Last weekend I spoke with one of the people behind the project, Ashley Gullen, who asked me why I thought Stencyl [official website] was so much more well known than the Construct project which is considerably further along its development. Unlike Stencyl who consistently refuse to give details of their release schedule Construct is available for public download now.
Clearly I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity to take a look at Construct (current release 0.98.3), and I liked what I saw. Construct, which has support for integrated Python scripting, has a PowerPoint style layout and several advantages over Game Maker.
1. Behaviors
Frequently used object actions are precoded in Construct as ‘behaviors‘.
Want your player to to have multi-directional movement? Simply select the ’8 direction’ behavior and set up properties such as maximum speed and the rates of acceleration and deceleration.
This saves time when you want to prototype or make a quick start to a project without having to set 8 different events and actions as you would in Game Maker. Physics behavior is also bundled.
2. Layout Editor superior to Game Maker’s room editor
Whilst Game Maker may require different sprites for each direction an object is facing, Construct doesn’t.
All objects can be rotated after you have placed them on a Layer (Construct’s equivalent of Game Maker’s rooms) and at any angle you desire. Resizing an object can also be done directly on layers and you can also zoom in and out of layers – something not possible in Game Maker.
3. Built in Object types
Construct has built in object types that make it easy to add different elements to your games.
Want to add text to the screen? Simply drag the text module to where you want it and change its properties. Want to use input from a webcam or output data in a Bar Chart? Easy. There are currently 60+ functions, and anyone can write a plugin to add functionality to Construct.
4. Active development
Construct is actively being developed based on the suggestions and ideas of users of the software.
5. 100% free and open source
Game Maker is neither of these and Stencyl have announced that their project will no longer be promoted as open source.
I await your ’10 reasons why Game Maker is better than Construct’ posts…
Note: This article was written in 2009. Both Construct and GameMaker have come a very long way since!
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137 Responses to 5 Reasons Why Construct Is Better Than Game Maker
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5 reasons why construct is rubbish.
1. The download for construct takes forever. I’d say it’s just enough time to read a book. Possibly Harry Potter.
2. Construct is confusing. I’ve had a look at various tutorials and none of them have helped. Guess I’ve got to work it out myself.
3. When I click ‘help’ buttons, it pops up with a blank internet page. Obviously, they’re not very organised.
4. The image editor makes no sense. When I make a small ball, it turns up in the room as a small ball in the corner of a big selection box.
5. You can’t make good games as easily as Game Maker.
There you have it. This program is useless. Case Closed.
Yes, you are true.
All of these seem to be simply incompetence on your part, as other users have reported that Construct is relatively easy to learn/use. Perhaps game development is simply not your forte. I’ll admit that the documentation and tutorials are somewhat lacking, but the interface itself is highly intuitive and useful. Please investigate more into a product before bashing it with nonsensical complaints.
I feel Construct Classic has some serious potential and your article shows just some of the potential of this great and FREE program. Perhaps the most important feature of Construct is its ability to hide the programming side of game development which will potentially allow anyone to create games depending upon how much time they spent in Construct and what kind of game they want to make.
@PainOfRed, you are quite right in your arguments about the problems with Construct and I have a few solutions that hopefully will be of some use to you.
I’m still new to Construct but I hope my suggestions help
1. Download issues, I don’t remember having this problem so I can’t help you here.
2. Construct is confusing: Yes I do certainly agree that without an official Construct (Classic) manual and extensive and well designed tutorials Construct will have far less adoption than it really deserves. But there are a few workarounds, one is an unofficial construct manual that will help some users to an extent:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10216310/Costruct%20Manual.rar
It may not necessarily be for beginners but it helps.
3.Online help, sorry can’t help you here either, hopefully No.2 (above) will be useful enough.
4. Ah, the image editor. I actually like the image editor and resembles the image editor of Clickteam’s products (The Games Factory, Multimedia Fusion etc..) quite a bit. But like you said I had the same problem of transparency, there is a simple fix for that too. If you color anything with the Magenta color (Red 255, Green 0 and Blue 255) it will become 100% transparent, which means whenever you import something with a background color of say white (or any color) all you have to do is set the foreground color to Magenta and use the bucket fill tool to fill the background with the transparent color and presto its invisible, don’t forget to use the crop button to decrease the image size of the object to make things simple.
5. While I agree with Bilbo Baggins about Construct being intuitive, I also agree with PainOfRed that you can’t make good games with Construct, you can make GREAT GAMES with it as well!
There are some ‘issues’ with the construct (classic) interface that do need getting use to however. The way you control how your games works is broken down into two main ‘components’.
1. One is the Event Editor which you will use often and is used to create the game’s rules like winning, losing, increasing score etc..
2. The second component’s location is somewhat less intuitive and is the object’s properties. (But makes sense afterwards thought)
For example If I have a ball on the screen, and I want to make it behave like a ball, I have to select the ball (via the Layout editor) and using the properties tab (on your left) select the Behaviors option-which will expand and you then click the ‘Add’ link next to the word ‘New Behavior’ and then choose what behavior your want from the dialog box. There are many options in the Properties of Objects so make a note to see what some of them do.
Once you get use to the Construct interface you really can make games and sometimes really good ones. It does take time to get use to the interface but its worth it in the long run, the time saving features (eg Behaviors) and abilities of Construct like the pixel shading effects are amazing.
Sources:
http://www.scirra.com/forum/construct-help-manual-download_topic40868.html
http://www.scirra.com/forum/color-key-for-transparency_topic43478.html
Oh and I created a game creation tools page that you might like:
http://freegameslist.weebly.com/game-creation-tools.html
You’re right, i’ve also tried and i couldn’t make anything, it’s thought to be all done
Construct 2 has a lack of documentation while game maker is fully documented. If you are in a dead-end game maker will more surely provides an appropriate answer via tutorials.
Philip: “5. 100% free and Open Source”
This is not true. Construct has free edition BUT you still have to pay for the full version. The same with Game Maker. The lite edition is free.
Contruct Classic is 100% free and Open-Sorce. The Construct 2 which is made for HTML5 games isn’t free.
I still like game maker …It is easier to use although it confuse me the first time I use it..but it only takes me 1 week to master game maker…
Let this settle any disputes. I have used Game Maker, MMF2 and Construct, out of all of them I have found that game maker is the most user friendly. Both MMf and Construct have behaviors, and they can be nice, but what if you want some other type of movement? In game maker while it may be more time consuming you can make what you want and not settle for anything less than what you set out to make. It is my belief that game maker is superior to any other game making software out there.
If you want some other kind of movement/behavior, that’s what the event editor is for, and you can create whatever type of behavior you want with it. C2 is not limited to only the behaviors system. There’s also the option of creating a plugin with the JavaScript SDK.
Cosntruct Classic is a great program and easy to understand just by watching a few tutorials. Sure it’s easy to understand but should think hard games. Construct Classic is free and open code and not currently DEESA adan web links well as construct 2 came out that if you have a complete community and thousands of manuals and tutorials. Seeing how it works construct 2 can do almost the same thing in classic construct. The good thing is that it’s free classic and can sell your games, the trouble is that you only do games for windows.
The good thing is you can construct two matching for various platforms and maloes to sell games that you should not pay a very expensive license. I tried more than 10 programs to develop games and I’ll take these two.
Sure, “Construct” is a great program, if you want to make a quick game without actually working. But professional-grade games are never made with “Construct”. Little kiddie games can be made with it, but not anything anyone would really play unless they didn’t want to offend the little kid that made it.
The Iconoclasts : )
After giving construct a chance, i did run into a few problems that I thought Gamemaker didn’t have.
-Lack of documentation is huge. Gamemaker has tons of this in the application, online chat boards, wiki, and on the Yoyo games website. Lots of samples and examples to really drive the point home too. Construct is limited in this.
-Polished look isn’t there. It’s hard to explain, but construct makes cheap looking games, no matter how much effort I put into getting it to feel like a real game. In my case, the behaviors used for walking are cheep. I prefer to get the character movement down right and not pussyfoot with constructs cheap behaviors. So why bother with construct?
-Construct costs money for the full version. Gamemaker is free and unless you want to dish out for some bigger stuff like exporting to iPhone, iPad, and Android devices…etc. it’s “free” too.
I don’t think this blog is doing much for making construct seem better. Perhaps if you didn’t try and compare it you may have gained some support in an effort to improve it up to Gamemaker standards.
Bottom line, if you want to make a quick game , you can use gamemaker or construct. If you want it to have potential to be a better game, use gamemaker. Either way, going full version costs you money.
Top whatever reasons people THINK construct 2 sucks:
1. I can’t make any other movement other than behaviors. You are limited.
Of course you can! If you don’t want to use behaviors, you can program your own movement using either events or the Custom Movement behavior.
2. It’s a program for kiddies, you just drag and drop shit mindlessly. It’s so easy you can’t fuck up.
No. If you want to go above any mediocre platformer, you can’t just drag and drop shit mindlessly. You still have to think and you can fuck up, just like in programming on any language.
3. When I draw a sprite and then put it on the layout, its size is different than when I drew the sprite. Construct 2 can’t handle such simple a task as sizing sprites without fucking it up like a baby. Construct 2 is stupid.
Wow. you can’t resize the damn sprites? Like, when you select a sprite, a box appears and you can draaaag it around and adjust its size. You couldn’t figure that out without manuals and tutorials and shit? That means you never worked on any other program, because a lot of programs utilize resizing this way. Kids usually play in kindergarten, not work in Photoshop. They don’t know how to resize images in any program. But, wait, you said that Construct 2 was made for stupid kids! I guess YOU are the stupid kid here. Besides, if you don’t like how you must resize a sprite every time you put it on a layout, you can resize it in the image editor.
4. Uhm, I don’t hav anything to say about the functionality and the mechanics of Construct 2 since I was proved that it actually has potential( but I don’t want to realize it), so I will tell that it sucks because of some dumb reason that isn’t associated with the program itself. Kahem… It costs money!
Yes, it does. What unlocks after you buy the program? Not that much, really. A lot was already put into the free edition. What do we have in the personal edition here? Some stupid ass Z Order Bar that doesn’t do anything useful, and the event limit is terminated, allowing you to make bigger games. Sometimes you can even make a great game with the 100 event limit. And, of course, it adds the export to iOS/Android/PCs, just like the Game Maker.
5. Uum… CONSTRUCT 2 SUCKS!!!! BECAUSE IT SUCKS!!!!
…no comment.
Dude, you just made Gamemakers look like immature 7 year olds. Douche!
Game Maker > Construct2
You can rotate a sprite in Gamemaker, and you can zoom in and out of a room/layer. I also believe Gamemaker is re-programmable, but I am not entirely sure.
I personally use Gamemaker, but this looks interesting too.
Unity 3d! Free and easy! Can buy for expansive features, same as other apps above.