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Hi there, I'm working on a qfg-like game using Unity 3D's Adventure Creator asset. I have a proof of concept of the battle system, and I thought I'd run it by you guys just to see if you'd find it fun or interesting at all.

Here is a video of the battle system in action. It is very early, and many of the elements are not in place.

So on the surface it's a very simple turn based system. The player inputs one of his available attacks, and the attack then proceeds. The enemy is given a weighted random chance to block/dodge/counter the attack based on what attack the player uses. After the attack lands or misses, the enemy gets to attack.

This is where it gets slightly more complex. While the enemy attacks, the player is given a chance to choose a defense move. In the current build, as seen above, the enemy's animation is slowed down considerably while the player has time to choose the appropriate defense in order to give the player time to see which attack is coming. So when the enemy attacks low, the player must jump, when he attacks high, the player can block. In the final build, this slowdown will likely be much less pronounced.

The whole purpose is to get the player to study the enemy's movements and tendencies in order to become better at fighting this type of enemy in the future. So some attacks have a better chance of landing, while some have a worse chance but can do more damage. Some defense methods block all damage from a particular attack, but are unlikely to be successful, unless the player knows exactly which attack the enemy will use. Other defense types will only block some damage but will be used to block a wider variety of attacks.

The battle system is much the same for the rogue and wizard characters. The plan is for rogues (not called a rogue, not sure what to call the class yet) to attack with unarmed martial arts, and have more options for dodging and countering. Wizards have many more options at their disposal. Their main attacks are with staves, but they get other options for offensive and defensive spells, such as fireballs and defensive portals which redirect some attacks. Obviously each attack/defense expends some stamina or mana, depending on the type chosen, so that the player has to choose each action even more thoughtfully.

So what do you think of this battle system? Does it sound fun to play? Also, slightly off topic, but if anyone wants to assist on this project, I would be glad to get someone who has any knowledge of Unity coding (C#) . Here are a few more images of the game so far if anyone is interested:

Room and character

Outskirts of town (not even close to done yet)

Fun landmark

Waterfall pond

And a video

Some of those scenes in action

Thanks for any critique and help (about anything at all!)

I've actually been trying to work on a QFG type game for a few months, and now I'm actually starting to get a team together. I just posted this yesterday in the recruitment thread, interestingly enough:

Do you like the Quest for Glory series?

Do you like the prospect of three distinct character classes and three vastly different gameplay experiences?

Do you like making adventure games?

If you answered yes to the above, then we want you to join the team for Peril Quest (working name).

Our goal is to create a series of games in the same vein as the amazing QFG series, including character classes, stat and skill progression, combat, and fantastic puns! As of now, our team consists of two members, and we have great plans for this series.

We've whipped up an example background for you to feast your eyes on.



As you can see, we are working with 3D models for the game, but fear not! The generic buildings you see above are just placeholders, and there will most certainly be a much larger variety to the models and backgrounds when the game is further along.

As of now, we need plenty of talented people who want to participate in a project like this, including:


Artists (2D or 3D)

Programmers (any language)

Scripters

Animators

Musicians

And anyone else who has something to offer for a project like this.


Thank you all, and PM either myself or Stile for more information or if you want to join the team!

If you would be interested in helping out, definitely let me know... we're moving along pretty nicely now, and some extra help, i.e. with art, music, scripting, or just general ideas would definitely help us move along quicker!

So... as an answer to your question, yes! Quest for Glory was such an awesome series, and we are working on a fan game for it!

Do you like the Quest for Glory series?

Do you like the prospect of three distinct character classes and three vastly different gameplay experiences?

Do you like making adventure games?

If you answered yes to the above, then we want you to join the team for Peril Quest (working name).

Our goal is to create a series of games in the same vein as the amazing QFG series, including character classes, stat and skill progression, combat, and fantastic puns! As of now, our team consists of two members, and we have great plans for this series.

We've whipped up an example background for you to feast your eyes on.



As you can see, we are working with 3D models for the game, but fear not! The generic buildings you see above are just placeholders, and there will most certainly be a much larger variety to the models and backgrounds when the game is further along.

As of now, we need plenty of talented people who want to participate in a project like this, including:


Artists (2D or 3D)

Programmers (any language)

Scripters

Animators

Musicians

And anyone else who has something to offer for a project like this.


Thank you all, and PM either myself or Stile for more information or if you want to join the team!

That sounds great! I was trying to go for a more or less realistic look, mainly because I'm pretty untalented when it comes to art, but I completely agree with you that a game like this needs more stylistic graphics.

I'd like to know more about the project and probably join up with you guys. I wasn't getting much done on my project anyway, and I do already have a lot of the framework set up.

Well hello! I had the exact same thought as you and I decided to try and make a QFG inspired game a few months ago. I pretty much had no experience making games, scripting, modeling, but I picked up Blender and AGS and decided to start learning. Also, being unemployed at the time helped.

So far, I haven't done much, but I have a beginning. My main problem these days is that I managed to get a job and don't have as much time to put together a big game like this. But I would love to get a group together to work on my game or a game like it. Here's a link to the "tutorial" that is what I've managed to make so far- http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7197GFHE

This game has fighter, wizard, and acrobat classes, and it's got a very similar statistics arrangement as QFG. So far, there's one fight, and I have it turn based and ridiculously simple. Like I said, I don't have experience making games or scripting, but this is a start.

I also have a general 2-3 game story plan set up, but I don't have much of the specifics down. Also, I just started playing around with fruityloops to try to make some music.

Here are some screenshots from the game, and a cool video I made with blender with some of the models I'd want to use in the game.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/7033/walkdown.gif
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4639/testbackground30001.png
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7536/full0001.png
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6258/bookscreen1.png
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8418/test20001.png
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2838/side0026.png
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/192/oldman0001.png
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/3043/spring10024.png

and the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXyomZOCZcc

I know the graphics aren't fantastic- sorta early 2000's 3D- but like I said before, I just started doing this. I would love to be able to make something much prettier, and as you can see some of my recent character models are looking better.

So let me know if you'd like to help work on this. I really want to keep working on this, and getting a team together would make it much more likely this gets done!

Also, if you want to hear my general plotline send me a pm. I wouldn't want to give away any spoilers for people who might play this game when it comes out (in several years probably  )

Hello folks.

I recently started using AGS, and I've gotta say it's so much fun! A couple months ago, as I was learning the program, as well as Blender and Sketchup, I decided to make a third person remake of the NES classic, Shadowgate. After I got halfway through, I realized I should start on something original, which I am working on now. So this is all I will do with this game. It's done.

So here is the full first half of the game. You can do everything that was in the original NES game, up till the end of the first half (more or less).

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VKBBPYSF

However, you'll notice several changes. First, it's in third person, so like a typical sierra-style adventure game (except for the lack of a talk button). Therefore, there are some different solutions to the puzzles of the original game, such as hitting, or using as opposed to taking. It's not that drastic of a change, and you'll probably figure it out. Also, I've replaced much of the original text and descriptions and such with my own, but I've kept some of the better lines from the original.

Also, instead of the original 2 torches at a time, you only get one. Cause seriously, how can you hold two torches at once and do all the stuff you do in the game?

The last change is the graphics, which is an obvious change. It's completely new, and I made all of it as I was learning how to use Blender and Google sketchup (which is why it's a little hard on the eyes), but the animations are great, and I like to think some of the graphics are actually pretty good.

So enjoy this game, and let me know how you think it is! I'll also try to post this in the AGS games page.

Oh and by the way, like I said I know the graphics are pretty bad (some examples below) so please don't just reply saying that. Thanks!

Screenshots:

I've added some color and some objects (and a crystal that was originally supposed to be glowing moss but it wants to be a crystal instead), but this looks like the type of thing that would cause issues in AGS.



With all the different light sources and shadows, and only 5 possibly backgrounds to be able to animate with, I don't see how I can make a character walk through this room without it looking very unnatural. This is why I have been more or less shying away from lighting effects so far.

Or, I could be wrong, and maybe it looks fine. I'll try it out later.

Is this what you mean by dynamic lighting?



I think that definitely helps give it some depth.

Oh, and you should definitely play Wind Waker, if you haven't before. Absolutely beautiful game.

Now, how come I had never heard of this site before- http://www.cgtextures.com/ ??!?!

I made this in about a half hour with a texture from there-



Obviously not perfect- I need to touch up some of the angles, improve the lighting a bit, and I don't know if that's the right type of texture for a cave, but.... better??

I can understand where these guys are coming from, because I haven't been terribly specific about what I'm asking about.

For the record, I've only really been at this 3D modeling for a few months, and honestly, for me to have a loose grasp on some of these aspects of modeling is pretty good. Especially since I never took any courses on modeling, and I've basically been using internet tutorials to get my skills where I want them to be.

And I don't necessarily want to be able to make hyper-realistic graphics or backgrounds. I'm trying to find the area where I can still use an engine like AGS and make a game that looks decent. With truly amazing rendered 3D backgrounds, such as the one mode7 whipped up (impressive), I would think that pasting sprites on top of them would actually look worse than something similar to what I have now. It's the balance between realism and cartoony that I think would look best in AGS.

Also, I'm not really planning on learning 3D modeling to make great images in general. I really only want to make games, because honestly I have so much fun doing it. I made (half) a remake of Shadowgate a few months ago, also in 3D, and even if no one here wanted to play it, I still really enjoyed showing it to my friends and playing it myself. And I think it's a much better use of my free time than buying and playing other games.

So really all I'm asking is A: is there a way to strike a balance between realism and a 2D engine with 3D graphics? And B: what should I do differently to get there with 1) my backgrounds and 2) my menus. I'm already working on learning lighting a bit better, and making texture packs look good.

Besides the backgrounds and menus, I'm pretty satisfied with my work, and I'm going to continue with the same style (that would be objects, characters, and animations).

Alright, first of all: I have tried using the typical 2D paint and art programs, and I have no talent in that area. Trust me, for that type of painting, you do need some artistic talent to start out with.

Now, people keep saying that 3D modeling is much harder, and, while this may be an indication of why my graphics look like they do, it goes very quickly and easily for me. The two rooms took about a total of about 4-5 hours, once I sort of planned out what I was going for. For the outdoor scene, it took even less time, but I have to admit I used a tree generator script in blender (probably why the trees are the only things that look good).

Now, one of you said something about instead of making a book with the stroke of a brush, it takes time to model each one. In this case, it took less than 5 minutes to model everything on my bookshelf, and I'd say those items look pretty good.

My other reason, besides lacking 2D art talent, for using blender and doing 3D is that the animations are SO incredibly easy to make, and they look incredibly smooth and fluid. It literally took about 10 minutes to set up the player character's walkcycle (once I rigged his skeleton, but that's a one time thing). For all these reasons, I think the argument that this will be much harder and take more time than a 2D game isn't really valid.

Now, I won't argue with the fact that the backgrounds suck, and that a 2D game probably would look better than this even if I perfect those backgrounds. But that's just not the way I'll be going with this game. If you want me to make a 2D game, I made a crappy little 20 minute game a few months ago when I first picked up AGS, and I'd be glad to share it, as long as you all know it's supposed to look dumb.

As for using something like Bryce, or Vue, I'm not sure how great these (http://www-cache.daz3d.com/sections/galleries/artwork/394/57370.jpg) types of backgrounds would look in an AGS game with a character sprite drawn on top of them. I'm trying to go for more cartoony and unrealistic colors, but still trying to keep realistic shapes for my backgrounds and objects.

And, Anian, as for my character looking generic and Sierra like, thank you ! That's exactly what I was going for! I'm trying to recreate the feeling from QFG where the player character has no personality and no dialogue, and therefore YOU are drawn into the game to give him personality. That's one of the reasons that series was so great.

So like I said, I'll keep working on the backgrounds. I've seen some pretty amazing things done with blender, and I'm going to try to get better and make some of you non-3D people into believers. But like I asked before, can I get a critique on the various icons/buttons? I'm pretty torn when it comes to them, as I think the sprites are good, but they still don't feel like buttons. This is probably just a minor gripe. (And by the way, the tumbly icon is for acrobatics/jumping. The third character class will be the acrobat, and I'm trying to incorporate some prince of persia-like acrobatic stunts for him to pull off)

Oh, and the fonts will go. Comic sans was just a placeholder, and while I've never seen papyrus in a game, I'll try to find something a bit more unique.

Edit:
I forgot- the grass isn't supposed to look right there- that's just an object that I'd put under other surfaces that should have grass on them. I'll see how it looks in the game if I make the grass a good deal shorter.

The polygon count actually is somewhat high, but you are right, it can go higher. I've been trying to implement some of these textures but most of the time what I get looks extremely unnatural. I'll keep trying though, maybe there is something I'm missing.

As for the lighting, I also tried getting realistic looking lighting setups but when I render that background and put a character in the room in AGS, it again looks unnatural. There are some of those character lighting tools in AGS that I'll check out, and hopefully that can help me out.

But besides all that, yeah I need to keep at it with the backgrounds.

Now, what is wrong with papyrus? I was searching through windows fonts and fonts online, and that was one of the best I could come up with. Are there any other suggestions?

Also, Virgil, are the menus really too big? In games I play, I prefer the menus to have readable fonts, and decently sized images. It's not like you need to be looking at the background while you are in the menu screen, and it's not like you can't get back to the game with a single click.

Also, I tried to get good grass and I even have a nice image of good looking grass:



But again there is an issue when I import that into AGS. The character will just walk on top of all of that looking very silly, and I'm at a loss as to how to get good looking grass but make it so that the characters' feet will be behind the grass at certain points. Actually, I just thought of this: if I make little strips of walk-behind areas, and thick enough grass, would that look realistic enough? Or is there another way to do this?

Also, the battle menu is way too big, yes. I actually just threw that together yesterday, and I've been tinkering with it since. I'm trying to include enough room for a couple more buttons, so we'll see how that goes.

Now, can I ask how people feel about the icons? I think they look decent enough, but as buttons they don't really have much personality. They're just flat boxes. Is that okay, or do you all have any suggestions of how to make them more button-like or just look nicer? Thanks!

Hello all!

So I've been working on a game for a little while, in the style of the quest for glory games (in my opinion Sierra's best). So I know most of you guys don't seem too fond of 3D graphics in these adventure games, and I can understand why. But because I have little-no artistic talent, but am very good at learning new software, I've been using Blender to make all the sprites and backgrounds.

First of all, here's the main character.





I think this is a pretty good character model and a good walk cycle. The other nice thing about 3D modeling is the animations look much cleaner and are very easy to create.

Now, where I think I need some work is in the backgrounds and menus, and I'd like to hear some suggestions for how to improve them. Since this is a QFG style game, it is an RPG, and I've included a stats sheet and a spells menu.

Stats:


Spells:


And I also have a special actions menu:


As you can see, I sort of streamlined the menu system so that you can switch from any one to another without having to exit out. I haven't shown the inventory or control panel because as of now it's pretty similar to the AGS default, besides a different background and font.

Also, here's my icon bar:


As you can see, that's one of the backgrounds with another character. How do you like that background?

Here's an example of speech with that character:


And here is another background:



And last but not least, since this is a QFG game and an RPG, here's an example of a battle screen:



So like I said, I mainly wonder how you all think the GUI menus and the few backgrounds look. Also, if you want to give me an overall critique on these, I'm certainly all ears.
Thanks!

Like I said earlier, I originally made this post to see if those who tried the game wanted me to continue on and make the second half, so I figured this was the appropriate forum. I did post a few weeks ago in the critics lounge, so I wasn't TOO concerned with getting advice about the art in this post, I just wanted to see how people who played the game liked the feel of it.

But I think because I haven't heard any people asking me to continue, I'm going to halt production on this game, so feel free to lock the thread. Hopefully I'll have a new game (with better graphics) to show you all in a few months!

Well, I posted here because I wanted to see whether or not people wanted me to continue this game, as I said in my first post. But the underwhelming amount of responses seemed to indicate that I shouldn't, so I now just wanted to know at least whether or not the art style and animations (for those who have played it at all) are likable enough to start a new game with.

Any thoughts? I'm trying to start a new game with the same art and animation style, and much more detailed character models. Does anyone like this style?

Hello all!

I just started using AGS a couple months ago, and to develop my skills, I started with a remake: the NES classic, Shadowgate. It is more or less the same game, but I've made a few crucial changes- most of all, it is now in 3rd person, with a fully animated player character. (Download link at the bottom)

So far: I have completed ~50% of the total content, including music, sounds, rooms, animations, etc. It is entirely playable to the half(ish)way point.
Screenshots:





So due to the nature of this game, there are several gameplay differences between this and the original. So if a solution that worked back in the NES game doesn't, then try something else- usually a simple solution. If all else fails, use the hint system that I've implemented, just don't expect to finish with the highest possible score!

Note: As of now, I will not be planning on finishing this game, as I am starting a job soon (yay money) and won't have lots of time. In my spare time I'll be trying to start a new game- this one just being practice, sorta.
However, if I get enough responses with people wanting me to finish it, then I will definitely try to do it and I'll keep you all updated. So please let me know what you think, what I can do  better in the future, and if I should continue with this game to the end! Thanks!

Oh and by the way, this game is not quite 100% polished. You'll certainly notice some walk-behind issues and some baseline issues, but the game should be fully playable and you should be able to complete the first half. As I said, I'm gonna start focusing on my job, so I just wanted to get this out here before I move it aside and start working on something else.

Download link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VKBBPYSF

I think this is a better character design style-



Good enough for a final game?

Bonus points if you know which character this is. (Just cyclops doesn't count! That's a bit obvious!)

So for those of you who have played through what I've given you:

Which of these art aspects need work- backgrounds, objects, or characters?

I personally think the backgrounds aren't bad... for this type of game I don't see much of a reason to add too many details to the backgrounds.

Most of the objects could use some work, I think. I like some of the item models, but things like doors and bridges and such could be better.

Characters, besides the player character, I think are awful. I'm not very good at drawing concepts for these characters, and it certainly shows when I've finished modeling them. The troll, in particular, I think looks horrendous.

I doubt I'll change from the 800x600 resolution. I've made about all of my 1000's of sprites specifically for 800x600 so it would be a pain to redo them. I think the better solution would be to add more detail to the models (and backgrounds, if you guys don't think those are great) later once I've finished a lot of the content.

Now, the animations I think are pretty good, but tell me if I'm wrong there. Oh, and I know there are quite a few issues with the mirror reflection, and I actually think that's a scripting issue, so I might ask for that in another section of the forums.

Besides that, I'm pretty proud of my work, and I'd love to hear any criticisms of the art, as well as some of the more functional aspects of the game (torch system, ways to compensate for not having like 30 actions, etc). Thanks for your responses so far!

Hello, I am new to AGS and these forums. I just started using AGS and decided my first project should be a remake of the original Shadowgate, but in third person. Meaning an actual player character, and therefore character animations. I know it's kind of ambitious for my first game, but I'm an ambitious kinda guy.

Right now I'm about halfway through the game (done the troll bridge, and everything up to it) , and I really want to get some input from you guys. Here are some screens-







I'm sure some of you guys who have played the original will recognize some of these. I'll also post the game file so you can play the first half- http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SB891IIR

Note- there are some differences from the original in the way this game works, and I've detailed those in the readme file, so give it a look. Also, I admit I've used some of the writing straight from the original, but most of the lines are either variations or my original lines. The music is from the original game. In the final, I'd LIKE to make my own music, but we'll see how that goes.

Now, I've never done much scripting before, or any 3D design at all, so this is all beginner stuff. I know some of the character models are pretty crude, but I'd like to hear how the game as a whole is so far- especially some of the technical scripting and AGS editor aspects. I realize the art and animations can be better and I'm going to work on those. And I apologize if I'm breaking any forum rules in this post- I'm not much of a forum-goer.