Hello and... questions!

Hi everyone!

I'm new here, to introduce myself a bit i can say i'm italian, i'm almost 28, i'm a doctor that is attending specialization in GP, i have a little child, and since the age of six i ve always liked video games.

Now, as you can see, i decided to move to a whole different level. My passion to create stories has overcame the ones of "simply" playing... Yeah, i was that dungeon master - guy when i was a teenager!

Browsing the web, i think i made a good choice buying C2 license. Next step is to learn from almost 0, i've almost no skills in languages and programming, but i'll take it like an hobby and try to achieve goals little by little.

I have some ideas, and i think with this friendly approach i could do something interesting in future, but now i need your help, gently. ^_^

I'd like to create a game like the ones i enjoyed most with my old NES, like Zelda, Solstice, Kid icarus, etc.. That is "simple" maze games with a nice story.

But of course, i lack the technical part! :)

So, i'm here asking if there is a quite simple way to set those things. I don't want a full explanation, would be surely really satisfactory to do something by myself, i just need some help for first step.

Here is my list:

• Can you have multiple, let's say a lot of small rooms, instead of bigger layers, to create the game? I see there are some nice examples to move among them, i'd like transitions like Zelda, if you know what i'm speaking about. ^^ And, a so big number of rooms, would use too much space for the game? I do like big mazes!
• Can you save the game somehow, keeping progress of equipment / coins? If yes, where does the game store data? I'm curious about this...
• How do you guys make sprite moving? I mean, using some sets of similar 2d images..
• What are plugins for in C2?
• How can i store in system that the character simply got an item, like a key or quest item, without showing it nor using? Cheking only it has a requirement?
• Can you make monster respawn when player enter a new room or return an old one?
• Can you add personalized script, in case (surely not now, as i'm a newbie) you need implementing some new event or action?
• Is there any pre-made code to set up an entry, like presentation of game and some starting screen?

For now, those are my doubts, i could add some more later or next days...

Thanks, and sorry if you get bored.

Have a good evening!

Hey there! Welcome to the forums! It's good to see a wide range of people joining this forum from all walks of life <img src="smileys/smiley16.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

I strongly recommend checking out the manual, as it is very detailed and has been very helpful to me and everyone else on this forum.

scirra.com/manual

1. Yep, this is certainly possible. The most simplest way of transitioning from one level to another would be the "Go to layout" action. Making a transition like from Zelda is something fairly straightforward too, I'm sure there's an example out there somewhere :P

scirra.com/manual/67/layouts

2. Yep, Saving is totally possible too! I'm not exactly sure where the Save Data is stored exactly.

scirra.com/manual/120/webstorage

3. Making sprites move depends on how you want them to move. Platformer, Top-down view, ect. There are many built-in "behaviours" that speed this process up, they work very well!

scirra.com/manual/86/behavior-reference

4. Plugins are the things that people make to add extra capabilities to Construct 2 that weren't there previously. You won't really need to use extra plugins as you begin, as Construct 2 pretty much contains everything you need in order to make a game. <img src="smileys/smiley16.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

scirra.com/FORUM/topic47002.html

5. Storing items links in with "Variables". Variables are numbers that you don't neccicarily have to "see", but they are hidden away in the code and only you can choose to show them and use them. I'm not the best at explaining things, check out the manual :P

scirra.com/manual/83/variables

6. Yes! By default, monsters would reappear when you enter a room/return to an old one.

7. I believe that you can use the "Function" object to create your own scripts in a way. But, if you want a lot more freedom with what you can do, you'd have to have programming knowledge and write your own plugins.

scirra.com/manual/149/function

8. There is some premade "templates" that you can use that the creators have supplied us with when you click "New" in Construct 2. Other than that, people share a lot of stuff on these forums, and there is a "tutorial" section where people post their tutorials.

scirra.com/tutorials

Hope I was of use, and good luck on your game-making journey! <img src="smileys/smiley16.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Thanks for the help Jase!

I'll start looking at your links.

One specific question about room, the only way to create a large number of small rooms is to create a lot of multiple layers, or there could be another way? Would it be a big usage of memory creating, let's say, 100-200 different layers?