Flashlight game prototype

I'm a long time MMF user who just discovered Construct and I think I've fallen in love.

First thing I've done is build a game prototype for a horror/suspense style game focusing on limited visibility. Thanks to Shadow Casters this was surprisingly easy. Took a bunch of tweaks to get the shadows to behave how I wanted, but I think it works now. Hopefully I'll expand this into a proper game.

Aim the flashlight with the mouse. Move either by clicking or by using the arrow keys.

http://floatinghandsstudios.com/games/fltest.exe

EDIT: Newer version with combat is below. Left click moves/shoots depending on whether your gun is drawn. Right click draws/holsters gun. Holster the gun to reload. Press space to spawn a monster.

http://floatinghandsstudios.com/games/fltest2.exe

Very nice effect you got there. Really sets the mood for a horror game.

This is a really neat concept, continue to develop it. Perhaps the torch could be slightly less swingy though? Just an opinion.

I've halved the speed at which the flashlight rotates, I think that helps smooth things out a bit.

Neat!

I suggest softening the light edges and having the camera slowly travel to the proper spot when rotating.

Yeah I know it ain't that simple, but as it is now it's kind of dizzying to spin around.

Edit: soft shadow test: http://www.udec.cl/~jfuente_alba/softshadow.exe

Looks decent but needs MOAR TWEAKING

(simply added blur to the shadow layer)

The biggest problem so far is the placement of the camera. If I center it on the player it wastes 75% of the screen real estate. The farther from the player it is the more dizzying the camera moves are.

I've slowed down the camera from the original a bit which helps (it's now rotates at 180degrees per second). It'd be neat if I could have it ease in and out of the movement with varying speed, but I have no idea where to start with programming that.

Yeah the slowness of the light/torch to catch up to the mouse is really frustrating.

Nice

I've now tried seeing what the camera looks like when it moves at a slower speed that the flashlight which now moves slightly faster.

I'm probably going to disable to 8 directional movement, as I'm liking the 'click to move' method better right now.

You can also toggle into and out of what will be an "aiming" mode which locks the view in place and moves the camera farther in front of the player using the right mouse button.

http://floatinghandsstudios.com/games/fltest2.exe

It'd be neat if I could have it ease in and out of the movement with varying speed, but I have no idea where to start with programming that.

If I understand you correctly, you can make the layout zoom in and out easily which can increase or decrease the viewable area... if that's what you mean by ease in and out.

If you mean ease the speed up and down, I would use a "floating" camera object similar to what I have used in my current demo of Tonks. The camera lazily follows the object giving a sort of "lag and catch up" effect. This can be done easily using some timedelta. I can't remember the exact formula off hand but I can check for you if you want.

~Sol