Where do you begin?

[Unknown,Unknown]

Hi Ken and Roberta,

You’ve probably heared it all before, but I just want to thank you for all the joy and fun you brought me throughout the years. Would love to return the favor and buy you both a drink, but that’s slightly difficult from the other side of the globe. ahh well..
Would love to hear your oppinion on (AGS) adventure game studio,
Used to make sierra style adventure games which people distrubute over the internet.
Seems like i’m not the only one you inspired.

I’ve also been thinking about an making an adventure game for a time now.
but i figure if i’m going to do it, i must do it right. starting with a serious script, a visual style and a lot of research.

Now my question to you is this:
(I suppose this might be more roberta’s field, but) Where do you begin, and more importantly, how does one script for an adventure game, I suppose it could look a lot like a movie script, however it becomes more difficult with multiple puzzle sollutions, multiple player characters etc. Where do you begin?

Thanks again,
Stefan.

[Unknown,Unknown]

Hey Stefan,

I’m not a game developer, but I’m a big fan of adventure games and let me tell you that making a great game is like writing a book. The most important thing in a game, in my opinion, is the story. All else comes second. Write a game, like you would a good story and use that story as a basis for your adventure. I’ve noticed that a lot of Ken and Roberta’s games use names and concepts from thier own lives. Try drawing from your own experiences, such as trips you’ve been on, the area you live, friends with interesting personalities and see what you come up with.

The second part of your game of course is translating the story into the kind of game you want to end up with. Storyboards help you brainstorm and give you a general idea of how you want your characters to look, and/or act, though if your not the best artist, you might need to find a friend who is good at art or hire someone who’s experienced with creating illistrations.

As for creating the game itself, I can only guess at the options you might have. You could use a system that is already in use in other games or create your own engine from scratch. What I mean by ‘engine’ is basicly the mainframe, or the core that holds the whole game together, a certain format that some or maybe all your games would follow. You notice that a lot of the Kings Quest games followed a similar format, growing steadily more complex as they added more features with each new title.

This is mostly just from observation and I may not be completely accurate, but I hope it helps give you some ideas or generates some other thoughts from visitors.

Good luck with your game.

John

[Unknown,Unknown]

Thanks John,

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking for a while now on making my own adventure game.
Ever since i first discovered AGS. and have been playing around with it for a while.
I now feel comfortable enough with the engine to try and make my own adventure game.
So i figured however tempting it is to dive right in to the programming of the game I first needed a good srcipt.
the storyline is all written down. Includings backgrounds for each and every character in the game.
I’ve picked out a visual style i’d like to use in the game. So the basis is there.
Next step wil be fleshing out a complete detailed walkthrough of the game and design sketching of the backgrounds and the characters. The biggest question I still have is, will I draw the backgrounds, or wil I render them 3d.

[Author]

Posts