Televangelist's Forum Posts

  • Good to know!

    I have a couple of questions:

    1. Support for dedicated servers is a planned feature, correct? So I can start building a game now that I envision running on a dedicated server one day, and then switch it over when the time comes?

    2. My game world is separated into screens, much like the old Zelda games. A player on one screen would have no need to synchronize movement, attacks, etc. with a player as long as they're on another screen; this should massively cut down on data being sent back and forth at any given moment. Is this doable, to say "only synchronize player movement if you're within the same area of the game world"? I assume yes?

    3. There's no planned PvP, only PvE. Nor is there twitch competition for PvE kills. So if one player's movement looks a little janky to the other, or one player sees themselves killing a mob on their screen but in fact the other player got the kill, that's totally okay.

    4. In terms of saving progress -- can't Construct2 connect to a web server via any number of methods already, even prior to online multiplayer support? If all that's required is the Client to say "Hey, here's my unique ID, and here's my save data," and the Server to reply "Sure madame, I'm savin' your data right here, tip o' the hat" and fetch information from a database when asked, that sounds pretty feasible. Especially if I have a high degree of trust in the players and am not obsessed with preventing them from cheating.

    5. The main way my players influence each other without being on the same screen together are through accomplishing world-changing events. If one player assassinates the king, another player on the other side of the world may find NPCs start discussing how the king was assassinated. In practical terms, this means global variables. When GlobalEvent.RoyalFamily.King.Assassinated? goes from 0 to 1, that needs to update for all players, but it's not the sort of thing that would be at all bandwidth intensive -- obviously, the players aren't assassinating kings left and right, on a 'fully populated' server (this game is meant to be played with a few dozen people on a server, any more than that and you'd want to make a new server) you'd probably have a Global Event variable being altered every hour or two. Can I write a simple rule that says "all GlobalEvent variables sync between all players whenever they're changed"?

    6. Separately from all of the above... I can use Scirra to create solid-feeling Zelda-style combat, right? That's become fairly easy at this point, I hope?

  • Hi all,

    I'd like to test out Construct2 to see if it's workable for the game I have in mind by building a small test project.

    The plan is:

    -Use a pre-fab kit for Zelda-style movement/combat for the player character (I assume these exist already for Construct2, as it's one of the most requested game types among amateur wannabe game developers like myself)

    -Use the online multiplayer features added in in Construct2 R186 a few months back to allow four of these player characters simultaneously, played by four different people over the Internet

    -Allow these players to attack simple enemies in an empty room.

    My project involves multiplayer Zelda-esque combat, so this would be the bare minimum for a test case.

    Does this sound easily doable with Construct2 as it currently stands? Or is the online multiplayer introduced in R186 not easily adaptable to Zelda-style combat?

    Thanks for any advice you can offer!

  • Hmm... it sounds like if MMF2 can do the game as one large, seamless playfield, having the engine entirely pre-built and ready to use would outweigh the advantages of Construct?

  • I'm sorry, but neither of you replies are really telling me what I need to know.

    -How well does C99/C2 handle having a game take place on a single incredibly large, non-linear 'playfield' rather than having it chunked up into levels?

    -How well does C99/C2 handle a playfield that isn't easily broken down into squares/rectangles?

    -How is making a Sonic-type engine easier in Construct than in MMF2/Game Maker 8.1, if both of those systems already have full-featured, free-to-use Sonic-type engines available for use?

    As for coding -- Once I've got most of the worldbuilding work done, I see no problem in hiring coders to finish off the parts I can't handle myself.

  • How, exactly, do you plan on finding out exactly how much money I make from the games I make with C2?

    My end goal, ideally, would be using a digital distribution platform like Steam. How are you planning to get sales data for my game if it's up on Steam?

  • I want to donate to show support for the project (I've probably given $100 to NetGore, for example, and it's still in alpha), but I'll hold off for now as it appears based on the FAQ there's a possibility you'll just end up turning closed-source when development finishes anyway.

    Once closed-source is off the table, I'll happily donate.

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  • Long story short:

    -2D platformer with very similar physics to Sonic the Hedgehog. Ideally, start out with a pre-constructed Sonic-style engine as the 'base', then expand/add some tricks for the player to use from there.

    -Lots of curvy, loopy levels -- very little in the way of square blocks or running along straight-line surfaces.

    -Large, non-linear world (a-la super metroid). Ideally, a seamless one -- where the game isn't separated into particular 'chunks' or levels, but the engine knows it can unload whatever's far enough offscreen so the game doesn't make the system chug.

    From what I hear, something like Game Maker has me covered on all except the final point -- people have already made fairly good Sonic-the-Hedgehog-esque platformer physics engines for it, and it isn't expecting your level map to be composed of squares, but it likes it if you split things into 'level'-sized chunks, and if you don't it doesn't handle that well.

    I'm wondering if Construct would be a better choice? My goal is to be able to jump in and prototype/world-build extensively without much in the way of custom coding/scripting on my part, and then once I've got a meaty game going, bring in / hire people for music/graphics/any necessary coding.