Hmmm. It should be there...

<img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57899112/SetAngleTowardPosition.PNG" border="0" />

Maybe you're creating an event instead of an action.

Lobo93 - I can't believe I forgot to mention the easiest way of all to fix the problem: Make your layout taller and then move everything so that the ground isn't at the very bottom of the layout. Then you can still use bound to layout and the sides will work the way they do now, but the bottom of the layout will come after the hole collision.

EDIT: I just checked your original project, and it is at 39 events so far. (The number of events is in the status bar at the bottom of C2).

You can do a lot with a 100 event limit. Keep in mind you can have as many actions on one event as you want. It is only the number of events that makes a difference. So you can combine some things in clever ways...

For example, if you have a zombie and a skeleton as enemies, combine them in an enemy sprite with different animations and they'll share many events. Look for other ways to do that, like combine the player and dead player into one sprite--or perhaps better in your case, the dead skeleton and dead player into one sprite with different animations.

You can have many different kinds of pickups using the same penny sprite. Add some instance variables to help customize them...

You could have many different traps using something like the death trap. Each animation--and each frame of each animation can have its own collision poly, so that really opens up what they can be like.

However, despite all of the possibilities of what can be done with the free version, I'll never regret the money I spent on C2. It was well worth it.

I have a lot to do today, but I made a few quick changes to your project to show you one way to handle the issues you mention. There are probably many other ways--probably even better ways, but this should help you move on.

1) Remove bound to layout behavior from player.

2) Moved the player's start position up in the sky just because I can. ;-).

3) Placed a condition that if the player's X is < 0 or player's X > Layoutwidth, set the player back to 0 or LayoutWidth so he can't go past the edges of the layout. (The yellow walls don't really do anything. They could be deleted. The ceiling does still keep player from going any higher than the ceiling.

3) Create a condition Player is outside layout and then test several sub conditions, like if player hits hole, dies, or if player falls in death trap, loses a life, but can jump out of it. You don't have to nest the two conditions below the player is outside layout condition. I just wanted to show a way you could get more control. For example, if the player hits the death trap but is still inside the layout, no harm. Only if the player falls down deep enough to be outside the layout does he lose a life.

Notice one of the advantages of using a sprite instead of tiled background for your hole would be that you can create a custom collision polygon like I did for the death trap. Also I'm not sure how efficient tiled backgrounds are, so you should only use them where you need to, like the repeating grass and ground.

Oh, yeah! Almost forgot the link. Lobo_changes.capx

PS Just wanted to say I like your game a lot and look forward to seeing more.

In my memory match tutorial I used one sprite with two animations for all of the cards. One animation is the card back, with just one frame. The other animation has multiple frames, one for each card. Doing it this way means there is just one sprite to manage (and just one card back graphic for all the cards), which may make it more memory efficient.

You can download the completed game from the arcade, or from the first page of the tutorial.

Here's an example that shows coordinates at start and end, with . . . while in touch.

TouchPosition.capx

One thing to check is that you have Use mouse input set to Yes if you are using touch on a computer where you have a mouse rather than touch device. Forget to do this and it will seem like on touch start isn't working, mostly because...it isn't!

PS. One other thing you should check is the type of variable you are using. In this example I used global variables. But if you are using a local variable, it could be you have a "scope" problem. Local variables are only visible inside the construct where they are created. So if you create a local variable inside a loop, it is only available inside that loop, and it gets reset back to its initial value (default 0) each time the loop starts.

The artifacts showed up in chrome, firefox, IE9. They did not show up in Safari or Appmobi. The problem was solved in the various games by inserting blank frames around the problem frame which lead us to believe it is a bleedover problem.

As I mentioned, I can't come up with a simple case. If we can put this on hold for a few days, I'll try to reduce one of the games down to a minimum and send it to you.

Meantime, I don't see the problem showing up in 103, so perhaps it resolved itself with your other changes/fixes.

When a sprite with a transparent background ends up right up against a sprite that is filled up to the shared boundary on the spritesheet there sometimes ends up being an artifact on the sprite with the transparent background. This does not show up on all browsers, but is clearly visible in these images.

It's hard to create a simple case. The problem has shown up in multiple games we are working on. Since they are a client's games I can't post a link to the games on the forum, but I can PM a link if that will help.

The workaround is to insert transparent frames on the side of the sprite that is showing the artifact, but that isn't always practical.

<img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57899112/sr_artifact_bug.PNG" border="0" />

<img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57899112/mp1_triangleproblem.PNG" border="0" />

You don't say what kind of game you are making, so I don't know if this will help, but here is a simple example I made to change the animations of butterfly sprite that has an 8-direction behavior.

When the butterfly sprite isn't moving its animation is set to an animation called idle. When the sprite is moving the animation played depends on how fast the butterfly is moving. If moving relatively slow the animation played is one called fly. If going relatively fast the animation played is one called flyfast.

You can do something similar with platform behaviors, too. You can change the animation when the player jumps, is falling, is going left or right, etc. Examine the events for a behavior to see the places where it may be appropriate to change the animation. Of course you can always change an animation based on your own custom criteria.

ButterflyFly.capx

jchamplain - Thanks for the links. I hadn't seen some of them before. I'll check them out.

EyeHawk - I'm no expert on spacecraft, and probably couldn't draw one very well--and certainly not quickly enough to make sense economically. But I'd guess you could expect bids in the hundreds for something pretty decent from someone who loves drawing spacecraft, especially if they want to see their work in a game (which is worth something to someone who is trying to build a career or just wants the personal satisfaction.) I'm sure you'd get many much cheaper (and more expensive) bids, too, but at the end of the day, I'd expect hundreds, because it should probably take more than a day but less than a week of work. Don't forget to budget for the environment (background, planets, starfields, asteroids...), UI and SFX and music, too. Whew!

jchamplain -- actually, I was thinking of myself as the artist, not the employer. I've been hungry. I've bid really low on projects because I really, really needed the work, or really really wanted the job. Quite recently, in fact. It really pisses me off when...Never mind. You've already said your mind is closed.

Try putting the unpin action and the physics force action in separate events like this. (Note the boolean to trigger the launch.) I also added an outside layout condition to the the missile. You should probably destroy it (or recycle it) when it goes outside the layout.

<img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57899112/launchpinnedmissle.PNG" border="0" />

EyeHawk

You don't describe what your game is, so it is hard to know how to answer your question about how long it takes and how much it will cost. Just compare the art requirements for a 1-person, but totally amazing game like tiny wings to some mega game produced by the big studios.

Rovio started out making mobile multiplayer RPGs in 2003 and grew to 100+ employees before market conditions forced them to scale back and switch to to smaller casual games (12 employees when they made angry birds, about 50 now). Huge difference in cost between the two. Took them 8 months while working on other contract projects to finish angry birds. (

)

Also, since artists are individuals and work at different speeds, it is often the case that employers want a fixed price for the job rather than paying an hourly rate.

That was a really long way of saying that it would help if you point to another game that you think yours is close to, and then you might get some estimates of the time/effort/cost involved.

In the meantime, have you made your game with placeholder graphics, and is it fun to play? If not, it may be early days to worry about where the art is coming from. If it is already shaping into a great game, you will find it much easier to attract a team and might even go to some place like kickstarter and get some contributions to help pay for awesome art using your working demo as a teaser (either video or actual play.)