Gaming Hacks

Adventure Game Studio Editing Tips

Previous hacks have discussed using interpreters to play classic games using clever utilities such as ScummVM for LucasArts adventures ( [Hack #7] ). As that hack points out, there’s no real way to make new SCUMM games in this day and age. The creation tools aren’t available to the public, and besides, the engine was pretty hacked up over multiple product iterations, with lots of customization to get games out the door.

Surely there must be some kind of alternative. There is, in the form of Adventure Game Studio, an excellent Windows-based utility that “allows you to create your own point-and-click adventure games, similar to the early ’90s Sierra and LucasArts adventures.” AGS is both a development environment and a runtime engine.

AGS Basics

Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is a fully developed graphical editor for game creation. It’s simple enough that coding novices can venture a decent stab at making games of their own. You can add sound, music, and ambient noise in various formats, even making a full talkie adventure with speech—packed into a single file. You can set up conversation systems, a completely customizable GUI, and multiple-player characters, all in a variety of color palettes and bits. Of course, the 16-color mode provides that true retro feel.

The official AGS site (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/) has much more information on this long-standing tool, and the download page (http://www.bigbluecup.com/acdload.htm) has everything ...