Messages

Two fangames exist already - check barnettcollege.com and Amberfisharts.com

What I do is creating a translation source file, then open that in MS Word and run the spell-and-grammar-checker. I keep AGS open, and whenever Word spots an error, I correct it in there, as well.

What you should do is, either use

Code: ags

while (character[TAM].walking) Wait (1);

Or, check the values in your repeatedly_execute function

Personally, I would prefer blockingness to be a parameter to the function. I think the function parameter syntax could be more consistent, it doesn't matter much to me which way you make the consistency.
Maybe you could do 'default' parameters? As in the C++ syntax, MoveCharacter (int charid, int x, int y, int blocking = 0, int direct = 0), would that be a viable solution?

Honk if you love FoA!

I'm curious as to the point of your request - are you stuck in the game? Wishing to trade stories of beating up nazi guards? Want to make a fangame? Something else?

*honks*

Well, of course you are fully entitled to your own opinion, but BB does have a valid point that you don't seem to be writing from your own experience. It would presumably improve the effectiveness of the document if you were. You now state that you're actually talking (mostly) about stories, but your initial post and the document itself are about "better puzzles, user interfaces, stories and graphics."

Anyway. As to what AGS can do, which you asked about,
- animated backgrounds (e.g. moving branches of trees)
Easily done by either setting an object to animate in said location, or by creating multiple background frames (currently limited to five)

- animated, rotating palettes
Yes, there's a function to do just that, but do remember that palette rotation is a 256-color feature, and most contemporary games use 16-bit color.

- NPC schedules
Not entirely sure what you mean with that, but you can code just about anything in the scripting language, and there's a character control plug-in as well.

- Dialogues where the inventory remains on-screen
The standard dialog system doesn't support it (well, it could be on-screen, but you can't use it). However it is very feasible to create your own dialog system that does allow this

- building a GUI with a dynamic verb list, as specified in the pictures?
Tricky but possible. I would like to point out that you are unlikely to convince me (nor several other people on the forums here) about this issue until you create a (small) game that demonstrates this system.

The short answer to just about any question along the lines of "is foo possible in AGS" would be "yes".

I'm curious if you actually think that (most) adventure games are too easy, because that seems to be implied by your document.

hijack:   TRANSITIVE VERB: 1a. Informal To stop and rob (a vehicle in transit). b. To steal (goods) from a vehicle in transit. c. To seize control of (a moving vehicle) by use of force, especially in order to reach an alternate destination.
OTHER FORMS: hijacker, hijacked, hijacking, hijacks

Okay. If distance from A to B equals X, and angle between A-B and a line from A going straight up equals R, then
B.x = sine of R times X
B.y = cosine of R times X

That's not actually true, you can name the parameter whatever you want.

If dialog_request is not defined, then you probably missed a closing brace in the preceding function. If not, look up what the error was exactly.

That's easy, just download a bunch of walkthroughs for adventure games, and take puzzles from them. This won't win you any prizes in the originality department, of course.

Smullyan rocks! However, most of his puzzles are far too difficult to use in adventure games. Note though that KQ2 uses a simple variation thereof, with the lion puzzle.
I'm afraid that most puzzle books are too abstract.

I believe you should cap values, just in case. Otherwise, a simple balance error made anywhere in the game can get seriously out of hand.
Anyway, 60 damage is okay if everything has 300+ hit points

It looks okay, only I would suggest that weapon damage is more dependent on strength and weapon skill, than on agility and luck. In other words, I'd reverse the division by two and by three. Also, a lot depends on the range of all these numbers (e.g. for QfG, the stats are 1-100, but if you're using D&D-style, it'd be more like 3-18... what range is level? What ranges are weapon modifiers?)

Okay, let's agree to disagree here. I understood most of your points, I just would never take that approach when desiging a game. But then I'd never create a verb coin either, and some very good games have been made with that approach.
But one thing,

And good puzzles are about objects that must be used with a different purpose than the usual one...

They may be, but there are also other ways of creating good puzzles. Also, using objects in unexpected ways is certainly possible in a classic P&C interface: in MM, you haev to open a radio to get a battery. In KQ2+, you use a cloth to store gems. In Freddy Pharkas, you combine four different inv items to make a gas mask. And no verb guessing involved!

However to GarageGothic, you're showing an example from Monkey Island II, and that isn't nearly a game that invented point-n-click control. The first LucasFilm P&C game was Maniac Mansion, and actually the puzzle design is very good there. Also the MI2 puzzle you mention is logical if you consider the term Monkey Wrench (at least, it had me goind 'oh, of course!!!' when I solved it). If you're saying that P&C games were a large cause of poor puzzle design, then I strongly disagree. For instance, let me point out some poor puzzles from pre-P&C games... the yeti in KQ3, the flight serice ladies in Larry 2, and the loads of dead ends in Codename Iceman are all rather illogical and poorly designed puzzles.

Hi there,

it is a good article and you have put some nice effort into it. However, I have to point out that it suffers from tunnel vision. While the ways you suggest are certainly A way to write an adventure game, they are by no means the only means. And, considering most of us are amateurs working in spare time here, some of your suggestions go way too far for most games written here.

For instance,
You should not write an adventure game as if it were a book (or movie script). This is because books and movies are by definition linear, whereas good adventure games are not. Also the several stages you suggest in writing your game should be combined far more. You should not create a list of rooms or items afterwards, you should do it simultaneously with writing the main plot, because the two should influence one another.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on the entire verb issue. Contrary to what you say, most people do not actually prefer text parser games to point 'n click games, as proven by sales figures. Also, every text parser game I've played, can be solved with a basic set of verbs, say two dozen max. If you have to guess a specific verb that is only relevant in one particular puzzle, I'd state that was a poorly designed puzzle.
So, while having a large selection of verbs is nice (at least larger than Sierra's standard look/touch/talk), overdoing it leads 1) to more work for the programmer, as you don't want standard responses everywhere, and 2) be confusing to the user, making the game less playable. For each verb you should consider if it's sufficiently different from the other verbs, and if it's not, drop it.

Note also that most of the verb list can be removed by allowing the 'use item on ...' approach. Early lucasfilm games had verbs for 'unlock door with key' and 'fix staircase with tools'... but these are obvious applications for the USE verb. Unlock only makes sense when done with a key - but using a key only makes sense if you're unlocking something with it. So USE isn't that bad after all, as many objects only have one purpose.
Turn on, turn off, fix, put on, take off - all can be replaced by use. Similarly, attack can be replaced by 'use sword on'. Pick lock can be done with 'use lockpick on'. Etc.
There aren't that many verbs that have been meaningfully used in adventure games, that aren't one of "walk, take, push, pull, open, close, look, give, show, use, speak, ask, attack, duck, cast spell, drop, throw"

Your text seems to imply that games with insufficient verbs are just too easy. But this is not, after all, the case. Most people get temporarily stuck in just about any game, and many have to resort to hints or walkthroughs.

Contrary to what you say in 3.5, it should in fact be easy to reach the inventory items. This has to do with user-friendliness, and accessibility of your game. Because you'll be using them a lot, burying them three menus deep (as I've seen in some games) only serves to aggravate the user. They should be at most one click away (pop up inv screen, select item)

Page 19, for the record, The Seventh Guest is not actually an adventure game, so whatever you're saying about adventure games doesn't apply there. How exactly are you suggesting that your lateral thinking example is a good puzzle? A man comes up to you and asks for a glass of water, and the player is supposed to figure out to click his gun on him instead? The key to lateral thinking puzzles (and I know of dozens of them) is to not give the player sufficient information. Adventure games don't quite work that way.
(most lateral thinking puzzles are word games where the player has to figure out what on earth was happening, e.g. "a man passes an apartment building, hears a phone, screams and dies". That is lateral thinking)

Page 21. For contemporary games, I pose that 'getting stuck', aka dead ends, walking deads, or zombies, ARE an unnecessary evil, and the result of poor game design. It is frustrating for the player because the answer could be anywhere, and because they may have to replay a substantial part of the game.

Page 23. Graphics... I have never in fact seen a game in which 'every branch of a tree shakes in the wind'. While this would certainly immerse the player, it is far beyond the capacities of most programmers (and CPUs), and immersion can be achieved with considerably less than that. If 'every light is trembling', this might severely annoy the player.

Page 25, animating palettes... most contemporary games do not use palettes, but instead use 16-bit or higher color quality graphics

Page 27, games that teach you... educative software is really passe. This is also because there are very few eduware games that are actually worth it.

Finally, some other topics you may want to think of are
* full parser games, as opposed to 'type a verb and click on the item'
* pixel hunts
* word hunts (e.g. "put airsick bag in hair rejuvenator bottle")
* read the article on puzzle design on the AGS links page, it's very good
* puzzles that are too obscure
* commanding other characters (e.g. infocom games)

Good luck with it!

Code: ags

function repeatedly_execute_always () {
  if (GetLocationType (mouse.x, mouse.y) == 0) SetMouseCursor (2);
  else   if (GetLocationType (mouse.x, mouse.y) == 1 SetMouseCursor (5);
  // etc
  else  SetMouseCursor (3);
}

(look up help page for GetLocType, and set a mouse cursor type for each type of location that you need)

I believe the proper way to do this is not in a loop (because if the game is waiting on one script, it won't run other scripts (except rep_ex_al)).
So, stop your script at that point (have the function return), and have it continue when a GUI button is called (by calling the function once more, with anohter parameter)

Same way you got the first fish.

You are in your apartment where you just saw the terrorists on TV. You have got to stop them!
> inventory
You are carrying a paperclip.
> look apartment
It is your apartment and is rather poor. There's a tv here and a closet. A door leads into the bedroom, another leads into the bathroom. A photo of your family is on the closet.
> get photo
Ok.
> enter bathroom
This is your humble bathroom. You see a shaving knife.
> get knife
Ok. It's not sharp enough to cut through anything but paper, though.
> leave
You are now outside your apartment.
> call taxi
A taxi rolls up. You get in and the driver asks you where you want to go.
> to casino
On second thought, this isn't Leisure Suit Larry. Maybe you'd want to go some place else?
> to empire state building
The driver says, "hey, I'm not going there! That building is being hijacked by terrorists!"
> to FBI headquarters
Ok.
You are at FBI headquarters. A large sign says "secret headquarters, do not enter". Apparently some fool has lost his wallet, as it's lying in the grass here.
> take wallet
It contains $5,000 dollars in cash, and a FBI identification card.
> enter
The door is locked.
> pick lock with paper clip
After a couple of minutes, you manage to work the lock open. Apparently there have been budget cuts in the security apartment again.
> enter
Hm, this place is smaller than it looks. Actually it's smaller than your room. You find yourself in a small shed that is empty except for a box and a sign stating "Out of order". That probably refers to the FBI as a whole.
> take box
It appears to be an Already-prepared-terrorist-crash-kit (Includes bomb, gun, handcuff, parachute, loudspeaker, radio, small color TV and two more items, specifically a bottle of glue and a twinky bar)
> leave
You return outside. The taxi is still waiting.
> to empire state building
The driver says, "hey, I'm not going there! That building is being hijacked by terrorists!"
> show id
"You're not fooling me, that ID doesn't look anything like you!"
> cut picture with knife
You cut the picture into pieces, leaving you with a small photograph of yourself.
> put picture on id
You stick the picture there using the glue. Now the ID has your picture on it.
> show id
"Okay, okay, I'll take you to the building already."

You find yourself at the empire state building. A number of terrorists are busily trying to hijack the building and cause it to fly some place else. Exactly how they expect to accomplish this is not really clear.
> talk to terrorist
"Vhee vill be taking zhis building along now. Vhee demand lots of money vor its release!"
> give money to terrorist
"Hey, zhat is a lots of money! Zhank you!"
The terrorist runs off with the newfound money. Unfortunately there's other terrorists still at work.
> talk to terrorist
"The buildinga, it-a is ours-a now, you getta? We had-a nothing-a better to do-a anyway."
> give tv to terrorist
You take the small color tv out of the already-prepared-terrorist-crash-kit and give it to him.
"Heya, this-a is-a more funna than stealing-a buildings."
The terrorist runs off. There is one terrorist left how seems oblivious to the fact that his compatriots aren't here any more.
> talk to terrorist
"Spare a dollar for a hungry homeless person? Or spare a building? On second thought I'll just take this building here, don't worry."
> give twinkee to terrorist
Hungrily, the terrorist devours the twinkee, then continues trying to pick up the empire state building.
> handcuff terrorist
Hungrily, the terrorist devours the handcuff, then continues trying to pick up the empire state building.
> give bomb to terrorist
Hungrily, the terrorist devours the bomb, then continues trying to pick up the empire state building.
You hear a ticking noise from the terrorist's stomach
> hide behind building
You dive for cover behind the empire state building as suddenly the terrorist explodes!
Wow, you've done it, there are no terrorists left! A group of photographers and journalists rush out of their hiding places in nearby trees and in a duck pond, and surround the taxi driver, who smiles and says that it was his honor to save the world once more. While he gets carried off to a grand ceremony, two burly men in black suits and wearing sunglasses come up to you and demand an explanation for your breaking into the FBI headquarters.

To be continued...

In repeatedly_execute_always, check GetLocationType (mouse.x, mouse.y) and set cursor mode accordingly.