matthindle's Forum Posts

  • 12 posts

  • Hi all,

    I'm getting towards a point where I can publish my game to iOS and Android, but I'm having an issue with localstorage which is making me scratch my head a bit.

    The game functions correctly, and I'm using localstorage to save the hi score and the audio on/off toggle, and now I'm adding in achievements to add a bit of longevity. To drive a few of the achievements, I have to store the total number of enemies killed - so each time an enemy is destroyed, I add 1 to the global variable TotalEnemiesDestroyed. So far, so good. On player destroyed, I'm then setting the localstorage item totalEnemiesDestroyed to the value of the variable TotalEnemiesDestroyed.

    This is working whilst in the game, but if you exit and come back in, the value is wrong, like it's not saving properly or not loading properly on my Start layout.

    So... My question is, are there any limitations with localstorage that I need to know about? Should I try loading everything in my splash screen instead and not progress until it's all loaded? Is there a better way of storing all the data I need to save rather than having separate localstorage items?

    Sorry if I've not explained this very well! Any help or comments would be very much appreciated. I want to finish Swarm so that I can start on some new games thank you in advance!

  • Photoshop does exactly this, using the Timeline. I can highly recommend.

  • I used a particle emitter pinned to the player sprite.

  • Instead of lerping, I just added a fade behaviour to my black overlay sprite and triggered the behaviour when my layout ended.

  • All good advice, and it's great to hear that I'm not the only one in this boat!

    Once I've ironed the bugs out of Swarm, and added the achievements, I can hopefully publish that to iOS and Android, and then start on my new game. Hopefully I'll learn loads from the processes involved in completing Swarm that I can then leverage for subsequent releases.

  • I run it on my MacBook Pro using Parallels to VM into the Windows 7 install that I did through Boot Camp, and it's great.

  • Thanks saiyadjin! Finish Swarm first it is

  • Thanks — Useful advice there

  • I have a problem. It’s a good problem, though: it is that I’ve got so many projects to get my teeth into that I don’t know what to do next.

    I’ve got one game nearing completion, another at prototype stage and another two at the ideas stage (one of which I’ve been fermenting for at least 8 years, if not longer. Construct 2 has finally given me the ability to turn my idea into a game).

    I’ve got the website to sort out, the Twitter account to finalise and the Facebook page to set up, should I want to.

    So much stuff to do! I’m kind of torn at the moment between two things:

    Pick a project (most likely Swarm or the website) and finish it off, then move onto something else.

    Work piecemeal on everything all at once.

    Each has its pros and cons; option 1 means I can get something finished and to market more quickly, but if I hit a dead end (creativity, logic, willingness) that’s it – kaboom. Option 2, on the other hand, means that I can keep my interest levels up and take what I’ve learnt from one game and apply it to another, but it does run the risk of me never actually finishing anything.

    As this is, at the moment at least, nothing more than a hobby, the time I can dedicate to it is finite. I’m veering towards option 2 at the moment, for better or worse. How do other people tackle this?

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  • He he, me too - my sister-in-law and her husband both work in schools!

  • I definitely think that C2 helps train your brain to think logically. I can't code, sadly - I've tried to learn, but a combination of mind-numbing tutorials that don't show you how to do anything useful, and a mind that bends more towards artistic creation has meant that I've failed miserably each time. However, I do get the idea behind coding, and using e-learning creation software has helped mould my brainwaves to use variables and conditions more constructively.

    With that in mind, coming to C2 a few weeks ago was a revelation. I could build things with logical statements, without having to understand a stupid (to my mind) syntax. And what's even better, I could make things that were fun instead of a 'Hello World', or a function that multiplied two numbers or listed a bunch of different types of fruit stored in an array. And you know what? The best things come when there's something that I don't immediately get. If I have a problem and have to solve it, I think more creatively. For instance, I was trying to think how I could make a sprite that rotated around a pivot in the centre of the screen. For about ten minutes I was stumped, looking at setting angle to self.Angle+1 and similar things, before it occurred to me that all I had to do was pin the sprite to an invisible sprite in the middle of the screen and rotate the latter on keypress instead. Hey presto - it did exactly what I wanted it to, and I was delighted that I'd worked it out.

    It's almost like a game in itself. Without hyperbole, I think it's the most fantastic and usable piece of software I own, and the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. This should be in every single school. Imagine what the next generation of creative minds could come up with using it.

    Anyway, that's my long and rambling take on it. I see it as coding without having to use the language of code, but not as dumbed down as something like Scratch. I have no qualms about using C2's building blocks - I don't program synth sounds from scratch every time, and I'm happy to use filters and effects in Illustrator or Photoshop, so I don't really see a difference there.

  • So, who are you? How did you find out about Construct? What brought you into the seedy underworld of making games? What interests you? Where have you been, and where are you headed?

    Hi everyone. My name's Matt, and I like games.

    I started working in video games in 1999, and spent 8 years working for a number of development houses - starting off in QA and working my way through being a games designer, an audio designer / musician, and a producer before I left the industry in 2007 to work in e-learning.

    I've been intrigued by the idea of making my own games for a long time, without the usual meddling of publishers (oh, the stories I could tell...), but I've never learnt to code. Sure, I know the basics, but actually getting anything working was beyond me. And then I came across Construct 2 a couple of weeks ago, and wow! This is exactly what I wanted!

    My plans now are to create small casual games (I'm currently working on a simple chase game that already has my wife addicted - although that might just be her competitive nature...) and I'd like to look at how I could use Construct 2 for learning games too, which is something I'm really into at the moment - fusing both of my career paths so far into one!

    I haven't bought a licence yet as I've only been playing with it for a week or so (and the amount of progress I've managed to make in that time is phenomenal - hats off to the developers for making something so easy to use). I'm thinking I'm going to hold off until C3 is released, as it seems a bit silly to buy a licence now and then have to pay again. I'm looking forward to being able to do everything on my Mac. Once I have that, I'll sign up to the Apple Developer Programme so I can release apps as well. It's so exciting!

    Anyway. Thank you to everyone here for making such a vibrant community with such a wealth of support materials. I can't wait to dive in a bit more deeply and hopefully get to know some of you.

  • 12 posts