Hey everyone,
I have noticed a few things about construct 2. I have a feeling you all have too- if you have tried to make any large projects... (large being a relative term, obviously SC2 is large but for the sake of construct lets say large is MetroidFusion/Yoshis island)
Construct2 is really fast to work with. I was sold on it a day after I bought it and I still haven't changed my mind about how awesome it is. That having been said, there is a number of things that start to get in the way/ decrease potential productivity. These are....
1. Events are tied to a singular project. It is next to impossible or practically a nightmare to try and re-use functionality from one game to another. As it is, event sheets can get increasingly long as a project goes on. Sure you can split them up and call them, but that isn't very handy. It's like construct was made for smaller games and hasn't realized its potential.
Event files should be able to be prototyped and plugged in to any project. If you want flexibility like that currently, then you need to be able to javascript your own plugins. Cool and all, but honestly there is very little documentation or help doing so. And at that point... you may as well be working in unity- as it has a much better system for that sort of workflow (meaning construct isn't as fast anymore).
2. Functions need to be able to be called in the same manner as referencing an object- that is, they need to be included in some sort of conclusive, auto-completed menu system. As it currently works, you have to remember all your function names and spell them correctly... not to be high and mighty, but as a programmer that is computer work. having function names not being able to be in a hierarchy of calls is also silly. Having to type in "player_somefunction()" every time you need to call it can get old. Especially when you end up typing "plyaer_somefucntion()", or something similar. Instead of the event editor telling you you have made a bad call, you spend precious time trying to figure out a logic error that doesn't even exist.
All in all, construct is amazing at what it does, which in my mind is creating smaller scale games quickly. But it starts to lose its edge when trying to create much larger scale games. I actually had to switch to unity for my current project after half a year with construct2. In the end, the scope of my game was too great for javascript/html5 and I was getting serious framerate problems. (I was using too many layers, but hey, I need them to organize and create levels efficiently.) Also being able to quickly create scripts and attach them to various objects is wonderful and efficient.
I will still use Construct2 for small projects and prototyping, but I can't see trying to undertake a mammoth project again.
Any Thoughts - agreements/disagreements ?