So how about some testgame.exe: Making the Adventure? Well, as it just so happens, it’s about that time again—time for me to ramble for a little while about some of the things I’ve been working on in everyone’s favorite (perpetual-work-in-progress) point-and-click adventure game.
Let’s start by glancing down at the list of new things in the game this month and…oh, wait. There’s, like, nothing there. Oh dear. I mean, haha, there’s some stuff. That still counts, right?
It looks like pretty much everything I’ve done has to do with new animation and background art. Plus, there’s a tiny bit of new dialogue between Lily and Thurston in their introductory cutscene in the forest.
I have to say, though, a great deal of what I’ve done this month isn’t really reflected in the game yet. That’s right; I’ve been doing some planning. As of right now, I have a fairly specific outline of the sequence of events for the third part of the game. Wait, did I say that in one of my previous articles already? I feel like I did. Well, this time I really mean it. I sat down and planned it all out and even wrote it down. I just can’t show it to you now because that would ruin the game. You understand, of course.
On a different note, here’s something I need to consider: Am I being too inconsistent with the way dialogue works in this game? I realized recently that while I decided to go with a LucasArts style dialogue system (the kind where you’re presented with dialogue options and you choose what Paul is going to say), I have also been occasionally using a Sierra style dialogue system (the kind where you just tell Paul to talk to a character and then they talk in a predetermined string of phrases) without really thinking about it.
For example, when Paul talks to Amazing Anthony after his successful second show, there aren’t any choices of things for Paul to say; he just goes ahead and says the one thing on his mind. I guess what I’m wondering is this: Would it feel better in terms of the rest of the game to give Paul dialogue options here instead? This is something I’m really not sure about, especially since when I wrote the conversation with the guard captain after the same show, that did come out as a list of dialogue options. Oh, the turmoil.
By the way, I forgot to commemorate my three year anniversary article not too long ago. Can you believe I’ve been working on this thing for three years? Me neither. So help make those three years of my life worthwhile and play the game. (Oh man, that’s a great tag line. Remind me to use that for real when the game’s done, in another ten years or so.)
(no extra programs needed to run this file)
Things to do/new features of note:
- Ability to talk to the guard captain after Amazing Anthony’s successful show.
- Some new stuff at the end of the sword fight between Lily and Thurston—there’s some new animation and the dialogue has been changed a bit.
- New animation: the guard captain waving his arm at the appropriate point when Paul talks to him.
- Planning! (Um, yeah.)
- Background work: castle kitchen.
All the graphics and design are by Lizo. The story and dialogue were written by Lizo, with significant input by Paul. The background music is by Lizo. “Let’s Go Skateboard” is written and performed by The Word Problems. Adventure Game Studio (the program used to create this game) can be downloaded at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/.
