Messages

Would it be, you know, more secure if AGS forums did use https?

It's really cool to see the progress.  How did you go about writing your story, was it just some trial and error thing where you wrote down some game tropes and then built a world around them.  Did you do a whole 3-act structure kind of thing, and write out everything as a walk through first?  Or did you put down some plot points and then tried to fill in with some puzzles?  What was that process like?

I'm getting warnings that my password may not be secure when logging in here.

Is there a reason that the forums don't seem to be secure (at least according to firefox)?

I have all my addons disabled, and in fact did a new clean profile, and still have the same problem.

Anyone know what I could do to figure this out?

On this page: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/ags/ -- the "Ags Resources" link is broken -- url is: http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agsresources/

Also in the Critics Lounge there is a sticky entitled: Quick Links to Forum Tutorials! and is found here: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=30939.0

The actual forum threads listed, a majority of them have images that don't seem to load anymore, and thus rendering some of those threads unusable.

A majority of those tutorials and links are broken, needs to be cleaned up.

the 2d character kind of sticks out.  Not real bad but still does.  Try to keep your backgrounds a little more flat shaded maybe?

I'm considering doing the closet to the left side, and either, drawing a wall (wood-grain or brick or something) to the right (lower right image below), or, maybe even showing a bit on the other side of the door(lower left).  Haven't decided yet.

Apologies for my sucky sketching-with-mouse-in-gimp ability.

Enjoying these posts so far, haven't read the ones about the color palettes just yet, but will in time.

Any chance of doing a post about how to show small spaces, for instance when a room would be smaller than the camera view.  For instance I'm working on a closet for a little thing, and closets are small and narrow, but I'm using a widescreen aspect ratio (16:9).  It wouldn't do to make the closet fill in the whole area of the wide screen, unless I'm zooming in and cutting off half the view somewhere.  Actually that second image from the bottom (the King's Quest 6 room where you have the skeletons on the outside, and the giant wheels inside) is one way of doing it.

I'm actually using Waterfox which is a 64-bit firefox variant, but I'm in windows 7.  Basically some threads in the forums will be perpetually loading, in other words, it will never time out.  This results in some parts of the thread pages not to finish loading.  If I use internet explorer or chrome or something, usually it results in stuff like broken image links, but in those browsers it tends to just time out.

So for example this page - https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53367.0 -- the two screen shots that are supposed to appear underneath the youtube video, won't load up in Waterfox, but it will load up fine in Chrome.

Anyone having any other problems like this?

There's a stickied thread in the Critics' Lounge full of tutorials that have been posted in this forum.
You can find it here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=30939.0
Most of the tutorials probably don't work anymore, or the pictures are gone. But I'm sure some of them still work, and for those that don't, there's always the Wayback Machine.

Actually most of them don't work.  That thread needs to be updated or removed.  Honestly I looked there first before posting this message.  Perhaps I should have made that clear when I posted.

Babar - didn't you actually subscribe to the ags subreddit, because if so you should post that link in the sub.  Otherwise I'll probably post it.  I'm looking for more things to post in the sub, and it would look better if more than just myself posts to it.

Again, if you aren't subscribed then don't worry about it.

The tutorial section here: http://babar.uoou.info/

I'm looking for content to put onto the subreddit I'm moderating at present.  I'm interested in anything that is specific to adventure game development.  For instance, backgrounds, characters, animations, writing.  Granted you can find a lot of stuff on each of these as individual subjects (for instance how to draw/paint), but not as specifically applied to adventure games themselves. 

For instance I can learn how to paint a nice fantasy scene, but doesn't mean it would make an interesting and useful background for an adventure game.  ADV games are a bit like animated cartoons.  The background with an animated cartoon has got to support the animation that's going to be displayed over said background.  So you find ways of drawing the eye to a particular location, and try not to make it too busy because it will eventually be filled. 

However, an adventure game background may require several areas where the action will take place, and will have some general animations (not specific ones, for instance in the washing scene in the animated film snow white, only half of the dwarfs bodies are animated, and the wash basin or trough is in the center.  They didn't need the area around in the background to be used so they made the background very specific to the animated scene, which might not work for an adventure game where characters may need to roam around).

Also in writing the story for an adventure game, you may want to use the 3-act structure, but not necessarily want to write the game like a complete screenplay (since a game is more dynamic and less linear).  So while I can find tutorials on screen-writing, even writing for some other types of games, I'm interested in writing specifically for adventure games.  In fact ADV games might have slightly different story requirements than, say, an action game which might only be concerned with cut-scenes).

Sound and music is similar to this.

So could anyone point me in the direction of tutorials that specifically deal with adventure game development?

I'm assuming this is for sale, have you had any sales yet?

The reason I posted this in here is because each of these threads are in this forum:

Technical art questions and discussions
Quick Links to Forum Tutorials!

Half of the pictures no longer exist, causes firefox to hang (and chrome just times out so they appear as broken image links).

The first link on the forum tutorials, took me to a website where it showed a windows-style blue-screen of death (it was just a web page, so nothing evil), and kept popping up a password dialog, that no matter how many times I hit cancel would continue to popup, I was forced to shut down the browser at the os level.

A lot of these tutorials just don't exist anymore, or maybe are located elsewhere.

Please update these threads, and possibly other stickies which may have suffered a similar fate, thank you!

I didn't so much come here to advertise a new subreddit, I came to ask a question in relation to it.

Basically I was looking for any ags subreddits because I wanted help, and generally just looking for some discussion.  When I came upon /r/adventuregamestudio -- there were no posts and the moderator hadn't logged in, in over 2 years.  So I figured maybe if I became the moderator I could generate some interest.

See, it's really for selfish reasons, if more people use AGS and discuss it, I can chat with a lot more people than just the few that are active on the forums.  Don't get me wrong, you guys are great, but there's only a limited amount of participation for various reasons such as, you're too busy actually making games (always a good thing), you have day jobs, you're not interested in whatever someone posts and generally may just not have any time.

When I posted about actual production processes I only got 11 replies, and about 3 of them weren't actual answers to the question.  I don't have a problem with someone not wanting to answer me, but I figure if there were more people that used AGS and then I asked a question I'd get more answers.

Okay so to bring me back to a point, I'm now moderating the sub, and I want to ask if it's okay if I link to the "finished" ags game posts in the completed game announcements forum?

More eyes on completed AGS games can only be a good thing, but I thought it might be a courtesy to ask first.

Please keep in mind, my goal is NOT to convince you guys to go over to the subreddit from here, but since the posts will automatically post to /r/all it should mean we start getting more eyeballs on AGS which potentially means we get to expand the community more.

Thanks for your time.

Thanks for everyone's posts!  I'm starting work on my own small game, just your basic 'escape the room' style game, intended to get me acquainted with the process.  I've never actually made an adventure game, which are my favorite type of games, although I've started a few over time.  I needed something small enough but with the ability to expand.  So this has helped a lot!

I do wish more people would have posted their production process but that's the way it goes.

I know I've asked this before, but it was at least a year ago.

Basically I want to know how YOU make an adventure game.  Like what is your process like from start to finish?

I think there's a mistake made when calling them games.

FMV "Games" are essentially video versions of the Choose your own Adventure.  The reason it doesn't work with video is because it's neither a game nor a movie.  You just have video playing and decision points.  Not very interesting interactively, and at the same time sort of breaks immersion when watching a movie.  Now if I'm watching a movie and need to use a bathroom I hit pause, go use the bathroom, come back and hit play again, and that's as much interactivity as you have in an FMV game, but the disadvantage is, with a straight movie I can get back into it mentally connecting what I was watching.  You don't really get that with an FMV game, because your choice affects what video part you watch next. 

The only one I think pulled it off, and that was for novelty, was Dragon's Lair.  It was the slickest looking thing in the arcades back in the 80's because of movie quality hand drawn cel animation.  It was the same way except you had the added bonus of reflex style decision making, so at least it would be a bit more challenging, but not by much.  And I love dragon's lair, but as far as a game it wasn't much.

I think point-and-click adventure games ARE interactive movies.  Think about the Curse of Monkey Island (MI 3), or Day of the Tentacle -- the cut scenes and sprites were like watching Saturday morning cartoons.  If you had something as compelling with real actors as sprites and real film/video for cut scenes, it wouldn't take away from the adventure game, but would be the closest thing to an FMV game, but it would have all the things you loved about movies and games.  Enough interaction to be a real game (a real point and click such any of the ones we love), and enough video/movie to feel like you're playing a movie.

Hi everyone,

I have started writing the plot of my adventure game, and I noticed the lack of plot related dramatic structure diagrams, about adventure games.

I found this diagram online, I though it might be helpful to people:



Most adventure games have fantasy elements near the climax of the story.Is this still relevant in modern games in your opinion?

Also do you think that they should have a big topic? Knights Templar, Voodoo murders...

Currently my game is a crime fiction, and there is a central theme and a big question. I am trying to decide between a short and a sweet game with a French style ending, or an epic climax with magical elements.  Which one works better for an adventure game in your opinion?

  I understand that I am a bit vague, but it is always quite difficult to write an ending.

I don't know anything about 'french style endings' but I do notice that with that graph where it says "Crisis (wave three)" where it starts going down, instead of going down a little bit, it should go almost all the way down before coming up again for the Climax.  I just notice in a lot of movies and games and such, that the main protagonists tend to look like they've lost everything before they pull themselves back over Climax-hill...

Thanks for taking the time to answer, just interested is all.  Considering AGS was started by Mr. Jones in 1997 it's probably long overdue for an overhaul :-)  Not underestimating the amount of work it takes (as I'm a programmer by trade).

Well, the answer is really "because no one got enough free time and/or dedication". It is difficult to add anything else to this.

Fair enough :-)

BTW I read through each of those threads (sometimes skimming, sometimes not)

A lot of politicing I've gotta say!