Aurora 2 Release Cancelled

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   Due to poor sales during the preorder period, the final release of Aurora 2 has been cancelled.  Refunds have been issued to those who purchased Aurora during the preorder.

Aurora was never going to be a huge money maker.  It is that fact which kept Aurora 2 development as a side project instead of a full time effort.   Still, the final sales and download numbers were far less than expectations.  This is partially a consequence of the amount of time it took to develop Aurora.  During that time most of our customers "jumped ship" to other software products.  Once a change in software has been made, making the change back requires considerable effort to break that inertia.  In other words, Aurora 2 needed "wow" factor.

That said, Aurora 2 was never positioned to be the "wow" product.  Aurora 1, developed in 2006-2008 and released in September 2008 (over 5 years old now), was greatly showing its age and becoming difficult to support and maintain.  The goal behind Aurora 2 was to bring DMX/E1.31 and the render backend to users today while keeping the editor using the classic paradigm (which covers the needs of over half of our users).  A secondary goal was to raise funding for the development of Aurora 3 (since the unexpectedly long Aurora 1 release cycle left very little revenue to support continued development).  These Aurora 2 features would continue forward mostly unchanged into Aurora 3.  After the release of Aurora 2, we were to continue developing the new advanced editor using a new paradigm to ease sequencing in the tens of thousands of channels now supported by the render engine (patterns, hierarchies, export to standalone hardware, etc.) .  The Aurora 3 release was expected in the mid-2016 time frame.

The feedback on Aurora 2 that I have received has been consistent.  Those who could use the classic editing paradigm of Aurora 2 have mostly moved on to other software.  Those still looking at Aurora are wanting the advanced features of Aurora 3 instead of what Aurora 2 delivers.  

I can not justify the number of hours spent away from family (400-600 hours of development remain, immediately followed by several months of new release support, marketing [including travel], etc.) when the sales projections are as low as these are. 

The plan from here forward is to complete a single bug fix update to Aurora 2 (Aurora 2 Beta 2) which will address some of the major editor bugs identified in the Beta 1 release.  Any features not yet complete (e.g. the new visualizer) will not be included.  This will be the final release of the Aurora 1 and Aurora 2 software.  I will also take a few months away to pursue other projects, after which I will evaluate whether to resume development with Aurora 3.

The bright side of this is that if I do decide to develop Aurora 3, then the release could happen 6 months to a year ahead of the original schedule.

Sorry about the bad news,

Michael Miller

--

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LightsOnLogan Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 11 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3187	Quote Reply Topic: Aurora 2 Release Cancelled Posted: 14 Jan 2014 at 4:11pm
	Due to poor sales during the preorder period, the final release of Aurora 2 has been cancelled. Refunds have been issued to those who purchased Aurora during the preorder. Aurora was never going to be a huge money maker. It is that fact which kept Aurora 2 development as a side project instead of a full time effort. Still, the final sales and download numbers were far less than expectations. This is partially a consequence of the amount of time it took to develop Aurora. During that time most of our customers "jumped ship" to other software products. Once a change in software has been made, making the change back requires considerable effort to break that inertia. In other words, Aurora 2 needed "wow" factor. That said, Aurora 2 was never positioned to be the "wow" product. Aurora 1, developed in 2006-2008 and released in September 2008 (over 5 years old now), was greatly showing its age and becoming difficult to support and maintain. The goal behind Aurora 2 was to bring DMX/E1.31 and the render backend to users today while keeping the editor using the classic paradigm (which covers the needs of over half of our users). A secondary goal was to raise funding for the development of Aurora 3 (since the unexpectedly long Aurora 1 release cycle left very little revenue to support continued development). These Aurora 2 features would continue forward mostly unchanged into Aurora 3. After the release of Aurora 2, we were to continue developing the new advanced editor using a new paradigm to ease sequencing in the tens of thousands of channels now supported by the render engine (patterns, hierarchies, export to standalone hardware, etc.) . The Aurora 3 release was expected in the mid-2016 time frame. The feedback on Aurora 2 that I have received has been consistent. Those who could use the classic editing paradigm of Aurora 2 have mostly moved on to other software. Those still looking at Aurora are wanting the advanced features of Aurora 3 instead of what Aurora 2 delivers. I can not justify the number of hours spent away from family (400-600 hours of development remain, immediately followed by several months of new release support, marketing [including travel], etc.) when the sales projections are as low as these are. The plan from here forward is to complete a single bug fix update to Aurora 2 (Aurora 2 Beta 2) which will address some of the major editor bugs identified in the Beta 1 release. Any features not yet complete (e.g. the new visualizer) will not be included. This will be the final release of the Aurora 1 and Aurora 2 software. I will also take a few months away to pursue other projects, after which I will evaluate whether to resume development with Aurora 3. The bright side of this is that if I do decide to develop Aurora 3, then the release could happen 6 months to a year ahead of the original schedule. Sorry about the bad news, Michael Miller --


BigDPS Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Beta Testers Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 471	Quote Reply Posted: 18 Jan 2014 at 10:29am
	Well this is what I think: On behalf of all of those who have tried and stayed for the Aurora development during all these years, thank you for having lasted that long. Sure the problem was not problematic at best, however, with what was available back in the days, Aurora was the cheapest and yet the easiest to run piece of software. I am disappointed that the interest in part 2 was not as high but like you mentioned, the length of time we spent in part 1, many had in fact jumped ship and tried something else. Why did I stay (and will stay ) as long as I did? I liked the GUI of Aurora and hated the fact that I would have had to learn new software to run my shows. I already have very little time for myself so learning curves are not possible for me. The fact that you will fix bugs on the part 2, I will continue using Aurora for as long as I can. I don't have the money to try pixie lights and this or that. Bad enough I plunged in DMX with headaches nonstop until we found out it was due to a bad firmware, I don't want to go down the same road again. Enough sleepless nights. Again, I want to thank you Michael, for giving us a good software and am truly sorry not enough people stayed on board and help advance Aurora to the next level. I will keep following this site in hopes that part 3 beta 1 comes out one day. Until then, do spend a few months with your family so that you can start fresh and bring us something that will please every light display enthusiasts with the CLAP syndrome out there. BigDPS (Christmas Light Addiction Problem)