If you want to create music without recording instruments you'll need software to sequence it with (generally a digital audio workstation or DAW) and some software synthesizers. There are a number of free DAWs for windows and mac and also some reasonably priced ones such as Reaper, which I would recommend as it's very powerful and cheap. You can load virtual studio instruments (vstis) into this (basically software synthesizers, but sample based instruments are also available) and compose away. There are lots of free ones out there, but a good one to check out initially is the excellent and free Synth1. It should be noted however that this stuff has a pretty high learning curve and getting good results won't happen quickly.

I'm primarily a designer and composer so I get simple gameplay mechanics up but generally work on establishing a mood first. I've found that once I do this, themes, gameplay mechanics etc will start to fall into place. It doesn't happen all at once, it's an ongoing process of constant refinement and doesn't need to be rushed, it will happen naturally if you continue to immerse yourself in the project.

Some people like to plan things out meticulously first, I don't. There's no right or wrong way, it's what works for you - personally I like the hands on experimentation - it promotes new ideas as you develop the game and gives a sort of instant gratification that helps drive it forward.

I'm not afraid to experiment (some great gameplay mechanics have arisen from accidents), I'm not afraid to deviate from my main project (I'll often keep several projects of different styles/genres on the go, and flit between them when I'm stuck or bored with one as it helps keep interest in game development high). I think the most important thing is to do it for the love of doing it, not because there is a chance of success or because you're trying to break into the indie scene. Make the game for yourself first and foremost, and if you manage to finish it (much easier said than done) then start to think about a wider audience.

It's hard when you're working a full time job, have family commitments etc to devote time to developing a game - I cut out things that are less important - cut back on TV, block distracting websites, work on problems in my lunchbreak, after work etc. I try to grab an hour or so on most days, but then sometimes go full swing on weekends/holidays. You'd be amazed what you can get done in a short time when you've spent months thinking about and immersing yourself in the project.

Hey, I spend a lot of time lurking on these forums but I thought I'd post just to say thanks. You've been one of the most prolific and helpful posters on here and your replies to both myself and many others have really helped me wrap my head around construct. All the best with your health, hope you can get it back on track.

Hi, I'm interested in syncing up events with audio, but I can't seem to work out an effective way to do it.

I've been trying to use XAudio2's "Get position" expression - setting that to a variable and then using that variable to manipulate events - but I've noticed that it ignores loops and the number grows for as long as the audio is playing, rather than reverting back to 0 when the audio loops.

Basically, I just want to be able to check how far through a track has played and execute various actions depending on what part of the music is playing. Am I on the right track with the "Get position" expression or is there perhaps a more effective way to do this? The more accurate the better. Thanks for any help :)

I get a black screen with a blue square, a HUD and some music playing. I can control the blue square with the arrow keys but can't seem to do much else. Here is a screenshot of how it looks imgur.com/w214s

I don't really know what the problem could be, but how are you loading your images in the game - are they embedded in the .exe or are you loading them from directories at runtime? If it's the latter maybe check your paths.

Thanks for your reply, I have all textures loading per layout which is why it was a bit baffling to find such a difference in vram consumption. I'm wondering if it has something to do with global objects - I noticed that I had accidentally marked some of my level pieces as global objects and in debug mode they were appearing on every layout in the same place, when running the program normally they were there as well, invisible but still solid - causing barriers.

Hi, I'm having a bit of an odd problem. I have a project with multiple layouts, but I've noticed that my second layout behaves differently depending on whether I test it using "run layout" or "run all". I've also noticed that the vram consumption is different depending on these settings - it uses approximately 10mb more vram when loaded with "run all" (layout 1 is run first but then a trigger in the level takes you to layout 2). I was under the impression that all textures were purged from the cache whenever a new layout was loaded - is this not the case?

More important than the vram discrepancy however is the fact that layout 2 behaves differently if loaded from layout 1 and not from 'run layout' - it's as if there are some invisible barriers there which interfere with the player. Has anyone else had problems with residual objects being left over from previous layers? For the record I'm not using any transitions as I've read these can cause issues.

Oops, I didn't realize I was in the discussion forum - I meant for this to go in help - too many tabs open! :P Anyway, thanks - random(2) * -180 worked a treat. Much appreciated.

Hi, thanks for the reply :)

If I set the rectangles angle to 180 + random(180) it still seems to pick any angles between those two values, whereas I just need it to be either -180 or 0 (ignoring all other angles), if you imagine the rectangles like skyscrapers, they all need to stand straight, but face either left or right, but at present with that code they randomize to all angles between those values. I'll see if I can track down and install an older version of cc and do up another example.

Hi, I'm trying to pick between two angles at random (-180 and 0), I don't wish to have any angles between these two just one or the other randomly picked. Could someone enlighten me on the correct syntax to achieve something like this?

I've attached a link to a cap which demonstrates what I'm trying to achieve - when it's run it populates the ground area with a bunch of rectangles and randomizes their position and height, but they all face to a 0 degree angle and I would like to randomly alternate this between 0 and -180. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

masspanicmusic.com/construct/randomangle.rar

I'm no expert, but this is how I would do it:

masspanicmusic.com/construct/boxexplode.rar (CC r2 version)

It was just made very quickly and roughly to demonstrate, if anyone else has a better method I would be interested as well.

Hi, I would probably do it like this:

Select your player character and look at its properties.

Add a private variable called "score", by default it should be a number and 0.

Add a text box on another layer, name it and set that layer so that it doesn't scroll. This will be what displays your score.

In your event sheet add a new system condition for "Always (every tick)" and then an action: select the text box, then select "set text" - the set text screen will come up as "" don't type anything in there yet, instead double click your player object, then "get private variable" - it will input something like player.Value('Variable name') - replace the 'Variable Name' with what you named your private variable before eg 'score' - keep the quotations. So now, every tick it will set the text box to whatever value the private variable 'score' is.

So all you have to do now is add an action to whatever happens when you hit a coin - so on collision with player and coin add 1 to private variable 'score'