I'd like to see how you're going to create the inventory.

Hi. Since you expressed interest I'll go ahead and put that out as the next one. I had started working on it awhile ago and got bored. It isn't very exciting and can be complicate (for example originally I was going to show a drag and drop inventory system, but it was way too complex). I believe the ideal inventory system would use Lucid's S plugin, but I decided not to go that route for now because I don't understand it well enough myself.

I have a basic example working that I'll post that shows how to add to the inventory, equip and unequip items. It should be enough for people to extend out to meet their needs. It will probably be a couple weeks so I can find to write it up.

p.s. Also, for those following the Python stuff I decided to move all of the main Python library tutorials to a separate thread since it is not really on topic to the adventure game.

This is a short tutorial series covering how to add cool features to your Construct games using Python. Specifically, by importing Python external libraries. These libraries such as Pygame, PyGTK, or PyAIML already have large amounts of code that you can import and use easily!

I decided these really don't belong in the adventure game thread, so I'm moving them permanently here.

The quick guide walks you through in about 5 pages how to import and use an artificial intelligence chat engine PyAIML. In doing it, you should be able to import most other libraries using the same steps. The other tutorials cover more in-depth use of the libraries and more advanced troubleshooting techniques.

Python Library Quickguide (concise manual on using external libraries)

http://www.box.net/shared/qe5qxdk7pf

Python External Libraries Part1 (more advanced troubleshooting and AI example)

http://www.box.net/shared/5terpm0jnp

Example screenshot:

<img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/wterts.jpg">

** New ** Python Libraries Part2: Taking Screenshots with PyQT and PyGTK

http://www.box.net/shared/9vv23rujfm

Future tutorials will cover things like joystick control, speech recognition (tbd).

TI-99/4A - Old Texas Instruments computer.

http://oldcomputers.net/ti994a.html

<img src="http://oldcomputers.net/pics/ti-994a.jpg">

Imagine wikipedia if everyone felt that way, it would be empty!

You make a good point. I've now updated the wiki to point to the tutorials.

The first half of the Python tutorial is out!! I decided for the sake of clarity and length to break this up into two parts. I also created a quick guide for setting up external libraries.

The first part and the quick guide cover setting up your development environment to support using most external libraries. There is minimal to no hunting for dependencies in most cases. For the second part, yet to be written I will cover other libraries like Pygame, PyGTK, and perhaps speech and networking. This is a slight detour from the "main tutorial", but I promise to add some of the python speech stuff in the next main Adventure tutorial.

You need to have Construct .99.82 (or later) to use Python libraries correctly w/Construct.

Python Library Quick Guide

http://www.box.net/shared/qe5qxdk7pf

Python Library Tutorial Part1: Dev Environment and Artificial Intelligence

http://www.box.net/shared/5terpm0jnp

Here is a screenshot of the simple chat app. Hope you enjoy this tutorial!

<img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/2my5bhk.jpg">

Feel free to edit the wiki! That's the point, I want people to edit it, not leave it all to me!

Yeah, I know I can.. I was just kidding with you. It does feel somewhat weird though to me to make a wiki to my own tutorials... feels like advertising.

Really nice tutorials.

Why are they not listed in the tutorial list?

Thanks! I figured Ashley didn't like my rambling. j/k

This might be a very special case...

Hope you had a great visit! I know the feeling, one of my close relatives still has dial-up. I about go ballistic when I'm trying to do something on internet there.

Sorry about the Python errors. I can't think of what it could possibly be. I have run into issues where a game generated from py2exe works fine while the Construct game fails, but to have it not even find stringio is too hard to troubleshoot. It could be the old Python installs. If you read the Python tutorial part1 which I will post soon, perhaps if you isolated the directories with the old installs as shown with Sandboxie it will work. Beyond that you'd have to install Python and the AIML exe.

How the arrow shooter tracked where the player would be moving to was a nice touch. You finally created a character that I had to put real thought and then execute perfectly to defeat. Nice idea!

I can't seem to get Python code to to read either global or private variables... it feels like I'm doing something wrong so maybe someone here like Lucid or Davo knows. Anybodies help if of course appreciated!

For example if mytext1,2,and 3 are python variables and inputtext is a Contruct global:

mytext = text

mytext2 = global('text')

mytext3 = str(Array.CurrentValue)

The first two attempts give an error. Only by sticking the inputtext in an Array could I then assign it to a Python variable.

Here is an example .cap: http://www.box.net/shared/giskjujjgl

How are people interfacing global and other variables in with Python?

yep, you can't guarantee that UIDs will ever be the same when an object is recreated. If fact, that would be very surprising.

Setup an event that saves a version of the undamaged level, in this case where none of the bricks have been destroyed, using the save to ONLY save the undamaged bricks (and other things you want to persist like that, depends on what else you have in mind but we'll stick with just bricks for this example).

This is a good idea.

I did something something less sophisticated in my games. I save the x and y location along with the room name in a global array and then when I returned to rooms I redestroyed all of those objects that matched. p.s. Part4 of the adventure tutorial specifically addresses these issues of changing layouts so it might help you to take a look.

Oh Tulamide... where art though??

I'd like to try to fix this before releasing the tut. Is anyone else having Tulamide's problem?

Pygame is already supported in Construct (.99.82 or later) through the Python interface. I don't think there are any plans to somehow support it as a plugin (which would be quite an undertaking and probably not worth the effort).

Thanks for the error report... it sounds like a path problem, but is odd since it should always look at the current path first (and the stringIO.pyc is embedded inside the exe). Can you tell me what directory your Python install is located at? What minor version of Python do you have (2.6.x)?

Can you also try these three things and tell me what errors you get?

1. Temporarily rename your python install directory to another name (not in path) and then rerun exe. This will test for path conflicts.

2. If that solved the problem then rename the directory back and try this, if not then leave it as is and try this as well. Copy the StringIO.pyc file from your python_install/Lib directory into the same directory as the ai_chat_example.exe and then rerun.

3. Temporarily set your pythonpath to a blank path (backup and remove everything if there is anything in there). This is under, Start, Control Panel, System, Advanced, Environment Variables, and then under system variables. Try running it again.

Thanks!