Construct 2 limitations vs. plain old coding

So I used C2 for a while about a year ago. However, I found it a bit limiting compared to just programming (duh). But it sure was faster.

I'm just looking to see if some of that has been cleared up or made easier. Are their proper loops now for example?

Also, while trying to implement some more complex things my code blocks quickly got huuuuge and a bit out of hand to easily change things or find my way around. Is there a way to prevent that?

To recap:

Are their loops yet? Can someone who has made a complete game comment on how the "code" ends up by the time you have lots of logic going on? I ran into some things that I had to do quite "janky" work arounds for, is there any way to edit the "raw" code or something if needed?

Loops have existed for a long time, along with much more advanced features. You can 'edit the raw code' with third party plugins if you want.

No, there is no way to edit the "raw" code produced by construct 2. You're welcome to try - you can skip minifying and the output is open - but I don't think it's understandable, or even if it is, it's not worth the effort. The way to work around those limitations, since you know javascript, is to learn the API and write custom plugins - they work great for the majority of the cases, even if it takes some thinking.

Yes, there are loops - while loops, for loops, foreach loops, ordered loops, it's all there.

There are also functions now, albeit a bit primitive since they aren't first class citizens, and they don't really know what scope is.

It is possible to organize your code, and I personally am always trying to steer scirra towards improving the event system to make things more manageable (I think this is way more important than cocoonjs/awesomium/windows 8/etc, but they have to make money), and it's not like they're slacking - the newest additions are containers and functions, and they work well enough (though they could be improved a lot).

Overall, however, writing raw javascript code will always give you more power, but remember you'd be writing a whole new engine, complete with collision detection, object picking, memory management, drawing, loading...

Writing plugins may be more work than cramming a solution inside your own engine, but it's not that much work, the cost of writing an engine is gigantic, and the end result if you do write a construct plugin is an extremely modular piece of code that can be shared with the community and reused in other projects.

I used to think it was a bother writing custom plugins for every little thing, but now I honestly think it's worth it.

I used a test automation tool for a couple of years called HP Mercury QTP. It basically allowed you to swap between action view (ie events), and Vb script. The action view was great for newbs, and once you were comfortable with the tool you could switch to traditional coding. If the same principle could be applied to C2 that would be such a dream come true ??

It would also be a great bridge to programming for non coders as well.

A program like C2 can never be as good as pure programming skills. C2 is a tool for creating little games, not triple A titles. So far there are only little "mini games" made with C2 out there. No games, which you could sell for 30$ or more.

A program like C2 can never be as good as pure programming skills. C2 is a tool for creating little games, not triple A titles. So far there are only little "mini games" made with C2 out there. No games, which you could sell for 30$ or more.

Well, there isn't a triple A released "yet".

To view it only as "little games making" though is passing by a lot of the true potential of the software. There hasn't been a "killer app" out yet, but HTML5 itself only stabilised around last month.

With enough time, effort and mastering of C2 a "30$ game" will be released someday (sooner than you might think I believe).

There could be indeed improvements to be made to the events sheet and "programming" aspect of C2 and Ashley has always delivered on this even if he'd took some time.

So far it always have been worth the wait and the recent "Function" plugin has really changed the playfield.

Functions have a scope, they are defined in the active event sheet and picking is to be done within the function to be effective.

Passing UIDs as parameters is a viable solution.

A program like C2 can never be as good as pure programming skills. C2 is a tool for creating little games, not triple A titles. So far there are only little "mini games" made with C2 out there. No games, which you could sell for 30$ or more.

You're not going to make the next call of medal of honor with it, but c2 is capable of making almost any 2d game short of stuff requiring sprite distortion like rayman or vanillaware's games. Just because there aren't any more subtantial games made with it yet doesn't mean it can't make those kinds of games. The reason you haven't seen any yet is games like that take a long time to make!

A program like C2 can never be as good as pure programming skills. C2 is a tool for creating little games, not triple A titles. So far there are only little "mini games" made with C2 out there. No games, which you could sell for 30$ or more.

Steam greenlight'ed Construct 2. It's very plausible to sell a 30$ game with Construct2, depending on the platform and market. Construct can't exactly export to a video game console, but you can't deny that Steam opens up that possibility.

A program like C2 can never be as good as pure programming skills. C2 is a tool for creating little games, not triple A titles. So far there are only little "mini games" made with C2 out there. No games, which you could sell for 30$ or more.

Obvious troll.