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Scripting	Debugging

Download the minigame source

Summary

The Games Factory 2 (Newgrounds Edition) feels quite similar to Construct 2 (not entirely by coincidence), so most of the porting was straightforward copying. Some small complications arose from the lack of sub-events and hash tables and the need to use a special Layer object for scrolling. Construct 2 is newer, more polished, and more actively updated, but The Games Factory 2 doesn't have any limitations on game complexity (probably).

Pluses

• Map editor includes alignment operations
• Built-in runner and debugger similar to GameMaker
• Like GameMaker and Game Editor, runs the game smoothly with comparatively low CPU use
• The built-in runner lives in its own process, so it can crash or be killed without affecting the editor.
• Fast actor creation and destruction

Minuses

• Like Construct 2, has only groups of events, no functions
• The Event editor lacks some features compared to Construct 2:
  • No Sub-events
  • No Else blocks
  • No For Each conditions
  • Fewer keyboards shortcuts
• No hash table data type
• Floating point Alterable Values are truncated to integers when the frame starts, so they must be re-initialized using the Event system at runtime.

Hints

• The global event sheet has access to all of the Active objects' Alterable Values by their customized names like spacing. Per-object behaviors only have access to other objects' Alterable Values by the generic names like Alterable Value A.
• Remember that Conditions produce a filtered list of objects. The corresponding Action runs once for each of the selected objects.
• Similarly, be careful not to get confused by Conditions in Behaviors. Conditions are always global even when they live in Behaviors. This means that each Condition can run at most once per update, no matter where it lives. A particularly confusing case is running Fast loops > Start loop in a Condition that selects multiple objects. This is probably never sensible because the On loop Condition will only iterate through the loop one time, no matter how many times you start it. I got stuck for a long time trying to make each Square create its own fastloop. Finally I realized the better approach was to make just one global fastloop, and select the appropriate set of Squares each time through the loop.

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