John Cutter's Forum Posts

  • I've used Construct products for many years, but only for small demos and single screen games. Now, I'm working on a solitaire game for Steam that will have several different game mechanics, hundreds of levels and over 50 animated dialogue and cutscenes.

    Any tips for working on large projects? (Things I might not have needed to worry about with my smaller games and demos...)

    Tagged:

  • No one got back to me, so I just went ahead and purchased the DARCSS theme. I haven't used it long, but it's definitely different from Construct's included "dark" theme. I like it so far!

    I have a few minor issues, but I love that it allows me to see more of my project at once! For example, I just opened a group and measured how much vertical space my events required:

    Default Theme: 716 pixels

    Dark Theme: 853 pixels

    DARCSS: 582 pixels

    This means I can see more of my "code" without having to scroll up and down!

    Dislikes So Far:

    - I'm sure I'll eventually get used to it, but some windows (like the animation editor) are really hard to distinguish from the background as they are nearly the same color.

    - This is minor but DARCSS uses red and green colored rectangles for anything that can be toggled true or false (i.e. whether a sprite is global or not). It's a neat feature, but now it's a bit harder for me to to change font or other colors as I used to just look for the colored rectangle. Now, there's a bunch of them!

  • I've been leveraging a range of AI tools to assist with my current project, and their impact has been transformative. Many of my prompts require multiple iterations, but the iterative process itself has proven invaluable for helping me come up with a solution and just helping me better understand my problem.

    In my experience, the quality of AI-generated results improves significantly when I provide detailed, context-specific information. This means being explicit about referencing sprite names and even pre-defined global variables. The more precise this input, the more relevant and accurate the output tends to be.

    Additionally, I’ve found it beneficial to break down requests into smaller, more focused tasks. I usually try to implement features myself and only turn to AI when I encounter roadblocks -- particularly those involving intricate algorithms, mathematical challenges, or logic that requires a perspective that is new to me.

    The AIs I've tried are especially effective when it comes to exploring different problem-solving strategies. Rather than seeking direct solutions, I often frame my queries around conceptual approaches, asking questions like, “I want to accomplish THIS -- what would be the most effective way to tackle this problem?” This not only yields practical advice but also helps me think more critically about my own design and development choices.

  • I've used Construct 3 for a looooong time and I've always been sort of critical of the game's UI. The default theme, which is what I've always used, feels simplistic and outdated.

    Yesterday, I switched to the built-in "dark" theme, but I get fewer event lines due to the way they are spaced. I noticed that there is a DARCSS theme available for sale in the store. Is anyone using it? Is it different/better than Construct's included dark theme?

  • Well, good grief, I didn't even think to check the button's actions.

    I've been working on this problem for over an hour. I searched the manual for "focus", as well these forums, and couldn't find anything helpful. Then I tried Deepseek and ChatGPT but they kept suggesting: "Go into System and set the focus to your UI layer". Except there IS no "focus" event under System.

    This took 2 seconds and it works! Thank you!!!!

  • Quick Question: After I click on a button/checkbox how do I return focus to my game window?

    Context: I am working on a layout editor for a card game. I have a checkbox called "Pin Rotations?"

    Pin Rotations (Unchecked): When I push the left or right direction keys the cards will rotate around their image points, which are centered.

    Pin Rotations (Checked): When I push the left or right direction keys the cards rotate around a central point for all selected cards.

    Here's my problem. I select some cards, click on the checkbox, and then press the cursor keys. Nothing happens, of course, because the checkbox still has the focus. But if I click on my game window to return focus there it deselects all the selected cards.

    How do I fix this?

  • Most of my Construct 3 projects have been small, one screen affairs, but I'm looking to make a larger project for Steam.

    I always put all of my menus and other UI graphics in my main layout. It gets so messy! But ChatGPT just suggested using different layouts for these and putting them on global layers that I can just turn on and off.

    Does anyone (everyone?) already do this? Any gotchas or issues with this approach? Sure feels cleaner...

  • I'm working on an editor for a card game. I can drag a selection rectangle and move/copy multiple sprites, but the z order gets messed up. Not sure why this is happening, but I thought I could fix the problem by saving the initial z order (and updating this as needed) and then setting the z order again.

    Unfortunately, there's no way to "SET" the z order for a sprite, only the elevation -- which I know is a different thing.

    So how do I fix this? (Thanks!)

  • Thank you, Everade. I'm totally clueless about stuff like that. I'll do some research!

  • After doing some more testing my problem is a little different than I first thought. To avoid confusion I decided to rewrite my question.

    For about a year my game has used an internal .json file for daily puzzle data. Unfortunately, every time I add new content I have to completely re-publish my game, so I thought it would be easier to make the .json file external.

    I removed the internal file and set up a spot on my website for the new file. When I run the game it downloads the .json file and runs. (Without the .json file the game wouldn't work at all.) But it's not downloading the correct file somehow.

    I look at the file that is on my website, and then I print out the AJAX.LastData text and they don't match at all! (They may have matched the first time I uploaded the .json file, but I have been deleting the old files and uploading new ones. It's not downloading the new ones!)

    Anyone know why this might be happening?

    SOLVED: I turned to ChatGPT this morning and explained my problem. As suspected, it suggested a caching issue and provided several solutions. The first thing I tried didn't work (adding some APACHE code to my .httaccess file to prevent the .json file from being cached). But it also proposed that I add a unique query string to my download URL, which DID work:

    "https://worddad.com/download/output.json?v=" & current_date

    I probably need to change "current_date" to a timestamp. I think that variable is just the day, in text format. But this change fixed my problem!!

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  • Thanks for the reply!

    I actually need the physics because I've decided I want my car to slide down the icy hill, hitting other cars, trees, etc. I'll need the physics for that.

    Perhaps I could turn physics off for the trip up the hill, and then turn it on for the slide down? (If that's not possible, then maybe I could use one car to drive up the hill, and at the top I'll switch it out with a physics version of the car, and let it pinball down.)

    Would that work?

  • I'm working on a simple (for fun) physics game that I'm hoping I can knock out in a week or so. Unfortunately, I'm struggling a little with the physics. Could someone maybe give me some tips to get me started?

    What I need:

    I plan to have a vertical scrolling topdown screen. It will look like a road and I have some ideas to help me *suggest* that there is a flat part, and then a fairly steep ICY hill. The goal of the game is to drive as high up the hill as you can.

    UP ARROW = accelerate

    LEFT ARROW = turn left

    RIGHT ARROW = turn right

    As the car moves up the hill I'd like for it to get harder and harder to control, turning slightly right and left as the tires slip on the ice.

    Eventually, the car should stop, due to gravity. (And I might even have it slide back down the hill.)

    HOW?

    To simulate the hill should I increase the world gravity every 0.0x seconds? Or should I use one of the other physics properties?

    For the car I'm currently applying a vertical force (270 degrees??) to "drive" the car forward. I may randomly introduce rotational force that players will need to counteract with the controls.

    Am I approaching this the right way?

  • I'll take a look at this. Thank you for taking the time!!

  • The more I think about this the more I'm worried that it won't be doable... Would love to get some feedback!

    Here's what I am planning:

    1. My app will run online

    2. Users can upload any size .png or .tiff image

    3. The image will scale to fit whatever screen they are using

    4. Users can type in a message and move it around the image

    5. Users can then re-save their image, WITH the text in the appropriate place

    I seem to recall there being a way in Construct 3 to capture an image from the screen. But, what if the user uploaded an image that was significantly larger than their screen? Wouldn't the capture reduce the quality of the image? (Since the image had to be scaled down.)

  • Word Dad (worddad.com) is a free daily word game where you drag Scrabble tiles to form words. Solve the puzzle and earn a dad joke!

    Players can form ANY words and I thought it would be fun to provide definitions for the words they create. (Including funny definitions!) My game dictionary has 14,586 words, so I got some help from chatGPT!

    Here are a few sample definitions:

    those (pron.): distant objects you can't quite recall the name of

    old (adj.): what your kids call you every time you forget something

    oiled (adj.): the state of your hair after you've used too much product

    lanes (n.): where you're always stuck behind someone slower

    pouch (n.): a kangaroo's version of cargo pants

    push (v): how your cat confirms gravity using the items on your shelf