Well...I've spent a long time extracting sprites/menus from an old Digimon virtual pet of mine, and I would really like to have a PC version of it. I have 100% of the art, and know the gameplay off by heart, and I think AGS would be a great candidate to script it. The only statistics/factors that need to be included are the following:
Clock.
Time lapse.
Penalties.
A 5 point Hunger counter, which decreases at intervals.
A 5 point Strength counter which also decreases at intervals.
Perhaps some other global variables to determine some Vs play if it gets off the ground.
One difficulty I'm having, is that only three buttons control every screen and menu function. One idea I have is to have a different "Room" for each of the menu screens, so when it changes the Buttons. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. I've also heard talk of online connectivity between AGS, are there any quick links I could be pointed too?
You could just as easily use multiple GUI's for you menus.
you could could use global variables for your statistics. If you are going to have multiple character then you may want to consider creating a custom data type using the struct keyword.
// *** Script Header ***
// Define a custom data type in the script header
struct digistat {
DateTime Clock;
int TimeLapse;
int Hunger;
int Strength;
int Other;
};
// Make variable available to all room scripts
import digistat Digimon;
// *** Global Script ***
// Define a global variable using the custom data type
digistat Digimon;
export Digimon;
// *** Any Room or Global Script ***
// Change stats
Digimon.Hunger = 2;
Digimon.Strength = Digimon.Strength -1;
if (Digimon.Strength<0) Digimon.Strength = 0;
There are a couple of plugins that provide network access via TCP/IP.
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?action=search2 (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?action=search2)
Hope you find this helpful.
*blinks* It makes sense, truly. But the implementation of it is what I think will really prove to be the challenge. As I have no complex scripting knowledge. My only AGS experience was the 'point and click' Build method. No real scripting involved. Perhaps I'll have to dedicate an afternoon to familiarizing myself with Global Variables and the like.
I appreciate the advice, at least it gives me some footing. Just so I know how complex/un-complex this is, could you provide me an estimate of how long it make take an experienced scripter to do?
An experienced scripter would take longer to import and fiddle around with the graphics than to write the code.
AGS scripting is fairly easy to learn so I would encourage you to give it a try. You need to have a sand box game where you can try out different things and learn what you are doing.
Just give it a try and ask question when you get hung up.