CHARACTER POINT & CLICK ADVENTURE GAMES

TheHawk

I've been roaming the forum looking for a tutorial on how to create classic style point & click adventure games like the old Sierra or Lucasarts with character driven quests. I could only find templates or examples of point click first person adventure games. Is it possible to make this type of game that I am looking for? Gamesalad has been around for a while. Surely someone has figured out a way to have a character walk to a point you click on with waypoints or paths.

jamie_c

It's certainly possible to make a point and click adventure game in Gamesalad. I don't know of any off the top of my head, but once you've learned the basics of Gamesalad you'd likely be able to do it.

The other day in the forum I posted the file linked here, it's just a demo of how to move a player to the point of a mouse click on screen like you mention above.

Armelline

I've often wondered the same thing. Similar mechanics have been made by various people over the years, but I've not seen anyone actually make a proper Lucasarts-style point-and-click adventure game. Which is a shame as that type of game is just awesome.

I would love to take a crack at it but it's the kind of thing that's hard to do without character graphics, and I suck too much as an artist. One day I'll get around to finding a sprite sheet from Beneath a Steel Sky or something and having a crack at it. But it would be even better if someone else did all the hard work

TheHawk

Thanks Jamie_c. What if there is an obstacle in the way? Say if you click on the other side of a big rock. How would the character know to go around the rock to the point? I'm guessing collision with an invisible wall actor or something. This might not be fluid and could get choppy though.

jamie_c

@TheHawk, certainly that demo is super simplified. It's only going to get more complex from there but like @Armelline‌ mentions, the most time consuming part of a point a click adventure to me seems like it would be all the assets required.

There are lots of ways you could handle obstacles and I guess it would depend greatly on your game. You could just stop the player and force the player to find the correct path, you could do something like you mention with invisible actors but you're right it would probably appear to be choppy or confused. There are a couple different people working on much more sophisticated AI routines right now at the threads i've linked below.

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/476677#Comment_476677

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/478039#Comment_478039

Armelline

I recall seeing a template for sale somewhere that offered more advanced enemy movements - intelligently moving around obstacles and stuff. I would imagine the same methods could be applied to the player to solve that problem.

Can't find the link right now, but I have a vague recollection that it was made by @domenius.

Edit: Hah found it immediately after posting.