Ya I like it’s irresponsible of Construct to sell templates that aren’t compatible with the only version they sell anymore. And ya the free version allows 100 events, but the template already has hundreds so you can’t add a single event without it asking you for a construct 2 license. Any way I’ve moved on, downloaded “basic platformer” for C3 and immediately after installing ran into a problem finding the c3addon file for Spriter that I bought because it’s required for this template. Been trying to find it and searching forums for an answer for 3 hours to no avail. I’m honestly about to just request a refund and give up on construct. I thought a template was the best way to introduce myself to the program but I’m now 0/2 getting templates to work. After many hours in front of my computer frustrated. Thanks for the response tho, I feel like I’m screaming into the void with these developers. I’ve tried reaching out to both and haven’t gotten a response. (Only been a few hours with the basic platformer developers, so maybe they will come through with a fix.)
Yeah, all you can really do is learn from the mistake. It would be nice if C2 was available to those who subscribe to Construct 3 though. I had bought a license years ago, so I'm covered when this issue arises for me. Someone in your situation is stuck, unless you find a good deal on Fiverr, or somewhere else to outsource it. And, have someone else remake the template into Construct 3.
My only advice, is to begin by watching the tutorials on the Scirra website, YouTube, and other sources. There is a wealth of information online, as with anything these days. This is how I got started, and I'm working on my own platformer tutorial series at the moment. I started with creating a bunch of small games, through watching tutorials. Read through the Construct 3 documentation a couple of times. Walked through a State System tutorial on YouTube, for my platformer. Than, built on top of that, and have expanded it quite a lot at this point.
As with anything, the more time, effort, and studying you put into learning Construct 3 the better you will become. Try not to be too dependent on templates. They can give you a good head start with certain things, but it really comes down to you for the end result. Keep on learning from mistakes and you'll get there. As with anything in life, there will be lots of roadblocks, which will force you to learn even more. I've been pouring time into my Construct 3 projects for several months, every day. And, every day I learn a bunch of new things, which expands my overall database of knowledge. Now, I can create things inside of a week, which would have taken me a month or so when I first started working with C3.
Move at your own pace, and practice patience. You will get to where you would like to be. And, don't worry about buying Spriter. I have both versions of the application, and it's been a solid tool in my toolbox for a while now. And, I still have a ton to learn with that application alone. Never mind everything else in my toolbox haha.
Best of luck to you, while moving forward. I can point you in the direction of a few YouTube Channels that got me going at least.
https://www.youtube.com/c/XanderwoodGameDev - There are some excellent series of tutorials for beginners here. He's a great guy to chat with as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7MaVJy76Gw - The State Machine tutorial I mentioned earlier. He gets into a lot of advanced topics, so the channel is a great resource, once you've settled in a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7wehUTim_FmesOi3l2qMQA - I've gotten a lot of useful knowledge by watching some of the videos in this channel as well.
Anyways. The overall point I'm making, is never give up. Of course, it's your choice to switch up to another application, or not. I've tried dozens of game engines over the years. Personally, I've found C3 to be the fastest for myself. As far as picking up the logic, and how the Events, Plugins, and the application itself works. I still have a long way to go though XD
Some days, I feel dumb. But, this is good. It means I am still learning. And, learning is one of my favorite things to do. I still have times where I will be stuck on some aspect of a project for quite a long time. I put it on my To-Do List, as a "Time Consuming Bug". And, will return to it from time to time between working on other functionalities in the project. Until, at last I've figured out what was going wrong, and have fixed the issue. It's been this way the entire way.
The struggle, the education, the progress seen over time. These are the things that keep me going. But, it is your path to choose :). There are many options for solid game engines, both 2D and 3D. Some really good ones which are free and/or Open Source. Others with a similar subscription model Scirra uses.
Personally, when I got back into Game Development going on a year ago next month. I followed tutorials for multiple applications. Then, prototyped and developed the same game play styles in a few of the engines that had made it that far on my list. After all the experimentation of trial and error, and making the same core gameplay in each one. I figured out that Construct 3 would likely be best for me long term.
Scirra's support has been top notch as well :). I've submitted multiple bug reports over the past several months, some of which were more like feature requests. For example: Not moving the Origin/Image Point when holding down Control & pressing the Directional keys when in the Image Editor, when the first/last frame or animation in the list has been reached while cycling through either. Along with some Image Editor bugs, and issues within the Timeline Editor. And, they've all been cleared up really quickly. Within a couple of weeks, there is a new release which fixes the issue. Most of the time, the very next release the following week has fixed it.
Take Care! Stay positive :) ✌️
EDIT: Grammar, and spelling corrections.