Hey Wink, thanks for your response. I'm actually familiar with the resources you mentioned.

Have you seen this? indiegamepod.com/social-game-book.pdf

It's a how-to guide for making a social game in just 3 days (although it assumes you have knowledge of the LAMP stack first).

The makers of the book even included a game engine to go with the book: chromacoders.org/blog

I'm pretty sure both of those resources are outdated however. There was a online program called appainter that enabled users to create facebook games like mafia wars without any coding. The devs haven't worked on it for a very long time though, and it's kinda outdated.

I actually re-thought my strategy, and I think I know what I want to do. I'd like to make game like Shopping Street: freewebarcade.com/game/shopping-street

In short, the concept is to have a store instead of a street, with shelves instead of stores. On the shelves you could store "games", which are categorized into genre. The amount of customers that enter the store in a day depends on the amount spent on advertising (e.g. $1 = 1 customer). There is a specific genre they are looking for, and if the store doesn't have it stocked, they don't buy anything.

That's the basic idea. There are other ideas such as featuring a game for more sales, making the shelves more appealing to increase the chances of a customer buying something, and so on.

Where would I start in creating something like this?

Hmm, a forum where we could refine game design ideas would be awesome.

Thanks again for your responses.

You could do like video game business sim. Similar to Gamedev Story and the Gamebiz games. Thats one of my ideas.

I thought about that, but I'm leaning more towards a social business game, if at all possible. Failing that, I may do a sim where you run your own video game shop. :)

I just don't know how I'd do that. I'm still very new to game dev, I've never made a game before. I know a business sim might not be the best place to start for a newbie, but I have my heart set on that genre.

I actually re-thought my strategy, and I think I know what I want to do. I'd like to make game like Shopping Street: Shopping Street

In short, the concept is to have a store instead of a street, with shelves instead of stores. On the shelves you could store "games", which are categorized into genre. The amount of customers that enter the store in a day depends on the amount spent on advertising (e.g. $1 = 1 customer). There is a specific genre they are looking for, and if the store doesn't have it stocked, they don't buy anything.

That's the basic idea. There are other ideas such as featuring a game for more sales, making the shelves more appealing to increase the chances of a customer buying something, and so on.

Where would I start in creating something like this? I would love to hear any suggestions or ideas you may have.

Thanks.

Hello.

I'm still learning how to use Construct 2, and recently I've tried to make a game idea of my own. It's simple enough (supposedly) but I keep running into errors. This doesn't bother me so much, except that it's very discouraging when you're just trying to make your first game.

Also, I had to create the graphics myself...so it has absolutely no visual appeal, to put it politely.

I was wondering, what would be a good, simple game for a beginner like me to make, that can use pre-existing graphics from Construct2 or other sources?

I just want that sense of accomplishment, and I want the experience so I can get the hang of making games, so I don't really care too much if it's original.

If at all possible, I'd also like it to be a game that I could put some physics into, so I can learn how that works too.

Obviously, it would be a HUGE help if some instructions could be provided on how to make said game.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Joshua

EDIT: I just wanted to add, yes, I did go through the beginner's tutorial for C2. That was fairly helpful, but I'm looking for something that is slightly more complex now.

I'm working on a platformer tutorial equivalent to the Beginner's Guide, so just hang on for a bit and hopefully it will be done soon!

Well that's exciting to hear. I'm planning on making a platform/car game with physics and chain reaction elements. It's more simple than it sounds.

I think a tutorial from you would be most helpful. I look forward to it.

>

> So why is there an issue with using a template? Myself, I think it's a brilliant idea.

Actually I was talking about CREATING a game, using a TOOL. This...:

> I just came from the Mac Gamesalad forums where you can buy templates for a few dollars and then just change the graphics, add levels, music etc.

...is not game making, someone else made the game for you, you are just editing it. The logic isn't yers, it's someone else's, sort of like reverse engineering a ROM of a game with a tool for such purpose. I'm against it, on a personal level, of course. But as long as this does not affect the support of the forums, I do not care. By making this a reality, I suppose I envisioned restrictions being put into motion on the forums. Like, they could restrict us on posting certain examples and such, so people will buy them instead. Plain and simple, that would really stink.

Using that logic, you could say that making a game in C2 is not actual game-making, because you are using code someone else made.

I just don't see the issue with using templates.

Look at Counter Strike. That was just a mod of Half-Life, and it was pretty much the same in concept; a FPS game. But it still became popular. Or how about DoTA? That's a mod off of Warcraft3, and the official website for DoTA gets over 20 million unique visitors per month.

Point being; the end user doesn't care how a game is made. They care about whether or not they enjoy the game. The only people who care about how a game is made are the game makers.

If you feel using templates is cheating somehow, and won't use them because of that, more power to you. I totally respect that. But don't expect everyone else to follow your moral code. That would be plain silly.

A marketplace for this forum would be a great idea. Yes, it can have issues and problems, just like everything else.

Ensuring that only quality items get into the marketplace would not be too difficult; like I said before, set it so that threads must be approved by a mod, and have the mod review the content being sold before it's put up for sale. That can be time consuming, but it's the only way to ensure only high-quality items are offered for sale.

The other option is to let the users decide what's good and what isn't. Obviously that can involve risk on the part of the consumer, so Scirra could require sellers to offer a refund policy.

Here's another idea; Scirra could sell advertising for threads in the Marketplace forum. Site-wide banner ads and sticky threads are possibilities.

Really, this could help Scirra get more cash for development, and personally, I'd like them to be as finically successful as possible, so they can keep making C2 better.

This is an idea I personally fully support.

However, this is Scirra's forum, and they can do what they want with it. I respect that too. If they say "no" to a marketplace for whatever reason, I'll respect that decision. Although based on their responses so far, I think we may be seeing a marketplace in the (hopefully) near future.

Sorry, it didn't occur to me to use search before I posted. Thanks for pointing that out.

Trevor10: Not everybody has the time and resources to learn a programming language and put up with all the complications that arise from such practice. The first approach I think everybody has, is to learn some language, I did this at first, but life throws things at you that are more important than learning a language, so people think you are something else cos you prefer to type more than clicking.

In the end, all that matters is the logic behind the game. Logic is still logic, whether you use super-ultra-cool C++, MMF, GM, RM, CC, or C2.

So why is there an issue with using a template? Myself, I think it's a brilliant idea.

As for the concerns about people making clones...well people will still make them, with or without a template. Take the Tower Defense games mentioned earlier in this thread. It doesn't matter if you make one in C++, Python, C2, or a template; it's still a clone.

Don't get me wrong though. C2 does in fact make the whole process MUCH easier. I've studied game programming as a hobby, so I can fully appreciate how much easier it makes the game creation process. With that said however, making a good game can still be a time consuming process, and having a base template to work from would save a LOT of time. It's no different than using a FPS game engine really.

For example, users could create templates for top-down shooters, and from that people could create zombie shooting games, space shooting games, or anything else that fits into top-down shooters. All it takes is some creativity.

I noticed that Scirra is crunched for resources, so this would be an excellent opportunity to let the community contribute custom content to C2 while Scirra works on the engine itself.

And let's face it...many of us, even those who are good with programming, could use the extra help. We want to make our ideas come to life as soon as possible, without worrying too much about mundane or technical aspects...which is why we chose to use C2 to begin with. The way I see it, templates would cut down on dev time even more.

Plus, artists could sell their artwork, animations, and music. I personally suck at graphics and animation, and I'd love it if I could hire someone from this board to make them for me.

That's another aspect; letting members offer their services.

And here's another angle you may not have considered yet;

A popular practice in the video game industry is to license successful titles to 3rd party developers. The reasoning for this is simple; the owner of the IP doesn't have the time or resources to develop all of the ideas it has for a game, plus letting someone else create a game for their franchise would help promote their brand, AND it would give them an immediate cash injection plus long-term revenue from royalties.

I was actually thinking of doing this for my own games. It would be especially helpful for newer indie developers, because they would have a pre-made game to work with and mod, which would help them learn more about the game creation process and gain experience, and cut down on development time. Plus they could take advantage of my game's name AND my platform, giving them much needed exposure. It could give them the leg-up they need to get their company of the ground.

Plus, it'd be kinda impossible for people to just "clone" a game they're licensing...they'd be forced to take a unique angle to the game and make something totally unique.

Of course, templates offer the same benefits as a licensed game, without the restrictions.

As for implementing this idea...I understand the devs don't have a lot of time, and I have a idea that may not take a lot of time.

For example, you could make the marketplace forum, then set it so all threads must be approved by a moderator. When a user submits a thread, they get a PM asking for payment to post the thread. Once they make the payment, the mod can approve their thread.

Or you could make it free to post in at first, and see how it goes from there.

There are a lot of directions this could take, and it only takes a little creativity to make it into something that is highly valuable for all members. And when you think of it, that's the whole philosophy driving C2: a little creativity goes a long way, and can be the cure to "cloneitus".

Just my stretched-to-breaking-point-$0.02. ;)

Okay, my mistake. Thanks for pointing that out. :)

Thanks, I didn't see that.

Here's what I see...they show up in the folders you showed in your pic, but not in the panel right below it.

<img src="http://i39.tinypic.com/iqlc8i.png" border="0" />

When I try to preview my post, the text box that pops up says there's nothing to preview.

I'm using the latest version of Google Chrome.

The Bug

I accidentally canceled Sprite creation, and when I tried to re-create the Sprite "Bullet", I got an error saying the name was already taken. The original "Bullet" sprite doesn't show up in the objects panel, but does show up in dialog boxes for event/action creation.

System Specs

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics

Internet Browser: Google Chrome 15.0.874.106 m

Construct 2 Version: Release 65 (64 bit) checked

Steps to Recreate

NOTE: I was following the tutorial at Beginner's guide to Construct 2

1. Insert a new Sprite by double-clicking on map and double-clicking "Sprite".
2. Click outside of Construct 2 to cancel the creation.
3. Try to recreate the Sprite using the same name, and it will say the name is already taken.

NOTE: I've noticed this "bug" occurs even when you finish the Sprite creation process. If you delete the Sprite and try to recreate it using the same name, you get an error saying the name is taken already.