Games Engine Overview

Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is a games engine that is used primarily to create adventure, puzzle based point and click games, graphically it produces games to an early nineties standard along the lines of classics such as The Secret of Monkey Island by LucasArts. It is also useful to note that AGS has a speech style setting of LucasArts showing that during creation of the engine, it was designed to create games along these lines.

Screenshot - The Secret of Monkey Island, LucasArts

In terms of the core features, AGS offers a unique scripting language which takes a little practise to master but is relatively easy to understand and by harnessing it the user can customise their games to create unique and original adventures. The engine also allows the user to extensively alter the games GUI, setting image buttons over portions of the screen for multiple functions, such as changing the current type of action selected. The user creates the environments as a series of rooms which link together, accessible by moving the playable character over certain edges of the screen, characters are created using a series of sprites to mimic animation when moving. There are also many other customisable features such as music and AGS is good to the extent that lots of the trivial aspects are already taken care of for you, allowing the user to concentrate on producing their game.  

Taking into consideration AGS’s design interface and functions it can be easily said that the engine was created to allow users to create a blend adventure and puzzle games, the name also suggests this. The text speech system, multiple room layout, placeable objects and inventory interfaces, all seem geared up to the task of creating simple adventure genre games.

A variety of AGS game screenshots

AGS may be very good at creating the kind of games it was developed for, however it has many limitations that make it unsuitable to produce other types of games. Namely it has a lack of suitable 3D applications, although it was recently updated to support some basic 3D interactions, to create say first person shooters and action style games would be very difficult, if not impossible. Also all environments are done as separate rooms that link together, so being unable to create the large sprawling landscapes needed for other types of games, also limits what can be created in AGS.

Adventure Games Studio would be useable by almost anyone wanting to create a point and click game. It has a medium to low level of expertise meaning new users can easily get to grips with the different functions to create simple games, the official website also offers tutorials and video examples for anyone starting out in the engine. Despite this simplistic and easy to grasp style, AGS also has an array of advanced features and plug-ins that allow more experienced developers to create very detailed and in-depth games. The main users however, would mainly be basic developers and enthusiasts due to the engines limitations, and it would be unlikely for it to be used in a professional context due to the fact there are more powerful engines available, such as the Unreal Engine.

Games Crit Sheet

I have created a template designed for reviewing the types of games created in Adventure Games Studio. I will use the template to review two chosen AGS games in order to discern if they are great, average or terrible games. Below are some screenshots of the two chosen games.

Here are the completed Games Crit Sheets, click them to enlarge:

Complex Animating, Using Motion Capture In The Design Process Of Games

Games in recent years have overtaken both the movie and music industries to become the foremost, consumed type of media in everyday life. Due to the high demands placed on games, often project triangles must often be flexible in both time and money aspects to ensure the game is produced to a high standard of quality, it is common place within the industry to delay a games released for months at a time to ensure it reaches it’s consumer base in a complete and highly polished state. With many games pushing the boundary’s of quality with improved realism, motion and game play aspects, new technologies have emerged that allow visuals to be produced to greater degrees of complexity, more efficiently.

Game Project Triangle

One of these technologies is the art of motion capture, where by a human actor is fitted with sensors, to record and translate his or her movement to a digital 3D model, in order to produce realistic and sometimes human-like, animation or movement. Animation is a specialised and very technical process, without the use of motion capture creating realistic movements is a very tricky business, almost all game studios have adapted this technology into their design processes in order to save time and improve upon their games quality. Checking recent game releases, character motion flows and in the majority of cases looks natural and unencumbered, however game studios are still trying to push games to there limits with new techniques and improved in-game reactions, in order to create the best looking and most functional game, and thus the best-selling game.

Motion Capture In Progress For Golfing Swing

There are two major types of motion capture used in games motion tracking and performance capture; motion tracking is the act of translating basic actions such as walking or combat sequences, whereas performance capture is for complex motion such as facial expressions and specific finger movements.In both cases sensors are attached to the specific locations of motion on the actor who will then perform the required actions, however it is common for the actor to wear a full body suit during motion tracking. These actions are then recorded as data using specialised software so the motion can be translated onto digital models, however if the data is slightly incomplete or there is an error the whole process breaks down and usually has to be restarted.

Motion Tracking

 

Preformance Capture

Motion capture having become such a key part of the games industry has been considered for alterative uses, mainly as a control mechanism to allow consumers to simply interact with games by moving, for example reaching out to touch water on the screen causes ripples to be created. The main contender of this technology is Microsoft’s project Natal, which uses a motion sensitive camera to mimic the effects of motion capture to allow the user to interact with the game in real time. It is highly possible that these new motion type controls will become the future of the games industry and as such it will impact greatly upon the way games are both designed and developed.

Project Natal

To put this into perspective in terms of concepts and game development, motion capture has become an integrated part of the games industry, meaning whether designing games concepts or actually being apart of the games development process, motion capture will always have to be considered carefully and used accordingly in order to produce an efficient and upto standards game. The future holds even more implantation of motion based technology, so if decided to pursue the path of a games developer it is key to become familiar with the techniques and technology surrounding motion.

References:

Wikipedia. Motion Capture. [Online]. Available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_capture#Facial_motion_capture

Meta Motion. Who Uses Motion Capture?. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.metamotion.com/motion-capture/motion-capture-who-1.htm

A Digital Dreamer. Motion Capture Technology. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/motion-capture-vgames.htm

MOTEK. About Us: Motion Capture. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.e-motek.com/simulation/about_us/mocap.html

Cnet. Microsoft’s Project Natal: What does it mean for game industry?. [Online]. Available at:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10253892-235.html