Question to programmer C2 users

I figured this question would likely have been asked every few days, but for some reason I couldn't find any in search, so forgive me if I just didn't look correctly.

I am aiming to make HTML5 games for conversion to cross-platform mobile. The export options in C2 are quite impressive. However, I am a fairly skilled programmer, and have made games before in code, and am quite familiar with web development as well (JS is my main language, and I typically work in Node.js or PHP). I also looked at Stencyl, but considering the fact that it is rooted in Flash and just in the new version is going to have an experimental HTML5 export option, with pretty much the same story for Android export, I was worried.

I know that C2 is aimed at beginners as well as experienced developers to speed up development.

So to anyone out there with a strong programming and traditional game development background:

1. What makes you use C2? Do you feel like you can have the same level of control of your game logic?

2. Have you ever written custom behaviors?

3. Do you really feel like you can develop faster in C2 than hand-writing code when you are going off the beaten path?

4. Is a lot of the work done for you when exporting to a mobile wrapper like CocoonJS or Intel XDK? I know the latter can be quite complex and can require some code alteration for some features. Do you get help setting up the touch controls and all of that kind of stuff? If C2 does handle a lot of this process, that is a big plus for me.

I am just worried I won't be able to do all of the fiddling I want to to get it just right.

Thank you!

Imagine every little snippet of code you ever wanted, all pre configured, all ready for copy and paste, and all at your fingertips.

Now imagine not having to paste it, and imagine being able to move all your work around as easy as putting Legos together.

I would love to write my code manually, but that isn't enough. Construct 2 is almost a complete pipeline for game development. It is a game engine, level editor, particle editor, asset manager and, as you mentioned, a tool for distribution to many different platforms. I think many people (especially developers) forget this.

Cheers,

Steve

newt and stevefromio have good points.

C2 isn't an IDE with access to an api. it's an incredible object auto completion game engine by building blocks. On top of the that it's methods of distributions are very well done.

To be honest the toolset probably should be more than what it is. But for the price it's an incredible tool.

And to put an extra concering the IDE. Program a plugin. By writing a plugic which is personal code. Then the code can be used in C2 with no syntax errors. It's an amazing tool.

The only downside is that there isn't enough support for GUI or WebApps. In fact if C2 could export to other languages like PHP I would probably just use C2 for almost everything :D almost.

"1. What makes you use C2? Do you feel like you can have the same level of control of your game logic?"

I use it because of ease of use, fool-proofing (syntax error is a bad thing that I always hated), learning curve easier than ther languages IMO, yet it offers enough liberty to be usable.

"2. Have you ever written custom behaviors? "

Nope, I never needed to yet, but I know it can be needed in some cases

"3. Do you really feel like you can develop faster in C2 than hand-writing code when you are going off the beaten path? "

Yes, the no-syntax error thing and the fact I read and write C2 code in a defined way easily makes it so much easier IMO.