Construct 2 is a free, game-making tool but unfortunately it’s only available for the Windows platform. However, it’s possible to run Construct 2 on your mac laptop or computer. In order to do this, you’ll need to install and run something called a virtual machine. A virtual machine is a program that runs within your Mac and pretends to be a Windows machine. Setting this up is pretty straight forward. If you have questions feel free to e-mail us at info@pixelles.ca and we’ll help you through it.
You’ll need:
- Internet connection
- Virtual Box (or any other virtual machine program)
- Copy of Windows 7 or 8
Let’s get started: Installing Virtual Box
- Install Virtual Box
- Open and run Virtual Box from your apps folder. It’ll be empty so click the “new” icon.
- Choose any name for your virtual version of Windows and under the version drop down choose your version of Windows. I have Windows 8.1 for 64 bit so I just named mine Windows8.1×64.
- From here, we can go with the recommended settings for RAM. My Windows is 8.1 x64 bit so they recommend 2048 RAM.
- This next step is asking about how much storage space you want to allocate to Windows. Again, you can keep going with the recommended settings. I chose “create a virtual hard drive for now“.
- Here it asks what kind of virtual hard drive you want to create. I went with the recommended setting of “VDI (Virtual Box Image)“.
- We’re almost there! As predicted, I chose the recommended settings of a dynamically allocated hard drive. This means the amount of space it takes up with expand and contract with how much you put in it.
- Choose how much maximum space you want to give to Windows. The recommended is 25GB. I went with 40GB because I had the room and it’s only a maximum.
- Press create and you’ll see your new virtual machine appear in your list on the lefthand side!
Installing Windows
- Select your new virtual machine from the list and press the green arrow, “Start”.
- Virtual Box doesn’t come with Windows pre-installed so you’ll get an error pop-up asking for a folder. It’s asking where your Windows install file is usually it’s in the form of a .iso. Navigate to where your Windows install is and select it.
- From here, install Windows according to the settings you chose.
- Success! You’ve got Windows! Don’t delete your Windows install folder/file. You’ll need to keep this running Windows via your virtual machine in the future.
Last Step: Installing Construct 2
!! Note: you can also use this step to install other Windows only game-making tools such as GameMaker.
- With Windows now running, log in, and open Internet Explorer.
- Navigate to Scirra.com and download the latest version of Construct 2.
- When the download completes, install Construct 2 according to the default settings.
- That’s it! You should now be able to run Construct 2. It may be a little slow or lag somewhat but remember you’re running an entire operating system from within your current one! Enjoy!
Having trouble?
Feel free to e-mail us at info@pixelles.ca. Hope to see you at our Dating Sim workshop on September 23rd!
