StackSkills - Construct 2 Course

I just completed the course "Create a Feeding Fish Frenzy Game in Construct 2" at StackSkills and also available at Stone River eLearning. I am sure I got this course as part of a deal on learning game programming without codee. I wanted to compare this tool with GameMaker which in my opinion has to the best tool out there for the creation of games without previous programming backgound. I give rave reviews about Gamemaker in the book review for great book on the tool. I decided to take this course in order to get to know a different tool and see how they do things.

My impression of the course:
This is course is not for beginner's. The tool and how it works is not explained. There is another course at Stone River eLearning website "Creating Kid's Games with Construct 2" that may be a better starter course if you are new to these types of tools. I was able to follow along and pick up the intent and purpose of the various application widgets because of my previous experience with GameMaker - so much so - I could listen to the video and follow along. The course lecturer spoke clearly and slowly so following along - even if you did so not know what was going on was quite possible. All of the video episodes were short enough to complete in one sitting. In fact, you could complete several in one sitting and feel that your game was making good progress. I highly recommend the course - especially if you can get several of them packaged together as I did for one cheap price. I usually wait for sales and discounts.

My impression of Construct 2
There is much to like about Construct 2. The one thing that I like best about the free version of Construct 2 is that it generates an HTML5 version of your game to play whereas you have to pay an extra $99 dollars to do the same thing with GameMaker. There are several ideas that are implemented quite well in the tool. I did not need to add any code snippets at all! The phrase "build a game with no code" is a little bit misleading since you certainly have to understand coding concepts like conditions and such and I do see concepts like loops and conditionals but many concepts are baked into the tool so all you need to do is select the concept and fill in the object targets. You can check out the game created with this course on my demo page. I am planning on purchasing the full game in order to obtain ideas for my own Java based Game Generator project. I would like to find a free version comparable to Construct 2 and GameMaker but have not found any.

I was happy enough with the end product of this course that I recommend the purchase of the course and the tool for those interested in learning a tool to create game concepts and ideas.