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[Paul-Jan]

As a little side project to the 3D modeler we are developing, I'm considering to start working on a 3D adventure builder. Something nice and polished that will allow you to build point-n-clickers like TellTales Sam 'n Max series (which are great, but as far as I'm considered the jokes could have been a lot edgier). Thing SCUMM/AGI inspired, conversation trees, nice visually oriented edit-while-you-play IDE, output scripts-only or standalone executables...

Questions:
- Does something like this already exist? Google failed me a bit, but then again... if it were called something like scumm you'd have to know about it in order to find it.
- Does anyone else think this would be a cool thing to have, or is it just me? I mean, think of the bounty of poorly written interactive fiction set in depressingly brown boxy scenes this could generate... awesome!
- What is the coolest 2D "adventure builder" that is currently around? Back in the 90's we used homebrew stuff to create our Monkey Island spin-offs that never got finished, but I'm sure there is some pretty good solutions out there!
- Any suggestion for a nice name?

[deadeye]

I don't know of any 3D game dev tools that focus on adventure games.  Yours might be the first.

- What is the coolest 2D "adventure builder" that is currently around? Back in the 90's we used homebrew stuff to create our Monkey Island spin-offs that never got finished, but I'm sure there is some pretty good solutions out there!

AGS seems pretty popular.  Yahtzee made all of his Trilby games with it.

[Paul-Jan]

Ah yes, the wonderful AGS. Kinda hard to imagine writing an adventure builder without being heavily inspired by it (and some of the great games the AGS community churns out).

Did some more searching on 3D systems, none found. What I read about T3 (Telltale's tool) looks promising, but it's closed (afaik), high-end (lots of focus on cinematics), high-entry... and well, I haven't been able to find too many facts about it, so it could be 100% different of the tool I have in mind.

Looks like it's a 'go' for my project then... if only I could think of a good name for it. It's just that any name that starts with 3D spells instant dorkyness. :-)

- 3D Adventure Designer
- 3D Adventure Builder
- 3D Adventure Creator
- 3D Adventure Forge/Foundry
- 3D Aventure Adventure
- Quest Designer 3D
- Adventures in The Third Dimension
- Triple D Adventure Studio

I suck so bad at this naming game. Perhaps I should go with AdventureD, as a spoof on the (also none too catchy) name of our 3D modeler.  :D

[deadeye]

How about Triad?  It's only ambiguously corny.

[Paul-Jan]

Hey... that's actually pretty clever! I considered adding an extra component to it to add to the google-fu (Triad Designer?), but I think I'll just keep it short and spiffy and add '3D Adventure Designer' as a subtitle. Website .com url will still require some postfix to be unique alas, so something like triad-designer dot com it will be. I've given myself 48 hours to change my mind (have been registering too many unused domains in the past) on the url... 

Thanks for the suggestion!

[deadeye]

No problem

Are you going to have some sort of devlog for the project?  I'd be interested in following it's development.

[Paul-Jan]

Yes, I probably will, but not as a true (b)log. First things I'd setup on the site would be a Wiki and a simple forum, to get a bit of a community thing going (no matter how small). On either one of those I could do some progress logging.

The Wiki is there to force myself to write user documentation from day 1, because I find it next to impossible to completely document a full-grown application. AGS does a pretty impressive job there!

[Shoot-em-upper]

3pwooD?

[Paul-Jan]

Hmmm... I don't get it. 

*shakes fist in anger at language barrier*

(or, possibly, my own stupidity at missing an awesome reference of immense indie prowess)

[Shoot-em-upper]

Hmmm... I don't get it. 

Guybrush Threepwood, the protagonist of the Monkey Island games, plus 3D.

(or, possibly, my own stupidity at missing an awesome reference of immense indie prowess)

It was an awesome reference, indeed.

[Paul-Jan]

Awwww, how could I miss that! 

Actually, I think 3pwood would be more appropriate for the protagonist himself, in Escape from Monkey Island...



... and I just realized I never played this part of the series, because at the time I was one of those sour bastards who believed 3D adventures would bring down the genre... *cough*.