On the 15th of May 2018, we posted a rather special blog post – Construct 3 had just launched r100. And we thought that was a pretty good milestone, loads had changed since our early beta builds and C3 was really starting to take shape.
Now, just over two years later, we’ve hit another milestone: r200 has just dropped! A whopping 200 releases, and that’s not even counting the quick patch fixes we’ve had to do. It’s a heck of a lot of work, and something we’re really quite proud of.
It’s easy to lose track of what happens over a two-year period, and looking back, it’s pretty amazing at what’s gone into Construct 3 since r100. Our little team has done a fantastic job! And you guys must think so too, seeing as 2 million of you across 228 regions have used Construct 3 now! Not only that, between you, you’ve put in over 370 YEARS of usage to make over 5 million projects – that’s amazing!
So, what have we added since r100? Well, there's far too much to list here, but you can check out our releases page to see our release notes, but some of our highlights include:
The C3 Runtime
The new runtime first appeared as an experimental option in r95, but by r122 we felt it was ready to be enabled by default. This was a huge project, involving rewriting tens of thousands of lines of code while maintaining full backwards compatibility with the old engine. But it did mean that we could add all kinds of cool new things to Construct 3, like BBCode editing for text and spritefont objects, new plugins like iFrame, JSON and Share and of course introduce tons of performance upgrades for the engine!
Timelines
Timelines were an ambitious new feature first introduced as an experimental feature back in r138. After a lot of behind-the-scenes work, we feel that this feature has really developed into something great – especially with the addition of nested timelines! You can even combine Timelines with MoveTo to help you move objects along predefined paths. So, thanks to Timelines, you can create more complex animations from within the Construct 3 editor.
Along with the Timelines feature, we added several example projects to the Start Page so you guys could get a feel for how they worked. And wrote a blog post explaining various aspects of the feature, so if you’ve not really looked at Timelines, now’s a great time to start!
Scripting
Around a year ago, we introduced Scripting in Construct 3, and we feel it’s been a really great addition! The feature lets you use snippets of JavaScript code in event sheets, or as shown by our JS Ghost Shooter demo, nothing but JavaScript. Plus, there is tight integration between event blocks and JavaScript code, allowing you to use whichever best suits the task at hand.
Construct’s core still revolves around the event system (and always will) but the addition of scripting opens plenty of new possibilities for the engine without compromising any of its existing premise. And, another exciting thing for us is the idea that the engine could even be used as a tool to teach JavaScript!
Redesigned Functions
Functions have been a key part of Construct for the last six years and as of r143, the whole system got an overhaul. The new system turned functions from a plugin to a more streamlined, built-in option which better resembled functions used in traditional programming languages.
The new functions system also brought massive performance improvements as well as the ability to map functions to strings. Plus, it also fixed an old issue with using Wait in functions, so it was an immediate improvement over the old system.
Two blog posts explain more about the updates to functions, so be sure to check them out if you haven’t already.
Loads of new plugins and behaviors
On top of the new plugins added with the C3 Runtime, we’ve added even more new behaviors and plugins to expand Construct 3’s capabilities.
It was great to finally be able to bring you the Tween and MoveTo behaviors in r123 and r166 respectively – we know a lot of you had been looking for those for a long time. Also, in r123, we added the Drawing Canvas plugin, another feature you guys had been looking forward to.
Plus, you've had the Orbit behavior, SVG Picture plugin and the Binary Data and Bluetooth plugins. Not to mention our new Guided Tour for beginners! There's been plenty of new bits for you guys to use, and we’re not done yet! We have more stuff in the works for you all to look forward to.
It’s been an incredible couple of years for Construct 3 and we’re really proud of what we’ve achieved. We really hope you all continue to enjoy using Construct, and we hope you’re looking forward to the next 100 releases!