Stencyl 3.0 - Design Once. Play Anywhere. (Soft Launched on Feb 20th)

I can understand that everybody would like to hear some news about 3.0, I felt the same with 2.0, but at the moment it's mostly bug-fixing. So there isn't so much to tell.

Although occasionally we still get a new feature. Here is one that I love, even if it's a small thing: The API now has functions to get/set the frame duration of animations at runtime. You need to use code, but it's a one-liner and works on all platforms. It's great to for example sync animation speed with movement speed. As far as I know this was not possible or at least much more difficult in 2.x, since it wasn't exposed in the API.

^ Well we can hope! I'm sitting here writing a brief for a game that will be built in the New Year. The criteria are pretty broad, however it must run on Android, Apple and Facebook and prototype time needs to be as short as possible (hence my looking at Stencyl and GameSalad). If Stencyl 3 doesn't appear with it's ability to publish to HTML5 very soon my choices are extremely limited.

I can understand that everybody would like to hear some news about 3.0, I felt the same with 2.0, but at the moment it's mostly bug-fixing. So there isn't so much to tell.

Although occasionally we still get a new feature. Here is one that I love, even if it's a small thing: The API now has functions to get/set the frame duration of animations at runtime. You need to use code, but it's a one-liner and works on all platforms. It's great to for example sync animation speed with movement speed. As far as I know this was not possible or at least much more difficult in 2.x, since it wasn't exposed in the API.

thank you for sharing but how about the collision system is it better coz i always found it to be a little inaccurate

I really want to buy 3.0 and have been watching the site for months. My problem is that I have minimal trust in Stencyl at this point. Not really in the program, but the team. I understand that they have run into unexpected things but the amount of information available is unacceptable. I have seen no new information presented from the dev team. Why can they not take 1 hour a week to tell us what they are currently doing? They could simply post about issues they have fixed, new stuff they are working on, and an estimated time frame of completion.

What they don't understand is that the little-to-no information looks very bad on them as a company. What if I have issues or general questions after 3.0 is released? Am I going to have to wait extremely large periods of time to get any information? I have seen them respond to some questions after 2.0 was released but, again, the extreme lack of information about 3.0 scares me. I feel like they are too afraid to talk about it.

I really want to trust in 3.0 and the dev team behind it... but unless they start being more open about what is going on I have little trust left. I was seriously about to purchase GameSalad today and the only thing that stopped me was I found out the program has no ad support for Android (the only platform I care about at the moment). If ads are added to their program, even if 3.0 is released, I will probably be giving them my money. Why? Because any time a user over on their forums asks a question, paying customer or not, there is a team member that answers their question, even if it is about unfinished features.

I know I am not the only one who feels this way. In this very thread I see a lot of people frustrated over the little-to-no responses from Stencyl devs. If I had to pick one thing that worries me the most it is that despite lots of people expressing the same feelings as me they STILL don't say anything... and that's scary. Something is being hidden from us and it can't be a positive thing. There is absolutely no reason why Stencyl would be so tight on keeping a good thing a secret.

Here is one that I love, even if it's a small thing: The API now has functions to get/set the frame duration of animations at runtime. You need to use code, but it's a one-liner and works on all platforms. It's great to for example sync animation speed with movement speed. As far as I know this was not possible or at least much more difficult in 2.x, since it wasn't exposed in the API.

That's interesting... why wouldn't that become a standard block if it's cross-platform and so useful?

'm sitting here writing a brief for a game that will be built in the New Year. The criteria are pretty broad, however it must run on Android, Apple and Facebook and prototype time needs to be as short as possible (hence my looking at Stencyl and GameSalad). If Stencyl 3 doesn't appear with it's ability to publish to HTML5 very soon my choices are extremely limited.

Why not just join the private Stencyl 3.0 Beta?

...and while I like GameSalad, the HTML5 support is limited.

Something is being hidden from us and it can't be a positive thing. There is absolutely no reason why Stencyl would be so tight on keeping a good thing a secret.

I think the work involved in switching the engine was underestimated. When I saw the original estimates, I was skeptical. Jon is fast, but not that fast. I'm actually happy that Stencyl 3.0 wasn't rushed out the door. Little bugs can cause serious delays in development. I'm still optimistic about the future of Stencyl. I think the likely reasons for the lack of news updates are... 1) they're too busy... and... 2) nothing big to announce. They're still working. You can tell that overall things are moving in the right direction because the feedback from beta testers posted in this thread is generally good.

@bkrsaid
What do you mean with inaccurate? 3.0 still uses Box2D (although a different port of it) so the collision system is basically the same. Btw. There is one particularly nasty bug (or rather missing feature) in the haxe port of Box2D, that is taking a lot of Jon's time.

@EsteemDe
It's a private beta. I think Luyren and Future Freak have just answered pretty well why there is a private beta (controlled environment with experienced users.) The devs are very responsive to all bug reports and questions in the 3.0 forum, but yes, it's private, so you don't see any of it.

On the other hand, if you have any specific question, you can ask it here, and it usually gets answered in no time by one of the users who participate in the beta. (The only things we cannot answer you is: when it will be released, because no one knows. It will be released when it is ready. And we cannot tell you what it will cost, because only Jon knows that.)

That's interesting... why wouldn't that become a standard block if it's cross-platform and so useful?

I'm just guessing, but I think the plan is to keep the standard blocks more or less the same and let users add blocks with the new engine extensions.

They could simply post about issues they have fixed, new stuff they are working on, and an estimated time frame of completion.

They do this already in the beta forums.

I'm sure the likes of Microsoft don't keep the public up to date with all the problems and delays on their software - but I'm guessing their beta testers have access to a lot more information than you.

Great! Just what I was thinking!

'm sitting here writing a brief for a game that will be built in the New Year. The criteria are pretty broad, however it must run on Android, Apple and Facebook and prototype time needs to be as short as possible (hence my looking at Stencyl and GameSalad). If Stencyl 3 doesn't appear with it's ability to publish to HTML5 very soon my choices are extremely limited.

Why not just join the private Stencyl 3.0 Beta?

My (potential) client is a major UK supermarket - are they really going to be excited when I tell them I'm building their marketing app with a program that's still in beta?

I'm sure the likes of Microsoft don't keep the public up to date with all the problems and delays on their software - but I'm guessing their beta testers have access to a lot more information than you.

Yes, but (sadly) M$ still has a massive captive market who are dependent upon their whims. You're not comparing apples and apples. Most people who can create a program in Stencyl are competent enough to use the opposition instead. Not communicating with your users when you are not the big fish in the pond can only be detrimental to your brand, period.

What information about 3.0 are you looking for?  They're still working on it, and obviously the time required is more than they expected.  There are still dozens of threads in both the bugs and test request sections (mostly mobile-specific), so these will not be fixed until at least January if not later.  Jon is considering a public beta, so it's possible that will begin soon.  For some specific details about the progress, here is the changelog for the past several days:

December 22, 2012
- [Fix] Parallax fields for backgrounds
- [Fix] Backgrounds not looping properly
- [Fix] Repeating Background bug
- [Fix] Flash will no longer freeze up when you print/trace too much at a time
- [Fix] Add keyboard entry for PERIOD (HTML5)
- [Fix] Make scene transitioning more lenient

December 21, 2012
- [Fix] Sync Tweens to the Engine

December 20, 2012
- [Fix] Fix issue with anchored actors + draw image for actor + camera scroll
- [Fix] Fix issue with anchored actors + draw text + camera scroll
- [Fix] Fix issue with switch frame + draw image for actor in Flash.
- [Fix] Properly reset graphics state before when drawing calls.
- [Fix] Fade layer to passes in incorrect alpha pct value
- [Fix] Touch Events don't work for simple physics
- [Fix] Copying and pasting a frame in a 2x or 1x animation makes the pasted frame grow
- [Fix] Slide to and by tweens

December 19, 2012
- [Fix] Honor opacity for "draw image for actor"

December 17, 2012
- [Fix] Guard against NPE in actor custom draw to a non-existent layer - http://community.stencyl.com/index.php/topic,17602.0.html
- [Fix] Honor opacity for text/labels

December 16, 2012
- [Fix] Neatly handle group <-> string comparisons (which are wrong but frequently made)
- [Fix] Multitouch ID block
- [Fix] Generate 96x96 icons to satisfy some app cases
- Actors on Screen block

Everything I have written below is my own opinion. I do not represent Stencyl LLC in any way, and I am a paying subscriber.

If the beta was to be made 'public', then the development team would be flooded with inexperienced users who are experiencing user problems rather than bugs.

Subscribers who are participating in the beta are kept up-to-date very frequently (most days) and very openly. On the 3.0 beta forums, there is a post which has, for the last 30 days, been updated daily (with the exception of 4 days), clearly explaining, point-by-point, the current fixes and changes, together with information about outstanding issues, and what is currently being worked on.

The dev team are incredibly responsive to all queries on the beta forums, including 'development' queries and bugs, and I am not aware that anyone seriously involved in the beta has any complaints about the beta process. Of course there are some problems, but it's a beta, and the problems are being fixed - that's the nature of a beta.

Up to this point, opening the software to a public beta would serve no benefit whatsoever - it would simply cause the dev team to have more unnecessary work, which would slow things down. Many people simply don't understand the nature of beta software, and will complain when things don't work as expected. Furthermore, they are often unable or unwilling to provide the information required to resolve the problem that they have experienced. This does nothing other than create ill-will, and it is best avoided.

As far as my interaction with the 3.0 beta is concerned, I am working on two projects at the moment:

1) A book for Packt Publishing (A beginner's guide to Stencyl)
2) A multi-level game for iOS (bit which will run on all supported platforms)

With regards to the book project, there have been a very few, minor issues with Stencyl, all of which have been resolved incredibly quickly (i.e. within one or two days of information being provided to the dev team). In addition, the dev team have added some new features into Stencyl, which were suggested by me and other beta-testers, and which will be of benefit to many users of the product. Again, these features were added incredibly quickly (in a matter of hours in some cases).

With regards to my second project, the game, there have been some minimal issues, all of which have been resolved very quickly, and none of which were 'show-stoppers' anyway. The game now compiles to all supported platforms first-time, every time, without any issues. For example, I can test the game on either iOS or Android devices within 70 seconds of hitting the 'Test Game' button. There is one, single difference in the way that my game runs across all platforms, and that is on HTML5, because the opacity of text cannot currently be changed. That's it! This is an amazing feat, especially considering that the output is in native code, and not running in some kind of 'wrapper'.

If having access to the beta software (or information about the beta) is particularly important to anyone - for example, for business reasons - then the option is there to subscribe to any of Stencyl's paid-for plans. It appears that the lowest-price plan is currently $79 / year, which is a bargain from a business point-of-view (and, in my opinion, from an individual's point-of-view). Those who are participating in the beta have had (and still have) the opportunity to make suggestions for improvements to the product, and such suggestions are always responded to and, very often, implemented if a reasonable use-case is provided.

My understanding is that Stencyl 3.0 beta is now at the stage where it is 'feature-complete' and, for the past few weeks, it has been a matter of bug-fixing to ensure that the product is stable prior to release. Initially, the product was intended for release before the end of 2012 but, realistically, I can't see that happening. Jon, quite rightly, appears to not want to charge for the software until the vast majority of known bugs have been eliminated, so it's just a matter of time. For those who want to get a head-start for commercial or personal reasons, the software is available for subscribers.

I am very happy with the 3.0 product as-is, and I am happy to be paying for the current 2.2 version, and having all the features of 3.0 available to me now. Some beta-testers have come across some bugs in features that they need to continue development of their games, and those bugs have been acknowledged and have either been fixed, or are on the list to be resolved. As far as I am aware, there is one bug in particular that isn't a 'quick-fix', but everyone involved in the beta knows what it is, why it's happening, and what is being done to resolve it.

Yesterday, on this thread, it was suggested that there is a secret being kept, and that it can't be a positive thing. That comment is totally unfounded and it is a silly rumour to start. If there was a secret being hidden from the public, then it would be discovered very quickly indeed. $79 is pocket-change for a competitor to Stencyl, and I have no doubts that some competitors will have subscribed to Stencyl, just to keep up-to-date on the status of the beta. If there was a secret, then it would have been made public by now. If anyone thinks that there is a secret, then they can easily subscribe to the beta and find out everything that there is to know about the product, other than the final price and the release date. The Stencyl team are not keeping anything secret about the technicalities of the product - it's all there in the beta forums. For clarification, as I understand it...

Current status:

• Feature-complete
• fixing bugs which is taking longer than initially planned

What more can be told?

Stencyl 2.2 is entirely free of charge for creating Flash games. Those who wish to remove the discreet logo which is displayed when a Flash game loads, and those who wish to develop for iOS, can pay for a subscription, and they will also gain access to the beta. I really can't see any cause for complaint.

I would rather that the development team spent their time working on the new product, rather than writing blogs and answering questions about the beta for users of the free version of Stencyl. Jon has said that technical matters relating to the beta can be discussed in the public forums, so please feel free to ask any specific questions. I'll certainly endeavour to answer any questions if I have the knowledge to do so.

Hiya!
 
Stencyl LLC Community I'm curious to know if will be seeing improvement(s) on the website Design/Performance once everything is published of course. Also, I'd like to take the time in order to thank Jonathan Chung for all of the hard work he's put into the development and the crew.
 
If, anyone has any question(s) ask in the forums everyone will try their best in order to respond to each of you're questions. The more time it takes for the development to become finalized will benefit everyone in the community whether their "Small Start-up" Companies or even "Larger" Companies even "Small" Developers.
 
Who, knows maybe everything is quiet for a reason can anyone say "Christmas Holiday Present" maybe he'll surprise everyone with probably the most anticipated gift of all.
 
We, currently have 9 day(s) until the end of December, 2012 that means 9 days of bug fixing and fine tuning, So hold you're stockings high and sit tight damit .
 
Thank, you

does this mean that publishing is going to be available for the Microsoft surface and windows 8 phones? please define what windows 8/windows store support means. Thanks