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Wormsie · 10-09-2007, 01:47 PM

Without knowing anything of Adventure Creator, I'm going to suggest a few other engines to you:
-AGS (especially good if you don't want to learn to script just yet)
-Wintermute
-Sludge
-Lassie

In order to create an adventure game... hmm.... you first need to have something to say in game-form. What kind of a story do you want to tell, and why does it suit a computer game? What kinds of elements do you want it to have? It helps if you've ever, say, watched a film you liked or read an article (scientific, war, different cultures, technology, relationships) that you thought was interesting and could be something you could use for a game (for example, Tim Schafer had taken a folklore class as an university student and eventually used Mexican folklore as a part of Grim Fandango). Something that gave you a sort of "wouldn't that be cool to have something like that in a computer game" -feeling.

It's good to take inspiration (or to but it more bluntly, steal) from games, movies, comics and books you like, but if you are thinking of, say, doing a game where the main character is a teenager who wants to become a pirate, well, that's been done so many time already.

I would even discourage ordinary puzzles you know from King's Quest or Monkey Island, especially using over and over again the "get me the scissors and I give you the item you have to use next to progress in the game"-puzzle. Instead solving the puzzles should somehow directly influence the story, and be related to it - for example, figuring out how to break into a police database and finding out information that is important to the main character there, instead of a puzzle that has nothing to do with the main plot and characters that also have nothing to do with the main plot. (I think there are exceptions to this general rule of mine and it always doesn't work, but I still think striving for this should be a priority for puzzle designers. And I hope I made sense. I tried to say the same things I intended to say here.)

This all from someone who hasn't succeeded in finishing his game design, so take it with any amount of salt you desire.

There are some interesting articles at http://www.adventuredevelopers.com as well as here at AG for example the following regarding puzzles:

http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,522
http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,469
http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,453
http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,564

There are also some interesting interviews of Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert and the likes around. But puzzle design, and creative writing, are, well, creative processes, so there can be no step-by-step guides either, I'm afraid.

10-09-2007, 01:47 PM	#7
Wormsie Doctor Watson Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: The Catacombs Posts: 4,736	Without knowing anything of Adventure Creator, I'm going to suggest a few other engines to you: -AGS (especially good if you don't want to learn to script just yet) -Wintermute -Sludge -Lassie In order to create an adventure game... hmm.... you first need to have something to say in game-form. What kind of a story do you want to tell, and why does it suit a computer game? What kinds of elements do you want it to have? It helps if you've ever, say, watched a film you liked or read an article (scientific, war, different cultures, technology, relationships) that you thought was interesting and could be something you could use for a game (for example, Tim Schafer had taken a folklore class as an university student and eventually used Mexican folklore as a part of Grim Fandango). Something that gave you a sort of "wouldn't that be cool to have something like that in a computer game" -feeling. It's good to take inspiration (or to but it more bluntly, steal) from games, movies, comics and books you like, but if you are thinking of, say, doing a game where the main character is a teenager who wants to become a pirate, well, that's been done so many time already. I would even discourage ordinary puzzles you know from King's Quest or Monkey Island, especially using over and over again the "get me the scissors and I give you the item you have to use next to progress in the game"-puzzle. Instead solving the puzzles should somehow directly influence the story, and be related to it - for example, figuring out how to break into a police database and finding out information that is important to the main character there, instead of a puzzle that has nothing to do with the main plot and characters that also have nothing to do with the main plot. (I think there are exceptions to this general rule of mine and it always doesn't work, but I still think striving for this should be a priority for puzzle designers. And I hope I made sense. I tried to say the same things I intended to say here.) This all from someone who hasn't succeeded in finishing his game design, so take it with any amount of salt you desire. There are some interesting articles at http://www.adventuredevelopers.com as well as here at AG for example the following regarding puzzles: http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,522 http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,469 http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,453 http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,564 There are also some interesting interviews of Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert and the likes around. But puzzle design, and creative writing, are, well, creative processes, so there can be no step-by-step guides either, I'm afraid. __________________ Don't worry, I'm a doctor. Last edited by Wormsie; 10-09-2007 at 02:05 PM.