Hello all,
I have designed a detailed plot that I'm ready to make into an adventure game. But before I go all the dirty work of the art (which I am considering rendering in Studio MAx which means hundreds of hours of labor) I want to make sure that I will be able to implement things the way I am expecting -- and if not, it might require slight changes to the story and consequently to the artwork.
I have a general idea on some of these questions, but since I have never used AGS before (but have used other C++ orianted game design engines), I want to double check.
1 - will it be possible to have the main character swap between different sprites to show that he is wearing different clothing?
2 - will it be possible to report x/y locations of characters/sprites
3 - will it be possible to run continous scripts on the current room. in other words, can I make an infinite loop that checks the state of a variable, so that as soon as the variable changes an effect occurs...or do all of my effects have to be direct action/reactions? (this one I would use to have NPC sprites which might follow or block the character)
4 - will it be possible for the player to enter text which can be parsed within the language (for instance, the character needs to type a special word to open a door) ?
5 - will dialog options be possible, or will your character be forced to follow a predefined conversation tree?
6 - will it be possible to script it so that looking at an inventory item reveals a close up of the object (for instance, a detailed map of the game world) ? (I am thinking this would be achieved by making the map be a "room", and then transporting the character there but making him invisible and immobile, and then when the character clicks, teleport them back to the previous room they were in at the same coordinates)
7 - I am pretty sure of this one already...but just to verify....it is possible to customize the look of the popup window which displays messages to the player?
8 - any possible way to convert to 32-bit color (this would better take advantage of the high quality rendered scenes)
9 - is it possible to have a introductory screen (showing the game title or something) using built in functions, or would this have to be crudely done using some room-manipulation technique with an invisible character?
Thanks in advance,
Hope to share my game with you sometime soon.
1. Sure. Just change views (look up ChangeCharacterView in the manual)
2. Use character[charid].x and character[charid].y, where charid is the character's script name.
3. Use repeatdly_execute or repeatdly_execute_always in the room interactions or global script for a continuous loop.. And variables are easy to work with once you get accustomed to the scripting language.
4. There us a text parser, though it takes a lot of work to create a parser that understands what the user wants (big problem in AGI games.. especially amatuer ones :P )
5. There's an interactive dialog system (LucasArts style).. And if you're up to the task you could probably make a text-parset dialog system.
6. That wouldn't be too hard..
7. It's in the manual.
8. That's also in the manual..
9. In the manual :P . You can create custom functions, and you can move characters and the viewport just about any way you want..
The best thing to do is download AGS and try it out yourself. You'll know if it's right for you..
Quote1 - will it be possible to have the main character swap between different sprites to show that he is wearing different clothing?
Yes, there is ChangeCharacterView() function for that purpose
Quote2 - will it be possible to report x/y locations of characters/sprites
Yes, character[name].x/character[name].y variables hold these values
Quote3 - will it be possible to run continous scripts on the current room. in other words, can I make an infinite loop that checks the state of a variable, so that as soon as the variable changes an effect occurs...or do all of my effects have to be direct action/reactions? (this one I would use to have NPC sprites which might follow or block the character)
Yep, there is a repeatedly_execute() function that is called every game loop. So, you can do all your checks within it.
Quote4 - will it be possible for the player to enter text which can be parsed within the language (for instance, the character needs to type a special word to open a door) ?
Yes, AGS supports strings, so you can get an input from player and parse it to decide whether to allow him to do smth or not.
Quote5 - will dialog options be possible, or will your character be forced to follow a predefined conversation tree?
Yes, you can have several dialog option for the player to choose from.
Quote6 - will it be possible to script it so that looking at an inventory item reveals a close up of the object (for instance, a detailed map of the game world) ? (I am thinking this would be achieved by making the map be a "room", and then transporting the character there but making him invisible and immobile, and then when the character clicks, teleport them back to the previous room they were in at the same coordinates)
Yep, it could be done in a way similar to what you've described.
Quote7 - I am pretty sure of this one already...but just to verify....it is possible to customize the look of the popup window which displays messages to the player?
Sure. You can modify its look like any other GUI's one.
Quote8 - any possible way to convert to 32-bit color (this would better take advantage of the high quality rendered scenes)
You need to decide if you want a 32bit or 16bit color game from the beginning.
Quote9 - is it possible to have a introductory screen (showing the game title or something) using built in functions, or would this have to be crudely done using some room-manipulation technique with an invisible character?
Yes, you can switch rooms, animate objects and make cutscenes.
All in all that all possible to achieve. If you have some specific questions on a certain part feel free to ask. And welcome to the AGS community :)
~Cheers
Haha, thank you both you two :P
it seems that AGS is the way to go. I have already downloaded it and am just barely starting to play around with it, I didn't realize it was so versatile. I am especially surprised to hear that it can support 32-bit color, I thought it was mandatory 256!
Yes ...
Also, you can play avi's and mpg's and such. You can use these for your intro scene if it's easier.