GMG's Forum Posts

  • It works! Cap example here:

  • This is a response to a thread in the help forum.

    Based on Mipey's pseudo code, but with a few improvements, this example shows how to make one object orbit around another. Could be useful for certain types of enemy behaviour, shmup option drones, etc.

    Techniques used:

    • Private Variables
    • Containers
    • TimeDelta

    There's probably a better way - I saw a few things in the ACEs that might do this a little more elegantly.

    Hope someone finds it useful.

  • Mipey's eventing above would be better than hot-spot fudging, as it would allow you to rotate the object independently of its orbit. For example, making an option unit in a shmup that would constantly orbit the player, but alway face forwards.

    However, I would change two parts of it:

    1. Rather than use 'Add 1 to Period', I would try to find some way to use TimeDelta, i.e. 'Add n*TimeDelta to Period. This would work based on how quickly you want it to orbit - 360*TimeDelta would rotate once every second, 180*TD once every two seconds, etc. You could even use a PV, say 'OrbitSpeed' to allow you to control this at runtime.

    2. Instead of 'If Period = 360, etc.', I would use 'If Period is greater than 360, subtract 360 from period'. That way you would negate the risk of not exactly equaling 360 (which would be very likely using TimeDelta).

    (untested - hope it works!)

  • it would be nice as well if you could darken the area outside it (or apply some other effect), to enhance the visual distinction.

  • For me their main problem is not their community appearing childish - it's that their refusal to provide anything substantial about their product - not so much as a screenshot - makes them look like a hype machine promoting vapourware.

    I think that is the root cause of their image problem, which has lead to the issues in their community (amongst other things). It doesn't make much sense to not even release a screenshot or a demo video, especially if they are nearing closed beta as they claim. If they are so close to beta, now would be the perfect time to restoke the hype furnace with something tangible, but alas it seems that they are oversensitized to it now - no mention of anything release related is allowed on their site.

    Soldjah - Phantom was a home console that supposedly played PC games downloaded over broadband. The only tangible thing they made was a gaming lap-keyboard, Phnatom itself was just an empty box. They went through masses of investment and switched directors constantly, before finally fizzling out.

  • i think he meant, if someone searched for construct then either they already know about it or they aren't looking for it. What if you search for 'game maker', 'game making software', etc.?

  • The problem, as Ashley pointed out, is that they are a commercial enterprise. They have a corporate image to maintain, which would no doubt be tarnished by releasing buggy software. The mistake they made was to announce too early, building a large amount of hype and ending up with forums full of over-excited loyalists with no product to play with.

    This has done a lot to tarnish there image as well, as the impression that people will get from their community is that they are very immature, whereas they are simply getting bored waiting for the release and just letting off at bit of steam in the mean time. From what I've seen, the makers of stencyl software are doing their best to control the situation and tone down the hype - locking threads that get out of control, trying to answer questions constructively, etc.. I'm interested in seeming what they have to offer.

    Still, I don't think it serves Construct's interests to be going around bashing other products - it just makes the community look childish. How about we just stick to our own territory and play nice?

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  • #35 - I suggested something like this somewhere, along with some other options for collisions. I thought it would be a good idea to have different animated masks for sprites corresponding with the actual animations, giving pixel perfect collisions that don't match the sprite.

    Combining my idea with yours, there could be several collision layers - for sword, shield, body, etc. E.G.:

    On collision between Family('Enemy') and Player.CollisionMask.Sword >> damage Enemy

    On collision between Arrow and Player.CollisionMask.Shield >> Destroy Arrow, play sound

    On collision between Family('Enemy') and Player.CollisionMask.Body >> damage Player

    I think we're onto a winner here.

  • I assume there is a folder that contains all event sheets, but the layouts folder also show which event sheets are associated with which layouts. It may not be clear in the screenshot, since it is a simple project with only one layout, one event sheet, etc.

    I would assume (again) that if you had several event sheets associated with a layout, and event sheets used multiple times across several layouts, the project panel would show how everything is related.

    What I'm wondering is, why Object Folders? Why not just 'Objects', then have sub-folders inside it?

  • I haven't played the game yet (not at my home PC), I just want say thanks for actually putting a decent intro post together. So many people post items in this section with no info, no screenshots, no real description - just a link and something like "here is my new game". It annoys the hell out of me!

    I wish everyone posted their creations with as much detail as you have. It's really nice to have some idea of what to expect on the other end of that link. Thanks.

  • Well, I ceratinly like the sound of that, but you guys are the developers and it's your baby. It's still beta software and I'm sure you have your own plans of where to take it. I do think a centralised project library is a good idea - from a project management point of view it's almost essential.

    I just realised I may have derailed this thread a little. I believe the question being asked was "where does construct lag behind gamemaker?". I'd like to emphasise my earlier point that the lack of a proper tilemap system is a pretty big deal when it comes to developing traditional 2D games. I know things are moving away from fixed tile grid restrictions these days, but tilemaps are still relevant for 2D development. I hope some form of tilemap system can be added to construct one day.

  • I was only referring to the organisation of things - all game elements visible and available on the left hand side, double click to open an edit window. In Construct, some things are in the project window, others in the object bar, or the properties window, etc. As far as the general UI goes, I think GM has an absolute pig of an interface. The frequently over-strict modality is a real pain to work with (e.g. only one script window can be open at a time, and you can't do anything else while it's open!).

    I don't agree with your statement that everything can be found in the project tab. There are times that I have had to go through several steps in order to do something simple. I'll try to do some annotated screenshots to show what I mean, but I need to go to work now, so I'll have to sort them out later.

    Regarding my suggestion of a library - how about extending the project panel to include all objects in the project, not just layouts and event sheets? Then you can give them a right-click menu to choose any of the options related to them (edit graphics, open event wizard, show properties, etc.). Every element of the project would then be available from one centralised location, like in gamemaker and many other software.

  • The organisation of gamemaker's interface and workflow is cleaner and better than Construct, IMO. You have sprites, objects and rooms - draw a sprite, assign it to an object, give the object actions and events, put it in a room, and hey presto - a game! Every component of the game is available in an organised tree structure on the left hand side - sprites, objects, rooms, fonts, sounds, backgrounds, timelines, paths and scripts.

    Obviously, Construct's workflow is hugely different, but I still think it could benefit from a central library panel like some other programs (e.g. Adobe Flash). Right now, all the different parts are spread out all over the place, and you can't access all functions from all parts and modes of the UI.

    Also, another thing that I think Construct could benefit from is the inclusion of a proper tilemap system. The current method combining sprites and tiled backgrounds (as found in Deadeye's platform school) still feels like a hack or a workaround for something that is quite a fundamental feature of many 2D games and engines. I don't know how it would fit in the current workflow, but I think it's something that should be added in some form.

  • I'm not using a sprite, I'm using a box. I want to position objects in relation to the box without needing to do any calculations based on its size. Rather than pre-calculating all of the x/y values, I just want to do 'box.x+2, box.y+2' and have the item spawn two pixels in from the top-left corner.

    I'm using the 'System - create relative to object' action, but the pivot point is always in the centre and I need to spawn things relative to the corner. That's why I made this request.

    Also, not in this case, but maybe in others, it may be necessary to rotate something not around the centre, like you can do in Flash.

    Am I just trying to use the box object in a way it wasn't intended here?

  • Blank sub-events! Never thought of that!

    Cheers, although I've just realised that it won't work anyway. The combo variable will increment whether it is the right key or not, so you could press up-down-up and it would still increment on the second up press. However, if I change the order of sub-events to go from last to first I think I can increment the variable on the sub-event and not have it cascade.

    on Control "Move Up" pressed

    compare global variable "Combo" to 1

    -- do step 2 stuff

    -- Add 1 to "Combo"

    compare global variable "Combo" to 0

    -- do step 1 stuff

    -- Add 1 to "Combo"

    So if Combo==0 it will skip the first sub-event, do the second one, then increment it by 1. If Combo==1 it will do the first sub-event but skip the second. This system has timers in it as well so there is a limited time to make the combo sequence.

    Now, one more thing I need to add is making the combo reset if you press the wrong key. Would an else work at the end of this? If I was programming this I would use IFs, ELSE IFs and an ELSE, but I can't seem to get the ELSE condition working.

    I'll try this tonight and see how it goes.