a quick hack:

you could create an visbilbe objekt "wall" and a very thin and invisible object "floor". You would have to put the thin object "floor" ontop of your walls. Than in events you define, that when

- the ball hits the "floor" it jumps

- the ball hits just the the wall nothing happens.

Hi everybody

I have an object with an instance variable, which I can not use to read out an array.at(instancevariable), since it is a locked as string (instead of number). It is no big deal, but since I run into this problem again and again. I wanted to ask if there is an elegant solution to either

a) change the used (and locked) instance variable from string to number or

b) use an expression to change it to a number (unfortunately number(), and parse...() are not available in the expression dialog).

rikkichinna

I also see much potential for learning with Construct in general. What I like most about construct is that students can learn and be successful at very different levels

a) students with less scripting/math skills can work with the event system

b) and better students can move to scripting in actions.

c) real coding in scripts

At the end of the course everybody in class has a good chance to show off a decent game (while simultaneously the students who learned JS with construct had profited most from the course for life). So during the course everybody sees a way how to make their game according to their skill level, everybody keeps engaged to learn more and nobody has to be ashamed. (Additionally Laura from Scirra produces these excellent videos and blog, which show that girls/woman/everybody can become good a computer science even if it is sometimes a bit painful)

However, as a public schools teacher one has to try to lift most students to level c (because society does not want pupils to be good game developers but people who can code anything) and I think teachers would need more information how to achieve this - or at least I would need a bit more guidance.

I think you are perfectly right about the "best way to move from blocks to scripting would be to use scripts in actions. [...] Using these you could then expand out to variables, loops and so on."

However, I also think that the smaller comparison you did made

- have a "tick" callback (equivalent to "Every tick")

- nested for loops iterating all the instances (equivalent to the internal picking of conditions)

are necessary to integrate the knowledge students gained in the beginning of class into the new concept of JS.

Finally you might not have intended it, but you gave - with the on collision event - a good example why teachers need a fairly complete list of comparison between events and JS. Assume that a student wants to script an "on collision" event by him/herself and asks the teacher if he thinks this would be a good idea. The teacher would have to decide quite fast if the student is up to this challenge or if he/she should just use the "on collision" event as it is. A clear list of concepts the student would need to know, would be necessary to the teacher.

Again you are right about that a good way "to explain what the "On collision" event does (rather like outlining a specification), how to replicate that in JavaScript, and then just finish with "and that's what the "On collision" block does internally". This is the kind of list, which would be very helpful for teachers.

Hello everybody

I have a question about the multiplayer plugin:

I would like to create an app, which my students have to download at home. When they come to class I would like them to connect with their smartphones to a WLAN-router, which has no access to the internet (for legal reasons). Is it possible that my students connect to a chatroom (just for the class - just in the WLAN network) and send messages to each other? .

From what I see: the chatromm template requires an internet connection to the signalling server. Is their another way, when students just are in the same network? Does anybody had a similar problem?

thanks and best wishes