[Daventry]

Hi everyone,

Well, I apologize if this topic is already covered somewhere in the forums but, I was wondering which program would be the best to use for creating your own indie adventure game? I'd like to be able to easily import my own backgrounds and mp3 music and voice files. It would also be great to have an animation tool built in or at least be able to import preset animations from a separate program. I figured, since there is such a collection of indie game enthusiasts on this site, someone might have a good idea where I should look or what I should be looking for. Also, if it matters I will be using it on a PC in North America. Thanks!!

Daventry

Currently playing: Grim Fandango

[TerminusEst]

AGS most certainly. Out of curiosity, what kind of game are you planning to do?

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

Edit: I should probably add that you should look over the game catalog on the AGS page to see what kind of stuff you can do with it. A good number of commercial adventure games have been written in AGS. For example, Gemini Rue and Al Emmo.

[SamandMax]

AGS is great, a lot can be done with it and it's relatively easy to use. I know almost nothing about programming and am terrible with art but I still managed to do quite a bit playing around with it a few years ago.

[Pyke]

I would definately go with Visioniare.

http://www.visionaire-studio.net/cms/adventure-game-engine.html

From where it stands, I think it’s the most progressive Adventure Game engine. In the near future the engine will have 3D character support, porting to Mac, aswell as iPad and android support. There is also some really nice features, like the ability have MKV’s as your movie format, supporting ANY resolution, and the ability to create game patches.

The actual engine is a pleasure to use. It really is skewed in the favor of the artist…adding in animations, special events, new sprites etc, is super easy. The sound tools are also fantastic, with subtle features like changing the footstep sound depending on where the character walks. Things like using PNG's / Sprites straight from the file structure makes making alterations super easy. Honestly I sometimes render straight from MAX/After Effects into the engine.

Where it does fall short is in community support and documentation. Most of what I know is just from playing around with the engine-but once you have an understanding of how it all works, you can produce things very quickly.

It’s also one of the more actively developed engines, because it is being used by professional studios. The advances they are making are at the request of companies that are actually making full, successful, adventure games, so you are getting a 2D adventure engine that really is constantly evolving and improving to keep up with the demand of commercial games.
Many advances now are in the handling of memory, getting the games to run smoother, and faster-allowing for even more complex animations and interactions.

[stepurhan]

You could also check out Wintermute. A number of commercial indie games have been made using this engine as you can see from the games list.

I think your choice of engine will depend a lot on your own skills though. If you don't have a great deal of programming experience and are likely to need help to get you started AGS is probably the way to go. There is a lot of online help for using AGS and the forum is very active for people seeking answers to queries using it.

[Intense Degree]

For 2D adventures I would definitely go for AGS, and the forums there contain a lot of help including video tutorials of the basics to get you started. AGS won't animate things for you, as in you need to draw the animations yourself frame by frame, but you can import frame by frame from most recognised formats and AGS handles the animations quite simply.

If you want 3D then you are better off going for something like Wintermute.

I would recommend downloading a game or two made with each engine to see what they're about.

Also trying to make a really simple one room game in AGS - locked door, player needs to pick up key and use it on the door to open it - with hastily scribbled graphics is a very good way to see what it's all about before committing to a longer game.