I agree that documentation is an issue, of course pretty much all game creation programs are light on documentation. That said, I've personally found Construct much easier to get into than GameMaker or any other game creation software I've tried.

The issue you're having sounds like a simple fix and it probably has to do with naming your animation groups and then controlling them based on those names in events. However, as Tulamide offered up, this is likely somethng where posting your .cap would make it easiest for you to get help.

I haven't ever used the built-in save feature myself (I have used INI's like Jayjay mentioned though), but would it be possible to have a very small, bare-bones save screen layout to save and load from at runtime?

Yeah, you can make a separate layout and set your events for saving and loading right in there. I just ran a test today of that in CC1. I only had a few assets in the layout I wanted to load, but it worked except that if I had two commands tied to the same button (i.e. left mouse button saves in layout 1, and left mouse button loads in layout 2 and also loads a picture from file) it causes images in the loaded layout to enlarge and pixellate, and then when I click the left mouse button to load, it crashes.

Like, you hit pause and transition to a separate save/load layout with a simple UI. Hit the save button, and it stores all the globals you need. Hit the load button to load them. Then you can transition to whatever level is stored in your "currentLevel" global or whatever, and populate any scores, powerups, stats, or whatever with your other globals. Would that be one way around the lots-of-assets-to-load problem?

That sounds like a plan. I'm definitely going to give that a shot as I would like to be able to get a precise save and load down to the last saved x and y position. Though, it seems like .ini is the path of least resistance for most games where all you need to do is save values/scores. It's quite possibly a larger matter of the .ini object being more functional than Save/Load and that the Save/Load function still has some critical bugs to be worked out. I mean, I've written to and loaded things from .ini with no problem whereas I've had glitches and crashes with the same things using Save/Load.

There's a built in save feature, and i think it's supposed to work quite well, but check the bugtracker. I've had poblems with it in the past.

In some of my own tests, I've found that it tends to load layouts with very few assets quite well, but when you get into layouts with a lot of on-screen assets it has trouble. In my own case, save and load has actually caused the game to malfunction completely in very strange glitchy ways. Lots of crashes, too.

I did that already, still didn't work. However, if it was built in .97 it should definitely be working in .97 without the need to use a newer version.

It won't open for me. I downloaded it and tried to open it in .97, but an error pops up that says "An attempt was made to access an unnamed file past its end."

1. New video player - Everything that the old one does, but without the timeline bar.

2. Video Recorder Object - Allows you to record everything that happens within a specified layout or several specified layouts, creating an .avi file that is then sent to a specified folder based on 'App Path'.

Here are several action ideas:

*Record For & Temp Save - allows you to record for a specified amount of time. The video file then temporarily saves to a temp folder and then deletes itself after it's been replayed in the game, or can be deleted based on an event.

*Record For & Save - allows you to record for a specified amount of time. The video file then saves itself to an App Path specified folder.

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3656/5762520244_d121403a6c.jpg">

*Start Recording & Temp Save - allows you to begin recording any time after an event such as a collision, a button press, or a specified amount of time, etc. The file then temporarily saves to a temp folder and then deletes itself after it's been replayed in the game, or can be deleted based on an event.

*Start Recording & Save - allows you to begin recording any time after an event such as a collision, a button press, or a specified amount of time, etc. The file then saves itself to an App Path specified folder.

AND...

*Stop - allows you to stop recording any time after an event such as a collision, a button press, or a specified amount of time, etc.

<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2181/5762446000_9c9899ed68.jpg">

... the default would always temporarily save the file to a temp folder.

... we should also be able to set the object to 'Global', and also make certain sprites and graphic objects invisible to the recorder by clicking on them in an editor (similar to how the Bones animator allows you to choose limbs/points by clicking on them), so that those sprites and graphic objects won't show up in the final recording file.

Why does Start and Stop have 'after' commands, and what do they mean?

The 'after' command for 'Start' means that the object will begin recording video whatever milliseconds you choose after an event occurs.

The 'after' command for 'Stop' means that the object will stop recording video whatever milliseconds you choose after an event occurs

Why is having the 'after' command important?

2 reasons: First, the user may not want to have a sudden stop of recording right when the event occurs because in some instances it can look jolting and therefore unprofessional, so having a bit of a buffer between the event and the stop will eliminate that problem.

Secondly, for programmers who may make a sports or military combat games, a buffer of time between an event and when the recording stops is imperative for replays, because you'll want to be able to show graphic wipes, transitions, stat overlays, etc. and much of that will come right after a collision event or scoring event or some other type of event occurs. So by allowing the programmer to set the amount of time to keep recording after an event has happened and then stop after a specified time, it allows the programmer to put graphics on top of the video and allows for a smooth transition to the next layout.

This can also be said for the 'Start' action. There are times when you'll want to begin recording the video after an event, but only after a certain amount of time has passed after that event occurs. The reason is because you're probably trying to zero in something very specific, so having the 'after' command will allow it.

So then, how would I start or stop recording immediately when an event happens?

By setting the Millisecond command to '0' like this:

<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5146/5762093509_39beb037c9.jpg">

Oh, I see. I thought you meant there was a way to somehow directly expose the code running the events. It would've been a cool way to see what makes our event codes tick.

The Express Game Maker exposes the C# code for xna inside of another program window while you're creating. I always thought that was cool to see how what you're doing with the events and stuff playing out in C#.

If you download the source code for Construct, and look at the code that is generated for each condition and action you use (along with the objects in the layout editor)

Wait... that can be done? I wasn't aware of that. Could you show us how?

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3588/5747767094_2f097b2b26.jpg">

1. Click the Project tab (not the one at the top of the Construct window), then look at the list it gives you. You should see a folder named "Global Variables".

2. Right-click on that folder and click on "add global variable".

3. A small window will pop up named "Construct: Add global variable", and this is where you will name your Global Variable (in the first field), decide whether the Global Variable type will be text or a number (see the pull-down menu), and decide what the initial value of the Global Variable will be (third field).

4. When you've chosen all of what you want to do in #3, click OK, and you've created a Global Variable.

Now the Global Variable is in and can be used in events.

I know last summer while I was finishing up a project, I had a number of sounds and music in my .cap. When I went to export the .cap to .exe, some sounds refused to play. A number of people jumped in to help me out here (I really appreciated that!), but in the end we determined the problem of some sound files not playing was the result of a bug and nothing could be done.

Aside from the Layout Object breaking when you export to .exe, this would be #1 on my list of things I'd give my small toe for to have fixed, and by fixed I mean done like MMF2 where the sounds simply embed themselves into the .exe. My dislike for MMF2 is well-documented, but I've always loved that one thing about it at least.

Thanks, alspal! I understand exactly now. This is fantastic!

At first I was concerned with how I would keep track of each gang members folder in an organized way, but now I'm thinking I should be okay changing both the 'data' part of the expression and the primary gang folders to the name of a gang, and then using a separate chart to match animation names with gang member names like:

CrushersData >>> 0-1 >>> Chart says '0-1' is Bob

CrushersData >>> 2-3 >>> Chart says '2-3' is Mike

... and so on.

Thanks for .cap. I think your example is different from what I'm trying to do though. Here is a .cap with image folders that fully illustrates my target.

https://rapidshare.com/files/2388230909 ... ample1.zip

In the .zip you'll find:

1. One main folder for the Crushers and one main folder for the Rammers. Both folders contain sub-folders that correspond directly with the animations named in the Animator in the .cap, and they contain the image files that would need to be called up using events and populated into the correct animation sets (i.e. the image frames in the "BobMoving" folder would need to be called up into the "BobMoving" animation set in the .cap at runtime based on selecting the gang Bob is a part of which in this case would be the blue gang - The Crushers).

2. The .cap

In the "Gang Selection" screen, select one of the gangs by using the up and down arrow on the keyboard, and then press 'Enter'. This will take you to Layout 2 which is the "Fight" area and it shows the gang you selected fighting with the Bashers gang (in red).

In a nutshell, when you select a gang in Layout 1, in the next layout (Layout 2) the gang you selected should be visible there (based on a Global Variable), and all of the frames for each animation name for each gang member of that gang should be called up from the proper folder and sent into the proper named animation sets.