Chowdren: Fast Construct runtime for consoles/desktop

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  • Hi matpow2

    Congratulations on your fantastic work!

    A question: Scirra Construct Classic games are already super fast (infinitely smoother than C2 games running on NW.js/Windows). So do you have an idea on how much faster a regular Construct Classic game can become after being "Chowdrened" (still running on Microsoft Windows)? :)

    Thanks for your attention!

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  • In related news, our port of Iconoclasts (made in Construct 1) is releasing on Nintendo Switch on August 2!

    I hope we can announce some of the Construct 2 games we are working on soon as well.

    Macbee

    So I would assume yours would be doable.

  • matpow2 It's been two weeks since I replied to your email, did you receive it?

    I'm not much of a fan of the two week waiting time in-between emails, this is about the second time.

  • Macbee

    The speedup when using Chowdren with Clickteam Fusion is about 7.7x (where the standard runtimes are also written in C++). Admittedly, I don't actually have any data for this, but I would expect the speedup when using Chowdren with Construct Classic to be similar. Do you happen to have a game made for Construct Classic? :)

    InvaderXYZ

    Hey! Sorry, it looks like your mail got lost in the noise. I remember you had a very small budget for ports, and I'd like to point out that porting is a serious endeavour, requiring many work-hours and time on my part.

    I think I need to spend some time to explain, just to set reasonable expectations for smaller developers.

    If you were to do the port yourself, you can estimate a ballpark cost. In the most ideal situation, a port would take about one or two months to do. You would likely need to hire a senior engineer that has some knowledge of cross-platform development. If you look at the average salary of a senior engineer in your area, you could start approximating the budget for a port.

    I get at lot of emails a day about Chowdren, both regarding Fusion and Construct. Ideally, I would be able to respond to everyone, but usually, I need to prioritize publishers or developers that have at least considered the above.

    For developers who do not have a budget for ports, there is still the possibility of revenue share or recoup, of course. In that case, you need to have a strong case for your game, and why revenue would be able to cover the cost of porting instead.

    I do not want to discourage anyone from contacting me, since if your game is excellent, I will definitely be in touch! However, I will have infinitely more time to spend on someone who have researched what porting entails, who have already had their game approved for release on consoles, and so on.

  • matpow2 - cool thanks!

  • > In related news, our port of Iconoclasts (made in Construct 1) is releasing on Nintendo Switch on August 2!

    > I hope we can announce some of the Construct 2 games we are working on soon as well.

    Macbee

    So I would assume yours would be doable.

    Thank you! Yep, I know it's doable. I'm very curious to see how faster it could be.

    Macbee

    The speedup when using Chowdren with Clickteam Fusion is about 7.7x (where the standard runtimes are also written in C++). Admittedly, I don't actually have any data for this, but I would expect the speedup when using Chowdren with Construct Classic to be similar. Do you happen to have a game made for Construct Classic? :)

    Thanks for your reply! 7.7 is a very impressive speedup - it would be amazing if you could make tests to measure CC improvements with Chowdren someday.

    Yes, I have released a CC game called "Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio".

    I also worked on a 8-bit NES game called "Lucky Penguin" and I'm right now porting it to Windows using Scirra Construct Classic (but I can't even announce it here since Scirra blocked CC forums).

    Finally, I'm making "Skatemasta Tcheco" on C2 but I'm regretted (I should had used Construct Classic instead).

    I can't pay for ports right now - but I'm working to make it possible in a near future. =D

    As I told, Construct Classic is already very fast. My father have a prehistoric PC (that barely runs games made 15 years ago) and all my CC projects runs there at speeds very close to 60 FPS on his old FX5500 video card. My C2 game (and any other C2 game I've tested) runs on his computer with less than 10 FPS.

    My biggest consumers are from countries in development (Brazil, China and Russia) so it's crucial to me to make my games as fast as possible - since they're possibly played in older/slower computers.

    Thanks again for your attention! Wish all the best for you and your project!

  • matpow2 It's fine, though if you could respond when you see the email, that could help!

    Mostly I was contacting to see if I could compare quotes with another Switch Porting group so we could do with whichever would be of the least expense for us. But I suppose you're saying that it would cost around $108,000 to port it, yeah? I suppose that's waaay over our budget, so I don't think we'll be going with Chowdren.

    Although, I think you should clarify more of this on the initial forum post. Since there's no frame of reference for quotes or information about any of the things you pointed out, it can lead to situations like this, and could help you weed out emails.

    Thanks for taking the time to respond!

  • Macbee

    I see! I'm always fascinated by people doing their games in Construct Classic. You're a very rare breed by now, haha.

    InvaderXYZ

    I think you misunderstood! I was pointing out how you could estimate a budget if you were to do ports from scratch. Maybe your estimate would be accurate if you were doing just that, but of course, the point of Chowdren is to reduce both time & cost needed for Construct ports.

  • How long might a port using Chowdren take, assuming a close-to-average workload? (Not including publishing times on consoles, which can take 2-3 months based on personal experience)

    When should we be contacting you about this so that you have a chance of responding to our proposals? Are you only interested in completed games? Perhaps only games that have already sold well?

    I’d really like to figure out some kind of timeline for porting our game (one of the most ambitious C2 projects out there), but since I haven’t heard back from you I’m not sure if I should be looking into a joint effort, commercial license, another porting company, or just porting it myself (what I had planned on doing before finding about Chowdren, which seems like it’d save me a lot of time/effort while also making you money).

    Please advise if you can. Thank you.

  • BBaller1337

    The timeline for ports depends on our current schedule and other things. Looking through my mails, I don't think I see yours? You can send me another mail and hopefully I'll see it this time. If you didn't already, please be sure to include an introduction of yourself/your game/your current plans, just so I have some key points I can use.

  • Sorry to bump this thread, but matpow2, I emailed you over a week ago and haven't had a reply. This is potentially a paid job if you want it?

  • mikehive: Sorry for the delay! We're working on a number of different Construct 2 projects, so it's been a busy week. Replied by mail :)

    For everyone else listening, it might be a good idea to include the following in mails you send to me:

    - Breakdown of the game/your studio (link to a website is fine)

    - Potentially a demo (or even better, a .capx) I can take a look at

    - Is there a publisher involved, or is there a budget for ports?

    - Release schedule/plans

    - Potential target platforms

    I hope that wouldn't be too much work to put together! I'm aware that porting is just one of the things you might be looking into, but it will help me understand if I will have time to put your game on my schedule. Some people send me brilliant examples of the above, which makes it easy to start a discussion without too much back and forth :)

  • Good news! Chowdren now supports games created with the Construct 3 runtime.

    Some plugins do not work yet, but they should only require a small adjustment to correct for the differences between C2 and C3.

    Here's one of the C3 projects, running in Chowdren (please ignore the missing Spritefont objects):

    Video: https://streamable.com/q1rub

    We're still working exclusively with C2 games, but at least the door for C3 games is open now :)

  • matpow2 That was fast! 😮 Nice work.

  • — Thanks!

    I should also note that about 300 new ACES/etc. have been added since the last update.

    The new list can be found here: bpaste.net/show/e51bc5858af4

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