AGS for menu-driven non-3rd person adv game?

[Deist]

I'll begin straight away by greeting everyone around  , seeing I'm all new and freshly registered here, and just as much straight forward will apologize in case of my 1st question being too dumb even for a n00b or already answered some other obvious place (which I wasn't smart enough to find anyway). This said, here's my point:

I'm a huge adventure games freak 8), and I've been willing to start giving a try to AGS for a long time but never actually had the time to do so before. Now that I seem to have some more in my hands, the thing is I realize I'd be even more tempted (in the long run I mean -- obviously I won't start any serious work before having mastered enough of the soft in order to do so) to create a point and click more in the vein of, say Lankhor's "Mortville Manor"/"Maupity Island", or later games from Legend Entertainment ("Companions of Xanth", "Death Gate", "SuperHero League of Hoboken").

That is (for those too young to have ever played these wonders ): 1st person view (no animated characters displayed on-screen) of static rooms (which is to say that you can't move the view, but don't dismiss the possibility of animations within the actual graphic frame), and rolling menus to access the commands (which would allow for much more of them than with a command board permanently displayed on-screen like in the LucasArts games for instance). Other than that, the basic principles of the point'n'click remains the same (ie. the whole "mouse pointer on any object/spot of the graphics and click to interact with it" thing).

Hence my wondering as to wether this would be easily feasable with AGS or not, or is AGS suitable for developing such a kind of point'n'click in your opinion? The way I see it, such a game is basically a lighter/easier form of a PnC game without having to deal with managing all the animated sprites, collisons detection, fake 3D, etc. stuff, therefore I figured the AGS language allowing for so much more, would certainly permit to develop such simpler form of game...

But then again, given such a big part of its features being focused on developing 3rd person point'n'clicks (Sierra/LucasArts-style, like mentioned in the very description of the website), I'd like the opinion of some experienced users among you about how well- (or possibly ill-?)suited it is for the kind I'd be interested to develop myself?

[Ryan Timothy B]

First I'd like to say I haven't a dang clue what those games you mentioned were.  I definitely must be too young lol

And secondly, yes.  From what I've learned in the past week (with my own game I'm currently working on) is that AGS is an incredible program.  You can make literally any non real-time 3d game conceived (from my knowledge).  Adventure games being the obvious creation, but it can be used for RPG, Strategy, Arcade, and whatever else I'm missing.

Now to make a 1st person adventure game is the easiest it gets.  Just make sure your character isn't visible and draw up some fancy first person view backgrounds and you've already got yourself a 1st person adventure game, minus the interactions.

Take a peek at some of the tutorials out there.  You'll be laughing after a few days finding out how easy it is to work with AGS.

[Deist]

First I'd like to say I haven't a dang clue what those games you mentioned were.  I definitely must be too young lol

Just so you know what you've missed (and why not take a moment to fix that ;) -- in which case you'll most prolly need DosBox he he):

Companions of Xanth
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/449/Companions+of+Xanth.html
Superhero League of Hoboken
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/245/Superhero+League+of+Hoboken.html
Death Gate (Full CD)
http://www.abandonware-paradise.org/abandonware-Death_Gate___Full_CD__-937-gamereview.html

(As for Lankhor's games, couldn't find english versions yet, sorry...)

[Akatosh]

I'm not sure if that's what you meant, but it's easy-as-pie to make a first-person cursor-driven game with AGS. Just take a look at, say, Heartland Deluxe (semi-3D, though) or _Access.

[Gilbert]

My advice is, don't post links of abandoned wareZ here.

[LimpingFish]

Linking to Abandonia is kosher, in my opinion, seeing as they comply with the ESA and also provide links to buy the games they aren't allowed to host. Most other abandoned sites though, I'd have to agree with Gilbet, aren't fit for linking to.

And Akatosh is right. First person games are just as easy to make in AGS as other kinds of adventures are. At the most basic level all you have to do is enable "Hide Player Character" in each room.

[Deist]

Thank you folks for your comments, they prove of course very encouraging for me (as I was expecting -- though a bit doubtful before) to keep focusing on the style I'm interested to develop eventually!


Guess I'll stick around and enjoy the resources and help provided here then!
So see you in another threads of this forum...
-- DeisT

(PS. On another slightly off-topic matter:

My advice is, don't post links of abandoned wareZ here.

Advice taken Gilbet :, but these links were NOT wareZ (just like any REAL abandonware ought to be anyway)!

Both Lankhor and Legend Entertainment provided their authorisation for their (pretty) old games being freely distributed (actually making them _freeware_ more-like than _abandonware_), therefore no worries on that matter. (Mind you, I may be new to this particular forum but I'm sure not to forums in general and I wouldn't do sth so stupid as to post links to any material of doubtful legal distribution status. ).

As for abandonware websites, I know a whole bunch of them complying to ESA just as much as Abandonia does (several of them are in french only though), like: Lost Treasures Fr, Abandonware-Paradise and so forth... Just like I wouldn't dare linking to non-100% freeware stuff, I obviously wouldn't link to any legally ambiguous sites either! That said, I well understand the concern behind your warnings, so be assured such concern was nonfounded as far as I'm concerned : I make a point of behaving well )

[Trent R]

If you're good enough with AGS, you can make pretty much any type* of game genre. Check out all the games in the Games Database marked Non-adventure games (my personal favorite being Art of Theft). You can also create Adventure hybrids, like the QFG series (and AGDI's QFGIIVGA Remake is excellent!).


~Trent
PS-Calm down on the smileys.... Seriously. More than two is too much (including any that you might quote).
*Unless it requires 3D

[Anteater]

*Unless it requires 3D

Technically, 3D is very possible with AGS (especially a raycasting engine like Wolfenstein 3D or Doom), the problem is that performance would be horrible, and there are already other tools that would make doing such a game very easy.

[Trent R]

The asterisked phrase (as now edited) should start from 'pretty'. Yes it's possible, but like you say, horrible and unlikely.

Although I am excited for Crystal Shard's raycaster!

~Trent

[Radiant]

*Unless it requires 3D

I beg to differ...

[Trent R]

Did you read the post before yours? I didn't mean that it couldn't be done, I just used the wrong words.

~Trent

[Snake]

Nice plug, Radiant!