John Cutter's Forum Posts

  • I'm working on a word game and I'm experiencing some strange problems. I wonder if they are memory related?

    ISSUE 1

    My game seems to run fine on most devices, but some iPhones and iPads are crashing at launch. (Not all, just some.)

    ISSUE 2

    After I work in the editor for an hour or two, I can no longer add new objects. The dialog box appears but there are no objects. The box is empty. Am I running out of memory/system resources?

    UPDATE: Here are some specs...

    CHROME:

    Chrome is up to date and I'm not using any extensions (that I remember)

    Version 114.0.5735.199 (Official Build) (64-bit)

    MY PC

    Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 22621)

    System Model: ROG STRIX G15DK_G15DK

    Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor (16 CPUs), ~3.8GHz

    Memory: 32768MB RAM

    Available OS Memory: 32686MB RAM

  • Replying to my own thread because I may have found an issue. Could it be causing the corruption problems I'm seeing? No idea.

    I'm working on a daily puzzle game, like Wordle, so I implemented a load/save feature.

    Each time the program starts I check to see if there is a daily game to load. If there is I load it. If there is NOT a daily saved game, then I unlock my Initialization group and it, in turn, unlocks the rest of my game code.

    But yesterday, I found a few groups that were unlocked when the program STARTS. So maybe the weird (and unpredictable) bugs I am seeing are caused by this:

    1. I check to see if there's a load game available

    2. If so I start to load the game

    3. Meanwhile, my Always events are setting variables, moving sprites around, etc.

    4. The load finishes and the game starts

    In other words, as I'm loading the saved game, my code is doing all kinds of work at the same time... possibly even saving the game. Could this be causing a conflict? I'm not sure.

  • I'm working on a web-based game and it seems to run great on a variety of PCs that I have tried. It runs well on my wife's iPad and my iPhone... however, I have had to clear the browsing history for both devices.

    WIFE'S IPAD

    About a week ago she tried to load up the latest version of the game and everything was screwed up. Sprites were in the wrong places (or missing altogether) and it was a mess. I tried everything to get it to work but she eventually had to clear her browsing history. The game has been running fine since then.

    MY IPHONE

    I just tried to launch the game on my iPhone and all I got was a white screen. It ran fine a few days ago. Once again, to fix the problem I had to clear my browsing history.

    Why does this happen and what can I do about it?

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  • Hey, Scirra! Huge fan of your product so I hope this post is perceived as helpful. That's how it is intended. :-)

    I'm 61 years old and I've worked in the games industry since 1984, mostly as a Game Designer though my last job was Head of Game Design at a large F2P company. Now that I'm semi-retired I'm excited to use Construct 3 to make my OWN games! Since I have a vested interest in your success I just wanted to pass along some thoughts on what I perceive as a disconnect between your website and your product / audience / pricing.

    Your website has a fairly simple design, with lots of bright primary colors and cartoony iconography. If I didn't know better I would guess that C3 was a tool to teach kids and hobbyists about game design. I'd also assume a reasonable one time purchase price.

    But, in my opinion, your fairly expensive monthly pricing is at odds with the kids and hobbyists market. I feel like the developers who could justify your prices are professionals who make HTML5 games and other content for a living. If this is the case, then shouldn't the website be designed more for THOSE folks?

    Construct 3 seems like a perfect tool for game designers, artists, and other professionals to quickly and easily make games, playable ads, apps, etc. (I say "professionals" because, again, it's hard to justify the high monthly costs if there is NOT the possibility to recoup some or all of that money.)

    I can't speak for all of us professionals, but I wish your website looked more... serious.

    I love your tool so much that I recommend it to friends and colleagues all the time, but I think a lot of them get to the website and think, "Oof. For that kind of money I want something more... professional looking."

    Just my .02.

  • I'm working on a daily puzzle game, like Wordle. Last night I published a new version but when my wife tried it on her iPad it was completely messed up. It was displaying the wrong buttons, sprites were in the wrong place, etc. I cleared the browser history and then everything was fine, but what caused the problem in the first place?

    When the game is running I frequently save it. If players start the game, and the date matches the save, then I load the saved game. Could this cause an issue if the game was updating to a new version at the same time? Also, she had left the game running overnight -- not sure if that could be causing problems...

    What else could have caused this issue? Any ideas?

  • Thanks for the reply, Ashley. Man, I continue to be super impressed with Construct 3. Congrats to you and the entire team!

    <<FWIW Wordle isn't uploading new content every day>>

    Yeah, my game is just one app, as well. I have an Excel file with a bunch of sequential dates, the daily puzzle, and some other text-based content that goes with each puzzle. I convert this to JSON and pull it into a C3 array. I have about six months worth of content and I'll add more as needed.

  • One of my few gripes about Construct 3 is that when I post a new version of my game (on the web) users don't get it right away. I think maybe it's loading the new version in the background and users will get it the next time they launch the game? (But if there's a serious bug I want to make sure that everyone is playing the fixed version. Is there a way to force that?)

    On a related note, I'm making a Wordle-like game with a daily puzzle. Players can start a puzzle on Monday and any time they return on Monday they will automatically load their previous effort. But starting on Tuesday all players should get the NEW puzzle for that day. Right now they are getting the SAVED game from the previous day. When I refreshing the page it fixes the problem.

    Here's my logic: (am I doing something wrong?)

    ON GAME LAUNCH:

    - Get localstorage key "my_date"

    - If "my_date" matches the current date then LOAD the save state

    AT VARIOUS POINTS DURING THE GAME:

    - Save the current date to "my_date"

    - SAVE the game state

  • SOLVED!!

    I forgot that my Initialization group automatically gets disabled at the last line of code. This was preventing the "get" from completing.

  • I stripped some code down to just the basics and it appears that "On get" isn't working and I have no idea why. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    I have added the LocalStorage object to my project and it has a key called "date" with the value "2" (I have verified this in debug)

    This is the code that isn't working:

    System: On start of layout - LocalStorage Get item "date"

    LocalStorage: On item "date" get - txt_test Set text to "Got the item"

    LocalStorage: On error - txt_test Set text to "Error"

    * * *

    Unfortunately, txt_test never updates. It won't even show me an error. What am I doing wrong?

  • When I create games in Construct I like to put my code in groups. When a group is no longer needed I disable it. I love that groups are collapsible and it just helps keep me focused.

    Sometimes, however, I will start something (like a fade or lerp movement) that would require a group to stay open. With my latest project I have created a group called "Always" for this code.

    Does anyone else do something similar? I'm not sure if this is a good practice, or if there is something else that would work better...

    EXAMPLE:

    I'm working on a word game. During the scoring sequence I initiate a bullet behavior on the letter tiles to make them fly up and then fall off the screen, with gravity. Then I disable the Scoring group.

    In my Always group I have this code:

    - If bullet behavior for [sprite] is enabled

    - set sprite.angle to sprite.angle + 12

    (This makes the letters spin as they fly off, which looks nicer.)

  • I have imported JSON files into C3 before, but I'm having an issue with my latest JSON file.

    After the import, I double click on the file and I just see a bunch of text: 

    {"c2array": true, "size": [334, 6, 1], "data": [[["6/6/2023"], ["muck"], ["tithe"], ["rout"], ["I've recently been reading a really interesting book...

    Normally when this happens I can find a little red underline that tells me why (and where) the import failed, but there doesn't seem to be one. I copied all of the text and pasted it into a JSON validator. It tells me the file is valid!

    The only potential clue I have is that the text between quotes is maroon until about halfway through. After that all the text is black. Is this an indication of a potential issue? I've looked at the spot with the color change and everything looks fine.

    There are no visible errors in C3 and JSON Lint says the file is valid. How do I find the problem? Not sure where to look.

    UPDATE: I had chatGPT re-write my export code and after a few iterations it seems to be working now!

    The non-working version had the brackets and values on the same line. The working version has everything on different lines. Both are valid JSON formats, but perhaps C3 needs the new lines?

  • Thanks for the excellent replies. I wanted to provide a quick update because I found a problem with my VBA export tool. (It was an issue with how JSON was handling quotation marks.)

    I fixed the problem by adding three slashes "\\\" in front of each quotation mark (in the JSON file).

  • I'm working on a game that has dialogue in it. I put the dialogue (and some other data I need) into an Excel sheet and export it to a JSON file.

    Then I import this file into Construct 3 and convert it to an array.

    Unfortunately, I ran into an issue with the quotation marks. I solved it -- for now -- by using single quotation marks "'" but this makes the dialogue harder to read.

    How do I store quotation marks in an array? With triple quotation marks? For example: """.

  • Right after I posted my question I thought, "Hmm. I wonder if chatGPT knows anything about Construct 3? Maybe I should ask the AI my question!"

    Here's the response from GPT 4.0:

    It sounds like you're having trouble locating the properties of a text box in your Construct 3 project. Here are a few suggestions to help you find and modify the text box properties:

    1. Make sure the text box is selected: In the Layout view, click on the txt_final_score text box to ensure it's selected. If it's not visible in the Layout view, double-check your layers and make sure the layer containing the text box is visible and unlocked.

    2. Check the Object Types: Go to the Project Bar (on the right side by default) and look for the "Object Types" folder. If you don't see the text object called "txt_final_score," it's possible that it was accidentally deleted or renamed. In this case, you'll need to recreate the text object and assign the correct properties.

    3. Verify the object type: Ensure that the txt_final_score object is a "Text" object and not a different type, such as "SpriteFont" or "TextBox." The properties you're looking for, like font color and size, are specific to Text objects. If your object is a different type, you'll need to replace it with a Text object.

    4. Inspect the Event Sheet: If you still can't locate the text box, it might be created dynamically through an event in the Event Sheet. Look for events that create or modify text objects, specifically targeting "txt_final_score." It's possible that the text box is being created on a specific condition or layer that's not currently active.

    5. Verify the active layout: Make sure you're working in the correct layout. Construct 3 projects can have multiple layouts, and it's possible that the txt_final_score object is in a different layout than the one you're currently viewing.

    If you've tried all these steps and still can't find the properties for your text box, consider posting your issue on the Construct 3 forum or reaching out to the Construct community for assistance. There might be a specific issue in your project that requires a closer look.

    Friggin' amazing! And sure enough, the very first point fixed my problem! (I had my text box on a layer that wasn't visible or unlocked. Forgot about that!)

  • I recently picked up an old game to finish it -- but I'm having trouble with one of my text boxes.

    After my game is over I add up the player's score in big numbers at the bottom of the screen. I wanted to change the size and color of the text, but when I clicked on the text box object most of the properties were missing.

    That puzzled me, but then I thought, "Oh, the text box must not exist in my layout. I apparently create it in code!"

    Here's the problem. I have searched ALL of my code and I am not creating that text box anywhere. What's going on? What am I missing? Been trying to figure this out since yesterday...