Chris Jones
An interview with the creator of Adventure Game Studio (AGS) [2000]
One of the most popular point and click creation systems on the net nowadays is the Adventure Game Studio - in fact, it is one of the only professional working ones. It's free to download, use and distribute. Chris Jones is a well respected man in the adventure gaming community - and is seen as a God by us AGS users :) He updates it, adds our ideas to it and more. You can find out more about AGS by reading Yahtzee's "Tried & Tested" AGS review. And now, the interview!
Chris, can you remember the first adventure game you played, or an adventure game that has always struck out to you as a good game?
The first adventure game I ever played was Space Quest 2 - I loved the humour and played it for ages. Soon afterwards Hero's Quest (or Quest for Glory I as it's now known) was released and I must have wasted hours and hours playing that game - it was great :-) I was mostly brought up on Sierra adventure games - in fact, I never played Monkey Island until 1996 when I found it in an old-games collection thing.
After playing some adventure games, was it an ambition for you to develop an adventure game creation system, or was it a school project?!
After playing Space Quest IV, which was another game I loved, I realised how simple adventure games were compared to other genres and decided I would try to write my own. I did about two screens, all programmed in basic, then realised that it would be far better to make some sort of game editor and compiler so that the game could be more expandable and easier to design. So I wrote Adventure Creator v1.00.
Did anything inspire you to make AGS? And did you have any real motivation through making it, for example, help from other people, suggestions and comments?
Well after I made Adventure Creator 1.00 back in 1995, I played around with it for a while and then just left it on my hard disk (I didn't have internet access back then). When I did finally get online in late 1997, I decided to throw together a web page and stuck AC on there with some other stuff. It stayed like that until I started getting e-mails from people about it, which gave me the motivation to start work again and improve it. And that Adventure Creator evolved into v1.14, in spring 1999. I then had a discussion on the messageboard and along with users suggestions rewrote it as Adventure Game Studio 2. It's people's suggestions and comments that help me shape the next version all the time, so yes they helped a lot.
In your school years of life, what did people see you as? A geek? A nerd? Or were you in the "cool" crew?
Neither of those really - I wasn't the coolest kid in school, but neither did I hide in a corner and not talk to anyone. Back then I wasn't really into programming computers anyway, so I didn't get the "nerdy" image.
What programming languages did you know when you were a teenager?
BASIC (you know, the old DOS GW-BASIC and Turbo BASIC things). I just messed around with them a bit, didn't really do anything much with them.
What programming languages do you know now?
Nowadays I mainly use C++, but I also know Visual Basic and Java which I use occasionally.
Which programming language did you use to develop the Adventure Game Studio?
I used the free DOS compiler DJGPP (available from www.delorie.com) simply because it's free and it also overcomes the main limitations of DOS programming (like the 640k memory limit). Nowadays I also use Visual Studio for the Windows version.
How long did it take before the first "release" of AGS to be ready?
Well, I started development after AC 1.14 was released, and it took about 4 months before AGS 2.00 was released. I'd worked quite hard on it in that time, putting in a lot more hours than normal - if I was to re-write it now it would probably take me twice as long.
Did you expect AGS to be as good as it has turned out, with all the so called "followers" of AGS?
No, I really didn't expect it to enjoy the success that it has done. I guess a lot of other people, like myself, want to see new games in the traditional 2D style of the classics, rather than everything going 3D like commercial releases are these days. I'd just like to say "Thanks" to everyone who's supported AGS over the months.
Would you consider yourself famous?
No, I don't think I'm famous - if I walk down the street, random people don't recognise me, and mention my name to most people and they'd probably shrug their shoulders.
Would you consider yourself famous in the adventure community?
I suppose in a way, but not to the extent that SCRAMM is enjoying. A lot of people just don't know about AGS - this is probably down to me not publicising it enough, but that's the way it is.
What do the people you live with in the "real world" think or know about AGS? For example your friends, parents, brothers and sisters?
To tell the truth, none of them know about it. I think if they did, it could lead them to see me as a computer nerd-type, so I just don't mention it.
What are your views & comments on:
-The SCRAMM Project
If it lives up to its name, then I think SCRAMM will enjoy a massive success and will probably make all the other projects such as AGS obsolete. It'll be interesting to see whether it really can live up to all the hype.
-The GLUMOL Project
I don't know a lot about this one, but it seems to be coming along.
-AGAST
This seems to be the main rival of AGS in that it has a working download available. The only trouble is that they don't currently have an IDE so game development has to be done by scripting, but I'm sure an IDE will come soon enough.
-Sierra
Great company in their day, it's just a shame they stopped developing adventure games.
-LucasArts
Glad to see that at least this company is still working on the adventure genre (Monkey Island 4), although I'm not sure how long that will last.
-Blondes or Brunettes?
Personality is everything - ok, so someone's appearance is what attracts them to you to begin with, but once you spend time with someone you start not to notice what they look like.
-Bill Gates
He's rich, but is he happy? Probably. Ah well, I expect he'll buy up all the governments in the world eventually, and he'll rename Planet Earth to Planet Microsoft, but never mind.
Will AGS ever cost money to download?
No, simply because if it did I think most people would switch to another engine or wait for SCRAMM, so charging for AGS wouldn't do it any favours. Plus once you charge for a product, you have to support it properly so I'd have to spend more time developing AGS rather than just in my spare time like it is now.
Do you think an adventure game creation system can be made by anyone, or does it take special arangements, knowledge, motivation or contacts?
Anyone can make an AGCS, and I don't think you need any special contacts (I didn't), but obviously you need to be an experienced programmer with a motivation for finishing the thing.
If another adventure game creation system was released in the next few years and the developer of that system were to become very rich and famous, yet it started off on the same basis as AGS, how would you feel?
I'm not sure, but I don't think that's ever likely to happen - adventure games have lost so much popularity these days that someone trying to sell a creation system wouldn't do very well. Plus, most adventure game fans just enjoy playing them - I don't think that many people want to write games.
If in a few years AGS really takes off in a BIG way and you become rich and famous, what will you do? Continue creating it? Employ people? Donate money to people who already use it? Or will you try and keep AGS low profile and just keep "famous" in the 2d adventure community?
If that were to happen (and I'm sure it won't), I would simply continue creating it in the same way as now. Obviously if it made enough money for me to give up my day job, I'd put a lot more time into AGS :-) But I think it being really famous would be a Bad Thing - I have enough trouble keeping up with the forum as it is, and if the number of users tripled I'd have to spend all my time reading the board, and there are lots of times when I like to just forget about AGS for a while and relax.
Finally, are you proud of AGS and the AGS community?
Yes, I am. Although it does have some flaws and a few bugs, such as there not currently being a stable Windows version, I think it's developed well. I'd also like to thank the AGS community - I look through the SCRAMM messageboard occasionally, and it seems there is constant conflict and insults. AGS has remained a relatively small and pleasant community, which is how I'd like it to stay.
The whole of the AGD Zine team would like to personally thank you Chris, thanks very much for taking time to do this interview, it is much appreciated!!
No problem. Let me just shamelessly plug www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk :-)
It's okay Chris :o) Yes, thanks once again and I hope you enjoyed reading the interview with Chris Jones. All we need now is a photo of him for his discerning fans to see!
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