Everything I Learned - I learnt making RK2
Shawn Guzzo explains "Holy Crap, This is Harder Than I Thought"
Foreword
Rode Kill 2 took a long time to make. In fact, I'm still making it as of this writing, but it's almost done, so shut up. Anyhoo, it's been a year and a half, and I've learned a lot. I made a lot of mistakes early on that caused headaches and time wastage beyond what I would ever have thought possible, and a lot of "If only I would have"'s have come up. I've since come up with a development plan that I think may save a lot of projects from falling into the abyss of abandonment that we've come to know so well. All this can be yours, for only 19.95$!
Thanks for trying this demo! Don't forget to register!
Bah.
Plan Early, Plan Often!
This is the key to adventure game development. A lot of people just want to dive in and start drawing things and slapping together rooms. This is not a good idea in the long run. Rode Kill 1 was made this way, as is evident from the intense plot development and raging cliffhangers. In my defense though, I started that game as a way to test my patience and engine learning abilities, which wasn't really a bad idea.
Test games are a good way to learn the ins and outs of the engine you've chosen to use, and also to test out some initial concepts for your game. RK2 was originally going to be in 320x200 and 256 colours. I did a simple three-room test and vomited. I discovered that I was not adept at dealing with the Adventure Game Studio 256 colour palette dealie, and that I just wasn't ready for low-res art.
Now, just because you made a little test game and things happened to work out, that doesn't mean you should unleash it onto the unsuspecting public. This is NOT a demo.
If you like the engine and feel comfortable with it's scripting and other thingies, you can finally start making your game, for real this time.
The first thing you'll want to do is come up with an idea, which you probably have, since you bothered to look into making games in the first place! Aha!
A good rule when coming up with anything is that if you think of it, someone else has probably already thought of it first.
Never go with your first idea. Chances are it won't be as original as you think. Instead, work on it, change it, add to it. I'm not saying that you have to throw away your idea, just play with it, and make it your own.
A good example of an idea not being fleshed out enough would be the space janitor thing. I can think of at least two separate game series that use this. If only the author would have sat down and worked on his idea a bit, he wouldn't have looked like such an unoriginal fool.
...
Anyways, I think you get the point. Don't go with your first instincts. Developing your ideas will lead to much more interesting characters, scenarios, and puzzles.
So what do you do if you can't even come up with that initial concept? Brainstorm.
Brainstorming is awesome. I guarantee that if you do it properly you will surprise yourself. The trick is learning how to avoid censoring yourself, which can be harder than it seems.
We learn at an early age to censor ourselves.
"Don't do that, it's rude."
"Don't say that, it's not nice."
"Don't do that, or you won't be cool and girls will hate you forever."
Now is the time to be a rude, not nice, uncool person. No one ís going to see this stuff, so let it all hang out, whoo!
Brainstorming is all about going nuts. It's about putting down on paper every single idea that pops into your head, even the stuff that makes no sense.
Rabbit, flanger, fork, eat, crow, mangle, fishbone, soup, car, head, laser, dingle.
See? That's brainstorming.
Now we already have some ideas there. How about a game involving a missing rabbit carved out of fish bone with a laser, stolen by a maniac with a penchant for crow soup?
Obviously that idea could still be fleshed out a bit, but I highly doubt that it has been done before.
This works with drawings too. I do a lot of doodling. A lot. Enough that I even put up a website with some. Doodling is the ultimate release for me. I just let my hand go and whatever comes out, well, it's out. A lot of my favorite characters were invented that way (Earwig and the Welcome Mutant for example).
Whatever method works for you, go with it. There are a lot more brainstorming techniques out there, so go ahead and load up Google and find some. It'll change the way you create.
So now you've got your one of a kind idea. Now what?
Now you come up with the story.
First you'll want to make an outline. This will have all the basic plot points and crap. Basically all the important stuff that happens in the story, without all the details.
Barney the frog wakes up in a closet, dazed and confused.
Barney is in the university, he wanders the halls until he meets Jojo, who tells him about Dr. Doodoo's plan for destruction.
Barney goes home to get his trusty hat and discovers that it has been stolen, he vows revenge.
Barney takes a plane to Madagascar to infiltrate Dr. Doodoo's secret lair.
Barney is captured and put in a prison cell, where he meets the beautiful Molinda, then he escapes using magic.
Barney confronts Doodoo in his secret lair and kills him with a saw blade.
Barney and Molinda get married and "do it".
This will make it easier to add or change things, and will help you immensely when it comes time to actually write the story.
Which you will do now.
I don't know what to say here. Writing is an art that baffles me. Good luck!
Ha ha.
No, seriously, you aren't trying to write the next Bible or anything. Just fill in the blanks, add the details and minor characters, that kind of thing.
One thing to point out is that you aren't concentrating on puzzles yet. There will be plenty of time for that hell later.
The story has been written. You're in over your head now, no turning back.
It is time.
Time for the puzzles.
Puzzles are the heart of adventure games. They are what make them games and not just stories where you can walk around, which would probably be pretty cool too.
Aherm.
There are a billion philosophies on puzzle design, and I am not the person to debate them, because I'm lazy and not perfect.
Suffice it to say that "Use Key in Keyhole" is not a puzzle, and "Balance plate of boiling frogs on head to unlock door" is also not a puzzle, although it would be hilarious if properly animated.
Don't be too obvious, but don't be too bizarre and obscure either.
Clues are a must. The player has to somehow make a connection between "doing this" and "achieving that".
Here's an interesting example.
In the uber-classic "Monkey Island 2" there is a puzzle involving a pipe that has to be opened. There's a big bolt on it. The player at some point will have in his or her inventory a frozen monkey with it's arms in an odd position.
To some people in the world this was funny, because the monkey could obviously be used as a "monkey wrench" to turn the bolt. There was a cultural connection, and no in-game clues were needed.
To the rest of the world however, "monkey wrenches" aren't called "monkey wrenches" at all. No no. They are called "Spanners", or something else. I haven't looked into it much. Obviously this puzzle didn't make much sense to those people.
Puzzles above anything else, are something that you will get better at with experience. You'll learn what kinds of things work, and what kinds of things will get your inbox swamped with confused emails. There is no perfect formula.
So how do you get started?
Well, first of all you have to identify and/or create some problems for your player. Go through your story and find the major obstacles that the main character faces. Once those are found you can start making life miserable for the player by breaking those obstacles down into even more little obstacles. Teehee!
Here's what I mean.
Let's use The Adventures of Barney the Frog as an example.
Barney has discovered that his trusty hat has been stolen by Dr.Doodoo. Grrrr! That makes him mad! Somehow he has to get to Madagascar to get his revenge!
Bing! Major obstacle!
The first part of the game will be Barney trying to make his way to Madagascar. That's the major problem/puzzle that the player faces.
Barney goes to the airport but discovers that a plane ticket will cost him 100$, and that he will need a passport. Poobungies. Barney has no passport, and he left all his money in his hat. What will he do?
Aha! There's two more!
See what I did there? I broke the major problem down into two smaller ones. This can go on forever.
Barney finds a shifty looking thug in an alley. The thug can get him a passport, but it will cost him four pounds of grandmaís cookies and a loaf of turnip bread. Barney has also found a woman willing to pay him 100$ to cut her lawn, but her lawnmower is broken. It needs a new wheel and blade.
You could make an entire game just about trying to get on the plane to Madagascar. It's all about breaking down and splitting obstacles, like some crazy get-rich-quick pyramid scheme your uncle relentlessly tried to push on your father until he ended up with a broken nose.
There are also different types of puzzles.
There are the obvious inventory puzzles, where you have to "get this to do that".
There are combination puzzles, where objects have to be combined to create new objects.
There are logic puzzles (A-la "Castle of Dr.Brain"), timed puzzles, etc...
I can't name them all. I just pulled those out of my butt. You see what I mean though.
"Ok, NOW can I start drawing stuff?!"
Nope.
First you've gotta figure out what it is exactly that you need to draw.
You should have a pretty good idea at this point about what kinds of locations and characters and things are going to be in the game. It's time to get organized.
The idea here is to create lists of stuff that need to be drawn.
Make a list of each background you need, a list of characters, and a list for all other sprites. You may want to break it down even more, but that should be pretty good.
Make sure you also indicate somewhere any animations that are needed.
Here's an example:
Characters to be drawn:
Barney
-- Walking (Up, Down, Left, Right)
-- Talking (Up, Down, Left, Right)
-- Picking Up (Up, Down, Left, Right)
-- Climbing (Up, Down)
Dr. Doodoo
-- Talking (Up, Down, Left, Right)
-- Performing Experiment
Molinda
Hanging
Kissing
These lists are gonna make your life sweet and lovely. I guarantee.
Now you can use them as a guide for what-has-been-done/what-needs-to-be-done. Once you've finished drawing something, you can just cross it out.
At this point you should also make lists for any music you'll need, and sound effects.
Remember, the more organized you stay, the less years it will take your game to be completed.
Congratulations! The easy part is done!
What now?
Now you can finally start putting your masterpiece together.
Here's another list for you, for old times sake.
Do all of the art first
Get all your music and sound effects next. The atmosphere of each scene may change as you draw them. There's no point in composing (or having someone compose) a masterpiece if you're going to have to redo it after. Musak ares harde!!!!11!!
You should only start seriously putting the game together in the engine once the artwork is done. Music can be added later, but doing animations and backgrounds as you need them will lead to rushed artwork. Take your time!
Don't announce your game to the world until a reasonable amount of work has been done. Promotion should only seriously start towards the end of the project.
Same thing goes for releasing a demo.
Having a team to work on a game is nice in theory, but disastrous in practice. Having more than two or three people working on a game is asking for trouble.
Start small. Don't try to make a gynormous hundred-room game at first. It will overwhelm you. Twenty to thirty rooms is a decent sized amateur game.
Good art doesn't make a good game.
Bad art doesn't make a bad game.
Don't be afraid to ask for help on the various message forums in the community. People are generally very supportive. Ego however, is better left at the door.
Make sure you choose the engine that is right for you. Some are powerful, but rely heavily on scripting, others are more user friendly, but don't have the same features. Research!
Walking dead is poobungies.
Excessive mazes are poobungies.
Most of all, have FUN and make the kind of game that YOU want to make.
I came up with all this stuff after struggling for almost a year and a half on a game. It's still not finished. Really. And it's not that big either. I didn't take the time to plan it out properly, and now it's taking forever to clean up the mess.
On the other hand, a few other projects that I've started are going extremely well all because I stuck to my plan.
But in the end, it's all just advice. Do what works for you, and learn from your experiences. There are some unbelievable games out there, and each author had his or her own system to work with.
If you've got any suggestions or comments, feel free to let me know.
shawno@rodekill.com
Or visit the message boards at rodekill.com.
Any complaints can be sent to my customer service department at phil-reed.com.
Good luck!
Shawno
Special thanks to the AGS community members who pointed out that my 'monkey wrench' example was horribly inaccurate. Hopefully it's fixed. If not, then oops.
What can I say?
© 2002, 2003 Shawn Guzzo
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