Does anybody know how to write a point-and-click adventure game?

Started by timewizardstudios, Tue 17/07/2018 17:13:18

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timewizardstudios

I'm making a point and click adventure game and I'm trying to write it. The problem is, that writing a point and click is unlike any other type of writing. It's not like a novel where you can just write paragraphs and also it's not really linearly written.

Instead there is a bunch of if-then conditions where the dialogue that shows up is based on what the player has done/read before hand. To move the story forward, you solve puzzles and get items. Large portions of the story are locked away until you complete certain tasks.

I'm trying to find out if anybody knows of a method of how to write the script so that it is follow-able, not confusing, and easy to implement.

I'll tell you my current method. Right now I split up my files into three types: Character Outline, Character Script, Location Script.

Here is a screenshot of my google docs folder



In the character outline file, I try writing the story like in a normal writing style where I just outline what will happen and such.

Here is an example



Then I have the character script file where I take what I wrote in the outline and turn it into an actual script.

Here is my example



It's the script of all the dialogue between the main character and that specific character. As you can see the writing doesn't really stand on it's own and it's hard to tell what is happening unless you wrote the entire thing which makes it hard for me to hire new writers. I also feel like later on, I'm going to have 50 if statements before a single line of dialogue, which can't be a good thing.

The last file I have is location script file which is very similar to the character script file but instead of all the dialogue that happens between the MC and one character it is all the things that happen in that specific location with all characters. Here is my example of the Cafeteria Script



So that's how I'm trying to organize all the writing. As you can see, I don't think this method is working out quite well. For the first 10-20 minutes of game-play I already have like 30 different files created. I feel like the complexity will keep increasing exponential as I add more characters,quests, and objects.

Does anybody know a better way? Either a better way to organize all the files/documents or a third party software that specifically handles this type of writing?

Snarky

The most common way is to simply write the dialog directly in the game code. That's not just for AGS or amateur games, either, it's how the pros do it.

tzachs

I also write it directly in code, but you can also check out Ink and Twine as possible solutions.

Mandle

A bit off-topic but:

I noticed that the response to the player trying to pick up the fridge ends with: "Brilliant idea."

I would really suggest keeping such player-taunting to a minimum in point and click adventure games. What may seem funny to the author when they write it once can get very grinding on a stuck and frustrated player and can wear down their morale to the point where they just quit the game or, at least, stop enjoying it.

I know that in the old days these kind of comments were the norm in a lot of games (cough...Sierra...cough) but that was back in the day when players usually bought one game at a time and played it until it was over before buying another one. So if they did rage-quit it wouldn't be long before they went back to the same game.

These days, if a player rage-quits they will most likely never return to the game.

Just a heads-up and I know I only base this on one comment in your script. But, and this is just my opinion, I'd advise to stay away from too many such taunts.

Cheers and best of luck with your game!

timewizardstudios

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 18/07/2018 01:00:25
A bit off-topic but:

I noticed that the response to the player trying to pick up the fridge ends with: "Brilliant idea."

I would really suggest keeping such player-taunting to a minimum in point and click adventure games. What may seem funny to the author when they write it once can get very grinding on a stuck and frustrated player and can wear down their morale to the point where they just quit the game or, at least, stop enjoying it.

I know that in the old days these kind of comments were the norm in a lot of games (cough...Sierra...cough) but that was back in the day when players usually bought one game at a time and played it until it was over before buying another one. So if they did rage-quit it wouldn't be long before they went back to the same game.

These days, if a player rage-quits they will most likely never return to the game.

Just a heads-up and I know I only base this on one comment in your script. But, and this is just my opinion, I'd advise to stay away from too many such taunts.

Cheers and best of luck with your game!

Yeah this is actually something I'm worried about. I don't know if the taunting as you call it will be funny to the player or if they will see it as annoying and pretentious writing. I guess I will wait until I have a lot more of my script done and ask people to critique it. I'm not worried about them rage-quitting I'm more worried about if it's hacky writing. 

Mr Underhill

For dialogue branching there's great free software out there,such as Chatmapper and other diagram-based tools. They will really help you visualize your choices, and you can use it for puzzle dependency charts (I haven't and I regret it). Good luck!

Danvzare

Quote from: timewizardstudios on Wed 18/07/2018 02:48:49
Yeah this is actually something I'm worried about. I don't know if the taunting as you call it will be funny to the player or if they will see it as annoying and pretentious writing. I guess I will wait until I have a lot more of my script done and ask people to critique it. I'm not worried about them rage-quitting I'm more worried about if it's hacky writing. 
Yeah, don't taunt the player for attempting what seems like a stupid solution. If they thought it was stupid, they wouldn't have tried it. It's very disheartening, and it has certainly put me off a few games.
A better idea is to have the character call themselves stupid for not being able to figure out what solution the player was thinking of.

As for how to write a point and click adventure game. I personally just make it up as I go along, writing directly into the game code. I suspect that this would only becomes a hassle when the programmer and the writer are two different people.

Monsieur OUXX

The Freddy Pharkas work documents are exactly what you're trying to achieve, except they found the right formula : https://archive.org/details/FreddyDesign
 

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