My ongoing list

10) PSD Support. Characters can have lots of animation phases. If we could just setup the .psd, so that every animation phase is in it's own layer, we'd save tons of time.

Implementation suggestion: RMB a frame in the animation and 'Insert PSD Sequence' - Construct would then import all the layers all by itself.

That would save us all a LOT of hassle with defining animations by going to the picture editor for every frame, opening the image, etc.

Also: Drag 'n Drop support would be awesome. Drag a png from the explorer directly to the frame you want to put it on - boom, done.

11) Just a UI Continuity thing: If we press MMB on a tab, the tab should close. That's pretty much what ever software using tabs does, its easier than finding the 'x' button or pressing rmb and clicking on close.

12) It'd be cool if we could set the runtime to run at a zoom level that we could set.

Say, we create a game for 720p (1280x720) and set the runtime zoom level to 50%: The runtime preview would be displayed at 640x360.

12) It'd be cool if we could set the runtime to run at a zoom level that we could set.

Say, we create a game for 720p (1280x720) and set the runtime zoom level to 50%: The runtime preview would be displayed at 640x360.

You already can do that. "Set display resolution" and "Set zoom" in the System actions.

We have plans for this in Construct 2.0.

Just out of curiosity: How high is the chance that we'll be able to compile for the 360? Microsoft is doing a lot for indie development right now with Xbox Live Arcade and the Community Games (http://creators.xna.com/en-us/XboxLIVECommunityGames) - so it'd certainly be great if Construct could be one of the main development tools for that area aside from XNA.

It's unlikely we'll tackle it any time soon. It'd probably require another couple of programmers who are more experienced with it to help out.

13) Dunno if that's possible, but it'd be need for tests:

Say I have a preview of the current template run. Now I want to play around with the controls to get them just right. What I'm doing right now is that I launch a preview of the game (CTRL + P), check how things work and close the app again. Then I change the values and do another preview.

Now, wouldn't it be cool if we'd have a debug control that we could set to a key that'd be like a reset + update game? So we could let the preview run on the second monitor, adjust things, just hit a key and the runtime would be updated to the changes that we just made.

You could always just build your own debug/testing tools within the game itself so you can change values at runtime.

Press a key, add more life. Press another key, add more gravity. Press another, reduce the jump height, change the ammo, allow walking through walls, change levels, whatever. It's pretty common practice when you're making a game to have developer cheats or controls like that.

14) Okay, so I've worked on some custom animations now and it's really quite a hassle to set animations if your art is anything else but simple pixel art. Having to manually load in every single animation phase is incredibly time consuming, also, Construct crashes _a LOT_ when using the Picture Editor and updating or changing sprites.

Next thing is: For a 2d platformer, I set the angle to 0 for right and 180 to left. In a lot of cases, left and right will be identical, so can't we simplify this whole process? What if I could just duplicate the Angle: 0 (Right), edit it so that it says left, select all the animation phases and RMB - Mirror frames.

That'd make the whole thing MUCH easier.

Right now, it's also quite a bitch to set the hotspot. You have to zoom in and do a lot of trial and error to find the right place. I'm currently thinking about creating characters in 3d and rendering them out in 2d in order to use the power and my experience with 3d packages and to get nice, smooth animations as 2d sprites.

In general, it'd be much, much, much easier if we could simply load in a psd and Construct would just take the set-up layers. So we could create the animation and the placing directly in photoshop and import it into Construct with the press of a button.

Right now, there are just waaaay too many steps to get fluent animation without hickups out of Construct and it crashes on me soooo much when I'm working with that darned picture editor. This should definitely be on a pretty high priority when it comes to adding features, since getting the graphics and the animation phases into the thing is one of the most vital steps anyway.

I can't speak for the devs, but I really doubt .psd support will ever be implemented. First off, it would be rather complex to code, I'd imagine. Second, .psd's can have vector layers, text layers, masks of varying types, adjustment layers, effects, and all manner of non-graphical data in them... so yeah, that just adds to the complexity. Animated .gifs or .apng's would probably be more likely, in the future. (I wouldn't mind .apng support, personally .)

As for importing mirrored images, just import all of your frames for one direction, select all the frames, copy them, paste them in the other direction, and flip them all in the image editor.

And my own personal method for making animations is by using Photoshop, and setting everything up in layers... just like you, I'd imagine... but I also add a pixel to each frame to register the hotspot so it's easy to line up after importing to Construct. It's just a matter of clicking the pink pixel on each frame (or whatever color). Then it's just a matter of a quick pencil tool on each frame to cover it up. It's not as time consuming as it sounds.

You already can do that. "Set display resolution" and "Set zoom" in the System actions.

Display Resolution works.

Set Zoom works if I set the values to be over '100' - If I set the x and y values to 50, nothing happens.

In the Set zoom info it says: "50 - everything is half the size".

> You already can do that. "Set display resolution" and "Set zoom" in the System actions.

>

Display Resolution works.

Set Zoom works if I set the values to be over '100' - If I set the x and y values to 50, nothing happens.

In the Set zoom info it says: "50 - everything is half the size".

You'll need to enable Unbounded Scrolling in the layout properties unless you make your layout twice as big (so that twice as much can be seen at 50% zoom)

As for importing mirrored images, just import all of your frames for one direction, select all the frames, copy them, paste them in the other direction, and flip them all in the image editor.

First of all, thanks for all the advice

I still think that the mirroring should be put directly into the RMB menu for selected frames. Having to go through the picture editor for each and every frame is really time-consuming. If I could just select the frames, RMB - Flip Frames in X, it'd be a one-step task compared to a potentially 20-30 steps task.

Also, it'd be neat if we could just copy the hotspot from the previous frame or copy from the next frame.

15) Onion Skinning in the Picture Editor. That'd really help tweaking the animation placing.

16) Being able to assign more than one instance / texture in the particle object would be great. I'm currently working on some falling leafs and it'd be cool if I could just use one particle object, but 2-3 different leafs, would make the whole scene more efficient.