First of all i would like to say hello!
Another thing is - would like to keep this thread frame-proof, as i am not in position or intension to rate which one is better.
I am just a guy who is in process of making a game. Sadly enough, i suck at programing - BIG time. And from 3 months i am looking for a proper game engine plain enough for me to use it without my brain exploding all over my house.
So far ive been using RPG Maker’s, Game Maker, Novashell, Scratch, MMF2 and ofcourse mentioned above - Constructor.
Th thing is, i am still at the point when i have the luxury of changing game engine without forcing myself to rebuild much of the content from the base. Its propably the last moment when i can do that, thats why i am invading all the engines forums i am interested in.
So just treat me like a “perhaps interested customer” and please explain to me what actualy diffrent in Game Develop from those two? What it got what other doesnt?
I am especialy interested in being able to play video files properly from ingame and the engine not crashing on me every now and then.
Hi,
First of all, Game Develop, Construct and Multimedia Fusion share some principles in common, such as scene/layout, objects, automatisms/behaviours/movements or events.
Multimedia Fusion is the older of the three software, and is provided with a lot of extensions, which is its strength. I personally find his interface pretty outdated, and the software seems also outdated in the way certain things are made, such as the presentation of events in an array.
Construct was built in the same way as Multimedia Fusion ( in fact, some people believed that the software code source was stolen from Multimedia Fusion. It is not true. ), using DirectX and Windows technologies massively ( and even a proprietary library for building the graphical interface ). I found the software clearer than Multimedia Fusion, with a better user interfacer : Larger property panel, cleaner event system. Moreover, Construct is open source and free. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software )
Game Develop is built entirely using free ( Free as in freedom : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software ) technologies, and even if Game Develop is not ( for now ) open source, the software is free. Free technologies allows for example to run the games created with Game Develop on linux, and even Game Develop itself ( even if it is not currently usable ). I find the interface to be quite beautiful, or at least more than the MMF one. The edition of a scene in Game Develop is a bit different than in Multimedia Fusion/Construct, as Game Develop has not a global property which gather everything. Game Develop relies on windows which popups when you want for example to edit an object by double clicking on it.
Construct and Game Develop uses the same concepts for events ( Basically conditions and actions ). However, Game Develop allow the extension to provide special events, like function-events, repeat event, while event, comments, links… whereas these things are made in Construct using only “special” conditions. Game Develop and Construct also allows to add sub events and links to other events whereas MMF does not provide such functionnality ( I think ). Again, Construct and Game Develop allow user to use named variables, where MMF relies on variables using numbers.
Game Develop is the only software which allows to use multiple camera ( or it is at least more easy to do this with GD than with the two others ) so as to create for example a 2-player mode. On the other hand, GD provide less features than Construct or Multimedia Fusion, even if there are already a lot a feature ( Physics, Sprites, Particle system, 3D Object, Encryption, Debugger available in the editor, Video object, Manual drawing on the screen… There is basically everything you need to make a game 
)
Game Develop is able to play video, you just have to convert your video file to a specific ( but free ) format : OGG Theora. A converter is provided with the software and there is many converter on the web. However, GD does not currently play the sound, you have to launch the sound separately with another action.
I think Game Develop is quite stable, and even if there is some problems or bugs from time to time, some users found Game Develop to be more stable as other softwares. ( I found a “Construct Crashes too much” topic in Scirra forum today ). So I don’t think there are major crash related problems existing in Game Develop.
Don’t hesitate to ask me for more information, or to ask me if you didn’t understand a part of the message.
this is actualy quite amazing. i never though about giving the player the control over many elements of the game at once or enabling two player to play the game. this is quite groundbreaking!
this not a problem at only. its only a matter of spliting video and its sound.
now some more questions.
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Events sheets. i must say i really liked that in Construct. to be able to include a whole sheet into scene events. this way i could create a universal sheet with for examples: game controls, global controlers ect
how is this handled with Game Develop? -
Many sprites are animated. but i cant find a way to easly import many animation frames at once in GD. in conctruct i have just clickied “import frames” and could import a whole images folder as frames. so far i cant do that in GD. Em i just missing it or its not there? importing frames one at the time is quite anoying. There is however an option to add several images but its asking me to enlist their names which i find extremly awkward
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Does GD has some kind of internal image editor? its great and very helpfull in Construct when i just want to quickly import a prototype sprite to have some kind of visualisation.
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overall Animation speed and singel frame speed. does GD have that?
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Please continiue translating the engine… for example when i try to conver an avi file a popup msg shows with text “Conversion Terminee”. i dont know what that means. is it done or not? and why if not - then why?
and thank you for the warm welcome
suprising enough ive learned about GD from the head dev of Cosntruct
It is handled the same way : You can insert event called “Link” which will include the events from another scene or from another “external event sheet”. ( Indeed Game Develop provides a mechanism called External events, which are events not linked to a specific scene. This feature exists also in Construct. ). You can use links and external events ( or events from others scenes ) so as to implement different aspect of your game in different event sheets like in Construct.
Currently, when you add images to the image bank, you can select multiple image in a folder, and all of them will be inserted in the image bank. However, there is indeed no such options in the editor of Sprite objects, apart from the button allowing you to enter the name of several images.
No, I have always considered that if you want your game to have a great look, you have to use a “real” external image editor, and I’m not sure I would be able to do a internal image editor better than Paint. 
But I agree that it could be useful for prototyping, i will maybe try to implement a - very - basic image editor. ( Note that you can bind a button in the ribbon to a external image editor, check in options of Game Develop. When you will click on the button, the selected program will open with the selected image opened as well. )
You can customize the speed of ( each direction of ) an animation. There is no options to customize the speed of single frame though.
“Conversion terminée” is a French sentence saying “Conversion ended”. So your file is probably properly converted in a OGG theora file. ( Some user reported me the tool to be non functional, if it is also your case, use another conversion tool like oggconvert.tristanb.net/ or search google for “OGG Theora converter” for example).
There can be some translation missing, but I try to be sure that ever single word of French is properly translated in English. I’ve corrected this sentence, thank you, I had forgotten to had in the source code a little “marker” to specify that this sentence must be translated ( Indeed, the translation of the software can be then made using a free software called PoEdit, which allow to translate in fact the software in all languages ).
Construct devs are indeed open minded. ( Whereas some developers forbid to talk about another software on their forum for example ).
i am terrible sorry for such a late reply seeing how detailed and polite you answeared all my question and how much time you actualy took to help me .
But i have another question
The rule of Thumb in game deving is to re-use the textures and sprites as much as possible to spare the VRAM usage.
But what if i dont want to do that? How Game Develop handles big or even huge images?
Because you see - i am more of a graphic artist rather then programer and i would like to create the game backround(game field/world) in 2nd party programs like PhotoShop, ScetchUp ect and then take my creation as a whole into Game Develop.
How GD works withthis situation? because i know Construct has a really hard time with big images which kind a irks me.
In construct you “technicaly” can have unlimited in size game layout, but under the condition it will as empty as possible - which likes defeats the whole purpous of the layout size, wont you agree?
I mean, what use i have from unlimited layouts when the engine chokes badly whenever i dump any image bigger then 1000pix
i am asking because i am a devoted maper. i create very nice rpg maps, but they are huge in size and details. and most of map content is ground level and i dont use ground textures but i draw the terrain by hand - so nothing can be re-used. but it looks very unique and beautiful.
So how GD works with handiling big images? or maybe some workarounds you know? any tips or tricks?
I am asking, because some time ago ive been a fanatical Infinity Engine (BG1&2, Icewind Dale1&2, Planescape) modder and i remember that layouts there were even 5k pix big in both width and hight and it made the work flow soo much easier.
Depending on your video card, Game Develop will support displaying from big images to huge images. Thus, old video card are unable to display images bigger than 10241024. But newer card are able to display very huge images. In fact, it depends on the maximum texture size that can be handle by the video card.
Personally, I would not use images larger than 50005000 so as to be sure most of the computers are able to play the game. But for backgrounds, it is quite easy to split the background in smaller images.
Game Develop does not put any limitation on the layout/scene size, but when you reach very large coordinates, there is a risk that the computer does not handle properly these coordinates ( Floating point errors ), creating some glitches or bugs concerning the objects positions.
The number of objects you can add in a scene without experience performance drop depends on what you do with these objects. Hundred and hundred of objects without any events concerning them are likely to have quite no impact of the game, whereas hundred and hundred of objects which uses many events are likely to make the game unplayable.
( The profiler integrated in the last version of Game Develop, which is not released as it caused a little problem with Windows XP I didn’t see before, will be able to help developers to identify which events uses too much time. )
hmmm… so i can for example take 10000 x 10000 pix image, slice it into ten x 1000/1000pix images and it’ll be okey?
i know that the best thing to do would be not to use such big images but using repeatble textures instead but then the visuals are not that great and unique and it is so much more work =\
Yes, as long as you don’t use images larger than 1024*1024 pixels, which is a size that will be supported on very a large majority of computers imho, I don’t think you will face any problems.
On the other hand, when you use smaller images, you have to use more objects, and this is not necessary better.
So I think splicing your background into 1024*1024 pixels images is the best solution.