Fengist's Recent Forum Activity

  • Greetings Construct 2 community, I am currently looking at buying game creation software for my own personal use for myself and games for friends/family.

    After a week of research I have my final choice down to two packages, Clickteam Fusion 2.5 or Scirra Construct 2. If you would answer some questions I have, it would help my final decision.

    1: can I truly create a game with ^NO^ programming whatsoever?

    2: can someone who pretty much sucked at school and mathamatics create games? (for example, like Jetpack Joyride)

    3: can I output native windows code in a single .exe file?

    4: Would you recommend I buy a book to learn it, or pay for an online course?

    5: is it viable to create a roleplaying game with this software? (no, I'm not silly enough to expect to make a new Skyrim, but something like the old bards tale games?)

    Thank you

    As someone who's purchased C2 in the past week, I've been through the process you're experiencing. Unlike you, I have one advantage, I do write code in several other languages. So, that gives me some insight into how to answer a few of your questions.

    1. As stated above, yes and no. And as far as I know, there's no development platform out there that will totally isolate you from doing some typing and still be able to create what you want. You will still have to learn what variables are and how they work. Construct does isolate you somewhat in that you won't have to learn a gob of them. Integers, floating point, string (text) and boolean variables will do most everything you want.

    2. Yes. I barely passed algebra in school and instead of taking the trig and calculus courses, I went for euclidean geometry. BUT, that doesn't mean you won't need to learn some things. For most things, basic math will suffice. Working with sprites and physics though will require you to do some googling. For example, if your sprite is moving X direction at a speed and Y direction at a speed, and you need to know fast it's going in the direction of travel, you'll need some trig (using arctan). Again, you can google things like this.

    3. It does not create a single .exe. However, whether it's one file or a dozen, it will be 'stand-alone.' In the world of creating programs and apps, very few are one single exe. Most rely on external files, like .dll's. If you create a 'stand-alone' .exe with C2, it will be installed in one folder with all of the files needed and executed without having C2 installed if that's your concern. The good news is, it will also create executable files for Windows, OSX and Linux, 32 and 64 bit, all at the same time.

    4. That depends on how you learn best. I personally learn through screwing things up. I try what I think will work and when it doesn't then I go through the manual (which for Construct is pretty nice).

    5. Having played Bards Tale I can safely say that Construct could handle that. BUT... if you're considering creating something along those lines, regardless of what IDE you decide to go with, you're looking at a huge project with lots of "if this then do that" boolean logic. It won't be something you finish in a week or a month.

    From my perspective, C2 is one of the easiest drag and drop IDE's that I've found. But make no mistake, creating games in any IDE is work. It's frustrating at times and massively time consuming. As one of my programming friends says about programming, "celebrate each little achievement until you reach the end." But, once you do reach the end and you see someone purchase your work because they like it... it's all worth it.

    My advice, start your role-playing game... but work on smaller projects as well. Each one you create, you'll have a victory to celebrate and learn something new in the process which will make your bigger project all the better.

  • Ok, so I've been trying to get my app on the Chrome Web store. Today I added in the IAP plugin to see if it'll work with Google Wallet and allow me to turn it into a freemium. However, I came to a screeching halt after I uploaded it with the IAP. My app, which is only published privately, is being held for review... several days worth according to Google.

    Here's the reasons they claim they're holding my app.

    • The item may have an NPAPI plugin, which requires a signed agreement from you. Check your email account associated with the item for an agreement notification from our abuse team.
    • The item is suspected to contain or to be distributed by malware or unwanted software.
    • The item is suspected to violate one of the developer program policies.
    • The item may have already been previously removed for a legal or policy violation, and has been resubmitted.

    Ok, so as far as I know there is no malware. I don't think I'm violating any policy and it hasn't been previously removed. So that leaves the NPAPI thing.

    One thing I noticed, starting today, whenever I export the project (Chrome Web Store export) I'm now getting Amazon-Web-App-API.min.js and tizen-iap.js files in the export folder. These weren't exported in the past and I can only assume it has to do with the IAP plugin.

    So, while I'm now waiting... days... for my project to be reviewed, perhaps someone has some insight as to why.

  • Thanks ASHLEY. Glad you understood what I meant even though I misworded text and textbox. That perfectly describes what I was experiencing. The good news is, for my purposes, with WebGL turned off, the maximum text plugin size seems to be unlimited. And because the textbox plugin uses scrollbars with no way to detect if they were visible, and no ability to resize the box based on the text height, it was totally unsuitable for my purposes

    I uploaded my app to the Scirra Arcade (even though it's not a game and didn't fit into any category) you can test it out in the new games/other games. It's named uPrompt Nomad (sorry, can't link yet)

    As a test, I copied and pasted Moby Dick into the editor and the text plugin was able to display and scroll the entire novel in the text plugin with the font size at around 50px. It was a bit laggy but that test is an absolute extreme of what I'd expect it to do.

    Thanks for confirming that WebGL wasn't going to work.

    And thanks for C2! Along with being a shareware author, I'm now an app developer. I have just published this privately on the Chrome Web store as a free app and will be uploading the paid app in the next few days. Android and other platforms are soon to follow.

  • Thanks, you were partially correct. It seems that even as a developer, and even launching the install from the developer console, I still had to add my e-mail to the allowed users list.

  • Ok, so I got my C2 app loaded onto the chrome web store. I published it privately to test is. Any time I try to add it to Chrome, I get an 'Access Denied' and a 'Forbidden' error.

    Anyone have any ideas? Google doesn't seem to like when people search for Google errors. I found nothing.

  • Well, since there have been a few views and no feedback, I can only assume that either everyone is speechless or they found nothing wrong with it.

    Just a quick update to let you know the power of C2 and how this app handles it, I just loaded the entire King James Bible into the editor and scrolled it on the teleprompter with the font settings at about 50%. It was rather laggy trying to process all of that moving text, but it did work.

    And a demo version can now be found in the Scirra Arcade at: scirra.com/arcade/other-gam ... -free-3711

    even though it's not a game.

  • Does this look good?

    Layout looks good. Don't like the multi-colored buttons.

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  • Several years ago, I needed a teleprompter for a project I was working on. Not finding one to my liking, I did what any coder would do, I wrote one. Because it was so simple, when I was done I released it as freeware. After 4,000 downloads in 3 days I realized I had hit on something. So, I sat down and wrote a better one and released it as shareware.

    A few months ago I completed a MAJOR overhaul and rewrote it from scratch. I'm currently sitting on that upgrade waiting to release it. Since I started working on that new version, I've had dreams of making a companion to it for Android, iOS and other platforms. But the language I program in (Delphi) isn't Android friendly.

    About 2 weeks ago, I found Construct. In those two weeks, it's been a bit of a struggle to learn it's conventions but. I have now purchased C2 and completed the first alpha of a working teleprompter. Yes, from total noob to a working teleprompter in 2 weeks. If Ashley needs a poster boy for the crazy things you can do with C2, I'd qualify. And LittleStain, this is why I needed to have HUGE text boxes. Hope it makes sense now and thanks for all the help.

    Features

    • Comletely flexible layout. It automatically adjusts to screen size and orientation.
    • Should adjust size when mobile keyboards are opened and closed (not fully tested yet).
    • I haven't found a limit to the script size. I've had scrolling text 500,000 px high and still working properly.
    • Adjustable speed and font sizes.
    • Adjustable font size for the editor.
    • The ability to use web fonts for the teleprompter.
    • A countdown timer to prepare you for the script to start scrolling.
    • A countdown clock to show you how much time is left.
    • A built-in text editor with the ability to load, save, edit and delete scripts.
    • Full screen capable.

    While it's not quite done yet, I have a test version up and running (for now, I'll take it down when I release this) for your amusement and well worded criticisms.

    Experience it live at:

    datainterlock.com/Construct

    Oh and the help files aren't up yet so this'll be a good test to see if I made it intuitive.

    Note: this was written almost purely with C2 plugins. The only plugin I fell in love with and used was the CSS plugin. Made styling the buttons and boxes soooo much easier.

    If you care to test it's limits, I've pasted 50 paragraphs of lorem ipsum text from lipsum.com and... it still scrolls it.

  • For my purposes, that would be out of the question. The fonts need to be changeable and of good quality.

  • And, I found a workaround.

    I turned WebGL off for the project and I stopped when the text plugin size reached 102k px height, which should be plenty for my purposes.

    For some reason the WebGL has an issue with creating huge text plugins.

    Fortunately, for my purposes, WebGL isn't essential... but it did make things work smoother.

  • For those who are curious as to my decision...

    I purchased C2.

    Thanks for the advice.

  • Thanks for the idea LittleStain,

    Again, I know this sounds odd but should I pull it off, I'll put a version up on the arcade. Let's just say it's something VERY different from anything else I've seen made in construct.

    Multiple text boxes wouldn't work. First, I'd have to figure out how much text and at what font size fits within the 16.4k size. That means running multiple checks to see at what point the box exceeds that size. Then, if the text is larger than 16.4k, in order to make it look like one continuous block of text, I'd have to somehow split the text based on lines rather than words or tokens (difficult to do with wordwrap). Then, I'd have to position the next text box below that one and track it's position. etc...

    It would be nightmarish.

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Fengist

Member since 6 Nov, 2015

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