Adventure Game Studio

Adventure Game Studio

The room editor in AGS.
Original author(s)	Chris Jones
Initial release	1997 (version 1)
Stable release	3.01 / April 20, 2008
Preview release	3.0.2 Final 2 / June 18, 2008
Repository	github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags
Operating system	Windows Linux (runtime only) Mac OS X (runtime only)
Platform	Personal computer
Available in	English
Type	Game engine
License	Freeware
Website	Adventure Game Studio homepage

Adventure Game Studio is a freeware tool that can be used to create both free and commercial graphical adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an Integrated development environment (IDE) for setting up most aspects of the game with a scripting language to process the game logic.

History

Adventure Game Studio (AGS) was created by British programmer Chris Jones. AGS was originally written and released in 1997 as an MS-DOS program entitled "Adventure Creator". This early version had extremely limited functionality. Jones rewrote the program during the summer of 1999, and released the new version in September of that year under the name "Adventure Game Studio."

Jones was inspired by the apparent simplicity of Sierra On-Line's adventure game interface, specifically as showcased in Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers. The first version of Adventure Creator allowed users to create only low-res, keyboard controlled games.

Initially, users created only small tests or demo games, most of the "more ambitious" projects soon ceased to exist. As a result of lack of completed games and advertising, the user base was quite small, yet the community grew slowly. Game developers soon requested more features so that they could create more complex games. One thing they asked for was higher resolution, and in January 1999, AC 1.1 added SVGA image support. They asked for character scaling, which was added in September of that same year.

After a long period of slow activity, the first complete game, Lassi Quest was born, but it was not until later, after Larry Vales and Rob Blanc had been released, that the engine became popular.

There is now an active community containing thousands of members, which continues to grow, and produce more and more games, which range from short and sweet games like the early games, to large full scale games like Pleurghburg.

The Engine continues to be added to and improved upon, the latest release being a complete rewrite of the editor (but not the game engine) using the .NET Framework. The game engine has also been modified to optionally use 3D acceleration.

Capabilities

The editor and runtime engine are currently designed for Windows operating systems, though Mac OS, DOS and Linux ports of the engine are also available. As of AGS v2.70, there is no DOS engine anymore.

It is not yet possible to create games on other operating systems without an emulator or API wrapper like WINE.

AGS can create games with a graphical range from 256 colours and a resolution of 320x200 (games with more "classic" looks) to true colour games with a resolution of up to 800x600 (games with more "modern" looks) and an alpha channel, though the higher the resolution, the more demanding a game is on computer resources, resulting in the need for a faster computer.

Games

Thousands of games have been produced in the years since AGS was first released. These vary extensively in quality, from short 'test games' to full-length professional-quality games. It has even been used to create arcade and board games.

These games are usually classified amongst the community by length, with separate categories for non-adventure games and joke games.

Short Games

The most prolific category of AGS games, short games consist of a few rooms and a simple plot: finding something or escaping are popular themes. These games vary widely in quality, from games using default sprites or stick figures, to games with attractive graphics and music.

Examples include:

• The Adventures of Princess Marian Series: A series of short games created by AGS forum user SSH as gifts to his wife. The graphics are simple, and there is little or no music, but the stories are generally agreed to be very heartwarming and sweet.
• Grr! Bearly Sane: The adventures of a man in a bear suit who is having a very bad day, and is out to avenge himself against his cruel boss. Very notable for its unique use of a blood-pressure monitor — the angrier the player character gets, the higher his blood pressure goes. If it gets high enough, the player can make him take out his aggressions on random objects, characters and animals.
• Stickmen: This game is about two stickmen named Doug and Toby who are searching for pirate treasure. The graphics are grayscale, and all the characters are, obviously, stick figures.

Medium-Length Games

The games in this category are very hard to pin down. It covers games that are often quite entertaining and complex, but simply don't take more than an hour or so to play. The quality of games in this category is usually very high.

Examples include:

• 5 Days a Stranger: One of the most popular games of 2003, 5 Days a Stranger has become one of the landmark games of AGS.

• Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator A series of 6 games (as of September 2007) featuring a character who investigates paranormal activities around the world.

• Cirque de Zale: One of the most successful AGS games to date, garnering a great deal of attention throughout the adventure game community. The graphic style (but not the humour) is reminiscent of early 1990's LucasArts adventure games, namely the Monkey Island series.

• Melrin: The disciple ordeal The Melrin games are notable for their graphics. Whereas most AGS games attempt to create images with proper perspective, similar to adventure games of the early 90s, the Melrin games instead copy the look of early-90s role-playing games, such as The Legend of Zelda series.

• The Shivah

• Spooks Spooks is a classic Sierra-style adventure about a little dead girl who must save a live goldfish. In 2006, Spooks was nominated for seven AGS awards and went on to win in the categories of "Best Player Character" and "Best Music."

Full-Length Games

The "cream of the crop" of AGS games, these games are usually of very high quality and take a while to complete. These are the rarest type of adventure game created with AGS, as they often take years for the game creator to finish. One of the more popular ways to create a full-length game is to take an old adventure and to update it, either by simply creating a point-and-click interface or by completely overhauling the graphics. AGD Interactive, Infamous Adventures and LucasFan Games are three of the leading creators of these updated classics.

Examples include:

• Kings Quest VGA: A one-to-one remake of Sierra On-Line's first graphical adventure game, King's Quest. The only changes made were updating the graphics into VGA. The team who was responsible for this project was originally called "Tierra," a play on "Sierra," but has since changed their name to Anonymous Game Developer Interactive," or AGD Interactive for short.
• Kings Quest II+: Romancing the Stones: Also made by AGD Interactive.
• Kings Quest III: To Heir Is Human: Maintaining the trend of Sierra remakes, Infamous Adventures provides an updated version of the third chapter of King's Quest.
• The Adventures of Fatman: A satire of the crime-fighting superhero Batman, "Fatman" gained quite a bit of attention for being the first AGS game ever to be released commercially. The game was originally sold on CD, and came with a voice pack and a unique "director's commentary." Recently, the game has been re-released as a special edition with some extras, and a sequel announced as in production.
• Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine: The first commercial release from the people behind AGD Interactive. Released under their new label, Himalaya Studios, Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine maintains the classic charm and humor of 2D retro adventures of the mid-90s while providing improved graphics and digital music.
• Cosmos Quest I: To Find a Sun: The first release of the Cosmos Quest series, and one of few AGS games at 800x600 resolution and 8-bit colors. Released by an independent developer.
• Maniac Mansion Deluxe: This has done for LucasArts' Maniac Mansion what AGD Interactive did for King's Quest. The game is a one-to-one remake of the first ever point-and-click adventure game, but with completely updated graphics. However, there are several modern Easter eggs scattered throughout the game.
• Pleurghburg: Dark Ages
• Soviet Unterzoegersdorf/Sector 1: A game by Austrian art/philosophy group monochrom. The fake history of the "last existing appanage republic of the USSR", Soviet Unterzoegersdorf. Created to discuss topics such as the theoretical problems of historiography, the concept of the "socialist utopia" and the political struggles of postwar Europe. To monochrom it was clear that the adventure game, an almost extinct form of computer game, would provide the perfect media platform to communicate the idea of "Soviet Unterzoegersdorf". Edge (games magazine) chose the game as their Internet Game of the Month for November 2005.

MAGS Games

MAGS, the Monthly AGS competition, is an activity on the AGS forum which has game creators attempt to create a short game over the course of one month. The challenge is that the game has to follow a series of restrictions regarding length, art and content. At the end of the month, the games are voted on and the creator of the best game wins the opportunity to choose the restrictions for the next month. These games are usually very short and simple, and vary wildly in quality of the artwork, gameplay and most aspects.

Games Series

There have been a few examples of series of games with a lot of games.

The most notable example would be Reality on the Norm which is a series of games which anyone can make one of, with the same characters and settings.

Another series of AGS games (although it's not limited to AGS there aren't any games from other engines yet) is the Manic Mansion Mania series. The games take place in the Maniac Mansion universe and show the everyday life of the well-known characters.

The award winning 5 Days a Stranger has spawned three sequels: 7 Days a Skeptic, Trilby's Notes and 6 Days a Sacrifice.

Non-Adventure Games

One of the most interesting categories of games created with Adventure Game Studio are the games that are not adventures at all. AGS has been used to make a variety of programs that are anything but adventures. These vary from various types of games other than adventures, as well as several utilities.

Examples include:

• Board Quest: A rather challenging board game, in which the players travel around a board based on automated dice rolls and have to compete in various challenges.
• Platformerius: The Ninja Incident: Platformerius is a platformer. You play "FruitTree," an AGS forum member, who has just had his Japanese garden attacked by ninjas. The player character can attack both up close and at a distance. The download includes the source code so that others can create similar games.
• The Historical League of Bouncy Boxing: A very complex two-player fighting game that pits various historical figures wearing boxing gloves against each other.
• Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment: has some adventure game elements, but is largely a spaceship-based trading sim.
• 1213 A game by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, the player is a prisoner trapped in a strange facility with no memory of his past. The gameplay is that of 2D action/adventure-platformer similar to Prince of Persia or Another World (also know as Out of this World in the US,) and the author directly cites Flashback as an inspiration.[1]
• Trilby: The Art of Theft Another game by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw taking place in the 5 Days a Stranger continuity, this game is a 2D stealth-platformer where the player plays as master thief Trilby as he pulls off heists while being hunted by a shadowy group.

Community

The AGS community is quite possibly the largest surrounding an adventure game creation utility. It is based on the AGS Forum and the AGS Internet Relay Chat channel. There have now been IRL meetings of the community each summer for some years, known as Mittens. There is also an ongoing blog covering the latest goings on in AGS development, games and community.

Competitions

One of the most important aspects of the community, other than getting assistance with game creation, is the presence of various competitions for art, writing, music and general game creation.

There are various game creation competitions, as follows:

• MAGS: The Monthly AGS competition, has developers create a unique game based on a series of restrictions. Development time is one month, and at the end of that time players vote on the best game. At the end of the calendar year, all MAGS games created over the course of the year are voted on for the Maggies, and the game with the most votes is declared the best MAGS game of the year.
• ATC: The AGS Team Challenge: In this competition, groups of five people attempt to make a game. Each team has a story writer, a background artist, a sprite artist, a musician and a programmer. The goal of this activity is not to create the best game, but merely to complete a game within a certain time frame.
• AGS Awards: The most prestigious award of the AGS community, the AGS Awards (also, occasionally, known as the "Rogers") are a series of annual awards similar to the Oscars voted on by the AGS community. Awards are given out for various story, character, and technical aspects, as well as for best game overall and a Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards ceremony is held on the IRC channel.
• One Room One Week: Competition to create a small game in one week; games are then presented anonymously to the public (via a moderator), a vote taken and winner decided, whereupon the authors are announced. Unlike MAGS, there is usually no theme or restrictions.

Alternative software

Several other engines such as AGAST, SLUDGE, Visionaire and Wintermute are also available.

See also

• Amateur adventure game
• Games created using AGS
• List of notable amateur adventure games

External links

• Official Homepage
• AGS Forums
• AGS Linux Homepage
• AGS IRC channel
• AGS blog
• Template:AGSWiki