First Person Point and Click Myst-like, where to start?

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Erxer

Guest
So, i want to do a first person Myst-like point and click graphic adventure, but i don't know where to start or wha to do in general. I can't even program. Where should i start? What i should do? How can i make it with the least ammount of without written code at all?
 

pixeltroid

Member
Where to start? Plan it out in a notebook first. Make a prototype on cardboard if you have to.

Flesh out the story, items, inventory, tasks that the player gets involved etc.
Make a list of what graphic assets you will need to make.
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
If you know that you can't program, common sense should have dictated that you should learn to program or hire someone else who can.

Start with a basic GML tutorial like this one, and have the Manual open the whole time to look up anything you don't understand. Once you've finished a tutorial, apply what you learned in a proof-of-concept that is significantly different from the tutorial's final product. Repeat with a few different tutorials to see other variations at work. Practice the proof-of-concept part until you can readily reduce most of your wants into basic techniques on your own.

If you've discarded any tutorials just for not having anything to do with Myst, suck it up and get back to them. The point of tutorials is not to specifically learn how to make your dream project. The point is to learn general techniques that can be applied on any project and only incidentally on your dream project.

You won't be making your dream project right away, and there is no hope of doing it without code. So face the fact and do what it takes, or quit early and don't waste any more of your time.
 

Rayek

Member
If you know that you can't program, common sense should have dictated that you should learn to program or hire someone else who can.

You won't be making your dream project right away, and there is no hope of doing it without code. So face the fact and do what it takes, or quit early and don't waste any more of your time.
In this particular case this is not necessarily true: although I would ordinarily avoid mentioning other game making software here, since point-and-click adventure games (of either variety being first person Myst or third person Secret of Monkey Island variants) are such a specific and specialist game type, I am going to suggest Visionaire which makes it easily possible to author a Myst type first person adventure without touching a single line of code.

That said, creating the assets and coming up with a good story and logical fun puzzles is a whole different cup of tea. And still requires a LOT of effort and perseverance on the part of the game designer. And for more complicated interactive puzzles programming skills will simplify things considerably, even in a completely visual authoring environment like Visionaire.

A first-person Myst template for Visionaire is here: https://www.visionaire-studio.net/downloads/view/zeppelin-first-person-template/

I apologize in advance if this post is unacceptable. I think this is a very specific request related to an extremely niche game type, so it wouldn't hurt GM sales at all ;)
 
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Erxer

Guest
I mean don't take it too seriously, for now i'm just doing a small stupid improvised just for fun project, taking pics of my home and gonna edit and convert them to make them look like they're from some first person point and click from that era, and i will probably just send the game to friends. I'm just doing it because i've always wanted to do a game like that, and it's better a stupid simple game than nothing, at least at the start. Like i don't want to put too much effort in it, but i also want to put enough effort to make it enjoyable to play and look at. For now i just want to know how i should make it in Gamemaker (or other engines) terms, for example how do i create the cursor that changes, or the points on the screen to click on, or to create sequence/scheme-based puzzles and stuff like that.
Don't get me wrong, i would definitelly want to do a serious one at some point, but for now i don't feel like jumping into a project like that, expecially since i'm not qualified yet.
 
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Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
This is one of the easiest genres to make in Game Maker... make every interactible object in the game a physical game object, put them in the levels, use the Mouse Left Pressed event to run code when you click on them. Then you just need to worry about a way to transfer info between different objects (e.g. after you lower the water level by pressing a button, going to the sea should go to different rooms than if you go there while the water level is high). This is the easiest to handle with global variables: set them all in the default state in the Game Start event, change them when the player interacts with things.

For bonus points, disable drawing the mouse cursor normally in your game and draw your own mouse cursor sprite. This could change when you hover over an interactible object using the Mouse Enter and Mouse Leave events, and you could change this based on interaction as well! (E.g. footsteps for exits, a hand for picking up, an exclamation mark for interactions, an eye for looking)

(the game will get more manageable if you use parenting and stuff for this, but if you just wanna make a small hobby projects you can create one object for every game object, one object for every room transition click, etc)

Also, if you want LucasArts era item puzzles, you need to figure out an inventory system and how to handle item interactions as well. iirc, Myst didn't have this.
 
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Erxer

Guest
I can't program. That's the point. And i don't really want to bother learning a programming language to do a stupid small game for fun that i'm not gonna earn money from at all anyway, expecially since programming is not my thing at all - I want to do it the easier way possible
 
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Rayek

Member
I agree with Yal that a simple first person point'n click adventure consisting of a couple of screens and objects takes very basic coding skills in GM.

As I mentioned before, if you can't or won't or don't want to learn simple programming, go with my suggestion and give it a go in Visionaire. Have you tried it? But it will still take a couple of days to learn how to operate, even if it is a visual authoring solution.

Just don't expect any game development software to present your game on a golden platter. No matter the tool, it will take dedication and effort on your part, programming or not.
 

ironsides

Member
On the topic of Myst, I think it probably semi-revolutionized game design. I mean, for a game made in 1993, the graphics quality was off the charts! not to mention its kind of amazing that for such a simply made game, the puzzles STILL frustrate people to this day! It is amazing the contrast between simple coding and intricate puzzles, and overall, 10 out of 10. i would play it again, but preferably not on my DS lite. the screen is too small. :(
 

Dario8676

Member
The good news is that point and click adventures is probably one of the easier games to program with gamemaker. Your biggest challenge will be keeping your code clean and structured. What the first person had mentioned is the best advice. Create a prototype and blueprint first on paper on what you want your point and click adventure to look like. What scenes and actions do you want to have for each section of your game. Once you have that drawn up, it will make implementation much easier.
 
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