deadeye's Forum Posts

  • Do not feed the troll..... this is quickly going nowhere.

    Was the original Mouse Leading question answered?

    Yes, it was. It's probably well past time this thread closed. People are starting to get a little to personal with their rebuttals, and the debate has swung widely away from "can it be done" to "can it be done without math" to "can Leonardo da Vinci paint without math..."

    Anyway, I'll leave it open for now as long as people can wrangle things back into civility before it gets out of hand.

    One thing I would like to know from PSmith though... in all of your efforts to find a program that does things the way you want it to do, have you ever come across anything? It seems to me that you haven't. You've been circling the net looking for a game creator that eschews math and coding, and have come full circle back to us again for another go.

    You also cite Poser as a brilliant piece of work, and as far as it's capabilities allow, I will grant you that it is. It performs as advertised. I have used Poser, and I know what it's capable of (which is a lot more than Lost my Keys gives it credit for). BUT... and this is a big but... it's not very capable of creating unique content. Yes, you have a lot of customization available to you through the interface... you can alter facial features, you can alter hair length/color/dynamics, you can create unique animations rather easily, you can manipulate models in an almost infinite number of ways.

    But manipulation is where it ends. You cannot use Poser to create something unique, you can only use it to tweak pre-defined settings. Yes, you can load any number of models into Poser and use those as well, from characters to props to landscapes and environments... but you cannot use Poser to create those characters and props and landscapes and environments. You need much more sophisticated software and special training to do that. Something like Maya or Max or Blender. Without someone, somewhere spending time and effort to create content for Poser, you would have no content for Poser.

    So, you have three options here:

    1. Use pre-defined Poser content to create your vision. The limitations of this should be obvious. This is analogous to settling for so-called "cookie cutter code" that you are looking for in Construct. The end result will be obviously lacking in effort and easily dismissed as non-serious work.

    2. Spend resources on someone willing to create Poser content for you that will suit your needs. This is analogous to paying for a coder who will take your game vision, your art, and your assets and bring them to life. You may even find someone who believes in your idea as deeply as you do and is therefore willing to work for free, or on spec. Results may vary, depending on the skill and dedication of your partner.

    3. Learn Max, Maya, Blender, or some other such tool that will allow you to create new Poser content on your own. This is analogous to buckling down and learning the math, logic, event structure and syntax necessary to create a game that exceeds the bounds of what is possible with the simple default movements and behaviors available. The results will be as good as the effort you put into it. You are responsible for how good it is. You are in control.

    Construct is #3. It is Poser and Maya together in one package, not just Poser alone. The way it's set up is that yes, you can make simple Poser renders with the default models if you like, but you also have the capability of digging deeper and making something truly unique and wonderful if you spend the time and energy to do so.

    That time and energy is essential to all great works. There are no work-arounds. There are no shortcuts. Not with Construct, not with any game creator. You need to learn and practice and it's a long, hard road.

    Nobody said making games was easy. Construct is just meant to make things a little easier. You think learning what lerp() means is too much? Try C++ and see how far that gets you. Construct events and expressions are light years easier than mastering a real programming language. Considering it's capabilities, it's likely going to be the easiest game creator you could learn to use, period. For now, at least.

    So, you can continue your search for shortcuts, or you can bite the bullet and start learning. One of those options will get you started on making games, and one will not. Guess which?

  • Something is wrong for sure, but I fixed it pretty easily. I just deleted all the points and re-drew them and it worked fine.

    Still, it shouldn't mess up in the first place so, yeah... bug.

  • Problem solved. It was a noobish thing =S, I made another EventSheet but I forgot to include it in the main =/ Hahaha, well, thanks.

    Carlos

    This is why posting your .cap file is a good thing when you're asking for help. It could be something entirely unrelated, but nobody will know because they can't see what you are working with.

  • I haven't seen it but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. I mean, come on... The Terminator, T2, Aliens... it's not like James Cameron is a dumbass. Those are three of the best scifi movies of all time. The dude knows how to make a movie.

    And I don't see what's wrong with the trailer. No it doesn't look like the greatest story ever told, but it also doesn't look like it comes anywhere near to deserving the inordinate amount of backlash you see all over the internet.

    Anyway, it's got spaceships and big robots fighting giant aliens on a planet with floating islands and... wait, why the hell wouldn't I want to see this movie? Oh yeah, because Internet said it was bad

  • This is game development, and math shall forever be intertwined with it. Construct is aimed at the non-coding user, but non-coding does not mean non-math or non-logic.

    I couldn't have said it more plainly myself.

    And now for a long-winded wall of text:

    Of course, it is possible to make an entire game out of just behaviors and simple events like "Enemy.Count = 0 -> Show 'You Win!'". But anything more complex is going to need a knowledge of math and logic no matter what game creation system you're using. Having a visual representation of every object property, event command, and math function available would be extremely cumbersome, bloated, and inefficient.

    It's not too hard to say "hmm... a speed of 800 is too high for my enemy, I'll type in 400 instead." And it's not to much of a leap from that to say "I want my enemy to slow down the closer it gets to my player, I bet lerp() would be useful here."

    And how would one visually represent such a thing in an event-creation environment? The concept is much too abstract. To specify it in visual terms you would need a special visual representation prepared in the event editor to cover the situation should it ever happen to arise in the course of someone clicking together their game.

    And unless you want to limit the power of Construct to a pre-defined, set number of conditions and actions, you would have to anticipate every possibility that someone might need when creating their game and hard-code a visual representation for each possibility into the event editor, which would pretty much be impossible.

    The way it's set up now with the code-like expressions and math functions you can literally create ANY kind of 2D game you can think of, as long as you have the skill. Going visual-only would severely limit the power of Construct and pretty much cripple it to the point where it would be just a simple editor for a handful of game types.

    Sure, you could plug in your own graphics and sound and whatever, but each game you make would pretty much resemble the last, and they would all be severely lacking any personality. You'd have a cookie cutter that can make a dozen shapes, but all of your cookies will still pretty much still taste the same. Want sprinkles on your cookies? Sorry, sprinkles aren't available because if we include sprinkles, then we'd have to include nuts and raisins and M&Ms and all this other stuff that's just too much work to put in.

    Whereas the event system in Construct currently lets you make your own sprinkles because the abstract nature of code-like language allows for a huge amount of flexibility. Hell, you don't even have to make cookies. You could make mashed potatoes if you wanted.

    So yes, you can make simple click-together games with Construct. But unless you put in the time and effort to learn what making a good game requires, then don't expect to be making very impressive games. That doesn't just go for Construct... that goes for every game creation tool out there. There is no 100% visually oriented game creation tool out there (with any real power) because it just can't be done.

    At least not without intelligent computers that can understand your intentions rather than just your explicit commands, but that's a loooong way off

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  • Oh, there goes Deadeyes evil twin... again.

    More like my sad and frustrated twin. There are a lot of questions lately that are quite plainly answered by taking the tutorials that are linked in the sticky thread of the help forum. No offense to Zetar, but people need to read the guidelines and the stickies that say things like, you know, "READ THIS FIRST" and stuff.

  • <img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/11w55ps.jpg">

    *sigh*

    Just keep at those tutorials... I think there might be a ladder in there somewhere. As described in the first post of my tutorial thread. Maybe.

  • You need to make another layout, not another layer. Right-click the layouts folder in your project list and craete a new one.

  • Just go to layout 4, then try to create any new object. One of the old objects will surely disappear from the layout and the list (set your object box to "show small icons (horizontal)" to see that the number of objects do not change when creating a new one.)

    Um... well...

    I can add objects to your .cap just fine . Everything is working normally. And yes, I did it exactly how you described.

    I really don't know what to tell you.

  • What about the .Count expression? You access it with the "Get number of objects" in the expression editor, or just type ".Count" after your object name.

    System: Compare: Enemy.Count = 0

    No need for a private variable, unless you want something more complicated.

  • If you want collisions like that then you should just use 8Direction directly on your ships and skip the Bullet behavior entirely.

    Physics also has collisions, so that's another option. The Custom Movement object can also do collisions if you don't need something as powerful as physics. In fact, Custom Movement would probably be your best bet.

  • Ah, I can see your screenshot now as well. I know what the trouble is.

    When something is contained with something else, you can only contain one instance of each object. Think "Ice cream and Cake," not "Ice cream and Cake and Cake and Cake." There's just too much cake.

    You have one ship, and three exhausts. You can only contain one of those exhausts. Each of the other two exhaust objects want to belong in a different container with their own respective ships.

    Since you want to attach three of the same object to your ship, you should use the Pairer object:

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/529356/awesomespaceship.cap

    That should do the trick.

  • No, there is no plugin for that.

    CamStudio isn't bad, and it's free.

    http://camstudio.org/

  • Do NOT use the Platform Behavior on your MegaMan sprite.

    Make a plain box sprite the same size as MegaMan. Use that as your Platform Behavior object and collision box. Make it invisible, then place your MegaMan sprite on top of it with events.

    Basically, you don't want to use tagged animations for your platform behavior. You will need to make your own events to control the animation of your sprite. My tutorials show you how to do all of that.

  • Check out deadeyes platform tutorials. That basically covers what you're asking.

    Actually, no it doesn't. I don't have any tutorials on how to switch levels yet.

    You need to make another layout for your second level. Then basically all you need is a condition (like comparing the number of enemies to 0) and the System action "Go to Layout." It's not too hard.