Darin,

Myst clones im not sure about, but Myst/Riven were for me the best point and click games ever made (no inventory here!). Personally i still think that no body has made a game to rival Riven as yet. Dont know what it is but Riven has got it.

Good luck, just to think if you managed to better myst/riven well that millions of games sold world-wide. The Miller brothers should be your next stop, if they will give you 5 mins!

Okay people. It's not going to be a lot like a Myst-Clone now. It's going to have tons of ineraction, you click on it, and the character will give a comment, like Nice picture. Great painting, and I'll see what I can do to make some characters, but I might have a few tricks to do differently.

Darrin -

Whatever you do, do not make the puzzles as hard as Bombou wants them to be! Puhleeeeeaazze!!!! <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/pacify.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/pacify.gif" />

Do not make the puzzles Schizm-like. When I found out that I couldn't solve the puzzles without a walkthrough, I gave up and traded it for another game!

Don't make me do that to you're game! <img border="0" alt="[winky]" title="" src="graemlins/winky.gif" />

Believe me, I am probably one of the only ones that HATED Schizm on this board. I didn't like one thing about it, other then the cool graphics. It wasn't my game. It was WAY too hard, and no game should be that hard!

Have you got a detailed idea for the plot in your head (or on paper)? I don't want to sound negative but I'd really advise you not to start the game unless you have a strong knowledge of what's going to happen throughout it. Your posts mention a lot about music, but very little about plot and setting, so I thought I'd better post an irritating comment like that. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="tongue.gif" />

As far as puzzles go, I prefer inventory-based puzzles too (when done well) because I feel they can be much more closely intertwined with the plot than mechanical puzzles. Also, they tend to rely on a simple 'Eureka!' moment on the part of the player, without fiddling, thus maximising thought and minimising work. There's nothing to say you can't have both types of puzzle, though.

Action elements in an adventure are fine the way you have described them. The idea is that once the player has worked out what they're supposed to do, the 'action' is very easy to take, right? Like in Full Throttle, or the end puzzle of The Secret of Monkey Island, or that clifftop moment in Broken Sword?

Giving the player freedom to interact with their environment is a very good idea. It all helps to create the impression of a living, breathing gameworld.

Making a game is a lot of work, so the best of luck for the slog ahead.

Yes, I know exactly what is going to happen in my game when it comes to story. I just don't want anyone to know the story until I near the end of completion to the game, then I'll make a website, or perhaps e-mail DreamCatcher and send them a preview edition, so they can see the game a bit, and see if they'd publish it. Don't worry, I know what most adventure gamers want now, and I am going to try my best to give it to you. Yes, the action is going to be easy, not hard. Not like, get that gun and shoot it in 3 seconds or you'll die! It's going to be easy and you are going to be given a lot of time if not unlimited time.

When I think of a Myst Clone, I think of a first person, point and click with lots of exploring, lots of puzzles and things to play with, little to no character interaction......like Myst/Riven, Shivers, Timelapse, Obsidian, Riddle of The Sphinx, Dark Fall, Lighthouse, Amber, Morpheus etc. JMHO.... <img border="0" alt="[winky]" title="" src="graemlins/winky.gif" />

~Dee

Alex, how exciting for all of us!! To hear from you during this process --- facinating!

I'm with MacDee on this. If the description of the game says "...Myst-like..." I read no further and pay my money.

The best of luck to you and keep us informed.

Hey,wait a moment!!
I HATE puzzles Schizm-like,or Rama-like..
But, on my personal opinion,there are different difficulty levels:Schizm puzzles are boring and hard because they include sterile math expressions and equations,or the laws of physics..
Puzzles in Obsidian,or Timelapse,GK2,Overseer,or Riven,or the recent Dark Fall are challenging, but there is imagination,in one word a spark of genius..And,to solve them,you need to take time and patience,and try many solutions..I don't know if you see what I mean,I beg your pardon for my English <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/woozy.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="confused.gif" /> Bombou

Rama puzzles may of been hard but after you complete them you get a pretty [blip] good feeling you have learned something.. my maths aint so good and those math machines in Rama were a pain in the arse but none the less i liked it in the end <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="tongue.gif" />

-Polo

I'm 100% with Zanthia - lonely is not for me.... although I've played and loved 1st person, Myst and Riven weren't fun and Schizim was dreadful and I never finished it. One thing that drives me mad about a game is when you have to keep going back to a certain location..... like your room in a hotel that has halls and elevators and 20 different things for you to do before you can actually get there to do one stupid thing and then go back down stairs..... or like trying to find that black dolphin in Atlantis LOL.....
You will find that no matter what you do, there will be complaints..... the old saying "You can please some of the people some of the time....."
Good luck, I think this is a tremendous venture and I wish you all the luck in the world. I can guarantee you I will buy a game from you...... if for no other reason than to say........."I knew him when.............

I've come to read the forums from a hard day of work. I've been slaving away on Strata, and have made a pretty hefty location. The graphics of the screenshots I made amaze my eyes, and in my opinion look like a pro made it. Pretty soon, I'll think myself as a pro.

I like old sayings. "Quote of Prat from Almost Heroes": There's an old saying, White water in the mourning. 'Yes' Chris Farley says. 'That's it." LOL, that's a funny joke. I'll have a few easter eggs that I thought in my head, that made me laugh. This game is going to turn out great. Thanks for all your help and support. I will try to make some challenging puzzles. I'd say making puzzles is the hardest part of making an adventure game.

As much as I'd love to give you all a little preview of the starting that I made for the game today, I can't. I am a developer from now on. I just can't wait to finish this game, and I love to make games, so if this game is a success, there will definantly be another adventure game that I'll make.

DD,it's great you're making your own game... It is exciting,isn't it? I'm also in that gamemaking bandwagon (although sctrictly as an amateur as I don't have 3D skills and my hand drawing is just so-and-so... and my puzzles all seem ridiculous... oh, should I go on?) so I do wish you the best of luck with your project...

One thing I would like is an online hint system - I'm sure it's not easy to do one that works properly - but it's one of those things I always wanted to have in a game... Of course, it shouldn't reveal the solution at the first try and should probably be included in EASY mode (or something) but... well, think about it... I'm one who often gets stuck in games and prefer subtle hints rather than "blatant" WT..

PS Nellie, are you doing your own game? Which is it?

Actually, I might make a Hint message board, but I am going to make hints in the manual, or right on the CD, for every puzzle you'll see in the game...

Yes, it is exciting. You should really not give up. At one point I thought, this is WAY too hard, I don't even want to make a game anymore, but I stuck with it, and I'm rolling in the scenes now. I am making all the locations so fast and so beautiful to look at.

Hehe, ratracer, I recognise you from the AGS Forums. I'm a little surprised we're the only AGSers to ever post here. My game's a comedy-vampire one called Undead Fred. What game are you making at the moment?

D.D., I LOVE Myst-clone games. Is your game going to be slide-show driven? I LOVE those kinds as well, in 1st Person perspective. Out of curiosity, what program are you using to generate your screens/images? I used a program called "Paint Shop Pro" to generate screens, and used them in a "tiny" adventue game I made with the "Adventure Game Pro" program. I LOVED creating my graphics, but I've been on the look out for a program that can make realistic looking scenes with not too much work. Have you ever heard of BRYCE? That apparently was a program great for making 3d scenes, but I don't think it's available anymore, and I never got a copy of it to try. Thanks for doing this, I have a feeling the future of the Adventure Genre really will rest in the hands of independents like yourself.

I'll keep making adventure games til I die. I love it. I am making slideshow. I use Strata 3D, which is a very expensive program, for Plus it's 200 dollars, and for Pro it's 600 dollars, but Plus and Pro aren't really that different. To get a demo go to www.strata.com and if you want to buy it, you can get better prices then Strata's homepage at www.pricegrabber.com The screen shots I make are very quality, and yes Bryce is a good program, but kinda hard. Strata is the easiest program ever in my opinion. Get it before it ends up like Bryce...

What's adventure game pro? Is it a multimedia program? Is it any good?

Best of luck to you Darrin,

> In the type of games we're all discussing here, I really enjoy the "Zip" cursor if I have to revisit areas I've already been to.
> In Timelapse, I thought that the camera idea to take pictures of complicated possible puzzle solutions was a great help for people like myself, who can't draw a straight line with a ruler.
> One of the games I'm playing is Civilization 3, which has a great feature on screen resolution. I initially cranked it way up the first time a played it, and it automatically resets the screen every time I play it. My wife can't stand the high resolution for her use of the computer, and it saves all the back and forth adjustment, and even keeps the icons where they belong. A nice touch!
> Finally, as someone else said, be able to start the game from any disc.
> I can't wait to see the final result!!

FatVladdie

I'll see what I can do about that camera feature. Thanks for the feedback, the game is coming along great. I am making lots of scenes already, with only a little trouble so far. My game will be out definantly before next year. I am thinking around Early Fall, I'm working on this game 24/7 (not literally) but I've been working atleast 8 hours a day. (I have a lot of time on my hands in Summer) I'll still trying to think of some puzzles, but I made one yesterday that made me actually smile, cause I thought, what a nice and fun puzzle to solve.

I know naught about 3D but read that Bryce was quite easy to use... Since I'll eventually have to try 3D I'll check out Strata (I never heard of that before but, then, as I said I know nothing of 3D drawings...)

And, Nellie, I'm doing a mystery with some sci fi elements on it (It's now called The Uncertainty Machine). This project had a major set back as I lost my hard disk - I'll get back to it, though. Chrille (of Pleurghburg fame)posted here some time ago (that's how I was lured to AGS) but doesn't seem he comes here often---

D.D., Adventure Game Pro is a game engine that lets you take graphic files and sound files and put them together in a slide-show driven point-and-click adventure game. You don't create the files with this program, you just put them together to form the game. I downloaded a free version of it and it's really low-end, basic, low-tech, but it did the job for me. What are you using to program your game? BTW, unlike most people, I actually LOVE slider puzzles, so if you could throw one or two in I would be very happy.

Umm, I use Illuminatus 4.5 to do that, which is very easy to use, and is an excellent program, you can get the 30 day trail at www.digitalworkshop.co.uk

My memory is very vague, as I only did 1 or 2 slider puzzles in the past. What is a slider puzzle, name a game with some. (Don't say Shivers, as I've already heard someone say there were some in that game.)

Also, what do you guys think about Slide transitions? Do you think I should add them to the game? I think they look nice, but you guys might think it will take the realism out, or something, I was just wondering. Also, I am working on a web site now, to show some screen shots of the game and soon have a demo, because of working for so long, the game is going to come out sooner then I thought, probably Fall. The site is coming soon, I'll post here when it is ready...

A 'slider' is like one of those keychain games, (they make big ones too ) a lot of little interlocking squares, with one empty spot, and you slide the squares every which way to form a picture, or message, or sometimes just line up numbers or the alphabet. Lots of people confuse a jig-saw puzzle with a slider, but with a slider you can NOT pick up the pieces or rotate or turn them over to move them. You must, what else? SLIDE them around.

The most notorious I know of is the one at the end of the 'Mayan' world in TimeLapse. It had FOUR sliders in one frame, if you got one scene, it locked in place, so you had to work around that part to continue with the rest. Your space to work in got smaller and smaller. Soooo much fun!!

I got it now. I'll see what I can do. It'll be a hard task, I might not even be able to put one in the game...

My game is going great. I actually sent a screen shot to my best friend, and he said, "that's not your game! You have to be a professionaly to make that". LOL