What are construct 2 limits?

I put this in here because I have a partner, as well as others, who feel construct 2 is too limited. I'm learning more about module programing, and I was under the assumption that one could eventually purchase new module behaviors and code, or code modules for the construct 2 to fine tune or develop new games, etc.

1.) Is this a correct assumption?

2.) How hard would it be to make a strategy game?

3.) How hard would it be to create a game like zelda?

4.) How hard is it to sell games on steam, after using construct 2?

What are the limits you are referring to ?

You can code extra plugins and behaviors using C2's Javascript SDK.

For question 2 and 3, the answer only depends on your level of knowledge, understanding, time and effort you put into using C2 and game making.

For question 4 you're asking the wrong question.

C2 can do exe files through node webkit's wrapper (available for licensee users) but having it on steam only depends on the quality of your game, your popularity as a developer/studio and the acceptance of your game on Valve's platform.

Whether the game is made in C2 or not doesn't impact on this.

Thanks for the reply...

I'm looking to start developing a game project with someone, and it looks like a year or two, three or four if I have to code from scratch. My overall fear is we can't code a behavior or something because C2 may have a limit.

"What are the limits you are referring to ?"

Limit Research:

1.) The start was a 2d Game Comparison on performance...

youtube.com/watch

I still leaned to Construct 2 because of the idea of drag a drop.

2.) Anecdotal report of port issues...

On Google Plus C2 Community a person had issues porting their code into C2, and thus assumed the program has limits.

3.) Other coders seem to tell me about limits, I'm going to ask what limits they are specifically talking about or are seeing.

"You can code extra plugins and behaviors using C2's Javascript SDK."

I never been good at Javascripting but I've started to study it again at codecademy.com/... how much will I need to know (arbitrary questions) in order to start to develop plug-ins?

"For question 2 and 3, the answer only depends on your level of knowledge, understanding, time and effort you put into using C2 and game making."

I understand "game theory" and know how to make 2d game characters and 2d game animation. I also undertand how to make game backgrounds. As far as C2 I have yet to get it working on my mac, and won't have my PC back till December... LOL.

"C2 can do exe files through node webkit's wrapper (available for licensee users) but having it on steam only depends on the quality of your game, your popularity as a developer/studio and the acceptance of your game on Valve's platform. Whether the game is made in C2 or not doesn't impact on this."

LOL, I understand. So are these games possible with C2 in a year to three year development window?

reusgame.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Starve

Moreover, I assume there are development teams working with Construct 2 right now, and have yet to publish their games, do they have blogs? Yes, I'm still a noob to C2, so please forgive me.

I have finished a strategy game in 4 hours of work, where my friend designed it before.

Make games with Construct 2 is very easy, and you can invite an Java programmer to make more plugins and meet any thing else if C2 become time consuming for you.

Another important thing, I didn't used any third part plugin to make everything for that Strategy game.

TELLES0808 any more info on that strategy game? only 4 hours, sounds interesting...

pixel perfick

I learned that the best way to help someone else, after the basics, is giving orientation, and not the finished work.

So, I have the first 5 minutes of job in a public files..

You can download it here:

http://goo.gl/vMPSH

http://goo.gl/Fk7IF

http://goo.gl/Gll1t

http://goo.gl/nZOTO

After this, you'll have a lot of work to make the game perfect, specially dealing with:

scirra.com/tutorials/533/for-beginners-custom-loading-screen

scirra.com/tutorials/531/for-beginners-how-to-make-a-good-debugging-system-for-previews

scirra.com/tutorials/355/making-character-composed-of-multiple-parts

and specially this:

scirra.com/tutorials/361/understanding-uid-iid-health-cards-and-rocket-smoke-trail

TELLES0808

Wow that sounds great, what program can I run the game on a mac? Or will I have to wait to get my PC back?

Also, you mentioned "Java" not "Javescript", I'm even worse with Java than Javascript, so I really would rather focus on Javascript, so do you think it's better to focus on Java when using C2?

Also, have you used the Javascript SDK? If so, what do you think?

I just found this book on coding from scratch, and feel this will help me to understand Javascript for games.

Foundation Game Design with HTML5 and JavaScript [Kindle Edition]

Rex van der Spuy (http://tinyurl.com/mjb3w36)

To use C2, it's not a requisite to code in javascript.

Simply go through the tutorials for C2. Pretty much any logical engine can be made through the event system, without requiring you to expand with custom plugin/behavior.

Learn to use C2 as it is first, and then, according to your needs, learn to expand it.

That's a mistake a lot of "coders" do when arriving into C2, whereas it's already fully capable and the limits are only the knowledge and capabilities of the user.

Take the time to go through tutorials, make several small projects, getting bigger each time as you learn more about the soft and the logic of game making.

The replies in this thread have already said the biggest limitation of C2 - the users' design capabilities, which applies to pretty much every technology that has to do with creating something.

(I got carried away below... the paragraph above is really all I wanted to say. You can stop reading from here XD)

I'll move onto a lesser limitation instead: C2 uses technology that is largely experimental with unknown stability, namely HTML5 and "fiddly" javascript.

It's not a problem for everybody, especially if you stick to well-organised and systematic design practices (which should be technology neutral), which is what my first paragraph was talking about. However some people are not comfortable, or literally run into problem, with C2 game building where the root of the problem lies in javascript or HTML5 itself. The platform that C2 targets, which is HTML5, can be ever so flexible, but at the risk of not having every single use case covered already and end up having you to fiddle with the core aspects / backend of your game.

Some people may have particular ways of designing their games, be it prior knowledge from other engines or programming language, and suddenly they can't use the exact same practices C2 is designed for. That's more of a preference problem rather than limitation. People who came from programming background may also find the graphical program logic interface (aka the event editor) a bit weird and prefer typing them out instead of visually arranging the logic.

BurningWood, Kyatric said enough. All the files above are plugin and play for a standard Construct 2 license.

I'm not a programmer, just a hobbyist, and did many amazing things using C2, to learn more and expand my own limitations inside C2.

The next goal is make a commercial game, what is in advanced design and development, but before, I did my lesson doing from platform games to race and spaceshot games, dealing with many situations where a standard games maybe barely touch.

All, thank you so much...

Rosareven, This fantastic answer and confirm some of my beliefs. However, "preference" may not cover peoples frustration when they feel they hit a wall.

"Some people may have particular ways of designing their games, be it prior knowledge from other engines or programming language, and suddenly they can't use the exact same practices C2 is designed for. That's more of a preference problem rather than limitation. People who came from programming background may also find the graphical program logic interface (aka the event editor) a bit weird and prefer typing them out instead of visually arranging the logic."

Kyatric, since I have to wait until December to get my PC back, I'll check out the tutorials and still study javascript because I want to pick up some extra work as a coder.

TELLES0808, all professions were hobbies once.

While this is certainly an interesting discussion, the main question has not been answered at all. What are the limitations of C2? Not from an imagination perspective, or even a capability perspective. What are the limitations on number of objects, number of animations in a sprite, number of sprites overall.

For example, in the resulting javascript code, there are things declared such as:

var MAX_VERTICES = 8000;                              // equates to 2500 objects being drawn

var MAX_INDICES = (MAX_VERTICES / 2) * 3; // 6 indices for every 4 vertices

var MAX_POINTS = 8000;

These hint at some kind of limitation as it relates to objects/vertices.

So to rephrase the question: What are the limitations of C2 as an HTML5 game versus a Windows EXE? Or are they the same?

While that would suggest a limit, there isn't one. I did a test and C2 is able to draw 40,000 objects at once, way more than 2,500. It can likely do many more. The only limit being the speed at which they are drawn, which is caused by cpu and gpu speed.

wizaerd - in one of scirra's blogs they tested c2 and got about 150,000 instances on screen, and they could have had more, but they were checking how many they could have on screen at 30 fps: https://www.scirra.com/blog/102/html5-games-faster-than-native

wizaerd - most parts of the engine do not have fixed limits. Nothing you mentioned (number of objects, number of sprite animations, number of sprites) have any fixed limit - you can keep going until you run out of memory.

The code snippets you posted refer to particular details of the WebGL renderer. It renders objects in batches for efficiency, and that code simply means it will draw a maximum of about 2500 objects per batch. If you have over 2500 objects, it will just send multiple batches per frame and keep going just fine.