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Construct 2 Game Development by Example
This book uses practical examples to teach readers, and imparts the key skills and techniques of working in Construct 2 through building complete game projects. This book is for complete beginners who have always wanted to learn how to make games and have never tried. It is the perfect introduction to game development, design, and production.
230 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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July 29, 2014
“Construct 2 Game Development by Example” by John Bura, published by Packt Publishing, is a book about the Construct 2 game engine published by Scirra Ltd. The book is available on their website at http://bit.ly/1pDF6C4. The Construct 2 game engine is available in 3 different versions at https://www.scirra.com/construct2. Construct 2 has a free version, which this review is based on. There is also a Personal edition for $129.99 and a Business edition for $429.99. In addition there is a terrific user community at Scirra’s website providing a lot of tutorials and hosting very busy forums. Now onto the book.
“Construct 2 Game Development by Example” is a wonderful book for beginners. The first chapter is all about downloading and installing Construct 2. Once you’ve done that the author gives a brief overview of Construct 2’s visual programming interface. One thing to note, no assets were provided to download for the book. Fortunately, it is easy to create simple objects inside Construct 2 that you can use to follow along with this book.
The second chapter is all about setting up the controls and inputs for your game. The keyboard and mouse set-ups are discussed as well as “touch” input for mobile devices. This was very informative as all games require some kind interaction with controls to tell the game what you want to do.
The next chapter provides a clear purview of arrays and variables. Examples demonstrating how to create and use arrays and how they are used in games are available and the same is done for variables. What are game mechanics and how to use them is covered in chapter 4. This is where the Construct 2 game engine really shines. It is extremely easy to program your game character to run, jump and use power-ups.
Over the next three chapters of “Construct 2 Game Development by Example”, three different games are created. Chapter 5 creates a shooter, complete with background, player, enemy and a projectile. These are all created on the layout sheet and then events are created on the Event sheet. Since Construct 2 is an HTML 5 engine it is very easy to test your game. I liked this chapter because it was a simple game to set-up and fun to play when you were done.
The next chapter has you create a tower defense game and it is definitely more difficult. The book requires you to remember how to add functionality to objects through Construct 2’s ‘behaviors.’ This is not a problem; but I forgot to give the bullet its bullet behavior and had trouble figuring out why my turrets in the tower defense game would only spawn one bullet and then stop shooting. Not setting a behavior for the bullets turned out to be the reason why and had been shown in the previous chapter for the shooting game. By the time you finish your tower defense game you’ll really feel like you have accomplished something.
Chapter 7 is all about physics games like “Angry Birds.” Physics rules are very easy to set-up in Construct 2; all you need to do is add the ‘physics behavior’ to an object and then tweak the properties such as force or gravity. Information on setting up a HUD and using it to keep track of the players score are also demonstrated.
The final chapter is all about getting your game to the various publishers on the web. Construct 2 lets you publish your game to Amazon, Android, the web, and many more. Different platforms require slightly different builds of your game and this information is handy to have.
“Construct 2 Game Development by Example” is a great book. Construct 2’s great strength is that it lets anyone who wants to create a game do so. This book is the perfect guide to help you program with the engine. I hope you enjoy creating many games with Construct 2.
“Construct 2 Game Development by Example” is a wonderful book for beginners. The first chapter is all about downloading and installing Construct 2. Once you’ve done that the author gives a brief overview of Construct 2’s visual programming interface. One thing to note, no assets were provided to download for the book. Fortunately, it is easy to create simple objects inside Construct 2 that you can use to follow along with this book.
The second chapter is all about setting up the controls and inputs for your game. The keyboard and mouse set-ups are discussed as well as “touch” input for mobile devices. This was very informative as all games require some kind interaction with controls to tell the game what you want to do.
The next chapter provides a clear purview of arrays and variables. Examples demonstrating how to create and use arrays and how they are used in games are available and the same is done for variables. What are game mechanics and how to use them is covered in chapter 4. This is where the Construct 2 game engine really shines. It is extremely easy to program your game character to run, jump and use power-ups.
Over the next three chapters of “Construct 2 Game Development by Example”, three different games are created. Chapter 5 creates a shooter, complete with background, player, enemy and a projectile. These are all created on the layout sheet and then events are created on the Event sheet. Since Construct 2 is an HTML 5 engine it is very easy to test your game. I liked this chapter because it was a simple game to set-up and fun to play when you were done.
The next chapter has you create a tower defense game and it is definitely more difficult. The book requires you to remember how to add functionality to objects through Construct 2’s ‘behaviors.’ This is not a problem; but I forgot to give the bullet its bullet behavior and had trouble figuring out why my turrets in the tower defense game would only spawn one bullet and then stop shooting. Not setting a behavior for the bullets turned out to be the reason why and had been shown in the previous chapter for the shooting game. By the time you finish your tower defense game you’ll really feel like you have accomplished something.
Chapter 7 is all about physics games like “Angry Birds.” Physics rules are very easy to set-up in Construct 2; all you need to do is add the ‘physics behavior’ to an object and then tweak the properties such as force or gravity. Information on setting up a HUD and using it to keep track of the players score are also demonstrated.
The final chapter is all about getting your game to the various publishers on the web. Construct 2 lets you publish your game to Amazon, Android, the web, and many more. Different platforms require slightly different builds of your game and this information is handy to have.
“Construct 2 Game Development by Example” is a great book. Construct 2’s great strength is that it lets anyone who wants to create a game do so. This book is the perfect guide to help you program with the engine. I hope you enjoy creating many games with Construct 2.
August 7, 2014
I'm a tutor who teaches Game design for years, and I'm also an indie gamer, a game fan, a senior Construct 2 user at the same time. Recently a friend of mine introduced this new book to me. So I bought this book (http://bit.ly/1oBqEvW) and read it through.
First of all, I found this book is suitable for all game design beginners and those who never have programming experience before. You'll find the most effective shortcuts of how to make a game through many examples. You'll learn how to use C2 step by step with clear screen-shot pictures. And You'll make several interesting games simply by following the instructions in the book.
Among all examples, there is a cool tower defense example which utilizes the powerful “path-finding” behavior of C2. In traditional game design using C++ or Java, it will take about weeks to months to realize path-finding functions. But now, path-finding is a built-in design block in C2, and every C2 designer can realize path-finding function simply by several mouse clicks. All related detailed steps are clearly written in this book.
I know we game fans have the same dream of making a game by our own hands since childhood. But the difficulties of learning computer languages set a high barrier for us. Thanks for the technology, we can make HTML5 games easily by C2. Moreover, we can export our games to both PC and mobile platforms owing to HTML5's cross-platform behavior. This book provides practical ways to build games under C2 from the ground up. And I recommend the book for all C2 beginners and those game fans who want to be a game designer.
First of all, I found this book is suitable for all game design beginners and those who never have programming experience before. You'll find the most effective shortcuts of how to make a game through many examples. You'll learn how to use C2 step by step with clear screen-shot pictures. And You'll make several interesting games simply by following the instructions in the book.
Among all examples, there is a cool tower defense example which utilizes the powerful “path-finding” behavior of C2. In traditional game design using C++ or Java, it will take about weeks to months to realize path-finding functions. But now, path-finding is a built-in design block in C2, and every C2 designer can realize path-finding function simply by several mouse clicks. All related detailed steps are clearly written in this book.
I know we game fans have the same dream of making a game by our own hands since childhood. But the difficulties of learning computer languages set a high barrier for us. Thanks for the technology, we can make HTML5 games easily by C2. Moreover, we can export our games to both PC and mobile platforms owing to HTML5's cross-platform behavior. This book provides practical ways to build games under C2 from the ground up. And I recommend the book for all C2 beginners and those game fans who want to be a game designer.
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