5 Reasons why Construct is better than Game Maker
January 5th, 2009 by Philip Gamble
| Categories: Game Maker alternatives
Construct is a free open-source DirectX game creator with a drag-and-drop interface.
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 has got 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 8 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. A 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+ 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…
I have used Game Maker for almost 2 years and even bought the book (which is great BTW). And while only working with Construct for 3 days I am very close to finishing my fist game.
Here is may assessment:
Game Maker is much easier to learn. Has much better documentation, and the scripting is very intuitive.
Construct has a steeper learning curve, the docs and wiki is not finished, and some of the Objects are imposable to use with out help. But…
The forum is very friendly and helped me though the rough water. And while some people say that Game Maker Scripting is more powerful, or you need to learn “real” coding they are missing the point.
The objects in Construct are exactly that OBJECTS. The future of programming. If you pick up a C# or Java book they are totality built around Objects. What Construct is really just true visual code. Instead of subroutines running to check on things Objects sit quietly doing there thing until needed.
Game Maker has the graphic building too, but it is much different. In Game maker you need to code to get to the real power. Construct’s real power is in the Object graphics that you build from. It feel like you are coding Objects in C# with pictures.
IMHO The more you understand about OOPS programming the more you will appreciate what Construct is and how great of program it is.
Finally I am thrilled that I have both. Competition is good and it will only serve to make both better.
I have an associates degree in programming, which is to say I know a fair deal about what you just said. However I don’t entirely agree that OOP is the best possible way to do things. Yes it makes things easier, but it also makes things bulkier. Even DirectX itself dramatically slows things down because it has many instructions in it that a game may never use even though it’s available. Yes it all speeds up development, but there’s always a cost.
Think about this… memory and processor speeds have improved by dramatic amounts. How much have games improved? Personally I don’t think they’ve kept up with the hardware, but I feel that’s because many game companies want things done fast and easy so they take shortcuts. Those shortcuts make it so that even on the best hardware, the game bogs down when you have the settings turned on high.
If a company ever made a game from scratch and developed every piece of it on their own to be used exactly as they needed… it would take years, but would probably look as good as any other game out, and run on half the hardware.
something i like bout game maker runs is well on low end pc. but something i totally hate about game maker is softwrap, that pathetic company who scams with my registration.
I havent seen it yet, but i just want to comment devid d’s response.
Devid youre ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Omg, i once changed my time like 2 days. And then the stupid SoftWrap form came up, and i couldnt use game maker at all!
So i had to change it back, but now i cant scam winzip anymore
Bye^^
Now ive given it a better look, and i dont agree with you, Mr Gamble.
Based on what youve told, i think that Construct is a program with alot of pre-programmed stuff in it.
In game maker the controls are limited, but you can strill control alot of aspects of the application/game.
And, how much coding do you think youve got to do when youre programming a game in C++ or C# or Java? Its alot more than in game maker.
So i dont think thats an argument.
Besides that, im still going to download and try it
Bye
Just one question. Thinking in a horizontal shoot em up, with multiple scroll, enemies and explosions all over the screen, in your opinion scirra is powerful than game maker?
I haven’t said that Construct is more powerful than Game Maker.
Klik n’ Play, The Games Factory 1, TGF2, Multimedia Fusion 1.5, and MMF2 are a few others worthy of high regards.
KNP is really old but is very quick to make a crappy game with to say you’ve made something.
TGF1 is fantastic and fastest of all with the best most streamlined interface and while being outdated a bit, it still holds its own very well. TGF1 does have a few issues though with the learning curve and the fact that the built-in movements are crap, fortunately it’s easy enough to code your own movements with the nice klik interface.
MMF1 good but not great, I like TGF1 way better because of the TGF1′s sweet interface.
Multimedia Fusion 2 is a beautiful program, but there’s so many features strewn about in the way of the stuff that I actually use. There’s maybe 5 things MMF2 has that I wish were in TGF1, the rest just slows me down, but those few things I REALLY would like to see in TGF1. TGF2 is a weaker version of MMF2, having less features, and an interface closer to that of MMF2 than that of TGF1′s.
Gamemaker I used for a few hours one day and I followed the example to make their game and then I made my own thing where a sprite just moved around, didn’t get much further than that but it seemed like a fair enough program. It felt a bit restrictive in comparison to the ClickTeam products but I suppose if ya fiddled round with the GML script it could be nice and versatile eventually. It’s probably the easiest to begin learning with, but I’d imagine it’d be just as tough to master as TGF1 was.
Construct would be my favorite, except that the interface while being user-friendly in some areas, is dreadfully un-friendly in other places. It seems to have alot of versatility and power hidden under its hood though using DirectX to its advantage.
And it has the same sort of annoying sprite editor as MMF2 but minus the extras (there may be extra controls for sprites outside of the editor somewhere), and the frame placement is confusing. Construct borrows alot from MMF1.5 and MMF2 in functionality, but it has a style all its own. Ashley, well he did a wonderful job with Construct and spent alot of time on it.
If you learn MMF2 or Construct, or vice-versa, you’ll be able to learn the other one fairly quick as they have alot of similar features. Construct uses DirectX and MMF2 seems to be gaining compatibility with the Flash Runtime and/or Flash Player and its capabilities. I’m not sure whether they get the code to respond to the player or turn it into flash code first, but either way, it should be interesting.
With gamemaker, anything is possible!
Go on yoyo games, there are millions of games, all made on gamemaker.
Look at the variety, there’s rtss, fpss, RPGs, shooters, puzzle games, towerdefence games, anything!
I would hardly call gamemaker restrictive…
One word: 3D.
But you can use DLLs, like Ultimate 3D or GMOgre3D or GMIrrlicht.
I’ve tried MMF1, MMF2, Gamemaker and Construct. For me, Scirra’s Construct feels the most comfortable to use. Given all the games made with all these applications, it essentially boils down to what’s the easiest to use for each person….
After readin’ the post, I’m not saying that Game Maker is better than Construct. Construct looks very good – I’ve often felt like playing a car game and needing a program to quickly knock it up in, and Clickteam’s stuff I don’t find to be very good. I’ll take a good look and prolly keep Construct – that bundled physics rules – but I’ll stick with GML for proper projects, simply cos I support the people that host my files for free.
In my opinion MMF2 is far superior to Game Maker. While game maker does have scripting, and GM users fall back on that, so does MMF2. It has over 100 extensions, physics, platform movement, arrays, 8 directional, car, bouncing ball, et. The interface is easy to understand, has a very low learning curve, and the software overall is extremely powerful. 3dimensional games can be made in MMF2. It’s just BETTER. I’ve used GM before, I wouldn’t knock it unless i’ve tried it before, and it sucked……no offense. But it did. It was hard to understand, troublesome, and just plain annoying. Don’t say you can’t learn real coding in MMF2, because that’s a lie. Several people have even had MMF2 games ported to CONSOLES. I’m not saying it isn’t possible in GM, but it sure is a helluva lot easier. You all should try out the demo, look for some tutorials, go to the site and join the massive community. You won’t be sorry.
Now about Construct, I haven’t given it a fair try, and I will, but to be honest it looks like MMF2…seriously, just a bit fancier. Not saying more or less powerful though. They both look like great softwares.
Game Maker – being updated by new Dundee office to include better code editor/debugger, can run on PSP, etc. Opens with a simple tutorial that I can make in 10 minutes with collisions, score adding, etc. Then you can convert that to GML code in another 10 minutes. Good for learning to code. I created regrowing trees choppable only if an Axe is equipped, and a global wood_amount variable that gets added to with each chop and can be converted into a Plank if you have 5. The downside is that all the scripts have to be opened in their own window, but they said they’re changing that ASAP.
It has full games equal to the quality of the Pokemon/Zelda DS games. You can open them and look at the scripts and use them to make your own game. It’s also cheap.
Construct… THE RIBBON! NOOOooOOOOoo. It’s free and has tons of pre-made events, but what good is that when I’m trying to learn how to code? I created an event where you clicked a button to rotate physical objects which was good, but I couldn’t find my way to any script editor. Probably has the best conditions/events editor of the three.
MMF2 – started with a simple tutorial too. Pretty good, except I couldn’t find a script editor either.
Ultimately, they’re all good, but if you’re starting out I would say go with Game Maker. Do the tutorial, then try to convert it to GML code and learn global variables and if/else statements.
Game maker is WAY better because its so much more costom built that construct, construct has pre made actions which tottaly stink and limit it like 99% more.
Ouch, this is far too D&D. You cannot make any serious programs/games, it’s rather limiting.
Okay… I tried Construct… It’s really nice, I just can’t really use it very well because I’m too used to using Game Maker…. Hopefully I can learn how to use it…
I have been trying construct for four days and am finding this software fantastically intuitive and easy to use i am in the process of making a helicopter simulator in full 3d and have so far completed all but the lighting and my helicopter has no texturing or mapping. Thumbs Up, John hidgison, EA Games (thats right)
First off, any RAD game makers are capable of making only mediocre games at best. I don’t care how much praise they get in puff pieces like this: Learn to program and make a game from scratch or using an available engine. You’ll be glad you did. No one has ever once been impressed by games made by tools made by skill-less hacks.
Second off, DirectX sucks and always will. Use SDL and OpenGL. ESPECIALLY OpenGL, which is faster and looks better. Not only that but you can actually make something that doesn’t trap you on Windows.
Well thank you so much Philip for this nice piece of information. I wouldn’t have never known about or tried Construct if it wasn’t for your post. I come from a graphic art background, and always wanted to make my own games. I have been searching for a nice game making software that doesn’t require programming knowledge. So I can honestly say after trying Construct my search is over. I have never found such a user friendly piece of software in my life. Construct has everything you need to develop great games.
I have a problem with construct documentation so far but maybe I can help with that. Hopefully there is a nice step by step tutorial with screenshots somewhere?
When you open gamemaker the tutorial is close by. You should be able to put the first part of your game together – playable, in about 45 minutes or less.
I’ll look at construct again, now hopefully it has better documentation, than a year ago… In summary what kept me away was the presentation and learning curve.
Found out it already has a forum with lots of documented tutorials, it might be usefull for making apps too: http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=8&start=100