Couple Questions

1. I read somewhere about a sprite sheet importing available in the build, but i cannot find it at all in the animation area. Is it a pay feature or am i blind? xD

2. Was looking at the animation preview bit, and i see it does not loop and i have to keep re-clicking to make it loop. Are they planning to add animation loop there?

3. Are you planning on adding a side scripting version of construct, or is it going to remain purely graphical? As a game maker scripter, i feel that its much faster and easier if i could read all logic, in scripting form. Don't get me wrong, i like the graphical form too, just would like code preview bit or something added as another way to look at game logic.

4. If my level tiles are in sprite sheets, how exactly is placing tiles like a regular level editor going to work? This tiled background object will not cut it for some of my games. I prefer placing them manually, with layers and tools like a standard editor.

5. Planning on adding a suggestions topic to the Construct 2 board? I got plenty of suggestions.:P

Anywho, that's all for now. Thanks!

1. I read somewhere about a sprite sheet importing available in the build, but i cannot find it at all in the animation area. Is it a pay feature or am i blind? xD

Try right click and 'import sprite strip' in the animation frames bar - by default, the one at the bottom, showing the animation frames.

. Was looking at the animation preview bit, and i see it does not loop and i have to keep re-clicking to make it loop. Are they planning to add animation loop there?

Try selecting the animation and enabling Loop in the properties bar.

. Are you planning on adding a side scripting version of construct, or is it going to remain purely graphical?

Purely graphical. If you want to script, you can write behaviors and plugins in javascript. Apart from that, there are loads of other scripting tools out there - you can even just write a HTML5 game by scripting in javascript itself! Why pay for a tool and use a different scripting language (which might also introduce problems when converting to javascript) when javascript has excellent free tools already?

. If my level tiles are in sprite sheets, how exactly is placing tiles like a regular level editor going to work?

Using tilemaps is a little slow right now - try enabling 'snap to grid' to help for now. We're hoping to add some feature to 'paint' tiled levels in future.

. Planning on adding a suggestions topic to the Construct 2 board? I got plenty of suggestions.:P

I'd love to hear them - just post them here!

>

> . Are you planning on adding a side scripting version of construct, or is it going to remain purely graphical?

> Purely graphical.

No Python? <img src="smileys/smiley19.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

"Try right click and 'import sprite strip' in the animation frames bar - by default, the one at the bottom, showing the animation frames."

Phew. Alright i see it now, but man... place it as a button for convenience.

"Try selecting the animation and enabling Loop in the properties bar."

Yeah that did it. Shouldn't that be a default thing though? Who wants to see something running without a loop.. Also, perhaps add a frame rate preview options to see it running at different speeds.

"Purely graphical. If you want to script, you can write behaviors and plugins in javascript. Apart from that, there are loads of other scripting tools out there - you can even just write a HTML5 game by scripting in javascript itself! Why pay for a tool and use a different scripting language (which might also introduce problems when converting to javascript) when javascript has excellent free tools already?"

I'm not a programmer. I meant by using the functionality existing in Construct, but in script form.I sense you rather have it purely graphics, so i wont push it further.

"Using tilemaps is a little slow right now - try enabling 'snap to grid' to help for now. We're hoping to add some feature to 'paint' tiled levels in future"

Yeah i know about snap to grid. Its just the "workflow" problem i see. I'll just make games the way its presented for now, but do add that tile painting feature when you can. I'm eager to see how it works.

"I'd love to hear them - just post them here!"

Ah okay. Well then, i shall fire my fury of suggestions regularly.

Also i did buy the app by the way, so hopefully i can get my license soon enough. I love supporting new competition to existing game makers. <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

For the platform behavior plugin, will there be more advancement on that (such as uneven platform, ramps, and sonic loops etc)? Blocks are fine, but i would like my landscape to do more.

3. Are you planning on adding a side scripting version of construct, or is it going to remain purely graphical? ... Don't get me wrong, i like the graphical form too, just would like code preview bit or something added as another way to look at game logic.

I think about this pretty often and also in lots of uses for it. Unlike the way I think Ashley is seeing it, for me it would not be a new scripting system, just a conversion of the current events to text.

If you think about it, people already do this kind of conversion naturally in the forums, it would be just a matter of standardize it.

+On myButtonSprite left clicked

-> myButtonSprite: Set animation frame to 2

-> do something awesome

+ Powerups: Is Dragging

-> Powerups: Set position to (Int(MouseX/32)*32), (Int(MouseY/32)*32)

Besides being better for visualization and code review in some situations, it could also be printed for portability and sticked into walls to assist game development.

If the inverse conversion would also be true (text -> events), besides the obvious script alternative as some prefer, it would also be extremely useful for collaborative work. People could join events much easier by simple copy-pasting code, and even quickly transform forum posts discussions into construct events to almost instantly run and test it!

I believe a system like this for joining events have potential to be a lot more solid and less prone to bugs than implementing a direct event-editor pasting, since you could paste the text-events in the "script-editor", then revise and correct any missing object references before converting to real events by pressing a submit button.

So in the end I do not think it would require creating an entirely new script, as it kind of already exists inside Construct. All the necessary text code is already available in the event-editor. What it needs is symbols and/or formating to specify conditions/events,sub-events and actions.

Also there would not be any more problems in converting it to javascript beyond the ones that could happen within events, since in the end everything would be converted to events and those would still be the "real-code" run by the machine.

Unlike the way I think Ashley is seeing it, for me it would not be a new scripting system, just a conversion of the current events to text.

That would be useful, I like the idea. However, importing the text version back to events is actually extremely complicated - matching up a line of text to an action with parameters is a very tricky and ambiguous operation. Then, I guess some people will want to use it as a scripting language anyway!

So exporting events to text is easy (even Classic does it), but importing events from text is very difficult.

I see this doesn't have any computational math help. Like checking for distance between two points. There's also no way of adding an else in it.

Example in (gml manner)

if (distance_to_point(obj_enemy.x, obj_enemy.Y) < 15) { do this etc. } else { do this. }

This would really help me out if added. 8)

This can be achieved in events.

There is no "else" events (like in CC).

Make an event - system: compare two values

As first value, double click system in the "objects with expressions" window and scroll down to Math-Distance (or any other expression you'd need).

Your first event check if first value is equal to second value, you'd then make another event that'd check if first value is NOT equal to second value. (to make it up for the missing "else" condition)

I understand that scripting seems sometimes like quicker to put in place then events. But on the other hand, in script, you'd lose the automatic checking of variable/parameter existence/type, visual/block organization, etc...

I understand you arrive with your knowledge and ways from a former software, but you should really learn about Construct's ways (through the tutorials, wiki, check my signature, etc...) in the first time. C2 is not GM or whatever other software.

They may have similarities, they may have the same purpose, but they are definetely different, and I think that they handle things differently.

To get familiar with construct's approach, I think you should put GM's approach "on stand by" for a while <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

(I've never used GM, so it is all assumption, but take the case of someone who is used to photoshop and arrives on GIMP. Things will be done differently in the soft, but they are both image editing tools. One just has to learn each software's way first.)

"This can be achieved in events.

There is no "else" events (like in CC).

Make an event - system: compare two values

As first value, double click system in the "objects with expressions" window and scroll down to Math-Distance (or any other expression you'd need).

Your first event check if first value is equal to second value, you'd then make another event that'd check if first value is NOT equal to second value. (to make it up for the missing "else" condition)

I understand that scripting seems sometimes like quicker to put in place then events. But on the other hand, in script, you'd lose the automatic checking of variable/parameter existence/type, visual/block organization, etc...

I understand you arrive with your knowledge and ways from a former software, but you should really learn about Construct's ways (through the tutorials, wiki, check my signature, etc...) in the first time. C2 is not GM or whatever other software.

They may have similarities, they may have the same purpose, but they are definetely different, and I think that they handle things differently.

To get familiar with construct's approach, I think you should put GM's approach "on stand by" for a while

(I've never used GM, so it is all assumption, but take the case of someone who is used to photoshop and arrives on GIMP. Things will be done differently in the soft, but they are both image editing tools. One just has to learn each software's way first.)

"

Oh okay, found it. Yeah i just need to dig around more in construct before posting. But, i am eager to learn a new game maker so don't think it as a GameMaker vs Construct thing. Once i figure out everything, my dumb questions will disappear. <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Sorry my previous post sounded maybe more dry than it was intended.

It's true that digging in construct often helps finding the solution, but the forum is also a really valuable ressource, and never be afraid to ask a question when you're stuck.