Taking a break from Construct ...

First I want to say that it has been a great experience and this is not a rant topic. I've learned a lot of useful things about making games and I've made a decent amount of $ .

While I like C2's approach of easy visual programming and clean interface, but there are 2 big reasons I choose to take a break and try another engine:

Reason 1: C2 uses developing/unfinished technology

Certainly HTML5/Javascript is and will be used a lot in the near future, the question is when it will be optimized for games ? Next year, after 2~3 years ? The fact that is still in development means that is has room for improvement, but this is also a terrible disadvantage. Ashley has to bugfix and tweak C2 to maintain compatibility. Some examples are: in the past some games made with an older version started to crash due to an update to Chrome and needed to be re-exported with a new version of C2; WebStorage-ul has been depreciated, some Audio bugs ... etc.

Another disadvantage is that C2's core uses the "old" javascript. In order to update C2's core to use asm.js, Ashley has to rewrite the whole engine again aka Construct 3 (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Reason 2: Limited commercial possibility

Desktop: Yes, exports an .exe file and that is all, there is no official Steam plugin, the 3rd party one is a lot of work to implement and is hit or miss.

Websites: There is support Kongregate but should also be for Newgrounds and others.

Mobile devices: You only get the HTML files. Good luck with all the 3rd party warpers that are somewhat hit or miss and no constant fps. Also, very little support for ads vendors. And you can't use Physics due to CPU load.

I'm not against of 3rd party warpers, the problem is that Scirra has no control over them.

Also i dislike the lack of 3D (and the motivation not to implement it in C3). I know that C2 is for 2D games (3D models are harder to manage then 2D sprites ) and I agree with that, but some simple 3D objects like the ones in Construct Classic would make great difference (example: New Super Mario Bros or Sonic Rush for Nintendo DS)

That being said, I would recommend C2 to anyone who want to start creating games and I'm sure that C3 will fix a lot of C2's current shortcomings, but if you plan to make a big project, you should think twice.

This doesn't mean that I give up on C2, it is still the easiest, fastest and optimized HTML5 game engine i know

tgeorgemihai , may I ask what engine are you going to try?

eli0s

I already started to do tutorials in Unity + Playmaker. It is a little more complex, but not hard. Thanks to C2, now I have a better understanding of procedures. The hard part will be when I will need to write my own scripts, but there are a lot of tutorials on the internet, so I'm optimist. And since is considered an "industry standard" I will have more chances to get a job in this domain.

GM:S looked like a nice alternative, especially since I've got the 12$ bundle (I was more interested in the source code for the games) but the old UI (especially the room/level editor) and somewhat lack of direct support communication made me think again. Also, If I have to learn a scripting language, why not learn C# for Unity that is used world wide instead of proprietary GML.

Good write-up, though I agree and disagree with some of your points based on my own experience with big C2 games, for mobiles and PC.

You should get into UE4, that seems to be catching on real fast. It's a superior 3d engine than Unity and it's free.

tgeorgemihai

Agree.

Unity + playmaker is my next step also

tgeorgemihai , I understand how you feel and I agree with your points, however I find C2's event sheet to be the best non code- visual programming system out there. Playmaker or uscript are overly complicated and all around the place and to achieve something that it would be very straight forward in C2, you need too many states or nodes/variables.

If I ever manage to push my self into learn something complicated, it would be C#, that way the knowledge would be useful elsewhere too.

Anyway, good luck with your decision, please let as know how you find the change and your progress with Unity!

I understand you, for me the biggest problem with C2 is the mobile export. The external solutions are not good to keep a good framerate.

tgeorgemihai

Go for it. I don't think you will regret it. Though Unreal is also pretty good and although a larger hurdle than C2 and Unity reflects C2 a little more.

Set sails to new shores and exciting adventures. And welcome to the Unity developers ship maybe I will see you on the Unity developers forum.

Dude I definitely agree with the limitations in C2 which I seriously hope they correct in C3.. Hope to see you again soon..

tgeorgemihai

Agree.

i already moved on to unity + playmaker

but i also track scirra for the new engine and i hope it will not disappoint me

I am playing with Unity and Playmaker right now as well. I'm already using 3d in c2, just pre-rendered. Having a full 3d engine would open up the types of games I could make.

Good luck for you with your future projects.

Also, I want to ask a question for those who used UE4 and Unity + Playmaker: Which one is more easy to get into and use: blueprints or Playmaker?

Good luck for you with your future projects.

Also, I want to ask a question for those who used UE4 and Unity + Playmaker: Which one is more easy to get into and use: blueprints or Playmaker?

I recently watched official tutorial series and few more random official advanced tutorial videos about blueprint, and although it allows for more complexity then c2, logic is really simple! The thing I've noticed is that there is a very long list of actions which need to be remembered to be efficient with it. I don't have time yet to start practicing it, but it is something I might start learning in the future.

It also have a lot of convenient elements, I've been talking about on this forum to implement in c2. You don't need to constantly create new events and variables from different tabs - you create logic node by node, because nodes have shortcuts to elements that can be used at and with particular node. Same goes for objects: they can show actions and conditions that can go only with their type. And if you need something different then you can look trough list of conditions, actions and variables. In terms of variables thought, it has 6 types if I remember correctly. So here construct wins.

Also there is number actions that allow for creating better gameplay. Stuff like delay, that lets you delay next node by number of seconds! And it all works with triggers! Wait doesn't work with triggers in c2. And to create delay, you need to build your own set of events first, and sometimes you can confuse yourself. That is the kind of stuff is what I was asking for in my topic "3cents about c2 and c3", additional actions that have certain functions, but I always hear "you can do it with events" answer from Ashley, which is fair, but in reality it is pain in the ass, and I don't think that implementing actions like this would be much of work, and they would be very helpful.

So will be definitely looking in the future in to blueprint. Thought I hope c3 will turn up better.

UE4 blueprints are really easy to comprehend (after spending some years in C2 and CC). All you need to know is to learn a different workflow of the engine like GameMode, PlayerController, PlayerCharacter etc. It took me just about a week to learn how it works and to make a simple 3d adventure game system that have doors, rooms, transitions, player interactions, camera system... UE4 is stupid easy in comparison to Unity+Playmaker. To do exactly same thing in Unity with playmaker... i gave up after 2 weeks.

Like megatronx said, there's a lot of neat stuff exposed in blueprint nodes: timelines, delays, custom events, literally hundreds of different types variables (I really don't like in C2 that I can't make an array variable or simple vector2 variable to store XY - instead you need to make 2 separate number variables sic!).

And everything have build in help infos and tooltips, so there's no need to dig through the help online.

One thing that can be overwhelming is UE4 editor itselfs, there are a lot of buttons, options, parameters, options in options, parameters in parameters

UE4 blueprints are really easy to comprehend (after spending some years in C2 and CC). All you need to know is to learn a different workflow of the engine like GameMode, PlayerController, PlayerCharacter etc. It took me just about a week to learn how it works and to make a simple 3d adventure game system that have doors, rooms, transitions, player interactions, camera system... UE4 is stupid easy in comparison to Unity+Playmaker. To do exactly same thing in Unity with playmaker... i gave up after 2 weeks.

Like megatronx said, there's a lot of neat stuff exposed in blueprint nodes: timelines, delays, custom events, literally hundreds of different types variables (I really don't like in C2 that I can't make an array variable or simple vector2 variable to store XY - instead you need to make 2 separate number variables sic!).

And everything have build in help infos and tooltips, so there's no need to dig through the help online.

One thing that can be overwhelming is UE4 editor itselfs, there are a lot of buttons, options, parameters, options in options, parameters in parameters

Wow, so you think UE4 is easier to use than Unity+Playmaker? I should have a look at it then. I always figured it would be harder, so I never really looked at it.