A few questions

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  • I'd like to start out by admitting that I'm completely new to game making and this program, so sorry if I seem, well, newbish. ;P

    I should also probably explain that I'm working on a visual novel-type game (if you don't know what that is, try typing in "Umineko" on YouTube; it's a popular visual novel series and doesn't really have any other adaptations yet, so it should be easy to find), so it's really mainly just a start screen, opening, stills of characters over backgrounds with the occasional animations, text, BGM and SFX, and an ending.

    Anyway, I've managed to work out a few problems I've had starting out, but I still have a few questions:

    • Audio: I've basically figured out how to add music, but it doesn't play when I click "run". Is it a bug or am I doing something wrong? Also, is there a way to get music to play continuously through more than one event? I'm also wondering how to have BGM and also add SFX over it, and maybe add in voices.
    • Video: I'm planning on doing an opening and ending and such (animated on a different program, of course); is there some way to put a non-AVI video in as a "layout"?
    • Images: Since it's a visual novel game, I'm not planning on using tiny sprites or tiled backgrounds. Is there a way I can expand the "sprite" size to use a full character image (and have the picture actually work), and a way to use a full image for the background?
  • [quote:1x9hr2yq]- Audio: I've basically figured out how to add music, but it doesn't play when I click "run". Is it a bug or am I doing something wrong? Also, is there a way to get music to play continuously through more than one event? I'm also wondering how to have BGM and also add SFX over it, and maybe add in voices.

    -add the Xaudio2 object. put your music/sound in the .cap project files directory. create a new event in which Xaudio first loads "mysound.wav" then plays it on channel 1 (or any other channel)

    [quote:1x9hr2yq]- Video: I'm planning on doing an opening and ending and such (animated on a different program, of course); is there some way to put a non-AVI video in as a "layout"?

    -im not quite sure if the avi object can play other file types, check the wiki.

    [quote:1x9hr2yq]- Images: Since it's a visual novel game, I'm not planning on using tiny sprites or tiled backgrounds. Is there a way I can expand the "sprite" size to use a full character image (and have the picture actually work), and a way to use a full image for the background?

    -sprites can be any size. just paste them into the image editor and press the button that looks like two arrows pointing diagonally left/down and right/up (resize canvas). backgrouds can be a sprite or tiled background object. hope this helps

  • I'm working on a visual novel-type game

    Just checking -- you do know about Ren'Py, right?

  • > I'm working on a visual novel-type game

    >

    Just checking -- you do know about Ren'Py, right?

    Yeah, if you're just making a visual novel you might as well use Ren'Py. The right tool for the right job, and all that...

    Not that you can't use Construct. I'm just saying.

  • of course construct can easily handle it. Its just that it will be quicker and easier in Ren'Py i expect.

  • [quote:3k3cdw8l]- Audio: I've basically figured out how to add music, but it doesn't play when I click "run". Is it a bug or am I doing something wrong? Also, is there a way to get music to play continuously through more than one event? I'm also wondering how to have BGM and also add SFX over it, and maybe add in voices.

    -add the Xaudio2 object. put your music/sound in the .cap project files directory. create a new event in which Xaudio first loads "mysound.wav" then plays it on channel 1 (or any other channel)

    [quote:3k3cdw8l]- Video: I'm planning on doing an opening and ending and such (animated on a different program, of course); is there some way to put a non-AVI video in as a "layout"?

    -im not quite sure if the avi object can play other file types, check the wiki.

    [quote:3k3cdw8l]- Images: Since it's a visual novel game, I'm not planning on using tiny sprites or tiled backgrounds. Is there a way I can expand the "sprite" size to use a full character image (and have the picture actually work), and a way to use a full image for the background?

    -sprites can be any size. just paste them into the image editor and press the button that looks like two arrows pointing diagonally left/down and right/up (resize canvas). backgrouds can be a sprite or tiled background object. hope this helps

    Thanks! Sorry if I'm asking dumb questions, I just started using this program.

    I'm working on a visual novel-type game

    Just checking -- you do know about Ren'Py, right?

    No, but I'm guessing it's more suited for making visual novels.

  • I'm guessing Construct is more versatile in case Shii ever wants to make any other type of game. Besides, the forums are so friendly here.

    As far as playing a non-AVI video, I'm not sure if it's possible either, but you could always convert the video file to the .avi format. I'm not sure what people are recommending for video conversion these days, but this one is free and looks like it will do the job.

    Btw, these aren't stupid questions. Like you said, you're just new to Game programming.

  • of course construct can easily handle it. Its just that it will be quicker and easier in Ren'Py i expect.

    ... a statement which may need a little explanation, particularly since I have a sneaking suspicion that Shii misunderstands the term "event-based" as applied to Construct. Sorry if you're totally clear on the concept. I'm basing my assumption on your question about keeping audio playing through several events, which I think is a really weird thing to ask if we're assuming the Construct sense of "event".

    By the way, it's perfectly OK to misunderstand stuff. I myself am not all that clear on this "visual novel" concept -- I'm picturing something like an illustrated and slightly animated, linear or perhaps CYOA-style branching, story; but I almost expect to be wrong.

    So, deep breath. Prepare for textdump in 3 ... 2 ... 1.5 ... 1 ...

    When people say that Construct is "event-driven" or "event-based", that's a programming technical term. It means that Construct programs aren't so-called "batch programs" which run through a to-do-list and then stop. Rather, a Construct program waits for "events" (with Construct, that's often things like keypresses, mouse clicks, sprite collisions etc.) to happen and responds to them as they occur.

    In other words: Instead of "Do A. Do B. Do C. Do D. If the result of D is below zero, do B again. Stop.", Construct works more like "Whenever n happens, do A. Whenever o or p happens, do B. Whenever q happens, do C.", with the implication that if n and p happen simultaneously, the Construct program will do both A and B.

    This is ideally suited for the more hectic kind of game, where a lot of things may or may not be happening at any given moment (Is the monster close enough to attack the perspective character? Did any bullets just hit anything interesting? Is the player pressing any movement buttons? Is the PC moving, or perhaps falling off a cliff? Has the background music ended and needs to be restarted?), and where there are only a few different "contexts" so that usually the same event calls for the same response.

    Now rewind to the top of this post, where I thought that Visual Novels are pretty much the opposite of such a game: Instead of few contexts and many possible events at any moment, such a program would have a lot of different scenes but spend most of its time waiting for one specific event per scene. Also, each scene would be a different context -- pressing [space], or whatever the canonical turn-the-page button is, should lead to scene 2 if it happens during scene 1; but pressing [space] again in scene two should probably do something other than restarting scene two.

    You can still do it in Construct -- particularly the shiny new Timeline object in the latest version (0.95.5, for posterity) would make a few aspects easier, I expect -- but it's a case where all the event-oriented Construct code would probably be more complicated to both write and read than something that looks more linear, movie-script-like. (Again, I'm merely assuming that Ren'Py is such a tool. I know little more than that it exists.)

  • Yes, Ren'Py is a tool specifically designed to create visual novels:

    http://www.renpy.org/

    However, it appears that Ren'Py requires that you write out the code in a proprietary scripting language. I was unaware of that. So maybe Construct would be easier to use for making a visual novel after all

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  • the latest version (0.95.5, for posterity)

    I think he means 0.98.5

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