TEMPLATE: Sierra AGI+ style Template for making modern AGI games

[Gal Shemesh]

Hi everyone,

Following my previous Sierra AGI-style Template thread and the recent release of my Leisure Suit Larry 1 AGI+ Remake, I'm proud to announce the release of the Sierra AGI+ style template, so everyone could make AGI+ games easily!

*** PLEASE NOTE ***
This template was created on AGS Editor build 3.6.2.11 while newer releases may be in even newer build versions! (refer to the change log below). They will NOT work on previous version of the editor! If you ignore this warning and tried to use it in an older editor version than the build number mentioned above, it may make your AGS editor to crash and lock itself in your operating system processes. This of course could be solved either by killing the process manually or by restarting your computer. You can install the current AGS editor build side-by-side with an older version on your system, only make sure that you don't install it on the same directory where the older version is installed. And most importantly, when the AGS setup ends, it will ask you if you wish to make it the default program to opening your AGS source files - make sure to NOT select that option, so you won't end up double clicking on your current projects and then opening and saving them in the newer build!

If you ever wanted to make an AGI-style game in AGS but didn't know how or where to start, and prefer a 'point & click' style game rather than parser based, this is the right template for you; all the initial setup to making an AGI+ style game is already done in it, so you could focus on making your game and not worry about the logic behind the scenes, unless you want to modify something in the core logic of the template.

Sierra AGI+ template by Gal Shemesh

This template brings an interface inspirited by Sierra's AGI style 2:1 aspect ratio interpreter, as familiar from the original King's Quest 1, 2, 3 and 4 AGI versions, with the exception add-on of the following:
- Modern 'point & click' interface instead of using a parser text box,
- A graphical inventory instead of a text based one.
- Top bar text menu with drop-down lists to accessing different section, such as about, help, save, restore, restart, quit, speed, and also an action menu for custom actions and a special menu with options such toggling sound on and off, toggling light and dark mode for menus, and pausing the game.
- Walking with either the mouse or the keyboard in all 8 directions.
- Right-clicking to cycle between the varies mouse modes.
- Mouse wheel over the inventory area to scroll the inventory left and right when you hold more items than can be seen on a single screen.
- English, Hebrew and foreign CGA ASCII fonts.
- English and Hebrew EGA/VGA font (as a bonus, but not in use in this template).
- Empty and Closeup room templates for a smooth start.
- New character template ready for import.

Refer to the PDF manual reference help file to learn more about this template and its varies functions.
Source code for the template is also provided for your reference; in it you'd also find a Resources folder, so don't forget to check it out.

While viewing the source code, you'd probably find that there's a better way to doing varies things that I coded. You're more than welcome to change the code to your liking, but please do not share/upload a modified version of this template, as I wish it to be consistent and accessible from one place; if you have suggestions for improvements, you're more than welcome to let me know and I'll consider adding them to a next release.

To install the template in AGS, download the 'Sierra AGI+ style .agt', 'Closeup Room .art' and 'Empty Room .art' files and place them in the 'Templates' folder under your AGS installation directory (by default it would be C:\Program Files (x86)\Adventure Game Studio x.x.x\Templates). You should then see the new template when selecting to create a new game.


If you're just learning AGS and/or make a non-commercial game, you are welcome to use the assets I created (you may find them in the 'Resources' folder in the 'Source' directory). However, if you create a commercial game, you are not allowed to use my assets but only the template itself to creating something original of yours.

If you have any feedback about this template, bug report and/or suggestions for improvement, feel free to reach me here or on the Discord channel. Though on Discord your messages could get berried after newer messages, so this forum page would be the best place. Here, others can mark your bug reports, suggestion, etc. with thumbs-up, so I could estimate the urgency for fixing or improving something you reported about.

DOWNLOAD LINK

Attached a few screenshots:









Changelog
=========
Version 1.0.1
- Adding a custom timer for hiding the speed label.
- Moving the code for making the player walk to the bottom of the screen from the OVERHOTSPOT label GUI OnClick event to the 'on_mouse' function.
- Making the OVERHOTSPOT label GUI not clickable.
- Renaming the reference PDF file from 'Manual' to 'Help Reference'.
- Fixing some misprints and missed info in the PDF help reference.

Version 1.0.0
Released: 5th July 2025
Notes: Initial release of this template on AGS Editor build 3.6.2.11.

[Crimson Wizard]

If you ignore this warning and tried to use it in an older editor version than the build number mentioned above, it may make your AGS editor to crash and lock itself in your operating system processes. This of course could be solved either by killing the process manually or by restarting your computer.

Since when this is happening? Normally the Editor should simply tell that it is incapable of loading the game and go back to the startup dialog.

[Gal Shemesh]

Since when this is happening? Normally the Editor should simply tell that it is incapable of loading the game and go back to the startup dialog.

Hi CW. It happened to someone back when I released my previous Sierra AGI-style Template, so I updated this warning in the other thread to prevent any confusion; I actually copied this warning block from there, but I'm not sure if it was fixed since then. If you say that this shouldn't happen, I'll just go ahead and strikethrough that text.

[Crimson Wizard]

If you say that this shouldn't happen, I'll just go ahead and strikethrough that text.

Well, "should not" as in "not supposed to". But whether it does or not I cannot tell, because I've never had seen the report myself and don't know what to test exactly.

I know that Editor had this issue when it failed to close the splash screen in case some library did not load. I have finally fixed this only recently.
But I do not recall same happening in case of loading a unsupported project, or creating a new project from template.

[Gal Shemesh]

Well, "should not" as in "not supposed to". But whether it does or not I cannot tell, because I've never had seen the report myself and don't know what to test exactly.

I remember someone who used build 3.6.0.x who reported of this problem with the previous template, and I recall that I managed to reproduce it. I'm not sure what was different on my system back then, because I tried installing 3.6.0 from the archive to reproduce the problem with the old template of mine, but it doesn't reproduce. So my guess is that there was something on my system (and probably on this other member's system) that caused this odd scenario. Either way, I strikethrough that text in the warning on both threads. Thanks.