is AGS right for me? point/click and executable

[apdamien]

I'm trying to decide if Adventure Game Studio is the right engine for the game I want to build. Based on my first few minutes with the Studio, I' a little doubtful, so I'm going to ask two questions.

The first has to do with what you need to play the game. Once I've completed a game, can I "export" it as an executable, or as something that can run in a web browser? (e.g., Javascript or .swf) If users have to download and install AGS in order to play my game, I'm going to get a lot fewer players.

The second has to do with playing style. The examples I've seen all seem to deal with using the arrow keys to "walk" the player's avatar around. I've tried several games in that style, and never enjoyed them. It takes too much time -- and precision effort -- to move the avatar where I want. And other interactions are also clunky, for example, in the Demo game I could get to the key, but not pick it up. I'm not sure if that's an interaction problem, or if picking up the key is one of the things that isn't done yet.

My proposed style looks much more like "Cream Babysitting Adventure". All actions are done by clicking, not by moving around. Click on a character to interact with him/her, then you are presented with choices; click on one to choose it.  Click on a "door" icon to move from room to room.  Etc.

Does AGS support this style of game?

[Mandle]

Yes, AGS can do everything that you mentioned is important for you, and much more...

In fact: It can do pretty much anything!

There have been many, many non-adventure games made in AGS...The adventure game template can be done away with entirely and any kind of game can be made from scratch...It takes a while to get good enough to do that, but the simple things you mentioned above are pretty easy.

And no, people don't need to download AGS to play games made in AGS: The engine compiles the game into a stand-alone folder that runs on its own...

[Gurok]

Adding to what Mandle said, the executable will run stand-alone on the majority of Windows systems (XP and forward).

It's also pretty easy to port to Linux. iOS and Android are a bit more involved, but possible. There is currently no way to export to Flash or Javascript.

You can use the mouse to control the main character in AGS games. Many games use this as the sole method of control. If you are having trouble using the mouse to walk in the provided demo game, that might be due to some other issue. Do you see a mouse cursor when you run the game?

Finally, it sounds like the Cream Babysitting Adventure game you're describing is a first-person adventure game. You can make this kind of game with AGS. It's pretty simple, really. Just set ShowPlayerCharacter to False in the properties of all of your rooms. You can set up click handlers for objects and hotspots to handle things like picking up items and talking to people.

Before you dive in and try to make a game, you might want to go through this fine tutorial here to get a feel for how things work in AGS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ml_DR76Cl4

It covers creating a third-person game, but many of the principles apply to creating a first-person adventure with AGS. Just use an invisible player character and omit anything that involves the player walking to objects.

[Khris]

AGS has been creating Windows executables from the start, the latest versions also create Linux executables.
Those will basically run on any Windows / Linux system; players don't need to install anything at all. The only exception afaik are video codecs, but even then you can use ogg videos, which don't require external codecs.
An extensive library of games is linked from these forums, just download a few and try for yourself.

As for what type of game you can create: in theory, AGS can create any kind of 2D game. You could create a Fallout clone, or Sonic. In theory.
Creating a first-person game is trivially easy, you don't even have to turn off the player character in every room. Just set their .Transparency to 100 in a function called game_start and there you go.

[apdamien]

Thanks for all the great tips. I'm going through the tutorials and we'll see how this all works out.

[Danvzare]

The first has to do with what you need to play the game. Once I've completed a game, can I "export" it as an executable, or as something that can run in a web browser? (e.g., Javascript or .swf) If users have to download and install AGS in order to play my game, I'm going to get a lot fewer players.

You can't run an AGS game through a web browser. At least not to my knowledge. But you don't have to download and install AGS either. Because you can export it as an executable.
People merely have to download your game and run it. That's it.

The second has to do with playing style. The examples I've seen all seem to deal with using the arrow keys to "walk" the player's avatar around. I've tried several games in that style, and never enjoyed them. It takes too much time -- and precision effort -- to move the avatar where I want. And other interactions are also clunky, for example, in the Demo game I could get to the key, but not pick it up. I'm not sure if that's an interaction problem, or if picking up the key is one of the things that isn't done yet.

The majority of AGS games are done with just clicking. I'm not sure where you've gotten this idea that most AGS games only use the arrow keys to walk?
As a matter of fact, you don't even need to include walking if you don't want to.