Point & click adventure?

pie

Hi guys, I was wondering if anybody ever tried making a point & click adventure with gideros.

Thank you:)

Apollo14

I think it's possible.
Especially 'Core.asyncCall' will be extremely handy in such type of games.
And Spine animations look really awesome, smooth as silk.

pie

What bothers me is the setup of the scenes: I can't think of a way to set them up quickly.. maybe with tiled but I have to think it thouroghly

keszegh

i've always wanted to make a pnc game once in the future, and the only framework i know is gideros, still probably i'd try to do it first with a framework tailored for pnc games especially. like ags or visionaire or maybe age.

hgy29

I'd love to make one myself, but as always, no problem for coding it but much trouble for coming up with a scenario and decent graphics/music...

Apollo14

What are your favorite point&click adventure games for reference?

pie said:

What bothers me is the setup of the scenes: I can't think of a way to set them up quickly.. maybe with tiled but I have to think it thouroghly

Imo it's better to compose scenes in Photoshop anyways, game editors all suck compared to PSD workflow.
I do everything in Photoshop, x/y coordinates are the same, I just copy them. Of course it may take a little bit longer then importing sprites via game editor gui. But it's like 3% of actual work. 97% is photoshop designing and lua scripting.

oleg

hgy29 said:

I'd love to make one myself, but as always, no problem for coding it but much trouble for coming up with a scenario and decent graphics/music...

I have the same problem

Apollo14

"West of Loathing" is good example of great idea

oleg

Apollo14 said:

"West of Loathing" is good example of great idea

contour graphics is harder to create than color. it only seems that the contour is simpler ..

oleg

pie said:

What bothers me is the setup of the scenes: I can't think of a way to set them up quickly.. maybe with tiled but I have to think it thouroghly

you can create your own scene editor, it's not hard

I first take a screenshot in Photoshop of the scene. then I put a screenshot background in Gideros. Then I set the objects in the scene, focusing on the background. A simple Gideros class lets you drag sprites around the scene and display their coordinates.

hgy29

For a similar need, I used GIMP to set up the scene, using layers to place my objects and a self-made plugin to export the whole scene and metadata to something gideros could read.

pie

How do you setup and export metadata from GIMP? Do you use layer names or there is an option I am not aware of?

Thank you

hgy29

yes, I used layer names

oleg

hgy29 said:

For a similar need, I used GIMP to set up the scene, using layers to place my objects and a self-made plugin to export the whole scene and metadata to something gideros could read.

Before, I placed sprites in the mominis level editor
It exports the level to xml files




the company has disappeared, but I have a level editor file
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nSXVx_T5Ye4XOQNxD4mqtGLTfs_4Y5dm

pie

Thank you @oleg that's definitely worth a try!

antix

I would recommend using Tiled. You can make all kinds of layers in it and Gideros already has a built in renderer.

I also have the problem with graphics.. if there was one thing I could have as a game developer, it would be a graphics artist who was as keen on making games as I am.

oleg

@antix Tiled is not suitable for non-tiled games

antix

@oleg, of course it is. You can load images and use them as layers, it really is a versatile tool. Once I even used it to layout GUI elements which worked out quit well.

jdbc

Here it is a link with some design considerations about point and click adventure game engine.

https://www.groebelsloot.com/2015/11/29/developing-a-2d-point-and-click-adventure-game/

keszegh

also see here for interesting articles on the topic:
https://adventuregamers.com/articles/list/a_look_at_graphics

keszegh

there is also this framework which is relatively new:
https://github.com/godotengine/escoria

keszegh

i think for pnc games it is especially true that coding is only a small portion of the work, and if you really want to finish the game instead of just to practice coding, it is probably a waste of time to make your own framework for it.
so write the script, the puzzles; and maybe when that's at least 50% complete (but i'd do it at 90%) then you can look for a gfx artist and start to code it.
but that's just my opinion, the guys cited by @jdbc e.g. started by finding the right framework and making an engine on the top of it. i guess they will learn a lot during the process but never finish the game.

jdbc

keszegh said:

i think for pnc games it is especially true that coding is only a small portion of the work, and if you really want to finish the game instead of just to practice coding, it is probably a waste of time to make your own framework for it.
so write the script, the puzzles; and maybe when that's at least 50% complete (but i'd do it at 90%) then you can look for a gfx artist and start to code it.
but that's just my opinion, the guys cited by @jdbc e.g. started by finding the right framework and making an engine on the top of it. i guess they will learn a lot during the process but never finish the game.

You are right, if you want make a Point and Click game just use an already working engine like the following:

BladeCoder:


Escoria:

oleg

jdbc said:

You are right, if you want make a Point and Click game just use an already working engine like the following:

on genre engines - you will not create a normal game; they are limited in capabilities.

antix

Creating your own point'n'click engine wouldn't be very hard in my opinion. Using some other framework is fine if it suports all of the features you want (deployment to mobile and desktop, ads, in app purchases) but if not.. then write your own in Gideros.

I'd also not even begin the venture until I had an artist onboard either

oleg

antix said:

I'd also not even begin the venture until I had an artist onboard either

the artist needs to give the game you have already painted.

-is so cheaper
-the artist just overwrites your drawings but professionally.
-so easy to make changes in the game,(Until the game is drawn, you can easily make changes to the plot and gameplay)
-- the artist is not a screenwriter, he does not invent a game for you, the artist must get specific tasks which element of the game how to draw.

keszegh

@oleg, i do not think a good artist only 'overpaints', he also knows much better than a coder how to arrange things, choosing different planes, etc. the articles i've posted already explain quite well how integral an artist's work is to the whole game (and so it cannot be separated), especially in a point and click adventure game:
https://adventuregamers.com/articles/list/a_look_at_graphics

oleg

keszegh said:

@oleg, i do not think a good artist only 'overpaints', he also knows much better than a coder how to arrange things, choosing different planes, etc. the articles i've posted already explain quite well how integral an artist's work is to the whole game (and so it cannot be separated), especially in a point and click adventure game:

You're wrong, I worked with artists and I know how everything is arranged

the artist can create a drawing style for you, but you must give the artist an already completed diagram of where and what element of the game should be on the screen and what size

if you want the artist to make a creative search for the concept, then you will have to pay him for each sketch which did not fit you for the game.

antix

You both have good points and I think that yes, you should definitely perform a lot of design before you let an artist loose on a project with no boundaries. As @oleg said, you don;t want to be paying for loads of stuff that you didn't want or need.

oleg

antix said:

You both have good points and I think that yes, you should definitely perform a lot of design before you let an artist loose on a project with no boundaries. As @oleg said, you don;t want to be paying for loads of stuff that you didn't want or need.

There is another point - the artist will not wait until you finish the game, if the artist draws part of the game and then you do not have time to give him work - he will go to another project.
And another artist will not be able to draw you in the same style to finish the game. Therefore, the artist should be given a complete task at once for the whole game, not for parts.

antix

Yes @oleg that's a good point. Whilst you can do a lot of pre planning I don't know if you can plan "everything".

You would get the artist to do all of the major stuff and then hope they would be available to add extra scenes as required.