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Learn MoreLearn to Code Video Games: Complete Guide to Construct 2 & 3
Rating: 4.3 out of 54.3(257 ratings)
1,502 students
What you'll learn
- Learn the Construct 2 platform while building multiple video games.
- Learn both Constrct 2 and Construct 3
- Our course is for those who have no prior experience at all, we specifically designed it for kids in elementary through high-school. But everyone will benefit.
Course content
17 sections • 149 lectures • 14h 47m total length
- Download, Install and Launch Construct 25:39
I will take you through the process of downloading and installing Construct 2. We'll also take a quick review of the Scirra website, so you know where to find the official manual, store, and arcade.
If you already have Construct 2 installed, you can skip this video. Let's get started on our journey to build video games.
- Introduction to Interface4:27
This lecture will cover launching Construct 2 and a brief walkthrough of the entire interface. Construct 2 is a Windows program and used standard features like the ribbon, properties panel, and menu system, which will be familiar to most users.
Take this quick tour to become familiar with the program that we will use for the next several hours during this course.
- Layouts and Events8:34
Construct 2 has two main sections -- layouts and events. We will learn the basics of each in this lecture and will walk through the main navigation.
Layouts are where your video game graphics get built, and this is where your characters, enemies, foreground, and background come to life. Using a simple drag-and-drop interface, you can set up your entire game without righting any code.
Events are where your game comes alive! Instead of writing complex scripts or code, Construct 2 has developed an events based engine where you simply build the rules that you want to trigger based on events -- like when two objects collide with each other.
This lecture will only cover the navigation and basics of both sections, but we'll dive into them in greater detail soon enough. Are you excited about building a game!
- Creating Objects4:12
Objects make up the components of your video game. This lecture will teach you the basics of creating objects; we'll also tour the primary objects that will be used throughout the course. Most games are built with just a few base objects, like the sprite, tiled background, and keyboard.
You will be surprised at how easy Construct 2 will get you up and running with your video game. We'll also cover a few of the less-common objects because you never know when you might have an idea for a crazy video.
- Create a Sprite6:13
Sprites are probably the most commonly used object for building a video game. Sprite is a fancy name for your game's components, like your player, enemy, obstacles, and bullets. The animation is very important for any video game so that your character will actually look like they walking, running, jumping, flying or swimming.
This lecture covers how to create a new sprite, import image files, and setup basic animation. Now you're on the right track, let's make that zombie mouse run.
- Create a Text Object3:10
What is your score? How many lives do you have left? Which level are you on? Without the Text object, there is no way to know. Text can be static, like a title screen, or completely dynamic, as your score.
This lecture will introduce you to the basics for creating a text object and initialize its text values. During the variable lecture, we'll show you how to dynamically adjust the values of a text object.
- Create a Button2:52
Buttons, buttons, buttons. What's a game without a few buttons to push? Buttons are easy to create, customize, and add actions. We'll cover a few of the basics with this lecture. Buttons can be used to navigate around your game or be used as controls.
This lecture explains how to create a button and assign basic actions to your button.
- Create a Particle5:28
There is nothing more satisfying than blowing up a sprite, or a few hundred sprites. Particles are an amazing object that allows you to show an explosion very quickly and easily without writing any scripts at all. You'll want every operation to have some type of a particle in your game, like destroying an enemy, a brick, or even just landing on the platform.
Add those fantastic touches to your game with ease, This lecture will explain how to create, customize, and implement a particle object.
- Create a Tiled Background2:31
The Tiled Background will save you hours and hours of screen layout time. Does your game involve a simple ground for your character to run across? Are you concerned about creating thousands of small blocks to make up the ground? Fear not - Tiled Background to the rescue! Let Construct 2 automatically replicate your image over and over.
This lecture will show you how to create a ground, sky, ocean, building or pretty much anything that will replicate over and over again with only a few clicks.
- Copying and Deleting Objects6:17
Are you nervous about creating a hundred enemies by importing the same image over and over again? No worries, just copy your enemy, and it will automatically inherit ALL of the properties. Change your mind, about a property after making fifty copies, no worries. Changing one will automatically be replicated to the other forty-nine!
That's right, Construct 2 has thought of everything and this lecture will explain how it all works. You can even clone an object to make a brand-new object with its own events.
Now you can build that horde of zombies that will take over the world in no time at all.
- Behaviors Overview2:45
Behaviors give your video game actions. Who wants to write scripts or code? That sounds boring and riddled with things like math or physics. Behaviors have all the complicated logic built-in automatically; you just need to click the "Add" button.
This lecture will introduce you to what behaviors are, which ones are the commonly used behaviors and how they work -- and we don't need to know the speed of gravity on the moon.
- Behavior (Platform)3:37
Probably the most popular video game style around is the platform style. This is where a character interacts with a platform, like the ground, and moves around the screen to interact with obstacles and enemies -- think Super Mario. The platforms may be flat, long, short, tall or even multi-leveled.
Using the platform behavior, this lecture will build a very basic video game with a few sprites. You'll understand how video games are made and you'll be excited to start your own right now!
What are you waiting for? Go start, you know the basics!
- Behavior (Physics)3:32
Physics is awesome -- but complicated. Who wants to do math when building a game? (No one, that's who)
No worries, Construct 2 has all the math embedded into the physics behavior so you just need to click the "add" button. Physics allows you to create sprites that interact with each other like they would in the real world, like a ball bouncing on the ground or a rock falling off a building.
This lecture will explore the physics behavior and how to add real-life physics to a video game. Physics is one of the most flexible behaviors available.
- Behavior (Bullet)2:41
What video game would be complete with bullets? We love to shoot things almost as much as we love to blow them up. Luckily, bullets are super-easy to add to any game, just select the bullet behavior and adjust a few properties and your pretty flower will be shooting laser beams in every direction.
The bullet behavior can also be used for other operations, and we'll explore a few of those as well. We bet you can come up with a few other cool uses for the bullet behavior after you've watched this lecture.
- Events: Adding Collisions5:13
Boom - those to sprites just collided into either other! They need to blow up now. Adding collision, both good and bad, is a snap. With just a few clicks, the events necessary to detect when two objects collide will trigger any action that you want.
This lecture is the first where we dive into the events sheet, and we'll take it slow. But don't wait for us, add more events!
- Events: Adding Fade5:12
Adding the fade behavior will make our player die with class instead of just disappearing from the screen. Adding a straightforward behavior will add a ton of effects to our basic platform structure. We are all about making things easy!
- Events: Adding Text3:16
What game would be complete without knowing that you just died? Adding a text display to the platform game is easy, students will see how quickly text can be added with only a few clicks.
- Events: Additional Operations4:31
Events are not something that students should be afraid of, and this lecture covers some tips and tricks to getting around the events screen quickly.
- Variables8:47
Variables are an important part of any game to keep track of scores, lives, enemy, and many other values. This lecture covers both global and instances variables along with a demonstration of each. If you have never used variables before, we'll cover them in detail as we build our games.
- Layers5:16
Layers can be used to build backgrounds or heads-up-display unites (HUD) in games. Learn the basics for building a background layer behind your game's main characters. Should real-life have a HUD display?
- Introduction to Platform Game1:40
This lesson uses Construct 3 to build a complete Platform game with elevators, coins, multiple levels, and even a reward at the end.
- Part One: Build our level one27:26
Create a level in Construct 3 using tiled backgrounds, ground, walls, and spikes with platform behavior for smooth hero movement, including keyboard control, camera follow, and restart on death.
- Part Two: Add an elevator, coins, and multiple levels19:01
Adjust z-order to place the background behind objects, add an elevator with sine motion, and coins with explosions; duplicate layouts to create multiple levels and a portal to advance.
- Introduction to maze game.1:40
Build a maze game where a yellow blob hero collects coins, avoids obstacles, encounters a secret door, and shoots enemies to make them explode on the way to the exit.
- Add our hero & build out the initial maze11:04
Create a hero, build an initial maze, enable eight-direction movement with a following camera, and make walls solid to craft a functional maze shooter in Construct 2.
- Add coins, an enemy, bullets, and a finish door28:42
Master event sheets to craft interactive gameplay, including coins, enemies, bullets, a finish door, and win messages through collisions, spawning, and destruction.
- Add explosions, secret passageway, and multiple levels17:43
Create explosions with particle effects for coins and enemies, add a second level and a hidden passage, and implement treasures like coin chests for an engaging maze game.
- Import using Construct29:59
Import internet images into Construct 2 and 3, remove backgrounds with set transparent and tolerance, crop whitespace, adjust image points, and resize sprites for your game.
- Import using Construct38:04
Learn how to import internet images into construct 3, crop whitespace, rotate sprites 90 degrees, and adjust image points to keep tanks and enemies firing correctly.
- Introduction to Blocks Game5:00
Begin with the basics of our physics-based blocks game. Start this section off with a complete walk-through of the final game and how it will be presented during Gaming Bootcamp.
- Editing A Level4:30
Instead of building the entire game from scratch during Gaming Bootcamp, students will build out their levels that their friends will play using the blocks game. Who can build an unbeatable level?
- Adjusting Properties2:29
Our blocks game leverages the physics behavior, which contains several different properties that can be changed for each level. Students will understand how these properties make each level different.
- Creating a Weird Layout2:41
Students will want to learn how to build a strange and weird level to trick their friends and set up an unbeatable level. This lecture will teach you a few tricks of your own.
- Menu Walkthrough9:29
Gaming Bootcamp will not build the blocks game from scratch, but understanding how it was initially built will help mentors understand the basics of building a physics game using Construct 2.
This lecture will walk-through the menu system and set the basics for the rest of the blocks game. If you get lost or confused, just rewind the video and watch it a few times.
- Level Walkthrough Part A10:09
Discover how to build the layout and events for our blocks game.
- Level Walkthrough Part B10:57
Walk-through part two will complete the basics of our blocks game.
- Level Walkthrough Part C2:41
Build games with construct, using physics objects and growing circle that moves items and creates explosions; adjust platform size and immovable blocks to guide the prize to hit the platform.
- Introduction to Angry Birds-Like Game1:47
Begin with a complete tour of Bad-Birds, an Angry Birds-like game. See what we are going to build before we start from a blank project. This game is a lot of fun to make and play.
- Screen Layout & Background5:01
Starting with a blank project, we will configure our layout and set up our game's background. Using two layers, we will lock our background, so it does not get accidentally moved while completing the rest of our game.
- Adding a Canon4:53
Add our main component, a canon that will shoot a cannonball (or in our case, a giant piece of poo). We'll also define an event to track the mouse pointer as a targeting system.
- Firing a Canon Ball4:19
We need some ammunition for our cannon, how about a giant poo? Add a cannonball, define the events to launch, and our game is coming along well.
- Auto-Reload the Cannonball3:13
Firing once will not work, we'll add an event to reload the canon after the first shot and be ready to fire again.
- Building a Tower to Shoot3:49
All canons need a target, let's build a tower with a prize to shoot. The tower can be as elaborate and you want, we'll create a basic one to get started.
- Explode the Prize2:39
Anything that gets hit better explode! We'll add an explosion to our prize when it hits the ground.
- Adding a Heads-up-Display and Keeping Score7:35
HUD, or Heads Up Display, will allow us to keep track of our score and how much poo that has been launched. Using variables, we'll keep track of the values across all levels.
- Adding a Tail to Our Ammo5:23
Add a small smoke trail behind our poo as it gets launched across the screen. The tail will slowly fade out and adds a significant effect to our game.
- Adding Breakable Blocks5:04
Now that our game is mostly working, we want to change our target blocks to be breakable after they have been hit a few times. We'll use the animation frames to tell once a block has been hit enough times and gets destroyed. We were created as many block types as you want.
- Adding a "Win" Condition to Proceed to the Next Level2:22
Adjust our "win" condition so we can proceed from one level to the next.
- Breaking our Blocks5:17
Add the events and actions to break the blocks after they have been hit a specific number of times. This will make the game easier to win but also allows us to build more complex levels.
- Splitting the Ammo3:22
The original Angry Birds allowed you to split a bird into two birds to cause more damage. Let's put our spin on this by spawning a new poo if the player knows the trick of pressing the 'space' key.
- Conclusion - Adding Levels and a Win Screen4:37
Wrap up our Bad Birds game by adding additional levels and creating a final "win" screen.
- Introduction to Race Car Game2:22
A quick introduction and walkthrough of the Race Car game. There are lots of ways to expand this game.
- Create layout and roads7:52
Build our initial layout for level 1, set up our road tiles, and explain how the car behavior works.
- Setup background as our road boundary2:42
Our background is also our road boundary. This is a neat trick on how to build a track that the car cannot leave.
- Create car and behaviors3:22
Add the car sprite and setup the proper behaviors.
- Add a block to crash into, just for fun3:43
We will now add a block that we can crash into while going around the track. This will use the behavior of the particles to create an explosion.
- Create an obstacle car with some very simple artificial intelligence7:46
Using the sign behavior, we will create a simple artificial intelligence in an obstacle car that needs to be avoided. This is a neat trick that can be used in many types of games.
- Build multiple levels and logic to move to the next level4:45
Add multiple levels, each one getting more complicated. We'll add a sprite to take the player from each level to the next.
- Add a finish line with an award at the end3:43
Now that we have our game all set up, we need a finish line with an award. Our award leverages the physics behavior to create a neat effect.
- Conclusion of Race Car game1:01
And now, we have completed another game! Lots of great ways to expand this game. Share your designs with us.
- Introduction to Exploding Presents0:55
This is a fun game, similar to fruit ninja only with presents that explode! We'll add a bomb as well, which will decrease your score if you try to explode them.
- Create our objects4:53
Getting start with our background and sprites.
- Launching presents6:01
Using physics, we'll launch presents from two points from the bottom of the screen at random intervals. Each present is randomly selected and has a force.
- Explode our presents3:55
We'll use the mouse to slice our presents to cause them to explode.
- Keeping score3:22
Using a simple trick, we'll keep track of the number of presents that are exploded.
- Adding a bomb8:24
Not everything should be sliced, and we'll add a bomb that will remove points if it is sliced.
- Conclusion of Exploding Presents0:41
A quick review of our Exploding Presents.
- Introduction to Enemy AI1:19
A complete walkthrough of enemy artificial intelligence using the pathfinding behavior. This behavior can be used to build many challenging video games.
- Adding a hero and enemy sprites4:46
Start with a background, hero, and enemy sprites. Add their behaviors and do the initial game setup.
- Setting up pathfinding3:56
Add the events so that our enemy will chase our hero around the screen.
- Add obstacles2:11
Create obstacles for hero and enemies to navigate around.
- Add coins to collect3:09
Randomly spawn coins anywhere on the layout for our hero to collect.
- Auto-spawn enemies3:09
Randomly spawn up to 5 enemies anywhere on the layout. Each will chase our hero around.
- Add bullets to our hero6:35
Allow our hero to shoot the enemies as they chase us around the layout.
- Conclusion of our pathfinding0:46
Wrap up our enemy AI using a pathfinding game. Many cool things can still be added.
- Demo the Game2:42
Let's test this bad-boy game out.
You can click the link below to play a live version yourself.
Does it look overwhelming to build? We'll cover it step-by-step. So don't leave now
- Layout: Setup the Layout6:56
Our layout is huge, it is a complicated game after all. Never fear, we have you it broken down for you step-by-step.
This video will get your layout setup, background loaded and a cool template to use when laying out the blocks and enemies.
Download ALL the game assets in the attached zip file as well. It contains everything you'll need, plus a few extra enemies.
- Layout: Setup Background & Barrier Images8:20
We need something to run across, this video will setup the ground and other barriers. Be creative, you don't need to follow the template exactly.
The artifacts are all in the zip file in the "Layout: Setup the Layout" lecture. Make sure you grab that.
- Hero: Create Hero/Player14:59
Our hero needs a name. Message me if you have any suggestions.
This lesson covers how and why we use a separate sprite for our hero called player. Hopefully I did a good job explaining why, but if not, feel free to let me know.
- Hero: Add Layout Restart5:59
When our hero dies, he needs to be respawned, we'll cover that in this lecture. What do you think about a checkpoint? Do you think you could create your own checkpoint system?
- Blocks: Create Blocks & Layout8:04
Creating a break-block allows our hero to break the blocks only when he hits them from below. This is a cool feature and replicates an operation in the iconic Super Mario Brothers game.
Be creative, you don't need to follow the template of where the blocks go exactly. Maybe you could create a secret hidden spot or allow your user to run across the top of the layout.
- Blocks: Break Bricks & Spawn Prizes14:26
If you are upset about explosions and breaking blocks, you might want to skip this video. Although then you won't have any sweet prizes to collect.
My prizes may be lame, you can use your own icons. Have fun exploring.
- Blocks: Collect Prizes3:57
Now that we can spawn a prize, let's go collect them! Or at least start to collect the. We won't add any special powers yet but we'll setup the events for later.
- Enemies: Create Mushroom Enemy4:42
Now has come the time for enemies...Bring it on mushrooms!
Our first lecture will cover the cool animation for our mushroom enemy. Do you have a cool name for our mushroom? Send me a message.
- Enemies: Add Artificial Intelligence4:23
Our mushroom enemy now has become self-aware, run for your lives!
Well, maybe not as self-aware as the Terminator but they are smart enough that you will probably die a few times trying to get past them.
Do you think you can improve the Artificial Intelligence logic? Send me your improvements.
- Enemies: Create Boundary Block7:53
Those mushrooms are pretty smart but not smart enough. Let's fix that in this lecture.
- Enemies: Create Turtle Enemy5:31
Our spiky-turtle looks pretty cool but do you think anyone will jump on him? Let's add him anyway and see if we can replicate the logic from our mushroom.
- Enemies: Setup Collision13:34
Enemy and player collisions is where the game really starts to take shape. It's not any fun playing when there are no conciquencies for running into the enemy. This lecture will fix that, now you have to "try" to avoid or kill the enemy.
- Coins: Create Heads Up Display (HUD)15:36
Money, money, money. You have to collect those coins! Not sure why, I never added any reward, maybe you want to add something else.
The coins should also fade away so you only have 5 seconds to grab them, any ideas on how to add that? Message me your solution, I'd love to hear from you.
- Prize: Create Gun Prize14:15
Our hero should have a gun and shoot things, right?
This lecture will cover adding a prize that allows our hero to shoot a gun. Don't like bullets, go ahead and use a different sprite. Maybe he shoots hearts instead. Make sure they are small otherwise they won't go far.
- Prize: Create Invincibility Prize5:49
What game would be complete without an invincibility prize?
This lecture will add the events to make our hero invincible when they collect the star. Sounds very complicated doesn't it? You may be surprised, watch how we do it.
- Refinements: Add an Exit Door7:35
Let's get out of here! One door and a few final tweaks should do the trick.
Do you have any modifications that we should have added? Send me a message!
This lecture wraps up our game, it was quite the adventure and I hope you came away with the sense of accomplishment and the drive to create your own platform game.
(Attached is a copy of the final game, no cheating though!)
Requirements
- Students should have access to a Windows-based computer or laptop in order to follow along.
- Constrct 3 will run on Windows, Mac, or Chromebook
Description
In this course, you will learn how to use Construct 2 through a hands-on program where we walk students through multiple real-world video games. You will learn all about the Construct 2 platform, the basics of creating a video game, and a complete walk-through. (Over 8 games as of today, more coming soon)
Leveraging exclusively video, students can take this course at their own pace and follow along with the free version of Construct 2. With over 8 hours of course material, we cover every aspect of building video games. All game assets are also available to download.
We developed this course specifically for elementary through high school students, with a focus on our in-person Gaming Bootcamp program that we run in Sioux Falls, SD.
Even if you have ZERO experience with Construct 2 or making video games, this course would be an excellent way to learn the basics and learn to love programing. This is an entry-level through advanced course.
Who this course is for:
- This Construct 2 course is for the beginner or someone who has no prior experience with coding or Construct 2. If you are an experienced program, this course is probably not going be helpful.