Odd title aside, I had some more ideas that would make Flowlab a more pleasant website for creating games on. (Normally I don’t do this but @grazer )
Features:
Moving the game view without moving game assets (could be achieved by holding middle click or shift and dragging. This is especially aggravating on complex/full levels)
On that same line of thinking more hotkeys in general would be useful (things like crtl-z and ctrl-y would be basics for this, and ideally this would work in the code editor and game editor)
Backspace in the code editor to delete the code you’re hovering over, just like blocks in the game view (this should also work with multiselect to delete code sections without needing to cut them into you’re paste section)
Multiselect for game editor assets since moving and deleting things on any type of scale is really terrible currently
Importing multiple frames from an animation at one time (An overhaul of the entire sprite editor would be awesome but if I had just this it would be great and such a great time saver)
User interface and game world assets should be able to spawn the other type (This can already be done, but only by copying and pasting code which feels like a bug and is how Curse of the Were-Loaf works)
“Other” type extractors are currently basically useless and not future proof at all. It’s better to send self extracted code via messages so it works with all objects. This should be alleviated by allowing extractors to also read any object of a type just like collision, proximity, and ray cast can. Obviously this would create issues of which one to read if there are multiple objects of the same type so add a priority list that can be chosen from. Examples could include “closest,” “furthest,” and “random” even! (this would also inadvertently make it easier to check if something is closest/farthest making this a win win) Even more customization for parameters such as “x >, =, or < than,” “y >, = , or < than,” “rotation=,” or “alpha=” would be appreciated too, but would not fit as neatly into the check mark system and need numerical inputs.
Custom loading screens (not sure if this is possible)
-Change the ctrl-shift-d shortcut because it results in adding a bookmark on google
Notes, any good programmer knows that notes are a near necessity (I think this was in the works but not positive)
Bug fixes:
-Bundles are kind of finicky. When using an input for bundles it is very common for the code your connecting to the input to be sent to the outer-atmosphere. Retrieving that ejected code is super annoying if it’s connected to other things
-Using the multi-select in the code editor while zoomed out seems to be misaligned
-Ghost blocks? I’m not really sure of their cause but sometimes after deleting a lot of blocks their collision still exists and can still be seen by using the ctrl-shift-d shortcut, but their sprite is no longer there
(Note there is a lot of stuff here so I understand completely if little to none of these were added, but I sincerely believe that all of these would make Flowlab even more accessible and user friendly)
Moving the game view inside the editor:
You can already do this by clicking and dragging on an empty tile, but I agree that it would be useful on levels that are full of objects. Using middle-click seems kinda weird, but it could use Spacebar+Click like in Photoshop.
@PixelPizza Thanks for the feedback! ctrl-y is redo in a lot of applications. Hopefully just because they’re not a priority doesn’t mean they wont eventually come though!
Id have to agree with @glithctyrus with the structure spawned. Make it scan two x,y coordinates to complete a full structure the a third coordinate to spawn it. That would be very useful for huge projects like an infinite crafting/survival game or a huge exploration game like SCP (example).
Moving with the space bar is a good idea, it would definitely be nice to be able to drag the screen without hunting for empty space to drag
Hotkeys in general are a real pain! There aren’t really any available simple combos that aren’t being used for something already in either chrome or firefox
Backspace to delete logic blocks is a good idea as well, although I don;t see it being a huge time saver
The sprite editor needs a lot of work, but that’s getting put off for a while (again), until after the next behaviors update
Behavior comments have been on the todo list for a long time, and have been discussed here on the forums many times. They will be implemented “soon”: https://trello.com/c/vs7K2gQH/69-behavior-comments
@grazer Thanks for reading through my suggestions, I appreciate it even if they aren’t added! I wasn’t aware of the trello board so that’s a useful site to watch!
@grazer, there is a request that Ive been wanting to ask you. When you use a label you cant use symbols like quotation or use in words like its or didnt. It just makes the game look like it has poor grammar and wanted to know if you can add all of the different symbols in the label instead of it turning into ?s. This would really help in a dialogue based game similar to mine. If you cant do this or you are unable to then thats fine, I just figured it would be a big help.
@ManiacPumpkin - you have unwittingly just stumbled into the dark vortex of Unicode. The game rendering engine only understands a (subset of) ASCII. It looks like maybe you are typing out your text into some sort of word processor like Word or Google Docs? If you are going to edit the text in a document, make sure it is a “.TXT” or “plain text” file.
