Suggestions for the Perfect Adventure Game Editor

[Pijin Pastrana]

Hi everyone:

My name's Pijin Pastrana.
It's almost my first time around here and I hope some of you, at least the oldest among you, recognize my name as the developer of several games; Robotragedy 1 and 2, Dr. Lutz and the Time Travel Machine and a hidden object game released only in Spanish under the name El Tesoro del Rey.
For a long time for me to have access to the Internet was nearly impossible but things are a little bit different now here in Cuba and now at least I can use the net as many times as I want, though not at home and very expensive, but I can use it and that's an improvement for me.
So, from now on I'd like to be more active on these forums and I would like to start by outlining for you this dream I have, this one hope.
Everybody here knows how difficult it is to make a fine, good looking, well balanced game and if is just you and nobody else, the troubles pile up considerably. Maybe you are good at programming but lack all artists skills or viceversa. Or if you live in a place like mine, you can't use all the softwares and technological advances that may help you create a better product or you don't have the money to hire other people to help you or create assests for you.
Then, my hope, my dream, is that someone comes up with a miracle engine, developed with the amateur adventure game creator in mind.
A tool, or set of tools, that provide the wannabe game developer with all the necessary editors to create a game with commercial quality. And oriented to the 2.5D type of game.
For example, imagine an AGS version in wich to create the rooms for your game you don't need any external software and it comes with an editor to create walls, ceilings, floors, windows, tables, everything that is needed. It will have it's own lighting and rendering. Something like making a home in The Sims games or the amazing free software Sweet Home 3D. All the 3d assests come with the editor and of course you can import more. That way every game made with this version of AGS will look really good.
For the characters the same, an editor to assemble your characters from different customizable body parts. All animation needed like walking, talking, picking up, and more, will be already included and these characters will funtion as in 2.5D games. Like creating a character for your Sims 4 game. As before, every game developed will look really professional.
Interfaces and GUIs? The same, the game editor comes with pre-made interfaces, cursors, fonts, buttons, all customizable and the only thing the developer has to do is select wich style fits better his game. You want to make a game with only one mouse click for everything? No problem. For two mouse buttons? No problem. Just select from choices.
Logo screen? There you'll have a logo editor to create the perfect one. Something like XARA 3D.
Music? There are many softwares that an amateur with commitment can use to create his own music.
Voice overs? You can hire professionals for that but if you are like me, then you can use the native recording software to record your voices and clean them as much as possible.
Sounds? This miracle game editor can have a huge selection of sounds from where to choose. There are thousands of free sounds in the internet anyways.
Cutscenes and cinematics? The game editor can use a movie editor to create cutscenes and little movies by tinkering with cameras. You have all the assets to create them, the rooms, characters and objects, all you need is to have access to different cameras and record a secuence.
Think of playing the Sims 4 to create an adventure game, it's the closest I can think of to show you what I have in mind.
Do you follow me? For me that will be the real opening of the adventure game making, a very democratic one.
Everybody would have the chance to create the adventure he dreamed of making while playing The Day of the Tentacle, Syberia or The Longest Journey. The outcome is in your hands, if the final product is not good it's because you didn't tried your best or the plot wasn't good enough, but you can try again.
And  economically it could be good for everybody.
Suppose that miracle engine is AGS 5.0. You can download it for free and make all the games you want, but every game developed with that software can only be sold and released through the AGS owner and developer or company or whatever it may be called.
Let say the price for every game is 10 dollars. Okay, the deal is 60-40 for every copy and the biggest percent goes to the AGS owner and everybody is happy.
I don't know about you, but for me the idea of making a living out of creating adventure games is like mana from the heavens.
Think about this dream of mine, and please let me know your opinion.
Thanks

[Babar]

The problem with this idea of "one software that you can do everything with" is that a software made with 500 different little parts is never going to be as good as a software made specifically for that task. For example, no matter how many features you keep adding to a supposed room creator or sprite creator, it'll never be good as paint programs specifically created to make that sort of art. The same with video editing and sound editing and so on.

[Danvzare]

I think we've all had ideas like this. I myself once thought of this exact thing, but with a myriad of 2D art all put in, that even allows random generation of Adventure games.

But as I've gotten older, and wiser. I've learnt something.
The more difficult the tools, the better the products. If a miracle engine like this did come out, we'd be flooded with tens of thousands of crappy games, that you could hardly call games. And all of the good stuff would be drowned out by the ridiculous amounts of crap.
That's not to say there won't be any good stuff. I'm just saying that you should look at the games from RPG Maker and the levels from Little Big Planet, there's a lot of crap. While if you look at the levels made for The Dark Mod, it's almost all really good.

If it's really easy to use the tools provided to make something, then that means that all of the lazy people who can't even be bothered to learn some more complicated tools, will actually make and release games. The problem is, that these people are also generally the same type that can't be bothered to write "the" correctly. So in other words, they will only release really bad games.
While before, with the more complicated tools, they would have given up long before releasing, or actually learnt to spend their time learning how to make a decent game.

What's more, the miracle engine you descibed, would only be good for 3D games. Or at least pre-rendered. I like me some pixel art!

But all of this is meaningless, since such an engine is impossible to make for free.
Commercially, this is quite possible. As a free and open source project though? No one is going to give that much time and effort to make something as indepth as that.

I hope you don't feel I'm being too pessimistic.
It's a nice idea, and like I've said, I've thought of the exact same thing before.

Also, next time include paragraphs. It makes it easier to read.

[ThreeOhFour]

Hey Pijin, cool to see you on the forums finally, I hope you've got better internet than you did when we last spoke (it was 2009!)

I've used some game engines that have inbuilt graphics editors and stuff, but always found myself most comfortable going back to the trusty graphics software I learned on. There's definitely some appeal in what you speak of, but ultimately I think it'd result in games that all feel quite similar. Would it be cool to have an engine that does the heavy lifting of making environments and characters for newbies, though? Yeah, it would.

This already *kind of* exists in engines like Unity - you can import premade assets from the "Unity store" and piece your projects together like that. It's not quite the same, but maybe a step towards what you're looking for. You can export to multiple platforms, in a well supported engine, and it handles a lot of the work for you. Of course, it's not quite that easy; nothing always is. But maybe if your internet is better then you'd be interested in checking it out!

That aside, I'd rather see more of your personal art in a game by Pijin Pastrana rather than premade assets. In any case, good to see you're still around and interested in making games!

[cat]

Hi Pijin,

I didn't remember your name, but I've played Dr. Lutz and the Time Travel Machine and El Tesoro del Rey and enjoyed playing both!

I agree with the others, that I prefer to use specialized tools for each application.
Anyway, please continue making games, no matter if using AGS 3.x or 5.0

[Monsieur OUXX]

There's certainly romm for improvement in the GUI part.

[Blondbraid]

Some of the ideas here sound pretty cool, like 2.5D games and the like,
but at the same time I sort of agree with the others that a character and art generator
would lead to a bunch of similar-looking games, like in a lot of RPG-maker games on Steam
where pretty much all the characters are generic chibi-figures and all the worlds look the same
due to all of them using the same tiles to build from. I think it's better if game makers who are
bad at drawing asks someone who are good at drawing to make sprites and backgrounds for them,
rather than relying on character generators.

There is a contribution thread in the critic's lounge as well, maybe more artists could be
encouraged to add their art there for those who can't/ don't have the time to draw their own
character sprites and backgrounds?

At the same time, a lower threshold would mean more people drawn to making adventure games,
and I know lots of people good at writing and art but terrible at scripting.

[Mandle]

If it's really easy to use the tools provided to make something, then that means that all of the lazy people who can't even be bothered to learn some more complicated tools, will actually make and release games.

I can imagine veteran game devs who build their own engines from scratch saying pretty much the same kind of things about AGSers.

It's all relative I suppose.

[Danvzare]

I can imagine veteran game devs who build their own engines from scratch saying pretty much the same kind of things about AGSers.

It's all relative I suppose.

Good point, although I personally see AGS as being a nice middle ground.

That being said, having just re-read my own words again. Damn I'm pessimistic. Sorry about that everyone.

[Grim]

I can imagine veteran game devs who build their own engines from scratch saying pretty much the same kind of things about AGSers.

It's all relative I suppose.

Good point, although I personally see AGS as being a nice middle ground.

That being said, having just re-read my own words again. Damn I'm pessimistic. Sorry about that everyone.

Don't be sorry. I think you pretty much nailed it