Is this with a transition?

No. There used to be one, but I stopped using it because it was causing the occasional problem. On the other hand, I hadn't actually removed it from the project file, so I will do that now. Do you think that might have been it? (It's hard to give an immediate result, given that the crash is so rare.)

I'm almost finished with a very large project in Construct - a platformer of sorts. Almost everything is working, but I've run into a bug and could use some advice.

The bug occurs when going from one layout to the other. The game crashes completely. But the thing is this - I haven't been able to figure out a pattern. Running the same thing twenty or thirty or even forty times may produce only a single crash. Sometimes it doesn't crash for ages, then it crashes three times in a row. Any idea what could be going on? Anything I could try?

Furthermore, would you suggest that I use the current version of Construct to compile, or should I go for one of the unstable builds? Sounds kind of obvious, actually, but... yeah. Just wanted to know what you think. (I'm going to try and see whether the bug still occurs with a new build, but I don't think I can test everything else in the game again... it's a very large game and I'm out of strength.)

Thanks.

> Oh dear. I'm so close to finishing my huge project, and now this... I should probably install it (especially since so many people are likely to play the game, and this will probably improve stability), but it's terrifying to think that I might have to go back and change a lot of stuff...

>

Just be sure to make backups, and don't uninstall your current version of Construct just in case something goes wrong.

Is it advisable to have two different versions of Construct installed at the same time?

(I'm definitely upgrading anyway. It's just a little frightening at this point - I've probably put hundreds of hours of work into this game.)

It's pretty!

Oh dear. I'm so close to finishing my huge project, and now this... I should probably install it (especially since so many people are likely to play the game, and this will probably improve stability), but it's terrifying to think that I might have to go back and change a lot of stuff...

I'm all for it. Just give everybody enough notice when it will start and end and make sure to advertise it. Also, we could always have the top winner have to submit the .cap or some other way to show they used Construct. It would also be beneficial for people to learn the great stuff Construct can do.

It's a great idea.. we need more competitions!

Good. I'll definitely give everyone enough time, and I'm pretty certain I can get the word out.

And having people submit their .cap files for verification is a really good idea.

I'll get on it as soon as I'm done with my current project.

Oh, by the way: I had the idea of hosting a Construct game making competition. As soon as I'm done with my current project, that is. A competition with prizes and everything. The theme would be somewhat anarchic and irreverent (I have something very specific in mind) - the result would hopefully be attention for Construct and some good games.

What do you think?

I just don't think one solution fits all. You can do fine with events (fine). I can live with events but would be much better off with a scripting system that works. I am not complaining about not being able to do what I want with the events. I just wants scripting support as well

Understandable - each to his own. For me, events are a joy I can barely describe. The way Construct works fits really well with how I think.

The only reason that happens is because we haven't seen a big success story for a game being created using Construct yet - Once that'll happen and the creator won't be an ass by making everyone believe he did all the programming work, Construct will get the attention it deserves, cause then everyone will want a slice of the cake.

I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I certainly hope Phenomenon 32 will achieve something in that direction. My games tend not be huge hits (mostly they're too unusual for that), but they do get some attention, and that includes attention from developers and other creative folks. And I certainly won't claim that I programmed the thing - quite the opposite. So maybe that will get something going. I hope so.

Mainly Construct is not really finished.

Yeah, but look at what you can do with it, even at this stage.

[quote:9sq1ybex]The overall user interface is weird.

Really? I think that's a matter of taste. I quite enjoy the interface, and find it to be very intuitive (with a couple of minor exceptions, and those are mostly bugs).

[quote:9sq1ybex]The lack of real scripting is a problem for me. I often use Construct for prototyping but in the end I end up making it work in flash/python/gm/c++

I've had the opposite experience. The entirety of Phenomenon 32 is build with quite basic commands. That's what I find so amazing - I have yet to find a single thing that I could not achieve with Construct. Now, I may be a little less ambitious in technical terms than some people on these forums, but I still managed to do a fair bit without any serious problems.

Anyway, all I can say is that Construct is the kind of tool I've often dreamed about. I could never understand why all the other game making tools were designed the way they were, and told myself that maybe what I imagined was too hard to do - but here it is. It may not work for everyone, but to me it's been a blessing.

1.Construct destroys it's competitors. It's the best free tool on the internet, and that's saying something.

2.It always amazes me that the devs were able to make it work so damned well.

3.It's almost unbelievable that such a tool exists. It lets you create any kind of digital interactive media in a relatively (very) short amount of time. Should have won the sourceforge contest by miles imo.

4.I think way too many people underestimate it's power and pass it off as a cheap mmf/gamemaker clone.

You're right. I have the commercial version of Gamemaker, and it's a joke compared to Construct. More stable perhaps, but with the amount of work it takes to get anything working, you might as well code the whole thing by hand. (I know that good games have been made with it, and there's a big community. But as a tool... no contest.)

That would be great for you to write an article. Construct needs more publicity... people don't know what they are missing. AMEN!

I've been preparing the article in my head for quite some time now. I'll make sure to get it published somewhere where a lot of indie developers will hear about it. And I know that there are a few developers who follow my work, so maybe it will have extra weight with them, and they'll give Construct a try.

OK, I know this isn't a technical issue or anything of the sort, and perhaps (probably) there's another thread like this (or ten) out there, but I just need to say this again:

CONSTRUCT IS AWESOME.

I've been making games for 8-9 years now, and nothing I've ever worked with beats the beauty of Construct. I used to dream about a tool like this, that would finally let me - more of a designer/storyteller than a programmer - realize some of my more demanding ideas. And now I've spent the last few months creating a game that is complex and huge and would've been utterly impossible for me to do any other way (and will also hopefully demonstrate to a lot of people what Construct can do).

And still, every now and then, I will hit upon a previously unnoticed feature that will let me solve complex problems with only a few commands.

A bigger thank-you from me to Construct will follow as soon as the game is done, in the form of a full article and a donation, but for now I thought we'd all just get together and show how much we appreciate this incredible piece of software.