Messages

1

Paid Work / Wanted: JavaScript/TypeScript Developer with HTML5 Framework Experience

« on: July 02, 2020, 02:32:46 am »

Highwood Educational Consulting and Development is Seeking a junior JavaScript/TypeScript developer  for a period of approximately 4 to 5 months, to commence mid to late July 2020. Must have experience developing interactive products with HTML5 canvas – experience with a popular framework such as PhaserJS or PixiJS would be an advantage. Experience testing on multiple devices, including all major desktop and mobile operating systems (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android etc) is required. An understanding of Dependency Injection would also be advantageous, but not absolutely essential. The suitable candidate will have a portfolio of related work to demonstrate knowledge and expertise. The possibility exists of further work for the right candidate. To apply, please email CV, cover letter and/or portfolio link to: richardsneyd@hotmail.com.

Many thanks!
Richard  Sneyd
Head of Software Development
Highwood Education

2

Ask a Question / Re: Palette and Events Sidebar Disappearing

« on: October 25, 2017, 07:49:14 am »

This is also happening to me -- the usual hotkeys to toggle the events sidebar and blocks palette do nothing. I've tried it with the Stencyl 3.5 beta, and the public release of 3.4. The bug is present in both cases.

3

Extensions / Re: Facebook Extension - HTML5

« on: November 18, 2016, 03:09:19 am »

Thanks for creating this, very useful! However, in the scope variable in facebook.js, you should remove the manage_notifications permission request as it is deprecated and causes errors, and include public_profile, since it is good practice to do so explicitly, though not essential.

Great work!

4

Shared Resources / Re: Make HTML5 Games Responsive to Browser Window + Maintain Aspect Ratio (Easy)

« on: October 25, 2016, 05:26:29 am »

The difference is that only resize the game if the screen is smaller, but does not expand if there is more space available.

It can be useful for those seeking responsive with a maximum game screen size.

Correct

5

Shared Resources / Re: Make HTML5 Games Responsive to Browser Window + Maintain Aspect Ratio (Easy)

« on: October 18, 2016, 07:47:06 am »

You're welcome!

6

Shared Resources / Make HTML5 Games Responsive to Browser Window + Maintain Aspect Ratio (Easy)

« on: October 18, 2016, 02:58:07 am »

I recently wrote a javascript to make HTML5 exported games responsive to the browser window. This means that it will adjust to fit onto the screen for Mobile and Desktop, whatever the screen dimensions, so you can avoid clipping on lower resolution devices, for instance. To use it:

• Just download the attached file, called responsive.js
• Build your game for HTML5, then extract the contents of the generated zip file
• Copy and paste responsive.js into the parent directory, beside index.html
• Open index.html, and find the closing body tag, it looks like this:

  </body>

  . Then, insert this line just before it, so it looks like this:
  

  <script type="text/javascript" src="responsive.js"></script>
  </body>
• Save your changes, and open the index file in your browser (may have to use localhost, opening in Firefox directly seems to work fine though). Try resizing the browser window to see the effect, you should see the game canvas (window) scaling up and down, while maintaining the original aspect ratio, so that it is never being clipped horizontally or vertically. 

Enjoy!

7

Teaching with Stencyl / Re: Official Stencyl Exams and Certificate Programs - Plus Free Courseware!

« on: October 03, 2016, 04:19:34 am »

We would like to share that we have introduced a direct and instant registration process directly on the course landing pages for individual Stencyl users. Teachers and schools should still use the bulk booking page. The entire system is now live for the courseware, exam and certification on the following programs. You are free to study at your own convenience, then take the exam whenever you feel confident to do so. Please just click one of the links below to quickly create an account, register and get certified:

•     Stencyl Game Design Specialist. To prepare, please cover modules 1,2 and 3 on the learning portal.
•   Stencyl Game Programming Specialist. To prepare, please complete modules 1,2 and 4 on the learning portal.

Regards,
Richard Sneyd
Instruction Director,
Interactive Assessment Institute

8

Extensions / Re: Extension Request: Raycasting

« on: August 08, 2016, 02:59:24 am »

Just thought I'd mention that I am still having problems raycasting against tiles -- it's extremely inaccurate.

9

Paid Work / Re: Startup Seeking Programmers & Artists for Upcoming Projects [Paid]

« on: August 04, 2016, 01:47:16 am »

Email sent.

10

Paid Work / Re: For Hire: Expert Stencyl Developer

« on: August 01, 2016, 03:07:11 am »

Hi all,

I wanted to post an update that I am now available on www.upwork.com for hire, since I am new to the site, I will be available for hire as either a tutor or a freelancer on your game projects for just $20 p/h, which is much lower than my usual fee (when you're new to a site like Upwork, it's hard to get the first few jobs without any social proof, the price will go up in a  while when I have a few jobs under my belt, so now is the right time to hire me   ). I work very fast, so you get a lot for that. If you're looking for some help with a project, just post a job with a clear description of the problem, search for my name (Richard Sneyd)  in the freelancer database, and invite me to the job, then I can take care of the rest. Here's a link to my profile:
http://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~012b5221c0e4fb2fee/
Looking forward to working with you on Upwork! Feel free to post about it on this thread too, just a nudge to let me know you're posting a job for me.

Richard

11

Teaching with Stencyl / Official Stencyl Exams and Certificate Programs - Plus Free Courseware!

« on: May 09, 2016, 01:29:17 am »

IAI and Stencyl LLC would like to announce the launch of an official Stencyl exam and certification program. We invite all organizations, schools and school systems running or considering running Stencyl based game design and game programming classes to  adopt this exam. Individual Stencyl users are also encouraged to sign up and acquire official recognition and certification for their Stencyl skills. Please feel free to do so no matter your skill level, as the bundled courseware covers everything you need to know. Comprehensive courseware is available free of charge to all schools and teachers who adopt the program, through our learning portal. Access is granted to individual learners, teachers and their students after an exam has been booked in advance: http://courseware.stencylexam.com

Testing and Certification Process
The exam is fully integrated into the learning website, so you can opt to take the test as soon as you are ready to do so, once you have nominated a supervisor. If you are taking the exam as part of a class, your teacher is your designated supervisor,  please do not proceed with the exam until they instruct you to do so.
Exam Cost
All exams are charged at the rate of $45 per test, per student. For example, if you had a class of 20 students taking the Stencyl Game Design Specialist exam in one of the April or November testing windows, the total cost would be $900. You will receive complete access to the comprehensive courseware on our learning portal once a exam has been booked. Payments can be made easily through Paypal on the automated booking system on the exam website: http://stencylexam.com/order/. If you are an individual, you can register simply and instantly on the course landing pages through the links below, using PayPal (which also accepts Credit Card payments). The booking page mentioned about is for bulk seat purchasing only.

Available Exams
Individuals seeking certification can register directly on the course page for the appropriate exam, by clicking one of the links below. If you are seeking to register a class or group (bulk registration), please visit our bulk booking page. The available exams are:

•     Stencyl Game Design Specialist. To prepare, please cover modules 1,2 and 3 on the learning portal.
•   Stencyl Game Programming Specialist. To prepare, please complete modules 1,2 and 4 on the learning portal.
•   Stencyl Game Design Expert (Available Q3 2017). To take this exam, a learner must first have passed the Stencyl Game Design Specialist exam. To prepare, please complete module 5.
• Stencyl Game Programming Expert (Available Q3 2017). To take this exam, a learner must have first have passed the Stencyl Game Design Specialist exam. To prepare, please complete module 6.

Please visit www.stencylexam.com for more information. If you would like to enquire for your class or school, feel free to post a question here, or use the contact form on the exam website.

Richard Sneyd,
Instructional Director,
Interactive Assessment Institute
 www.stencylexam.com
   

12

Teaching with Stencyl / Re: Stencyl vs Construct 2: An Explanatory Video

« on: April 02, 2016, 04:42:08 am »

Hi Chuck,

That's a really good point, and one that I had not considered, probably because I work solo most of the time myself. Thanks for chiming in. If anyone else has a perspective to share, please fire away, the more the better.  Construct 2 definitely has it's perks, I've actually created a couple of courses on C2 development as well. But for me, the raw power of native code which Stencyl puts at your fingertips wins out. Plus, for code-haters (a lot of people using 'game maker' software like Stencyl or C2 are code-haters), the possibilities with the visual programming system in Stencyl are much greater and more varied than with the event sheets in C2. To do anything really complex or intricate in C2, you have to be a competent programmer. Not so with Stencyl, you just need to understand the concepts. HTML5 is an important modern technology, but it's nothing like native code in terms of performance.

13

Teaching with Stencyl / Stencyl vs Construct 2: An Explanatory Video

« on: March 25, 2016, 04:49:46 am »

I've seen a lot of questions posted by a lot of newcomers on a lot of game dev forums down through the years, asking questions to the effect of 'which is bhttp://community.stencyl.com/Smileys/aaron/shocked.gifetter, Stencyl or Construct 2'. Many of my own students on Udemy have asked similar questions. So I decided to put together an explanatory video, giving  my professional experience and personal opinion on how the two software programs ultimately compare (pisst. Stencyl comes off pretty well). It's here on YouTube, it might help some of you out if you don't quite understand the key differences: https://youtu.be/Hsji9oQrPw4

Edit: I've also just published a blog post on the same subject, which goes into a little more detail.

Those of you who are teaching Stencyl classes may feel free to use it with students to pose similar questions. Post any questions you may have here or on the destination page!

14

Ask a Question / Re: My blocks with Actor types don't offer a SELF option

« on: February 14, 2016, 09:05:07 am »

letmethink is right. Think about it - -if the behavior is attached to a scene, then the concept of 'self' applies to the scene as an atomic component of the game, not a specific actor in the scene. Therefore, since these blocks pertain to actor properties and actions, it would not make sense for the behavior designer to show the 'self' option within a scene behavior -- it would be nonsensical.

==> EDIT: MAYBE  the default ("ACTOR") is the new synonym of "self" ?   If so, great, but then the question is how to get back to "ACTOR" after having (accidentally) selected one of the other choices.  Thanks

ACTOR is not being used here as a synonym of self, it is a generic placeholder, which indicates that the field accepts an object of type Actor. So, for instance, you know that you couldn't insert a reference to a Font, a Background, or a Scene. Only an Actor will do.

15

Teaching with Stencyl / Re: New Stencyl Course: Just $1 For 24 Hours (Save $98)

« on: February 14, 2016, 08:43:14 am »

The $1 launch promo has now expired. My thanks to all who took part! I am providing a community discount on a more permanent basis, which cuts the price down to just $19 (Save $70). You can access it through the link below:

https://www.udemy.com/develop-a-vertical-shootem-up-game-for-android-and-ios-stencyl-free/?couponCode=community-disc

Enjoy!