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Adventure Game Framework | AGF

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by nuverian, Sep 25, 2013.

  1. nuverian

    nuverian

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    So after a really long time I think it's time to post my WIP about AGF (Adventure Game Framework). It all started by me wanting to create a classic (as in gameplay) point click adventure game in Unity instead of using AGS or Visionaire and thought that this is something Unity is missing as an asset, although more recently other people thought the same :) Well it realy went far enough now to be posted I think.

    As a designer and artist mostly, I really want AGF to be easy and fun. So here you go with a big image showing what's mostly there. Sorry being that big etc. If anyone feel offended by that, I will edit the post into separate small pics.



    I thought of posting such image to give a nice overview of AGF

    The example GUI provided are made with NGUI. Right now I don't have plans to provide examples for the current Unity GUI, although being GUI agnostic it's quite easy to make a one of your own. Of course if there is demand I will provide example with Unity GUI. Regardless I will support the new Unity GUI when (if) it comes out :)

    I am working on a demo and some videos right now.
    The system is quite generic and made in mind to work for classic 2D adventures as well. As a matter of fact I start on creating a 2D demo as well, but instead of supporting a third party 2D solution, I guess I will wait for next Unity version and make a demo on the new 2D system.

    So that's all I guess. Ask any questions you like regarding AGF. I will be more than happy to answer
    Let's create some adventures :)
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2013
  2. gryff

    gryff

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    Looking forward to the demo and videos as I am working on an adventure game and looking forward to an elegant solution to create interaction and converation trees.

    cheers, gryff :)
     
  3. Hexkonst

    Hexkonst

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    Cool stuff!
    Will your system run on iOS?
     
  4. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Thanks. While I'm not an iOS expert, there is no reason not to, but I will make sure it does
     
  5. Apolyon6k

    Apolyon6k

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    Really nice project, kind of a contender to my own system I wanted to present in the "Works in Progress". Yours looks amazing, really like the use of colored buttons and text in editor scripts. Any idea of a release date and a price range of your project?
     
  6. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Thanks! I realy wanted the editor to be fun to use and clear as of what it represents. I would say about 2-3 weeks time to release, but I haven't yet decided on a price. Hope I am able to provide one soon
     
  7. nuverian

    nuverian

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    So here is an update for a feature I was working on and is not listed above but I think it will make it in the realease after all.

    Multiple Player Character
    So it basicaly means that the player is able to control more than one character which don't have to live in the same scene/area. When switching from a character to another, the coresponding scene will be loaded and the previous character's scene is stored.

    So for an example let's suppose that player controls Sam Max :)

    Both Sam and Max start in SceneA. The player begins by playing Sam. He leaves SceneA with Sam and goes to SceneB. Then he decides to switch to Max, so SceneA (where Max is) will load. Now the player moves Max and goes with him in SceneB (where Sam is). Both characters will be there as expected etc.

    That means that games like Sam Max, Day of the Tentacle, Maniac Mansion, or why not Goblins etc will be possible.
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2013
  8. nuverian

    nuverian

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    So here is an update:

    -Made another Interaction type to visualy define what happens with a Decision Tree build on NodeCanvas very similar to the Dialogue Tree editor.
    -Improved save system from single autosave to complete system with any number of save slots.
    -Completed the multiple character feature
    -Improved CameraDirector to automatical decide either to Cut or smoothly Transit to the next camera
    - Many other stuff not interesting enough to write here :p
     
  9. StefanoCecere

    StefanoCecere

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    i subscribed to this thread because i'm interested in your AGF
    just an important note (since it could be hard to put it in later): what about multilanguage in the dialogs?
     
  10. nuverian

    nuverian

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    hey thanks,

    While currently there is no support for multilanguage, thought has been given into that. The dialogues, or 'statements' as I call them, have been build with that in mind for the future.
     
  11. gryff

    gryff

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    nuverian, I'm following this thread (along with the similar topic ChrisIceBox thread) trying to determine a number of things including simplicity and ease of use.

    To be honest, both packages offer interesting features but so far nothing on simplicity or ease of use - and it is very hard to determine what can and can't be done. So as I said above, I await videos on usage.

    As an example of ease of use consider a scene with three characters. Character A is bound in a chair, Character B is in military uniform and asks questions to Character A, Character C is in a dark suit standing in the shadows. Character C does not speak but does give head nods to Character B. Character A tries to answer Character B while looking at both Character B and C as he responds.

    So the question I ask about such a scene do we have a single scene controller for all three characters or does each character have to have a set of scripts? Do all scripts have to be attached even if some do not get used - a simple dialog/conversation that does not require any inventory items?

    I must say that the "multiple character feature" you mention above looks very interesting for a game where you control a team - perhaps a police inspector, a sergeant and constables investigating various crime scenes. If information collected by one character can somehow be shared with the others at the appropriate time (ie when each character returns to a central spot - the police station).

    As an aside, I tried your "Moment of Truth" a couple of times - jumped of the roof both times. Was that created with the AGF or the Visual Node Editor? It has a really nice feel about it :)

    cheers, gryff :)
     
  12. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Lot to cover :)

    Yeah, video is a bit late, but I want to triple check features and usability. I hope one will be on soon

    Such example comes mostly up to the models and animations. Can you clarify?

    Regarding a Dialogue Tree since that's what you are asking after as far as I can tell:
    The only required script for each character is the 'Actor' base class script which is minimal. A Dialogue Tree for example can work with just that since when it starts, it searches for the actors specified in it. Every dialogue line that a character says, or animation he is playing (considering you want to have animation) is an 'Action' he is doing and all Actions are defined on the Dialogue Tree itself within one place.

    The system is quite modular. If you need to PlayAnimation then the Animation component will be needed. If you need to AddToInventory then the Inventory Component will be needed as well, on the actor. Whatever is not needed, doesn't have to be present anywhere and Logs will inform you of missing components or settings for actions.

    Information (data) are stored on a Blackboard. You can store data on the global blackboard so that everyone has access to it but for your case scenario, storing on the global doesn't suffice. Each character MAY have a local blackboard (information) of his own. So you can play with the inspector character and collect information for example, then play with the sergant which might be on another scene and also collect info on his blackboard.

    Then you can write a super simple script and have it somewhere in the police station, which copies the data from the current player's actor blackboard to the global. So whenever either player character enters the scene, his information become globaly available. I might as well provide a premade Action for copying, why not.
    Of course that's just an example. You can actualy have a blackboard anywhere and read and write from it.

    You should find the correct order :)
    I wasn't the programmer in Moment of Truth. I was on the art side on that mini game. No neither AGF or NodeCanvas were used.

    Thanks !
     
  13. gryff

    gryff

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    Thanks for the detailed response, nuverian. I'm starting to get a better idea of what is possible with your AGF.


    The example I desribed is based on a couple of scenes from the movie "Rendition". It essentially involves three aspects

    1. Dialog.
    2. Animation of characters
    3. The camera.

    At times the animated character who is speaking will be the focus of the camera, at other times the characters who are listening to the dialog will have the focus (overshoulder of speaker, third character, side view, zoomed in/out etc.) And finally a mixture of both as the speaker's dialog progresses.

    The whole sequence of events - which are essentially dialog, animation and camera - can get quite complicated . So to me it is important that I have to worry not about all the underlying scripting but rather the ease with which I can to put together the scene and the interplay of the events.

    I wondered what the "blackboard" feature was about. As I said it has a lot of potential for a "team" approach to solving a mystery/crime. I can think of all kinds of uses for a global and local blackboard used in this way - including a character who because of animosities and trying to show off might in fact be slow to add his/her local blackboard information to the global backboard.

    Well I am patient - so take your time and get it right. What you and ChrisIceBox are building has great potential for us folks who like adventure games.

    cheers, gryff :)
     
  14. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Update:

    I've added multilanguage support for dialogues as krur suggested, from within a single editor window.

    Made the ability for a Sequence of actions to also play in parallel which can be set up in a simple Time Sequencer, so that we have more fine control over cameras, animations, speech and other actions that take place.

    Working hard on the dialogue and camera director so that we can select the type of shot for each spoken line and the director take care of that underline without the need to create a bunch of cameras. Of course selecting a specific camera to cut to will be possible for finer control if need be.

    Thats it folks. I really want to get those things before the demo. Sorry for no demo yet, but the easier the demo is made, it will mean that the better this tool is going to be.

    regards :)
     
  15. stirpicus

    stirpicus

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    Very, very excited about the sound of this. I've made a ton of projects in AGS and have been trying to figure out an easy and efficient way to make the jump to Unity. It sounds like this should do just the trick!
     
  16. Manannan

    Manannan

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    Yes! This looks amazing!!
    Big fan of AGS Visionaire so I can't wait for this to be finished and am definitely interested in seeing a demo/possibly purchasing if it can perform as I'm hoping it can.
    Also, how it is for 1st-person games? And do you think it would be compatible with the Oculus Rift?
     
  17. gryff

    gryff

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    How is the work going nuverian?

    cheers, gryff :)
     
  18. ilraffo

    ilraffo

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    Hi Nuverian, just read about ur asset and i hope to see a demo soon. I use unity from a couple of week and my intentions are to create an adv Monkey Island style, but with 3D rooms and char and a side scrolling camera. I don't know coding, so i found a cool asset called Adventure Creator. Find an old version on the internet, tried and.... wow, very difficult to learn. It offers a lot of interesting implementations, but if you don't follow perfectly the tutorial, you can arrive to a dead end with something that dosen't work... And the price is very high, 70$! By the way, the assistance seems very good, they answer soon.
    But i would create a game just for fun, so i think a sw like that should cost between 15 and 25 dollars...
    Let us know if u have a demo ready, ;-)
    Tx and bye
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2014
  19. ocimpean

    ocimpean

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    I am interested to see how this project will evolve. Good luck!
     
  20. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Sorry everyone for being so late. No. AGF is not dead in case you think as such :)

    Hey there. It's been so long for an update, reason being I was very very busy with ongoing projects especialy the release of our PlayTown game, but thankfully AGF progressed a lot as well. I think it's time showcasing some video stuff soon

    Hey. I really hope and think that AGF will perform as you'd like it to perform. Regardless of game style (first, third person) the backbone is the same. So yeah you will be able to do first person adventure games if that's what you like. I actually have an occulus rift for research purposes. I can't tell yet if I support it by default or not. I really want to end the core first :)
     
  21. DrBlock42

    DrBlock42

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    Hi there,
    I and three bodys want to start to make an adventuregame, but because one of us is really bussy we cant code our own engine we want to use an existing engine. And because I'm a big fan of unity I'd like to use it, and than I found THIS:
    ~When do you think will it be finished, or is it possible that we can get/buy the alpha version and get your "Updates".
    -How are the possibilties for Puzzels or Camera Settings, and movemet settings, because we want to make an ponit and click in the Baldursgate perspectiv where you move in Squares, like Pokemon, but still controlled by mouse. And also we want to make turn-based-fighting.

    Can we add this our self, or is an possibiltie implemented to do this ( I'm okay wih coding my self, I'm realy good in c#)

    -DrBlock42
     
  22. JoshBook

    JoshBook

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    I too am excited to hear more about this!