Build & Win Contest: Initial Details Thread
- Thread starter HBGames Staff
- Start date
- Status
Alright, alright, you got me to join, coming over from the Construct forum. I've only just started using it last week, so I'm in the same boat you all are. (Uh, I mean, I've been using it since I was 5, you have no chance, might as well not even enter.) :biggrin:
I'm a new dad with a full time job, hope I can get something halfway presentable in time!
Rule clarification - are plug-ins allowed, or just stock, free version?
I'm a new dad with a full time job, hope I can get something halfway presentable in time!
Rule clarification - are plug-ins allowed, or just stock, free version?
So I've finally got an idea for my game, made some VERY simple graphics for it (Literally, just rectangles for characters) and have some of the "mechanics" working, it's pretty basic right now and it'll most likely just have one level, some sort of survival arena or something, but I've even shown the idea to my brother and his internet buddies (My first set of alpha/beta/shit testers!) and they all think it's a pretty interesting idea, although I should give the game a simple storyline, so I'm thinking one up right now with a little help, although even this seems really basic too, lol.
Glitchfinder
Staff
So, my entry is coming along swimmingly. You won't see screens until I post the thread, and the thread won't be posted until it's done. However, I would like to note that I just finished a custom plugin for two-player movement, and the maps, which are bigger than the screen, will zoom out when the players are too far apart. (It's beautiful) Next up, I'll have to make a few more custom plugins, one for each type of enemy. If you're wondering WHY I need so many custom plugins, the answer is pretty simple. Without them, I could easily wind up with over a thousand events, which is NOT allowed if we're using the free edition. (We are limited to one hundred, after all) That means that my enemies, which level with the player, need to depend on plugins for behavior, rather than me making an individual event for every action for every level. Now, it's just per action, per enemy.
If you're curious about what the game actually is, I'm sorry to say that you'll have to wait. Ven knows, to an extent, but I would like to keep it private until I actually finish it. And even then, Ven only has PART of the story of what it is. Suffice to say, the thing is incredibly addictive, and will be very fun to play alone or co-op, assuming I manage to fine tune the movement so as not to be annoying. (Why must there be friction when I have not defined it dammit!)
Also, I would like the mention that the only actual ending to my game is when you, the player, die. That death could be on the first map, or it could be hours or even days of gameplay later. It all depends on when you finally make that fatal mistake. The game also has several distinct phases of difficulty, based on level, and I could easily scale the overall difficulty with maybe one or two more events. Overall, the real challenge for me is stuffing in as much as I can without hitting the eventing cap. I have most of the game planned out, so we'll see how that goes.
If you're curious about what the game actually is, I'm sorry to say that you'll have to wait. Ven knows, to an extent, but I would like to keep it private until I actually finish it. And even then, Ven only has PART of the story of what it is. Suffice to say, the thing is incredibly addictive, and will be very fun to play alone or co-op, assuming I manage to fine tune the movement so as not to be annoying. (Why must there be friction when I have not defined it dammit!)
Also, I would like the mention that the only actual ending to my game is when you, the player, die. That death could be on the first map, or it could be hours or even days of gameplay later. It all depends on when you finally make that fatal mistake. The game also has several distinct phases of difficulty, based on level, and I could easily scale the overall difficulty with maybe one or two more events. Overall, the real challenge for me is stuffing in as much as I can without hitting the eventing cap. I have most of the game planned out, so we'll see how that goes.
My game on the other hand, isn't going as smooth as I'd hoped, even though it's VERY simple, probably because I'm not 100% familiar with the program, although I may end up working on the game even after the contest is over, since I can use it as an opportunity to better myself with everything...
At the moment I'm rewriting my thread to look a little more... presentable, and I'm even adding a whole TWO screenshots (Bringing the total to... two), and if I feel comfortable with the state of my game, I'm going to add a link to the "tech demo", I call it that since it's pretty barebones.
Oh, and despite what people may think, I've decided to keep my sprites as rectangles, although I'm still going to add more detail, but prepare to be square... d.
At the moment I'm rewriting my thread to look a little more... presentable, and I'm even adding a whole TWO screenshots (Bringing the total to... two), and if I feel comfortable with the state of my game, I'm going to add a link to the "tech demo", I call it that since it's pretty barebones.
Oh, and despite what people may think, I've decided to keep my sprites as rectangles, although I'm still going to add more detail, but prepare to be square... d.
Same here Jason, in regards to continue using Construct 2 even after the contest. I never made a game before and Construct 2 is going to be my very first engine that get my hands dirty. Wether I move onto a different engine in the future or not, Construct 2 is now my "very first game engine".
I answered in the Scirra board, but no, one entry per person.Scandalon":1cfa1bud said:
(You must be fast as hell to have finished a whole game by now! :O)
If you're THAT bored, I'll also allow for people to help each other out if they want to, and they can hash out how to split the winnings ...
Glitchfinder
Staff
So, I just cut the number of events in my project from 30 down to 16 through creative use of objects. As an added bonus, this allows me to create a couple of new behaviors that will remove another 10 events from my project. Which would cut it down to 6 events total. And that's without actually taking anything out of the game, which means it still includes everything I described earlier.
This makes me realize that people with programming experience have the incredibly unfair advantage of being able to effectively bypass the event limit.
This makes me realize that people with programming experience have the incredibly unfair advantage of being able to effectively bypass the event limit.
I'm biased because I'm a programmer myself (not a 1337 guru but enough to understand the basics), but I actually reckon anyone who is new to game making should stick to the free version to begin with. This encourages us to use as little resources to achieve as much as possible. Just like making pixel art for sprites, if you can't make a good game with the basic tools, you can't make a good game with a full blown studio.
Learning to use resources efficiently and cut down redundancies is not something to be ignored, once you have the urge to bring your game idea to reality.
Learning to use resources efficiently and cut down redundancies is not something to be ignored, once you have the urge to bring your game idea to reality.
Eventing_Guy
Awesome Bro
Im only gunning for the money... if anythig else I probably won't except the full version.
But going throught all the entries made me relieze I won't win.
So I guess I will Submit just for the LOL's
But going throught all the entries made me relieze I won't win.
So I guess I will Submit just for the LOL's
01lifeleft
Member
Eventing Guy, i'm worrying just like you, already 17 entries. And pretty sure there's more people silently working on their games (most dangerous competitors i think lol).
A looking-good game doesn't mean it's a good game.
A looking-good game doesn't mean it's a good game.
Well I already know I won't be winning anyway based on some of the other entries, but to be honest I'm not in it to win anything, so anything I DO win would just be a plus... I'm mainly doing it because this contest came out right as the forums were introduced to Construct 2 (Well, I assume some people were using it beforehand, but the majority of us sure weren't), and thought being in the contest would give me a little more drive to start using the program and make something, so yeah it definitely worked there lol, sadly I won't have enough time to make something really epic, and I don't know how to make plug-ins so basically... meh.
Just added an FPS counter to my game to check the performance, and it's all over the place, the highest I've seen was 49, the lowest was 22, and on average it's between 29-37, lol... it just depends what's happening onscreen. I think when I release a demo for it I'm going to ask people to check their FPS whilst under certain conditions to see if it'll be playable among a wide variety of computers, I mean it looks simple, all of the images are small in size (The entire game file is only 10.3 KB) but the FPS seems to struggle with all of the particles onscreen at once...
Ohdear, so the FPS has dropped to an all time low of 8... although I know how it happened, basically it's because I was testing out a spawning system, where every 10 seconds an enemy car spawns another one... right on top of it... and they're all immobile at the moment, so you crash into one, you crash into about 3-4 depending how long you've waited, and ofcourse THAT would be the cause of it...
Just added an FPS counter to my game to check the performance, and it's all over the place, the highest I've seen was 49, the lowest was 22, and on average it's between 29-37, lol... it just depends what's happening onscreen. I think when I release a demo for it I'm going to ask people to check their FPS whilst under certain conditions to see if it'll be playable among a wide variety of computers, I mean it looks simple, all of the images are small in size (The entire game file is only 10.3 KB) but the FPS seems to struggle with all of the particles onscreen at once...
Ohdear, so the FPS has dropped to an all time low of 8... although I know how it happened, basically it's because I was testing out a spawning system, where every 10 seconds an enemy car spawns another one... right on top of it... and they're all immobile at the moment, so you crash into one, you crash into about 3-4 depending how long you've waited, and ofcourse THAT would be the cause of it...
@Jason What browser are you using? IE seems to be the slowest of the big five while Chrome seems to be the fastest in the competitive race for the fastest browser technology. Have you tested your game in IE9, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari? You might want to just to compare there differences in performance. Also clearing your browsers cache can increase game performance. I clear my browsers cache's at least once a day but I spend way to much time online. lol
Another thing you might want to check is to see if your graphics card drivers are up-to-date. This can dramatically effect html5 game performance. Also enabling WebGL in Construct 2's properties window can help performance on most newer PC's but browsers like Firefox will black list most older graphics cards, and disable WebGL. You can force Firefox to enable WebGL but why if you are the only one that it works for.
The amount of images you use can also effect your games performance. This is not a Construct 2 issue but a browser issue that effects all html5 games. But all modern browsers are getting there.
Another thing you might want to check is to see if your graphics card drivers are up-to-date. This can dramatically effect html5 game performance. Also enabling WebGL in Construct 2's properties window can help performance on most newer PC's but browsers like Firefox will black list most older graphics cards, and disable WebGL. You can force Firefox to enable WebGL but why if you are the only one that it works for.
The amount of images you use can also effect your games performance. This is not a Construct 2 issue but a browser issue that effects all html5 games. But all modern browsers are getting there.
@ Jason. Opera is by far the slowest. in my testing. as it does not support WebGL " Opera Alpha ver 12 does" Then I.E as it too does not support WebGL but does have surprisingly fast canvas 2d.
Current versions of Chrome and Firefox support WebGL , and have it on by default "if your video card/drivers are not blacklisted by the browser"
I'd be willing to bet your game runs at a steady 60fps in either of those . And please do put an fps counter in your demo I'll gladly give feedback on the performance I see.
Here is a scirra blog post about Browser performance with webgl and canvas 2d, if anyone is interested. It is a little old as both Chrome and Firefox have newer versions then those tested but it all still holds true or has improved .
Current versions of Chrome and Firefox support WebGL , and have it on by default "if your video card/drivers are not blacklisted by the browser"
I'd be willing to bet your game runs at a steady 60fps in either of those . And please do put an fps counter in your demo I'll gladly give feedback on the performance I see.
Here is a scirra blog post about Browser performance with webgl and canvas 2d, if anyone is interested. It is a little old as both Chrome and Firefox have newer versions then those tested but it all still holds true or has improved .
- Status