Constructinator's Forum Posts

  • My Breakout-game is coming along great, and now it's time to smash some blocks. The regular ones are easy enough. On collision with ball, simply play a sound and smash them (in that order, so I'm sure the sound is played.) But the harder blocks?

    What I've done so far is that I have a zero-speed block-animation with two frames (the undamaged and cracked block), then simply change the frame from 1 to 0 when the ball hits (as the animation starts with frame 0.) I do this by first creating a local variable called Smashing when the block is created and set it to 2, then set it to 1 when the ball hits. This works fine. I've tried having three of those solid blocks plus a few normal blocks in a level, and everything works fine. (note: It's tempting to set the frame directly to 1 when the ball hits, but by using a variable, I can have as many frames as I want. I could require a block to be smashed ten times this way, if I wanted to be a bit evil. But I wouldn't do that. Nope. Not at all. Most likely-)

    However, how do I smash the harder blocks the second time they are hit? It should be simple enough to check the variable of the block once it's hit, then destroy it if the variable is set to 1. But... how? Much as I love Construct2, I can't seem to figure out how to make an event have three steps instead of just two. (ball hit -> check variable -> smash it if necessary.) All I can do is check the variable if the ball hits. I simply can't find a "Check variable" anywhere?

  • Thanks, that comes in handy. I don't need a mouse cursor yet, as it's the early stages of a Breakout-game. But I will need one later when I'm working on menus, so I'll make a custom one for those.

  • I'm beta testing Elder Scrolls online again this weekend. I think it's pretty much open beta now if you can figure out where to apply.

    (participants this weekend will get a free monkey pet when the game launches.)

    Thanks for letting me know. Consider me playing ESO all weekend.

  • Hehe, I'm having a lot of fun, yes. And while it sounds weird with "I have a prob... wait, I don't... actually I do...", there's a reason for it. When I get a problem I can't solve, I ask for help here. But that doesn't mean I give up trying to solve it. Sometimes it's a big problem, and I can't solve it. Other times, I'm missing something obvious. Like a stupid, invisible block.

  • Thanks! That helped a lot.

  • Hopefully a simple question, but is it possible to hide the mouse cursor when you run the game? Sure it's in a browser, but does that mean I'm doomed to show the cursor?

  • Thanks, I'll try the family stuff. Howeve,r now I have a new, weird problem. I deleted the layout for level 2 and 3, then duplicated level 1 twice to make a new version. This works fine, except that when I change the event-sheet for one layout, it changes it for all of them. How can I assign individual event-sheets? Strangely, it worked fine the first time, so is it a bug? Or am I just missing something obvious again?

    EDIT: Solved the event-sheet issue, but now the game refuse to get past level 2. Even when all blocks are gone, it doesn't go to level 3, despite the event-sheet telling it to go there when all blocks are gone. It's the exact same code I've used all along, except now it doesn't work. Weird.

    EDIT 2: I cleared out all of Level 2 and put everything back, and now it works. Must have been an invisible block somewhere, I guess.

  • Interesting. Right now I don't use Families to change levels. A simple sprBlock.Count = 0 does the trick quite well. The only problem is, as I said, that I don't know how to add other event-sheets into a single layout, or how to move to a new level. I can go from level 1 to 2 by telling the game to go to Layout2, but I can't seem to find a Go To Next Layout or anything like that. You would think it would be that simple, but... no. Or is it just me who's missing something?

    EDIT: D'oh... I tried right-clicking the Event-sheet, and it says right there "Include Event Sheet". So I made three new Event-sheets: One for level 1, one for level 2, and one for level 3 (each a different layout). Then I changed the name of first Event-sheet (with the pad, ball and blocks) to "General Stuff", and added a simple sprBlock.Count = 0 to each of the level-event sheets. So if the sprBlock.Count = 0 in event sheet 1, go to layout 2. If it's 0 in layout 2, go to layout 3. Now when I smash all the blocks in level 1, it continues to level 2, and when I smash the blocks there, it goes to level 3. Problem solved.

  • I haven't worked with Construct2 much, but I did use Game Maker for some time. In that one, I would create a naked template for the player, then add the hair, clothes etc on to that. So for the hair, make a seperate object that stays on top of the template's head. (in GM, I'd use "Hair.x = Template.x" and so on. Not sure how to do it in Construct2, but I guess it would be something similar.

    Also, I'd create a new variable called Hair, then assign the player's chosen hair to that template. That way I can use that variable for all hair-stuff, no matter what hair the player chooses. I hope you understand what I mean.

    Edit: For that matter, that is how a lot of "big" games do it. Resident Evil let you change costume, for instance. If I'm not mistaken, that is possible because the base model are naked, so they put the clothes on the model after you start the game. Naturally, the player won't see a naked character, but it means it's easy to remove the clothes and put other clothes on. Pretty sure this is also why some games have glitches where you see the character naked.

  • This is probably simple, but here goes: I'm making a Breakout-game, where you bounce a ball to smash blocks, and stuff like that. I've found tutorials to do most things, but strangely, none of them shows how to change the levels once all the blocks are gone. So how do I do that?

    I know I can make seperate Event-sheets for each level, but I prefer to use a single Event-sheet as much as possible, to avoid having to copy and paste a ton of stuff (ball movement, power-ups, pad-movement etc). I use a sprBlock.Count to see if there are any blocks left, then move to Layer 2 if there's no more blocks. However, is it possible to simply go to the next layer instead?

    Also, is it possible to use two event-sheets for a single layout? If so, I can use one common Event-sheet and one specific to each level. And if that's possible, which one takes priority? So if I move the pad one way on the common sheet (like only left/right), can I move it differently on the level-specific Event-sheet (like up/down?)

    Thanks for any help. As you can understand, I'm new to all of this. This is my first project, in fact.

    EDIT: Sorry, I just noticed there is a Beginner's Question subforum here. I'll be sure to post there next time.

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  • One idea I like a lot is taking two somewhat random genres and mash them together, to see if it works. Match-3 and roleplaying? Puzzle Quest and Scurvy Scallywag. Match-3 and platforming? Henry Hathsworth. Zelda and Minecraft? Windborne. Sometimes, even the weirdest combinations make excellent "new" games.

    Though if you've had a Commodore 64 back in those days, you might remember a game called H.E.R.O. It's basically one guy in a jetpack flying through 2D caves, avoiding bats, blowing up doors and so on. It was freakin' awesome, and I'd really love to see a new take on that stuff. The concept is simple: Fly around in a 2D cave (looking from the side, not top-down), avoid crashing into anything, land only in safe areas, have limited fuel (refilled at said safe places) and stuff like that. Simple, yet brilliant. Or simply brilliant.

    Or remake Giana Sisters. That works too. Anything to get rid of the abomination Twisted Dreams.

  • I have one, though the last game I played on it was Killzone. It sucked. Before that, it was Silent Hill: Book of Memories. It has a ton of potential, but feels unfinished. Why have a bunch of characters, if they are all the same? Why have a bunch of skills that doesn't do anything useful? Why have tons of weapons that look the same? You get the idea.

  • Mostly Titanfall and Diablo 3. If you wonder about that last one, don't forget the first expansion (Reaper of souls) is just around the corner. That means they've updated the game a lot, including removing the auction houses (in a week or so, at least.) The game is a billion times better than it was at launch.

    Other that, I keep trying to play a bunch of early access games like Godus, Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2 and Windborne. Oh, and if you haven't played Godus since the last update (around Octorober or so last year), do yourself a favor and try it now. They've remade around 60% of the game from scratch, making it an entirely new game. And it's awesome. When it isn't crashing, at least. :p

  • Thanks, that worked.

  • Thanks, but I can't get that to work either. I have a wall-sprite on each side, and both the pad and wall are set to solid. I've tried enabling collisions, but it's not working. I then set the pad's X-coordinates to the wall and the pad, but neither work. I'm running out of ideas here. Surely someone else has made a Breakout-style game in Construct? How did they solve this issue?