I can still use Construct for other things, but I'm hopeful someone else will see the value in "physical" objects with built in behaviours that mimic the real world. Maybe you will.

If you haven't heard of Phun, then you should definately go check it out. It's a free 2d physics simulator that's extremely powerful, and even has some simple options to create the "game-like" experiences I believe you are looking for. Heck, you can even build fully working clocks with it, using nothing more than the tools it gives you. . A lot of people have made scoreless "games" in Phun, and it seems like the perfect tool for you.

Still, I can't let go of the possibility of seeing some of AxelEdge's functionality come back in a new way to the 2D, Construct environment, (springs you literally "fasten", hinges you attach, shock absorbing "springs" - which would be perfect for "mouse following", etc.)

What do you think the chances are of anyone creating some of these kinds of "physical" assets are?

IMO the chances are slim to none, since construct is essentially a programming tool. What (I think) you're looking for is a numberless program like Phun or Kodu, and Construct aims to be more flexible than that.

Anyways, you should take Deadeye's advice and give Construct a chance. You might like it after you get over the slight learning curve.

WHY LEONARDO PREFERRED DRAWING MATHS

Pure maths excludes the inexplicable qualities of reali....

Ok, forget I ever said Leonardo, It was a mistake, I actually meant Don Hertzfeldt.

You folks equate yourselves with the great da Vinci, do you?

What some of you NEED to use math to create, others do by instinct and experimentation and vision.

Equate ourselves with him? No. It was just the first good painter I thought of.

instict and experimentation and vision, are all things that involve math. You don't seem to understand, but math is a necessity for the level of control provided by Construct. You seem to think that us or you folks are some breed of elite programming geniuses or mathematicians. We're just not afraid/to lazy to learn a bit of simple math, which you appear to be. It shows that you don't care for math, because you think just about anything is possible without it. Get over your fear or laziness, try making some simple behaviors with events and expressions, and learn who or what Lerp is.

No offense, but that is ugly

I'm pretty sure it was a joke mipey .

Hey, let's have David make a Construct splash for us, including "made by Scirra Construct" and logo and all that. Then we could include it at start or end or whenever we want.

Nah, users should just draw/code there own original version of a splash screen which fits with the game. I'm not a big fan of uniform splash screens; It makes it seem like construct is a trial version or forces you to have it in game.

And what are games if not just a kind of SEEMINGLY complicated machine. It appears the game is making decisions, but it is not - everything is running according to some sort of predefined process - processes made up of a number of very similar "gates" and junctions and switches. Run them all together and it looks complicated - but everything can be broken down into very elementary functions.

Well, you can say this about computers, or as Lost my keys pointed out, the human brain. Yes, games run on predefined processes and logic gates. That's what the event system is, a system of elementary processes and logic gates. Any further simplification of these logic gates would hinder their power and flexibility.

If you broke down the number of behaviours and events and processes contained in the best of all the existing "video games", you would find that they all make use of "cookie cutter code", or, at least they could - so similar are the things you see and experience in these games. You can write out the algorithms for these games in simple sentences of plain English. In fact, most of them are very linear in description.

I see you have never been in the nitty gritty of developing an original game. Sure, a lot of basic ideas are the same among game genres. But say you wanted to break away from the genres, and create a new one. Where would the cookie-cutter code come in handy?

Psmith, the creation of new game mechanics and complete control over what goes on in your game will, and has always relied on math. There just isn't a simple, or feasible way of cookiefying every possibility. Polish and originality in games doesn't come from predefined behaviors, but from tiny sparks of experimentation (not possible without math) which add that extra something to a games core mechanics or appearance.

Try telling a math teacher to do his job without talking about numbers. Sure, he can beat around the bush all he wants with clever pictures and metaphors, but when it comes to the test, kids won't have a clue what sin does.

I'm sorry, but for serious game development some openness to math is a definite requirement. Numbers do not mix well with pictures or words; that's why they're numbers. A lot of things are possible to do without math, and a lot of things aren't possible without it.

There is no magic going on at all.

Of course not, but there is a lot of math and hard work which goes into building something from scratch. There was no magic going on when da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, just brush strokes on a canvas. And that's what Construct is, a canvas. It appears that what you want is a coloring book, or perhaps tracing paper. If you don't want to learn the math necessary to paint with Construct, well, your missing out on a large opportunity to express yourself with much more freedom than Lego's will allow. But Construct is like Lego's even! It's just that they're really really small, there's a hell of a lot of different pieces, and there's no instruction booklet.

I just think it should work "behind the scenes" - part of what makes a thing work, but not requiring the user to implement it directly.

The thing is, Construct is practically as simple as it gets, math wise. The math is already simplified with expressions like anglediff and so on and so forth.

And, forgive me for saying so, since Construct is being aimed, primarily, at the non-coding user, I think ultimately things would be better off being given a visual counterpart, a visual method of establishing and adjusting this type of behaviour.

It would be impossible to make everything have a visual counterpart or behavior. You can't expect to make anything you want without making a bit of an effort to look into mathy side of things. This is game development, and math shall forever be intertwined with it. Construct is aimed at the non-coding user, but non-coding does not mean non-math or non-logic.

is it convenient to make a game with the Platform pre-style

There is no platform pre-style, there's just a behavior that simplifies the creation of a platformer type movement. It works very well, and I would recommend using it if you want a platformer type movement.

Or should I continue using Detectors and stuff like that?

Well, it depends on if and what you need them for. Detectors are used in much every game that exists, it's not like they're a mmf2 specific workaround or anything. Even with the platform behavior, you're still going to need detectors for the more advanced stuff.

I knew that there was disvantages on MMF2 with making games with the Platform predefinied style, but I don't know if it's the same on Construct. What do you recommend me?

Construct is essentially an mmf2 styled game creator with a MUCH better coding system and runtime. And if you're making a platformer, go with the behavior for the base movement engine of your game. The more complicated your game is, the more stuff you'll have to code yourself, and that may or may not involve detectors. And welcome to the community.

sweet!

Awesome? Yes. Image manipulator is actually useful, I didn't know it could read individual pixels!

edit: I tried making the distort map 255x255, to make it just z-distort each pixel pretty much, and construct doesn't seem to allow it. 70x70 appears to be the limit.

mmf2 has this in an extension I think, parallaxer object I think.

python doesn't work right now, the other questions I can't really answer.

interesting stuff

ok, so I geuss the ultimate solution would be an option for a special "flowchart" block for the event sheet. Clean events for regular stuff, flowcharts for annoying to set up variable triggered clutter.