TOOL: Sierra AGI-style Template for making parser based games

[Gal Shemesh]

Hi everyone,

Following my update on Discord, I would like to share with you all that I've finished working on my Sierra AGI-style template, and that it's ready for everyone to use!

*** PLEASE NOTE ***
This template and its DEMO game were originally created on AGS Editor build 3.6.1.24 while newer releases may be in even newer build versions! (refer to the change log below). They will NOT work on previous version of the editor! If you ignore this warning and tried to use it in an older editor version than the build number mentioned above, it will make your AGS editor crash and lock itself in your operating system processes. This of course could be solved either by killing the process manually or by restarting your computer. You can install the current AGS editor build side-by-side with an older version on your system, only make sure that you don't install it on the same directory where the older version is installed. And most importantly, when the AGS setup ends, it will ask you if you wish to make it the default program to opening your AGS source files - make sure to NOT select that option, so you won't end up double clicking on your current projects and then opening and saving them in the newer build!

If you ever wanted to make an AGI-style game in AGS but didn't know how or where to start, this is the right template for you; all the initial setup to making an AGI-style game is already done in it, so you could focus on making your game and not worry about the logic behind the scenes, unless you want to modify something in the core logic of the template.

This AGI-style template includes some extra features which original AGI games didn't have. To name a few:

- A SCI interpreter mouse cursor (used for navigating the menus and more below)
- Label over hotspots.
- Left mouse button to walk around.
- Right mouse button on interaction areas for looking on them.
- Middle mouse button (or right mouse button when not on a hotspot) to open the inventory.
- Any click on an inventory item to examine it or not on an item to close the inventory.
- Modern Save / Restore / Restart / Quit dialogues.
- Dark mode GUI(s).

I also made a very short DEMO game which presents what you can make with this template. It consists of one room, a SCI-style character that I drew over a decade ago and never put into use, which I converted into AGI-style for this specific project, and a few things you can pick-up and do using the parser.

Source codes for both the template and its DEMO game are also provided for your reference, if you ever wish to learn how they were built.

While viewing the source code, you'd probably find that there's a better way to doing varies things that I coded. You're more than welcome to change the code to your liking, but please do not share/upload a modified version of this template, as I wish it to be consistent and accessible from one place; if you have suggestions for improvements, you're more than welcome to let me know and I'll consider adding them to a next release.

You may find it all on my Dropbox. I suggest to view the README file in the Templates directory there, and also the README file in the ZIP archives.

To install the template in AGS, download the 'Sierra AGI-style.agt' file and place it in the 'Templates' folder under your AGS installation directroy (by default it would be C:\Program Files (x86)\Adventure Game Studio x.x.x\Templates). You should then see the new template when selecting to create a new game.


If you're just learning AGS and/or make a non-commercial game, you are welcome to use the assets I created (you may find them in the 'Resources' folder in the 'Source' directory). However, if you create a commercial game, you are not allowed to use my assets but only the template itself to creating something original of yours.

If you have any feedback about this template, bug report and/or suggestions for improvement, feel free to reach me here or on the Discord channel. Though on Discord your messages could get burried after newer messages, so this forum page would be the best place. Here, others can mark your bug reports, suggestion, etc. with thumbs-up, so I could estimate the urgency for fixing or improving something you reported about.

DOWNLOAD LINK

Attached a few screenshots:









Changelog
=========
Version 1.4.0
Released: 31st July 2024
- Fixed clicking with the mouse on inventory items to looking on them.
- REMOVED: right mouse button on interaction areas for looking on them (see details below).
- REMOVED: bug message on launch in translation mode, as it no longer occurs since right-clicking to look on things has been commented out.
- Help menu (F1) was updated regarding the removed feature above.
- README file was updated regarding the removed feature above + added more info about creating new empty rooms.
     * I found that when you wish to have more than one hotspot / object by the same Description name in a given room, and wish to have different feedback when looking on them based on where the player stands, clicking on these interaction areas when the player is not in the proper position will trigger the look_rol messages instead, and the players won't know that they need to get closer to the interaction area before trying to look on it with the mouse, unless you code a message that tells them to get closer in such cases. To prevent this scenario and confusion, the right-click to look on interaction areas was commented out! You may uncomment the code if you wish to use this feature in the Global Script.

Version 1.3.0
Released: 24th July 2024
- Parser.ParseText(""); for preventing ROL from running were replaced with return; or break; when required.
- Added forgotten "you don't have it" feedback when looking on possible inv items that you don't have.
- Fix "You already took it" feedback when trying to re-pick an item.
- Fixed instructions in room comments and README for jumping to ROL bits from within room statements that doesn't meet anymore.
- Version within the template name was mistakenly typed 1.2.0 and was fixed to 1.3.0 on 31st July 2024.

Version 1.2.0
Released: 22nd July 2024
- Translation files support including Right-to-Left.
- English font spacing fix.
- New original Hebrew font.
- Hebrew synonym words added to the parser.
- All GUI(s) and menus were adjusted to accomodate the font spacing change.
- Max inventory items decreased from 28 to 26 due to font spacing change.
- Removed the Parser and Save built-in text boxes elements and replacing them with custom ones based on labels.
- Adding offset conversion from Unicode character input to ASCII for using the 256 characters WFN font (currently only for Hebrew; offsets for other languages could be easily added in the source code).
- Menus and sub-menus width now wraps the text based on text pixel width, and all menus adjust their position based on neighbor menu item width (mainly for translation purposes).
- Score label was broken down to 4 different labels, which now shift their position in relation to each other when score number increases.
- Varies script logic fixes.
- A new 16-color Aseprite palette for making room masks, this time in 8-bit.

Version 1.1.0
Released: 19th July 2024
- Upgraded to AGS Editor build 3.6.1.26.
- Fixed synonym mix between 'door' and 'breath'.
- Fixed F3 repeat string crash when equal to null.
- Removed F3 repeat string when equal to "".

Version 1.0.0
Released: 13th July 2024
Notes: Initial release of this template and of its DEMO game on AGS Editor build 3.6.1.24.