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TL;DR Version:

Here are lessons 1 - 5 of the new tutorials: http://www.box.net/shared/1nls24ni8d

Here are lessons 1 - 9 of the old outdated tutorials: http://www.box.net/shared/1zzgt8pov4

I will not be working on these any more, but I invite anyone who would like to continue the series to feel free. You may use my Platform School sprites and tiles, for tutorial purposes only, either new Platform School tutorials, or other tutorials as you see fit.

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The long version:

It became apparent to me some time ago that I would never finish the Platform School tutorials. I started the project (over two years ago!) with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Then the rewrites came. As Construct continued updating with new features, my tutorials would suddenly become obsolete. So I would rewrite the tutorials to show the new changes, and then Construct would make more changes, requiring more rewrites, and so on. I believe I have re-written them three times total.

That was enough to sap my enthusiasm for the project, but I tried to keep at it. A lot of people were waiting on them and I didn't want to let folks down. I was actively working on them as recently as January 12th, but I hit a snag. The Lesson 6 file I am referring to in that post had somehow apparently become corrupt. Copy/pasting water sprites would cause other objects in the level editor window to disappear. As near as I can tell this corruption happened some time previous in an earlier lesson and simply didn't become an issue until lesson 6, because I tried remaking lesson 6 from a new copy of lesson 5 and ran into the same copy/paste problem as before.

And... that was that. The final straw. To continue making the tutorials I would have to create lesson 6 from scratch with a fresh .cap, re-importing all the assets and rewriting all the events, and that's something I just will not do again. I don't have the time or energy, and if we're being perfectly honest I just plain can't stand the thought of working on Platform School any more.

But I've had five finished lessons just sitting around gathering dust for a while now. So, for what it's worth, here they are: http://www.box.net/shared/1nls24ni8d

I'm providing these as-is. If there are any errors or bugs or whatever, so be it! If you have questions, they will likely go unanswered! I wash my hands of Platform School.

And with that, I'm offering an open invitation to anyone who is willing to continue working on the tutorials. I give you all permission to use the sprites and tiles and code I've made for PS so far and continue the lessons from here, or to use the sprites and tiles in other tutorial projects (but tutorials only please! I don't want to see Charlie running around in your game, okay? Okay.)

Oh, and in case you're wondering where the buggy Lesson 6 went... well, so am I actually. I have a million backups of the old lessons, and a half-million of the new lessons 1-5, but for some odd reason 6 is just gone. I thought I had it backed up when I reinstalled Win7 a couple weeks ago, but I can't find it anywhere now.

I got as far as lesson 9 (of 12 or 13) in the old tutorials. If you want to use them as reference, or you need to rip sprites out of them or something, then here they are: http://www.box.net/shared/1zzgt8pov4

And to those of you who were waiting so patiently for me to finish these up, I apologize. I know I've made all sorts of promises to continue working on them no matter what, but I just really can't any more. Hopefully someone will pick up the reigns from here and make something cool out of this mess.

So what you are saying is that Construct could be competitor for the Unity addon?

No, that's not really what I'm saying.

This forum moves so quickly I can't keep up . I feel like I'm being left behind...

SLOW DOWN PLEASE

Your artwork kicks ten kinds of ass, trying the game out now

Edit:

It didn't really get hard until level 4, then it got pretty hard pretty fast. Well, that is to say I didn't die until I got to level 4 and then I started dying A LOT .

I think this game would benefit a lot from WASD controls too, arrows and mouse just feels awkward to me. Perhaps you could offer both control schemes?

Anyway good job so far!

Looks kind of interesting, but I'd much prefer a code-based system like Construct than a node-based system. I've done a bit of node-based materials editing in Maya and it gets a bit messy, I shudder to think of trying to do really complex code this way.

If someone ever made an Construct ACE type editor for Unity then that would be something to get truly excited about.

I didn't know you two were brothers

Anyway, congrats on the new position

I don't want to sell my game on scirra arcade. I want to sell it on steam, itunes, and the android app store. no offense, but I never even consider buying games from a "all games here made by our special tool" stores.

This.

All sorts of third-party folks have made plugins for MMF, and it's not open source.

Hell, the guy who posted above me used to do that very thing.

Also, programs that charge for advanced features always feel like ripoffs. Opening up a watermarked c2 as a new user, and being overwhelmed by all the available fx, behaviors, and objects is what'd make me reach for the wallet. Not struggling to extract fun out of a crippled version while staring longingly at screenshots.

I never meant that the feature restrictions on the free version should be crippling or restrictive. And I know I keep bringing up Unity as an example, but I don't think anyone who has ever used the free version of Unity would consider the paid version to be a ripoff.

As far as plugins go, I think something like shaders would be totally fair to reserve for the paid version. They're not necessary for game development, they're more like icing on the cake. Similarly you can't use real-time shadows or post-process effects in the free version of Unity. And you don't need to in order to make a good game, they're the same sort of icing on the cake. You can still use all of the core functionality without restriction.

As for restrictions on plugins, obviously you wouldn't need a touch plugin for mobile devices unless you've purchased the exporter for iPhone or Android. I suppose it would even be possible to provide a touch plugin with the free version so that you can develop your game, but restrict the exporter from building it if you don't have a mobile license. I'm not in any way suggesting that you shouldn't get certain common, every-day plugins or behaviors. The way GameMaker doesn't let you do simple sprite rotations in their free version is just plain ridiculous.

I'm working with a team right now and we're developing a game for the iPhone. They have Unity Pro and the iOS license necessary to build the iPhone app. But the game itself and the editor still run fine on my Windows machine even though I only have the free version. I can still edit the game, run the code, whatever... everything except build the app for deployment. That's not really all that restrictive.

As for the advanced effects or plugins there could always be a trial period on the "Pro" version so you can play with them to see what you're missing out on, which is something else Unity does.

I guess I'm just saying their business model is pretty smart, is all.