Adventure Creator - a 3D engine for Unity

[IceMan]

Wow, it's been too long since I was last here.  Since Da New Guys 2 last year, I've been looking to make a 3D adventure, though toolkit options were kind of limited.  So, I made one myself!

It's a plugin for Unity3D, and kind of a "Telltale tool", or at least similar to what I imagine it to be like.  There's a demo game you can play online for kicks.

Main website
Demo game
Video



Features:

• Make a complete adventure game with no code
• Point and click, direct and first-person controls
• Clean, intuitive interface made for designers
• Event system for cutscenes and interactions
• Character animation and conversations
• Timed sequences and arrow prompts
• Inventory items and global variables
• Controller support for all play styles
• Full saving and loading system
• Example project to learn from
• Customisable in-game GUI
• Extensive documentation
• In-game options menu
• Built-in pathfinding
• Translation support

My past experience in AGS really helped with the design, and has a few features like auto-speech line numbering that AGSers will recognise.  Regrettably it's not free, since it was a full-time gig to write it, but I hope it's of use to people looking to make a 3D adventure.  Windows, Mac, Linux supported, and mobile support soon.

Thanks for reading!

[TheBitPriest]

   Wow...  The demo is amazing!  Good job!

[Ali]

The trailer looks fantastic!

My only criticism is that Normality is not the best example of a first person adventure game!

[Stupot]

Looks awesome, man. I hope to see some games being made with it, soon.

[Gilbert]

Seems great, but the name makes me feel odd, as AGS used to be called Adventure Creator in the past. Its name was changed to Adventure Game Studio only since V2.00 .

[Anian]

This looks really nice.

[IceMan]

Thanks for the warm response, guys!

My only criticism is that Normality is not the best example of a first person adventure game!

Hah, I guess not, but it was the one I used to play as a kid (nostalgia..)

Seems great, but the name makes me feel odd, as AGS used to be called Adventure Creator in the past. Its name was changed to Adventure Game Studio only since V2.00 .

I hadn't thought of that.  Actually the name I chose was based on what domains were available when I was registering for one!

[Igor Hardy]

Most impressive.

[Greg Squire]

Very nice! Awesome piece of work.

[AJA]

Wow, this looks really promising. I'll have to check it out properly at some point.

[IceMan]

Just sent an update off to the store - full iOS and Android support are soon coming.  I'm hoping to extend functionality to support 2D games as well, I'll keep you guys posted.

[m0ds]

Nice! Be good to see who can establish themselves as a competent user of it (and then hire them ). I for one don't understand how to animate characters in Unity, so gave up using it. Perhaps you could demonstrate this engine at AdvX in a couple of months?

Why the gnarly American woman voice over? LOL. I can see this being very useful for people who know their way around Unity but it's still going to be a struggle for people who aren't used to Unity or 3D game design (people like me, much as I'd love to buy it and give it a whirl), cos you still have to know how to create & animate characters, build 3D props etc. And if you don't you need to be prepared to spend hundreds if not thousands on assets or people to make/work on them for you. Hope people use it tho Chris, it certainly looks like fun

[qptain Nemo]

Hooray for another adventure game engine effort!

[kaput]

Hmmm. No thanks .

[dactylopus]

Glad to see more of this type of thing.  Unfortunately, $70 is quite a chunk of cash, considering I'd also have to shell out for the full version of Unity.

Good luck with the project, though.  It looks pretty cool.

[Armageddon]

Looks very TellTale, nice work.

[Azure]

I was really impressed with the demo, works really nicely and the option to export to Unity's webformat is great. Have you considered coming to AdventureX and showing this off so people could get a hands on? I think the one drawback with Unity is the fact there's no way to try this out without buying it...

[IceMan]

Glad to see more of this type of thing.  Unfortunately, $70 is quite a chunk of cash, considering I'd also have to shell out for the full version of Unity.

It's totally compatible (and developed) with Unity Free, no need to go for Unity Pro unless you need pro features.

Perhaps you could demonstrate this engine at AdvX in a couple of months?

Have you considered coming to AdventureX and showing this off so people could get a hands on?

Sounds good!  I'll look into the other post and see if I can- OH MY GOD CHARLES CECIL!

you still have to know how to create & animate characters, build 3D props etc

That is true, at least until 2D support comes along.  I plan to work my way down by half Ds - 2.5 and then 2

[Ali]

I'd also love to see this at AdventureX!

[Sslaxx]

Tried talking to TwoGuys LLC? I know they're looking for a Unity coder for their SpaceVenture project.

[Dave Gilbert]

I recognize that voice! Shelly called me up a few days ago to ask how to pronounce "integer" and "boolean."  And lo and behold, I hear her say it in this.

This looks incredible. I've been putting off learning unity for ages. Perhaps I'll change that.

@M0ds: The actress is Shelly Shenoy. She's one of my regulars. She played Sayuri in Gemini Rue, Yuriko in Puzzle Bots, Josie in Blackwell Convergence, and Clarice in Da New Guys 2. Among others. If you want an intro, let me know!

[Grim]

This could finally be the reason to try Unity! I wish there was a trial version, though... I don't really want to spend 70 bucks and find out that I can't work with Unity after all...

Would you consider a free trial?

[Knox]

Geeze this looks great!

How easy is it to setup sierra-style portrait animations with this?

[IceMan]

I recognize that voice! Shelly called me up a few days ago to ask how to pronounce "integer" and "boolean."

Hah, that's great!  Shelly was perfect - the trailer was literally done in a day, since the kit was approved about a week before I thought it was going to be.

This could finally be the reason to try Unity! I wish there was a trial version, though... I don't really want to spend 70 bucks and find out that I can't work with Unity after all...  Would you consider a free trial?

I wouldn't honestly know where to start on a trial version, but I've just released a tutorial series to get people started with it.  Hopefully you can use that to see if it's right for you.  AGSers might be particularly interested in the parts on hotspots and interactions.

How easy is it to setup sierra-style portrait animations with this?

You'd have to modify the GUI script a little, but it wouldn't be too difficult.  I didn't really expect that feature to be requested since it's in 3D, but I'll be looking into 2D features this week.  I'll consider that as a suggestion, thanks

[CaptainD]

I interviewed Iceman about Adventure Creator Here!

(BTW... if Iceman has a baby, will he name it Vanilla Ice?)

[straydogstrut]

Looks very impressive and very slick presentation all round! I haven't used Unity for three years - wow, that long? - but just watching the Adventure Creator tutorial videos brings back lots of fond memories. Very reasonable price point too especially considering it works with Unity free. When the time's right for me to pick up Unity again, i'll definitely give this a whirl:)

[Knox]

You'd have to modify the GUI script a little, but it wouldn't be too difficult.  I didn't really expect that feature to be requested since it's in 3D, but I'll be looking into 2D features this week.  I'll consider that as a suggestion, thanks

I would definitely consider trying this out then! 2D/2.5D features would be cool.

[David Ostman]

Because of budget reasons I would probably not have any voice acting in a 3D point and clicker, so having the Telltale Games/BioWare camera angles wouldn't make much sense to me. You could have them with text only, I suppose, but I've prototyped it and it doesn't play out very well.

What I would do with a 3D adventure framework is recreate the work I've done in 2D. Same camera angles, Sierra style portrait dialogs.

The main advantage using Unity 3D would be to more easily add things such as top down views, and most importantly, have 3D characters physically interact with each other as well as a 3D environment.

Being able to use particles properly is also nice, as well as having action sequences that aren't awkwardly hacked together in AGS.

[Dave Gilbert]

Wasn't AGS originally called Adventure Creator back in 1999 or so? It's like we've come full circle!

[IceMan]

Wasn't AGS originally called Adventure Creator back in 1999 or so? It's like we've come full circle!

No toe-stepping intended, just grabbed whatever domain was available

New version out, iOS and Android now supported with Touch Screen input.

[DazJ]

This looks absolutely amazing, Mr. Man of Ice.

Seriously considering purchasing this for the Dick LaRenzo reboot I'm planning on after Calm Waters.

The £40 is reasonable and I was going to purchase but bloody Unity/PayPal add a £15 added tax on top of it, bring it to £55 which is a little steep right now. I'll be purchasing very soon though. I am genuinely intrigued.

EDIT: Couldn't resist. Just purchased

[IceMan]

Couldn't resist. Just purchased

Thanks, DazJ!  Just so you're aware, here's the link to the official Unity forum thread, which is always the first place updates are announced.

[DazJ]

No problem and yes, I found that link earlier. I'm very impressed with the capabilities and sheer professionalism that this add-on brings to the table.

One little thing I've noticed though is that the demo doesn't play any audio or music once built as an APK and tested on an Android device (two in fact). I'm not sure though if this is something I'm not doing right or if it's a bug?

[IceMan]

The demo doesn't play any audio or music once built as an APK and tested on an Android device (two in fact).

Sorry to hear that - I haven't heard of anyone else having such an issue.  Check the in-game menu - are the volumes all displaying correctly?

[DazJ]

Yeah all volume menus are maxed out so I'm not sure what's going on there. Any other things I've compiled all seem to work fine though.

[IceMan]

Yeah all volume menus are maxed out so I'm not sure what's going on there. Any other things I've compiled all seem to work fine though.

Hmm. Try going to the music objects in the sound folder, and changing their sound "type" to Other.  This'll put their volumes back onto the regular Unity levels, does it work then?

[Calin Leafshade]

I am generally sceptical of all GUI solutions because they invariably turn out to not be quite flexible enough for what you want to do.

Especially when it comes down to stuff like that variable panel thing where you specify conditions based upon bools and ints... it's just not flexible enough for someone who wants to break new ground a little.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I am generally sceptical of all GUI solutions

I think I've seen int he presentation video that scripting is available for advanced things? Very much like AGS actually.

[IceMan]

I am generally sceptical of all GUI solutions because they invariably turn out to not be quite flexible enough for what you want to do.

Myself too, actually.  Much of the development time was spent finding the right balance between things being either automated or GUI-based, and having to hard-code everything.  I want things to be simple and friendly when they can be, but there's a risk of bringing in limitations when you take too much control away from the user.  I'm very keen to keep things away from a "this way or not at all" scenario.  It's a trade-off, but I think it's got a good balance now.  And, as Monsieur OUXX says, custom scripting is available.  It features a plug-and-play system for your own actions (events), but also allows for your own scripts to be called from within cutscenes - passing integers to custom functions.  I'm adding features as requests are made, but the kit definitely allows for more tailor-made code when needed.

[IceMan]

Just an update: in the last couple of weeks, I've added Touch-screen support for iOS and Android, and laid the foundation for 2D and 2.5D games.  At the moment, 2D games require a separate 2D animation plugin called 2DToolkit, but when Unity comes out with their own 2D framework (soon, I think), I'll be supporting that as well.  More updates in the works!

Tutorials, for those curious:

• Making a 2.5D game
• 2D Cameras
• 2D Characters

[theSynapse]

I find this incredibly exciting news. Many people have been worried about the limitations of AGS for a while now - particularly the publishing options. This is a wonderful step in the right direction.

I also don't have much money, but I simply cannot see how any of you would argue that £44(ish) is a bad deal for this kit. The amount of time it would cut down in making your own system is vast, if it continues to evolve and be supported it will be worth even more, and all the source code is there so it's as extensible as you like.

Iceman - the price point is great. You deserve to make something off this! I'll be buying it in the near future.

Re: 2D features. Yes, Unity are incredibly close to releasing them now. I was speaking to some of the Unity guys at the ExPlay conference the other week (where they were demoing the new 2D features) and some are them are excellent and will make working in 2D a lot nicer. They've also made some improvements in the UI system of Unity (one of Unity devs biggest gripes). Whether these 2D features will be better than using 2D Toolkit or NGUI etc., I'm not sure, but it's a step in the right direction.

Iceman - if I wanted to do 2D stuff straight away without waiting for Unity to release their own stuff, do you think Adventure Creator would play nicely with 2D Toolkit? Any reason why they'd clash? I haven't used 2DTK at all yet, but it's what all the cool kids use (at least amongst Indies I've met)!

Again, well done on this outstanding achievement, and all the best for your business! I *so* hope you're all to come and demo this at AdventureX in a few weeks time, because this is an important step for graphic adventures I think.

[theSynapse]

I am generally sceptical of all GUI solutions because they invariably turn out to not be quite flexible enough for what you want to do.

Especially when it comes down to stuff like that variable panel thing where you specify conditions based upon bools and ints... it's just not flexible enough for someone who wants to break new ground a little.

Fair point, but all the source code is there. I presume it's going to be in C# Iceman?

So that means that you'd have to script extra stuff in C#. Although I've never actually used AGS, and can't see how this would be much different to learning AGSScript and implementing something in that.

[IceMan]

The amount of time it would cut down in making your own system is vast, if it continues to evolve and be supported it will be worth even more, and all the source code is there so it's as extensible as you like.

Thanks!  I think it indeed comes down to time-saving value, and I'm working away on new features as requests are made.  Upcoming shortly: a GUI-based menu designer (not dissimilar to AGS's own GUI editor).

if I wanted to do 2D stuff straight away without waiting for Unity to release their own stuff, do you think Adventure Creator would play nicely with 2D Toolkit? Any reason why they'd clash? I haven't used 2DTK at all yet, but it's what all the cool kids use (at least amongst Indies I've met)!

Admittedly I hadn't used 2DTK either until people requested compatibility, but rest assured it now works happily with my own kit.  Check my post just before yours for a couple of tutorials on using it.

I'm excited to get ahold of Unity's own 2D system, but I imagine the workflow on the Adventure Creator side will be much the same as it is for 2DTK.  I'm also planning to provide Mecanim support too, once it's developed enough.

I *so* hope you're all to come and demo this at AdventureX in a few weeks time, because this is an important step for graphic adventures I think.

I'm planning to!  I've booked a demo session, but I'm totally open to suggestions on how best to make use of the time.

[IceMan]

OK, been a while since I updated here!  Apologies for the tardiness, but that's not to say things have been slack on the development front with this.  The guys on the Unity forums have been keeping me busy, and update after update has been coming out, each time bringing new features and requests.  In fact, there's a even brand new 2D demo to try out:



Some of the big new features since I last wrote:

• New 2D tools - Sprite scaling, walk-behinds and and 8-directional character views mean you never have to work in 3D-space if your game is 2D, and with Unity's new 2D engine you don't need any other tool to make a sprite-based game.
• Custom Menu designer - Similar to AGS's GUI editor, you can customise the existing GUIs or build your own, all in a WYSIWYG designer.
• Mecanim animation support - As an alternative to the more friendly default animation system that takes care of layering and transitioning, the Mecanim system lets you build your own animation FSMs for finer control, and helps you add non-traditional elements to your game.
• Third-person camera - To let you make an "over-the-shoulder" type game, where the camera follows and spins around the player.
• PlayMaker support - Compatibility with Unity's popular PlayMaker asset, which is a more "general" script-free logic tool.

And that's not including the hundreds of smaller improvements and fixes.  I'm seeing snippets here and there of some of the games that people are starting to develop with Adventure Creator, and it's exciting to see what they come up with.  Meanwhile, dev continues - coming later this week, multiple player characters!

[theSynapse]

Amazeballs!

It's great to see this tool carry on developing and increase in support. Fantastic that it's getting good 2D support now as well.

Good one Iceman!

[Gribbler]

In fact, there's a even brand new 2D demo to try out

This 2d demo game requires "Unity web player". I installed it, restarted browser and nothing happens. I still can't play 2d demo. As if I didn't install anything. Do you know what I could be doing wrong?

[Armageddon]

Your browser might be old or bad.

[Gribbler]

It's a sad and tired IE so I guess you're right I'm gonna try different browser.

[Armageddon]

Why would you use IE? Do you want your computer to explode? Get Chrome or Opera or Firefox.

[Gribbler]

Why would you use IE? Do you want your computer to explode?

No, I just like eating soup with a fork.

[jwalt]

Another option might be The Castle Game Engine. I grabbed some RON assets and put them into a few image controls dropped on a form:

[imgzoom]http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o756/jwalt10705/lazarusRON1_zps438ce314.png[/imgzoom]

Engine uses Pascal and the Lazarus IDE. I've yet to get some of the examples to run, so my mind is still not made up. Castle does both 2D and 3D. Not nearly as user friendly as AGS.

[Grim]

This is VERY impressive, but I still feel like I kinda wanna wait until it's finished before I start making a game with it, just in case.

I'm making an AGS game at the moment but my next game is definitely gonna be done with Adventure Creator & Unity.

Question: can you pan in and out on a 2D scene with 2D characters?

[David Ostman]

Yeah, I'm with you there, Grim. I took a few days to go through the tutorials and documentation and I came to the conclusion I'm better off waiting until AC matures a bit before I dive into it with anything other than a simple one-room test. I find it to be quite confusing at a first glance, and not very intuitive with tutorials that don't seem to quite be up to date. There's definitely some potential in it, but anything I'm working on will be very dialog heavy, and right now setting up lots of complex dialog trees is just way too painful without a proper tool.

[abstauber]

@Grim
For those 1579$ you need to pay, you could also hire a coder to extend AGS to those features you seem to be missing.

edit again - I just realized that I was going totally off-topic.
Even though I won't leave AGS for anything else, AC sure looks cool.

[IceMan]

Question: can you pan in and out on a 2D scene with 2D characters?

Sure can, it's one of the nice features that Unity makes so easy.  Have a look at the camera movement when you talk to the bird in the 2D Demo.

Yeah, I'm with you there, Grim. I took a few days to go through the tutorials and documentation and I came to the conclusion I'm better off waiting until AC matures a bit before I dive into it with anything other than a simple one-room test. I find it to be quite confusing at a first glance, and not very intuitive with tutorials that don't seem to quite be up to date. There's definitely some potential in it, but anything I'm working on will be very dialog heavy, and right now setting up lots of complex dialog trees is just way too painful without a proper tool.

Fair point that the tutorials are a little out of date - one of the problems with doing development/education in tandem is that certain features get quickly superceded by better ones.  AC's rapid development over the past few months is all down to the feedback and discussions that have been going on in the Unity forum, where people are using it in "real-case" projects rather than tutorials and demos - so really the best way for this to mature is for people to use it and let me know what areas need improvement.  I will try to spend some time making better educational resources, but rest assured that AC will indeed mature to the point where it'll suit your needs

[Grim]

Is that what full version of Unity costs- $1579? Well, I guess I'd go about developing the game with free version and once I saw it is actually working out, or nearly finished, it would be an investment that's most likely worth the price.

What I do like about AGS is that at the stage where I'm at now I feel totally comfortable with ALL its features, which speeds everything up a lot. To learn Unity now would be a pain in the ass, but obviously there is a long list of reasons to do that- portability, resolutions, performance etc. I really like that Iceman actually does so much work to create an ultimate adventure game maker and I am a great believer that sooner or later it will reach that stage where you can safely dive into it. And yes, Iceman, you're right that the only way to get there is to have this constant feedback from users. But at the same time, Unity forums will probably provide much better feedback since most people there are already familiar with how Unity works.

Having met the man himself at AdventureX I can tell he is very passionate about this and knows what he's doing.

[IceMan]

Is that what full version of Unity costs- $1579? Well, I guess I'd go about developing the game with free version and once I saw it is actually working out, or nearly finished, it would be an investment that's most likely worth the price.

Unity Free still lets you publish games for free to an extent, I believe.  Incidentally, there's a sale on this week and AC's only $35 (plug ends here).

One of the areas that needs a serious update is the tutorial section - I made a bunch of videos early on but they're now getting out of date.  So lately, I've been writing some text-based tuts which I'm able to produce much more frequently.

[Darth Mandarb]

$1,579.00 for a piece of software is just ridiculous (I have about 15-20 other adjectives I could use as well).

I am well aware of all the [lame] excuses developers use to rationalize the ass-raping prices they charge and it's ALL nonsense. 

There is no reason to charge that asinine price other than greed.  Make it a reasonable price and you'd sell 100x as many making twice as much money in the end.

Year after year people price gouge like this and the trend just continues on and on.  I bet they also bitch about piracy and just don't understand why people are pirating their software.

**sigh**

[DoorKnobHandle]

I've posted this several times before but I think I keep getting ignored so I'll say it again: you don't need to pay for Unity, the free version is full-featured and allows you to even sell your game (to some extent). It's only limited when it comes to shaders and advanced FX. The free version even supports building your game for a ton of platforms these days. If you don't like Unity because of its design or whatever, that's fine but disliking it because of its business model is unfair and, quite frankly, ridiculous.

[Darth Mandarb]

Ouch!  DKH, do you have a hand in Unity?  That sounded like you took what I said personally.  I wasn't trying to offend you (or anybody).  Just expressing my opinions/frustrations about over-priced software in the modern world.

I haven't used the program, so I can't (and didn't) say if I like it or not.

However, I don't think disliking something because of its price tag is ridiculous (or unfair) though, particularly when the price is ridiculous.  The price tag is usually the first exposure a person has with a product.  I would wager a LOT of people see the price tag and just click away and don't even bother.  Just my opinion.

I get that there's a (sort of) full-featured free version but if I don't have FULL-CONTROL over my games (selling, etc), without being forced to pay the hefty price tag, then I'd just find another system to use (like AGS which is $1,579.00 less).

I look at it like this:

If I created a game making engine that allows people to create (and sell) their own games I would make it 100% free to use, 100% full featured (nothing held back or extorted for a price) and you can distribute your games as freeware with ZERO limitations.  If you want to go commercial with your games you have to buy a license.  Now, in the modern world, there's this impression that this must be over-the-top expensive.  This is stupid.  Instead of selling a license for $10,000 (and selling 100 of them making $1,000,000.00).  I'd price it at $29.99 (full license) and sell 100,000 of them and make $2,999,000.00 (3 times as much money for lowering the price to something reasonable).  It really is a no-brainer.  You make MUCH more money and get more exposure and market saturation with your engine.

[Snarky]

But plenty of people do use the free version, Darth, so you can't assume that just because you're put off by not having "full control" over your games, everyone else feels the same way. Your calculations also rather rely on the idea that there are 100,000 people who would buy a license in order to release their game commercially, which sounds utterly insane wildly optimistic to me. (Are there even 100,000 Unity games released? â€" Remember, by your scheme people would only need to pony up for the license once their game is finished and ready for commercial release.) Plus you'd have to police all the small-fry commercial releases to make sure they'd all paid their 30 bucks. Sounds like a huge hassle to me.

Unity have clearly decided that they only want to require licenses from professional studios, where the cost of the license would anyway only be a small drop in the overall budget bucket. Everyone else gets to use a practically-complete version for free. That's fair enough, isn't it?

[Darth Mandarb]

I don't care if other people aren't put off by the business model.  As I said, if they want to pay the money let 'em!  Also, as I stated, I haven't used the program yet (and I probably will try it out at some point I'm sure) so I'm not saying I don't like it nor did I make any statements regarding the quality of the program.  I'm just expressing, as I stated clearly, my opinions on over-priced software these days.  Each person reading is free to disagree, I couldn't care less!

My business model was using numbers pulled out of the air to make a point (apparently that was missed).  Lower cost equals more sales.  It's simple, really.  Also, whether you charge $29.99, $1,579.00 or $150,000.00 for the "license" you are still going to have to track/police who is using the software "legally" (giggle).  So the hassle is there either way so I don't see the relevance of that.

Seriously though, as is usual on these forums, my simple statements are being taken out of proportion and made into a larger issue than needed.  I'm sure it's a fine program with some great features.  Lower the price and it'll sell better.  That is all.

[Sslaxx]

For most people it just isn't a realistic concern. $6,000 (for Pro licenses for Unity+Windows 8 Store/Android/Blackberry/iOS) isn't exactly chump change, sure, but if you're one of the lucky ones to exceed $100k in earnings, it's not a particularly massive price to pay. And vanishingly few people ever get to that point.

To be clear, I'm talking about one-man band efforts here, not companies like Phoenix Online or Wadjet Eye. That, I am sure, is a whole different kettle of fish.

[Paul Franzen]

I saw someone talking about this on Twitter and was all excited to rush here and post about it--looks like I was beaten to the punch. (...by like half a year. And by the person who created it. Ah, well!)

But man, I'm super-excited to see a Unity plug-in that (from what I understand?) is basically AGS for Unity. I've been thinking more and more about testing the waters with Unity after wrapping up my current project--seems like I don't have any excuses now!