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[papernoise]

I'm planning to do a small 2d adventure game (as in point&click adventure), I'm currently feeling very inspired by Among Thorns and Void&Meddler. It will be a mostly for-fun project, and a bit of an exercise in game design. I'm a graphic designer with limited experience in programming (I did mess with Actionscript back in the Flash days... but that's it). I don't mind learning new skills, but I know my limitations and I know I'll never become a skilled coder.
So I'm currently looking at Stencyl and GameMaker as relatively easy entry-level solutions. Is there anything else I should check out? I guess things like Unity are a bit above my league, since they require quite some coding experience, or am I mistaken?

Note: I did search the forums to see if anybody else had asked something like this before, but couldn't find anything, if I'm asking this thing for the 100th time, please excuse me and point me at any existing thread that might answer this question.

[papernoise]

Forgot to mention one thing: I would prefer to work on MacOS. I do have a spare windows computer, but I don't use it as often.

[Thaumaturge]

Hmm... I'm not familiar with any that work under MacOS, offhand. However, if you don't mind using that Windows computer, I know of at least two engines designed specifically for the creation of adventure games: Adventure Game Studio and the Wintermute Engine.

I think that it might be possible to use Adventure Game Studio to produce games for MacOS--specifically, I believe that I've read that the runtime has been ported to that operating system. As far as I'm aware, the editor is Windows-only.

[papernoise]

Thanks! Well, now that you mention it, I think Among Thorns was made with AGS and it did run on my Macbook, so I'll need to check that! I did check out both AGS and Wintermute about a year ago. Wintermute actually also supports compiling for MacOS and iOS (using the slightly more limited WME Light).
Of course being able to produce MacOS-compatible binaries is only of relative importance, since I'm really doing this mostly as an exercise... but hey, if it turns out it's fun enough I'll certainly release it as a free download.
 

[papernoise]

In case this might be useful some somebody else... this one also looks really promising: http://www.visionaire-studio.net/

[Richard Kain]

If you don't mind paying for a license, then Visionaire is probably going to be your best bet. The developers behind it have been using it for years to make some of the current gold-standard point-and-click adventure games. So it's got quite a bit of professional development behind it. It's also one of the more cross-platform friendly options, which plays in nicely to your MacOS desire.

Less focused engines like Unity and Godot can also be used for making adventure games. But since they are less focused, you would have to create some of the basic structures yourself. If you aren't interested in that, paying the license for Visionaire would help you to save time.

[papernoise]

Just downloaded the free version, it's enough to let me see if it works for me. Probably enough for this experiment, and if I need more, the basic license isn't that expensive fortunately.

I initially thought about using something less point&click oriented, because that probably is a better learning investment, but you're right, something like Visionaire (or any other point&click-oriented tool) is probably a big time saver.

The developers behind it have been using it for years to make some of the current gold-standard point-and-click adventure games.

I've played Deponia and Stasis (which was made by another developer but also with Visionaire afaik). Both good adventure games from a technical point of view, so this tools seems really promising.

[Richard Kain]

I initially thought about using something less point&click oriented, because that probably is a better learning investment, but you're right, something like Visionaire (or any other point&click-oriented tool) is probably a big time saver.

I wish you the best of luck. I've always been a huge fan of point-and-click adventure games. When working on developing your own, one of the big time sinks is the event system. Designing something like that from scratch can be a bit of a pain. This is why I suggest using an existing engine with point-and-click tools. Adventure Game Studio is a good option, but it's also more than a little dated in terms of its technology and features. That's why I didn't recommend it.

If Visionaire doesn't pan out, I would recommend Godot. While it is a more generalized engine, it actually does have a point-and-click adventure game framework available for it. One of the games that has been developed using it is a point-and-click title, and the framework designed for that game was released to the public. One of the strengths of Godot is the cross-platform support it enjoys. While some engines are limited by their editors, Godot runs natively on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Using the point-and-click framework as a basis, it could be a viable option.

[Thaumaturge]

Ah--I haven't used Visionare myself, but that is quite an array of titles built on it, and it does seem to offer the MacOS support that you want. ^_^

(For what it's worth, both Wintermute and AGS have some decent games built on them--nothing with the high profiles of those built on Visionaire, but some good games, I feel. I believe that Wintermute has The Lost Crown, and AGS has Resonance, Technobabylon, and Heroine's Quest, for a few examples.)

[papernoise]

cool! Thanks a lot for the help! I'll def. check out all of the options to see which one could work best.

When working on developing your own, one of the big time sinks is the event system. Designing something like that from scratch can be a bit of a pain.

I have tried to build an event system in Actionscript (when they introduced events) for something much simpler than a point%click game. I remember it being quite a lot of work. So yes, I totally understand your point about it.

I believe that Wintermute has The Lost Crown, and AGS has Resonance, Technobabylon, and Heroine's Quest, for a few examples.)

I see that I need to fill some gaps in my point&click playing cv
Btw. I wonder what Primordia (http://primordia-game.com) was made with...

Anyway, I'll keep you posted if I have a result worth sharing!

[qMopey]

I would recommend love2d. Lua is quite nice for beginners to learn. Also don't be afraid to learn programming skills! If you want to make games, the code is the heart of the game. Writing code breathes life into the game. Love2d is a great bundle of tools and code for making 2D games. Highly recommended. It's free,  open source, lots of people available to ask questions. Personally I don't think there's a good reason to use anything else for 2d. Can ship on windows, mac, linux, ios, android 

[emptyfortress]

Btw. I wonder what Primordia (http://primordia-game.com) was made with...

It was made in AGS (AFAIK, all Wadjet eye games are).

I'd love to hear about your experience with Visionnaire if you're trying it by the way, their website is a bit low on details but I'm curious.

[papernoise]

@qMopey: thanks! I'll give Löve a look. LUA keeps popping up all over the place, so that would probably be well invested time. Also I've read good things about it, as about Godot, but that uses a custom scripting format. Too bad there's no Point&cLick framework for Löve, thought there seems to be somebody trying to develop it.

@emptyfortress: thanks! Yes I'm totally trying out Visionaire first, that's what makes most sense for me right now. But let's see, if I'm not 100% happt with such a specialized tool I might try a more general purpose thing. The fact is that the games I love most are the ones that do things a bit differently. I loved Samorost's and Machinarium's take on the point&click paradigm, and I also loved Swords&Sworcery for that. But well… I have my limits, so Visionaire could still be best

[Raptor85]

I don't use any of them personally so I can't say much for the tools, but quite a few of my favorite adventure games in the 2000's were made with AGS, In particular Yahtzee made a bunch of games in it and most of them are amazing, I love the Chzo series (5 days a stranger, 7 days a skeptic, trilbys notes (the best one imho), and 6 days a sacrifice) but then I am a sucker for a well made horror game (and they're so few and far between...)  The art of theft...a stealth platformer, was also made in AGS.