List of features I wish I had for LD24

Hey everyone.

I took part in the last ludum dare and did a game with C2.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=5046

Here's the things that hindered my workflow and I think some might be quite easy to get rid of, others might not.

I hope Ashley will find something usefull (:

First, here's how I proceeded to make this game :

1. I brainstormed and doodled some idea on paper around the theme "evolution"
2. once I found some mecanics and managed to create some level on paper, I switched to C2
3. I built each mecanism one by one using simple basic square shape as placeholder/collision
4. I managed to build up to 9 levels and then decided it was enough
5. I made the music (without waiting the last minutes so I could do something more polished than usual)
6. I worked on graphics, adding everything in my most complex level (level 9)
7. I Applied these changes to the other levels
8. And that's basically all

The major issues I had was during step 4 and 7

<font size="4">Building levels:</font>

To build level easily I use the snap feature for placing and sizing and once I'm happy with one level, I duplicate it and work on the next.

During the process I might refine/change my code, add objects, remove others.

The snap in the ribbon is hard to change

To change it you have to write the number and then press enter or give focus to something else in the ribbon before clicking back in the viewport, else the change isn't applied. If your ribbon is in auto-hide, the "press enter" doesn't work. (maybe it should be posted in the bug section?)

An idea to better work with snap

The biggest problem with snapping is the alignement regarding the position of the pivot point. If you have your pivot point in the middle of the shape, and you want to stay on a 32x32 grid, your shape boundaries will end up in the middle of the grid.

Two ideas to make it more usable:

- a snapping mode where the snapping would only worry about edge of the bounding box of objects and without considering the pivot at all. When you resize it would snap the edge(s) you are moving to the grid. When you move it would do the same, going to the closest grid corner.

- an editor-only property for objects to offset/resize the grid per instance.

Duplicating a layout doesn't keep all the layout/layer related properties

Snapping settings, Event Sheet association, Layer visibility and Layer lock aren't duplicated. In the workflow I described I had to reset all these properties every time. Ok it's not too complicated it takes 10 to 20 seconds each time. But I think that's the kind of thing we are expecting. So when I launch the game and nothing happens, I'm like o_o... "Oh yeah Event Sheet association."

You are forced to name layout a certain way to create a "go to next layout" functionnality

Ok this one needs an explanation: in my game, I have only one event sheet called "engine" I associated all my layouts to this event sheet (didn't even use include). So, to go to the next layout once I finish the current one, I do something like:

On end of level -> Go to Layout "Level "&str(int(replace(LayoutName,"Level ",""))+1)

Sprite -> set width to sin(time*360)*self.ImageWidth

Every Tick
  -> Sprite: set width to sin(time*360)*self.ImageWidth
  -> Sprite: set Not mirrored
System: sin(time*360) < 0
  -> Sprite: set mirrored

[...]System: Set newChar to Character.UID
character: set Right to bRight
character: set Left to bLeft
character: set Jump to bJump
character: Set animation frame to 1*self.right+2*self.left+4*self.jump
[...]

Nice read and nice game :)

There's a small bug in your game related with animations. After merging with another creatures walk right/walk left animations stops playing and creature moves in a strange position ;)

shinkan

strange position? and stops playing like... forever?

I got that too. Occasionally the animation just stops playing, until the next level.

well I did create and implement all animations in the last hour :D... (thank you after effect)

Nice game (and explanations) ! Love it !

When you move it stretches up and down. After merging, usually every time for me, it stays in stretched up position

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34375299/Construct%202/Yann_game_bug.jpg" border="0" />

when moving left or right, releasing and pressing down "A" or "D" again does not fixing it. It stays in this position till next level.

I pretty much agree with every suggestion here, especially the applying positions etc. globally. Although having a 'global layer' would probably save a lot of effort too (in fact, that's probably the thing I want most from Contruct2).

Nice game and interesting to read how you went about creating it.

shinkan, yeah I see, I think all that comes from my bad animation implementation. I'll see what I can do, I'll probably rework on it for the arcade or something.

I won't change the ludum dare version, that's not fair (:

naah for LD is fine, doesn't interrupt with gameplay. It's simple visual glitch.

Very good suggestions, I noticed a lot of these Minor setbacks myself when I was creating My Irrational Fear of Unicorns. The layers and objects losing a lot of their properties especially, since my of my levels had many multiple layers and were based on the first tutorial level. I duplicated them and had to make so many adjustments to have an exact level actually duplicated.

I hope these comments reach Ashley. They aren't major in the sense, you can still create what you want with them existing. But it does come as a setback when you are rushed for time in game jams and competitions.

I agree 100% with the snap/grid suggestions, my last 2 games had near 100 levels each and i found really hard to put the objects in the positions i wanted.