Basically, our iPad app isn’t fast enough to be fun yet, so instead of relying on in-app purchases and keeping it free-to-play, we’re keeping the dungeon campaign free and requiring a monthly $9.99 USD subscription to access new levels in the forest and later campaigns. Sorry we weren’t able to keep it totally free! But we really appreciate your support if you become a CodeCombat subscriber to support us continuing to make an awesome programming game.
By the way, if you have already started a level, you’ll be able to keep playing that level, and each week the new five levels that get sent to the Adventurers early are unlocked for that week until general release, so if you really want to play but don’t want to pay, make sure to become and Adventurer and start those levels during the free week. Thanks for helping us balance the new levels.
I just genuinely got into the forest campaign. Oh well, when I have the cash, I’ll be back. This is by far the best way I’ve ever gotten to learn coding.
^Although, talk about bad timing on my part to check out CodeCombat again.
This part confuses me. I’ve started and completed the whole campaign and they are all locked now. Or did you mean only if you were started but not completed?
Kind of bummed. No more multiplayer trove =\ and i just bought a chest of gems too. sigh
This is realy sad.
I just started using your website to introduce my classes to coding, I saw a really bright future. For public education any cost and management of paid accounts is a roadblock. I really hope you’ll consider free accounts for educational instituations. To do it the week before the Hour of Code is upsetting.
@sotonin If you started a level, you should be able to play, regardless of whether you finished it. If it’s not letting you play, it is a bug. Can you describe more about where you are, what you see, and what doesn’t work?
Just let me know if you want a refund for your chest of gems. I realize that the higher gem purchases are a bit redundant with the subscriptions now including some gem bonus.
@Adam_Semaan I hear you there, but it wouldn’t make very much sense for us to give free accounts to schools and charge other users, since most of our users are students. We tried really hard to keep it free so that everyone could play, but in the end, having some amount of free CodeCombat is better than CodeCombat not existing. We need support in order to keep doing what we do! We’ve made sure to keep more than an hour of levels (the entire dungeon campaign) free for Hour of Code so that next week’s coding bonanza can continue uninterrupted.
unfortunately, I subscribed so i can’t show you now, but i could not play multiplayer treasure grove. When i clicked it, it would just show the subscribe screen.
Update: we’ve decided to change it up a bit such that the core level progression will remain free, and the subscriptions grant access to the extra bonus levels. Read more about it in the email we just sent out.
Hi @nick, I know the email says the full forest campaign progression is now Free to Play, but it won’t seem to let me get past Village Guard. When I click on Village Guard, it shows it as a subscriber’s level, which I’m sure is accurate but won’t progress to the next level.
Edit: Never mind? Not sure if you guys fixed it but it let me go back through the previous level and progress! Yay
Yup, Village Guard is an optional subscriber level, but I made it so that Endangered Burl unlocks Thornbush Farm, so you can skip over it. If the unlock didn’t process correctly for anyone else after the change, try going back into Endangered Burl and hitting the victory screen.
Just to say, I’m glad you decided to keep the core campaign free in the end. I help run a CoderDojo for kids, and it makes it hard to use resources that the kids would then have to pay for. Saying that I understand that this whole thing can’t work if it doesn’t generate enough income to keep it viable, but hopefully the balance can be found, good luck, and I’ll keep chipping in as I get the time.
Hi there, so excited to have found CodeCombat. I shared this with my kidlets at school today for Hour of Code and am wondering, do the free levels get you through the dungeon and the main road in the forest and then stop at Deadly Pursuit? That’s as far as I got and just want to confirm. I think a bunch of them will be asking for CodeCombat for Christmas
Good question. The free levels will keep continuing into the desert, mountain, ice, and volcano worlds, but it will take us some time to get there (we make five levels a week). As we get more of the levels done, Deadly Pursuit and the following core levels will become free, with additional side levels becoming the premium levels around that area.
Hey @j1man1r66, you should be able to get to to the dungeon, forest and desert campaigns without a subscription; it’s just the side bonus levels that require a subscription. Can you let me know which level you are trying to do where it won’t let you keep going forward?
