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Unless we need to showcase how something can happen in one room and affect another. But that's the only exception I can think of.

Think of room as "location". Each of them could consist of more than one room in the ags sense. Unlocking a door could lead from "lockeddoorroom1" to "lockeddoorroom2" where the gem is to be found.

Then we would be back at your suggestion of having just a menu for quick accessing rooms on the title screen. That's also fine for me.

The real question is: how much adventure game is needed for a demo game? If you want to get a game with good story and great world building, there are tons of them in the database. The demo game should IMHO showcase the most common use cases and how to implement them.

I dunno if we should lock access to seeing complex features behind complex puzzles. If the purpose is to help the player understand how to implement reflections, for example, and reflections is considered a complex feature, it seems odd to require the player to either complete a maze or figure out which ingredients of a sandwich to give a guard so that they can access that room to see the reflection in action.

I agree. I think all rooms should be accessible from the start. Of course, the separate locations should be grouped on the map (e.g. Beginner Village, Intermediate Fields, Advanced Woods) but all available from the start.

I agree that we should decide resolution before setting up the project and doing any artwork. I also agree with your concerns. 640x400 is still rather lo-res, but it might be a good middle ground between 320x200 and anything considered high-res. This gives the creator of each individual room background some freedom in chosen style - you could still do fake super lo-res by drawing the background in 320x200 and scaling it up before import.

I like the walking around map!
Thinking further about the map, if the locked room is also just one of the rooms on the map and the first thing where the player gets (after a short skippable cutscene, we should show cut scenes as well) is the map, this would practically be the menu for jumping into various rooms that Crimson Wizard has suggested.

If we do it this way, it would be
1) title screen
2) cut scene
3) map


One more feature we should show off that I think is often asked for, is a timed puzzle.

Nice ideas!

I especially like having a map screen and an interface room.
The walking areas and scaling room could even be combined.

Some ideas I posted earlier that might have been lost:

the first room would be a title screen, with just a start and load button.

The second room could be a room with a few hotspots or objects. The first task could be to pick up a key and unlock a door. Or maybe pick up two objects, combine them, use them to open a door to the next room.

Then there could be a room with a NPC, you have some dialog, give them an item which unlocks more dialog and the NPC will give you another item.

A room could be about room features - use keyboard controls where you have to carefully navigate a KQ3 like path, including scrolling room, regions, walkable area scaling etc.

A sound room might focus on music, sound effects and voice acting.

The NPC room could include swapping characters.


About the story - I thought it might be a treasure hunt. The goal is to find the magic big blue cup or something. To get it, you have to solve puzzles in each room. Collect a certain number of gems or something to open the final door. After you solve the initial "locked door" room, you get to the map where you can visit various places. The locations could be ordered by difficulty.

It's not a matter of how hard it is to implement (I've made games with single click interface). The question is, if the demo game should use one of the existing templates or not. I think yes, so I tend towards using the BASS template.

Another option:

- Start with BASS, keep right button controls for look interaction, but making it not mandatory throughout the game; i.e. the look interaction just gives additional text, but is not required for progression. Make an additional button (maybe even only for mobile/web?) to bring up the inventory.

Never heard of Ponce de Leon. That's the disadvantage with this game, if you don't know a person, you will never figure out the name, even if you guess the rest of the article correctly.

Today was fun, got it in 63 guesses

Spoiler

Though after 41 steam, 50 transport and 51 rail, it still took some time to figure it out. I was probably thinking in too complicate terms

[close]

Wow, I just tried Redactle, but this is super difficult.

Spoiler

I was able to figure out it's about a Spanish guy, but I can't even guess his profession.

[close]

Edit: I played around with randomly generated Redactles and failed a few, but was proud that I solved Capacitor in 43 guesses.

Ok, I just downloaded AGS 3.6.0P1 and wanted to create a new game but there actually is no 1-click style interface 
Is this something that would have to be created alongside the demo game?
I also tried the verb coin, but there it is only possible to open the inventory with right click, a weird design decision imho.

Don't make me think - right click is hardly used on mobile and web. So, unless there is a really good reason to learn a new UI concept, better use an established one.

Our touch screen emulation supports 2-finger mode, where tapping second finger while holding first acts as a right click.

I would have never guessed this is a possible thing on a phone. Some people already don't get that they can right click with the mouse when using a BASS UI, I doubt anyone will understand this on a touch device.

Then verbcoin it is?

I think it is a must that the demo game builds upon an existing template. If people start a new game from the template, they should be able to immediately copy code from the demo game to their code.

Thinking further about UI: With web port and Android port, I think the UI should be one that is usable on touch. This excludes BASS and Sierra. What about verbcoin and SCUMM? Thimbleweed?

Yes, I fully support the above.

+1

If so, it feels like we could possibly move into more specifics, like planning which features to showcase in which rooms, what specific UI to choose, and so forth.

I agree, the next step should be which UI we will use. It obviously should be one of the default UIs that ship with AGS, but I have no idea which would be best.


Oh, btw, what is the targeted AGS version? 3.6.0 I assume?

I like the idea to make the interface adjustable through the settings.

The only difficulty is to make is clear in code what belongs to which interface. rep_ex and mouse_click would have to be huge if else blocks, clearly separating the logic of each individual interface type.

Thanks again, Kastchey for hosting and Dualnames for improving, updating and operating the client!

I hope that having a eulogy will not become a tradition

[Awards are over!]

Awards are over!

Here are the winners

Best Game Created with AGS
Nightmare Frames


Best Freeware Game Created with AGS
The Witch's Lullaby


Best Writing
Nightmare Frames


Best Character
"Alan Goldberg" from Nightmare Frames


Best Gameplay
Nightmare Frames


Best Background Art
Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard


Best Character Art
Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard


Best Animation
Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard


Best Original Music & Sound Design
Nightmare Frames


Best Voice Work
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow


Best Demo
Zid Journey (demo)


Best Non Adventure Game Created with AGS
Snow Problem


Best Short Game
The Witch's Lullaby


Best Programming
Don't Give Up the Cat


Best Puzzles
Nightmare Frames


Congratulations!

Sorry to hear that, Stupot, though it's fully understandable. I'm not sure if I would be willing to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to present MAGGIES. So thanks for doing it in the previous years.

And thank for your continuous effort hosting MAGS!

I think @Dualnames will post a link to the client that shall be used tomorrow.

Btw, it would be great if someone could inform the people who only frequent the Discord channel about the ceremony.