Amateur adventure game
Encyclopedia
An amateur adventure game is a computer game belonging to the adventure
genre
that has no commercial or similar official backing. The amateur adventure game scene emerged in the mid to late 1990s, when releases of new commercial adventure games became more rare and easy distribution of games and game engine
s was made possible by increased access to the Internet
, thus encouraging players to make games of their own. This situation was similar to that faced by players of interactive fiction
. Nowadays the amateur scene is mainly centered around the Adventure Game Studio
(AGS) community and a few adventure-related websites.
. These development systems were often commercial and their usage wasn't widespread. This era ended when major game developers such as Sierra and LucasArts
came to the conclusion that adventure games were no longer a profitable business and abandoned the genre.
Another factor that encouraged people to take up independent development was the fact that the new amateur engines were relatively easy to use and that the basic programming tasks for an adventure game were quite simple. Adventure games were well-suited for relatively simple script-based development systems, because they could be in low resolution and have a point-and-click interface, and because the game logic itself didn't need to be difficult. Instead of technological advancements, the appeal of the games was in the story, characters, and puzzles.
In the early days of the scene, most aspiring designers were divided into two groups, those using AGS and those planning on using SCRAMM, a system heavily inspired by LucasArts
' SCUMM
. SCRAMM was never finished, and people soon either abandoned their game projects altogether or began looking for engines that weren't vaporware
. Other vaporware systems included RoBoT, which was an open-source community project based on another engine called BoT that was abandoned by its developer. Initially AGS, AGAST and SLUDGE
gathered the most prominent following, AGS being clearly in the lead when it came to the size of the community and the number of games being released per year.
As the engines have developed over time and their stability has increased, they have long since surpassed the functionality of the development systems of most commercial studios, including LucasArts
' SCUMM and Sierra's SCI
. For example, a relatively new engine, called Wintermute
, was the first to use DirectX
's 3D acceleration support to enable smoother and faster rendering
of sprite
s, especially making special effect
s such as transparency faster to render.
Additionally, there has been a rise of Macromedia Flash developers who have produced popular adventure games such as MOTAS
(Mystery of Time and Space) and Crimson Room (and its sequels) which make use of different action scripts and effects not found in other game engines. These games were made popular with the rise of Flash Game/Movie communities such as Newgrounds
.
Systems include:
A few modern commercial adventure games have been built using the Virtools
middleware
system.
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
that has no commercial or similar official backing. The amateur adventure game scene emerged in the mid to late 1990s, when releases of new commercial adventure games became more rare and easy distribution of games and game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
s was made possible by increased access to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, thus encouraging players to make games of their own. This situation was similar to that faced by players of interactive fiction
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
. Nowadays the amateur scene is mainly centered around the Adventure Game Studio
Adventure Game Studio
Adventure Game Studio is a free software development tool that is primarily used to create graphical adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an Integrated development environment for setting up most aspects of the game with a scripting language to process...
(AGS) community and a few adventure-related websites.
History
Before the rise of amateur adventure games, the primary adventure game engines available were modifications of Sierra On-Line's existing engines, interactive fiction programs, and the Macintosh-only scripting system World BuilderWorld Builder
World Builder is an authoring system for point-and-click adventure games. It was released in 1986 by Silicon Beach Software and had already been used for creating Enchanted Scepters in 1984. In 1994 World Builder along with Course Builder, SuperCard and HyperDA was cited as the reason Appleton was...
. These development systems were often commercial and their usage wasn't widespread. This era ended when major game developers such as Sierra and LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
came to the conclusion that adventure games were no longer a profitable business and abandoned the genre.
Another factor that encouraged people to take up independent development was the fact that the new amateur engines were relatively easy to use and that the basic programming tasks for an adventure game were quite simple. Adventure games were well-suited for relatively simple script-based development systems, because they could be in low resolution and have a point-and-click interface, and because the game logic itself didn't need to be difficult. Instead of technological advancements, the appeal of the games was in the story, characters, and puzzles.
In the early days of the scene, most aspiring designers were divided into two groups, those using AGS and those planning on using SCRAMM, a system heavily inspired by LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
' SCUMM
SCUMM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....
. SCRAMM was never finished, and people soon either abandoned their game projects altogether or began looking for engines that weren't vaporware
Vaporware
Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor officially canceled. Vaporware is also a term sometimes used to describe events that are announced or predicted,...
. Other vaporware systems included RoBoT, which was an open-source community project based on another engine called BoT that was abandoned by its developer. Initially AGS, AGAST and SLUDGE
Sludge
Sludge refers to the residual, semi-solid material left from industrial wastewater, or sewage treatment processes. It can also refer to the settled suspension obtained from conventional drinking water treatment, and numerous other industrial processes...
gathered the most prominent following, AGS being clearly in the lead when it came to the size of the community and the number of games being released per year.
As the engines have developed over time and their stability has increased, they have long since surpassed the functionality of the development systems of most commercial studios, including LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
' SCUMM and Sierra's SCI
Sierra's Creative Interpreter
Sierra's Creative Interpreter is the scripting language created by Jeff Stephenson of Sierra On-Line for its adventure games after the older AGI, and the runtime environment for such adventure games....
. For example, a relatively new engine, called Wintermute
Wintermute Engine
Wintermute Engine is a set of software tools and a runtime interpreter primarily designed for creating and running graphical adventure games.-History:...
, was the first to use DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
's 3D acceleration support to enable smoother and faster rendering
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
of sprite
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
s, especially making special effect
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
s such as transparency faster to render.
Additionally, there has been a rise of Macromedia Flash developers who have produced popular adventure games such as MOTAS
MOTAS
The Mystery Of Time And Space is a popular online graphic adventure game created by Jan Albartus . The game was produced using Macromedia Flash and was an early influential example of the escape the room genre...
(Mystery of Time and Space) and Crimson Room (and its sequels) which make use of different action scripts and effects not found in other game engines. These games were made popular with the rise of Flash Game/Movie communities such as Newgrounds
Newgrounds
Newgrounds is an American entertainment and social media website. Founded on July 6, 1995 by Tom Fulp, the site primarily hosts Adobe Flash animations and games, but also features a music-oriented page, along with an art portal...
.
Engines and games
Adventures games are popular in the independent game development scene, and many toolkits have emerged to create them. Most, but not all, are IDE based scripting engines. Some are just a script language or do not feature one at all.Systems include:
- Adventure Game StudioAdventure Game StudioAdventure Game Studio is a free software development tool that is primarily used to create graphical adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an Integrated development environment for setting up most aspects of the game with a scripting language to process...
(AGS) (Freeware) - Visionaire Studio (www.visionaire-studio.net) (Shareware)
- WintermuteWintermute EngineWintermute Engine is a set of software tools and a runtime interpreter primarily designed for creating and running graphical adventure games.-History:...
(Open Source/Donationware) - SLUDGESludgeSludge refers to the residual, semi-solid material left from industrial wastewater, or sewage treatment processes. It can also refer to the settled suspension obtained from conventional drinking water treatment, and numerous other industrial processes...
(Homepage) (Cross platform/Open Source) - Dage (3D, Donationware)
- World BuilderWorld BuilderWorld Builder is an authoring system for point-and-click adventure games. It was released in 1986 by Silicon Beach Software and had already been used for creating Enchanted Scepters in 1984. In 1994 World Builder along with Course Builder, SuperCard and HyperDA was cited as the reason Appleton was...
(Freeware) (discontinued)
A few modern commercial adventure games have been built using the Virtools
Virtools
Virtools is a software developer and vendor, created in 1993 and owned by Dassault Systèmes since July 2005.-History:Virtools was a company founded 1993. They offered a development environment to create 3D real-time applications and related services, targeted at system integrators, game studios and...
middleware
Middleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
system.
See also
- Adventure games
- Dōjin softDojin soft, also sometimes called , are video games created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups , more for fun than for profit; essentially, the Japanese equivalent of independent video games. Most of them are based on pre-existing material, but some are entirely original creations...
- Interactive fictionInteractive fictionInteractive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
- Visual novelVisual novelA is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...