Tutorial no longer available

[selmiak]

But there is even a door module but most newbies probably don't search the modules forums.

[Ghost]

The advantage of modules is that they do stuff for you so that you don't have to learn how to do it. The disadvantage of modules is that they do stuff for you without you needing to learn how to do the stuff yourself 

I'm no codemonkey. I happily accept that there are skilled programmers here who crank out cool stuff, and I will happily use it. But I always make a point of taking their code apart and see what it does and how they get things to work, and I actually have a good grasp of the basic and more advanced features of AGS. The official AGS tutorial is a good way to get familiar with the basics. But the "higher" you go the more ways there are to reach a certain goal. What I really miss is the old original Demo Game. It had (for its time) great code. It was instantly playable and then you could dig into the script and see what was done behind the scenes.

I really think we could use more games like that, released as playable games WITH well documented source. And then we can just whack people on the head with pointy sticks until they start reading them. 

[edit]
Ready to be moved to gen gen?

[RickJ]

Another thing is that when more experienced person decides to share his thoughts and knowledge, he usually addresses to similarly more-or-less experienced readers and discusses more advanced problems. It is not so easy to write a good tutorial for beginner.

I agree.  The reason is that that folks with experience don't know what questions to answer for the less experienced folks.  Instead of getting your knickers in a twist why not;

    1) Pose the questions that are important to you as a beginner
    2) Present your solution and how/why it was derived
    3) Solicit alternative or advanced solutions
    4) Compare and contrast the 2 (or more solutions) using criteria such as scalability, skill level required, etc,,,

[st.]

This Forum is here to help beginners. And you guys are always ready to give good advice. To know that one can depend on you for help means a world of difference to a freshman. I do not attack this tradition. I have refered to an Alternative Tutorial - an alternative way of learning about AGS that may be suitable for some beginners. And probably, at its best, it would have proven to be a supplement to the wealth of information already available.

To put together a few suggestions from this post in the light of what I attempted to do - why not let any willing beginner publish his game making story ? It would be like exchanging course- or private study notes. When I wrote that first game of mine I asked myself questions and found answers for them; and this is how I gathered a little experience. But when I started writing the "tutorial", I did not go through asking the same questions again because that little experience I gathered indicated a better order of doing things. What I had in mind was structure - the passing of information in a structured way, from simple to complex subjects. And I wanted to have a game evolving gradually from small functional independent stages - like 1 main character frame being displayed and 1 Say() - to more complex ones.

The idea that got me started with writing a "tutorial" was that all the available information is huge. Once one has progressed with his first game, what is needed and what has to be done is much clearer than at the beginning - at least from his own point of view. To know what course to follow, a beginner must read the Manual, other Tutorials, compare his ideas with what is written in the Forums, formulate and then ask questions. And then the beginner has to see everything working together, there is a lot of trial-and-error involved.

When I wrote my first game there was a conjuncture of supporting influences in my life: I had some free time, I had my mind free from pressing matters, I had the dedication to learn a bit of AGS, I had the patience to face obstacles; but it was a much earlier wish to make a game. I expect that there are other people with a similar situation that would feel more encouraged to continue a game project, even across some periods of time, if they would not have to face a lot of information at once.

My initiative may not be according to the reality of things in the AGS community. I am probably only aware of little of what is going on here. And perhaps there is no need for new tutorials but for a map to guide people in the already established order. A first negative reaction took me by surprise because of the way it was communicated. But seeing so many experienced AGSers gathering here makes me hope that my awkward step may remain behind a useful decision or initiative.

[dactylopus]

I like the concept of a tutorial for beginners by beginners, and would be interested in perusing it once finished.

The issue I have with a lot of the tutorial / manual / module / forum information is that it can be difficult to tell if it is current.  I search the forums often, and the results always take me to threads from something like 2003 or 2005.  I really have no way of knowing if that information is still relevant, or if the engine has been updated to a new, incompatible version (except for strenuous trial and error).  I also know that this can be difficult to fix, since people come and go, they don't update their threads, and it would be a ridiculous amount of work for moderators to weed through it all.

But back to the topic at hand, I would encourage the continued writing of a beginner tutorial.  Have it answer all of your beginner questions.  Look for other common queries and mistakes, and include that information.  Don't let yourself get discouraged by a few harsh words, just find the criticism in them and work to improve.