John Cutter's Forum Posts

  • Awesome replies. Thanks, guys!

  • I have a bug in my prototype and I'm trying to track it down. Here's my "code" in nutshell:

    First, I fill the empty cells in a grid with instances of "spr_test". This seems to work fine. Then I call a function that does the following:

    For "MakeItems" = 1 to 3
     Pick an instance of spr_test at random --> set spr_test.var to a random number between 1 and 3
           spr_test.var = 1 --> create newSprite1 at location of spr_test --> delete spr_test
           spr_test.var = 2 --> create newSprite2 at location of spr_test --> delete spr_test
           spr_test.var = 3 --> create newSprite3 at location of spr_test --> delete spr_test[/code:295myv0b]

Everything about this works great, except it sometimes puts two newSprites on top of each other. I'm guessing that the MakeItems loop happens all three times and THEN it deletes the instances of spr_test. Is that right?

  • <<When it fails to load, are there any error messages? Any messages in the windows logs?>>

    C2 doesn't give me any errors. It just loads forever. I can click on the red "X" and that is generating "application hang" errors in my Windows log. But I'm not seeing any useful information in there.

    <<How big is your project? Have you got thousands of images?>>

    The project is fairly small. 45 events. 20 sprites (with only a few animation frames in some of them). My "frame" image is 1280 x 780 but it seems to work fine at home on a lesser computer.

    <<Have you got lots of Layouts / Event sheets open at the same time?>>

    Nope, only two layouts and one event sheet.

    <<Under 'File/Preferences/ Misc/Other' have you changed the 'icon' mode?>>

    I've never touched that. Is there something in there I *should* change?

    <<Final suggestion - let users here try to load your project and report back to you.>>

    My project loads just fine in Construct 3, so I don't think the issue is there. I'll try loading some other projects and see if those have problems as well.

    Thanks a lot for your help!

  • Version 7 of my project loaded earlier today, after a couple of tries, so on a whim I tried to load version 7 and THEN version 8. For whatever reason, this worked. So I'm back in business for now.

    I'll try re-installing C2 and I'll check with the IT guys to see what kind of software is running in the background on this computer.

    Thanks for the reply.

  • I didn't put this in the bug forum because I think it's an issue with my work computer, or some software that is running in the background. I've been working on a game prototype using Construct 2 and I've been having issues reliably loading my project files:

    1. The .capx only opens about 1/3 of the time. The other times it just loads forever and then says "Not Responding". I exit and try again until it finally loads.

    2. Unfortunately, version 8 of my project -- which has all my work from yesterday -- won't load at all in Construct 2. (Though it loaded and ran perfectly when I tried to launch it in Construct 3, the trial version.)

    3. I am using a .capx file. I tried unzipping the files and running the .caproj but that didn't work either.

    4. On a possibly related note, I have a pretty beefy computer here at work but C2 is slow to load. When I click the icon in the task bar (Windows 10) nothing happens for four or five seconds and then the editor pops up. At home the load is almost instant. That, again, tells me that there might be some software validating the .exe or something...

    Has anyone else reported loading issues like this? Anti-virus software incompatibility maybe? Does anyone have any suggestions? I have work to do and I'm stymied.

    Thanks.

  • Easter was several months ago, but I this year I made a new Egg Hunt for my daughter! I didn't want to use our old house again, so I set this year's hunt in Autumn's favorite place on earth: Disneyland!

    I was able to use most of my code from last year's game, and I found photos and YouTube videos for the backgrounds and audio. Took me a [long] day to finish it, with a few hours the next day to fix some bugs.

    HOW TO PLAY:

      1. Find the five hidden eggs in each scene to automatically progress. 2. You can zoom in with the mouse wheel, and click and drag to move the scene. (This game won't work on phones/pads.)

    DISCLAIMER:

    I wanted the game to be challenging, but I inadvertently made it way too hard. Some of the eggs are nearly invisible...

    Here's the link, if any of you are interested: http://cuttergames.com/egghunt2a/

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  • I have a bunch of standard .json files that define components. I was hoping I could use C2 to parse the .json files and create a .png image; but it seems that Scirra uses a special .json format.

    I've got the File Chooser working, and I can grab the text of the file using AJAX. But there doesn't seem to be a good way for me to parse the data. Is it possible?

    Here's what my .json data looks like:

    {

    "name": "basic_gun",

    "columns": 4,

    "rows": 6,

    "tileWidth": 32,

    "tileHeight": 32,

    "tiles": [0, 1, 2, 0, 0, 3, 7, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 10, 1, 1, 14, 1, 1, 1, 1],

    }

    There are only 15 values that can go in my grid (which can be variable in size). My plan is to have a 32x32 sprite for each value and lay them out appropriately by columns and rows. Then I'm hoping to be able to take a snapshot of the canvas and invoke a browser save. I'll have to change the canvas size dynamically after reading in the .json file... Is that possible?

    I have a huge amount of respect for Ashley and the crew at Scirra. Construct 2 is a great piece of software and I've enjoyed using it! But like many others I feel compelled to weigh in on the new subscription model. I completely understand the reasoning behind it, but it doesn't work for me at all.

    I've been a professional game designer for many years, but I like to make little side projects in my spare time using C2, Gamemaker Studio, and Fusion 2.5. Unfortunately, I frequently get very busy at work and it's not unusual for me to put my side projects on hold for four or five months... sometimes more. With that kind of usage schedule I just can't justify spending $99.00 per year. Last year I probably used Construct 2 for a total of a month...

    The reason for the subscription is due, I assume, to the high cost of becoming a web-based service, right? I can see where this change would be beneficial for Scirra, but I'm not yet clear how it benefits us users? (That's a legitimate question -- I haven't done enough research yet.)

  • Man, I'm such an idiot. It took me 10 seconds to find the problem when I looked at it this morning. (I was setting myvariable to "1" when sprite0.y was < 768. <head slap>)

  • I'm trying to do something pretty simple, but it's not working and I can't figure out why. (Clearly my C2 skills have gotten rusty...)

    Here's my pseudocode:

    if left_button clicked then set y of sprite0 to 1
if sprite0.y >= 1 then add 1 to sprite0.y
if sprite0.y >= 768 then: 
     destroy sprite0
     set myvariable to 1
if myvariable >= 1 then add 1 to myvariable
if myvariable > 50 then [do something]
[/code:32ads55e]

The global variable "myvariable" is never getting larger than 50.  When I run this code in debug mode the variable jumps up in big numbers and then resets back to 1.  Does anyone know why???  There is probably a better way to do all of this, but for the moment I'm really trying to understand why this isn't working...  It's driving me nuts.

  • I have used Clickteam products for years, but when I needed to make some HTML5 prototypes recently I purchased a copy of Construct 2 and I haven't looked back. It's an awesome tool and I keep finding new features that just make me shake my head in wonder. "I didn't know C2 could do THAT!"

    I'm a professional game designer and a big part of my job is prototyping new game concepts and features. I'm about to start on a new project this morning and I would LOVE to use Construct 2 but there is a Clickteam feature (and an even nicer implementation of the feature in GameMaker Studio) that I use all the time but I don't think C2 has anything like it. Specifically, I'm talking about paths.

    I need the ability to draw a path on the screen and then have my object follow that path with a simple line of code. Is there a workaround? Is there a Construct 2 feature I'm missing that would make this easier? How do YOU make objects follow complicated paths? How would you make a Zuma-style game in C2?

  • I created an app to help me (and others) learn French. Thanks to Construct 2 it uses both text-to-speech AND voice recognition (for browsers that support it).

    The main application is on a non-secured (http) page and it works perfectly. I have a loading page that checks to see if there are updates, and if so it downloads them before continuing.

    I am mirroring that page to a different page that uses a shared SSL certificate. (My host does this for me automatically.) This is necessary for users who want to use the voice recognition feature.

    Here's my problem. When I update my app by uploading a new word list, the non-secure app updates perfectly. The secured version does NOT update... unless I use Incognito Mode in Google Chrome.

    The secured app is just a mirror of the non-secure app. They are identical... Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening?

    If you are curious, the app is here:

    http://www.cuttergames.com

  • About six months ago my wife and I moved from the United States to Paris. The hardest part about the relocation was moving away from our 26 year old daughter, Autumn. The other day my wife suddenly said, "Do you realize that this will be the first time we haven't had an egg hunt for her on Easter morning?"

    That's when it hit me: I can use Construct 2 to make an egg hunt game, using pictures of our old house! So I grabbed some photos from the real estate website, pilfered some egg and bunny images off the internet, grabbed some audio from a cheesy YouTube video, and put together a quick game:

    http://www.cuttergames.com/autumn/

    When my daughter saw it Easter morning she said, "Awwww... Dad... you're going to make me cry!" Thanks to Construct 2 I made her day! (And her reaction made my day.) <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":-)" title="Smile">

    UPDATE: I made a new game for 2017. See my link at the bottom of this thread!

  • I have a single sprite consisting of 36 different animations, each representing a different character in my game. On a game over condition I want to freeze the screen and STOP all the animations of all the characters. How do I do that?

    I thought that simply putting in a Stop event for the sprite would work. (It didn't.) Then I tried: For each [sprite] -> Stop [animation], but that didn't work either.

    Do I need to cycle through all 36 animations and tell each one to stop playing? What's the best way to do that?

  • [quote:2ybi0baw]Try "Add to Home Screen" under the Safari Share button.

    Otherwise you should consider making a bug report.

    I've never used the "Add to Home Screen" feature. Is that basically just a bookmark that brings up Safari and loads the page? I don't think that would change anything... Unless it allows you to play the app offline, but that won't work because I am constantly adding new vocabulary.

    I thought about submitting a Bug Report but my app only fails on my wife's iPhone... it seems to work okay on our other devices, so I don't think there would be a way for Ashley to reproduce the bug.

    [quote:2ybi0baw]What is that wonderful job where you can work with C2?

    I've been a professional game designer for over 30 years and I'm currently working for a large casual game company in France. Yesterday I took a break from writing design specs and creating levels to mock up some spell effects. (Our Art Director was sort of stuck and looking for ideas.) As I mentioned, it was a FUN day!