Could you guys take a look at this:
http://www.agsforums.com/acintro.htm
Basically, it covers the same stuff as the manual tutorial, but hopefully it's better written and easier to understand since it contains screenshots and stuff.
So far it only covers up to the "Trying out your game" bit from the manual, but if it's useful I can continue it.
Opinions?
That's great! Excellent for the newcomers, it doesn't look so scary as the one before. Might be the picks, newcomers LUUUV picks!
EDIT----
Oh, and I think this should be a sticky..
great!!!111!!!......i think that it is going to be very helpfull!
This is really great! It will really help newbies like myself...
Now only a more detailed online tut on scripting :)
Part 3 is now up - this now covers up to the "Walk-to points" part of the manual tutorial.
I hope someone finds it useful.
Thats probably the best way to do it, right there....
Good job, Chris, I am constantly impressed by your efforts....
That is the best thing I've seen so far on starting to use AGS.
Chris, I just browsed through the web tutorial. I think the illustrations are very informative and useful. Do you plan on having a table of contents or index? That way if someone read the tutorial once or twice, started using ags and then got stuck on something, they be able to easily find the part of the tutorial they need to read again. Just a thought. Great job so far, as always :).
I found that Part4 is running, too.
http://www.agsforums.com/acintro4.htm
Simply brilliant. I agree with Rick on the Table OF Contents thing, and an index. That shouldn't be that hard to make tho, hell if you're swamped for time I could try messing around with it.
Well, the tutorial isn't finished yet as it only covers about the first half of the manual tutorial. When it's finally done, I'll definately add a contents page.
Yeah, it'll be quite useful to newbies, how to make their way through AGS. :)
I'm hoping on more advanced tutorials though ;)
I have been developing my first game using insta game from sylpher which I will post there when I am done as well as here. I have been using this tutorial to get started, and it has been a great learning exercise. There are a couple of places where the tutorial seemed to assume I knew some things I didn't, but I was able to jump ahead or find answers in other places that allowed me to move forward. I would love to see more of this, especially in interactions with objects and characters. Great job to date.
..........................gene
I'd be very interested in knowing where it assumed you knew things you didn't, so that I can try and correct that. It's only when a newbie such as yourself works through a tutorial that we actually discover whether it makes sense or not. :)
Chris - like any newbie (I imagine), my head just spontaneously combusted when I discovered your AGS engine and all the support surrounding it. I'm really impressed with the amount of aptitude and dedication which you express in its behalf. As far as the screenshot ver. of the manual, I've printed it for reference, and it's a boon! Excellent! I look forward to adding to it with future editions.
Tom King
Staff Writer
Adventure Gamers
Quote from: CJ on Fri 20/12/2002 23:21:18I'd be very interested in knowing where it assumed you knew things you didn't, so that I can try and correct that. It's only when a newbie such as yourself works through a tutorial that we actually discover whether it makes sense or not. :)
Going back over the four rooms I have created so far, I think I owe you an appology. I went outside the scope of the tutorial. I needed to import a new character and an object that wasn't a key. The good news is I was successful in doing this.
Hey, I am finding this manual thing VERY useful. Since I am a total newbie and know absolutley nothing about scripting and other random AGS stuff...
I love this. I learned a little bit, even though I have been using AGS for a while. If you did some more advanced tutorials with pictures..it would be even better.
Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it.
As for more advanced tutorials - my plan is to first of all finish the tutorials to get new users started, then I'll try and make more advanced ones. But I'm just writing these pages from time to time, it's not something I'm working on with a high priority.
Other people have written good tutorials for some advanced stuff, check the Resources page.
You always can try
http://ags.slaveinostudios.com/tutorials.html
There are some advanced tutorials.
I hope this is the correct place to ask this question... Is part seven of this web-based tutorial (which will cover animations, I believe) going up any time soon? How many parts will there be in all? I'm finding this very useful, by the way. Thanks!
I've almost finished part 7, but these tutorial pages are a low-priority task so I don't really have a target date for finishing them :)
Ok, part 7 is up now, hope it helps someone. :)
I used AGS back when it was still DOS based. I never learnt this much even though I experimented for months with it. After just one evening with this tutorial I knew all the basics. Thanks.
Going to read the one on animations now.
Chris, these Web-based visual tutorials are extremely helpful... Thanks!
I read part 7. Hey. Great now I finaly know how to make my man go to a object before picking it up. About time I learnt how to do that.
So the next ones going to be about chating between character's?
Yup. These tutorials are a smashing hit with the community.
Will there be one on creating cut scenes or is that to advanced. Also I was wondering if there are any plans for a update on the tutorials on scripting.
Quote from: gooooogle on Fri 31/01/2003 13:03:42
Will there be one on creating cut scenes or is that to advanced. Also I was wondering if there are any plans for a update on the tutorials on scripting.
There may be one on full cut-scenes, I don't know yet. What do you think needs updating in the scripting tutorial?
Thers nothing wrong with it I would just like to know moore.
great! This is very helpful!
When is the next part coming about conversations?
CJ: I know I asked this before but an index to the different sections would be very useful. When answering questions in the beginners forum, it would be nice to be able to post a link to the relevant part of your tutorial. I believe the last time we discussed this you indicated that you wanted to spend your time doing the tutorials first and then make the index; a very wise and logical position as always. :)
What I am wondering is if it would be feasible for one of us to compile an index and provide it to you in a useable form? If not then how about if we put such an index in a sticky post in this forum. If you wish, I can do the work just let me know if and how to proceed.
Cheers
RickJ and Mats have BIG points. I downloaded AGS about 2 and a half months ago, It said...."coming next week: conversations". I have read the manual on this, and you obviously have to make the AGS editor better, but maybe you could get someone to do it?
--Jimi-- ;)
Alright, part 8 is (finally) uploaded. :)
Rick: good points, I will try to upload an index soon.
I tried using ags once about 3 months ago, but I had a hard time figuring it out, today i had some free time, and decided to try it out again, I'm finally starting to understand it after following along with all that tutorial your making, thanks, and keep up the good work! :)
Hello, I found your tutorial extremely useful, but my connection time is very limited. So I'd like to ask if there will be an offline version available for download anytime soon?
Thanks a lot!
I don't think there is at the moment, but you could always just save the pages from the site.
As far as I remember, this is also available in the manual.
Yep, just look up "Starting off" in the manual index and you'll find it all there.
ADDED CUSTOM GUI TUT - http://www.amazing-ebooks.co.uk/ags/tutorials/tut5.html
Quote from: Necro on Fri 18/07/2003 03:05:54
ADDED CUSTOM GUI TUT - http://www.amazing-ebooks.co.uk/ags/tutorials/tut5.html
Above link doesn't seem to work, but this one gets you where it should:
http://www.amazing-ebooks.co.uk/ags/tutorials/tut5.php
EDIT: Btw, great tut!
I found the tutorials very useful for sorting out what was relevant to putting together a working basis, and getting a feel for how things are organised, after which it was much easier to investigate the details.
I had to edit the hrefs for offline use, though.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who would prefer that it use relative rather than absolute URLs.
This is to report back on the manual tutorial.
It was great! It's the first manual I have printed out to study, since... TELIX for DOS! Thank you Chris Jones!
Hello Pumaman and every one else.
First I'd like to say I realy ingoyed your tutorial. I've been looking at the manual sins I comleated it but I am egarly awhating the next ones.
I've been making sume progres but your tutorials were alot esiar to follow.
A few nights ago I stumbled across AGS, by complete and total accident. I was looking up some old stuff on Hero Quest and Quest for Glory (feeling a little bit nostalgic) when I came across QFG 4.5. This lead me to the AGS link.
Truthfully, I didn't have any clue that a freeware like this existed, but I'm extremely excited to finally be able to put together an adventure game. All of my background is in Java, C++, Turbo Pascal, etc, but with an engine like this, I realized I could accomplish a lot.
Without this tutorial though, I would have never been able to start up and get going with this engine so quickly. Huge bump on the tutorial, it is very clean cut, and the screenshots were an excellent idea.
Thanks a lot for the tutorial, now I'm off to buy a few beginner level books on art. Hopefully I'll have a game up and going in no time!
Later
A very large welcome to our wonderful community. Drink the cult-juice, and you'll be on your way. ;)
You may not need to go buy expensive art books when you can just take advantage of all of us and the wonderful tutorials that we have linked to in the critics lounge, and just hang out and you'll hear all sorts of comments on art, plus we have minor competitions which are an excellent way to jump into the art genre. All we ask is if you have any contributions to the community, don't be shy, post some helping code, offer suggestions, and have my girl back by 10... sharp.
This is a VERY good bigginers guide but now I'm stuck a little I can't seem to figure out how to go to another room. I have made another room and set the boundries so that when he walks to the door it should take him in but I don't know how. Please help.
Thanks
Newbie
Claw
If you set the boundaries (and walkable areas)correctly, just click interaction menu (icon with the alphabet "i") in the room editing tab, you'll see there are 4 lines reading "walking off .... edge", double click the appropiate one, set it to "Player - go to a different room" or "Player - go to a different room (ath specific coordinated)", and set the parameters there, just experiment and experience more with it (and read manual, tutorials of course), you should soon get the feeling on how things work.
I actully figured it out last night after giving up on reading things to figure it out. I just started messing around with the program and experimenting. I actully learned alot of new things on my own. Still I would have never got anywhere near what I know today with out this awesome tutorial. Kudos to this man. Thanks for all you help. Also thanks to kill kill kill for his prompt responce to my question if I was still stuck on this problem today it would be solved.
My experiences as a newbie in most places has never been good. You usually get laughed at and mocked for asking question that some may consider to be stupid. But every one here from what I have read is very understanding and helps add to the welcoming atmosphere.
Again thanks to every one.
Peace
Claw
Ok, I've finally written part 9 and uploaded it. It's the final part of the "Getting started tutorial" - from now on, independent tutorials will be added on particular topics.
I've also written a "making your first GUI" tutorial - hope it helps someone.
http://www.agsforums.com/acintro.htm
Thank you!
The GUI one is just in time hehe. I crapped my top bar thingy up yesterday. The ? box is now the quit box somehow argh. Then the quit box is the save game off.
Now I can fix it, thank you :) The other lessons have been a huge help. Very easy to understand!
The lessons that were at the slaveinostudios link (a link in this thread and the other "read first" thread for beginners) no longer works. Are those lessons somewhere else now?