Perhaps create a custom timer, and use that?

Instead of focusing on the tool used for the job, my advice is to find the right tool for the job based on the type of game project and the platforms you intend to target.

Unity is great for 3d games. Construct is excellent for 2d (web) games and rapid prototyping.

Currently, I am starting development on a traditional 2d point-and-click adventure type game, and neither tool seems to fit the bill for me. So Visionaire 4 is my weapon of choice this time around, since it has a proven track record for large successful professional commercial games of this type (Deponia, Memoria, Chains of Satinav, Harvey's New Eyes).

And the newest version exports to Android and iOs besides Windows, Mac, and Linux. I would never attempt a more complex 2D point-and-click adventure game in Construct or Unity (although I have no doubt it could be done/has been done), because Visionare is built from the ground up with these type of games in mind, and it shows.

So, use the right tool for the right job, and use what you know best to achieve what you want. And do not be afraid to switch tools if it makes sense and saves you frustration.

These X vs Y vs Z comparisons have proven themselves to be a bit pointless and fruitless.

if you want something powerful but not as expensive as illustrator, take a look at this http://www.madewithmischief.com/

it's new, and it's going to get a lot of attention.

Mischief is indeed very interesting, but it behaves like a "traditional" draw and paint application. More comparable to Krita, Painter, and Photoshop in terms of digital painting workflow - not comparable at all to Illustrator or a typical vector illustration package.

Although I own a license of Illustrator CS6, I no longer use it for work. When I do open it, I abuse it mostly as a conversion tool for AI files.

I never liked working in Illustrator: its basic workflow is cumbersome (this coming from an ex Adobe Certified Expert for Illustrator). I work with a Wacom tablet, and Illustrator's tiny handles and anchor points are quite painful to deal with on a 2560x1440 27" screen. Illustrator is also fiendishly slow compared to competing apps (although things have improved in CC 2014).

Also, I will NEVER subscribe to the CC model of Adobe. They lost me as a loyal ~18+ year long customer, and I switched to alternative software about 18 months ago.

So I prefer Xara Designer Pro, InkScape, and Photoline. Lately I tend to work more with Photoline's vector tools which got a boost in the latest beta. It just feels very convenient to be working with both vectors and excellent bitmap tools in the same application, and freely combining both in almost any way.

I worked with large level designs consisting of thousands of vector objects in Photoline, and quite like it. Honestly, the same levels in Illustrator were more difficult to manage.

So: good riddance Illustrator

PS one of the strengths of Photoline is its external app link: when I am working on a vector element in Photoline, and I need a quick edit in InkScape, Photoline allows me to quickly open that element in Inkscape, and then when I save the object in InkScape the object in Photoline is automatically updated. Very handy.

After Effects is geared towards motion graphics design, and as such, is less convenient for game graphics design. Special effects like explosions and particle effects can be rendered out as alpha transparent png sequences, but unless you take very careful precautions in limiting the number of frames and you make sure to loop the effect seamlessly, it may wind up eating up resources for breakfast.

You are far better off doing special effects within the Construct environment. However, if you MUST use AFx, remember to:

1) limit the # of frames as much as you can;

2) keep the overall size of the effect small (a lot of effects can be scaled up without much of an effect on quality, and it animates quickly - so no-one will really notice);

3) if the effect must be active for a longer time in the game (such as a persistent "healing" effect), make sure to seamlessly repeat the effect with again as little frames as you can get away with;

4) export as an alpha transparent PNG sequence (RGBA 8bit per channel!).

Btw, here is a tutorial demonstrating how to animate a retro-style character in After Effects:

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tuto ... character/

...but honestly, it seems rather contrived and an awkward tool for this type of work in my opinion.

Or try Visionaire. Most Daedalic-Stuff is made with this.

+1 Visionaire. And they are working on Mac, and mobile support.

Thanks for your tips and thoughts. To clarify, what I want to be able to do is to create custom behaviors for sprites the same way that I now create events in the event sheet. For me it would be far more OOP to place the logic on the sprite instead of mixing it with the general flow of the game. We should of course also have introspection on the public methods and parameters (code hinting) and the possibility to open the declaration (or event sheet) for the object from out master event sheet (like pressing F3 in eclipse).

This is somewhat possible now by coding custom behaviors in javascript but it would be really nice to be able to use the fast workflow in the event sheets.

+1

Do what you do best. The primary reason why Construct is such a damn good 2d game engine is because the developers focus on developing a well thought out 2d game engine.

Adding full 3d would only confuse matters, and they would have to compete in a very different market. That market is quite saturated at this point.

So no: the right tool for the right job - if you want full 3d, go with Unity, or another 3d engine.

+1 for 3d sprites. If we could import 3d sprites with either baked or intact bones animation that would be absolutely awesome.

Otherwise, if you want to go 3d, use Unity - with playmaker it's relatively easy to get up and running.

If you need more flexibility, while still create an entire point-and-click adventure without actual coding, AND want to publish it to any platform:

iceboxstudios.co.uk/adventure-creator

Also works with the free version of Unity.

Great news - we finally got our game up and running, and it was approved by Apple!

itunes.apple.com/ca/app/victor/id706400946

For the next game we will have to look for a different solution than Cocoonjs. I am looking forward to the game closure tutorial as well.

For anyone interested: the game is live on iTunes today:

itunes.apple.com/ca/app/victor/id706400946