I've started compiling a small guide (mainly to help me) but thought it might be of interest to other AGS users. it's in .pdf format. if anybody wants to add anything (FAQ, tutorial, quick tip) or there's something not right, please email me at andy(@)madladdesigns.co.uk (remove brackets) and I'll add / change / delete as appropriate. Hopefully it will turn into a full guide which will help beginners and veterans alike.
Beginner’s Guide to Adventure Game Studio (http://www.madladdesigns.co.uk/agsguide.pdf)
Nice job! :)
This can be useful to newbies if it's updated constantly.
Thanks, I also created another guide for a different game maker called FPS Creator and it became official! So I do know what I'm doing. lol!
The OFFICIAL Community Guide to FPSC! (http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view=131868&b=21)
I agree.
If it was constantly updated with common questions from
forum,there would be less of the same ones.
The file,if it gets bigger might even be included in the ags program help!
I love this idea.
Not to sound ungrateful and jealous and all, but wah, I had this idea for the last four weeks. There's a fact for that proving i did(check Ghost's blog). Good to know you decided to work on it. Godd job. I'd love to help out, if you need any helping. Good luck otherwise.
Nice job! Anyone cares to do a guide regarding simple LucasArts GUI? (with fewer commands) :D
I even made a module handling 3 control methods(sierra,lucas,bass)
@Dualnames: Sorry, I didn't know you were doing one also. Anything in mine you can have, are you still doing this as it seems silly to have two guides? If so I stop mine.
@Gribbler: ANY contributions from would be most welcome. ;D
Good work :)
We've had various FAQ's in the past but invariably they gradually go out of date as new versions of AGS come along.
One thing about this -- the suggested method for changing the character's speech colour seems a bit convoluted compared to just changing the "SpeechColor" property for the character in the editor. While the suggested solution is fine for changing the colour mid-game, it seems overly-complicated for setting the initial speech colour.
Well, no man don't stop yours. I said i had this idea and posted about in some blogs and well, you came up with it too. That's good. Don't stop yours. Mind if I contribute?
Edit; My idea was to take all of the questions ever posted to the forums. Process them, label them and make them into a blog. Ever seen how easy it is to find something in a blog with labels? I was about to name the whole project as the Hitchhikers Guide to AGS, anyway pm me or enter the stickam room if you want a hand or a partner on this.
A beginner's guide can well be a team effort, lads ;) It's the newcomers who'll benefit, not the ones who compile it. As they say: Those who make the happy ends, they don't get'em.
@Pumana: Didn't even see that! I've now corrected it, thanks. :)
If anybody sends me anything; tutorials, hints, tips, etc, then that will be accredited to whoever sent it. Check out my other guide (a few posts up) to see how that was put together.
Ok, then I'm taking the liberty of creating this blog. Not as a leader, but as a creator, anyone who cares to join might as well do.
www.guidetoags.blogspot.com
I'm updating this as we speak.
The guide has been updated. :)
Guide has been updated with a dialog tutorial. If I've got things wrong please tell me so I can correct it. Thanks :=
Nice work, very useful guide. Keep up the good work! I hope you'll be updating it constantly:)
Nice work, but like I mentioned in the other thread, the "best" way to make a hotspot talk is a) use a character instead whose sprite is e.g. an intercom, or b) make the character not clickable.
Doing it with a pixel-sized character might cause strange results. (Although the odds are small.)
Say someone uses a Broken Sword-like interface, and the interaction cursor at the intercom suddenly turns into a mouth at a single pixel. Plus, clicking it does nothing. ;)
I was wanting to get away from using a character altogether Khris. :) I'm using an irregular shaped hotspot and I didn't want to make a copy of the hotspot background, turn it into a character then import that back in, if I decided to change the hotspot I'd have to do that all over again. I will make the pixel clickable though, just in case. ;)
Not-clickable, I hope ;)
It's not better by itself to get away from using a character. There are templates where it's not even possible to talk to something that isn't a character.
In any case, and I know this really sounds condescending, sorry, but a beginner who doesn't listen to good advice isn't the ideal person to put together a beginner's guide IMO. :=
There's also the Beginner's FAQ (http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agswiki/Category:AGS_Beginners%27_FAQ), so you're already reinventing the wheel anyway.
Why don't you add really common questions to the existing FAQ instead?
Yeah, not-clickable, oops :)
QuoteIn any case, and I know this really sounds condescending, sorry, but a beginner who doesn't listen to good advice isn't the ideal person to put together a beginner's guide IMO.
This 'guide' was really for my own help instead of asking the same questions over and over, also I like to print and read as I'm not always at the computer but have time to read. The other guide I made started out exactly the same and I got a lot of things wrong, but it was guys like you that kept me right. I took over 2 years of adding and tweaking before the creators of the program made it 'official'. I've got a long way to go. ;D
The guide has been updated. :)
Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but (1) is this any different than the Beginners' FAQ already up on the AGS wiki? And (2) if not, why not just update the wiki? I feel like my work was all for nothing. ;) (I made the original externally-hosted B-FAQ, which evolved into the wiki section.) I didn't take the time to read this guide, so it may be something completely different.
it is different, and very well written I must say. Having only recently found AGS, this list of general queries has not only given me inspiration for things to include in my game but also answered some questions that I had already.
Have a read of it !
A few people seem to be behaving as if only one person is allowed to make a guide for this wonderful program and take credit for being the master 'tutorialist' lol, surely any (good) tutorials made are helpful for the community and anyone making one should be thanked?
I'm sure, based on the OP's attitude so far, he'd be happy to donate his material to the wiki?...
Anyway, really nice guide, very professionally made, well done, I will be using it in the future I'm sure :)