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The typical solution is to organize your game in steps, where you can clearly define what is required for reaching each step: story variables set, characters moved to rooms, inventory given or taken, and so on. Note that I am not speaking of any player action, like walking around, or reading the dialogs, but the logical changes in the game only.

After that you will have a list of all things necessary to change from step A to step B, and so on.

Then you will be able to write a function that advances the game from start to any given step, by iterating through these steps one by one, until it reaches the required one. To clarify again, it only changes the logical state, and does not really simulate walking etc.

Thanks for the quick reply. You've given me plenty to think about. 

I'll try to structure some code around this idea. I guess I'll have to build some kind of directed graph of story events, and keep track of the nodes which have last been achieved. Then if I want to start from a certain point in the story, in every Load function of a room, I can re-do all the actions which the last nodes depend on, and have some impact on the current room.
This could make my global variable use a bit nicer too. Maybe.

Something like that, anyway. If I figure out something really practical, I'll post here.

Thanks again! 

[break loading of savegames]

Hi there people.

Could someone suggest a smart way to test my game which is growing in size?

I have created a certain number of rooms, characters etc. Of course, there is an order in which things have to be done to progress in the game. The usual point&click way.
So far, I've been testing just by playing it, but I've already come to a point that it takes too long to just play it from the beginning every time.
And often, when I find I have a bug (or have just forgotten to implement some part), I have to add changes which break loading of savegames. (not so hard to break, actually)
Then, I have to start over from the beginning. Might be the beginning of a chapter, but still sounds stupid to do it every time.
I keep the information which I need to carry over between rooms in global variables as flags, which I already see is something I'll have to change soon, but currently that's how I do it.

So, can someone suggest a good way to take the game to a certain "story-point" without replaying everything before that?
Maybe creating a script to auto-play?
Using some additional tool to automatically click around? (like an automated UI-test)

There is no way this is the first time someone has come to this problem, but I haven't been able to find a similar topic on the forum so far.

Thanks already! 

...

Thank you for the kind words.

You're pretty much right, I needed a topic to try out AGS, so I used my hobby - homebrewing. As it went on, I decided to finish it into an actual game. (the result is code which might not be my best work )
The game can be used to teach people who are interested in getting into homebrewing, as this is pretty much how it works. So, even if you didn't ask the cat for instructions, you could actually  search the web for homebrewing topics and figure it out like that.
There is SOME freedom in the order in which you can do things, but some for some parts the "story" is forced. Sometimes because I wanted to make small "sub-chapters", sometimes because it's the way I do it in my kitchen (and find it to be the best way), and sometimes because it was easier for me to animate and code it with a "forced action order".

Cheers!

Now for some critic (hopefully constructive one):

Thanks for the comments!
Some of the things you mention were done on purpose, some were just the easy way out, I admit.
I'll think about the possible improvements. Not sure if I'll adjust this game, or just try to use this wisdom in my future projects.

Glad you liked it in general, cheers!

Fixed some more nasty bugs, you might want to download the refreshed game.
My testing department is underpaid.

Cheers.

Two things: Why "evil" gnome?

It's this homebrewing blog I write, called "zao gnom" (in Croatian), meaning "evil gnome".
The origins of the name... heh. I had been using "gnome" as a nickname a lot, and "evil" because I wanted to express a punk-ish/metal attitude.
Maybe not such a great explanation, but it doesn't really matter much for this game anyway.

Thanks for the bug report, found one more hotspot with the same problem.

Cheers!

[HERE]

Thanks!

HERE is a link to the ZIP file, since you asked so nicely.

[Gnome's Homebrewing Adventure]

Hi there!


So let's get started. Gnome's Homebrewing Adventure is my first AGS game. It's a point&click sort-of adventure, where the goal is to brew and bottle a beer in the gnome's kitchen. Homebrewing is a topic I am familiar with, so I decided to use that as the theme of the game.
The images, sounds and music are all home-made.
Didn't mess too much with the controls, the cursors represent actions: Walk, Look At, Use/Pick Up, you can change the cursor using the mouse right-button or the scroll-wheel. The action panel, inventory link and the menu are on the top of the screen. If you get stuck, try asking the wise cat for instructions.

Here's the DOWNLOAD LINK
I've created an installer for the game, but for those who don't like them, it's possible to skip adding any desktop shortcuts and similar stuff.

Any comments, thoughts and suggestions would really be appreciated.
I hope you'll enjoy the game, and perhaps it might also get you interested in homebrewing.

Cheers!