How do I make a secondary loading screen?

I'm not sure if I'm using the right terminology for this, so I'll describe what I mean. My current project uses procedural miner method to draw out the game. The problem is, there is a long period of "black screen" before the array is done, tilemap is drawn and all of the objects are created. What I would like to do is create a loading screen that tells the player what is happening (creating caves, water etc..) while this black screen is up.

I found a similar game by Lolpaca called Greed that appears to do what I'm aiming for. Here's the link to his game. After you start the game, the level is being generated with a status of what's happening.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106247621/Greed%20Demos/Greed-Demo%20v26/index.html

Could someone lend me some insight on this one?

Sent you a pm, but just in case anyone else is wondering:

That loading screen is actually just the top layer of the main layout, with a text object on top and the background set to black & opaque. The text object updates as the generator cycles through the different stages of creating the level. Then when the generator's all done I just make that top layer transparent and the text object invisible.

Thank you Lolpaca! I just came back from a holiday weekend, so I'll give this a try later today. I'll post my findings as soon as I get a chance.

lolpaca

Wouldn't it be easier to just set the entire loading layer to invisible once the loading is done, instead of making each individual object on it transparent/invisible?

lolpaca

Wouldn't it be easier to just set the entire loading layer to invisible once the loading is done, instead of making each individual object on it transparent/invisible?

Yep! I might have done it that way come to think of it. If I didn't, I should have

EDIT - actually I didn't, as I ended up using that layer for the HUD. No idea if there's a performance benefit, but I find it easiest to work with as few layers as possible.

Here's a stripped down version of my prototype with the issue. I've followed the suggestion, and it seems like there is something overriding the initial screen being drawn. Here's a screenshot of my groups and how it's set up.

[attachment=1:2n9i4nkt][/attachment:2n9i4nkt]

Here's the capx

[attachment=0:2n9i4nkt][/attachment:2n9i4nkt]

I don't think I have anything outside the norm, but obviously I'm missing something pretty fundamental here. The mining group, and cleanup group take a significant amount of time (pressing the need for this loading screen!). Whatever I do, I can't seem to get the layout to appear before the arrays are configured...

Also, just a heads up, the project uses the RandomPlus plugin!

Still trying to wrangle in this problem. In doing some more troubleshooting, I found these weird observations:

• The layout does not appear before or in the middle of the groups running in order, only after the arrays have been "set up".
• It appears that disabling the groups is somehow ignored, else the layout would show the "Loading" layer with the updated text.
• Leaving the top layer visible, will show the last update made to the loading screen.

After doing some troubleshooting with Lolpaca, it appears that there is some buggy behavior going on. Trying to replicate issue in a new capx.