I have what I consider to be a simple 2D, top-down, text-based game concept in mind that I'd like to start out with as a "test run" to figure out what Construct2 is capable of, but to prevent myself from doing a lot of work (reading tutorials, checking out examples, and trying to build things) before finding out that something isn't possible, I'd like to ask a few simple Yes/No-answerable questions about what Construct2's capabilities are.
I'll start with the things that I think Construct2 might not be set up to handle, and then go down the list toward things that I think are probably addressed in tutorials already, but which I haven't found via searches so far.
Note 1: I'm not asking for people to supply me with finished example project files/etc for these in this topic; I'm just wanting to know if these things are possible with the base Construct2 software.
Note 2: Many of you might want to say "Just make this in RPG Maker. It can easily do most of the things you are asking for." There are a variety of reasons why I am choosing to not use RPG Maker. I'm certain that I want to use a different engine. Right now, my only question is whether that will be C2, a similar program that I have yet to find, or Unity.
As I stated in my other thread, it's important that the software's license allow for sexual content to be in the game. I've asked Game Maker's Support team to clarify that point for me, but it seems as though any erotic game creation would violate the terms of their license. I'm glad to know that C2 can be used to create any kind of game, as long as none of the resources in the game come from Scirra's Royalty Free Licensed Assets or free Game Assets bundle. ("including those bundled within Construct 2 and those sold in our store" Per Tom's post here: scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=125073 )
1) Protect projects such that they can't easily be decrypted, opened, re-titled, and then re-packaged.
This is a problem with RPG Maker (the rgss files). I'm less concerned about someone being able to access image files than I am about someone taking the game (capx) wholesale (or huge chunks of it, anyway) and repackaging it. If the game as a whole is safe, then the images, dialogue, etc should easily be recognized as having been taken from my project/game. Basically, I don't want someone reproducing my game as if they were the person who created it (e.g. by stripping out my contact information and adding in their own).
2) Providing information about how much memory/processing power a game project requires (for comparison against device capabilities).
For example:
Say iOS7 can only play a game if it uses less than 100mb of memory, and the current game project would require 50mb on every initial load-up, and 112mb if the player ran through the whole game in a single sitting.
Say the typical smartphone user has 300 mhz of processing power to allocate to a game, but the current game would require 340mhz of power to run smoothly.
3) Populating text for in-game displays (e.g. messageboxes) from a .txt/.xls/etc "master" file (rather than text being entered individually per-messagebox)
4) Groups of in-game actions that can be called/triggered as a collection.
For example, [Group1] might include [Fade to black] [Place tiles a-z on Map1] [Spawn player sprite1 at position x,y] [Spawn NPC sprite100 at position x,y] [Fade in on Map1] [Display textbox11] [Remove textbox11 when player presses keyboard key "__Key__"] [Prompt player for input -> Choice 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6] [Depending on player choice, display textbox111, 112, 113, 114, 115, or 116].
In RPG Maker these are called "Common events", and can be triggered by switches and include conditional (if; else) branching.
5) Styling images in-game. (e.g. something like the equivalent of using border radius CSS to turn square boxes into rounded-edge boxes on a website)
6) Zelda/SNES-style 2D animated sprites.
For example, a set of three sprites for a character waving a finger - idleNowave, leftTiltFinger, rightTiltFinger, etc.
7) 16x16 or 32x32 tile-by-tile Up/Down/Left/Right movement controls to which sprite animations can be synced (as opposed to pixel-by-pixel movement) - and the ability to increase or decrease the movement speed (e.g. moving 16 pixels per one second for each key press vs. moving 16 pixels per .5 second per key press)
I saw the tutorial for creating 4-directional sprite movement ( scirra.com/tutorials/413/direction-based-sprite-animation ), but what I'm asking about is a bit different.
What I'm after might be as simple as connecting an animation transition time to a certain number of pixels, and a certain number of pixels to a single key press of an arrow.
8) I'm putting this at 8 because it isn't about what C2 can do as much as it is about organization within C2. I saw a topic that said branching stories are a pain to create in C2 because of interface limitations. I'm guessing that's in reference to the large event flow lists. Is there a way to view events in a sort of drop-down, collapsible list and organize them by map or something? I'm thinking of RPG Maker VX Ace's per-map organization - which includes sub-levels for related maps.
This is crucial for me, as conditional dialogue trees are the most important element of the vast majority of game concepts that I have. You could think of them as a mix between Point & Click adventure games and 2D RPGs - no battles, no equipment, no HP/MP, little or no inventory management, top-down 2D sprites and walkable maps, and a lot of conditional branching (tiles, animations, and textboxes) based on variable/switch values.
For a different comparison, think "The Stanley Parable" - but with a 2D environment and top-down sprites instead of a 3D environment and first-person perspective.
Things I saw forum topics about how to accomplish: Messageboxes, Autotiles, Sprite creation, Tile creation, Z-ordering.
Edited to fix the links.