They are giving everyone the full version of the C3 game engine for 5 days while the Ludum Dare 54 game jam is going on. I guess this overrides all licenses, but I don't think it should matter.

For the record, we want to do both: an easy-to-use tool for beginners, and also a capable tool to build and publish a full game. So we need both features that help absolute beginners get started (like guided tours), and help advanced users go further (like JavaScript coding).

That's good to hear. I like tools that are easy to get started with, but have a high ceiling of what can be accomplished with them.

Speaking of advanced users, is there any way to improve the JavaScript editor? It is painful to use it since it suggests invalid methods and properties. I have unfortunately more than once thought about just ditching C3 and moving to an engine with a proper development environment for code.

Put this into the runOnStartup function in main.js

> document.addEventListener('keydown', function(event) {
		if (event.key === 'F5') {
		event.preventDefault();
		}
	});

Doesn't this unfortunately prevent the game from running in Worker Mode? Which means that you'll lose performance/smoothness by doing it.

Actually, if you look at it another way, it is the same thing when you save the .c3p file. .c3p file is nothing but a zip file, so whenever we save and replace c3p, construct creates a fresh .c3p, delete the previous one, and paste the new one, this is what happened in a nutshell.

That's not the same as deleting all of your game's assets though, right? It just sounds way too risky, especially if you don't have any backups.

First, it would completely clear the contents of the designated project folder, such as "C:\MyC3Project\src."

This sounds very dangerous if the editor is then unable to save the project for some reason.

It should probably instead overwrite the existing files, or create a temporary copy to restore from.

Hey, I'm a completely new user of C3, and here are my two cents.

First of all C3 is up against engines like GDevelop, which I initially got started with. They might not have the same amount of features, but they offer unlimited events for free when developing, and they even offer some free cloud builds. They also have amazing up-to-date high quality tutorials on YouTube that anyone can watch. This is a huge thing for people who are just starting out. And it draws in a lot of people. Not to mention that they do regular game jams, where users can win subscriptions to their game engine. This is a great way to get marketing content for your engine.

Secondly, even though C3 works fine on larger mobile devices, there are no Android and iOS apps for it. You're missing out on a huge ecosystem of young developers.

Finally, the starting price is very steep. Maybe there could be a more limited cheaper version to get started with? A lot of younger people don't have $25 to blow per month on a game engine when there are so many free alternatives. And paying $129 up front is a big ask. GDevelop starts at $5 per month.

PS: A lot of people, especially younger ones, hang out on Discord. I don't think C3 has any official presence there. There's the Construct Community server, but I don't see it marketed anywhere. Maybe I'm wrong. But it was hard to find it for me.

Edit> Resubmitting the post to make some edits, since there appears to be no edit functionality.