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[Check out the trailer for the course here...]

Hey guys!  Back in March I finally finished my 2D Adventure Game Creation Course on Udemy (9 months in the making)!  Covering everything from Story Development, Character Creation, Level and Game World Design, Voice Acting, Music Composition and more!  Although, the game engine featured for putting all of the assets together is Unity/ Adventure Creator, many here may still find some value in the asset creation sections!  The Course has been well received so far, and Udemy is currently featuring it in the "Top Courses for Game Art" section!

Check out the trailer for the course here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GBX1gy390o

Or checkout the course page here...
https://www.udemy.com/2dadventuregame/?couponCode=ADVENTURE10

Use coupon code: ADVENTURE10 to get lifetime access to all 19 hours of video lessons for $9.99!

Hope your game developing is going well!

Talk to you soon!
Isaac

Hey guys,

I've had some requests from the AGS community to make a tutorial for the "Adventure Creator" plug-in for the Unity Game Engine that was more geared toward AGS switchers... The tutorial out now is a little overwhelming when first starting out from AGS, some may find it useful here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_CLWnDNNZA

The overview video I made last summer showcasing some of my favorite aspects of the program can be found here (much shorter than a full-blown tutorial).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcvbProVHEg

Thanks,
Isaac

Impressive!

How does it handle scaling old fashioned low res pixel art though? It can look like shit when not scaled correctly.

Hello, sorry, I have zero experience using low-res sprites in Unity, I wouldn't be the one to ask for this.  My high-res ones seem to scale fine.  I've used them anywhere from 30%-190% of the original scale.  I know Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games was at least looking into switching, and was working on recreating some of his low-res scenes in Adventure Creator earlier in the Summer, he may be a better one to ask for that.

From a glance at the video you posted, it looks like the author of Adventure Creator has made the same oversight about animation as the Visionaire Studio guys did. The character is animated at a certain frame rate, but moves at 60 frames per second, creating a sliding effect. The only real workaround being to make a 60 FPS animation loop. I stick with AGS because it handles details like these correctly. It's also free, has an arguably better object model and is well documented.

Hello, I don't know all the particulars on this either, when setting up an animation I notice it defaults to 60 fps, but you can change the fps of each animation which of course effects the speed depending on the number of frames you use... I have different speeds ranging anywhere from 1fps to 24fps... As to the gliding, I guess that hasn't bothered me as much, though Chris Burton has mentioned that he is either working on, or has fixed the gliding issue... That really wasn't a deal breaker for me.

My cutscenes in AGS were starting to get choppy with the music, and the timing of things (probably due to the high-res assets?), and beyond that, I was really looking for a low-effort option to have the game ported to multiple platforms upon completion, particularly iOS.  And of course the other features such as camera movements, resolution independent art assets, and the other favorite options mentioned in the video ended up being a bonus.

Although the learning curve was high (took about 2 weeks of work for my brain to switch gears enough to work on my own project).  I'm finding I'm setting up and navigating scenes much quicker than before, and able to spend more time on the art assets, which is a benefit to me as an artist (rather than a native programmer).

To each his own, I definitely know AGS is still the way to go for many.  For my needs, Adventure Creator is a much better fit, and thought I would share some of the benefits I've discovered during the transition.

Isaac

Hello,

I was testing out Adventure Creator with the Unity 5 engine over the Summer, and decided to make the big switch after about 2 weeks of use.  At the end of the summer, I made this video for the Adventure Creator forms to give my top ten reasons for switching.  Other forum members recommended I post it here as well, in case anyone was interested in some of the features as they related to AGS.  I still love AGS and what it has done for the post-90's Adventure Game era, and believe there will be many successful games made with it for years to come, but for my specific needs, it seems Adventure Creator is a better fit for me.

I really didn't want to post this here, as it is for a competing product, and I definitely have no ill-will toward AGS, and the many many users.  Just thought those who were interested in the Adventure Creator Plug-in for Unity might find this video helpful.  Hope all is well!  Happy Game Design!

Thanks,
Isaac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcvbProVHEg


Also, there is another thread here on AGS where other members discussed the Adventure Creator/ Unity Plug-in when it first came out.  I considered posting this link there, but didn't want to resurrect a dead thread, posting it below for easy access:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49134

Tabata, Stupot, and Gurok, thank you for watching the promo video, glad you're enjoying the progress, and thank you for the well wishes.

Isaac

Sorry about that, updating now.  I have read the rules in the past, but it's been a while.  I should have reread before posting.

Isaac

[Synopsis:]

Hello,

I brought up this game last fall while inquiring after some coding help on a couple of items.  This has been my "labor of love" project for the past 10 years (more heavily the past two years).  I am an art major in painting and computer art, and am currently teaching art in my local public school system... this is my "evening and weekends, and daydreaming during class" project.  I also have a background in voice acting, musical theatre and composing, which helps me in game production.  Of course I am in no rush to finish the project, but I feel like it's at a point where I feel comfortable sharing some work with all of you.  I estimate another two years at least before I have something to release.  I'm really enjoying working on this.

Hope you enjoy this short alpha teaser.

http://youtu.be/UACSTPpr_fY

*Edit*

Synopsis:
The Callahan Curse is an up-coming High-Resolution Adventure Game, featuring a classic "Point and Click" interface, lush interactive environments, hand-painted backgrounds, orchestrated musical score, challenging puzzles with multiple solutions and outcomes, rich voice acting, 2-D animations, and an engaging story-line.

After the disappearance of a beloved family member, young Gabriella ventures out on her own to find the mysterious "Elise", a rumored sorceress who can help to reunite her broken family.

Along the way, meet a variety of characters with needs of their own, who may be able to aide you in your quest.

Development Progress:


Story: 95%
Scripting: 60%
Graphics: 60%
Sound/Music: 25%

Expected completion date: January 2017

Development Diary:
**Many of these diary details may seem arbitrary and unrelated, but I'm including them because to me it was all part of this game's production.  And as with many people in this community, this project was worked on in the middle of a completely separate life, and sometimes has large periods of time with little progress.**

Spring 2001
Plot outlined.

Fall 2002
Plot refined/ detailed.

Spring 2003
Puzzle/ Game Design began
Concept Sketches for key scenes
Character Design began
Opening/ Ending Cut-scene Dialogue written
Main theme music conceptualized/ recorded

Summer 2005
Main musical themes refined
Background Art Sketches fleshed out/ color tests began

Fall 2005 - 2009
Changed focus from game production to refining skills:
Studied painting
worked as a music composer and voice actor for Infamous Adventures (Now Infamous Quests).
Worked full time as a graphic designer and musical theater actor
Began my Art Education Degree
Continued work on dialogue scripts
Began "Final" versions of game background art

Spring 2010
Looking for solutions for the "hand-drawn" animation look (without the traditional frame-by-frame method)
Began to study 2-D vector animation
Continued to (slowly) work on background art
Began to study AGS coding

Spring 2011
Further work on background art
Hand-Drawn/ computer aided 2-D vector animation practice for several months

Spring 2012
Finishing Art Teaching degree, interning/ student teaching at multiple schools
Began experimenting with game asset animations
Began music composing for "final" versions of musical score
Continued background art

Spring 2013
Graduated Art School (with teaching degree)
Began teaching traditional art at local public schools
Completed character design and character rigging for main character
Completed 8 view walk cycle for main character
Began basic interaction animations

Summer 2013 - Spring 2014
Kicked game work into gear!
Heavy character animation assets
Finished Designing/ rigging 30% of the supporting characters
Began creating/ implementing environment animations
Began coding with AGS
40 rooms in-progress with coding
Inventory GUI designed
Opening cutscene storyboards refined
Animations for opening cutscene began
Coding for opening cutscene 95% finished
Music for opening cutscene 95% finished
Background Music began
(25 music pieces in-progress or completed, music 35% done)

Game Screenshots:



















Isaac

Fantastic, thank you!  I was working around by making separate characters, and that was getting a little clunky, I figured there was a simple command for it...  I appreciate the help.

Isaac

Hello,

I apologize if this has been covered before... Is there a way to change a speech view during game play?  For example, if you character alters his/her attire during the game, and speaks before and after the outfit change... How would I set that?

I know how to set a basic view...

Code: ags

cCharacter.SetView(35);

But that doesn't seem to apply to speech.

Thanks for your time,
Isaac

Hey guys, just wanted to touch base and let you all know this issue has been resolved.  My game files were not corrupt, it was a matter of my assets being too large.  I spent the weekend rerendering all of my sprite files at a more optimized resolution for AGS's highest possible output, rather than importing at full-resolution and having each room scale the sprites down by 45%.  After this was done, and all original sprites were deleted, there were no more problems regarding this issue.  I had a few new error messages regarding failed clearing cache, but I was able to work that out on my own.

I may have more actual basic questions coming later.

Thanks,
Isaac

One more thing to add with this issue.  The sprites for the cursors have also defaulted back to the blue cup.  I hadn't noticed until I ran an updated build of the game just now.  I'm wondering if my file has been corrupted somehow . . . hmmmm.  All other sprites so far have been fine, just can't import anything new without the issue repeating.

Isaac

*Edit
As I am only 2 months into the scripting for this project, I am considering uninstalling AGS and re-installing it, starting from scratch, this time with the sprites not so large.

Thanks guys!  I've been using the Sammy's Quest tutorials very frequently, they're your best friends when starting AGS.  I would like to share some of the game's progress, however I'm focused on getting my sprite dilemma worked out at the moment(see the beginner's technical questions thread); That may entail me needing to rerender all of current in-game sprites at a lower resolution, re-import them, re-configure the loops, change the scaling percentages on every walkable area, and test out any animations that were effected by the smaller size transition.. Then I think I will be happy to take a break and choose some goodies to share.  I'm not at my computer as often as I would like, I teach art at five different schools (one per day), then I'm usually needed at home to help with family business before I can sneak downstairs and work (typing from iOS at the moment)... Again, thanks for the love.  We'll talk soon.

Isaac

Hi guys, I was trying to find an appropriate place to introduce myself, I guess this thread is as good as any!

I'm new to AGS, but not to Adventure Game Development.  I've done various work in the voice acting, music, sound, and art departments for Infamous Adventures, Infamous Quests, AGDI, and Phoenix Online Studios.  Like many of you, I've been inspired by the golden age of Adventure Gaming, and have lofty dreams of game production.  Art, music, and drama are what I have been pursuing in life, with community theater, student film, media and game production.  I am currently a full-time Art and Design Teacher for a public school district near my home.  I have been working off-and-on for about 10 years on concept material for an adventure game.  I am not in a race to finish, it is my passion project, and I want it done right.  I have also been developing the added tech skills needed for game production - character animation, digital composing, sequencing, recording, etc.  I have moved from concept stages to production stages during the last year or two (granted, projects done in your free-time move at a much slower pace, as most of you know).  I finally came to a point where I needed to bring my assets together, and tackle the dreaded mountain of programming, and now, here I am!  The past two months, my free-time has switched gears to watching AGS tutorial videos, trial and error scripting experiments, getting to know the interface of AGS - got to say - BRILLIANT program, and actually starting to use it has been far less intimidating than I anticipated.

So, I'm glad to be here, I'm sure you'll see me around reading some of these fabulous old threads to help make this transition a little smoother.  I've got to say though, after finishing the walk-behinds, and basic room enter and exit scripting for the first environment in my game (20+ hand painted high-res rooms), and having my character be able to walk around and explore my game for the first time, my heart melted a little and gave me an experience that I've been waiting for since playing my first adventure game way back in the day.

Thank you smart people at AGS for making a dream achievable.

Isaac

Hi guys,

I apologize if this has been covered somewhere, I really did spend two free evenings looking for the answer on the forums, website, AGS manual and tutorial vids before posting this.

I am working on a game, 1024x768, with high-res sprites, some of which are 50+ frames in a loop cycle.  Everything has been going great until 2 nights ago, every new sprite I try to import, large or small, defaults to the blue cup.  Not at first.  I use the "quick import sprites" feature, then auto-crop everything, then fine tune the loops, then save - and here's where the problems start.  The save takes overly long (3-5 minutes instead of the usual half a minute after importing high-res sprites).  Then, when I return to the project after a save, every sprite defaults to the blue cup.  Not just in the animation loop itself, but when I navigate into my assets folders through AGS they have defaulted to the blue cup as well.  I quit the program, restarted my computer, reverted to a previously backed-up copy (that worked for a while, but when I got to a certain level of sprites, the problem repeated).  Now is there a game size limit . . . are my sprites TOO large?  Should I re-render the sprites at a smaller file size, and rework them into the game (this would be my last resort trial, I wanted to check with you all first)?  Currently, I have most rooms set to scale the sprites down to about 65% for my 1024 x 768 background.  So, I'm guessing they could just be too dang large and I might need to size everything down.  However, I haven't found any evidence on the website, manual, or forums to support this, other than AGS tends to run slower the larger the game gets . . . have I maxed it out?

Thanks very much for your time,
I will post something in an "intro" thread when I find one,
thanks!

Isaac