Warning! Big text ahead!
Hi guys, it’s been a chaos here in the forums lately. A lot of people bashing Construct 3, other supporting it. I don’t want to remain silent and want to shed a light of my wisdom (Kidding )
Well, it's been a long journey, but i think i can say i am a veteran. I was a hobbyist for 8 years, i’ve been working as a teacher for a year and as game developer for 2 years. I already worked full indie with my savings, released a game, graduated in Game Development and work at a school/game studio. Why i’m saying all this? Because i want to tell you my perspective with the C3 thing it’s going on.
I’m not very active in the forums or social networks, but i’ve been using Construct Classic since old days. Ten years ago i was a Clickteam user, and found about CC on the forums. People were saying: “It’s like Multimedia Fusion, but for free and more powerful!” I checked it out, and two weeks later i was in love. Man, that software were superb. So powerful, so easy, so much freedom.
My history with Construct began there. And then came news about Construct 2. It was something different but alike at same time. Something about HTML5, web and all that stuff. At that time i was ok, because Flash games dominated the “market” and i could put some web games online. It was no a brainer for me, bought a license, a proud early adopter and sticked for the ride.
And the Scirra team, who it was practically 
Ashley at the time, were some kind of monster of productivity. Man, it was so fun, a new update every week, the climax of the week was: “Man, what new feature they will release this week?”. And with a solo programmer, Ashley was a like a superhuman with programming powers, how could he create those things so fast?
When i was at the college everybody talked about XNA, Flash and Unity. And so i was the evangelist of Construct, i talked with the principal, talked with the teachers, and i opened some classes for my fellow colleagues teaching CC. My graduation project was a Educational Game for android in partnership with a hospital that treats burn victims. In the end of my course almost all machines had a free version of Construct 2 installed
And i had a teacher, who was an IT teacher. He was a very good programmer. When he saw Construct 2 visual coding he was amazed. He told me this was the future of coding. It happened before, From 0 and 1 to assembly. Language C to C++, then C#, Javascript, python, more and more, code became more simple and readable. We still have people who knows how to code in assembly, we still need the C++ masters. But more and more it’s more about content creation, creativity, easy to use, user friendly. It's all about what you create not how you create.
And Construct in general it’s the best in the market at this, period. What construct can do, it does beautifully. Man, i teach programming for kids, and when they start creating games is incredible. We promote mini game jans at the course, the kids use C2 and it’s so cool see what they can do. And i’m talking about kids with 8 to 12 years old. I wish i had construct with their age.
There was a time i was feeling down. Because everybody just speak Unity or Unreal and you need to know some big tool to say you’re a game developer. People tent to defend what they like and think what it’s right attacking what other people like. Steam for example, people bash violently at Unity games, when they know it’s made in Unity, because there were some users who build a steam greenlight for games made out of tutorials, or using a lot of free assets. Sure the quality of some games were bad, but created a thing in there that Unity games are trash and it can be only good if it’s made in Unreal. The neighbor’s grass is always greener...
Man, i have to laugh about that. My friend and coworker it’s a Unity developer and we joke about that. People sometimes are so naive. I tell you, never stick with just one tool, learn everything you can. Sure some tools have limitations, but the video game industry was born with the limitation. The limitation force ourselves, bring our creativity to the table, how to solve problems. Read the post mortem of Crash Bandicoot for PS one and see how they made miracles within the limitations of the PS one era. Even Sony couldn’t recreate Crash at the time.
http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/02/02/making-crash-bandicoot-part-1/
See to what the guys of Pico 8 can do. A fantasy console with some limitations made on purpose. Play some games and see what incredible things can be done with a 128x128 pixel screen and 16 color palette.
http://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
Limitation. We learn how to bend it, to create over it. It’s been done in the past and it’s still been done today. But today we have a big arsenal at our hands. I heard a dev once joking, he made his 2d platform game in Game Maker and people were: “Why don’t you use Unity?”. He said: “Do i need a rocket launcher to kill a ant?”.
During the Construct 3 info outbreak( ) i saw some people raging, saying all kind of stuff and that they would cancel their projects because of that… Sorry but this is silly. People saying they would change software and never comeback. And Scirra didn’t even revealed all features of C3. The user don’t understand what they want. Henry Ford once said:
“If i had asked people what they wanted, they would have said Faster Horses…”
Steve Jobs it was another visionary. When Apple announced iPhone, people raged too: “How can Apple make phones? Apple create iPods and Macs that’s all, this iPhone idea is crazy!”. This innovation changed the way we live. And i am seeing the pattern repeat with Scirra.
When Scirra betted for HTML5 people raged. Now we have great things made because of HTML5, like Slack. We have Babylon JS, a great 3D engine powered by HTLM5. If you said eight years ago that we could have decent 3D in web people would say: “You’re insane!”. Now each day HTML5 is used in a lot of things and we don’t even know. It’s just there. Scirra nailed it betting on it.
And now they are doing it again. I’m betting on Scirra in this one. People don’t understand this has a potential to be paradigm shift. The way we create and develop games. If it was not Henry ford, we would been riding faster horses nowadays instead of cars.
About the pricing method. Which i believe it’s the most controversial subject, two years ago i didn’t have time to watch Netflix, but i didn’t cancelled my subscription, i wasn’t using it, but i paid every month. Why? Because i knew i was supporting those guys create some incredible content. The Netflix originals exist because we customers invest in them. Blockbuster had the chance to buy Netflix, but they said no one would pay for online streaming movies. Now Blockbuster is gone and Netflix create some amazing movies and series, with Hollywood actors and all.
Innovation. My Unity Developer friend is so hyped with C3 that he just talks about C3 now. To create and fix games on the fly from his tablet was his dream since he was a kid. Imagine the be able to create games, at same time with a friend, doing changes that both can see in real time in the project. I believe this can be done with C3’s new architecture. The possibilities are amazing!
Some years ago people were imploring to Scirra create a Crowdfunding or a Kick Starter. Now we have the chance to help Scirra to bring our dream come true and we are complaining. Scirra Team is small, and made outstanding things. Imagine with money and a large team. A team with the size of the Unity team for example. This could lead to Global Domination
They could bring things like 3D to construct, because the HTML5 nature. I’m working on some Unity games, and sometimes things are very overcomplicated. And you get used to Construct easiness and 3D can be a very complex beast. I read Ashley said once that they didn’t 3D yet, because to have 3D just for the sake of a feature it’s no good. It would be complicated and few would be able to use. For example Multiplayer, Scirra made a great job with it, people asked a lot and nobody use it. It’s cool to have, but the time spent on it could’ve be spent in a more important feature. If i’m not mistaken, they decided to go with it because a forum pool. We voted for it and we don’t use it. We don’t know what we want, again, like Henry said.
But Ashley said, if they would go 3D, it should be with the simplicity of Construct. Guys, imagine with manpower and money we could have a great engine at our hands. The price of 99$ per year it’s not very expensive, even in my country where $1,00 = $3,50. I know in some countries this situation is worst, but for the majority it’s not.
That’s why i think free version should be less limited. This is for the community. I can create games without families, with just 4 layers, limited features. But we need more events. Maybe unlimited. This would be great for everybody. I made a game for my work, within 100 events limits. A Pokemon + Mario game with a level editor and more than 40 monsters. We had to use the Free edition because the students had to take the game home. I used some crazy techniques, like one sprite holding all animations and the properties of the monster inside the name of the animation, using tokenat(). It was good experience because i never needed to check the limit of events, i have a C2 license since the beginning.
But the Event Sheet it’s so well designed that it’s a pity not everybody knows about it. If i could ask one feature for C3 it would be this. A higher or no limit of events. This could even rival the Unity Free version.
As a teacher and game developer enthusiastic, i have to study a lot of tools in the market to see if they can adapt to our course. I’ve been studying Blender, which a tool i really like, Unity, Godot, Super Powers etc. But i always come back to Construct, for Game Jams or something personal.
This end up too big, and i think a lot of people won’t have the patient to read. Ashley and 
Tom, i believe you read the forums, and sometimes can be disheartening to read it, it’s more easy for people to say bad things than good things. But there are a lot of people like me who stay years supporting from distance. I’m so amazed with the potential of C3 and reading those negatives comments annoy me, imagine you guys. At least i can write this big post to thank you for the great thing you created. I never imagined i could work in my country developing games with a salary, but Construct helped me with that.
Please, keep up the great work!