A discussion about C2

I thought I might start a thread about what the users would like to have in Construct 2.

Its been stated that C2 will have Opel GL support, and should be easier to make cross platform, but what else is in Ashley's bag o-goodies?

Keep in mind this should be about the system, objects, and behaviors should probably be discussed somewhere else. It should also be limited to things Construct cant do for what ever reason.

A couple things I would like to see are:

• Sprite[index]: An automatic id for multiple instances.
• Flip & Mirror: These are available for some behaviors, but it would be nice to have if your setting up your own movements.
• Zero based... everything: An ease of use thing, like Array's start with one, animations start with one, but distortmaps, random(), etc. dont.
• Access to resources stored in the exe: Explains itself I guess. Would be nice to at least be able to read an internal file, even better if you could write to one, but I doubt if that could happen.

I'm sure there's a lot more, feel free to post some of your own thoughts.

Well within reason I guess, no 3d, etc.

Built-in encryption/decryption for external data files (images, music, text, everything).

Because keeping everything in a single .exe is bad.

2 Things:

1) Cross Platform. This is probably the most important thing - Bring Construct games to as many platforms as possible. Pc, Mac, Linux, X360, PSN, Wii, iPhone, Android, you name it.

2) Make it possible to share game mechanics in a simpler way - If I have a double jump group that is all setup and works, it'd be awesome if we could take that group and just drag it over to another project and - boom - I have the double jump mechanic in my new project.

That could be amazing with mechanics that we could share online - One guy figures out this really smart way to create split screens and everybody can just take that resource and bring it into his own project.

Isn't flixel working like that already? This could make Construct soooo powerful.

Actually, if those two things can be tackled, I'd be one happy donut.

I'm always interested to hear ideas! I'm pretty split on the zero-based/one-based thing though. On the one hand, 1-based is the most intuitive to non-programmers. On the other, the math often works out better zero based (eg. looping to set object positions from an origin), and the rest of computing works zero based (and one of Construct's goals is to teach the basic principles of programming and logic). There's also that if we change it to 0-based in C2, it will create confusion for a lot of users moving over from C1. One thing's for sure though, that one standard should be agreed and everything should use it!

Despite the initial pain I think moving to 0-based in C2 is the best thing to do. 0-based indexing is easy enough to get your head around, and is closer to how computers and programming really work.

[quote:6itmsifa]Flip & Mirror: These are available for some behaviors, but it would be nice to have if your setting up your own movements.

I am fairly sure you can set the width/height to a negative number to flip a sprite.

[quote:6itmsifa]Zero based... everything: An ease of use thing, like Array's start with one, animations start with one, but distortmaps, random(), etc. dont.

What is this? I don't even.

All I want really is an online plugin. That is the only major thing imo construct is missing, other than the encryption... However encrypting image and sound files won't stop anyone that wants them bad enough.

Should make a page on the wiki for Construct 2. So this page and ideas aren't lost forever.

Clickteam are doing that for MMF3 and it seems to be a good place to put ideas.

it will create confusion for a lot of users moving over from C1.

I hope this won't happen a lot with other ideas, especially if it means improving the program. Just let the users use C1 if they hate change.

copy paste events/objects through projects etc. reusable codeeee

with regards to deciding to go with 0-based or 1-based indexes, why not use an initial setup that asks users which they would be more comfortable with and use a short description like, "Choosing 0-based indexes will start counting at 0" and "Choosing 1-based indexes will start counting at 1" but this would only affect what the user sees but under the hood it's really 0-based indexes?

too complicated? it's starting to sound like it ... i prefer 0-based indexes by the way! =P

other things i'm interested in as well:

• online plugin!
• splitscreen!
• better sprite/animation editor!

Construct is the best at what it does in my opinion but there's still so much more it could do, just a matter of time.

* Being able to Print the event sheet.

* Copy and Paste between Projects

* Porting Plugins, or making many of them standard

* High Score Board Object

...but lets get v1 stable first. I really want the Xbox controller working again

I'm gonna throw some requests for the SDK out there:

- Built in edit-time message pump. I can't figure out how to set this up without gutting one of the plugins that has one (e.g. physics, bones, etc...)
• Dynamic parameters list for actions and conditions. For example, you have three parameters such as a combo box(with two values such as "Set position" and don't set position) and two values. If the combo box is set to the "Set position" option, then you could have the other two parameters appear. This would keep useless parameters from being shown to the user and sucking up space.

I think these would be great additions to the SDK.

i don't have much of requests but here are 2 of them:

-making the sprite editor a bit more powerful, i know photoshop and GIMP already exist but wouldn't it be better if everything the developer wants is available in a single package.

-this one could sound a bit absurd but.....a logo change?? i mean the current logo is a cog , game maker's logo is also a cog, stencyl logo is also a sort of cog. I know, when you think of game development tools you first think of hammers, cogs etc. but it will be better if we change it to something else, maybe a small competition for making the best logo??( mary jane would probably win )

-this one could sound a bit absurd but.....a logo change?? i mean the current logo is a cog , game maker's logo is also a cog, stencyl logo is also a sort of cog. I know, when you think of game development tools you first think of hammers, cogs etc. but it will be better if we change it to something else, maybe a small competition for making the best logo??( mary jane would probably win )

Chronologically Construct had the cog first I believe.

Then again that's probably a good reason to change it.

Also nb4 Drule

Proper screen resolution support.

I'd love to see cap files replaced with something along the lines of an IDE style project folder. The general project info would be in an XML file (settings, lists of objects & plugins, etc.). Everything else would be pushed out into sub-folders (images, music, data, layouts, events, scripts, etc.).

C2 could then have a function to bundle entire project folders into zip based caps for sharing, but still giving teams the ability to collaborate on project using CVS systems. Event sheets, layouts, object settings and families could all be created using XML files, meaning you could even make small changes to projects using notepad.

Unity3D has something like this, whereby dropping a file into a project folder immediately makes it available in the IDE. A really nice system, IMHO.

That's a nice plan, GMG, and has been discussed before. That's definitely on the cards.

Having events compiled into C++ in advance rather than interpreted at runtime.

Also, I second (or third?) the better image editor. I'd do most stuff in Photoshop, but I'd hate to have to use Photoshop for some simple changes to an image which could easily be done in the image editor. Some stuff is really hard to do with the image editor right now.