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The command fails because the camera rectangle cannot leave the room rectangle. With your approach you would have to use a room background as big as the tilemap.

However you don't really need Game.Camera offsets for this. Use a room as big as the screen, store your own offset variables and draw the visible tiles at an offset, directly to the room background (using DrawingSurface functions).

We solved this on discord - the problem I was having was that I assumed that setting the edges of the room would affect the room size, and it was the imported background image that determines the room size. (Previously the room did not have an image other than the default blank image.) Once I added in my background image, all works good

Did a quick test, and it scrolls as it should.

Code: ags

// room script file

Overlay* myOverlay[170];

function room_Load()
{
  for (int x = 0; x < 17; x++) {
    for (int y = 0; y < 10; y++) {
      myOverlay[y*17+x] = Overlay.CreateRoomGraphical(x*40, y*40, 1);
    }
  }
}


function room_RepExec()
{
  Game.Camera.X += 3;
  Game.Camera.Y += 1;
  
  while (Game.Camera.X >= 40) {
    Game.Camera.X -= 40;
  }
  while (Game.Camera.Y >= 40) {
    Game.Camera.Y -= 40;
  }
}

In retro game systems, tiles are stored in memory with an extra tile offscreen. This would be an offset of 0,0



You would move the offset of the blue box to display additional tiles. When you reach the edge of the additional tile (i.e. x = 40 or x = -1), you'd shift all the tiles to the left/right by 1, load an additional columns worth of tiles, and move the blue box offset back to x = 0, if that makes sense? Same for vertical (y = 40 or y = -1) Doing that lets you have rooms much larger than the visible screen but only storing what's immediately accessible in memory.

It's the system we used in my GBA programming class and well although the GBA has dedicated hardware for the tiles, I wanted to simulate it using software.

The problem I am having is that Game.Camera.Y = 20; doesn't seem to be affecting the offset's position on the screen as expected.



When I'd expect the visible window to be showing what's off screen



Specifically I am asking what about overlays and cameras/viewports that I'm not understanding, and how to fix. Thanks

There is an extra tile offscreen horizontally and vertically, the thing I am trying to do is create an offset so that the offscreen tiles will be displayed, but doesn't seem to work with overlays. Is there a way to do what I want without manually changing the coords of every overlay?

Please elaborate, maybe with screenshots, because I could not understand this part.

Overlays are no different from other objects in regards to how they are displayed in room or inside a camera. In the end engine gathers everything as a single group of sprites (room objects, characters, room overlays, walk-behinds), and camera displays them all as same.

EDIT:
One thing that I might mention is this: in AGS you cannot move camera outside of room bounds.
If you want to have a larger scrolling area inside a small room, then you cannot use camera, but have to move the room contents in opposite direction instead.
If you have a really big map, then don't create overlays for the whole map, but create only a portion, slightly bigger than the observeable area, move these around, changing their graphics dynamically. As overlay leaves an area, "teleport" it to the opposite side.
Well, there is more here, but I'd like to know more details about the system you are trying to create first.

One thing on my to do list is to create a tile system.

I have a game with resolution 680x400 with room size 640x360 (360p)

I have the following code:

Code: ags

// room script file

Overlay* myOverlay[170];

function room_Load()
{
  for (int x = 0; x < 17; x++) {
    for (int y = 0; y < 10; y++) {
      myOverlay[y*17+x] = Overlay.CreateRoomGraphical(x*40, y*40, 1);
    }
  }
  Game.Camera.Y = 20;
}

I've also tried just CreateGraphical. I haven't worked with overlays before this. I haven't worked with cameras and viewports before this. So please, if there's a better thing I should be using, feel free to tell me.

There is an extra tile offscreen horizontally and vertically, the thing I am trying to do is create an offset so that the offscreen tiles will be displayed, but doesn't seem to work with overlays. Is there a way to do what I want without manually changing the coords of every overlay?

The gear / fullscreen option does not work on my mobile device... I would like it to full screen to landscape but the button just does nothing. If I tilt my phone to hold it landscape, it is stretched and doesn't fill the whole screen vertically. itch.io does it correctly but I'd like to have it shown on AGS site. Using safari in iphone 13 mini on 18.3.1. AGS 3.6.1.31. See my MAGSMan game for an example..

[Limblob (by Soulstuff)]

Congrats!

Here are some mini reviews:

Limblob (by Soulstuff)

Spoiler

Fun and short game with some nice details like the circle hole in the door. Good effort for a first game!

[close]

Finding Balzac (by pell)

Spoiler

A joke that can be viewed in different ways. Funny but not really a game.

[close]

MAGSMan by (Kara Jo Kalinowski)

Spoiler

Nice take on the topic and the classic game. When the word is not solved, I would like to see the solution.

[close]

Thanks for the feedback. I also realized this issue, but too late, and I couldn't edit it during voting. But I can maybe add it in now.

Congrats to the winner. Another competition where I didn't get any votes, but I also wasn't expecting any - Maybe one of these competitions I'll make a game that takes a full month to do...

Well, I did it--the game is fully playable. Still need to fix some GUI issues, add another ending, and then get some playtesters. But I recommend the one-room one-week approach to anyone having trouble getting started. It forces you to get something done and then leaves you with time to refine it before the real deadline. Can't wait to see what other entries we get!

I have an idea but the idea I have is kinda too big - but I may start taking this approach myself, because I have tons of ideas and it's hard to make something bigger while also working on MAGS. So maybe I'll try and dedicate 1 week to MAGS and then the rest of the month to do whatever else.

I did send you a message by the way, if you need a tester, I'm either here or on discord.

Hello, everyone. I've always wanted to create my own game, but I didn't know where to start.
I started studying 3D modeling and eventually realized that my skills were not enough for game development and that Blender 3D was not used as a tool in companies. And such programs as 3D max, Maya, Houdini, and others are very expensive. If you take Anrial Engine, my computer doesn't pull it out. Because it requires powerful hardware. My friend recommended this site to me and said that you can make 2D games here.
I would be grateful for advice or tips on where to start.

Hello,

This site is primarily about games made in adventure game studio, an engine that specializes in making point and click adventure games. It can do other things but that is the focus. To get started, download the latest editor and maybe find a tutorial.

Also, this forum which you posted in is for announcing AGS games you have in production.

UPDATE: Nevermind. I figured it out. You guys are nice to put up with me.

Could you still let us know what the problem was in case there's a bug in the engine that needs to be fixed?

The only on-screen object that may be created dynamically in AGS is still: Overlays.
Everything else would require a pool of reusable objects.

Overlays let to implement any kind of custom visible object, but they are very simple on their own, and would likely require to also have your data in script that defines them, and some extra script to handle interactions.

They might be used for droppable items. Previously one would use Characters, since these are unlimited and you can create as many as there are items in game, so long as that's classic adventure game and not e.g. RPG with thousands of possible items. But since they got improved in 3.6.0 Overlays are viable alternative, except they would require extra scripting.


About typewriter effect, I am puzzled about why do you consider a necessity of multiple objects for that. Normally this is done without any objects, just using a Label or DrawingSurface. It's also trivial to calculate width of text, AGS has a GetTextWidth and GetTextHeight functions that do that for you.
There are at least 3 script modules posted here on forums that support typewriter effect today. For instance, here's mine, which I created based on my Visual Novel experiment years ago: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/modules-plugins-tools/module-typedtext-0-7-0/
But it's not super hard to write your own (I've seen people just writing a simple script for that when they needed this effect).
If you'd like to have letters as sprites, not relying on standard fonts, that's not a problem either, it's simply going to be a loop over characters in a string to know its size. There's a classic SpriteFont plugin that lets to have font made of sprites, substituting any font in game. But it's also possible to write a script that does the same with dynamic sprites and drawing on a surface. For instance, I made one for my older game Last & Furious. The code may be found in the game's repository:
https://github.com/ivan-mogilko/ags-lastfurious/blob/master/Last'n'Furious/SpriteFont.ash
https://github.com/ivan-mogilko/ags-lastfurious/blob/master/Last'n'Furious/SpriteFont.asc

Of course if it's absolutely necessary to use separate objects for displaying separate letters, then overlays may be useful here as well.
There's a module that makes use of them for extra effects, such as drawing each piece of text in its own way:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/modules-plugins-tools/module-fancy-0-1-0/

Thank you for all of the information. I was not aware of GetTextHeight and GetTextWidth (sometimes navigating the help file leaves me unsure where to look). So if I am sticking with standard text functions, it should suit my needs fine. But if I want a fancier looking font I might use the sprite thing still.

I'm wondering for certain types of things if they are possible to create using script instead of in the editor. Both in the current 3.6 version, and in the current 4.0 version.

Things like

Objects
Hotspots
Characters
GUI controls (i.e. buttons)

I asked about this when working on my Kyrandia GUI ages ago, but forget what the actual solution was that was recommended to me. Essentially my best solution at the time was to create a bunch of dummy characters and instantiate them from room to room as needed (easier than dummy objects because objects are room-specific so I would need to create dummy objects in each room.) For that kyrandia GUI, I was looking at specifically being able to drop off inventory items into any walkable area location. so my idea then was to pick an unused character, change the sprite, room number, x, y to the proper place. I'd still like to make the kyrandia GUI at some point, but it's not my current problem.

Now the thing I'm considering is a visual novel style GUI where it would display the text like a typewriter. It's not easy to calculate the width of a word unless your characters are fixed-width so I'm considering the same type of thing, making a bunch of dummy objects in the editor and instantiating each letter as necessary, but that's super tedious. So is there a way to create a new button on the fly? (Also, am I right to think that the only GUI elements that can have images are buttons?) I essentially did the same thing with my MAGSMan hangman game, though that one is limited to words 22 length.

[Limblob]

Here are my thoughts this month:

Limblob by Soulstuff:

Spoiler

This is your first game, right? I think you have done a good job. I liked the different walking/bouncing animations, and the blob population reminded me of Shape Village, which is not a bad thing in my book. There's a clear objective in the game, and fair (if easy) puzzles to get there. Well done. Next time, try to add sound or music as well.

[close]

Finding Balzac by Pell:

Spoiler

Short visual novel, four endings, placeholder sketches (which work fine, actually) and a clumsy/evil doc inspired by yours truly.    I'm honored! This was the funniest entry and had me laughing several times. Downside - unfinished and probably shorter than it was planned to be.

[close]

MAGSMan by Kara Jo Kalinowski:

Spoiler

I wish I had not read your idea before playing! Anyway, Hangman is a classic, and the quite large word list makes the game replayable as a casual game. Downside - no other extras like sound makes the game bare-bones. It's not an original idea, of course, which may count for something in a MAGS vote, even if it may live on my hard drive for a while.

[close]

Mall Quest (Unfinished) by Babar and jfrisby:

Spoiler

Ooohhh, I am getting Commodore 64 vibes again, partly because of the soundtrack, no doubt. I hope you finish this later on. I like the scenarios where the player runs around from npc to npc, fixing their problems and getting other items in return. (Reminding me of the bazaar in Sierra's Conquests of Camelot.) I found the ending, but I don't think a finished game will be spoiled.

[close]

Yeah I wasn't planning to submit due to changing computers and whatnot but after going through all the frustrating things with my pcs and it still being open I decided to make it after all. Thanks for playing!

[DOWNLOAD LINK]

Holy batcrackers I actually finished something with AGS



WELCOME TO LIMBLOB
A short and simple adventure

Story:

You arrived at the adventure game afterlife. Sadly, your poor
performance in your last game has left you a blob with no mouth or limbs.

You need to find a way to get limbs to be able to leave the afterlife and go into your next adventure.

DOWNLOAD LINK


Use of the theme: (light spoilers)

Spoiler

As you get more parts for your body you get access to actions or verbs. For example getting a mouth allows you to talk to people and since some of them are removable having them or not resolve different things.

[close]

I enjoyed the blob character and the game overall - I left a review on the game itself.

Here's mine. It still has placeholder art, but it's playable. There are multiple endings, depending upon your choices during the game.



https://gamesbypell.itch.io/finding-balzac

A quick funny little game, with a certain kind of humor. I appreciated the multiple endings, not a whole lot of games do that, especially MAGS games. A streamer playing the MAGS games thought that the game might have been hand drawn and scanned in, I was curious if it was that or if you used a tablet or something.

I didn't properly spoiler tag this...but there's no edit/delete function.

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/play/game/2828/

(Seems this was fixed now, thanks to whoever did it, but an edit/delete function on those might be nice)

As a developer, when I upload a game: where is this actually hosted? Is it on the AGS site itself? Or is this forwarded to another server? In this case, this should be stated more clearly, maybe with a link to their terms and conditions.

AGS site.

As a player on mobile, "Press ALT+ENTER to play the game in full screen, then ESC to return to browser." doesn't make much sense. I wasn't sure if it is possible to go to full screen on mobile. It might be a good idea to extend the the text a bit:
"Press ALT+ENTER to play the game in full screen, then ESC to return to browser. Alternatively, use the cogwheel icon in the bottom-right corner of the game." (or similar)

I'll try to tweak the wording!

When I try to upload a web version with a zip file, it just takes me to a white page and doesn't upload.

Are you following the instructions as given?  'Here you can upload a .zip file of the contents your "Compiled\Web" folder after selecting "Web" in the "Build target platforms" menu of the AGS Editor, then clicking "Build EXE".'  If so, can you please upload the exact zip you're trying to upload and I'll see if I can debug the issue.

Hey, I realized that there was a problem with the game in web, I think it's related to trying to read a text file. As the game is a MAGS game I'll wait before fixing it and trying to upload, but in the website itself it just goes into infinite loading so I'm not sure if it's related. Or I could be completely wrong as to why it's not working.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p1x5nwf1r1k50rfb0v11j/Web.zip?rlkey=webg3pklw4s2dykatj6331i47&st=jnggy7ko&dl=0

I have a really interesting idea for this theme but it isn't something that can be explored as fully as I'd like with a "small" adventure game, so I'm debating if I should go with it - or maybe make the MAGS version sort of a chapter 1, and expand on the idea later. The game would deal sorta with trans issues. Not sure if someone else would be interested in collaboration but if not I'll just do what I can.

When I try to upload a web version with a zip file, it just takes me to a white page and doesn't upload.

The deadline is passed, but voting hasn't started yet, so if it's not too late, here is mine. If it's too late for the voting, that's okay. I got a new computer and was dealing with headache of OS stopping working after a few minutes and like 5 or so OS reinstalls.

MAGSMan - a simple hangman style game made for MAGS Feb 2025 - Missing a body part

Created by Kara Jo Kalinowski

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/play/game/2832/

5000-more-common.txt is a list containing 5000 words that have been marked as common. This list was generated by Michael Wehar and is released into the public domain - https://github.com/MichaelWehar/Public-Domain-Word-Lists/blob/master/README.md. Note that this word list was generated while utilizing OPTED - http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~ralph/OPTED/

(The original download link contained a small bug with the 10th letter being displayed offscreen for words length 10 or longer, that's been fixed.)

MAGSMan - a simple hangman style game made for MAGS Feb 2025 - Missing a body part

Created by Kara Jo Kalinowski

5000-more-common.txt is a list containing 5000 words that have been marked as common. This list was generated by Michael Wehar and is released into the public domain - https://github.com/MichaelWehar/Public-Domain-Word-Lists/blob/master/README.md. Note that this word list was generated while utilizing OPTED - http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~ralph/OPTED/

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/play/game/2832/

Being part of that group myself, I also don't know if I want to focus on it or just have a game with a character that's part of that group. I have another idea, too.

Edit: Deleted info about the game, since I ended up actually making it.