A Good First Step

[frenzykitty]

Hello everyone. I've been researching thoroughly and am very keen to begin working on my first AGS game. All the tutorials and guides I've seen begin with the "Default" game, and I'd like to create everything from scratch (GUI's etc.) Do you have any advice on what to begin with (room and character art?) Can you possibly point me towards any resources that would help someone building a game from scratch?

[Crimson Wizard]

Just making a comment, I won't recommend to anyone to start blindly with "Default" template. It is classic Sierra GUI, and while may be easy to understand from player's point of view, it is not easiest to customize, and many things may be redundant for your game.
The simpliest GUI style I know is "left click = interact / right click = look at". I am not saying everyone should use it (it is a question of game design), but I believe it is most easy one to start with. Unfortunately, there's no such template in official AGS collection right now, but it is not so difficult to make one yourself (you should just read manual articles about scripting mouse controls and triggering interactions).

[frenzykitty]

Thanks for the advice! I was actually wanting that kind of interface. I will look into those chapters in the AGS menu Many Thanks!

[frenzykitty]

Are there any examples of this scripting I could take a look at to try and understand? it's all quite overwhelming

[Crimson Wizard]

I found I have this template I made back in 2009 (omg, how long it been...)

https://www.box.com/shared/13f5pq38x7

Put it into Adventure Game Studio/Templates folder, and create new game based on it.

I don't remember what it does exactly, but I think it uses the GUI style I mentioned.

E: Oh noes, it was made at the times when I did not know that you can use standard functions "on_mouse_click" and "repeatedly_execute" in custom modules too. It is usable, but should be improved.

It does two things:
1. Left-click = interact or use current inventory item; right-click = look or deselect current inventory item.
2. Display location name on a transparent floating gui, which follows mouse cursor.

[Cerno]

Welcome, frenzykitty.

I'd strongly suggest you grasp at least the basics of the scripting language.
You'll need some lines of script in any case for changing rooms and interacting with stuff (pick up items, handle the inventory etc), and that won't be too difficult to learn.

For anything beyond that, especially when it comes to adding custom functionality that is not currently supplied by AGS, you'd need a solid grasp of the language, the blocking system, the repeatedly_execute functions and so on.
If you really want to make everything from scratch (which I would not recommend for a beginner), you should definitely read the manual completely from beginning to end and skip only the parts that you don't feel relevant for your project. AGS has its pitfalls for the beginner and making a game with a pre-made template would be advisable.

If you have the time, I'd highly recommend you take a look at the video tutorials, they should get you started nicely.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=21DB402CB4DAEAEF

Good luck to your first project.

[frenzykitty]

Thank you all SO MUCH for the advice. I probably wouldn't push the boundaries in terms of adding new unsupported features, just really want to make all the GUIs and cursors and things myself :-)

[Cerno]

Okay, maybe I misunderstood what you want to do.

I thought you meant you wanted to implement the GUI functionality yourself.
If it's just the graphics, you can start with a given template and replace the graphics just the way you want. The rest will probably be only a matter of adjusting a few variables. I currently only have experience with the verb coin template and changing the GUI graphics was fairly easy, even for a beginner.

[Khris]

Until you find scripting a bit less overwhelming, why don't you try building a test game first, using the existing interface?
I understand the desire to build everything from scratch very well, but you're getting ahead of yourself it seems.

[frenzykitty]

Thanks so mucch everyone. you are all very kind and "noob-friendly" :-)

[frenzykitty]

I'm getting there. Tweaked the coding in Crimson Wizard's template slightly so there's now a status bar where the text appears whenever you hover over a point of interest. Also created a simple room with a locked door/key scenario, using a boolean as the isDoorLocked "switch"

Getting there, slowly but surely

[Crimson Wizard]

Hey, that's already a short game.