http://www.scirra.com/blog Construct, Scirra and general game industry news - Scirra.com en-us //static3.scirra.net/images/blog-icon-small.png 100 91 91 http://www.scirra.com/blog http://www.scirra.com/blog/115/newgrounds-touchjam-competition-results Results for the HTML5 Construct 2 game competition on Newgrounds Sat, 18 May 2013 15:12:33.6500000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/114/announcing-blackberry-10-and-tizen-export-in-free-construct-2-update Announcing new support in Construct 2 for exporting to Blackberry 10 and Tizen, provided as a free update for all users. Tue, 14 May 2013 20:06:40.5200000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/113/windows-8-summer-competition Announcing a new Windows 8 store competition! Tue, 7 May 2013 13:58:20.2030000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/112/remember-not-to-waste-your-memory A guide on common device limitations and how to design your game within those limits. Wed, 1 May 2013 18:50:50.6670000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/111/spring-sale A sale on Construct 2 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:03:43.7070000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/110/the-near-future-of-the-web-platform A summary of a few new features and developments on the horizon for HTML5 games. Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:05:01.9700000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/109/improved-tutorial-pages We've launched an upgraded tutorial section of the website Thu, 4 Apr 2013 17:35:16.1730000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/108/newgrounds-construct-2-game-jam In cooperation with Scirra, Newgrounds is running a Construct 2 touch themed gamejam! Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:47:02.8130000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/107/boosting-mobile-html5-game-performance-with-webgl WebGL is starting to gain support on mobile, where it helps give a nice performance boost just like on desktop. Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:59:46.0370000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/106/construct-2-on-steam A status update of Construct 2 on Steam: where we're at and what's planned. Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:03:28.1500000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/105/windows-8-competition-results Announcing the winners of the Windows 8 competition. Sat, 12 Jan 2013 17:03:10.2600000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/104/new-windows-8-game-competition Announcing a new competition for developing a game for the Windows Store, with some cool prizes! Tue, 4 Dec 2012 14:28:06.9600000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/103/ie10-review-still-disappointing-for-html5-games We review IE10's technology for running HTML5 games and find its rivals are making significantly more progress. Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:35:03.8070000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/102/html5-games-faster-than-native Interesting WebGL performance results from a hardware upgrade Tue, 6 Nov 2012 19:00:11.4130000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/101/how-can-we-content-control-our-arcade Our arcade needs some level of content control Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:42:56.1170000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/100/announcing-two-new-export-platforms New mobile platforms are emerging with good support for HTML5, and you'll be able to develop for them with Construct 2. Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:03:53.9900000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/99/make-windows-8-games-with-construct-2 Windows 8 is just around the corner, and there's a good case for you to submit your apps there. Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:53:46.9700000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/98/the-web-as-the-platform The web is increasingly becoming a viable place to publish games to - even for mobile devices. Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:38:25.8830000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/96/the-difficulties-of-self-publicising Evidence showing that cheating on user submitted content sites such as HackerNews and Reddit is rife. Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:39:27.6500000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/95/webgl-shader-effects-in-construct-2 Some demos of the awesome new effects in Construct 2 and an overview of the technology behind them. Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:01:39.6670000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/94/release-100-is-coming-22nd-august A roundup of features coming in r100, some effect demos, and news about the price change to Construct 2. Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:32:16.2830000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/93/favourite-features-competition-results The results of our favourite features competition where users had to upload videos to Youtube showing off their favourite Construct 2 features. Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:40:10.6530000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/92/interview-with-ben-chongfounder-of-marketjs We interviewed Ben Chong, founder of marketJS about his startup, connecting HTML5 game developers with publishers. Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:19:32.8500000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/91/releasing-early-often-100-releases-of-construct-2 A blog post detailing the history of 100 releases of Construct 2, and our plans for the 100th release: export to mobile, desktop, and the web. Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:58:58.3230000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/90/the-new-scirra-store We've just launched a brand new store! Mon, 9 Jul 2012 20:02:03.1800000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/89/new-competition-favourite-features We're launching a new competition where you have to create a short video showing off your favourite features in Construct 2! Mon, 18 Jun 2012 17:55:23.3070000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/88/why-the-uk-government-wants-us-to-airmail-1kb-text-files-by-cd Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:11:33.7130000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/87/under-the-hood-spritesheets-in-construct-2 Technical details of how Construct 2 assembles sprite sheets, and why it may be doing it differently to other tools. Tue, 29 May 2012 14:20:50.4170000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/86/gamemaker-has-no-competition-we-beg-to-differ-html5s-scalability Why the multi exporter model is going out of date with the maturation of HTML5 and related technologies. Mon, 28 May 2012 18:37:13.4600000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/85/the-great-html5-mobile-gaming-performance-comparison We compare the performance of a HTML5 game running on 23 platforms. Wed, 23 May 2012 14:31:49.1230000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/84/driver-problems-complain-to-your-graphics-card-vendor Users having graphics card driver problems should complain to their graphics card vendors Mon, 14 May 2012 14:28:20.3400000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/83/optimisation-dont-waste-your-time Performance is an area requiring judgement and planning. Know what to go for, and when you're wasting your time. Wed, 9 May 2012 13:54:39.6500000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/82/a-new-way-to-learn-how-to-program Construct 2 can help teach you how to program, given that events use traditional programming concepts. Thu, 3 May 2012 15:37:49.3200000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/81/avoiding-insanity-with-an-office We're happy that we've moved away from our metaphorical garage into our own offices now! Moving into offices is a milestone for any startup, but it does entail some risks. Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:00:45.5570000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/80/why-running-a-startup-is-like-playing-poker Playing poker and running a startup draw some interesting parallels. Both involve calculated risk and are heavily affected by your own psychology. Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:17:38.7830000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/79/how-we-got-over-funded-in-just-1-week-on-kickstarter Spriter is a 2D animation tool that was over funded in just 1 week of being on Kickstarter. Edgar Muniz describes how he did it and the lessons he's learnt. Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:13:27.7730000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/78/fullscreen-html5-gaming-experiences-with-construct-2 Learn how new Construct 2 features allow you to make in-page games break out in to true fullscreen, with a demo showing how it works. Wed, 4 Apr 2012 00:48:18.4170000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/77/internet-explorer-10-fast-and-native-has-gone-to-other-browsers We run performance tests on the next generation crop of browsers, and find IE9 and IE10 are both falling behind. Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:39:47.9100000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/76/how-to-write-low-garbage-real-time-javascript Garbage collection pauses can be a real headache in real-time Javascript apps like games. This blog post covers some of the technical details to avoid GC overhead, which should be useful for plugin developers. Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:04:14.0830000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/75/rotary-competition-winners The winners of our rotary competition are announced in this new blog post! Sat, 10 Mar 2012 02:40:18.8170000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/74/making-a-fast-website The speed of your website is very important for a variety of psychological and practical reasons. It's important time should be spent optimising your site for speed as, and we've spent a lot of time doing so. Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:00:40.1170000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/73/introducing-the-graphics-driver-updater-utility Windows users often have out of date graphics drivers, which can cause serious problems for developers. We're launching a new utility aimed at general users to help solve this problem. Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:40:11.6030000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/72/how-construct-2-helps-make-html5-work There is a lot of discussion and debate around HTML5. Many misconceptions are often spread, and many HTML5 criticisms are fixed by Construct 2. Here's what Construct 2 users need to know. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:45:57.8570000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/71/scirra-appmobi-and-spring-time-roadmap Our plans for the future including In-App Purchases (IAP), cross-platform leaderboards and more! Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:59:55.4870000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/70/on-the-receiving-end-of-link-building-campaigns Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:28:14.1530000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/69/graphics-card-drivers-a-lesson-in-software-engineering The poor reliability of graphics card drivers is a good example of the software engineering lesson: slower and reliable is better than faster and broken. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:01:07.8330000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/68/rotary-competition-win-some-flying-prizes The second official Construct 2 game creation competition with lots of prizes to be won! Make a rotation based game in Construct 2 for your chance to win. Sat, 7 Jan 2012 01:48:12.4170000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/67/early-adopter-period-to-end-soon Our early adopter period for Construct 2 the HTML5 game maker will end soon. You have 2 weeks left to pick up a deal! Thu, 5 Jan 2012 00:21:53.9330000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/66/image-compression-in-construct-2 How Construct 2 helps reduce the download size of your exported projects, using various tools and tricks, as well as some image options you can set in the editor. Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:47:33.4470000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/65/even-more-about-audio-licenses-on-the-web More details about the licenses for using MP3, AAC and Ogg Vorbis on the web, including the differences between using them in Flash and HTML5. Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:39:42.0030000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/64/why-you-shouldnt-use-mp3-in-your-html5-games MP3 is a patented technology with limits on the numbers of times you can distribute games you have made before you have to pay an expensive fee. Construct 2 doesn't support MP3 for this reason. Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:07:26.9530000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/63/how-we-gamified-our-website Game makers love to play games as well as make them! We've tried to gamify our website to aid in feature discovery and make it more fun to be on and this blog explains our gamification strategy Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:13:05.0270000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/62/removing-mentionsdiscussion-on-competitors When running an online business one decision you may have to make is your policy on mentioning, discussing or allowing talk about competitors on your website. Mon, 5 Dec 2011 16:17:50.0400000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/61/reducing-website-spam How to reduce spam on your website forum and also how to keep registrations up. CAPTCHAS are a bad way to prevent spammers for accessibility and usability reasons. Thu, 1 Dec 2011 15:43:18.7970000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/60/introducing-the-scirra-html5-arcade We've just launched a free online pure-HTML5 arcade for users of Construct 2 to host their HTML5 games. Not a whiff of Flash in sight! Share and play all your games. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:31:48.3770000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/59/construct-2-vs-gamemaker-vs-gamesalad-vs-stencyl Performance comparison between Construct 2, GameMaker:HTML5, GameSalad and Stencyl. Performance is crucial in game making and these charts show the fastest game maker out there. Mon, 21 Nov 2011 02:01:45.6700000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/58/html5-2d-gaming-performance-analysis The performance of various 2D game renderers is analysed: Canvas 2D vs. WebGL vs. C++/DirectX. Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:56:47.1430000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/57/our-drmanti-piracy-strategy Details our DRM and Anti Piracy strategy for Construct 2. Software piracy is a difficult and relevant issue that every startup needs to carefully consider before setting sail on the internet. Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:18:05.9930000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/56/html5-gaming-the-future-is-now With Adobe cancelling mobile Flash for HTML5 and Microsoft planning on dropping Silverlight for HTML5, the future looks bright for HTML5 - and it's great right now as well! Wed, 9 Nov 2011 17:23:31.3600000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/55/roadmap-for-the-winter Where we're planning to take the Construct 2 HTML5 game creator over the next few months. Tue, 1 Nov 2011 13:56:35.2500000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/54/competition-winners We recently ran a competition for game makers to create a space themed game. See who the winners are in this blog post! Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:20:56.9700000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/53/construct-2s-architecture How Construct 2 exporters and plugins work, and how they tie in with the editor. Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:06:06.2400000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/52/construct-2-vs-javascript Think it's easy to code a Javascript HTML5 game yourself? Learn about what Construct 2 takes care of for you - and maybe think again! Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:26:03.9730000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/51/html5-game-conferences The New Game Conference looks like a great HTML5 game conference that we at Scirra want to start attending at some point! Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:40:47.3730000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/50/scirra-accept-investment We're happy to announce we've accepted angel investment from a private individual! Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:51:29.0400000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/49/news-roundup-at-scirra The latest going ons at Scirra HQ over the last couple of weeks Mon, 5 Sep 2011 15:41:02.9330000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/48/launching-construct-2-licenses-and-r51 Big news today as we launch early-adopter licenses, r51 and the updated site. Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:45:02.8230000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/47/announcing-launch-day-monday-22nd-august Licenses will go on sale in a week for Construct 2, the HTML5 game maker! Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:23:11.8200000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/46/more-on-html5-audio-codecs-and-politics Why we're launching the WeWantOgg.com campaign to encourage Microsoft and Apple to support Ogg Vorbis. Let's improve HTML5 audio! Mon, 1 Aug 2011 17:19:33.8170000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/45/html5-vs-flash-why-html5-will-overtake-flash There has been much debate over HTML5 vs Flash. This blog post describes why we believe it's almost certain Flash will be pushed to the margins by HTML5. Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:09:32.0830000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/44/on-html5-audio-formats-aac-and-ogg HTML5 audio is a difficult problem to overcome. There are a variety of formats on offer, Ogg, Wav, MP3 and AAC. However each of these HTML5 audio formats come with their own problems and limitations. Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:42:26.3570000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/43/how-construct-2-test-builds-work An overview of how testing works at Scirra, and how test builds are engineered. Sat, 9 Jul 2011 12:02:23.5000000 -0000 http://www.scirra.com/blog/42/welcome-to-the-new-website The new Scirra website has been launched. Boasting lots of new features, and under constant active development. We welcome all feedback and suggestions! Sun, 26 Jun 2011 01:30:44.6770000 -0000