Excal's Forum Posts

  • Our entry, although it's not made with C2.

    http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-3 ... &uid=21296

    (Sorry, I can't resize the image on Scirra forums.)

  • He's posted this topic on every game engine forum I know of, so I don't know if he's working in C2, Unity, or Unreal. I don't even know if he uses an engine at all, or if he is just posting his game idea everywhere.

  • I noticed you posted this in the Unity forum as well. I find your approach to game design very flawed from the outset because you don't consider target audience (which is why 'perfect' game design cannot exist).

    This response tells you a lot of problems with idea:

    http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/perfec ... st-2068680

  • I will be participating, although not using C2.

  • Hopefully the mods don't have anything against bumping a thread a year old, but I got an email about a Construct 2 update the other day (yes, I still update C2 even if I don't use it) so I decided to check out how things have changed in a year.

    I'm quite impressed. I believe Scirra has taken a lot of good steps toward increasing community engagement through their online store. Here's what I would like to see site-wise:

    • Better store listing. Right now it defaults to best-selling, which tends to favor items with flashier icon/image. It should default to average customer review, but the algorithm should also take into account the number of reviews given. I'm not sure if it does that already, but if it doesn't then one review that is 5 stars would be enough to bump up the item to the top.
    • Split the 'How Do I...?' forum into subforums or make a 'How Do I...?' category with forums separated by topic. The 'How Do I...?' forum has always been a discombobulated mess of people bumping their posts to the top because everything is under one roof. Some people are more knowledgeable in some topics than in others, and it hurts both the topic creator and the possible helper by centralizing everything in one place. Not to mention the bumping issue I touched on earlier.

    For the developers themselves or possibly a very proficient C2 developer hired by Scirra:

    • Project tutorials. Right now we have .capx examples, but those aren't really tutorials. While it's easy to argue that C2 is very beginner-friendly, developing a project from start to finish involves a lot of learning that goes beyond the simple C2 UI and messing around with things. Take a look at the Unity tutorial page (http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules) and you'll see the same topics separated by category that C2 has, except at the top there are Projects that take a new user from zero experience to a completed game. People learn differently - some prefer the mass of topics and tutorials that teach specific parts, while others want to just dive into a tutorial that creates a game from scratch, uses best practices, and teaches neat tips or tricks. Pardon me if some of these tutorials exist already, but if they do then the tutorial section of the site needs to be reworked to include an easy link to these near the top.

    What I'd like to see from the community:

    • Less platformer templates/games with source on the asset store and more 'modules' that pertain to other genres (an example would be a shooter sprite with basic events controller for movement + shooting). Don't get me wrong - competition is great, and there are a few platformer templates on there that seem really good (I haven't tried any so I cannot verify they are actually good), but what I'd like to see is one or two de facta 'best' platformer templates instead of the 'here to make a quick buck' ones that plague the store at the moment. This might be an exaggeration, but that's my takeaway from things.

    Honestly, I haven't used C2 for about 2 years now and don't have plans to return. But I love C2 and will always be watching how the product and community evolves, so hopefully Scirra takes my suggestions into consideration. One thing I really like is the multiplayer server addition they added - it seems to be very unique since C2 is primarily an event-based engine that doesn't require a programming language. I've never seen a multiplayer system in a non-coding engine, so I wonder about how optimized the multiplayer server can be, but I think this is a good start. Perhaps in the future we'll have server variants on the store for purchase and tinkering, such as a real-time optimized version and a turn-based optimized version. Obviously this is just a face-value evaluation of the system based on a light skim of the multiplayer description, but hopefully Scirra has some better ideas in mind on how to expand on this.

  • Sure, but you're also already in production. I say this because you've already invested so much time into Courier. If you were still in pre-production, you would have more freedom to choose an engine. I could say the same thing - recreating my card game in C2 would take much more time and likely even be impossible since it's a 3D game.

    If you're in preproduction and scoping out engines, a basic search of "I don't know how to program but want to make a 3D game in Unity" would bring up Playmaker and tons of Playmaker help resources, including articles written by non-programmers who are currently selling 3D games in the app store. The same applies for 2D, and this even applies if you're wanting to try out Unreal Engine 4. Yes, you can make a decent game in UE4 with no programming at all.

    There are also other variables here. For example, you're more of a lone wolf/hobby dev. There was a recent Reddit thread calling for a distinction between hobby and indie developers. I'm an indie developer, but all that means is my company, Impulse Limited, isn't working with a publisher. We still have a full-time 8-man team working on our game, so we're closer to a game studio than what many people think of when they hear 'indie dev'.

  • newt, I actually am cozying up to game journalists and press for my game. Why? Because I want people to hear about my game. I don't see what your problem is.

    szymek, Even though I've moved on to Unity, C2 is still very fast for me to prototype with. I still use it to test out some 2D ideas. If you're looking to 'ease into' programming, check out the Playmaker asset on the Unity Asset Store. I don't use it since I've been trying to focus on coding, but there's no shame in using a 'visual scripting interface' with Unity - the team behind Hearthstone (yes, HS was made with Unity), Republique, and many other 'big' games have all used Playmaker. After all, why hard-code everything when you can string events together and focus on coding the more interesting parts of your game? That's what Playmaker is about.

    If you're new to state machines, it may take a few minutes to wrap your head around it. But once you understand states, you'll learn a powerful gameplay programming tool. I actually learned the importance of states when I was working with C2. I was trying to figure out how to handle the AI for my open-sourced space shooter when I realized an enemy ship would be in one of three states every second of the game:

    • Close to either asteroids or player (distance to either is less than X), but closer to asteroids than the player. -> Shoot asteroids about to crash into the AI ship, even if player is nearby, and try to move away from closest asteroid.
    • Close to either asteroids or player (distance to either is less than X), but closer to player than the asteroids. -> Shoot player until this is no longer true, if accelerating toward player, move in opposite direction (prevents my AI ships from looking like they're constantly trying to crash into the player).
    • Greater than X distance from both asteroids and player. -> Fly towards player.

    States are pretty useful ^_^

  • If you'd like to compare one party vs two party system, try reading Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos. It gives insight into China's recent rise from a third world country to a heavy market player.

  • Copy was already introduced here a long time ago.

    It was, and back then the referral system didn't have a limit. My copy account has 5TB of free storage due to referrals, but now I think the most you can get through the referral program is 25GB.

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  • Tools actually have a lot with accomplishing your goals. For example, trying to make a 3D game in C2 is probably possible, but you're much better off just using a 3D engine. The same applies for publishing - why would you use Stencyl if you're trying to publish on XBox One? You'd be hard-pressed to export to your desired platform because you chose an engine that isn't targeted toward that platform.

    As for skill and drive, sure, you can cut down a tree with a knife - that would be hard working and require a lot of skill and drive. But you could also choose to be smart about it and get a chainsaw. As my first employer told me, tools are tools - don't get married to them and pick the right one for the job. C2 is great for some things but not great for everything.

  • In short, get a lawyer.

    Even if you can't afford one, try to find someone who might be a family friend who understands legal issues. Producing an indie game as a sole proprietor instead of at least forming an LLC is opening you up to a lot of trouble if someone decides to come after you.

  • I have nothing against C2, but I switched to Unity primarily because of two reasons:

    • Industry standard. I can have my game 'fail' and probably get a decent job with a company working on another game because Unity is more standardized.
    • Export. This is the issue mentioned by someone else. HTML5/web is not a profitable platform right now, and C2 export options are all third-party plugins. If you want to see C2 get some real adoption, Scirra must produce and maintain their own exporters, just like Unity does. Trying to export to mobile in C2 is a bunch of headaches where Scirra blames the plugin developers and the plugin developers blame Scirra.

  • The prototype has been made! Cohack is now reborn as a Unity project.

    Play the ludum dare entry here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=21296

    The project is also now on social media.

    Facebook: http://facebook.com/cohacknightfall

    Twitter: http://twitter.com/cohacknightfall

  • Not a C2 game, but this was my entry - a turn based tactical game .

    http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=21296

  • You mention C# experience. Have you ever worked with Unity?