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deadeye's new platformer totoreal looks pretty sexy.

[Hideous]

I'm a Construct developer (and forum lurker), and just want to throw in that by version 1.0 we hope to have Construct bulletproof.  We're at version 0.97.7 right now.  In the meantime, if you find any bugs, let us know!

I took a look at the tutorials, and it actually looks like a very deep and well-polished piece of software! I would much rather code my game logic than use a GUI tool to do so, but it looks pretty easy for beginners to use. Depending on how you structure whatever API is used to interpret the logic, you might be able to easily create a Lua wrapper. Lua and cross-platform support would make Scirra positively amazing.

It's open source, so you get a big plus from me for that. It means if I weren't so lazy, I could probably try writing OpenGL drivers.

It has Python. Lua is just a Python rip-off with all the good stuff removed anyway, so.

[nihilocrat]

Shows you how much I read. I think I'll try out Scirra, then.

Lua is much smaller and somewhat faster. It's also easier to embed, whereas python much prefers to extend rather than be embedded.

Providing a plugin SDK up-front is definitely a wise decision. I've slowly learned that open source projects are the best when it's relatively easy to add small bits of functionality, thus making the most use of the "anyone can add/edit code" model. It lets people add code while only having to understand a small subset of the application.

[deadeye]

Just a heads up, Python is broke in this build

Yeah, yeah, I know.  Anyway, the devs have said they'll try to have a new build out before Christmas, so...

[nihilocrat]

The current status on Python is that it seems to be broken in the latest builds - I think that if you install yourself a version of Python different to the one the IDE has implemented, Python can't find the right files, or something like that. We'll be looking in to it and fixing it before 1.0.

Sounds like it's a simple PYTHONPATH mixup. I will take a look at it tonight if I have the time.

In fact, if all the issues seem to just be import errors like the ones reported on the Construct forums, that sounds like it's exactly the reason why it doesn't work.

edit: I played around with it last night and if you can get over the fact that it's not cross-platform, it's great. You can freely mix the event system and Python scripts, so you can trade off between ease-of-use and power at any point.

I reported the Python issue to the Construct forums, and made a little diagnostic .cap which will show you a few Python environment variables that might help shed more light on the import errors.

[deadeye]

For anyone who's interested, there's a new build of Construct out.
http://www.scirra.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2209
Among other things it features:

• New 2D Bones animation system (wip... but still very sexy)
• New Grid Movement behavior (for easy RPG style movement)
• New Sine Movement behavior
• Automatic handling of jump-though and moving platforms (for Platform behavior)
• Automatic handling of common animations (run/jump/fall/etc) (optional)
• A whole lotta bugfixes, including the memory problems that were causing XAudio2 to crash (hooray )

As with most new builds though there are a couple of new issues, the devs have said they will address these after the holidays.

deadeye's new platformer totoreal looks pretty sexy.

Thank you sir, but unfortunately with the new build they're all broken and out of date .  I have to rewrite them all again.  I coded my own moving and jump-through platforms for the tuts but now that there is an "official" way to do it they're wonky.  The way jump-through platforms are handled in Construct now though does need some work, for some reason they're solid on the sides as well as the top... kind of a strange way to do it.  I've requested that be changed, or at least configurable.

Oh and they made me a mod on the forum .

[moi]

For anyone who's interested, there's a new build of Construct out.
http://www.scirra.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2209
Among other things it features:

• New 2D Bones animation system (wip... but still very sexy)
• New Grid Movement behavior (for easy RPG style movement)
• New Sine Movement behavior
• Automatic handling of jump-though and moving platforms (for Platform behavior)
• Automatic handling of common animations (run/jump/fall/etc) (optional)
• A whole lotta bugfixes, including the memory problems that were causing XAudio2 to crash (hooray )

As with most new builds though there are a couple of new issues, the devs have said they will address these after the holidays.

deadeye's new platformer totoreal looks pretty sexy.

Thank you sir, but unfortunately with the new build they're all broken and out of date .  I have to rewrite them all again.  I coded my own moving and jump-through platforms for the tuts but now that there is an "official" way to do it they're wonky.  The way jump-through platforms are handled in Construct now though does need some work, for some reason they're solid on the sides as well as the top... kind of a strange way to do it.  I've requested that be changed, or at least configurable.

Oh and they made me a mod on the forum .

Does Python work now?

[deadeye]

There's nothing in the changelog so I don't think they were able to get to it this time around.  They wanted to have a Christmas build, so they worked their butts off to get even that much in on time.

Edit:
Er, don't use that link, 0.98.2 is out and fixes some of the issues introduced in 0.98

Here it is:
http://www.scirra.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2218

[nihilocrat]

Python works fine for me when I installed Construct while already having Python 2.5 installed on my system. I should probably look at it again tonight, I think it can get confused if you install a seperate Python installation after Construct, or maybe it doesn't work if you don't already have your own Python install. The latter sounds like it's something that the developers might overlook, as I'm betting they've all got Python installed on their machines and it doesn't seem like anything is wrong.

Basically, if the Python support is keeping you on the fence, try it out and it might work.

[QuaziGNRLnose]

well, construct is pretty bug free now, youll run in to one or 2 small ones every once and a while but as long as you save after you do little things (saving is almost instant even in pretty big projects) you wont lose anything. theres no more project destroying bugs (or at least theyre VERY VERY RARE).

i say use whatevers bestfor u, ive tried all of them, and game maker was my least favourite, (no offense) i just didnt like the way things worked.

also construct is free, and opensource. which is a huge plus. its much cleaner than mmf, and it has a ton of features which are easy to master, and yield great results. it has a physics engine, a bone animation system (this is new) lots of effect support, its hardware accelerated, the events run very fast and much more not to mention it is always gaining new features. its by far the easiest and cleanest gamemaker out there (my opinion, after trying mmf and GM)

i like mmf, but i find the devs are a bit lazy, and theyre kinda cheap making it cost so much. also mmf is lacking in alot of departments, the interface is very strange, and things are difficult to figure out. clickteam hasnt changed all that much since even KnP, which is MMFs downfall in my opinion. it is better for making gameboy advance type games.

construct also has the fastest engine, and alot of programming features. it's easy to see where bugs are. i was never not able to program something in construct, and ive made some pretty complex things.(just ask deadeye )

so there ya have it. anyways, choose whatever you like, theyre all good choices, im gonna recommend construct tho.

[Powergloved Andy]

I tried Construct earlier this week. MY EYES HATH BEEN OPENED.

It's completely shattered my Clickteam fanboyism

[Corpus]

I'd really like to try Construct, but the big decider for me is that there's a Mac version of GM already in development, whereas Construct, being that it uses DirectX, doesn't look likely ever to be Mac-friendly

[pgil]

Well, Game Maker uses DirectX too.. I'm sure it does make it more difficult to port, but not impossible.

[mr. podunkian]

don't, under any circumstances, ever buy multimedia fusion.

there are far too many unwritten rules and things you have to do to get things to work the way that they should work. there are lots of features that are built in (i.e. a built in platform movement) but none of these work as well as they should -- in fact, they even managed to fuck up something as simple as 8 directional movement. something that's basically been this way since klik'n'play was released more than a decade ago.

part of me knows that the reason that they're not renovating or fixing any of these built in features/bugs is to retain compatibility with existing projects, but i'd think after decades of revisions to the same software (under about 6 separate products) they'd at least figure something out instead of charging 200 dollars for the same software except with an added debugger.

then again i've been using MMF for my games, the underside and merry gear solid 2, but that's simply because i've been using them for suck a long time.

i think construct is generally a much better product -- in fact, a lot of its developers are MMF users who kind of got fed up with mmf being crap.

[astrospoon]

The thing with MMF2 is that it only really works well when you take control of everything, and essentially use the bare bones stuff to build up your own engine that works correctly.

Even then there are STILL some impossible annoying scenarios that can crop up. A most famous example is trying to attach objects to enemies. Like to give each enemy a separate gun object, and then be able to keep track of what enemy has what gun and have it not glitch.

And of course, the fact that each "level" has different code is ridiculous to the max. Who thought this was a good idea? They added "global events" and "global objects" to try and fix this, but of course, some things can't be coded that way because of other strange issues. So you pretty much have to roll your own level editor so that you can use just one "level" for all the gameplay. Which is fine, and works well. But it totally breaks the intended (crappy) work flow that MMF2 has built in.

The variable situation is also a bit of a nightmare, because while you can name an object's variables, you can't name a "group"'s variables. Groups essentially let objects inherit events. Which is great, except then you have to refer to them by the generic A, B, C, convention, even if all the objects in the group have A mapped to "HIT POINTS" or something.

That all said, I made my entire interactive book in it, and it works great, and made development really smooth and easy. But you must choose your projects wisely....