Greetings Construct 2 community, I am currently looking at buying game creation software for my own personal use for myself and games for friends/family.
After a week of research I have my final choice down to two packages, Clickteam Fusion 2.5 or Scirra Construct 2. If you would answer some questions I have, it would help my final decision.
1: can I truly create a game with ^NO^ programming whatsoever?
2: can someone who pretty much sucked at school and mathamatics create games? (for example, like Jetpack Joyride)
3: can I output native windows code in a single .exe file?
4: Would you recommend I buy a book to learn it, or pay for an online course?
5: is it viable to create a roleplaying game with this software? (no, I'm not silly enough to expect to make a new Skyrim, but something like the old bards tale games?)
Thank you
As someone who's purchased C2 in the past week, I've been through the process you're experiencing. Unlike you, I have one advantage, I do write code in several other languages. So, that gives me some insight into how to answer a few of your questions.
1. As stated above, yes and no. And as far as I know, there's no development platform out there that will totally isolate you from doing some typing and still be able to create what you want. You will still have to learn what variables are and how they work. Construct does isolate you somewhat in that you won't have to learn a gob of them. Integers, floating point, string (text) and boolean variables will do most everything you want.
2. Yes. I barely passed algebra in school and instead of taking the trig and calculus courses, I went for euclidean geometry. BUT, that doesn't mean you won't need to learn some things. For most things, basic math will suffice. Working with sprites and physics though will require you to do some googling. For example, if your sprite is moving X direction at a speed and Y direction at a speed, and you need to know fast it's going in the direction of travel, you'll need some trig (using arctan). Again, you can google things like this.
3. It does not create a single .exe. However, whether it's one file or a dozen, it will be 'stand-alone.' In the world of creating programs and apps, very few are one single exe. Most rely on external files, like .dll's. If you create a 'stand-alone' .exe with C2, it will be installed in one folder with all of the files needed and executed without having C2 installed if that's your concern. The good news is, it will also create executable files for Windows, OSX and Linux, 32 and 64 bit, all at the same time.
4. That depends on how you learn best. I personally learn through screwing things up. I try what I think will work and when it doesn't then I go through the manual (which for Construct is pretty nice).
5. Having played Bards Tale I can safely say that Construct could handle that. BUT... if you're considering creating something along those lines, regardless of what IDE you decide to go with, you're looking at a huge project with lots of "if this then do that" boolean logic. It won't be something you finish in a week or a month.
From my perspective, C2 is one of the easiest drag and drop IDE's that I've found. But make no mistake, creating games in any IDE is work. It's frustrating at times and massively time consuming. As one of my programming friends says about programming, "celebrate each little achievement until you reach the end." But, once you do reach the end and you see someone purchase your work because they like it... it's all worth it.
My advice, start your role-playing game... but work on smaller projects as well. Each one you create, you'll have a victory to celebrate and learn something new in the process which will make your bigger project all the better.