How to create tilemaps from individual png

First download shoebox from:

http://wdbase.de/download/tools/shoebox.html

Then download gimp's David's Batch Processor from:

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~hodsond/dbp.html

Use the Batch Processor to resize the individual tiles to 32 x  32.

Then use shoebox to create the tilemap.

Follow the instructions here on how to use shoebox:

https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/1046/create-a-tilemap-with-the-mapeditor

Start ShoeBox and perform a right mouse click on "Sprite Sheet" (First Tab) to enter settings. Now choose the "Default" method and change this two values.

Tex Crop Alpha to false
Tex Exdrude Size to 0
Tex Padding to 0

And save your option by clicking "Apply". Now go to your folder with the separated files and drag them into the "Sprite Sheet" tab at ShoeBox.

Special settings for Intel xdk iOS builds

Insert browser object in Construct2 and set to run javascript: "StatusBar.hide();"

This is to hide the statusbar in intel xdk ios build. Then in intel-xdk add plugin:

cordova-plugin-statusbar. Below is the minimum plugins for an iOS build. Note that you do not insert the cordova-plugin-ads-admob here, as that would cause a build fail.

Instead insert this line :

<intelxdk:plugin intelxdk:name="https://github.com/cranberrygame/cordova-plugin-ad-admob" intelxdk:value="https://github.com/cranberrygame/cordova-plugin-ad-admob" />

at the bottom of the file: intelxdk.config.additions.xml, like this:

And below is the corresponding plugins in Construct2:

and below is the Construct2 cordova export settings:

Do not use WKWebview on iOS - you will get a blank black screen.

Finally, this is the whitelist setting for intel xdk for iOS under Build settings:

Put an asterisk * in Navigation field.

The above settings all work on iOS 10.0  upto 10.2 as at date of writing.

Cocoon or Intel xdk?

Use cocoon for building android games. It produces smaller files compared to Intel xdk.

Use Intel xdk to build iOS games. It produces smaller ipa files compared to cocoon.

Typical file sizes for apk:

 coccoon  = 8 MB, intel xdk = 25 MB

and for ipa (iOS) :

 cocoon ios = 20 MB, intel xdk = 4 MB


Why Intel xdk apk such big file, because you need to embed crosswalk browser. If you don't use crosswalk, the file will be very small, but virtually unplayable because of unpredictability. You could use shared crosswalk  to reduce the apk, but, that might put off your players who may not like downloading the Intel crosswalk separately (about 25 MB).

Construct2 : Flash Behaviour and Effects not working in cocoon.io build games on iPad

Flash Behaviour and Effects do not work in iPad when using cocoon.io to build your games, using canvas+

Construct2: How to use cocoon.io's Dev App in IOS

1.  Export your Construct2 as cordova app as usual. Then delete the config.xml, as usual and zip it and upload to cocoon.io.

2. After doing the settings, click Build Dev App. Download the iOS Dev App

3. Unzip it to get the xarchive file. Use Xcode to export as Ad Hoc app signing it with the ad hoc dev key which you earlier created in the developer.apple portal.  After exporting you will get an ipa file.

4. Plug in your iPad to your Mac and fire up iTunes.  Drag the ipa file to the Library in iTunes. Then click on iPad device. Goto the list of Apps. Click Install. It will change to "Will Install". Click on Sync button and it will be copied to the iPad. You have now installed the Dev App to your iPad.

To test your construct2 game.

1. Export your construct2 game as cordova as usual. Then delete the config.xml, as usual. Then zip it and upload to your website.  Then get the link to your uploaded file and use an online qrcode generator (e.g. kaywa qrcode) to generate the QR code.

2.  On your iPad, run the Dev App and select URL. Once you tap in the URL selection text box, the Scan QR Code Button will appear. Tap on it and scan the QR code in Step 1 above.

3  Then Select Canvas+ at bottom to open it and run your game.

Cocoon.io Developer App

Excellent article on developer app right from the horse's mouth

Construct2 : How to solve blank icon problem when using cocoon.io to build for iOS

This happens because you used jpg files when uploading the icon

 

To solve this problem, make sure you upload 1024 x 1024 png files for IOS icon and also Default icon.  Do not use jpg icons. Also if this fails to solve your problem, make sure you delete all icons in your construct2 editor. You can do this in the Project browser on the right of the Construct2 editor. Just scroll down to the Icon folder and delete all the icons there. That will force cocoon.io to regenerate all the icons.

Construct2 : How to solve white bars on top and bottom in landscape mode iPad

When designing a recent game, I used 1280 x 720 resolution window. It worked fine on Android but on iPad i see white bars on top and bottom of screen.  I was using Letterbox scale.

To solve the problem, I followed the advice here.

And it worked. Bascially, you need to set your window to 16 : 9 aspect ratio, eg, 1280 x 720, or 1600 x 900 etc. and use Scale Inner.

So, I used 1280 x 720 and Scale Inner for the property "Fullscreen in browser" and some of the sprites on the left and right edges got cut off. So, I moved them inwards on both sides, and it worked beautifully.

I chose 1280 x 720 instead of 1600 x 900 because, if you chose the latter, your background images might take up a lot of memory, making your game larger, especially if you are doing a perpetual-side-scrolling game which uses multiple background layers for parallax effects.

Construct2 : How to convert TTF font to SpriteFont

Step 1: Download this program:

Here is the link to download it

Step 2.  Watch the video on how to use the program here here

Step 3.  After you have imported the sprite font into Construct2, click on the sprite font properties

and change its spacing to a negative value, e.g., -8 to reduce the spaces between the characters.

Note that there is no need to import any json scripts into Construct2.

How to solve Symbol Tool error when submitting a Construct2 Cocoon.io build xarchive file to itunesconnect via xcode

After downloading the xarchive file from Cocoon.io.  You normally open the xarchive file in xcode to submit to itunesconnect.  If you get the error message Unable to .... Symbol Tool error, then the solution is very simple.

Just uncheck the " Include symbols ...."  when validating, or, submitting to itunesconnect. That's it!

construct2 : How to solve no sound for cocoon.io IOS builds

When exporting the cordova app from construct2, make sure you select ogg as well as m4a sound.  Whether or not IOS uses ogg files, you need to include it, or, else there is no sound.

How to remove unnecessary permissions in androidmanifest in cocoon.io build

Login to your cocoon.io dashboard. Goto config settings and remove everything except this

Then, save and compile your android apk and download. The only permissions you get will be:

network 

wifi state

phone state

which is all needed by Admob.  You won't get all the other problematic privacy permissions like:

delete modify sd storage

gps location 

read address book

How to implement LocalStorage in Construct2

Step 1 is to check if a key exists. Fore example, "HighScore"

Steps 2, 3 and 4 :

The crucial part is Step 4. You need to wait for the "Get" result to come back before you can fetch tie ItemValue and use it - very un-intuitive. If you miss this step and just assigned your ItemValue at Step 3 then you'll be pulling your hair out wondering why LocalStorage seems to fail.

How to solve unresponsive buttons in Construct2

First of all, if you are going to use Cocoon.io to build your games, you should use sprites as buttons, do not use the Buttons object. If you used Buttons objects, then after compiling with Cocoon.io, the buttons will be invisible.

Next, make sure that the sprites for the buttons "Collisions" property is set to "Enabled". Next, for each sprite, make sure that the "Collision Polygon" is set to "Bounding Box". The default is set to follow the outline of the sprite - which is bad and reduces the surface area which can be touched. So set it to bounding box. See the picture below.

Construct2: How to solve black screen when running cocoon.io builds on android device

To solve this problem, make sure that in "Project Settings", you set "Loader Style" to "Nothing".

There is some discussion here

See the comments by DeXVinogradov :

"Also standard Splash screen C2 conflicts with splash screen Cocoon.IO and a black screen appears.". 

How to add OR conditions in Construct2

It is easy to add AND conditions in Construct2. Just right-click on an event, then select "add another condition". The default behaviour is to add the new condition as an "AND" condition. But how do we add another "OR" condition?

Watch this video on how to do it

Coocoon.io e-book

You should buy this e-book:

https://www.scirra.com/store/ebooks/quick-starter-ebook-1893

to get you started on how to use cocoon.io to build your construct2 games. In addition, it also teaches you how to create games in construct2.  After reading some pages, I realize that cocoon.io does not support Buttons, you need to use sprites to make buttons.

At time of writing the book costs only USD2.59 and it is the least we can do to support cocoon.io and Andreas.

How to open URL on Android

Some discussion on opening URL on Android

It seems on coocoon IO, webview fails to open URL but canvas works.

Use Coocoon IO

Everyone should use Coocoon IO

I like this statement:

"If you use Cocoon IO for Android it is 2mb + your game.. Crosswalk is 19mb + your game.."

Nice tutorial on ShatterBox

Another ShatterBox link