VCS Quest Adventure Game?

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 6:27 pm

OK I found some good adventure game tools on the web, and I was thinking of making an adventure game.

Synopsis:
Either a generic guy (or Ben if some quality, accurate sprites get posted) needs to complete quests to get parts to make a VCSp. Plot needs to be worked over a bit.

Game description:
1990 Sierra-style. (ie looks like Police Quest or Leisure Suit Larry 1)
Adventiure game (find this, complete that, win the game YAY)
Screen res of 320x240 (for a more authentic look)

What is needed:
QUALITY people garphics (That actually LOOK like the old style games if you know what I mean)
A good storyline (doy! What's an adventure game with no plot?

)
Sprites (Not the soda. Things like phones, a VCS, a Dremel...)
a generic map

Locations I hope to include: (note that real names of stores would be changed but it would be obvious what the store is supposed to be)
-Salvation Army (or a reasonable representation thereof)
-Generic workshop
-RipoffShack (using old RadioShack logo text, there's a font of it out there somewhere)
-Best Buy
-and more

Sample dialogs (where the player is "Ego")

@ RipoffShack:
Ego: Hi, I need some potentiometers
Clerk: Oh sure do they take 9v batteries?
Ego: Um, they're an electrical component
Clerk: ...
Ego: They're small and round and attatch to circuit boards
Clerk: ...
Clerk: Oh OK.

[they walk to the hearing aid battery rack]

Clerk: Here you go, sir.
Ego: NO Those are batteries!
Clerk: ...
Clerk: Ok What else do you need?
Ego: Um, let me just buy this PC board.

[they go back to the counter]

Clerk: Ok sir

[clerk rings up PC board]

Clerk: Do you want batteries for that?
Ego: IT'S A FREAKING BOARD! WHY WOULD IT NEED BATTERIES?!
Clerk: Two AAs are only $5
...

etc...

Well what do you guys think of this idea? Is it worth it or just a waste of time?

If you like it, I'd appreciate it if someone could come up with some artwork for it. Maybe a splash screen... And of course some cool theme music (Non-copyrighted)

I promise if we start this, I won't manage like Ethan from Ctrl+Alt+Del did when he wanted to make a new video game

Post by **gannon** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 6:38 pm

http://www.bripro.com/gbagi/index.php

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 7:00 pm

Yes! Those games are the EXACT STYLE I hope to shoot for!

bioniclebert · Post by **bioniclebert** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 7:21 pm

Which program would you use?

I used AGS before(the little blue cup) and those programs take a long time to make and get the hang of.

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 7:42 pm

I was concidering using AGS, I tinkered with it before. (made a Family Guy "game", but it was mostly a "walk around the environments and see what stuff is" thing. I made some general dialogs before with it too, so it's possible. I'm sure if we both worked together on the code it would work out.

Graphics would be made in SCI Studio 3 and exported, because it has great sprite drawing and animation tools compared to AGS (which basically just sequences images withoutediting them within the program.) And of course Photoshop, GiMP, and MSpaint and KolourPaint (KDE Paint, I only use my knoppix CD at school

)

I know AGS takes a while to make, but its results are really close to the original games. I would have preferred to do an Infocom-style text adventure game, but I'e heard a real Infocom clone (not one made in NOVEL construction set ro Text World) takes elite programmign skills to make (which I hae not

)

Post by **gannon** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 7:48 pm

Do it in AGI, not SCI

Otherwise people can't use it with GBAGI

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 8:10 pm

I'll tinker with AGI tonight, but if it's really difficult to use I'll just use AGS since I have a general idea on how to use it.

Post by **bicostp** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:09 pm

Sorry about the double post, but I've been trying to use AGI for most of the afternoon and the heavy scripting necessary to write games with it is a bit much.

(plus I already know how to use AGS

)

More art will be posted in the upcoming days (when the forum works

). For now, here's the first revision of the player character, for now known as "Ego".

<img src="http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/2690/ego6ee.png" width=500>

Final screen res will be 320x240, because it offers some detail while holding onto the 1990's PC adventure game look to some extent.

Color depth will be 16 bit high color. 256 color mode requires messing with palletes and stuff, which would slow development down conciderably.

Any ideas? Thoughts? Art?

FDSMAN · Post by **FDSMAN** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:24 pm

make it psp compatible and you have made my day
edit, also, if you have like a background inside of a house, get a game system sprite like the snes and I guess you could animate some game from snes or any other 16 bit system
(make it look like you have a snes game paying itself on the tv), or even better, make an in game snes emulator (like walk up to the snes and press, x for example, and you would be able to play some snes roms

bioniclebert · Post by **bioniclebert** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:26 pm

Good stuff. I might just get AGS to see what i can remember. I remember this game I made where instead of text I just used my voice with a Mic. Then I realized having myself be everybody was lame, and backgrounds made in paint were bad, so it drifted away. You can make some really good quality stuff with that though! I played a couple different games that were very good. Including a Maniac mansion type game in a hotel.

FDSMAN · Post by **FDSMAN** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 8:50 am

anything new?

Lucretius · Post by **Lucretius** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 7:57 am

If I were you, I'd study www.spacequest.net
A series of Sierra games, and 1-3 were in such a style. Hell, just study the old Sierra games in general.

Post by **bicostp** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 9:27 am

Yeha I've been browsing that site a bit, and I'm playing an old copy of Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry 1. It won't be <i>exact</i> in that it will have some extra colors and the screen res will be full-screen rather than 320x200, but it should look similar in the end.

I'll be working on a quick demo game this afternoon, so everyone can see how it will play. (granted the background in the demo will SUCK, but what do you expect for 5 mins of half-arsed MS-Paint work?

The final ersion would look much better.)

If anyone could come up with item sprites for one or more of the following:

-solder (on a spool)
-an Atari 2600
-money
-a generic RadioShack bag-and-cardboard package (the plastic bag with cardboard staples to it)

...it would help speed things up a bit.

Any thoughts/suggestions/yadda yadda yadda... ?

FDSMAN · Post by **FDSMAN** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 9:29 am

yes, I could add a vcs adventure game thing to my forum if you would like

Post by **bicostp** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:41 pm

I just added it to mine.

Please bring all discussion and submissions to <a href="http://bicostp.ezforum.org/bicostp-forum-14.html">this page of my forum</a>, so we don't clutter up this place.

Thanks, and keep those submissions coming!

(I added some info on tools, and another character design BTW.)