What next for Construct 2?

it may not be very hard to make a real simple one, but then maintaining it is a pain, its very hacky to add a line or two here and there all over your project to output debug text.

I voted tile maps but would love to see the ability to draw our own paths for sprites to follow.

This ;] Next would be a proper debugger with stepping.

Also, thanks for the hard work.

May be because I'm still getting comfortable with the mechanics, but I'd favor modularity, better tilemaps, and debugger.

An easy way to visualize arrays would also be great, some kind of database. ;] (maybe that could be included in the debugger)

We really need to have a better IDE.

We need to be able to debug. Step through code, trace variables.

We need better code analytics - which object are never used which functions don't exit. etcWorking on a large project with three developers highlights how poor the C2 environment is.

We need bookmarks in the event sheet so that we can just "ctrl-2" and jump down to bookmark 2.

In design we need rulers and guidlines. Ala photoshop so that we design our screens easier.

We need a decent bitmap font system. The spritefont as a 3rd party plugin doesn't cut it.

We need keyboard shortcuts in the even sheet. ctrl-home jump to the top. ctrl-end jump to the bottom.

We need to be able to merge projects.

We need to be able to search across all event sheets. e.g., find where this variable is created.

We need Local variables that are only available within that event sheet.

You need to make it much easier to collaborate on a project with multiple developers. At the moment the entire IDE is way too basic.

I believe your next push should really be around making C2 easier to use. Give us tools that help development and aid maintenance and collaboration.

I really enjoy the results I am getting from C2 but compared to development environments that I am used to working with C2 is very primitive and requires many work arounds and "tricks" to get much productivity out of it.

Obviously I am not talking about a project with one layout and one event sheet but you try working with 20 layouts and just as many event sheets and that really highlights the short comings.

Yes!

An easy way to visualize arrays would also be great, some kind of database. ;] (maybe that could be included in the debugger)An Array Editorr, I vote for: multiline Array Editor

Seconded, also the follow path.

Yo, would love to see in-depth optional coding for Construct 2. There's something to be said about coding, not to say that Construct isn't great the way it is. Just keep doing what you're doing and adding to what's already good. Build on my builders.

I would really love tile maps support, but at the same time(sorry if someone has already mentioned this as a feature), I would also love to be able to create visual paths for sprites. You know, draw a line, etc... and assign a sprite to follow it with direction, speed, etc... and allow for variance from that path and back to it depending on scenarios.

For example, draw a patrol path for an enemy. For top down this may mean drawing the route I want them to take through the map, for a platformer this may mean being able to draw the path the enemy patrols including where to jump, etc... (Change animations, etc... accordingly)

Have events that would allow the sprite to break from their path (remembering at which point/cell they broke from it) to react to game events (player proximity, etc...) and then return to their path based if for example they cannot catch up to the player, etc...

This would make so many game types easier. The pathfinding feature is great, but there are certain scenarios where being able to assign specific paths would be very handy. Currently I can do this with creating invisible sprites as waypoints, but there seem to be many things that can mess this up including differences between is overlapping and on collision, etc...

This would actually be a very complimentary feature to tile maps as we could import or if possible create the tile map in construct 2, then create the routes/paths for patrolling etc within the map. Maybe allow color coding of routes, etc... to differentiate so we can easily keep track of which sprites are assigned to which paths...

Basically a visual path that can be assigned as a patrol/movement route with points that can be used as triggers.

Anyway, that is my ramble, I feel this type of visual pathing tool would speed development time of complex gaming scenarios by a good amount and get many games published much faster. Which in the end is a great achievement.

Thanks!

Interesting to see that most vocal part of the community (judging by these comments) seems to want debugger/modularity/tile maps, while the poll doesn't fully reflect that sentiment.

Also one thing I think is key that some folks are missing, is that testing and debugging all these other new features and making sure they are working as expected would be much easier with a debugger. Proper debugging will make all of the other features easier to implement and do it properly. So if I had to vote on one of the existing options I would have to say Debugger as it will speed up the development of the other options as well.

The argument that the most important features are the ones that would help in every game no matter what type or genre is the key on this one.

But, second on my list would be the tile map and visual path drawing I mentioned earlier...

Why are people thinking multi player option isn't that necessary. Given the fact that there is over 30,000 single player flash games out there, and that is an understatement. Even if you did make a really good game in html5, chances are flash already have something similar, and a lot of people play it on the computer not the phone. Plus, if people want to play a good games they go to the big 3D games that you purchase, they just want to have fun and try something new. Having multi player options will build spread the game with it being kind of a social connect thing too , not just a game. Also the debugger can be built using text box or something, if you can't built a debugger yourself than Construct 2 is to advance for you or you have a hard time figuring out problems even with a debugger. The debugger won't tell you logical errors or stuff that you cannot realize yourself. I'm not discouraging building a debugger, but I don't think it will help Construct2 that much.

I voted for modularity but I want to add that a debugger was very close behind. I'm horrible at debugging my games right now and a build-in debugger of some kind would help me tremendously. Moreover, I believe a debugger would be a valuable addition from an economic view: it's one of those things that us not-too-technical users really need help with.

More Image Editor tools like Circle tool

A note if I may - I believe that porting the IDE to other platforms should come before new IDE features (tilemaps, debugger etc.).

And this poll would have been infinitely better if we could offer our priority lists of features by giving each option a weight (e.g. I'd give modularity a 10, debugger 9, minor improvements 8 etc.).

Also the debugger can be built using text box or something, if you can't built a debugger yourself than Construct 2 is to advance for you or you have a hard time figuring out problems even with a debugger. The debugger won't tell you logical errors or stuff that you cannot realize yourself. I'm not discouraging building a debugger, but I don't think it will help Construct2 that much.

Yes, for simple games, that will suffice.

Perhaps you should try making more complex games. Then you might see the need for an actual debugger.

Well, I voted for multiplayer, because me and Wolod searching for about a year a 2d engine with a nice eventing system and multiplayer support. Construct classic had scidaves plugin. But he hadn't much time anymore to fix an annoying bug so we had to start over again with seeking and our project freezes again :/. On top of the, C2 has already a Spriter plugin, ideal for our game. So only realtime multiplayer is the problem.