Mod/Adventure game programming
September 7, 2013 8:34 AM Subscribe
I have been working on making a game. One of my friends in the industry says that with my current skillset, he thinks I would do best with level design (i.e. scripting).
This is a two fold question ultimately.
1) One of the games I am thinking of is some form of an adventure game. Most of those seem to be point-n-click affairs. However, I am not sure a bitmap based point/click setup works best for the game I'm thinking of. I know there is Adventure Game Studio, and it seems fairly powerful, but it seems like it's primarily devoted to classic point/click gameplay...
2) Being that I feel my game might benefit from being more than point/click style, I am thinking actually doing a game-engine mod might be more fruitful. However, I am worried that this is more than what I am trying to do.... Ultimately I want to have a small portfolio of game demos of various styles that I can show if I ever apply for a game job somewhere. That means I want something small and fast and fairly simple. I feel like a mod might be too much in the other direction...
Are there any really good, powerful and fairly simple modding tools for games? I've briefly looked at sites like moddb but it's a bit convoluted and has a LOT of video/tutorials that aren't particularly what I'm looking for.
I should add that ideally, this would be some free method as I don't look to spend a lot of money at this point in doing this (as it is still just a hobby), so no commercial engines that I'd have to pay for if at all possible (and if necessary to pay, no more than a couple hundred bucks at most).
I am using Unity to program one of my games now, but that is still more real-time action, and I would like something a little more... refined and already built in terms of having scripting built in, if that makes sense.
Are there any really good, powerful and fairly simple modding tools for games? I've briefly looked at sites like moddb but it's a bit convoluted and has a LOT of video/tutorials that aren't particularly what I'm looking for.
I should add that ideally, this would be some free method as I don't look to spend a lot of money at this point in doing this (as it is still just a hobby), so no commercial engines that I'd have to pay for if at all possible (and if necessary to pay, no more than a couple hundred bucks at most).
I am using Unity to program one of my games now, but that is still more real-time action, and I would like something a little more... refined and already built in terms of having scripting built in, if that makes sense.
Are you specifically looking for 3D? I couldn't tell with your reference to bitmap point-and-click comments.
The best 2D engine I've used when it comes to a robust scripting system has been Construct 2. Their visual scripting system is excellent. There's a free version with a few drawbacks, but I was able to make a couple quick non-platformer games it in with much less effort than any other 2D system out there. Paid version is cheap. I really can't recommend it enough.
Mentioning modding tools is throwing me off though - I can't think of a single game engine you could mod with minimal time banging your head against the wall in order to make a point-and-click adventure game. I made an adventure-puzzle game years ago in Hammer/Source and would do it again for 3D spacial/puzzle gameplay, but it's weak for anything that deviates too far from the first-person interact-with-environment perspective. Unreal 3 has an amazing scripting system and is a great tool to have on your resume but, again, unless you enjoy hacking around built-in behavior then it'd be a bad choice for an adventure game. I think Unity is your best bet for a 3D editor with the flexibility you might need.
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 1:53 PM on September 7, 2013
The best 2D engine I've used when it comes to a robust scripting system has been Construct 2. Their visual scripting system is excellent. There's a free version with a few drawbacks, but I was able to make a couple quick non-platformer games it in with much less effort than any other 2D system out there. Paid version is cheap. I really can't recommend it enough.
Mentioning modding tools is throwing me off though - I can't think of a single game engine you could mod with minimal time banging your head against the wall in order to make a point-and-click adventure game. I made an adventure-puzzle game years ago in Hammer/Source and would do it again for 3D spacial/puzzle gameplay, but it's weak for anything that deviates too far from the first-person interact-with-environment perspective. Unreal 3 has an amazing scripting system and is a great tool to have on your resume but, again, unless you enjoy hacking around built-in behavior then it'd be a bad choice for an adventure game. I think Unity is your best bet for a 3D editor with the flexibility you might need.
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 1:53 PM on September 7, 2013
Response by poster: Yeah - I guess the biggest problem is I'm not quite sure exactly how I'm going to approach this. I almost see this either as a point/click game, but with the ability to have more 3D elements (in particular, creating an interface where i can blit dynamic waveforms to a virtual computer screen in the game would be very helpful... most point and click systems, as far as I know, are more towards bitmap/sprite type development, though I might be wrong).
The reason I asked about modding is because I'm not sure if a 3D engine would be necessary for this game idea, but if my future lies in level design, I would think that having something to show in an already existing game system where I could mod a level would be handy - I just am not sure if I should combine the two needs (adventure game; scripting level design), or make two separate projects. I just figured I could combine them and make single room "scenes" in a 3D engine using scripting, and I might be able to move away from the bitmap nature of some adventure game engines.
I have used Construct 2 once (before my game programmer friend convinced me to go to Unity for my current retro-arcade game project). Maybe I'll look into it, it might actually be just what I need, now that you mention it. Having it be a web game would be a double bonus :)
posted by symbioid at 4:12 PM on September 7, 2013
The reason I asked about modding is because I'm not sure if a 3D engine would be necessary for this game idea, but if my future lies in level design, I would think that having something to show in an already existing game system where I could mod a level would be handy - I just am not sure if I should combine the two needs (adventure game; scripting level design), or make two separate projects. I just figured I could combine them and make single room "scenes" in a 3D engine using scripting, and I might be able to move away from the bitmap nature of some adventure game engines.
I have used Construct 2 once (before my game programmer friend convinced me to go to Unity for my current retro-arcade game project). Maybe I'll look into it, it might actually be just what I need, now that you mention it. Having it be a web game would be a double bonus :)
posted by symbioid at 4:12 PM on September 7, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
Not that I'm saying Unity is super easy to learn, but I think it's worth the effort. It's becoming a pretty major engine for smaller studios and will look good on your resume I'd say.
Have you looked at using assets from the store to help speed up production?
Some I like: 2d Toolkit, Ragespline, HOTween (free). Also Unity is coming out with built in 2d tools in the next release (shortly). PlayMaker is a really powerful visual scripting tool if you don't like writing code.
I will be interested to hear other people's suggestions though!
posted by meta87 at 9:16 AM on September 7, 2013 [1 favorite]