Your adventure game development processs

[Uhfgood]

Would anyone mind explaining how they make their adventure games?  Do you start with characters, a plot, a mock-up?  What do you normally do to actually create your adventure games?

Please let me know because I'm interested in how everyone approaches it.

[Baron]

I start somewhere.... NOT the beginning.  Then there's a lot of booze and hard work.  Mostly booze actually.....  Then ...eventually.... you gotta tie it all together with something resembling a coherent plot.  Or maybe not.  Whatever.  And then there's the magic of release!  And then.... repeat!

EDIT: Well it's not really an edit, I haven't posted this yet.  But I don't want to sound like I'm dissing the genre or anything.  It's just that my methods are chaotic and occasionally helped along with a healthy dose of Irish whiskey.  I'm not about to justify these methods nor recommend them to anyone else (how many full-length games have I released in the last 6 years?), but that's the way I roll and that's what the question asked.  Usually I've got this outline/design document, also produced under the influence.  I follow it when I can't think of anything more interesting to do instead.  Really, the trick is to stick with it until it's done or... it won't ever be.  Other methods are just window dressing.

[qptain Nemo]

So, Baron, you think adventure games are shit. Got it.

My methods are fairly chaotic too, although they don't involve alcohol (maybe they should, at least sometimes). But I think at the core of every concept that has a shot of being done by me lies a mood. I need a mood, a feeling that the game will have. (which is why some game ideas even start from making music) Coupled with a concept of what it's about, how that is delivered and how it works it makes for a foundation from which everything else gradually works out. Lately I'm trying to learn to balance building a solid structure of the plot, events, the game world etc and letting the imagination roam free within it in perfect harmony. I consider both very important.

Also I agree with this:

Really, the trick is to stick with it until it's done or... it won't ever be.  Other methods are just window dressing.

But then, probably every developer who has done shit would agree with it.

[Ghost]

I like to start with a clear idea of the game's main character. Not a fully fleshed out biography but a strong image. That means a good mockup sprite and some traits. This often leads to the actual conflict (or call it main quest) of the game- undead cheerleader must bake cake, teenage PI solves a crime, student tries to win a sorerity dare. From there on, brainstorming. Setting and tone are good to spark ideas for puzzles, and I like to write them as "fake walkthroughs"; that eventually gives me a list of objects, inventory items, and possible locations. Then it's time to build the world- I don't like rooms cramped up with pick-ups so items have to be spread around, but should be at sensible locations. NPCs appear.

And very often that careful plan really is nothing but a list of things that don't work. While creating the sprites and backgrounds new ideas crop up. Or maybe a puzzle sounded cool but is no fun to play through. I tend to roll with that and just adjust things by making them up as I go along. I spend more time creating actual playable "game" while scripting and spriting than I plan on paper.

tvTropes and Google are my allies. I use them for simple, easy-to-regocnize characterization and for reference images. No idea how an actual rainforest looks like? Bam, Internet. Want to make sure players realise the man over there is a really bad guy? Let him kick a dog. Never tried yoour hands on a three-section-leg walkcycle? Just watch SPLICE. You get my drift.

In the (few) games I made I always wrote the ending last, and spent most of the time on it. That's probably because I tend to pay more attention to the story than to the puzzles. I also like to not draw myself into a corner by knowing how the game "must end". Sometimes the game knows better.

As soon as the game is in anything like a playable state, I call out for testers. Because at that point I play the game on autopilot and wouldn't find a bug if it waved a big glowing sign.

And before the release I try to get a night's sleep, check the game a last time, and then release it. Or if not, at least I spend the next six hours on the internet, waiting for cries of "Found a bug!"

Although technically, sometimes I don't do all of that. Sometimes everything is just a blurry mess and no actual "design doc" manifests at any point, the whole game is just made from scratch. That can be fun too.

Fill yourself up. Read comics. They are great to get ideas. Play games. Collect screenshots of classic adventure games, if only for palette reference. Charge yourself up until a game basically has to form in your brain because otherwise, there'd be grey matter all over the furniture. Collect ideas and never throw anything away- it's hilarious to go through five years of WiP project folders.

[miguel]

It really depends if I'm working solo or with a team.
In the first case I normally start with the main character sketch and walk cycle, then the background. When I finish painting it I already have a game in my head, a plot and direction. As soon as I have a second character to interact to I begin coding on it.
The first room, fully playable, is done really quickly (with dialogues as well) and then I stop.
If the motivation stays up I'll keep working on the game and generally is a linear process from one room until the next one.
I may go back to the title screen, or just concentrate on GUI's appearance as well. There's no real organized work. Although it's all in the head already.

When working with a team everything changes. You do need to supply everybody with all the info they can get. I usually use drawn story boards with notations and simple .txt files with a good summary of what we are doing next.
Here, organization is everything. Don't expect people to work with you if you don't have a clear idea of what you want.

[Le Woltaire]

1: I use my dreams at night to make up the story.
2: I drink lots of alcohol while I script.
3: I smoke cuban cigars when I compose the music and make the backgrounds.
4: I eat chocolate for the puzzles. (good for nervous system)
5: Characters get developed from people that I encounter in my daily life.
6: I sleep with a dictionary under my pillow while the game is proof read.
7: I try to get as many women as possible into the beta test team.

[OneDollar]

Several years ago I wrote a series of blog entries about making Breakdown for one of the MAGS competitions. They start here if you're interested.

So far I've only made short games, and MAGS in particular forces you to work very quickly so you don't have much time to out different ideas. If I was making something longer I'd change my workflow quite a bit.

[CaptainD]

My method is to find a willing (=unwitting) programmer and annoy the hell out of them by repeatedly sending them extra bits to add into the game.

I know ideally you'd script the entire game in detail before you start actually putting it together, but I just can't do that.  To me game-making is very much an iterative process, and while for me the story and characters generally get developed first, every aspect of the game is up for change right up to the moment you release it - unless you're already VERY happy with it.  In terms of gameplay mechanics, I think getting your User Interface sorted should definitely be the first job.

(Apologies to Hernald, The Bit Priest and Selmiak - all unwitting programmers who've worked with me so far!!)

[selmiak]

This all depends on your position. If you join a team as musician or graphician you (hopfully) get good directions and there you go. If you want to make your game start whereever you start, be it outlining a story, a main room around which the story unfolds, drawing this room, sketching a character or coding an effect or an interesting gamemachanic. But maybe you should listen to others, I haven't released any adventure game and have like 5 in progress games that all are developed in a very chaotic way (this approach seems to be quite normal around here though, so I'm reliefed) and some that will probably never get finished...
edit: maybe the lesson to learn from this is to focus on one project at a time

@ Captain D: apologies accepted, send me more additions NOW! maybe we can get this MAGS game to a state where it eventually makes sense

[Grundislav]

This will soon be a topic of discussion on the BlueCupTools Podcast, so stay tuned!

[Secret Fawful]

I get an idea in my head, and usually one revolving around a character. Then I hash out story scenes in my head, usually synced to music. Most often Ennio Morricone soundtracks. I work on figuring out an art style next. Then I make some backgrounds and sprites to get an idea of how the game will look. I write some dialogue and put some early rooms together. Then I start working on design and code, which is where the cursing begins. I scream at AGS for months while I try my hardest to figure out the code, and the puzzles, and I bug monkey_05_06 a lot. Then eventually, sometimes with his help, and sometimes not, I figure out what I'm trying to do, and wait to curse the engine another day. Alcohol and a lot of whining mixes in there somewhere.

It's fun. I like it.

[Stupot]

I know I haven't actually released an adventure game yet, but I have one in the works and I can tell you that I had the whole story and all the puzzles hand-written on paper long before [6 years before, as it turned out] I actually started scripting it in AGS.

I started with the title 'A Window Cleaner's Apprentice'.  This was supposed to be a joke in that a lot of adventurey games are about apprentices (apprenti?) usually set in fantasy medieval type settings,  but this was to be the modern day version of a trade apprentice and window cleaning was the first thing that came to my head. It could have been anything.

Then I came up with the basic 'quest' or 'mission' before any of the story elements.  Basically, what does he want? Well obviously he wants to become a master in the long term, but for now he just wants his wages.  And what could stop him getting his wages?  Well, if something were to happen to his boss on payday, that would be bad.  So the quest became all about a kid (Tom) who tries to find his missing boss (Dick) on payday.  The joke being that he's a not doing it because he's a hero trying to save his boss, but because he wants his wages.

That was the basic idea, pretty much based on a flimsy joke, but as I added more bits of story the puzzles came quite natuarally.  I had thumbnails of roughly how the rooms would look on the left hand side and wrote the story, dialogue and puzzles almost in the style of a walkthrough in the right hand column, adding items to the relevent thumbnail whenever I introduced a new object of character in the writing.  The result was quite messy but very logical and easy to translate to AGSscript when the time (finally) came.  The game is basically playable and fully programmed apart from some walkcycles, but the current version remains almost entirely unchanged from the version I wrote on paper all those years ago.

Now I'm currently in the process of trying to redo all the backgrounds myself, though I have enlisted a character and sprite artist (Creamy, who by the way is really enthusiastic and a damn good artist and I recommend his services).  I was never realistically going to do my own character art as I seem to have an irrational fear of walk-cycles and I suspect that was the thing that caused the 6-year hiatus in development.

So if I've learned one thing, it's this: don't be too proud to ask for help if you know it will get the game finished.  I suspect I wanted this game to be 'my baby' when I first started working on it, but since I have got somebody to basically do the hard part for me, I feel a lot less pressure and much happier working on the game, and knowing that in all likelihood it WILL be finished and it may even be quite fun to play

[Charity]

Step 1: Get an idea while you are in high school.  It's pretty epic.

Step 2: Think about it for 1 (one) decade, until it ceases to resemble itself.  This is for the best; you weren't as original as you thought you were, in high school.  But now it's even more epic.

Step 2a: In the meantime, take introductory classes in everything at community college, except the subjects that might lead to a career outside academia.  This information will help...somehow.  Try to avoid thinking about opportunity cost.

Step 3: Start coding a new and complicated interface that is going to be awesome.  Stop when the code is getting too convoluted for you to keep track of anymore.

Step 4: Spend several days making some sprites.

Step 4a: Now for some walking animations!

Step 4b: This is time consuming and boring.

Step 5: Make a detailed plan complete with mini deadlines that you can complete by the end of the summer.

Step 6: It's time to start world building, but don't go into too much depth here - just the bare minimum so it looks like your game is taking place in a place.  You will fill in the rest later.

Step 7: Come up with a name for one of your secondary characters.

Step 8: None of these sound good.  Construct a language from scratch so you give your secondary character a name with some sort of logic behind it.

Step 8a: Start with the phonemes.  Those are important.

Step 8b: Now move onto basic morphology.  Consider doing something with gender and case.

Step 8c, d, e, f...  But it is all so fascinating.

Step 9: Summer is over and now you have schoolwork to do, but maybe if you stay on top of things you can work a little in the evening.

Step 10: Great!  Finally a free moment.  Time to watch television on the internet.

Step 10a: If inspiration does hit, consider starting over on those sprites.  They look a little off in retrospect.

Step 11: Repeat.

EDIT: But I did complete the Secret Santa Generator.  That's something, right?

[Eric]

Step 10: Great!  Finally a free moment.  Time to watch television on the internet.

This has been an essential step in my own process. Along with learn to draw / learn to draw better / realize the drawings you do now are better than the ones you did when you started / start over / learn to draw better / etc.

[Ghost]

Then I hash out story scenes in my head, usually synced to music.

That's a nifty little trick and well worth remembering!

[Uhfgood]

Interesting methods for sure.  Just wish we could get more people in on this thread.  I'm essentially building my own adventure game framework.  At the moment I can only do choose-your-own-adventures with it (very basic, hyper-card-like games).  So I intend to add a new feature to the framework with each game I build.  Eventually it should be it's own full graphic-adventure game framework.

Still having problems on how to start my own.  Not using ags simply so i can start from the ground up.  Although I"m also toying with the idea of demakes, remakes, and original games built on existing properties.  Of course my goal for doing said games would be to teach myself how to create adventure games, not necessarily for the fan-factor.  (For instance making a fan-game of star wars simply because I'm a fan of it).

[cat]

When I make a new game, I always carry a small notebook with me. I write down every idea that comes to my mind. Then I try to connect ideas, add different thoughts and think of scenes where the events take place. Then I start to do very rough sketches of backgrounds and characters in the notebook. I do not write a script, not even for dialog. I write that on the go directly in AGS.

The next step is starting up AGS. By then I usually have decided on a graphic style and resolution. I don't use placeholder art for backgrounds, I usually add one background after the other once it is finished. I do the coding and drawing at the same time, although I do use placeholders for characters. Animation is the most difficult thing for me, so I tend to do postpone it to the end of development

I recently found old notes from various games, I might upload some of them.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Strangely, I mostly like to join existing projects that have stimulated my creativity, and help finishing them, rather than starting my own.
I'm so demanding with my own projects, that I almost never finish those (or even start them). They just maturate in a corner of my head for years.