Ashley's Forum Posts

  • Try: AppPath & "Subfolder\filename.ext"

  • Don't beat yourself up, you gotta learn it one way or another!

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  • They're called Expressions. You can find a list of the built-in System Expressions.

    If you have two global variables 'a' and 'b' and want to know what percentage of 'b' is 'a', just use:

    global('a') / global('b')

    This will give you 0.5 for 50% (which is mathematically correct). If you want it as a scale up to 100 for 100% just multiply by 100:

    (global('a') * 100) / global('b')

    To create an event that runs when 'a' is under 50% of 'b', use System -> Compare Values to create:

    (global('a') * 100) / global('b') is less than 50

    This will run every tick when it's true, so if you play a warning sound, it'll keep playing all the time. To prevent that, add a 'Trigger Once' condition beneath it, then the actions (playing a sound or whatever) will run once the first time the percentage drops below 50.

  • I hope you don't interpret this thread as cruel or unhelpful, but there's a certain amount of truth in the answers here: you're jumping in the deep end without knowing too much about the program, which makes it difficult to explain the answers to your questions, too. You're asking about the finer points of the chemistry of combustion before you've put fuel in your car. If you don't need to use something, you can safely ignore it: there are a lot of plugins, and several are tailored to solving very specific problems, which many users are unlikely to come across.

    Instead of trying to figure out everything in one go, it would probably be best to go about making the games you want to make, then when you come across a specific problem, ask what the best way to solve that is.

    For example, you may be off making your game, and you need to attach certain pairs of objects together. Due to the particular circumstances, 'natural' pairing (i.e. equal numbers of both objects) doesn't work, and the container system doesn't help. If you then ask how to do it and the answer is "Try the Object Pairer plugin", it'll make a lot more sense. If you just ask "What is the Object Pairer plugin for?" without having much experience with the program, it's hard to know what to say: "Umm, well... things normally pair up together automatically... usually if there's something wrong with that you can use the container system (which is useful for a whole load of other things too)... in certain specific situations outside of that, Object Pairer is useful." That's a bit vague and not really helpful, and you won't get the "Ooooh!" moment of understanding you'd get when the answer solves an actual problem you're having. That's probably why the answers you get to this type of question are, well, terse.

    Also, being a part-time volunteer-developed open-source project, the documentation is sketchy. It's a well-known drawback of Construct, unfortunately. I'm kind of going nuts with university work right now, so I don't have much time to fix any of these problems - most people get by with forum searches, practice and using what is available on the wiki. I've asked in the past for users with experience to help flesh out the wiki, but it hasn't really seen a great deal of contributions, which isn't that surprising - it's hard work.

    Some of the issues you pointed out are also simply badly designed parts of Construct. These should be fixed in the next version - Construct 2 - and should also include a better help system, but that's somewhere just over the horizon, don't depend on it turning up any time soon.

    Still, I hope that helps, that you enjoy using Construct, and that you get everything figured out - it's just it looks like you're trying to go a little too fast. Please do feel free to ask more questions, maybe just aim them at what you're currently doing, then we can help you better too

  • HTML is more aimed at specifying the layout of a document. You can call that a programming language or not, but something like Logo better teaches logical thinking (and geometry) IMHO.

  • Logo is still around, and there are modern, up-to-date versions around, I'm sure. It's probably ideal. I'd stick to that! It's a "real" (typed with syntax) programming language, and simple and fun enough to get kids hooked.

  • KrushBrother, it's just remembering the settings from the last install, assuming you put something like C:\Program Files\Construct. It doesn't know you put the version number in the path!

  • Try the expression round(x) to round x to the nearest integer.

  • Just wanna say - probably best to stick to the same typefaces and logos as used by the site for all this stuff. Otherwise there will be no concept of brand or recognisability of the Scirra logo or name. That's why other companies consistently use the same typeface and graphics across all their stuff too. You don't see 'Microsoft' written in Times New Roman anywhere on Microsoft branding

  • Ah yes, there you go, a licence explicitly saying you can do it. That's OK too

  • If they told you it's OK and they want you to, then it's probably fine (that's what a submission form on a community site is saying implicitly: that you want to have it distributed on the site). If they then ask you to take it down, take it down. I can't see any problems arising that way for a small site.

  • I guess the question is can i put a game onto my website without the knowledge of the person who created the game?

    I'm not a lawyer, but I think the answer is "no". You're copying their work to your server and distributing it without their permission. If not legally, then morally it also feels wrong, because you're indirectly benefiting from publishing other people's work without their knowledge, which even if you're not making money from adverts, is in a way promoting your own website. The only exception is if the software is explicitly shareware (i.e. it actually says "please send this demo to all your friends!"), but you'll find most software and games, even if free, doesn't say that.

    Alternatives:

    • Require the author submit their work, like other community sites do
    • Simply link to an existing place online (e.g. the author's website) where the user can go to find the game.
    • In each and every case, contact the author and obtain permission.

    Distributing other people's work yourself is a step too far though, IMO.

  • That's fine, it would be great to have translations of this tutorial.

  • Why not post a .cap?