Prime31 Plugins... The Good and the Bad

Prime31 makes some killer plugins -- I've purchased a handful over the years ranging from the Game Center suite to a few ad networks -- and with the exception of a few hiccups they work quite well. The Game Center and Game Center Multiplayer plugins are drag and drop. The iCloud plugin is an absolute breeze, and easily the best out there. But wow, has anyone else had an absolute nightmare of a time dealing with their support?

Their responses are just rude beyond belief. People had warned about this all over forums, but it's hard to conceptualize how off-putting it can be until you have seen it first hand. I don't know if they are making a conscious choice to be so abrasive or if they genuinely don't know how to express themselves politely in written form, but I personally find it extremely unpleasant and unfair to be treated like that by a company to which I am providing business. Not big money, but not small money either. With just the smallest bit of effort, or perhaps even just a conscious choice to not be overtly rude, they could make things a whole lot more pleasant for their fellow developers.

Again, this is a total love/hate relationship because the plugins for the most part work well. I realize it's a stretch to pass on a functional product just because their support team is unpleasant, but the way they conduct themselves publicly reflects poorly on their company as a whole. For me, that is enough to justify going another route when a quality competitor exists.

I'm sure there are plenty who disagree, but I felt compelled to voice my opinion after extensive personal experience with Prime 31's plugins and support. Take it for what it's worth .

Prime-- you guys are technical gods, but I wish you would treat your customers with more respect.

 

i agree wholeheartedly with you. I've moved on from Prime31 in areas where a better alternative exists. Neatplug's Facebook plugin saves TONS of dev time for things that are built in. I still use Storekit from Prime, but the last iCloud I used was totally broken and I gave on up that one too. Do check out Neatplug for Facebook definitely. Support is also TOP notch.

 

The overall problem with Primes is that they don't really use Unity for anything thus is hard to them to really understand what we really need...

 

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this. Firstly I have to say I couldn't have done what I've done with unity to make money if it wasn't for the Prime31 plugins. Without them I would have needed to get my hands dirty with native on all 3 platforms I target. I personally have bought loads of them but there is a big BUT!

The but is I really wish I didn't have to use them as they cause me grief every time I update one of them in a project. I too replace them as soon as an alternative exists. My biggest gripes are the very off hand bordering on rude curt responses you get when you ask a question, I wouldn't mind if I were a moron but when the documentation is as extensive as a function declaration and a one line comment for most of the function calls giving you no idea how to use them in anger. The Facebook one is my pet worst, how the heck you are supposed to use it, call what in what order etc. is a mystery.

All that said, if all you have is a game all in one scene then just dropping in the prefabs does normally do the job. As soon as you try and use multi platform plugins all in the same project with multiple listeners needed, your code soon fills up with a ton of #if's

A message to Prime31, I know us customers at times must really look and behave like morons but we pay your bills so no matter how bad we are, you must rise way above us and remember the customer is always right, even when they are not.

 

Mr.Arkon I hope you either have, or go ahead and buy the Neatplug Facebook plugin. Sooooo much better and the support is great. Plus it removes the need for a lot of code and just does it automatically!

 

I didn't want to name any other plugins in my post because I didn't want it to come off as a smear campaign, but since you guys dropped a few names...I can't recommend Unibill highly enough for all things in app purchase. It's constantly expanding, and the developer responds to support requests instantly. Nice guy, great plugin

Curious what you mean by this. Aren't all of their plugins designed for Unity? Or do you mean that they don't publish apps themselves, so they don't have a good sense of the full pipeline?

 

Very informative post. I will look at the alternatives when I am need of these types of assets.

The support is just as important as the product in my opinion.

 

Yes I think he means this. I now have 6 games live on 3 platforms and am forever needing to issue updates to keep players interested, add features etc. Problem is each time I do this say 3 months have passed since I last released it so I use the opportunity to update the plugins as they have always or nearly always undergone changes for different Xcode version, ios versions etc. I've lost count of the number of times when updating a Prime plugin, unity now crashes in a way that trashes my project. Leaving me no choice but to copy a backup back live. I've now taken to backing up prior to any plugin update. To this day I don't know the cause and am too scared to ask the author.

 

Oh Yeah, We've had to do plenty of searching to figure out how to implement the Prime31 inApp Plugin for android. When we asked questions we were told to refer to the documentation at google. Huh? The reason we purchased the plugin was because we have no clue what that stuff means and we didn't want to have to search all over the web to make it work. More in-depth tutorials and better customer service would go a long way. Hopefully other plugin developers are taking notes and are ready to offer a better experience to their customers.

 

I hear you. In Prime's defense Apple and Google do often make changes that require significant behind the scenes tweaking, but there is no need for these issues to manifest themselves so frequently in the front end of Prime's plugins.

I hope you have moved on to Unibill by now!

Prime absolutely *loves* deflecting to the platform. If you need help, refer to the platform's documentation. If the plugin doesn't work, it's a problem with the platform and there is nothing Prime can do about it. That is, of course, until they magically fix it two weeks later.

 

Checked out Unibill and it looks great. Also the forums seem helpful.

 

Same problem here. I do not really like the way Prime31 treat us.
I bought U3DXT plugin (http://u3dxt.com/) when it was only 12$ and I'm REALLY happy, lower price and far better treatment.

 

I bought Prime31 Charboost plugin in past and I could not get it to work. I asked Prime, they say it;s Charboost problem, I ask charboost, they say it's Prime. Screw them both.

Unibill, Unishare, and Neatplug, go go go.

 

I never had a problem with prime31 plugins they have always worked great. usually he will get back to you on the same day, I am looking back at my emails and I dont see any "rude response", so I wonder if you could post one that you consider to be "rude".

 

I'll bite. Not necessarily rude, but usually not helpful. Anything more than a simple setup problem and you're told to "consult the Facebook API online". Of course that's a ridiculously complex mess and you can't help but feel alone and left to fend for yourself. In which case, why wouldn't I buy an equivalent product from Neatplug instead? They actually explain how to do things on Facebook to us, over the course of several emails. Plus the fact that much less code is required with Neatplug. It's a no brainer for the Facebook one anyway.

 

I agree with Jerotas, I usually get an answer within 24 hours which is great BUT, I don't appreciate the replies that pass the buck, or the oh so annoying 'You can check the demo scene for a fully working example', Or 'I suggest you read up on.........'

 

Our team uses a ton of Prime31 plugins (indeed, I think that by now we have the majority of them) - they have answered all of our questions, and yes, we did get the "look at the demo scene" reply sometimes, but so what? The demo scene DID contain everything I needed and the rest was written about on their site. The rest, which may indeed be about bugs/changes to the way iOS works, etc was indeed answered. I think this thread just consists of lazy people that can't be bothered to read the manual and then blame poor prime for their laziness. shame on everyone above who is like this

 

No, its the assumption that I haven't examined the demo scene, or haven't read the very sparse docs, Or that I don't know how some facet of c# to the skill level of a Mekhon that annoys me. I too have most of the plugins and use them in anger. As such a good customer I personally expect a more helpful reply when I have a problem.

 

Your story is about how you emailed support without having consulted the demo scene, and somehow that anecdote is evidence of how "lazy" and "shameful" we are? I'm genuinely glad that you have found the solutions to your problems in the demo scenes, but there are many advanced applications of, and bugs within, the plugins that transcend the demos. I think I speak for everyone in this thread when I say that those are the instances about which we have complaints.

Our collective issue is that, even after having consulted the docs and the demo scene, we are treated like morons and given dismissive, unhelpful responses. Checking the docs and demo are obviously step 1 in any support case, and one of our gripes is that Prime offers disdainful responses like "check the docs" even when the nature of our question makes it clear that we already have. It's transparently dismissive.

 

This is the first page on Google when doing "neatplug vs prime31"...

I want to get a Flurry plugin, and Neatplug's "welcome guide" seems a bit more... ahm.... welcoming.
As far as I can see here, I understand that people have good experience with Neatplug, right?

 

I for one am. There's no going back for me.

 

same here. neatplug works great.

 

Excellent, thanks guys. I guess good customer service pays off...

 

I'll add my experience to that. I'm considering a couple of plugins for mobile MTX and needed some answers quick. Even on Black Friday I got exactly what I needed and very quickly. NeatPlug CS is incredible.

Now we'll see how their plugins are...

 

They're awesome so far. I even get an email when a new version comes out. I don't have to check!

 

I asked questions three times on their forums about problems that I was having with their Storekit. Problems that only occurred with their plugin. and each time they either gave me a snarky answer or deleted my question because they were not DIRECTLY about prime31. Seems that if your question is RELATED to something outside of the plugin they will shoot you down. like calling a function in another class that works everyplace else EXCEPT in their plugin. Hell. Everything in software is connected or related to everything else. They are right down nasty!

 

@TokyoDan, for the record your question was about NGUI which is not one of our products. In addition, you sent an email to us with horribly misogynist and completely inappropriate comments (all in caps for emphasis nonetheless) that I won't even consider repeating in public. If you ask a question about our products then you will receive an answer in a timely fashion. If you ask a question about products that are not ours you will be directed elsewhere.

 

Software works together. Sometimes well and sometimes not so well. If I do something with NGUI or any other library that only has a problem when I use it in connection or relation to your software, that means a few things: 1. The problem could be with your software. 2.The problem could be with the other 3rd party software, Or 3. I could be using your software wrong. I expect support in all three cases until we can prove the problem is with the other party's software.

Just because I mentioned NGUI gave you the excuse to immediately slough it off as not your problem without even minuscule help. That is very cold.

I used to work in systems integration and anytime there was a problem things started with lots of finger pointing that it's the other party's problem. But the only way those problems ever got solved was by all parties working together. And the cause was usually bugs or design issues with the equipment/software of all the parties.

Yes I got out of hand and really bitchy but that was after going through the normal route only to have all my questions on your support page deleted, or in the best case, just an answer that it's not your problem. Then on this thread the very 1st post wrote that that is your usual mode of operation. And I really got upset.

Anyway Mike, event though I paid for three of your plugins and you won't refund my money, I will probably go with these guys. Just reading their posts I can see that they care about their customers a whole hell of lot more than you do:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/18...n-accessing-the-entire-iOS-SDK-API-from-Unity

 

The big deal here is that people is NOT understanding what a plugin is, or what they should expect from a plugin. I'm just seeing here a bunch of lazy people who want everything done just because they paid 50$, wow!!!, what a price, this dammit prime should come to my place and prepare my lunch for that amount of money.... (end of sarcasm)

A plugin is just a bunch of calls to native functions, JUST THAT, I don't see a reason why prime should explain to you all the functions, you have the official docs for that (apple's gamecenter docs, etc, etc)

Now in another note, most of the complaints are related to facebook, and this is a plugin NOT a facebook extension, anything you want to do with facebook is part of a graph call, so you need to read facebook api to understand what to call and how to call it. The plugin only provides you the call, you need to know the parameters, and I don't see a reason why prime should tell you the parameters... It's time consuming and it's NOT part of the plugin itself.

 

@Eskema So you're saying we should expect no support at all. And asking for a bit of help makes us lazy programmers?

 

There's a difference between support because a function doesn't work, and another story is to ask questions like "I don't know XXXX", or "I don't know how to set up this", the included demo scenes are more than helpful.

 

Totally, absolutely, and definitely agree with this.

 

@Tokyo, by your logic any and all code that you add to any script that doesn't work is now the plugins fault and I need to fix it for you. Your issue was clearly stated by the compiler error as a missing class reference for an NGUI class. I can assure you the plugin code has no magical powers and cannot alter any other code in your project and it most certainly won't delete files or import statements.

 

Nope. As was said earlier, the Facebook API docs are monolithic. It's very confusing to just go read how to do certain things. Inevitably you have to read dozens of different pages to figure out how to do things. Prime has put short to-do steps for his plugins, which is good. Although he needs a bunch more for other scenarios that he did add handlers for, and simply won't tell you how to actually use.

Neatplug on the other hand, through several emails told me how to use everything. I would rather deal with them on this point.

I have no problem with StoreKit from Prime. I still use that one, it's pretty good.

 

@Eskema Well my questions have been the why isn't this working type.

 

When I first started with Unity, I bought a couple of Prime31's plugins. As I was new I was struggling to get them working, I asked for support and was direct to their online help and the facebook api, which I'd already looked at and didn't understand. I didn't find it very helpful but put it down to my noobness.

I think Prime31 expect a certain amount of knowledge from their customers I couldn't recommend them for ease of use, I don't use the plugins as I found other alternatives that have, in my opinion better support it seems I'm not the only one to have this experience.

 

@derkoi Thanks. I'd like to hear what alternatives you used, especially for Storekit and GameCenter iOS plugins.

 

I'm not sure if this sounds like a stupid question, but why do you need a plugin for GameCenter? We use the built-in Unity Social namespace commands for leaderboards and achievements, and have done so for 1.5 years...

 

The issue ToykoDan posted on these forums was simple to answer, it wasn't a bug in Prime31 code by any means but the nature of the Prime31 implementation was a factor in the issue (trying to use a class in a non plugins folder from a class in a plugins folder).

I understand you have a business to run and you can't be spending hours solving every edge case, but maybe a few lines indicating what the problem is would have been nice. That can be done without knowledge of either product.

Then again maybe this is about some other issue in which case ignore me.

 

I use U3DXT now for iOS before that I used this for Gamecenter

Android Native for Android

 

Again, why do you need to use a plugin for GameCenter?

 

@Prime31 You explained why I was having a problem better here than you did in your email of why you deleted my question from your support site. In your email you basically wrote that it's not your problem and go ask NGUI. And by your logic just because I have a problem using something else (NGUI) with a Prime31 plugin then I should not ask you for any help and should go directly to NGUI. Then if NGUI uses your same logic, they'll say "Oh! You're using a Prime31 plugin so it's not our problem. Go ask Prime31."

And I never said it was your fault. I was just asking for a bit of help. I only said my problem happens when I try to do something with NGUI while using Storekit, only. I didn't say the Prime31 plugin was bad, dammit! I could have been doing it wrong. And I left room for the interpretation that I could have been using your plugin wrong. And if that was the case you could have been considerate enough to point that out to me. But no. You just gave me: Not our problem! Look somewhere else.

 

Because for some reason that I cannot remember the Unity built in one didn't work properly. I can't of been the only person to experience this or else no one would bother to make Game Center plugins?

 

It always worked fine for me. People bothered to make plugins for Game Center originally because the Unity API one didn't exist yet. Prime made his before that. Why does it still exist? Beats me. Maybe for people who don't know that Unity has an API?

 

Well I tried it it didn't work but I was new(er) then. I read something somewhere to the effect that it was buggy so I found something that worked and went with it. I bought a plugin that worked with Playmaker, so that probably swayed me.

 

ok cool.

 

@jerotas Yes. One reason I was using plugins was because I didn't know about the "built-in Unity Social namespace". I'll have to go back and reread the Unity docs. Thanks for letting me know about that.

 

Right on. I hope they aren't buggy anymore...I'm sure it's fine, that was a long time ago.

 

@Jonny A Your assumption about my issue is exactly right. Thanks for understanding.

 

@derkoi Thanks again. I bought U3DXT last night.