NOOB ALERT!

  • #1, by ???st?? ??t????Tuesday, 24. January 2017, 11:54 8 years ago
    Hello everybody!

    I have a question and it's fairly simple: Let's say I want to make a clasic point'n'click adventure game, similar to the Monkey Island series (part 1 and 2); Is it possible to do it without having to write A-Single-Line-Of-Code

    In other words, what means "If you are a more experienced developer and you want to use programing, to utilize your experience, improve your game and add more variation. You can use the flexible LUA scripting editor within the visionaire tool."  in plain english? 

    I tried many times in the past to learn programming, using a variety of languages and I realised that I totally dislike it. Not my style. roll

    P.S. So, I am very serious when saying "A-Single-Line-Of-Code"

    P.S1 Please, no answers in the style of "theoretically speaking, you could.."

    Thanks in advance smile

    Christos
    Greece

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  • #2, by sebastianTuesday, 24. January 2017, 12:08 8 years ago
    yes, totally possible with VS. Lua is only needed if you want to break the boundaries given by the internal action parts. But as mentioned: all needed stuff to do a MI control/inventory/etc is already there smile 

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  • #3, by LebosteinTuesday, 24. January 2017, 12:13 8 years ago
    In Visionaire you are not forced to write code in a text editor, instead you can create lists of actions like in a screenplay. BUT in these lists you have to handle with things like IF...THEN...ELSE nevertheless. Without understanding simple things like that or the use of variables you are not able to create games.

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  • #4, by afrlmeTuesday, 24. January 2017, 12:33 8 years ago
    What you are quoting is true. It's possible to create a point & click adventure game without writing a single line of code; albeit a severely limited basic one.

    All game engines have their limitations no matter which game engine or how powerful it is. Yes you could make a game with only the premade available actions, events & queries, but you won't be able to create any advanced features or mini-games for your game nor will you be able to create a decent game menu or custom subtitle positions & so on & so on.

    Thomas the founder of Visionaire Studio, has very little scripting/programming knowledge but he hasn't let that stop him from making games. What he can't sort out himself, he asks for help with from people he knows or creates a thread on here & asks for help. You don't have to make a game all by your lonesome.

    P.S: please could you change your display username as it's displaying weird & is preventing access to your profile. Please try to stick to non-special characters for usernames.

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  • #5, by ke4Tuesday, 24. January 2017, 13:27 8 years ago
    Yes you can however to make a decent game menu you will need to use scripting since the game won't remember the changes set in the menu unless you will write them into the config file and then read them from it.

    Even though you could use autosaves instead. ( a save files, you can create 99 of them ) Creating them and then setting stuff in the menu on the game launch based on if they exists or not. Not sure how much good idea would that be though.


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  • #6, by Simon_ASATuesday, 24. January 2017, 15:11 8 years ago
    It really depends on the complexity of your game...

    But I think I can say yes!

    However you'll need to work on some scripts (no I'm not talking of a programmation language). You'll have to script your game with the pre-built Actions in Visionaire, in order to build your menus and save games (for example).

    It's not difficult, much easier than learning a language, but yet it needs some learning.

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  • #7, by ???st?? ??t????Wednesday, 25. January 2017, 08:14 8 years ago
    First of all, I want to thank you all for your answers.

    Secondly, my question was NOT about making a.... "decent" game. I'm not into making money or fame or working in the industry with VS. I am purely a hobbyist. I don't see making games even from an indie respective. So....
    My  question was if I can "recreate" an adventure game, like the one we (?) used to play when we were kids (late 80's, early 90's). I gave an example of Monkey Island 1 and 2. Actually, a Maniac Mansion replica would be nice too..... grin

    Yes, I know that events and conditions include statements like if...then...else...and variables.
    When I said not writing a single line of code, I mean, writing in a text editor, purely LUA code. Just using the predifined actions and events given in the drop down menus of VS. In other words, I don't want to use the last icon (script editor) in the VS editor. grin grin grin grin grin


    P.S. Mr. AFRLme, I can't do anything with my name. I logged in using my Google+ account, where I use greek letters for my name to display. I tried to enter my profile in the VS page but I get an internal error since yesterday. Sorry about that. Also, I don't have a facebook account to try a different way to log in. Plus, the default profile picture shows that I am....a woman(?). Just for the sake of information, I AM A MALE! grin grin grin

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  • #8, by afrlmeWednesday, 25. January 2017, 12:41 8 years ago
    Aye, since the new website came out it has been defaulting new registered users to female gender rather than unspecified for some reason.

    You could try sending Marvel a private message with a request to change your display name as they can edit it in the forum database probably.

    In regards to "decent" - unless anyone else used that word - I was referring to a main menu / options menu for your game.

    To answer your question, as I already did so in my previous post. Yes, you can make a retro pixel game like Monkey Island 1, 2 or even Maniac Mansion with the premade actions & query actions without having to resort to Lua script. Actually I believe there are even some Maniac Mansion & Monkey Island style templates floating around the forum somewhere - they used to be in the template section...

    Ahh seems to be a Maniac Mansion template here: http://www.maniac-mansion-mania.com/index.php/de/ressourcen/... - I think the text & graphics might be in German only though & it's at least 4+ years old, so no idea if it will even work on VS 4.2.5. As for Monkey Island template, I'm pretty sure Nige updated them recently, but not seeing a thread for them - sorry.

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  • #9, by ???st?? ??t????Wednesday, 25. January 2017, 13:27 8 years ago
    Thank you mr. AFRLme for your comprehensive answer

    Now, one last question. 

    I don't have a credit card or paypal or anything for that matter (yes, it's true, I don't!)

    Can I ask from one of my friends to buy it for me on his computer and later transfer it to mine or in this way will be considered as an illegal copy?

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  • #10, by afrlmeWednesday, 25. January 2017, 14:05 8 years ago
    Thank you mr. AFRLme for your comprehensive answer

    Now, one last question. 

    I don't have a credit card or paypal or anything for that matter (yes, it's true, I don't!)

    Can I ask from one of my friends to buy it for me on his computer and later transfer it to mine or in this way will be considered as an illegal copy?

    It's kind of linked to your account & the email that was used to buy it, so I couldn't say. I didn't purchase VS as I got my license for free due to unofficially being on the VS team.

    If you want to know more about licenses & purchasing Visionaire Studio then I recommend sending Thomas (Marvel) a private message. Another user recently contacted him through twitter because he was having trouble purchasing a license for some reason or other. You could of course wait until Visionaire Studio is eventually released on Steam, but I have no clue if or when that will happen.

    By the way, there's a free evaluation version available you can use for downloading & testing out the software. It's the same as the licensed versions, except it's limited to 10 scenes & the export module has been disabled, but you can still work in it & test your game with it. Also the ved project file created in the evaluation is perfectly valid for the paid version.

    http://www.visionaire-studio.net/downloads/ - there's also some free demo games & templates available for download on that page too.

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  • #11, by ???st?? ??t????Wednesday, 25. January 2017, 15:08 8 years ago
    Okay, thank you.  smile

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