some suggestions for construct

Construct has some things I like better than MMF and Game Maker but also some things I like less. Here are my suggestions. I will add more if I think of them.

Counter object or "interface bar" - More support for animated counters with numbers, health bars, etc. the ability to import ONE image and have it be displayed mulitple times as lives without having to import say, an image of one heart, then an image of two hearts, then an image of three hearts... rather just import a picture of a heart and it displays it multiple times.

Path movement - different from "path finding", not to get confused. if you have EVER used GM or MMF it should be obvious what this is. basically define a path for the object to move on, that's all there really is to say. the support for this that GM has is better than MMF. it lets you flip a path, rotate it, etc, and has the ability to make the path curved while MMF doesn't.

I also want the ability to set the position of a bgm based on milliseconds and not seconds.

In the end I just want to say it really irritates me that fans of one or the other of these programs act all big shot like their program is superior and they think that's just a fact. Like this one person who, when MMF was compared to Construct, said something like "MMF is for people who actually bother to program things and Construct is for people who want everything just handed to them". that's not true. People fail to recognize that these programs all have their strengths and weaknesses. There are things that are easier to do in MMF, and there are things that are easier in Construct. However the reason I am writing this is because I am hoping the strong points of MMF and GM can be implemented into Construct. However it goes without saying that there are probably plenty more small things I'd want besides just the ones I mentioned here. I'd rather use Construct if I can, since the communities of the other two programs were so arrogant (here's hoping the community here continues to be as nice as at seemed to me at first glance - CLAIMING to be nice means nothing. the other communities claimed to be friendly, but their actions spoke louder than their words).

DialgaBrite,

I own all of them, from Unity 3d to GM and everything inbetween. The program is chosen based on what is right for the job.

I can tell you also that the large majority of users (the real game makers here) also use various software and though some favor others (I prefer C2 for html5) that is allowed, it is my preference.

The large majority of C2 users are also GM users, Unity3d Users, etc etc etc

We are Game Makers, and we are found in many places

And we all come with baggage, and preferences, etc. "Each to their own"

But real game makers, know that no one software is the king - each has its reason to be used or not used based on project.

DialgaBrite,

I own all of them, from Unity 3d to GM and everything inbetween. The program is chosen based on what is right for the job.

I can tell you also that the large majority of users (the real game makers here) also use various software and though some favor others (I prefer C2 for html5) that is allowed, it is my preference.

The large majority of C2 users are also GM users, Unity3d Users, etc etc etc

We are Game Makers, and we are found in many places

And we all come with baggage, and preferences, etc. "Each to their own"

That's a good thing to know. I also use GM, MMF, and RPG Maker. I understand having a preference. My problem is when people treat their preference like its actually fact, or say ignorant things like the clickteam user I mentioned above.

"Counter object" - no need for that. To make your example I would just used tiled background with one hart and write an even to set the width of it depending on how many hearts you have. That would take me literally a couple of minutes to do.

"Path movement" - There is a plugin you can find in the plugin section that does that. U'll need to use search cause i cant remember what was it called.

I've always choosen "makers" because I never was passionate about learning how to code. If I would decide to learn now, it would take another 3+ years of my life, just like other things I learned.

Counter object or "interface bar" - More support for animated counters with numbers, health bars, etc. the ability to import ONE image and have it be displayed mulitple times as lives without having to import say, an image of one heart, then an image of two hearts, then an image of three hearts... rather just import a picture of a heart and it displays it multiple times.

Path movement - different from "path finding", not to get confused. if you have EVER used GM or MMF it should be obvious what this is. basically define a path for the object to move on, that's all there really is to say. the support for this that GM has is better than MMF. it lets you flip a path, rotate it, etc, and has the ability to make the path curved while MMF doesn't.

I also want the ability to set the position of a bgm based on milliseconds and not seconds.

I do not know what you call a counter object, for the health bars and the ability to display image multiple times, either the tiledbackground or a special use of the spritefont could be of help.

Path movement: that is a nice suggestion, an easy way to do that would be nice.

For the bgm, I am not sure but does setting to values like 0.431 seconds works? If it works, I think there is no real need for that (could be still nice though).If it does not however, there is need.

As for the community, here I mostly saw people willing to help (however when people do not want to be constructive the community seems to fight back, let s hope it stays fine)

[quote:1vm1oveu]I do not know what you call a counter object, for the health bars and the ability to display image multiple times, either the tiledbackground or a special use of the spritefont could be of help.

I understand, but it would be nice if it were easier. Also the "interface bar" extension in mmf is very unique, its actually better than the counter object, it lets you make prettier health bars. Though I will also say that the counter object at least lets you display a gradient bar, the ability to have maximum and minimum values (its handled so it automatically makes sure they can' be breached), and stuff like that that is just plain easier and better than having to make a sprite of a block be a certain width. Also another nice feature, is the ability to display numbers as an animation - one frame per digit. I tried the sprite font and it didn't seem as easy to use as what I am describing was.

[quote:1vm1oveu]Path movement: that is a nice suggestion, an easy way to do that would be nice.

I will have to check into the plugin that megatronx mentioned, here's to hoping I will like it.

[quote:1vm1oveu]For the bgm, I am not sure but does setting to values like 0.431 seconds works? If it works, I think there is no real need for that (could be still nice though).If it does not however, there is need.

Didn't think of that, I hope it works.

[quote:1vm1oveu]As for the community, here I mostly saw people willing to help (however when people do not want to be constructive the community seems to fight back, let s hope it stays fine)

I think people should just be nice and friendly and constructive, even if someone like the TC of the "construct bad performance" topic gives them a hard time.

Counter objects are a holdover from the klick'n'play days. Construct 2 doesn't use them because we have instance variables (comparable to alterable values in MMF) as well as global and local variables.

For health bars, you can use the 9-slice object, as well as sprites with clipping, due to automatic and customized grouping. I don't know how you'd go about making a gradient, but I'm sure people can help you.

In regards to path movement, yep, we need one of those. I think there's a plugin that does it, though.

Clickteam only recently allowed discussion of other platforms - they used to censor other tools. There are basically no veterans over there anymore, and no one is successful, every half decent developer MMF had moved on to other platforms. I'm saying this from experience, I remember Fallen Angel used to be a pretty big name, now people don't even know who they were. Nifflas was the last big name to leave.

Their exporter strategy was a big failure, over half of them arrived too late, they all underperform, extension compatibility is ridiculous, there's no SDK, and a few have even been discontinued (j2me for instance, and soon the XNA as well).

In addition, Ashley's weekly updates have more features than what took clickteam years to code the 2.5 update was laughable. If clickteam doesn't get their act together with MMF3, they're pretty much gone.

I don't know much about game maker, but from what I hear, they're pricing themselves out of business, whereas much better tools like unity and UDK are getting cheaper every year.

As for construct's community, it has two good things going for it:

• Very good moderation
• An active, participating developer

Other than that, most discussions here are fairly moot and there are very few groundbreaking things happening as far as projects and demos. We have a handful of knowledgeable guys and 3 or 4 active community developers.

I don't know how you'd go about making a gradient, but I'm sure people can help you.

You can make gradient with Canvas plugin

Just for clarification.... is THIS the path plugin being talked about?:

Also, the ways you are describing counters sound more complicated than it was in MMF. However, that might simply be because I am fairly new to the program and haven't explored enough. Also don't forget, I also mentioned Interface Bar. To clarify that is NOT a default MMF extension, it's the equivelent of a 3rd party plugin. But it has served me quite well in my days of making games with MMF.

Sorry that clickteam is going to hell, according to you. While I cannot completely verify what you said, it sounds believable based on my experience with them. I agree with you that Game Maker is overpriced as well. First it was completely free, then it was "just give us a little money to support us" but now they have gone the full fledged corporate route. It went from about $25 (I think?) to $40 and now they released Game Maker Studio, with laughable differences, for $99. I can only hope that my experience with the Construct community is different. I am sorry if I did anything in that other topic that was perceived as mean, however it is understandable that if a member of a community says it is friendly, I must take it with a grain of salt... however people's actions will speak louder than words. Though I guess in this case actions are also words, but also their behavior over time. If this community continually treats me well, then I will have a good view of it. But I can't just blindly believe someone who says it is friendly without having been here and experiencing it's behavior for a while.

I also want to point out, however, that individual games made with these programs can still be good, depending on the skills of the person using the program, and I think it is very wrong when someone is biased against a game simply because it's made with Game Maker, etc. Not saying you did that, I just wanted to point that out.

Also, the ways you are describing counters sound more complicated than it was in MMF. However, that might simply be because I am fairly new to the program and haven't explored enough.

Trust me, it's a lot better. Once you learn the way construct 2's event system works, you won't be able to go back to MMF's "checkmark" system. They look really similar at first glance but construct's is so much better...

Also don't forget, I also mentioned Interface Bar. To clarify that is NOT a default MMF extension, it's the equivelent of a 3rd party plugin. But it has served me quite well in my days of making games with MMF.

You could just have a premade gradient and stretch or clip it via WebGL.

Sorry that clickteam is going to hell, according to you. While I cannot completely verify what you said, it sounds believable based on my experience with them.

I have like 10 years experience with clickteam, I started way before MMF1.5 with Click'n'Create/MMFX.

The only thing MMF has going for it is performance and better extensions, as well as support for application development.

The SDK is a load of garbage, though, official updates move at a snail's pace (see for yourself, their "patches" come once every 3 months, and "new features" every 5 years), besides, most of the things they call "features" are things that should have been in the software years ago.

I started bashing them when they started charging for "unicode support".

now they released Game Maker Studio, with laughable differences, for $99.

Don't forget that, if you want all exporters and features, it costs something like $500 (I don't have exact values). Meanwhile, UDK costs $19/month, and includes source code. Also, you only have to pay one month, if you stop paying you still get to keep the software and you can still publish, all you lose are the new updates.

I am sorry if I did anything in that other topic that was perceived as mean

We frequently have topics like the one you saw. Forum regulars quickly become tired, I hope you can see why. Some of them are made by people we respect, and when that happens we have a civilized discourse. When some new guy with 2 posts comes here and starts bashing, I have a lot less patience.

Alright, I just tried SplinePath, and it seems I can't edit the path in the editor. MMF and GM both had a drag and drop interface for "drawing" the path. But it seems there is no way to do that here? Do I really truly have to define everything in the event editor, point by point? In MMF, I usually use this for bosses, that move all around the screen. It would be VERY helpful to actually be able to SEE where the boss is gonna go while looking at the layout in the editor, with all the platforms and other objects, while seeing the boss positioned in the layout at the starting point. In MMF I simply draw the path, then tell it to not be moving at start, after the dialog when the battle begins, I tell it to start moving. Or I can simply set the speed (this is kinda hard to explain in detail).

> I am sorry if I did anything in that other topic that was perceived as mean

>

We frequently have topics like the one you saw. Forum regulars quickly become tired, I hope you can see why. Some of them are made by people we respect, and when that happens we have a civilized discourse. When some new guy with 2 posts comes here and starts bashing, I have a lot less patience.

Again, I am sorry if I did anything that was perceived as mean. However I still think that if you have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all. Even if the other person is wrong. I assume you have heard sayings such as that, right?

And for the record, I CAN see why. As long as people try their best to be plesant in all circumstances, then I guess everything is fine.

I know that kind of path behavior do makes some things easier. However, if you'd spend some more time with C2, you could actually make boss patterns better, then if only using predefined path. You basically create graphical nodes, and events to what boss does once he gets to particular node. In those events you can include players state, so boss can respond to that and decide which node he's going to move next, which makes fights much less predictable, kind of Megaman style for example.

I thought of some new suggestions. They involve the animation editor.

I want the ability to import an animated gif and turn it into an animation.

I also want the ability to copy and paste frames, including from one animation to another.

MMF had these things.

Since I have been exploring construct a little more, I have noticed quite a number of small things that are better in it than in MMF. for example, the "ping pong" thing in the animation editor. It's those little touches that make it better. However, there are also some little touches MMF has that construct doesn't.

While I was typing this I thought of something else. The ability to do something to a frame such as rotate it, colorize it, scale it, etc, and have it automatically create the frames for it to animate such an effect using the number of frames you choose. Game Maker is VERY superior in this aspect. MMF has a little bit of it, but not as much as GM.

Finally, I want to praise construct on the fact that you don't have to copy and paste every object into every frame. I had an MMF game with like 32 frames, each with the player object in them. After the fact I decided to give her more animations, and I had to paste them onto the player object on every frigging frame! It was so annoying! I really would however, like the ability to import an animated gif. I import pokemon graphics with hundreds of frames quite a lot.

I thought of some new suggestions. They involve the animation editor.

I want the ability to import an animated gif and turn it into an animation.

I also want the ability to copy and paste frames, including from one animation to another.

MMF had these things.

Since I have been exploring construct a little more, I have noticed quite a number of small things that are better in it than in MMF. for example, the "ping pong" thing in the animation editor. It's those little touches that make it better. However, there are also some little touches MMF has that construct doesn't.

While I was typing this I thought of something else. The ability to do something to a frame such as rotate it, colorize it, scale it, etc, and have it automatically create the frames for it to animate such an effect using the number of frames you choose. Game Maker is VERY superior in this aspect. MMF has a little bit of it, but not as much as GM.

Finally, I want to praise construct on the fact that you don't have to copy and paste every object into every frame. I had an MMF game with like 32 frames, each with the player object in them. After the fact I decided to give her more animations, and I had to paste them onto the player object on every frigging frame!

I suggest you read the manual here, here.

I suggest you familirize yourself with the software and plugins and tools as so far all your suggestions can already be done.

Have a look here,

, here

Remember: This is a game building engine, not a image editor/animation maker - for these you have external tools.

Other softwares try to be everything to everyone, and they loose sight of there core functionality.

Construct 2 is a game building engine, it has core updates almost weekly (unmatched by competitor products) because C2 understands that there are better external softwares for the job.

Have a look at the links I gave. Spend time building the examples found within the software. Click new and browse down the list to all the examples etc.

Learn your toolset, and build awesome games. The biggest issue that faces you is lack of knoweledge. Remember, in life, you have to be both the student, and the teacher - go teach yourself by using the awesome resources available. Oh, just found this.

Stick to learning this amazing software - devote an hour a day for 90 days. Then come back here, and offer your suggestions based on your experience (because at the moment you don't have much).

Also, when you get stuck, which you will - I garentee it, this community are very helpful as long as you show (you are willing to learn, you have tried and failed a few times, you can offer up proof of your attempts, are open to being pushed to grow your understanding a little, etc etc)

I prefered GM in the beginning, but realized it was only because I was used to it. Now after spending a considerable amount of time on C2, I can say, I prefer how c2 handles things. Give it some time, takes a fair amount to get used to something. I have no doubt it will grow on you too

[quote:3sqnngzd]It was so annoying! I really would however, like the ability to import an animated gif. I import pokemon graphics with hundreds of frames quite a lot.

Photoshop unpacks the image perfectly and you can use a better software to get it game ready. Hundreds of frames is not recommended - try spriter or anime studio.

Your game is going to use to many resources, run out of mem or cpu.

And be carefull. Those graphics are copyrighted. Unless you have permission, you can't use it. Stay away from gifs, unless you have made them yourself.