Engine Testing

[The Star]

Hello,

Inspired by this thread at Adventure Gamers, I have decided to create a test. I am downloading several free adventure game creation engines, and I am going to create a short identical game on each of them. I'm going to be comparing the different features of the engines, seeing which ones do what best.

I'm posting here to ask what features should be tested? I have a list of simple things, like size of download, size of installation, and whether the engine is script based, graphic based or a combination of the two.

What features do you consider vital? Which features are not vital, but are just really, really cool? (Admit it, you don't really NEED light effects or alpha blending, do you?)

Also, which engines do you want tested? I've got WME, AGAST and AGS. I'm not going to be testing Sludge, though, because I'm a skinflint. If someone who has it wants to perform the test for me, though, that would be great.

Finally, I must warn you that I am involved in one of the adventure engine communities under a different name, but I'm not going to tell you which one because everyone would say I'm biased. I'm going to try and keep my personal preferences out of this, though.

Thank you,

The Star

[LGM]

If the download works

If it runs or not.

If it has a manual or not.

If there is a friendly forum for technical help.

If you can make a game without spending 2 years learning a bogus scripting language.

If it's beta or full-release

If it's still being updated.

These amongst other things should be considered.

[Privateer Puddin']

If it has a 'Make My Game' button

If it is good at what its meant to be (eg. AGS, 1990 style LEC and Sierra games, not 2004s 3D super games!11)

[Radiant]

Versatility. In other words, can it be used to program Tetris, or a platform game. This is less silly than it sounds, because this is a crashtest for versatility in other fields such as minigames.
Stability, i.e. does it crash a lot.
Similarity to existing languages (i.e. AGS syntax is quite similar to C)
Does the author respond within three days if you post a long list of really obscure bugs (kudos to CJ!!!)
Minimum system specs to run a game on

[HingedShinobi]

is it easy to get to grips with (similar to what Gryph said)
adding to something else he said, a friendly ACTIVE community
the Resolution it supports
image file types
has it got any built in editors for the sprites etc

[Ginny]

This is a good idea, I think.
I'd say you should check interface creation options, ease of use, control over the game, amount limitations.
Also, I think trying to script out several sequences or challenges and see where it is easier/possible to do.
For example, try to script characters walking around an area randomly performing actions, and see where it works better, more in depth, is possible at all, can happen between several rooms, etc.
Also, even when something is technically impossible yet, check for how often there are workarounds.
Resolution and color options.
How dialogs are handled.
But of course, I love AGS for the dedication of it's author, so update frequency, implementation of user suggestions, etc.
I'll be waiting for the results!

P.s. Maybe you'll have better luck of finding someone to test it on sludge on the sludge forums. Or you could ask in the same thread you linked to.

+
Community
User Plugins and support for plugins

[Phemar]

This is a darn good idea...Go for it!

[m0ds]

Simply; Does the engine suit your needs? Is it easy to learn it's scriping language? And does the final product look and play how you want/wanted it too?

Then, does the game work on all types of PC system, or do some engines have problems running on certain operating systems, etc.

[LordHart]

I was forced to use AGS by my mother/goons/Yufster/the development team/other party.

How many people has Yufster forced into using AGS?

[The Star]

Yes, it has been five months since I've posted anything about my experiment.Ã,  That's mainly because it has been going very badly.Ã,  It looks like I'll have to scale it back to a comparison.Ã,  Some of the engines were not what I would chose for myself at all.Ã,  In other words, I couldn't figure out how to make the darn things work.

However, I haven't abandoned the Great Test entirely.Ã,  I have started developing a website for posting a list of comparisons between the engines.Ã,  The number of engines has been expanded to 5- AGAST, AGS, Sludge, Visionaire and Wintermute.Ã, 

The first document gives the basic statistics for each engine regarding download size, what is included in the download, and what kind of files the Engine accepts.Ã,  Unfortunatly, some of the information is out of date.Ã,  Some engines update too quickly for me to stay abreast of what they can do!

My next update will be about engine support- how often they are updated, what sort of community is available surrounding the engine, etc.

Any and all comments can be made here or e-mailed to me at game_testar@yahoo.com

[ghostface]

No AGI? That's weird, would of thought that would be up there. Like what you're doing here, thanks.

[Gilbert]

It'd be unfair to include AGI Studio (I think you meaned this), as it's not a complete development from scratch, it's just an editor for an already existing commercial game format, and seeing the point that the AGI format is restricted to some style of games, which was classic.