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[tofuforlunch]

As someone whose game creation experience is limited to a bunch of half-finished ideas in KnP, I'm looking for a very newbie-friendly GUI and a strong community that I can look to for support. I'm trying to create a relatively straightforward, short game to test my mettle and see if I can see it through to completion. I was leaning towards a point-and-click based adventure game with occasional action elements (think Westwood's Blade Runner, minus the freeform approach) and wanted this community's opinion on the best engine for my needs. Of course, I am open to suggestions other than the engines listed in my subject line; those just happen to be the ones that I've looked into the most thoroughly. Thanks.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

there is already another thread on this, and this shouldn't really go in tutorials...

[pgil]

If you're doing a point n click adventure game, AGS is definitely the way to go. It handles stuff like inventory and walkable areas by default, and the scripting language is pretty versitile (Art of Theft was done in AGS i believe).

If you want something more general-purpose, i'd go with Game Maker. In general it's more powerful than AGS, but you lose some useful, more specialized features.

[Hideous]

I still think Construct is the best, even if it's in beta.

[JoeHonkie]

If you're doing a point n click adventure game, AGS is definitely the way to go. It handles stuff like inventory and walkable areas by default, and the scripting language is pretty versitile (Art of Theft was done in AGS i believe).

If you want something more general-purpose, i'd go with Game Maker. In general it's more powerful than AGS, but you lose some useful, more specialized features.

Art of Theft was done in AGS.

AGS really makes the point & click genre a piece of cake.  I love it.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i'm sure he had to like fight against the system a ton to get it done in ags though, it probably would have been easier in game maker. there are people who try to make platformers in rpgmaker or the ohrrpgce too, and i always wonder why use a program designed to make rpgs to make a platformer, it's just working against the program; i think they do it more for the challenge

[Dataflashsabot]

For point and click adventures, go with AGS, otherwise Construct rules \o/

[Movius]

If point-and-click adventuring is the main part of the gameplay then use AGS. The scripting language is fine for making the occasional cut-scene or deviation from this.

I wouldn't be making anything non-adventure related with it though.

[JoeHonkie]

Has anyone here used SLUDGE or Wintermute?  I looked at them but never really messed with creating anything in them.

AGS is just so...easy.  It's hard to want to give that ease of use up.  It seems like the other two engines have a few more options for what you can do, though.

[Kato]

I used to use Wintermute, it's quite a fine piece of software. I like it a bit more than AGS as it's, by default, equipped to handle high-res and high-color graphics a bit more, though I believe AGS can do that, theoretically.

If you were going to make an adventure game I'd personally go with Wintermute. I'm a Construct fanatic (the bugs are getting a lot better, plus newer features, and it's open source!) but unless you feel like researching and scripting a pathfinding system by yourself it's going to be a bit difficult to get adventure-style mouse control working from the get-go.

[deadeye]

This is the first I've heard of Wintermute, it does look like a good program.

And if you're interested strictly in making an adventure game then you might as well use AGS or Wintermute, seeing as how they're specifically designed to do just that.  If you use something like MMF or Game Maker or Construct then you're going to have to develop your own pathfinding, inventory, conversation systems, room transitions, etc.  Choose the tool that will help you the most... there's no need to reinvent the wheel.

[tofuforlunch]

Wow, thanks for all of the responses. I had never heard of Construct or Wintermute and both seem like viable options. Construct seems rather newbie friendly and versatile, but I'll probably strip down some of the action elements and try AGS for this one. If for some reason I can't wrap my head around the AGS language, I might attempt a simple platformer in Construct, as the event/collision system in that makes a bit more sense to me. I'll let you know how my foray into coding goes.

[JoeHonkie]

Wow, thanks for all of the responses. I had never heard of Construct or Wintermute and both seem like viable options. Construct seems rather newbie friendly and versatile, but I'll probably strip down some of the action elements and try AGS for this one. If for some reason I can't wrap my head around the AGS language, I might attempt a simple platformer in Construct, as the event/collision system in that makes a bit more sense to me. I'll let you know how my foray into coding goes.

I'm relearning AGS to make something in it right now, and it's weird.  The language probably seems more confusing than it should, but honestly the help and autofill should be good enough, and the syntax is pretty much C++/C#/Java, so once you actually get going it should be easy enough to keep rolling with it.  I think part of the problem is the room designer is kind of a mess, and they didn't always pick the most obvious names for various functions.

[Kato]

Yes, I don't know or remember much about Wintermute's scripting, I didn't have much hands-on time with it, but I remember it's room designer is absolutely ace. It could potentially do a lot more of the things that you want than AGS.

But hey, AGS games can look fantastic, look at Time Gentlemen, Please.

[Melly]

Moving to Technical.

[JoeHonkie]

Man, I totally forgot how to manipulate graphics on screen since last time I used AGS, and I think I lost the source for my last "game." 

Actually I probably cheated and just loaded all the graphics into Guis or character objects and manipulated them that way, but I'm not evern sure.  Gruh.

[pgil]

The AGS language has changed a lot in the last couple of years. I can't remember how to do anything. I guess it's better (more object-oriented), but kind of hard to relearn.

[nihilocrat]

After a cursory glance at Game Maker and having made a handful of very very small games for Construct, I think I like Game Maker's interface a bit better, but Construct makes its features a bit more obvious and is perhaps a bit more inviting. Its even sheet thing, however, is kind of flaky, I have had to do some ridiculous hacks to do some fairly simple things.

Anyone else tried NovaShell? I feel like the interface and the API are kind of constrained and suffer from lone-developer-itis, but I think the core style is good and it's easier for a programmer to use without feeling like they are using their elbow to get to their asshole.

[Kato]

NovaShell definitely looks interesting/promising, but it seems like it has problems with simple things like rotation.

I've never used Game Maker just because of all the negativity (not that I'm not willing to give it a try), but what don't you like about Construct's event sheets? I like that I can build my engine in one sheet and include it in all other sheets basically seamlessly. It almost makes me feel like a real programmer

[___]

NovaShell definitely looks interesting/promising, but it seems like it has problems with simple things like rotation.

I've never used Game Maker just because of all the negativity (not that I'm not willing to give it a try), but what don't you like about Construct's event sheets? I like that I can build my engine in one sheet and include it in all other sheets basically seamlessly. It almost makes me feel like a real programmer

Whoa whoa, what negativity?  I went to GM from MMF because I heard about how AWESOME it was.