Construct: What Is It And How Does It Work?

Construct is a game engine, that is used to create 2D games. It’s designed to be easy to use for those of us without programming knowledge and utilizes a visual scripting system, similar to the blueprint system in Unreal, although working differently.

One thing that sets Construct apart from many other game engines is that it’s entirely browser-based, meaning there’s no need to download programs and have a beefy computer to run it all as it’s all done online.

Construct Tutorials

The official tutorials put out by the Construct team are great for getting you started, and they also include a lot of basic information for people that might be making their first game. Best practices like keeping images small to save on performance and keeping an eye on memory usage that are essential to making a game but not so well known for people first starting out are covered to help get you on your developing feet.

There are also many tutorials to be found on the web, particularly on Youtube, which cover more in-depth details and follow-along projects to help you go from learning the program to making your game.

How Much Does Construct Cost?

Construct has a free version for individual use. However, the functions that you have available to you are limited and you might find that you are unable to do what you want to. Taken like a free trial without a time limit, it can be a great way to try out the program and get a feel for it without dedicating any money towards it, but if you are serious about making your game, you might want to be prepared to lay down some cash later down the line.

To pay for a full personal license will cost you $20.39 a month. Whilst not cheap it’s not a bad price for a piece of game development software and the fact that you can use the free version for a chunk of the development means you might be able to cut down the cost a bit. One thing to bear in mind is that if you plan to monetize your game you will need a paid license before publishing it, however, you can cancel the license afterward and continue to monetize your game.

The advantage to Construct in this sense, as opposed to others like Unreal or Unity, is that they don’t take any royalties from sales. This isn’t as helpful for someone doing it as a hobby, and it means there’s a chance you could spend more on the engine than you make, but it means that all the money that you make is yours (and possibly the platform you sell it on).

Can I Make A Game Without Coding?

Yes, you can. Kind of. You don’t need to know a programming language or be able to code to make a game with this engine. But you will need to know some principles of how games work if you want to be able to set it up with visual scripting. This is still massively easier than needing to learn code, so don’t let that put you off. The engine is often used when teaching in schools and universities to help teach game development, which shows it’s a good place to start.

For those that want to add some code, because it’s something they specialize in or something they want to learn as they go, the engine also supports adding your own Javascript code to back up the visual coding that you are doing in the engine, so it’s flexible to work how you want to work.