Future Development

Is there any way Construct 2 fans can see what's on Scirra's future development list? Just so we can get excited about more kick-ass functionality <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

I have some suggestions I think should be on that list :

1. Isometric Movement - like 8 direction but the 45degree ones become either 30degree or 2:1 (26.565degrees) - would be great for isometric games.

2. Multiple Collision Masks - useful for different types of collisions without multiple pinned sprites!

3. MySQL Plugin - not sure if this'll be possible but would be great, more powerful alternative to reading from XMLs.

4. Consistent formatting options for Text and Text Boxes - Could do with google fonts in Text Boxes and CSS in Text.

5. Inverse Solid - where sprites are bound within its collision mask - useful for floor maps!

6. Full size Scale and Crop - The height remains constant but crops from the left and right to stay full screen.

There are more but that's enough for now <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

You guys do a great job updating this fantastic bit of software. I've never seen anybody else do better at responding to and staying in touch with the community. We owe you!

Id love a mysql plugin as well. Be sooooo much easier than tryin to figure out how to set up a server to talk to sql then ajax in c2 to talk to the server

1. Support full webgl effects in desktop and in Android

2. Acelerate the progress with the integration of Cooconjs

3. If any chance to integrate export to .apk with cooconjs

MySQL plugin is very unlikely, if you want to connect with a database doing it client side (through Javascript) isn't a good idea as it would be very easy to pull the username + password from the code!

Nikocente

These could do isometric Movement in tiles based game.

rexrainbow, great plugins! These should become part of the Scirra standard install. But I'd like a smooth Isometric movement more like 8-direction. I can do it with events but it's clunky and you have to add another disabled movement behaviour to work with solids...

Tom, thanks for your reply. I thought it might be unlikely. Are you saying that a connection to MySQL would be better on the server side? This leads me on to the point that it'd expand Construct 2 massively if it could generate server-side scripts with their own event sheets etc within Construct 2. Also, any news on if we could have a sneak peek at the future development list? <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Nikocente

I had though it before, could you provide a game/example about Isometric movement + 8-direction?

I'd love to see some sound effects (fade out action or something similar).

And the direct .apk export would be awesome (although I don't know that this could be done or not, due to compatibility or license issues.. but I'd love it).

A public todo list has been requested before but I don't want to publish it for a couple of reasons... it often changes at the last minute, things are randomly re-prioritised due to things behind the scenes, and everyone's got their pet feature they want to see developed first and I'm worried there will be a lot of "nagging" (or at least prompting from users) to see their favourite feature bumped up the list or completed.

It's also difficult to take new feature suggestions because we already have so much on the todo list - we might not be able to get round to them for a long time. Thanks for the ideas and I don't want to tell people to stop being creative, but please be aware that last time I counted there were already 100 things on the list! So we generally try to do things the most number of people have asked for, or will benefit the largest portion of C2 users. Watch out for the "what's next?" polls we occasionally run.

There are a few other technical issues as well: anything to do with CocoonJS likely has to be done by Ludei, not Scirra, but I know they are actively working on publishing solutions and improvements for Construct 2 as we speak.

WebGL shaders is another tricky one: I personally would love to implement it because it's awesomely cool. However it's a significant amount of work, and ultimately it would not reach many users. Remember IE does not support WebGL, basically only Chrome and Firefox do - and then anyone with old graphics card drivers gets WebGL switched off as well. WebGL is hardly supported on mobile at all, and we have found unlike on desktop WebGL actually renders slower than canvas 2D, so switching on shaders to use effects will cause a big drop in performance before you've even shown an effect... overall, only about 1 in 4 desktop users would be likely to see the effects. Given the large amount of work it is, I think it would be best to postpone it for the time being. I'm sure support will be better in future.

Other suggestions often have similar complications behind the scenes. Often it seems simple but in actual fact there are a great deal of factors to take in to account.

I really miss being able to draw in the sprite editor to do simple tests. Most games are made with simple test graphics that later are replaced with the real ones.

I would even be happy with a one color pen in the sprite editor.

MySQL plugin is very unlikely, if you want to connect with a database doing it client side (through Javascript) isn't a good idea as it would be very easy to pull the username + password from the code!

Wow never thought about that. this is the type of comment that really fun to read as you get a peek under the hood.