I just created a new game using a concept that I haven't seen in any other game. It's almost like a single player pong game with different objectives.
Using the Construct 2 game engine, so that I only have to create the code base once, I've made the game available for Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
Try it out now:
- On Windows 8
- On Windows Phone
~ Danial Goodwin ~
Showing posts with label construct 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label construct 2. Show all posts
2014-02-22
2014-02-21
Level Up - Construct 2: Don't Confuse "+" And "&"
I just spent over an hour debugging a problem in my Construct 2 code. Suffice to say the solution is now ingrained in my brain. Now, I want to explain a little intricacy of C2.
TLDR: In Construct 2, whenever you are dealing with text and you want to concatenate/append additional text (or a variable), then you need to use the ampersand "&" symbol. Using the plus "+" symbol will cause a silent error/bug, i.e. the program won't tell you that there is a bug. Ex: If I try to set text to "Score: " + PlayerScore, then the value of the variable `PlayerScore` will not appear. The correct way to set the text would have been: "Score: " & PlayerScore. Note, the only difference between the two codes was the plus and ampersand.
Other programming languages have "overloaded" concatenaters, meaning the "+" symbol in some languages like Java are contextual. Depending on the value to the right and left of the plus sign, it will act a different way rather than not working at all, as in C2.
In Construct 2, the only time that you should use the plus symbol is when you want to add two numbers together. That is it.
Anyways, the issue that I was trying to solve for over an hour involved using WebStorage and Functions with programmatically assigned parameters. Saving and retrieving values was working great, just not exactly the way I wanted it to. I had a highscores table for easy, medium, and hard difficulties, but they were all staying the same values across each of them. My buggy code included lots of ampersands surrounding the entire area, but basically, this is what it looked like: Save("HighScore" + LevelDifficulty, PlayerPoints). Note: The plus sign is wrong.
No programming languages I use have the ampersand as a String concatenate. So, when I viewed the code snippets a few times, even completely writing them, my mind knew exactly that String + String should be working.
If I hadn't already read the manual/documentation before this point, then I probably wouldn't have found the answer myself.
Experience built through learned mistakes.
~ Danial Goodwin ~
ps - Just in case I haven't said it enough yet... When you are using Construct 2 and dealing with text, use the ampersand, &. Don't use the plus, +, sign!
TLDR: In Construct 2, whenever you are dealing with text and you want to concatenate/append additional text (or a variable), then you need to use the ampersand "&" symbol. Using the plus "+" symbol will cause a silent error/bug, i.e. the program won't tell you that there is a bug. Ex: If I try to set text to "Score: " + PlayerScore, then the value of the variable `PlayerScore` will not appear. The correct way to set the text would have been: "Score: " & PlayerScore. Note, the only difference between the two codes was the plus and ampersand.
Other programming languages have "overloaded" concatenaters, meaning the "+" symbol in some languages like Java are contextual. Depending on the value to the right and left of the plus sign, it will act a different way rather than not working at all, as in C2.
In Construct 2, the only time that you should use the plus symbol is when you want to add two numbers together. That is it.
Anyways, the issue that I was trying to solve for over an hour involved using WebStorage and Functions with programmatically assigned parameters. Saving and retrieving values was working great, just not exactly the way I wanted it to. I had a highscores table for easy, medium, and hard difficulties, but they were all staying the same values across each of them. My buggy code included lots of ampersands surrounding the entire area, but basically, this is what it looked like: Save("HighScore" + LevelDifficulty, PlayerPoints). Note: The plus sign is wrong.
No programming languages I use have the ampersand as a String concatenate. So, when I viewed the code snippets a few times, even completely writing them, my mind knew exactly that String + String should be working.
If I hadn't already read the manual/documentation before this point, then I probably wouldn't have found the answer myself.
Experience built through learned mistakes.
~ Danial Goodwin ~
ps - Just in case I haven't said it enough yet... When you are using Construct 2 and dealing with text, use the ampersand, &. Don't use the plus, +, sign!
2014-02-18
Published New App: One-Click Saga
Today (and yesterday), I created this "One-Click Saga" game using the Construct 2 game engine. C2 definitely allows great games to be created with ease.
Description:
Three games to master. Flappy's too tired to flap anymore, so he is taking a ride on different airborne vehicles. Rules are the same: tap to save the clone bird's life! But, in each game a tap does something different...
Available Now:
- Windows 8
- Windows Phone
- HTML5
~ Danial Goodwin ~
Description:
Three games to master. Flappy's too tired to flap anymore, so he is taking a ride on different airborne vehicles. Rules are the same: tap to save the clone bird's life! But, in each game a tap does something different...
Available Now:
- Windows 8
- Windows Phone
- HTML5
~ Danial Goodwin ~
2014-01-22
Construct 2 Bug Export To Windows 8: Too many characters in description.
Here's the full error message in Visual Studio:
"The 'Description' attribute is invalid - The value '' is invalid according to its datatype 'http://WPTokens:ST_String' - The actual length is greater than the MaxLength value"
Basically, this error says that your description is too long.
Through trial and error, I've found out that the max allowable length of the Windows 8 app description in WMAppManifest.xml is 256 characters. So, in order to fix this problem, all you have to do open "WMAppManifest.xml", which can be found in the Properties folder of your app's project. Then, edit your description so that it is not as long. I used Notepad++ to count the number of characters in the description.
I spent a few minutes looking for the official documentation for this file, but didn't find it. I found many official resources for Windows 8 that was close, but weren't for the exact file WMAppManifest.xml. Here's one of the links that is something that I'm looking for <link>.
If you know where the official page for this documentation of max length of 256 characters for the description, then please let me know. This bug still hasn't been reported to the developers of Construct 2 yet, because I think there will be other areas around this spot that also has bugs, and I would like to report them all in one go. This will make things much easier for the developer also. And, it's always good to source fixes.
~ Danial Goodwin ~
"The 'Description' attribute is invalid - The value '
Basically, this error says that your description is too long.
Through trial and error, I've found out that the max allowable length of the Windows 8 app description in WMAppManifest.xml is 256 characters. So, in order to fix this problem, all you have to do open "WMAppManifest.xml", which can be found in the Properties folder of your app's project. Then, edit your description so that it is not as long. I used Notepad++ to count the number of characters in the description.
I spent a few minutes looking for the official documentation for this file, but didn't find it. I found many official resources for Windows 8 that was close, but weren't for the exact file WMAppManifest.xml. Here's one of the links that is something that I'm looking for <link>.
If you know where the official page for this documentation of max length of 256 characters for the description, then please let me know. This bug still hasn't been reported to the developers of Construct 2 yet, because I think there will be other areas around this spot that also has bugs, and I would like to report them all in one go. This will make things much easier for the developer also. And, it's always good to source fixes.
 |
| A picture of the error message. |
~ Danial Goodwin ~
2014-01-11
Construct 2: Reporting Bugs for Windows Phone 8
For the past few WP8 apps I've been creating using Construct 2, I've been manually making the necessary bug fixes myself. Today I've decided to properly report three of these bugs to the developers of Construct 2. My last bug report that I sent to them a few weeks ago was fixed. And, I expect the same with these bugs, especially, since I described them almost like I fixed it for them. ;)
The three errors reported:
- WP8 Export: Fullscreen not being set
- WP8 Export: App title not carrying over to WP8
- Windows Phone 8 Export, no apostrophes allowed
In the meantime, until these errors are fixed, you can visit the links to see how I solved the problems manually. If the links don't work, then that most likely means that the bug has been fixed and the bug report post has moved to a different place.
UPDATE: Each of these reported bugs have now been fixed! Construct 2, release 157
~ Danial Goodwin ~
The three errors reported:
- WP8 Export: Fullscreen not being set
- WP8 Export: App title not carrying over to WP8
- Windows Phone 8 Export, no apostrophes allowed
In the meantime, until these errors are fixed, you can visit the links to see how I solved the problems manually. If the links don't work, then that most likely means that the bug has been fixed and the bug report post has moved to a different place.
UPDATE: Each of these reported bugs have now been fixed! Construct 2, release 157
~ Danial Goodwin ~
2013-12-19
Construct 2: Landscape Bug Fixed for Windows Phone 8 Export
A few days ago, I submitted a thorough bug report for Windows Phone 8 apps made from Construct 2 not going to landscape mode when it's supposed to. But, thanks to the great developers of C2, this bug has now been quickly fixed for the current beta release r155. So, this saves you C2 developers an extra step.
Get Construct 2
~ Danial Goodwin ~
Get Construct 2
~ Danial Goodwin ~
2013-12-15
C2: [Bug Fix] Windows Phone Export Doesn't Go Full-Screen or Landscape Mode
So, in my quest to create 100 Windows apps, I'm finding more solutions to bugs/issues/problems with the export of Windows Phone from Construct 2.
Problem: No Fullscreen. Here's how to fix it:
1. After you have exported the app from Construct 2, open MainPage.xaml
2. Find the line that says:
shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True"
And, change it to:
shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="False"
Problem: No Landscape Mode. Here's how to fix it:
1. After you have exported the app from Construct 2, open MainPage.xaml
2. Find the line that says:
SupportedOrientations="Portrait" Orientation="Portrait"
And, change it to:
SupportedOrientations="Landscape" Orientation="Landscape"
That should do it! =]
UPDATE: The landscape mode problem has now been fixed! (2013-12-19)
~ Danial Goodwin ~
Problem: No Fullscreen. Here's how to fix it:
1. After you have exported the app from Construct 2, open MainPage.xaml
2. Find the line that says:
shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True"
And, change it to:
shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="False"
Problem: No Landscape Mode. Here's how to fix it:
1. After you have exported the app from Construct 2, open MainPage.xaml
2. Find the line that says:
SupportedOrientations="Portrait" Orientation="Portrait"
And, change it to:
SupportedOrientations="Landscape" Orientation="Landscape"
That should do it! =]
UPDATE: The landscape mode problem has now been fixed! (2013-12-19)
~ Danial Goodwin ~
2013-12-14
Construct 2: Exporting To Windows Phone Part 2
So, part 1 of issues isn't enough. The next issue happened when trying to create screenshots for the Windows Phone upload. A screenshot size of 768x1280 is required. Unfortunately, my Windows Phone 8 (Lumia Nokia 820) only takes screenshots at 480x800. Also, I'd rather not scale up the images that much, making them possibly pixelated and not as pleasant for viewers with devices of high fidelity. So, I learned that the default emulator also captures screenshots at 480x800.
Here's what I missed:
- I should have chosen the WXGA emulator, not the WVGA emulator. Just a slight difference there.
Now, everything's all good. I should have anymore hiccups as I publish this Windows Phone app made with Construct 2.
~ Danial Goodwin ~
Here's what I missed:
- I should have chosen the WXGA emulator, not the WVGA emulator. Just a slight difference there.
Now, everything's all good. I should have anymore hiccups as I publish this Windows Phone app made with Construct 2.
 |
| I found a use for the 480x800 screenshot I took. ;) |
~ Danial Goodwin ~
Construct 2: Exporting to Windows Phone
Windows Phone app certification requires games to have "Back" button functionality. E.g. Main menu should exit app and other pages should either go back within the game for navigation or bring up a pause popup.
So, using the plugin + strategy mentioned here, I was able to bring the Windows Phone app up to standards for publishing. There is a great function/event/action that can be called to intercept the back button presses so that the developer can do whatever.
Also, I didn't use the entire strategy mentioned at the above link, but that's the method I would recommend others to take. I took the harder method just for learning how the plugin worked and involves moving a lot of code around manually and breaks some of the functionalities in the plugin so that only `Back` works. But, eventually, I think I will share the specifics for learning about the C2 plugins.
~ Danial Goodwin ~
So, using the plugin + strategy mentioned here, I was able to bring the Windows Phone app up to standards for publishing. There is a great function/event/action that can be called to intercept the back button presses so that the developer can do whatever.
Also, I didn't use the entire strategy mentioned at the above link, but that's the method I would recommend others to take. I took the harder method just for learning how the plugin worked and involves moving a lot of code around manually and breaks some of the functionalities in the plugin so that only `Back` works. But, eventually, I think I will share the specifics for learning about the C2 plugins.
~ Danial Goodwin ~
2013-12-13
Level Up! Applying Textures to Graphics
Before today, I had no idea how to apply textures to a picture, nor how long it would take. I now know that it takes less than five minutes once you have the graphics. And, this was my first time doing it! And, I didn't even look up how to do this texturizing thing. I had a lucky guess that just worked. My choice of graphics program was Paint.NET.
Here's some screenshots of the work: A before, an after, and my final app that I'm producing for kids. Big kids too if you like. ;]
+1 Graphics skill level!
~ Danial Goodwin ~
Here's some screenshots of the work: A before, an after, and my final app that I'm producing for kids. Big kids too if you like. ;]
 |
| First, I put the texture (candy cane) in one layer and put the object in a different layer . |
 |
| 2. Use the magic-wand-selector to select the text. 3. Change layers. 4. Copy. 5. Paste in a new project. |
 |
| Here's how it looks in the app, Help Santa! |
+1 Graphics skill level!
~ Danial Goodwin ~
C2: Bug Fix for Windows Phone Orientation
Currently, in Construct 2 r152, there is a bug that always puts the Windows Phone 8 export in portrait mode. This can be changed after exporting and viewing in Visual Studios. Open MainPage.xaml, find the line that says orientation or portrait and change that value to landscape, or whatever you would like.
~ Danial Goodwin ~
~ Danial Goodwin ~
2013-12-12
Creating Windows Apps With Construct 2
Intro:
I plan on creating 100 games with Construct 2. I'll be writing about all/most of my experiences of using the program. Originally, I was thinking about creating a separate blog for just this endeavor, but I already have too many blog concurrently. So, posts in this blog with be tagged "construct 2" and "c2" when they are related to this.
Goals for each game:
- I must learn something for every game I create.
- I must feel reasonably good about them. Though, they also may not be my best work.
- These games should be publishable.
- At first, the games will only be published to the Windows 8 Store and Windows Phone Store.
Why only Windows?
Mainly because it's currently the best platform to publish to. The Windows platforms may not have the largest market share, but they still do have millions upon millions of users. Soon, just about ever computer will be running Windows 8, and they will need apps to download, my apps. ;)
After goals:
After accumulating all the knowledge that comes from creating 100 different games. I mostly likely will update the most popular ones with more levels/features. Then, we'll see. =]
~ Danial Goodwin ~
I plan on creating 100 games with Construct 2. I'll be writing about all/most of my experiences of using the program. Originally, I was thinking about creating a separate blog for just this endeavor, but I already have too many blog concurrently. So, posts in this blog with be tagged "construct 2" and "c2" when they are related to this.
Goals for each game:
- I must learn something for every game I create.
- I must feel reasonably good about them. Though, they also may not be my best work.
- These games should be publishable.
- At first, the games will only be published to the Windows 8 Store and Windows Phone Store.
Why only Windows?
Mainly because it's currently the best platform to publish to. The Windows platforms may not have the largest market share, but they still do have millions upon millions of users. Soon, just about ever computer will be running Windows 8, and they will need apps to download, my apps. ;)
After goals:
After accumulating all the knowledge that comes from creating 100 different games. I mostly likely will update the most popular ones with more levels/features. Then, we'll see. =]
~ Danial Goodwin ~
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