Is Construc2 a good choice for our game?

Hello everybody,

We're a group of game programmers that want to start creating games with html5 and javascript. Until now, we've been working with Unity and coding with C#, so thecnologically speaking, Construct2 is quite a change.

We want to develop a game where the logical part is more important than the graphical part. Let me explain, from what we've sees in the tutorials and projects done with Construct2, it seems that this tool is excellent for creating platform, action and physical puzzle games. However, we don't know if Construct2 will work for our game.

Our game will be something like Magic the gathering or Pokemon card games. As you can imagine, we don't care too much about collisions and physics. We care about a powerful artificial intelligence and a complex logic running the game mechanics. What more confuses us is the event system, and not be able to "code" the behaviour of the objects. We're afraid to start our project and few months later realize that it gets too difficult to work with Construct2.

Do you recommend us Construct2 for our project? Are there any example similar to our game made with Construct2 that we can look at?

Thank you very much for your help.

In theory, any 2D game can be made with C2 so it's not limited to platformers or physic puzzle games. I also believe anything can be done in C2 but as anything it requires its fair share of effort.

In what you describe, the trickier part would be the IA.

I can think of ways to emulate it/use predefined strategy that the CPU player would apply to the situation but I don't know for sure how deep/complex you can go and how different to "regular programming" it is (I miss the experience on that in coding languages).

Tom may have more informations there as IA is a domain he should be comfortable with.

You can always extend C2 with the SDK that allows you to build/modify plugins and behavior in javascript.

So I wouldn't definetely recommend it, but I believe there is no counter-indication to it.

Maybe the best for a start is to build a little prototype with the basics you want to have in your IA and see how well/hellish it goes so far.

If you happen to be able to produce it quickly/easily enough, then C2 should suit your project in the long run.

There are a few card games that lies in your creations forum and I believe to have seen some topics asking for help in the "how do I" forum too but I couldn't swear it's totaly relevant to your project.

But I'm afraid it's either too early (C2 is still less than a year old) or no one else took this road/posted about it yet.

I hope this answer helps you with your choice.

So short answer is yes, long answer is, it depends on your technical ability.

That is to say, if you understand the ai mechanics going in, then the biggest hurdle will be wrapping your head around how C2 works, which is actually a very small learning curve compared to existing engines out there.

I also came from a programming background and I found it relatively easy to get started and I crept on gaining knowledge.

Once you understand the basics of C2 you'll soon realise how easy it is to convert something you would do programmatically into events.

The forums are some of the most helpfull I have ever seen, there are a few members who are truly genius with construct 2.

Also if your AI is not going so smooth then there are a few tips and tricks you can use temporarily until you figure it out <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Also as you have prior programming knowledge I suggest looking at the JavaScript SDK to make a plugin to adapt your needs. And hopefully share them with other users <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Have you had a chance to take a look at the other third party plugins?

Stick around te forums for a while there is currently a competition going on which should demonstrate some of what C2 can do. I know my project is pretty cool!!! Has some AI in, not the kind you need thouh

RicardLF

You can also describe a basic IA algorithm and some people used to fiddle with c2 could tell you if it's easily doable or not by event or if you should create a plugin (the might even provide an implementation example).

Anyway, IA shouldn't be an issue with C2. Saving and loading stuff seems to me more problematic than that.

Also Kyat did a behavior plugin for pathfinding. And I think pathfinding is a basic form of game AI. So yeah... pretty doable.

And even if you are skilled programmers, you should start with some basic tutorials. Because even if in my point of view, C2 is a form of programming, it is very unsettling for those used to scripting.

By the way smitchell's answer made me think of a water simulation I did on construct classic. I could do the same with c2, it's just a bit hard on CPU.

waterSim.exe

It was just an algo I found on the net (it was written in java) and I adaptated it.

Did the same for a maze generator from a ruby algo