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[increpare]

when they have actually been coded, when will that be?

IDK

[ScirraTom]

Hi guys,

Tom from Scirra here!  I hope you don't mind me posting in this thread but someone showed it to me and there is some interesting discussion going on!

Firstly just to let people know, if HTML5 demos are running slowly you may need to enable hardware acceleration in your browser:
http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/09/windows/internet/browser/turn-on-hardware-acceleration-in-google-chrome.html

Other browsers also have similar switches.  Once this is on, the games should run a lot better.  The next version of Chrome due in a couple of weeks will be the first to ship with hardware acceleration enabled by default.

There is a gap between performance on browsers, but it is closing up and we are seeing rapid improvements.

In regards to sound, sound implementation is very buggy in all browsers.  If you are playing an HTML5 game with sounds, you can either 'cheat' and have a Flash player hidden that manages the sounds, or you can go pure HTML5 and endure a slightly buggy implementation until browsers get their acts together!  We think the best long term solution is to go with pure HTML5.

Another point raised was that Construct Classic is unstable.  This is a fair criticism, and is why Construct 2 has been re-written from the ground up.  All our lessons were learnt in Construct Classic, we now have a clean slate and Construct 2 is far far more stable.  We prefer to start fresh than have to add on to our older interface which will no doubt cause more problems in the future.

We realise there is a huge demand for an EXE exporter.  Construct 2 is a multi exporter program, eventually with one click you will be able to export to multiple formats.  However, for now we stuck with HTML5 as:
 - It's newsworthy
 - Has a huge reach which is going to grow rapidly
 - Is very scalable with a lot of people already able to write plugins (in Javascript)

Just to clear any confusion up, there is a free edition of Construct 2:

http://www.scirra.com/construct2/releases/new (this link always takes you to the latest release)

Also our early adopter licenses will be available for a while (at least a couple of months).  At £19 we think this is a fair price, and we estimate this will be a 50% discount on the final price.  The larger license price which keeps being quoted is not suitable for 99% of people!  It is only needed if you make over $5,000 revenue from games made in Construct 2 (or you are a registered business using our tools).  Everyone can buy the standard license, and sell things they make in it!  If you go over the $5,000 limit there will be an upgrade option soon.

There is lots going on in the Scirra camp, we have a new site design, we've also included free music, sprites, sound effects and ambient music will ALL versions (more in the licensed versions but still a good handful in the free edition!)  See http://www.scirra.com/construct2/music for more details on this.

We always welcome feedback good or bad on what we are doing!  Our aim is to create a tool which people enjoy using, and helps them make cool and fun games

I'll subscribe to this thread and am happy to answer any questions anyone has!

[poe]

Hi guys,

Tom from Scirra here!  I hope you don't mind me posting in this thread but someone showed it to me and there is some interesting discussion going on!

Firstly just to let people know, if HTML5 demos are running slowly you may need to enable hardware acceleration in your browser:
http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/09/windows/internet/browser/turn-on-hardware-acceleration-in-google-chrome.html

Other browsers also have similar switches.  Once this is on, the games should run a lot better.  The next version of Chrome due in a couple of weeks will be the first to ship with hardware acceleration enabled by default.

There is a gap between performance on browsers, but it is closing up and we are seeing rapid improvements.

In regards to sound, sound implementation is very buggy in all browsers.  If you are playing an HTML5 game with sounds, you can either 'cheat' and have a Flash player hidden that manages the sounds, or you can go pure HTML5 and endure a slightly buggy implementation until browsers get their acts together!  We think the best long term solution is to go with pure HTML5.

Another point raised was that Construct Classic is unstable.  This is a fair criticism, and is why Construct 2 has been re-written from the ground up.  All our lessons were learnt in Construct Classic, we now have a clean slate and Construct 2 is far far more stable.  We prefer to start fresh than have to add on to our older interface which will no doubt cause more problems in the future.

We realise there is a huge demand for an EXE exporter.  Construct 2 is a multi exporter program, eventually with one click you will be able to export to multiple formats.  However, for now we stuck with HTML5 as:
 - It's newsworthy
 - Has a huge reach which is going to grow rapidly
 - Is very scalable with a lot of people already able to write plugins (in Javascript)

Just to clear any confusion up, there is a free edition of Construct 2:

http://www.scirra.com/construct2/releases/new (this link always takes you to the latest release)

Also our early adopter licenses will be available for a while (at least a couple of months).  At £19 we think this is a fair price, and we estimate this will be a 50% discount on the final price.  The larger license price which keeps being quoted is not suitable for 99% of people!  It is only needed if you make over $5,000 revenue from games made in Construct 2 (or you are a registered business using our tools).  Everyone can buy the standard license, and sell things they make in it!  If you go over the $5,000 limit there will be an upgrade option soon.

There is lots going on in the Scirra camp, we have a new site design, we've also included free music, sprites, sound effects and ambient music will ALL versions (more in the licensed versions but still a good handful in the free edition!)  See http://www.scirra.com/construct2/music for more details on this.

We always welcome feedback good or bad on what we are doing!  Our aim is to create a tool which people enjoy using, and helps them make cool and fun games

I'll subscribe to this thread and am happy to answer any questions anyone has!

Err maybe you should start a new thread, or maybe desert dog should rename this to GM/Construct html5.
Anyways, a question have as someone who already owns game maker, why would I want to buy your product instead? What does it offer me?

[Amirai]

I'd prefer to use a game editor that doesn't require me to write my own exporter

It doesn't require you to. It simply gives you the option to.  They've said they want to make more exporters after making the HTML5 exporter.

[ScirraTom]

Hi Poe,

I'm happy to gracefully retreat from this thread if my opinions aren't welcome (I would understand!)

We think you should try Construct 2 because:
 - There is a free edition
 - Our pricing model is fair
 - It's a stable editor, completely rewritten
 - It comes with lots of high quality original media (music, sound FX, sprites etc) that we want to build up gradually
 - It is already usable (see our space blaster demo: http://www.scirra.com/construct2/demos)
 - It's highly scalable for us and devs, plugins can be written, and new exporters can be written (we are developing an exporter SDK so anyone can write exporters!)
 - You get full control and rights over your games
 - We also believe our engine will outperform all others, we are hopefully going to be doing benchmarks soon to prove this as soon as we can
 - We try hard to listen to peoples wants and needs and work these into Construct 2
 - We release often, check our release archive: http://www.scirra.com/construct2/releases

[Nix]

Hi Poe,

I'm happy to gracefully retreat from this thread if my opinions aren't welcome (I would understand!)

We think you should try Construct 2 because:
 - There is a free edition
 - Our pricing model is fair
 - It's a stable editor, completely rewritten
 - It comes with lots of high quality original media (music, sound FX, sprites etc) that we want to build up gradually
 - It is already usable (see our space blaster demo: http://www.scirra.com/construct2/demos)
 - It's highly scalable for us and devs, plugins can be written, and new exporters can be written (we are developing an exporter SDK so anyone can write exporters!)
 - You get full control and rights over your games
 - We also believe our engine will outperform all others, we are hopefully going to be doing benchmarks soon to prove this as soon as we can
 - We try hard to listen to peoples wants and needs and work these into Construct 2
 - We release often, check our release archive: http://www.scirra.com/construct2/releases

You're opinions are quite welcome (though perhaps posting in a way that doesn't sound like an advertisement would be better. I want to hear your actual opinions on the flaws of HTML 5 as this thread has been presenting them rather than just saying "don't worry, HTML 5 is fine!"). He was suggesting that perhaps a thread about GameMaker and HTML 5 isn't the best place to introduce a lot of Construct discussion. I second the opinion that a thread rename might be in order. This thread's subject has clearly changed.

[BearCDP]

In regards to sound, sound implementation is very buggy in all browsers.

Understatement of the year lol. Props on your posts about the state of audio in HTML5 though, those charts are handy.

Flash 10 just did so much for audio, I feel like it will take a long time for HTML5 to catch up.

Out of curiosity, what features & tools are you thinking about for Construct 2 in the event that browsers do actually get their act together and implement Web Audio? I mean, aside from timing, volume, and panning behaving appropriately.

[poe]

Most of those features I already have with GM but I suppose I will give construct a try eventually. Also does construct have any plans for 3D? Making 3D games with GM is a challenge, and you can get some nice effects, but a lot of the time it won't be guaranteed to run the same on every computer.

EDIT: Oh and as Nix said, you are most certainly welcome! It's great to hear from someone working on a game development tool actually!

[AshleysBrain]

Out of curiosity, what features & tools are you thinking about for Construct 2 in the event that browsers do actually get their act together and implement Web Audio? I mean, aside from timing, volume, and panning behaving appropriately.

Ashley from Scirra here - just want to answer that Q (it's applicable to any HTML5 game creator, not just us, of course).  I think the latest Chrome supports the Web Audio API, but still waiting on Firefox, and who knows if IE will support it?  Anyways, you can get a feel for the Web Audio API by checking out its specification.  I haven't done any coding with it yet, but it looks like it supports
- actual playback that works (no latency, glitches or lost sound that we have to put up with right now)
- effects like delay, spatial positioning/3D sound, compressor & limiting, custom DSP effects etc.
- efficient routing (e.g. 10 sounds can be routed through 1 effect rather than running the effect 10 times)
- realtime analysis (FFT etc.)
Basically, it's on par with modern game sound engines.  Pretty cool.

[BearCDP]

Hi Ashley, thanks so much for your reply. I'm somewhat familiar with the Web Audio API, I was curious if you had anything to tease us with in regards to what Construct would expose to users via the interface. Game audio middleware for PCs and consoles lets you do some pretty crazy shit, and I'm really interested in seeing at least some of the mixing and organization tools and concepts make their way down to smaller games and web games.

[AshleysBrain]

Hi Ashley, thanks so much for your reply. I'm somewhat familiar with the Web Audio API, I was curious if you had anything to tease us with in regards to what Construct would expose to users via the interface. Game audio middleware for PCs and consoles lets you do some pretty crazy shit, and I'm really interested in seeing at least some of the mixing and organization tools and concepts make their way down to smaller games and web games.

Oh right - well, we'd love to support everything I mentioned, it's just there's already a lot to do.

[danny34]

- We also believe our engine will outperform all others, we are hopefully going to be doing benchmarks soon to prove this as soon as we can

I am looking foward to the benchmarks.

On the other hand, games made with Construct Classic and Contruct 2 do not have the screen tearing problem. Construct games look more professional!!

I like that the staff of Construct come here to discuss and tell us the future developemnt of Construct!

[BearCDP]

Ditto. It's much appreciated. 

[Desert Dog]

Hey Scirra team:

Your input is appreciated, thanks for taking the time to pop by! Best of luck with C2.

As suggested, I've changed the topic title, to suit the subject matter a bit better.
 

[_Tommo_]

All these examples are laggy for me. Someone needs to start making low-res web games for people with sucky computers!

Don't jump in the bandwagon, make C++ web games.
I know I will try to port my IOS engine as soon as NaCl is released in a mainstream Chrome version.