EnigmA Amiga Run 1996 February

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Text File | 1993-08-18 | 9KB | 544 lines

Greetings all and thank you for bothering to download and read this. This is a little preview of PACAC, the Point and Click Adventure Creator. It will make adventure games like Beneath the Steel Sky, Monkey Island and Relics of Deldroneye, for any Amiga computer. Included are some IFF screens, showing some parts from the Screen Editor. They show two things: 1. How bad my graphical skills are. 2. How easy it is to use (I hope). So you don't get scared at the possibility of programming, let me tell you all the commands, and their functions (Char=Character, Obj=Object, Anim=Animation) : Comments are enclosed in brackets, (). IncVar v / DecVar v - increase / decrease variable v. LetVar v = n - makes variable v equal to numerical value n. Rename Obj n To a$ - gives obj n the name a$. Rename Solid n To a$ - gives solid n the name a$. Rename Char n To a$ - gives char the name a$, eg if they tell you their name. Char n Talk To t - makes char n go and talk to char t. Char n Walk To x,y - makes char n walk to position x,y. Char n Enter from e - make char n enter from exit e. Char n Exit by e - make char n exit by going through exit e. Char n Say a$ - make char n say a$, without talking to anyone. Char n Face Left/Right/Up/Down - makes char face in the requested direction. Animate - animate as defined in the script editor. Animate Off n - cycling through the anim sequence n once, eg doors opening. Anim On/Off n - turn anim n, on or off. Solid On/Off n - enable / disable the solid n. Exit On/Off n - enable / disable the exit n. Gain Obj n - get obj n and put it in the inventory. Lose Obj n - remove obj n from the inventory. Place n At x,y - place image n (defined in the image editor) at x,y. Sound n - play the sound effect / sample n. Load Sound a$ - load sample a$ from disk and play it (if low on memory). Wait n - delays the script execution for n screen updates. Understand all that? ;-) To come: Interactive tutorial / On-line help. Commands to make characters follow other characters. Fuzzy logic. Interactive demo for you lot. ...and all your good/bad ideas. ;-) If you are interested or like filling in questionnaires, then here's one for you to do. ;-) It's quite old and you can see from the example screens that some of the questions have been answered and implimented, but your opinion is very much valued. > 1. Would you prefer that there is no programming at all, even if they are > very simple commands? > 2. PACAC will be able to control many characters, as they wander about from > screen to screen, doing jobs, talking to people, getting distracted, etc. > (like in Beneath the Steel Sky) > Do you think that the script for these characters, should be programmed > or built up using the mouse (takes longer)? > 3. At the moment, the system uses variables to hold the current state of the > game. These are called Var1, Var2, e.t.c. Would you prefer to have > real names (such as "animstate", "count", "timesmet", etc) instead of the > above? This would mean quite a bit more programming for me. Otherwise, a > list of all the var numbers could come up, with their meanings beside > them and the final game would also execute faster. > 4. Complex conversations will be possible, with characters taking actions > simply because of something you said, and the possibility of giving your > character a good or bad reputation. To do this, commands will have to be > built into the conversation. For example, "*T{1} How are you? *T{2} > I'm very well, *N how about you? *T{1} *C{*O1 I'm great > *O2 Life stinks and so do you} *T{2} *1{ [IncVar1] That's nice} *2{ > [DecVar1] I know}" > > In the above conversation between you *T(1) and another character *T(2), > this happened: > You:How are you? > Character:I'm very well, (on next line) how about you? > You:(A choice between "I'm great" and "Life stinks and so do you") > Character:(If you said "I'm great", then say "That's nice" and > increase Var1. If you said "Life stinks and so do you", then > say "I know" and decrease Var1) > > Do you think this is too complicated? If so, can you suggest a better > approach? Or should I cut it out all together? > 5. Music can be played on certain screens, or when a character comes on to > screen (like in Monkey Island 2). Do you think that PACAC should use > Tracker files, or its own music editor that isn't compatible with > anything? > 6. The interface will be quite like the one on Beneath the Steel Sky. It > goes on the principle that there are only two things you can do with an > object. These being, look at it and use it. > Anyway, do you prefer this method to the standard method using icons > along the bottom (Look at, Open, Use, Push, etc) for PACAC games to use? > 7. Should the data files be encrypted, so that only the programmer can edit > them? Or should the files be available to everyone, to look at/change? > 8. Should I split the system into three separate parts, Screen Editor, > Character Editor, Game Editor? Or should I try to keep it all in one > editor? > 9. In the script language that I have created, commands can get quite long. > For example: > > Character Walk To / Char Walk To > > Animation On / Anim On > > ...and so on, do you prefer the shorter versions, although they make > it slightly less "readable"? > 10.Do you want the game to be controlled by one script, or would you > prefer that each object in the game contains its own piece of > programming. For example, imagine this in a game: > > There is a door, that can only be opened if the player turns two > switches to "on". The two switches start in the "off" position. > > For this example, > Var1=switch 1 state (0=off, 1=on) > Var2=switch 2 state > Var3=both the switches state (2=both on) > Exit 1 is the door. > Comments are shown in brackets. > > Switch 1: > If Use and Var1=0 Then IncVar1 : IncVar3 : Animate (using switch) > If Use and Var1=1 Then DecVar1 : DecVar3 : Animate > > Switch 2: > If Use and Var2=0 Then IncVar2 : IncVar3 : Animate > If Use and Var2=1 Then IncVar2 : DecVar3 : Animate > > Door: > If Use and Var3=2 Then Animate (door opening) : Exit On 1 > > Otherwise. if it were a single script: > > Object 1 is switch 1 > Object 2 is switch 2 > Object 3 is the door > > If Use1 and Var1=0 Then IncVar1 : IncVar3 : Animate (using switch) > If Use1 and Var1=1 Then DecVar1 : DecVar3 : Animate > > If Use2 and Var2=0 Then IncVar2 : IncVar3 : Animate > If Use2 and Var2=1 Then IncVar2 : DecVar3 : Animate > > If Use3 and Var3=2 Then Animate (door opening) : Exit On 1 > > Notice that the only difference is that the object number is > specified. Also, this code would be surrounded by the rest of the > code for the current screen/game. > > Which method do you prefer? > 11.PACAC will support some kind of Animation. Which would you prefer this > to be; Anim5 (Dpaint) or er... PACAC type :) > > PACAC type animations would have extra things which Anim5 doesn't have, > eg. Fading, sound effects, the outlined text, etc. but it would > probably be harder to make your animations. Maybe it could import > Anim5 animations and allow you to edit them. Anyway, which do you > prefer? > 12.Are there any particular tools you'd like to have, when making your > adventure? e.g. Screen renderer, character generator, e.t.c. > 13.Any comments/ideas/suggestions you wish to add or you'd like to > answer furthur questionnaires, then here's the place for it: Return your answers to bwyatt@paston.co.uk before the end of 1995. Thanks. Any other queeries, questions, e.t.c. to the same address. I'd also like to hear from anyone who's good at graphics/music/sound to do some examples and PD demos (for PACAC :) ). Thanks for your time, patience and help. _________________________________ / \ > Ben Wyatt - bwyatt@paston.co.uk < \_________________________________/ ©1995 Very Interesting Signatures Hello again ;-)