Creating a Myst style interface

[Jordanowen42]

Hello all-

I'm restarting from scratch a project I worked on a few months ago. My goal is to do something in the style of Myst or the 7th Guest- just a simple arrow pointer that can be used to pick things up and click on exits from room to room. Being the n00b that I am, I originally went at this by using the Sierra/lucas arts point-and-click presets to begin since the clicking/inventory was already good to go.

My question is this: I don't want the other icons- movement, sight, talk, etc. But I can't seem to get rid of them, either from the pull down bar or the right mouse click. So how do I do that? Or is there a better way to do a Myst style experience? I know there's the the verb coin but I don't even want that.

Any insight is appreciated.
-J

[Snarky]

The main difference between the different templates is how the "verbs" work: how players choose which actions to perform, and how many there are—though the Tumbleweed (LucasArts-style) template in particular also does a bunch of other stuff. You must have picked the Sierra-style template, which works how you describe.

Your project sounds like you're aiming for a single-button interface with inventory. Meaning, there are only two ways to interact with a particular part of the scenery at any time: click on it with a normal mouse cursor (which cannot change), or choose an inventory item and then click on it. This interaction paradigm is basically a simplified version of what the BASS (2-click) template does, the only difference being that BASS also lets you examine/look at things by right-clicking on them.

So I would recommend using the BASS template as the basis for your game, rather than try to modify the presets of the Sierra-style template. If you don't want to have "look at" as an option, you can simply neglect to create those events.

[Jordanowen42]

Awesome- Thanks!

[Khris]

Was bored so I made a basic Myst template:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ApTmCF5vGZVwS9I0xtmZVGSL_stHcGA/view?usp=drive_link

Edit: Google seems to think the template contains malicious content , so here's also a mega link:
https://mega.nz/file/lIo1hTJT#DH-OmahyGUc8RZlArhGUbGbEwSTR4waFedlT3lPbmIM



Basic inventory and four directional cursors for exits.
In an exit hotspot's custom properties, set "Exit" to true, then set a direction and room number.

Edit: using Regions for the exits makes more sense I guess since there's no walking anyway. Will edit soon and put playable version online.
Edit2: right, nevermind, Regions don't have custom properties

[Crimson Wizard]

Edit: using Regions for the exits makes more sense I guess since there's no walking anyway.

I think hotspots are better for this, because they have custom properties and can react to clicking, unlike Regions.

[Snarky]

I haven't checked out the template, but if it's more or less complete, it might be worth adding to the standard set. People regularly want to make first-person Myst-style games in AGS, after all.

[Khris]

I've made some small improvements, added a text window GUI and put a playable version online:

https://khris.ddns.net/myst/

Direct download:

https://khris.ddns.net/myst/Myst.agt

[eri0o]

I think it would be useful to have a hand cursor that you can click to deselect items or if clicking the item with itself would deselect it, otherwise if you don't have a right click you can't deselect things?

About putting it as a default template I think it would be nice to have two default rooms like the one in the Thimbleweed template and then have someone render the graphics - erh, would avoid putting the graphics directly from Myst itself.

Spoiler

By chance I also recently found a first person point and click made in Unreal in tigsource that the screen shots look interesting, you can see in a dev capture that it uses masks for hotspots too.

https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=74591.0

[close]