Hi there, I'm new to construct in general.

My question is if construct 3 can be used to make web apps, and not only games.

Meaning can the final build be set as to not include physics, for instance, or generally anything not used.

Also, how would it fair with platform specific features?

This is considering that the objective is to create apps for web and mobile, based on html5.

Please enlighten me on the subject matter.

Construct is awesome for building HTML5 web and mobile apps. I haven't found a better tool for yet for this purpose. It is pretty cool to have the full game engine capability when you are designing a non-game experience. I was a little worried about making things lightweight, but haven't found this to be an issue, even with projects with tens of plugins, hundreds of layouts, and thousands of events.

Here are some of the non-games I have made in Construct 2. The only one that can't currently be built in Construct 3 is ChemThink, which uses the Q3D plugins which have not been ported to C3:

1. 50+ HTML5 science simulations on http://www.simbucket.com: https://www.simbucket.com/welcome-to-simbucket/

2. ChemThink front end (I used php on the backend): https://simbucket.com/chemthinkserver/chemthink/index.html

3. DC Circuit Builder for iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dc-circuit-builder/id863128050?mt=8

4. DC Circuit Builder for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nerdislandstudios.dccircuitbuilder&hl=en

5. Physics Question Bank: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55106174/questionbank/index.html

Hi, guys,

This question made me think: what if construct 2 isn't just a game maker, but an app maker for your company or event?

As i was browsing through the forums, studying c2 and during my main job as a designer ( i work in a special events company)

I encountered making apps for events. I just wondered, why not i make this app in my c2 though its not a game? and have a template out of it?

Good idea right? the apps we make in Construct software can be applicable to simple drop and click app guides for corporate event guides.

I'm wondering if scirra would go the extra effort on this. I won't demand for too many things but if this was applicable to games, what more to apps that requires simple logic or functions? it's a nice platform, that permits cross publishing between ios and android so i love using this.

If construct can't do this, are there any other product out there that's so simple, (i'm not a computer programmer and i'm more focused on front end designing) manageable like construct app engine that lets you publish in different platforms? of course, same style as drag and drop and bit logic.

This is what drew us to C2 in the first place.

We ditched native iOS app development when we found C2 in 2014. We now use it for almost all of our front-end work.

I don't know of any full-featured tool that would allow us to produce HTML5 content as quickly and easily as Construct.

Well... so cocoon is off the table then...

I need a "here-and-now" solution. Not another bright promise of something that -might- happen somewhere in the future.

I can't imagine the stress you are under with family and financial pressures, but I wouldn't write off any options quite yet. It sounds like you need a "right now" solution as well as a more permanent one.

If you can just get something to work in the next week or two, it sounds like you are set for a little bit. After that, there are definitely more permanent solutions. Remember that all you really need for an HTML5 wrapper is a working webview. Any professional iOS/Android programmer should be able to get that up and running fairly quickly. I suspect that you will be able to get the performance you need without too much in the way of modification to your game now that both iOS and Android webviews support webGL.

Also, have you tried the desktop version of PhoneGap? It looks like it might come with some additionally flexibility that PhoneGap Build doesn't include:

http://docs.phonegap.com/getting-started/

Ah. I get it. The last time I packaged for mobile I used XDK for Android because it seemed to work more consistently. For iOS I used Cocoon.

Maybe the best thing to do is to create a separate thread (or three) under the "How do I" section. I would try to tackle the three export problems (iOS, android, and Windows desktop) specifically.

The nuclear option is to create your own web app wrapper with a webview using an Android IDE like Netbeans and the iOS IDE (xcode). Both of these are doable within a month, but it will be a lot of late nights, and you might be better off convincing a programmer friend to do it for you. I believe this is what Ashley ended up doing a few years back with iOS. However, I think you could probably get where you need to go with one of the prebuilt solutions. If not PhoneGap Build, then raw Cordova.

Have you looked at Phonegap Build service?

https://build.phonegap.com

It is paid, but should be pretty painless to use.

Thx for the kind words buddy (one of the first in this thread ).

As of point 1 - sadly I have no idea what those things are. You mean via Intel XDK?

point 2 - if Scirra could estimate the time then maybe yeah. But their "We're working on it!" means anything between a month and a year. And when I maybe (just MAYBE) would be able to stretch the line for one month - I cannot do this for a whole year. And there's also no promises from their side that it'll be working as intended.

As I've said - PhoneGap sounds very nice and project loading is literally instant (when compared to Intel XDK at least) but I have no idea how to setup the settings to fit my game, beside the defaults. Would you be an user of PhoneGap by any chance?

I haven't used phonegap myself. A few years back it was pretty primitive and ran without webGL, but with the advent of the WKWebView for iOS, it is now hardware-accelerated and a great option. I would definitely give it and Cocoon a shot. Back in the day, Cocoon worked much better than XDK for me.

I was a native iOS programmer before switching to C2. xcode is the tool you would use if you wanted to do things natively on iOS/mac os. It is incredibly powerful, but not very user-friendly. I like C2 because I can get everything done in much less time.

Irbis,

I'm sorry to hear about the rough time you are having. I do HTML5 work pretty much exclusively now, and the last time I packaged stuff up was with Cocoon.js two years ago. I have two possible suggestions:

1. Have you tried creating a blank xcode project, dropping in a WKWebView or UIWebView, then loading the game as a resource in the webview? WKWebView should give you close to the same performance as iOS Safari.

2. If you can wait for Scirra, they have promised to get the mobile Build Service working for C2 projects as well. I'm looking forward to trying this with my most recent creation.

QuaziGNRLnose

Did all that just now...

Tried to open Construct 2 and:

Unable to load plugin in 'C:\Program Files\Construct

2\exporters\html5\plugins\Q3D\': Cannot open file 'C:\Program

Files\Construct 2\exporters\html5\plugins\Q3D\common.js'

This plugin will not be available in the editor.

(Sorry I haven't responded in a couple days.)

This is what I have in my Construct 2\exporters\html5\plugins folder. Is this what you are seeing too?

There are lots of ways to do this.

The following way will work if the object is spinning very slowly (less than 1 degree per tick). If it is spinning more quickly you are going to get a very erratic sound:

Condition:

System -> compare two values -> sprite.angle%5 < 1

Action:

Audio -> Play sound

For an object that is spinning more quickly, give the object an instance variable called "lastSoundAngle". When you first play a sound, set lastSoundAngle = sprite.angle. Every tick, check if abs(anglediff((sprite.Angle - lastSoundAngle)) > 5, then play the sound again and set lastSoundAngle = sprite.Angle.

Yes, our original announcement covered our intent to support this.

Sorry about that! I don't know how I missed it at the bottom of the announcement.

I tried importing the project into C3, but no luck because of the missing plugins. I can't see any options from the main menu that would allow me to try it. Is there currently a way to test the build service with my C2 project?

Something with a generative ruleset maybe? Maybe a "cellular automaton" like the Game of Life:

https://bitstorm.org/gameoflife/

Create some simple rules, and now you have a game that adapts to the players an is open-ended.

Ashley or Tom

In the future would it be possible to use the C3 build service with non-C3 projects?

Right now both of my large (multi-year) C2 projects rely on a plugin that will probably never be ported to C3. I would like to subscribe to C3 and use the new C3 build service for my C2 projects. I can't find any way to do this. Is it possible? If not, is it on the roadmap?