Topic: Escape Game Maker

[dbuske]

http://doctorfou.com/room-escape-maker
A little maker for escape games.  A bit simplistic, but a nice little online resource

[Stupot]

Cool tool! I can even do it on my phone.
I'm in the middle of making a pretty basic escape game in AGS, which I will stick to, but might use this tool to map out my puzzles and/or just to have some kind of online version.

:-)

[Mandle]

Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this!

I've experimented with creating games with the kids' classes I teach at my school in AGS but the problem is that AGS is so complex that the kids really only get to input their ideas for the story, do some art etc. and then I have made the game behind the scenes and given it to them. This was still a lot of fun, but with this tool they can be hands-on with the entire process from start to finish!!!

AND Japanese kids LOVE Escape The Room games!!! I even have a few students who have participated in live Escape The Room events with their parents...

So there are going to be a lot of happy kids at my school after we get back from the winter break!

PLUS you've given ME a reason to look forward to going back to work as well!!!

Thanks so much once again.

* Mandle runs off to finish watching the tutorial...

[Mandle]

Well, I had my first classes yesterday after the winter break and I introduced the project to my class...

And I've never seen them so excited about a class project before! At the end of the class I almost couldn't get them to leave: They just wanted to keep talking about ideas for puzzles.

We got a few items finished as I introduced them to how the "scripting" works: A sliding bookcase and a sofa with cushions you can rip open. The rather simplistic engine can actually be used to make some fairly decent puzzles I have found, but it does require a lot of thinking outside the box to not get trapped in the "find-key-open-door" pattern that the interface was mostly designed for...

I even started making my own game last night based on The Wizard Of Oz, building scenes and characters out of stuff that wasn't meant to be used in that way. I don't know yet if the site will accept or reject such a game. We will see...but in any case it's something nice and light-hearted to do for game devs while taking short breaks between mainstream development...

Thanks again for this thread!

[dbuske]

The owners of the site are a bit picky about the games accepted.
Make sure it isn't to simple, they like multiple tasks.
You cannot allow multiple examples of objects to appear in the inventory.
That is the tricky part.

[Mandle]

The owners of the site are a bit picky about the games accepted.
Make sure it isn't to simple, they like multiple tasks.
You cannot allow multiple examples of objects to appear in the inventory.
That is the tricky part.

Cheers...yeah I watched the tutorial and I know how to stop multiple object dumps from an onscreen item: You just have to make sure the item that dumps the object becomes hidden and a non-dumping, but otherwise identical, object replaces it.

[Mandle]

Double post and sorry...

The kids are pumped to get these games out and some very creative things are happening!!!

First game coming out soon...And it's a doozy!!!

[Mandle]

Well, I had my first classes yesterday after the winter break and I introduced the project to my class...

And I've never seen them so excited about a class project before! At the end of the class I almost couldn't get them to leave: They just wanted to keep talking about ideas for puzzles.

This seems to have made its way into a user-quote on the website quoted as "a school teacher"...

I couldn't be happier!!!

Thanks to whoever linked doctorfou to this quote or to doctorfou himself (or herself) if they are an AGS forums browser...

EDIT: Oh and also...I'm going to be submitting my monday class' project on wednesday after just a bit more polishing...We did the final class playthrough today and everyone was very satisfied...I feel it's a very entertaining game and I'm very excited about the release...I will provide the link here if it is hosted on the site...

[Mandle]

UPDATE: It took a bit longer and a bit more feedback from the students to get the game good enough (hopefully) for hosting on the site...A lot of playtesting from the kids pointed out the obvious (just not to me) flaws and demanded a bunch of major design overhauls...

Well anyways, the first game from the mighty forge of Future Friends (the school I own here in Japan) is uploaded for review and possible hosting...

I really hope I can post a link here soon to play the game as it has been over a month in development with the kids and also about 30 hours of my spare time figuring out how to properly represent our vision of the game within the framework of the engine...

So yeah...stay posted...for the pending publication of:

Super Beasts

[Stupot]

Can't wait to play it. I like to think some of those kids have bright careers as game devs ahead of them

[Mandle]

I like to think some of those kids have bright careers as game devs ahead of them

As do I!!!

[Mandle]

Yaaaay! They just published my classes' first game on the site! If you would like to check it out:

http://doctorfou.com/room-escape-maker/MondayClass

The kids are going to be so stoked, and I'm kind of proud of the game myself

[Cassiebsg]

Congrats! Looking forward to try it.