3 ms·

Our whole product is based around "visual scripting" and we think we've nailed it: https://www.construct.net https://www.construct.net You can load it in you

Our whole product is based around "visual scripting" and we think we've nailed it: https://www.construct.net https://www.construct.net You can load it in your browser to try at: https://editor.construct.net https://editor.construct.net Tens of thousands of active users and feedback over the years has been extremely positive on this aspect of our product. I'd be curious on your thoughts on it coming from a slightly pessimistic starting point :)

yorwba 9y ago
Since you are still in beta, I figure you could use some feedback, so here are a couple of things I noticed that were unexpected. (I'm using Firefox 55 on Linux so some problems may be related to that.) * https://www.construct.net/make-games/free-trial https://www.construct.net/make-games/free-trial says "Make games on your Mac". I don't have a Mac. If you hadn't mentioned that it's browser based, I would've left immediately. * After loading the editor, I got a dialog that says "A new version of Construct 3 is available! You are using r58, and r58 is ready to use." which is quite confusing. Also, the text in the dialog can't be selected, so I had to use the dev tools to copy the text. At least clicking "Update" didn't send me into an infinite loop. * When opening one of the featured projects (I tried Glokar), there is no way to cancel the download. (I was getting very low download speeds, maybe because I'm in China. The GFW throttles a lot of random traffic.) * In a box that says "Add action... Add..." I would expect the whole box to be clickable, not just the text. * When clicking on an action like "Go to Mission Objective" I would expect a link that lets you look at "Mission Objective". Yes, it's in the project panel, but maybe I didn't see it and I don't know where it is because I'm looking at someone else's project. Same for all other kinds of cross-referenced objects. * I found the Beginner's Guide much too late, because it was below the fold for me and the list of demos captured my scrolling. * Double-clicking empty space to add an object is absolutely undiscoverable. I guess it's fine if you are reading a guide anyway, but I just wanted to jump in and try out things. * The tiled background editor should show the tile as it actually tiles, otherwise you won't know how it will look. Also, there is no obvious "I'm done" button. * When you have multiple identical sprites but decide that one of them should be different, there is no obvious way to turn it into its own type so that it can be modified independently. (Short of deleting and recreating it from a clone of the original sprite.) * None of the preview options seemed to do anything. That's about when I lost interest. The concept of your visual editor seems overall quite good, although I'd want keybindings for everything.
dogprez 9y ago
Cool project. I think what they were talking about is demonstrated here. For example, in Construct when you want to add an action to an event you click the add button then a wizard pops up to help you assign it. If you know how to program that is annoying because you know how to express yourself faster with text. If you don't know how to express yourself it provides the scaffolding to help you succeed. I think they are lamenting that for experts they haven't seen a visual language that is faster / more expressive. I don't think they would argue that this isn't easier for beginners.

yorwba 9y ago

Since you are still in beta, I figure you could use some feedback, so here are a couple of things I noticed that were unexpected. (I'm using Firefox 55 on Linux so some problems may be related to that.) * https://www.construct.net/make-games/free-trial https://www.construct.net/make-games/free-trial says "Make games on your Mac". I don't have a Mac. If you hadn't mentioned that it's browser based, I would've left immediately. * After loading the editor, I got a dialog that says "A new version of Construct 3 is available! You are using r58, and r58 is ready to use." which is quite confusing. Also, the text in the dialog can't be selected, so I had to use the dev tools to copy the text. At least clicking "Update" didn't send me into an infinite loop. * When opening one of the featured projects (I tried Glokar), there is no way to cancel the download. (I was getting very low download speeds, maybe because I'm in China. The GFW throttles a lot of random traffic.) * In a box that says "Add action... Add..." I would expect the whole box to be clickable, not just the text. * When clicking on an action like "Go to Mission Objective" I would expect a link that lets you look at "Mission Objective". Yes, it's in the project panel, but maybe I didn't see it and I don't know where it is because I'm looking at someone else's project. Same for all other kinds of cross-referenced objects. * I found the Beginner's Guide much too late, because it was below the fold for me and the list of demos captured my scrolling. * Double-clicking empty space to add an object is absolutely undiscoverable. I guess it's fine if you are reading a guide anyway, but I just wanted to jump in and try out things. * The tiled background editor should show the tile as it actually tiles, otherwise you won't know how it will look. Also, there is no obvious "I'm done" button. * When you have multiple identical sprites but decide that one of them should be different, there is no obvious way to turn it into its own type so that it can be modified independently. (Short of deleting and recreating it from a clone of the original sprite.) * None of the preview options seemed to do anything. That's about when I lost interest. The concept of your visual editor seems overall quite good, although I'd want keybindings for everything.

dogprez 9y ago

Cool project. I think what they were talking about is demonstrated here. For example, in Construct when you want to add an action to an event you click the add button then a wizard pops up to help you assign it. If you know how to program that is annoying because you know how to express yourself faster with text. If you don't know how to express yourself it provides the scaffolding to help you succeed. I think they are lamenting that for experts they haven't seen a visual language that is faster / more expressive. I don't think they would argue that this isn't easier for beginners.