Excellent, thanks Ashley!

Okay thanks guys, it sounds like a good idea would be to load interface elements from the event sheet. Then it'll give me more flexibility for changing when the project gets bigger.

So let me just check though, the best way to do this is on start of layout, system > create new object > sprite1etc at (x,y)

And also have an unused instance of this sprite positioned off the layout somewhere, just so it will be included in the project?

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ol7OMtl.jpg1" border="0" />

Haha yeah you're right, it's not a problem, as it's doing what's intended! Although it does provide something for me to work around.

I suppose it's not a massive deal for me to include the elements on every layout, I'm just worried about the problems that happen when you multiply things up. I might have 100 layouts, and then want to start changing things, and have to then change the same thing on 100 layouts!

What might be best to do is to add the interface elements by an event. Is that a fairly normal thing to do?

I'd like this too, so that it works like jquery fadeIn()

Hi, I want some advice on how best to use layouts. I currently have 3:

Menu

Level 1

Level 2

Obviously my menu is very different to the others. It has a start button and is what the player will see first. And also what they will see when they die.

Level 1 has my character, the game level, and also lots of global elements that make up the HUD. I've made these elements global, so that I don't have to duplicate them on every other level. Because if I eventually have 20 levels, and want to change the layout of the HUD, I'll have to change each one!

So Level 2 is very basic, it just has the character and the level. No global elements. But when you play the game, you'll see these global elements as it'll pick them up from Level 1.

When the player goes back to the menu though, all of the global elements still show, overlapping the menu!

I wondered if anyone else has had this exact same problem? And how have you solved it?

I never would have guessed that's the problem! Thanks ramones!

dragoonblade I don't think your idea is a very good one. Storing text as an image isn't going to be very helpful. What if you want to change it later on?

Thanks jayderyu for your insight, I'm hoping to use JSON, but I'll be careful now after what you've said!

Arima I haven't used the dictionary object yet, bth I didn't know what it's for! Was it originally intended for storing dialogue? (hence the name 'dictionary')

Hi guys, I've been playing around with construct, and haven't made anything serious yet.

I have a question about using multiple layouts. I have 1 layout for a menu, and 1 for the game. Switching between them works fine in the application, but when exporting to HTML5 website, it doesn't go to the next layout - it just hides the button but stays on the 1st layout.

This seems to work randomly, and only sometimes. I've managed to export it and this time it does work, but other times it hasn't. I wondered maybe if you could try the game below and tell me if it works, or is some sort of intermittent problem.

Here's my first test game, which is based on a crappy drawing my friend Greg sent me on msn messenger in 2006, and I promised to make him a game. 7 years later I've finally started, haha!

dl.dropbox.com/u/24767479/games/gregsgame/index.html

Don't judge it, it's just an experiment of course.

jayderyu you're awesome! Thanks for the brilliant example. I'm going to have to take some time to absorb this and work it into my game! I'll keep you posted with progress :-)

Thanks for all the replies and support guys! What I'll definitely do is create a few games first before I get onto my big complex game! By the sound of it, the way I want my game to work is similar to theubie's

Hi dudes, I've been playing with Construct 2 for about a week and love it so far, I love the simplicity over other methods of making games. I used to make games in Flash which was fine, and then I tried ImpactJS which is powerful, but can take a long time to get something working that you can do in 5 mins in Construct 2.

My eventual project idea is to create a game that requires login to a database which allows to track user progress, so they can get level up, get upgrades, new weapons, equipment etc, and continue to play the game for weeks or months.

I know Construct is more about short quick shooter/platform games, and not intended for games that you play over a long time like I'm planning - but is this something that's going to be easy in Construct, or am I being far too ambitious?

Thanks for taking the time to create that example Whiteclaws, I really appreciate it!

I agree it's probably better to use arrays than instance variables. However it doesn't seem a very elegant solution, especially as it requires an action for every piece of spoken dialogue. Also you have to keep track of each NPC's number (which corresponds to the index in the array), which can get a bit tricky when you have many.

The biggest problem with your solution however is that it won't work if an NPC needs to say more than 1 thing ever. Where would the second piece of dialogue go in the array?

I think Aluriak/Yann's example here scirra.com/forum/npc-dialog_topic48355_post303797.html might be a more flexible solution than this, although I'm still interested in seeing more examples.