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.
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.
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.
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