Designing my 2D First Person Game!

Back when you made that Nige, move object to & the offset action parts didn't exist. Even with those it would probably still be a pain in the arse to get right.

A character can move, right? So what about an invisible character (pictured as an arrow) use as hot spot to click (and change stage)? Move stage 200 px to the right and move character 1,2,3,... 200 px to the right. It's funny, I know, but at the end of the day it might work...

I would love to see this feature. I remember Adventure Maker, with which you could only develop 2D games, had a Panorama plugin.
I don't know how they did it because, for programming, I was using VBscript.
But it is strange that today, with powerful languages like Lua, cannot create a Pano plugin for Visionaire.  It would be great and would lead to a higher level Visionaire.
An arrow like a character is interesting but you must click to move the background, quite different from Myst movement.
What about a background object moved in the opposite direction by holding the mouse? Is it possible? And the hotspot? Too much to handle
Finger crossed for this feature.

Lua isn't really all that powerful. It's an object oriented programming language. Maybe Simon could program something in C++ that he could then create Lua functions / data structure tables so that we could create & manipulate this panorama thing you lot are talking about?

The problem is that you must have a panorama first. Any program code can create one. There are some tools to stitch (right word?) pictures together. Photoshop or Gimp maybe. If you use a 3D program you can make a camera rotation (Cinema4d produce a Quicktime movie and a 360° picture), but if you make an illustrated game you have to draw it more or less. You can draw four sides and make a fake panorama with a cube.

But then you only have the picture. All actions and functions should be handmade in Visionaire this time.

I think, in a 2D game it is easy to make the backgrounds. That's why the stages are so beautiful in most cases. They are stills.

But making a simple walking animation isn't that easy. You have four options:
1. Drawing all frames by hand. It's old Disney school. Needs a very good artist.
2. Make a CG (3D) solution and use some filters (like Sketch and Toon in C4d). You will see the difference between scene and character. But depends on the used style.
3. Make a CG solution and use it as background to draw by hand (that's what I prefer), f.e.with a light table. The style of characters and background is the same.
4. Use an 2D animation tool with bone rigging. I think it's a good compromise to maintain the art style, but I haven't test it.

edit: I forgot, this is a first person thread. So you have to animate the other characters only...

First person point & click games always seem to have a very limited amount of characters in them. I don't think Myst/Riven games had any characters in them? The first person point & click games that do actually have characters in them are usually quite static & fixed in place, just like npc in most third person point & click games.

By the way, you forgot rotoscoping as a way of animating. Similar to your method of exporting 3D character models as images then drawing over them in photoshop/illustrator/gimp or whatever graphics application you use, except in this case you are using photos or still video frames you have taken/recorded of actual people walking around, running, jumping, crouching or performing other actions. Prince of Persia developer used that method & the animations looked great in the original game, even if the rest of the graphics were a bit basic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKgLfqOVHco

There was an actual point & click game that was animated with rotoscoping as well... "The Last Express" - it's by prince of persia dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxNV8q59qY

Mmmh maybe he developed AM with C+, really I don't know.
Well, in Myst or better Riven and sequel they used real people on green screen. There was a simple simulation dialog where they spoke with you telling their story or giving you clues. I must say these are my favorite characters like in Zork for example.
Actually I'm using 3D because I want something really similar to reality and because I don't have actors
And yes, you can make a panorama with every 3D program, drawing each side of the pano and stitch them in a cube. Lot of work of course but in a first person game you have to do it anyway. 

Mmmh maybe he developed AM with C+, really I don't know.

VS is also developed with C++. Simon could probably sort out this feature you are talking about, but how many people would use it? I know he's currently busy dealing with other new features & tweaking VS so 5.0 is ready for the official public release, but hey you never know, maybe he will sort something out for that in the future as the plan is to add various features such as box2D physics & amongst other modules so that it's possible to create other game genres with Visionaire Studio.

By the way, you forgot rotoscoping as a way of animating.

Yes, you are right, but the overpainting is similar to CG characters. Only the source isn't the same. I know that all better realistic CG movies are made this way.

Using a green screen and using actors are the expert (and expensive) version, but also in this case you have to make the character game-like later. In the Myst games they are a little bit blurried (enough to make them game-stylish) and color-reduced to make surfaces smoother. But it is a game with "realistic" flair, not a 2D game with drawings.
"Drawn" rotoscope characters you can watch in "The Lord of the Rings" by Ralph Bakshi, 1977.

I'm not sure why first person adventure games don't have so many NPCs. In every ego shooter you have a million of characters which are in front of you. Of course they often don't speak...   I think, it's a philosophy, not a technical issue.

someone did a 360 with AGS and a cubic version, I think they offset two images for a looping 360 but I'm not really sure

In Visual Studio you can use a tab control and use it like pages, you can get rid of the tabs to do a Myst style side show

If we had more control of the 3D we coulld use a cube or sphere with a shader so the shading is constant, then hidden primative shapes for hotspots

There's verious versions of the Dagon engine which can do panos out of the box, I think he intends to release the Unreal version as a blueprint which is powering Asylum.. if it ever gets finished!

but hey you never know, maybe he will sort something out for that in the future as the plan is to add various features such as box2D physics & amongst other modules so that it's possible to create other game genres with Visionaire Studio.

Will be awesome I know that Visionaire is specifically designed for third person games and not many of us create 2D FP games.
Many prefer to create entire worlds in 3D because it's easier and faster (took only one day to create the world of Riddoh. Do it in 2D would have taken me weeks) and  the result are hundreds of games with nearly identical backgrounds.

But it is a game with "realistic" flair, not a 2D game with drawings.

I agree but this is the style I love

I'm not sure why first person adventure games don't have so many NPCs. In every ego shooter you have a million of characters

Lol because people who play this kind of games is in need of a relaxing, puzzle and story driven game.

someone did a 360 with AGS and a cubic version, I think they offset two images for a looping 360 but I'm not really sure

Very interesting, I must find this game and see

There's various versions of the Dagon engine which can do panos out of the box, I think he intends to release the Unreal version as a blueprint which is powering Asylum.. if it ever gets finished!

Lol I agree!