustomed to minimum 0.99$ per app. Free-app on iOS – very rare and often it’s just a trial or promotion version with in-app purchase. Very few people used jailbreak.
    2) Quality and moderation. You can’t publish shity application with just one troll-face and be on the “TOP 10 – Trending Apps” on the home page of market. Google Play looks like big trash heap and falls, because quality of apps – only on the homepage, because Google push-up very very big names like GameLoft, Disney, Chillingo and other shity corps., who don’t worry about compability. … Again – bad place for discussion ))

    Just believe – if you have a GOOD apps/games – iOS is necessary, AND Android too.

    Sorry for long comment and my super-perfect english.

  • http://www.jemchicomac.com jemchicomac

    Hi all,

    would be feasible and worthy reaching PSM (Play Station Mobile, http://www.playstation.com/psm/index_e.html) in a similar way libgdx now does in iOS?

    PSM allows you to reach PSVita (as well as other Android devices, but here there is no point if you can reach Android natively)SDK is based in Mono and has a built-in engine (http://www.playstation.com/psm/developer/openbeta/index_e.html)that I believe easily can be wrapped and create a similar chain JAva->IKVM->Mono again these wrapping libraries.

    From a business point of view, we indie developers can benefit from Sony marketing efforts and PSVita audience (that I do not know if will be very much but at the end people familiar with higher pricetags purchasing games…)

    Makes sense????

  • http://badlogicgames.com Mario

    I guess PSM could be feasible, however, i do not own a device to test on nor do i have the money to buy one. Also, i currently have to focus on iOS and can’t start yet another backend. However, i’d be willing to mentor anyone who wants to give that a try.

  • Dave H

    @semtiko

    I think I understand you, thanks for taking the time to answer :)

  • mingming

    I am no longer a student. >_<

  • http://badlogicgames.com Mario

    Turns out PSM is not feasible. The SDK doesn’t allow native code, just C# code. We could kinda work around that, with a lot of pain in the butt. But then there’s a second issue: no OpenGL ES, even though their Graphics API is modelled like an OO version of GLES 2.0. Sorry, not Vita.

  • Silverwolf

    Yes the student version is not that expensive and to be honest even the full price is ok if you are more than a casual developer. I have spent quite a lot so far and as my first game is not out yet have made zero, so I shall delay getting Mono touch till I make some money.

    Good work on it all and looking forward to trying it out eventually.

  • feelingtheblanks

    Unity offers student discount anyway but it’s like equal to MonoTouch’s pro license :D

  • http://www.jemchicomac.com jemchicomac

    Mario, thanks a lot for the answer on PSM.

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