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The key thing there is that Nintendo didn't seem to care. Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't happen, and as a rule Nintendo have traditionally been pretty strict about this type of thing.

I'm a staff member and forum moderator at a very popular game development site (GameDev.Net), and 5 or 6 years ago now after requesting we take down recruiting posts for a few individual projects -- who themselves received C&D notices -- Nintendo actually made a blanket request that we do our best effort to disallow any fan project using Nintendo's properties.

Just commenting on something above as well, obviously if you re-use an asset (model, sprite, whatever) from an existing game -- even if you modify it -- you're violating copyright. A lot of people don't realise however that if you create a new asset for yourself completely from scratch but based upon something from an existing game you're still creating a derivative work.

Hey,

I'm having trouble trying to fill an array by loading JSON data, are there any need-to-know tips or known issues with this?

I have one project where I built a simple editor and then place the value in a text field using the .asJSON expression of the array. Everything works fine there as far as I can tell -- the JSON data appears to be alright to me.

I'm experiencing my problem working with my second (game) project. I have an array with the same dimensions (19,11,1) as the one from the original project and I'm trying to load the JSON data by pasting in the entire string obtained from the other project. I've tried doing this with or without surrounding quotation marks, but I'm getting syntax errors every time I try to submit the dialog.

My JSON string is as follows:

----------------------------------------

{"c2array":true,"size":[19,11,1],"data":[[["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_door"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_door"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_door"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_passable"],["tile_impassable"]],[["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_door"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"],["tile_impassable"]]]}

----------------------------------------

Any ideas? Would a .capx help to diagnose this particular problem?

Thanks in advance! <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Obviously there's going to be some overhead involved in creating and working with a plugin to achieve your multi-player functionality, so you really have to decide whether or not the productivity gains from working with Construct 2 are enough to balance that out.

For a single or small number of projects of smaller scope it may not be worth having to spend the time, but if you're planning on using these platforms repeatedly over a number of projects it will probably start to become more worthwhile -- once you've coded your plug-in, assuming you do a good job of it, you should then be able to simply drop it into multiple projects with only minor adjustments where necessary.

I'd suggest spending a couple of days evaluating the workflow of the free version of Construct 2 and examining the plug-in API so that you can make a more informed decision based on your own needs; only you can really judge how suitable (or not) Construct 2 will be for the types of projects you're working on, and only you will be able to estimate just how much time and effort you might be able to save when compared to working with the libraries you mentioned.

save a backup of your entire project, mess around with it, then either keep it or revert to the backup

Maybe this would even be a good opportunity to teach the basic usage of some revision control through some form of source repository; far too many beginning programmers -- and let's not fool ourselves that putting together events and sorting out logic isn't at it's core the same process as "normal" programming -- are never exposed to or taught about the many wonderful tools they can and should be using to improve the development experience. Teach them how to check-in changes and roll back broken updates from a repository!

Hi everyone!

Is it possible to change the background colour of a layer using events?

If this is not currently possible, is anyone aware of an existing plug-in providing the functionality, or should I go ahead and write my own?

I'm aiming to have a solid-coloured background which gradually changes colour over time. A tiled background doesn't seem to be an effective choice due to the lack of animations, leaving me with the choice of loading in additional images over time. A large animated sprite strikes me as inefficient, as I would need an additional animation frame for each of the many different shades/colours I want to display.

I don't imagine writing my own plug-in to achieve this would be at all difficult, but I'd rather not spend my time duplicating existing work if there's already a good solution. <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle">

Thanks in advance for any responses!

//EDIT: I found R0J0hound's canvas plugin which appears to be capable of what I'm trying to achieve -- but if there are no other suggestions for a more "light weight" solution I'll probably go ahead and develop my own anyway -- it seems rather excessive to include such a plug-in for the one very basic feature I'm after.

I'd just use a global -- a "variable holder" sprite is accessible from other event sheets too, so there's really no benefit to that method.

If you're having serious problems, you could export two different versions of the project -- one with larger images for PC, and the other with smaller, more mobile friendly versions. You should definitely test whether or not this is an actual concern before taking such a course of action though, as this is exactly the kind of manual work and micro-optimization you should aim to avoid except as a last resort; especially as Construct does not yet provide for different project configurations that could help to automate the process.

Also check out the anchor behaviour and the tutorial on supporting multiple screen sizes.

I thought the "not equal" icon was just fine. Remembering that the main target audience for the software are non-programmers/potentially-non-technical, they can simply be taught that whatever icon is chosen represents inversion as long as it isn't easily confused with anything else.

You could maintain a list of all such objects. For each object, store the layout it is currently on, as well as the coordinates within that layout.

If it isn't worth $79 to you just don't buy it.

It sounds to me like you're enjoying using Construct 2 though, and that the standard licence would be of value to you, and as others have mentioned it's a cheaper licence than a lot of other products.

As you yourself mentioned, you can sell games with the standard licence, so don't forget that if you make good games you should be able to make some or all of the money back.

Yes, of course you can. If stretching the art causes the quality to become unacceptable then just don't stretch it.

If stretching the art is for some reason necessary then you'll need to re-think your design to avoid the problem, either by eliminating the need to stretch it or by using larger artwork. It sounds to me like you might want your characters (or whatever you're placing into the editor) to be larger? If so, you will probably want larger source art rather than re-sizing it in the editor.

Trivia: the characters in the original Lemmings video game were only 8x8 pixels.