Construct 2: Your opinion so far...

I think PC gaming has a long way to shrink before it's smaller than the next biggest gaming market after consoles (whatever that is). In other words, PC gaming may be shrinking, but it's still huge.

I agree. What I'm seying is that 2d games got bigger chance on mobile devices or virtual arcades.

megatronx :

I saw your link for "the power oh HTML 5". Have you read all the critics of this article ?... Copy/past of many reactions :

The real issue isn�t that the HTML 5 Canvas isn�t capable of a lot of things that Flash can do, but the fact it typically takes a huge amount of JavaScript to do so whereas in Flash typically you don�t need to code as much and in many cases you can just use movieclips and the timeline to your advantage.

I agree with some of the other comments that if someone built an IDE capable of making complex animations as simple as using Flash, then I�d be more agreeable to the HTML 5 Canvas getting some traction later on.

You still have to account for people though that shutoff JavaScript though. I know people that turn off JavaScript in their browsers because of the trouble it can cause.

...

This is 20.000 particules running in Flash: http://wonderfl.net/c/rbeg/ � your 1500-low-framerate-demo is cute, as well as the other demos. And I would have seriously consider that in 2001. Thanks for sharing!

---

Exactly.. and by the way, that demo would run extremely smoothly with the CPU power of the iPad, but Jobs is protecting his precious AppStore business model and won�t allow Flash.

HTML5 is cute. I�ve seen some nice effects that remind me of Shockwave in 1995. But to suggest that it even comes close to Flash is just hilariously ignorant.

..as is the notion that the iPad can�t handle Flash.

The lack of Flash on the iPhone is a business decision, period. And what�s funny is the legions of iPhone fanboyz who defend this decision as if it�s based on tech reasons.

Fail.

Flash owns. As does Android.

.... and so and so and so...

There is just 5 or 6 "hey that's fun"...

I don't know how you will make exporters Ashley. But i think it is a wrong way : many exporter with little team = lack of time to make debug, add-ons ... It would be more interestant to have just one run time that could be run of many different system ? no ? Like Shiva ?

MMF make that and what appens ? 3 ou 4 guys work and work (very well) but it is very hard and there are late, very late. and there are all senior programmer will a very high skill.

I don't know how you will make exporters Ashley. But i think it is a wrong way : many exporter with little team = lack of time to make debug, add-ons ... It would be more interestant to have just one run time that could be run of many different system ? no ? Like Shiva ?

MMF make that and what appens ? 3 ou 4 guys work and work (very well) but it is very hard and there are late, very late. and there are all senior programmer will a very high skill.

I completely agree with you.

The core of Construct 2 development is based in Html5, something that is not that advanced and and established at the moment, It's a Blind step in my opinion.

People say there will be an EXE exporter, but because Construct 2 is limiting itself to html5 features, you will have exe's with html5 compatible features only, which is bad.

Scirra is trying to grow in the wrong direction in my opinion. You would become the market leader if you aim at something like TGB or Shiva: Powerful engine with multiplatform support, with the advantage of everything that makes construct good. In the current direction, it will just turn into some kind of "Stencil", like I already said.

Let me put things this way:

My game Yokai, for example, it's impossible to run on Html5. No Html5, no Construct2, will have to stick with Cx, or move to another engine because I really want to release it on other platforms.

kwarn

Your comparison of Flash and Html5 doesn't take into account the fact that Html5 is still in its infancy, and Flash is well... ancient in geek speak.

Also... pretty sure you have to have javascript enabled to run flash on a browser.

People say there will be an EXE exporter, but because Construct 2 is limiting itself to html5 features, you will have exe's with html5 compatible features only, which is bad

Who said it would be like that?

There's no reason an exe exporter would be limited to Html5 features.

Maybe a simple name change would help. Not from Construct, just getting rid of the 2. C2 doesn't feel like a follow up to C1, it seems more like a 1.5 "upgrade" to the UI and a 0.1 "reverse-grade" to the run-time.

Granted, if there truly IS exe export with shaders and all, then it makes more sense to call it Construct 2, it's just that we are a ways off from that point.

I've gone back to MMF2 until EXE shows up, as while I like HTML5 as a feature, I don't much care for it as a focus. Still like Construct a lot, and will hopefully be using C2 someday.

Construct 2 doesn't need a name change, I think the whole "Pre-Alpha" tag does a great job explaining to users that this program is in the very early stages of development. Imagine when they first started filming The Godfather II, if somebody on the set kept saying "well technically, we should really refer to this movie as The Godfather 1.5 until it's finished."

As far as going back to MMF2 until there is EXE support , even if they added an EXE port tomorrow, I assume you would still use MMF2. You can't really create a game with C2 yet..

Construct 1 was my favorite game development tool, with that said, it needed to be shelved to start something new and fresh for a long time now. Having no portability, an optional Directx update required, and various bugs might sound like minor hindrances, but to the average indie developer who needs his game to be accessible as possible they are almost complete deal breakers.

Construct 2 seems to be coming along nicely and faster than expected. With the ease of testing Construct 2 games being as simple as clicking a link, I feel as if I've almost tested more C2 games in one month than I have C1 in all its years.

you will have exe's with html5 compatible features only

Construct 2 is designed to allow different exporters to have different capabilities. We fully intend on making the EXE runtime (when we come to it) as powerful as the 0.x one.

Hm, I was wondering if it would be possible to use an existing runtime, such as L�ve (http://love2d.org/). Since it is open source and all that, you wouldn't be able to charge for l�ve .exe exporter, but it is a quick solution to get .exe exporter as soon as possible.

Then in the meantime you could develop a proper (powerful) windows runtime at your leisure.

newt :

this is not my comparaison, just the critics of other guys. The use of html5 is dangerous like i said to Ash for security data reasons. the fact C2 is going in the same way that MMF is a non sens too. The flexibility is important : more reflexion before to make less work after. For them and for you, it is important that the debug, modification go fast. There are 3 mens, no an army.

So actually, this dev, for me, it's just for fun. And it is good for them. Not to make professional application or game.

Have you seen what some excellent developper make with html5 ??? This is very interestant stuff but this is just very little application... Mr Doob is one of the best developper in html5.

To finish : how many browser html5 will running in 2-3 years ? 30% ? 50% ? what about making a game or aplication for a custommer who need 100% ???

Make an export in flash... Make an import for java... make an import for gnagnagna2... gnagnagna 3 etc....

I think you should consider ONE platform and target the different system which run this.

It is more complicated but more interestant. Think about Virtools, Shiva, Renderware studio etc...

That might not be such a bad idea, Mipey. Sure, Lua isn't as fast as C++, but it's still one of the fastest scripting languages. A L�ve .exe exporter would make a great cross-platform .exe exporter until the devs finish with their own proper C++ .exe exporter.

At the very least, it'll satisfy anyone crying out for an .exe exporter constantly.

I don't want a L?ve exe exporter as i would much rather something like direct x used for a exe runtime for a start and also why would i want to buy a program that was just based on free library's? I would just get them for free because other than taking a bit longer it's not exactly difficult to use the normal version.

Ashley said this a while back to someone wanting to use another javascript game engine -

[quote:h3jlu7rq]We tend to write the engine ourselves so we have complete control. Construct only tends to use a subset of the features these libraries provide, and we don't want to end up snookered by implementing the engine in some framework and then being limited by the features they choose to implement.

I agree with that also, i see a lot of people finding javascript library's, impressive demos or frameworks and posting links but people forget this fact and also even though they are open source they still usually have some form of license attached.

Another thing is even though frameworks can be good they wouldn't exactly be usable for other things anyway and would also need understanding and adjustments, when you have gone through all the trouble of that it would have been better to just write it from scratch. Parts from a project like that might be good as plugins though if there was ever a LUA runtime but i would much rather have a engine with unique ideas and code rather than one "borrowing" everything to be honest.

I think people just need to have more patience or just use Construct 1 for now because if they thought C1 was usable before it's not like that's no longer the case. I also see no reason why someone couldn't just make a game in C1 then port to C2 later, it would be more work sure but events would be similar and it's not like C1 was ever multi-platform before anyway. The C2 engine is not even finished yet so it makes more sense to just focus on that first also.

First of all, thanks for an excellent product so far!

I for one chose Scirra JUST BECAUSE it was html5 capable. Although it lacks certain features I have been able to create what I wanted so far with a bit of creativity (which there is a lot of room for!).

Now, what I wonder is if it is possible to load external data resources in some way. For HTML5 games json is an excellent format to pass data from the server and I am now looking for a way to just this. Maybe a new plugin is the way to go, or have someone else already done this?

It's early days yet for C2 - we're planning some AJAX type plugins later in development.

Sweet Keep them updates pouring in!