Effect Games

http://www.effectgames.com/effect/

Found this one, anyone tried?

I we're just moving through the amazing webzorlands and came across this and well I'm at school now so can't test what it is like yet...

It looks ok for basic stuff, but I wouldn't expect miracles with it, and it's probably crippled with what it can do simply due to the way it works.

It looks ok for basic stuff, but I wouldn't expect miracles with it, and it's probably crippled with what it can do simply due to the way it works.

I don't see any reason why you might think that . It looks pretty capable of making whatever kind of 2D game you want. I mean, it's Javascript so yeah... real programming language and all.

I guess it's okay, if you just need Turing-complete stuff O_O

yeah, it's awesome. I'm not usually fond of browser-based games (interpreted language, garbage collection, no video acceleration...) but still I gotta try this out.

> It looks ok for basic stuff, but I wouldn't expect miracles with it, and it's probably crippled with what it can do simply due to the way it works.

>

I don't see any reason why you might think that . It looks pretty capable of making whatever kind of 2D game you want. I mean, it's Javascript so yeah... real programming language and all.

Yeah, never been a fan of the Javascript scripting language (I wont call it a programming language). To do anything more than the basics though you need to understand how to use javascript as it looks like it's integrated with just about every aspect of the application. And if you know enough javascript to make something decent, you may as well just write it from scratch and not be tied to the site at all.

I see make your own type applications like this, construct etc. as being aimed at the casual user, or the artist, or the guy in the bedroom who just wants to have a bit of fun. To give those with no or very little programming knowledge a chance to express their idea's that they might otherwise not have the chance to. It's not much fun if 90% of that time is spent learning some other scripting language just to do more than bounce on a platform and shoot a bad guy. When it becomes more about the underlying scripting language than creativity, you may as well just learn C++ and start from the beginning, it would be more beneficial to you in the long run.

It's why I like construct, well one of the reasons. Sure, the event system is basically a scripting language, but the way it's presented and used, is entirely visual and very appealing to a none-programmer. You can jump in and with very little effort, setup a complex working event without having to understand some confusing language or worrying about where to put a curly bracket or a semi colon. If the events were replaced with XML, LUA, Javascript, Python etc. etc. that would be a whole different story.

An example

http://www.effectgames.com/effect/#Arti ... sion_Guide

Not very newcomer friendly to someone with no experience in those kinds of things.

And before anyone says "But X language is eeeaaasssyy", yeah, course it is. So is working in Machine Code if you've been doing it long enough, but you wouldn't have a clue if you'd just come along and it would take months of solid learning to even understand the basics of it. The biggest userbase for programs like these are casual creatives, not coders. A proper coder could do more, in less time, by simply working from scratch, grabbing the libaries they need and doing it themselves. So when they start including complex scripting for more than the basic stuff, it sort of defeats the point and pushes a lot of people away.

Scripting languages - A programmer doesn't need them, an artist doesn't want them.

Besides, you're games on there are only allowed to be 100mb or less, at least that's how much storage space you get, unless you request more (for a fee? I don't know). 100mb doesn't go a long way these days.

Also being javascript, it looks like all your code is open for anyone to look at, take, change, it's not like PHP where it's compiled server side and only the output is shown to the client, or true programming languages that are compiled.

You're also relying on the site themselves, and problems they have, become your problems.

I don't like how their ident appears on your game as it loads either (I'm gonna guess "for a small fee" you can remove that, heh). Construct however doesn't force any of that on you, you can even change the icon and hide the fact you used construct completely, go sell your game and do whatever the hell you want. Because of that, I'm quite willing to say I used construct, but when it's forced on me, I'm looking for a way to remove all signs of it. To me it would be the equivalent of Adobe putting a "Made with Photoshop!" watermark on anything saved in PS. Or ads on sites, if I think your site is worth it, I'll donate, purchase your product or advertise you myself to others. Force ads on me and I'll keep ad-block and no-script on.

So yeah, that's just my personal opinion, I don't expect others to agree. But if I spend more time wrestling with a program rather than doing something productive with it, it's not for me.

This was originally just going to be a simple "yeah not a fan of javascript" reply, but I guess I felt the need to explain a little more, ya'll can wake up now

What I meant was that this is basically just a raw engine... it handles rendering, input, collision detection, and not much else. Someone using this would pretty much just be limited by their programming skill... it's not like you couldn't make whatever kind of 2D game you wanted.

So I guess I don't see how one would be stuck making "basic" or "crippled" things unless they were to cripple their own project with their own basic Javascript skills.

Don't get me wrong, you have a lot of good points and I agree with you on most of them. But this tool seems jim-dandy for someone with Javascript knowledge who wants to make browser games, and it's not like they're advertising that their engine does anything but... so... yeah.

Kind of like hating on toasters simply because you don't want to make toast, I guess.

What I meant was that this is basically just a raw engine... it handles rendering, input, collision detection, and not much else. Someone using this would pretty much just be limited by their programming skill... it's not like you couldn't make whatever kind of 2D game you wanted.

So I guess I don't see how one would be stuck making "basic" or "crippled" things unless they were to cripple their own project with their own basic Javascript skills.

Don't get me wrong, you have a lot of good points and I agree with you on most of them. But this tool seems jim-dandy for someone with Javascript knowledge who wants to make browser games, and it's not like they're advertising that their engine does anything but... so... yeah.

Kind of like hating on toasters simply because you don't want to make toast, I guess.

Well yeah that's true, it's probably fine for someone with enough javascript knowledge or the time/willingness to learn it.

I couldn't find any examples or people's creations beyond the ones included on the first page though. I would have liked to have seen more of what it could do.

Lots of modern browsers have hardcore javascript optimisations (involving compiling it to machine code) which is a plus.

yeah but I've read a lot about garbage collection... and I realised it'll never be a good idea to use a language with garbage collection for a game. There are some inherent things to it that make it really annoying to work with. Oh and no accelerated compositing

A while back in my Basic programming days i wrote a simple little scripting language using simple functions based thing. I didnt make it too far it was more command base but i did play with garbage collection which was included it was pretty cool. BlitzMax was what i was using which btw is a pretty cool language.

I do agree with a lot that was said but i disagree too. Not all scripting languages are useless. Mine was by far but was more of a fun little project not going anywhere. This engine is good for say a hobbiest who wants to make a fun little thing with no actual means to make it BIG. But it would not take off as a big success with how it looks unless someone releases a big fun casual game title for it. Ive played with it and all the work i put into it i would be better off trying canvas if i wanted to make a javascript game. But now you can use Flex SDk to make a game in actionscript which is closely related to javascript. And using other library like Flixel or Flashpunk, which i played with. Idk just me rambling i guess. In other words for me Construct FTW lol.