Legend-like interface with AGS?

[Kwark]

Howdy,

now i am not a programmer, so i'm not asking anyone to give me a detailed description of how to do this...actually, all i would like to know is IF IT IS POSSIBLE to re-create the interface that Legend used for their games such as Death Gate, Companions of Xanth, Shannara, etc.

Using AGS of course. What do y'all think, can it be done?

[Migs]

Absolutely.  AGS can do anything.

[Pumaman]

I don't know I'm afraid - I've never played any of those games.

[Kwark]

I don't know I'm afraid - I've never played any of those games.

Yeah, i should've put a description here  .

Here is a screenshot from Shannara (great abandoned game & designed by Lori & Corey Cole by the way!):



2/3 of the screen, in the upper left corner, is devoted to a graphic depiction of the room you're in. The screens are mostly static, except for the occasional animated finger tapping or something, but generally there's no animation.

Underneath it is room for descriptions etc. Dialogues take place in another screen

The bottom of the screen is divided into three sections:
left are the companions in your party. You can converse with them, and by clicking on the little pouches you get each character's own inventory

The inventory of course is the section in the middle. Next to that, bottom right, is the inventory item currently selected.

Above this, middle right, is the "compass". You use it to navigate through the game, in oldschool text adventure game style. In the screenshot, the only possible way to go is south, as it is the only arrow highlighted in red.

Above the compass are some verbs. These verbs appear as the mouse cursor touches a hotspot, and the available verbs may vary. With a door, it might say "open", "knock" etc. With water, it could be "drink", "pour" etc.

Oh yeah, and finally, top right corner are an "undo" button and the system button for saving, restoring, quit etc.

So that's it! Nothing fancy, but very nice and intuitive. Y'all think it can be done, then?

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

It would take some hefty scripting, but this should all be possible in ags.

[Kwark]

It would take some hefty scripting, but this should all be possible in ags.

OK...maybe can you tell me what the hardest part about this GUI would be to script?

Come to think of it, it bears some vague resemblance to the SCUMM GUI, except that the verb buttons are "hidden" and navigation works differently.
The Companions could be treated kind of like inventory items.

Maybe it would be possible to alter the SCUMM template to look like this?

[Kwark]

See, as long as the amount of work needed to create this GUI remains somewhat reasonable, the assets could really outweigh the investment. The result, if done properly, can be a very rich form of illustrated, interactive fiction, instead of the interactive cartoons or movies in the Sierra / Lucasarts vain. It might not really look it from this screenshot, but it's a really involving way of gameplay, with a true hardcore, oldschool adventure-feeling to it. Not "better" than more regular GUI's, but different...and I very much like it.

Besides, it saves a lot of tedious sprite-making, defining walking paths etc...

[Pumaman]

It all looks quite possible to do.

I don't know how well you know AGS scripting, but if you're new to it, I'd recommend tackling something simpler first.

There's no real "hardest" bit of that GUI to script that I can see, but it would all take a fair bit of AGS knowledge to pull it off.

[Ginny]

I think the characters wouldn't be very hard and they're inventory would just be like switching the player character IMO, I think the hardest parts would be the verbs changing for each object, and the arrows which will have to check which room you're in at that moment, where you can go from there, and make sure each arrow leads to where it's supposed to according to that room, thus you'll have to script (using variables I suppose) where in every room are the exits and where they lead. Unless there's some way to make a sort of map which indicates where each room is in relation to the others (north, south, east, west and diagonals).

Still, I like the idea of the interface, so if you want to have such an interface go for it. If you're new though, try scripting other things first, like a test of your skills, and read the tutorial for scripting.

[Kwark]

Thanks everybody for your comments!

AGS Rocks  8)

[DragonRose]

My thoughts on how it could be set up.  I personally don't think it would be that hard to implement.  I am curious about what that thing in the corner is, though.

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

I'm guessing it's an options menu of some kind? That would be the logical answer

[Pumaman]

Looks like it might be showing the active inventory item

[am]

Actually, as written in the explanation, the corner is the currently selected item (enabeling to look at it, using it on other items, etc.).

[DragonRose]

Whoops.  That's what I get for not reading the entire post.

[Kwark]

Wow dragonrose, thanks for the input! Sorry for the late reply by the way .

Your idea about the navigation compass sounds sweet, nice & simple, i like that.