€79,00
Buy this licenseIf by seeing my review immediately causes your eyes to glaze over, then I'll save you the trouble of reading it all:
Features: Check
Support: Double-check
Ease-of-use: Triple-Check
Sexiness: Quadruple Mega-Check
BUY THIS SOFTWARE NOW (and all your wildest fantasies will come true before your very eyes!)
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Hello there,
How are you? That's fantastic. Now grab your pants and buckle up for one sexy review.
That's right, Visionaire Studio puts the cat in the cat's pajamas. The bee's knees if you will. I know what you're thinking right now, "Who is this dashingly handsome guy and why should I listen to him?" Well, being an upstanding, smart and important explorer, such as myself, I've drudged my way through a plethora of medieval and unforgiving game engines. I've slid down the easy slides of the do-it-all-for-you-and-give-you-barely-any-options-to-make-anything-unique type of engines as well.
Visionaire is galaxies apart from either of those types. As it happens, I found myself face to face with Visionaire purely by chance. She incarnated as a majestic and mythical deity, stepping into a dark forest clearing. As the tree branches gave way and the clouds opened above, heavenly rays of light washed over her complex, yet simplified beauty. I saw in her, an alluring visage which would make angels weep with pure elation. However I am not one to normally fall for such tricks of the senses.
"What deceptive charlatan sorcery is this?!", I exclaimed loudly, much to the disturbance of my fellow internet cafe patrons. I then saw the humble pauper fee of 35 EUR. "Surely there must be extra monthly fees! Or Module Packs, perhaps some hidden secret charges?", I continued, at this point merely rambling to my screen.
I cautiously bought and downloaded the software, anxiously awaiting a barrage of up-selling advertising to molest my eyes. But, the barrage never came, and my eyes were unsoiled. In fact, I felt good. Smart and savvy even, as if I had just made a cunning and strong investment. I began clicking through the different menus...and then...a small spark of hope began to flash in my soul and my special bond with Visionaire began...
///////////////////////PROS///////////////////////
- Easy Intuitive interface and more advanced options for added complexity, giving you plenty of room for originality and innovation. Makes it really straightforward to figure out where to work your special magic. It knows what you're thinking before you do. Visionaire literally guides you through the entire creation process, but doesn't put a restraining order on you when you stop to tweak and add your own personal touch on things.
- 35 EUR!!! SERIOUSLY, WHATTTT! That's cheaper than a date! And with Visionaire, you know that you're getting some. Visionaire is a beacon of golden light In a world of tricksters and charlatanry. You know what I'm talking about, complicated subscription pricing schemes + add-on nickel&dime charges, treating your fans/users like crap and then faking new colors when you don't get away with it. All very unsexy-behaviour running rampant around us daily. But not Visionaire. Buying Visionaire at this price practically makes you feel like you're getting away with something you know you shouldn't. And we all know that feels good. Or so I've heard.
- It's ACTUALLY FUN to make things with Visionaire. Don't believe me? You'll create your game within FRACTIONS of the time it takes in other engines. Your loved ones will burn with envy over the attention you will happily and dutifully give towards this program.
- THE VISION BEHIND VISIONAIRE. You can EASILY tell that the team behind Visionaire are very passionate about not only adventure games in general but the creation process. They're not trying to capitalize on a Niche market. They genuinely want to create awesome tools for adventure crafting and enable the rest of us lazy non-coders to join in on the experience. (You can still code in Visionaire if you're a wizard like that)
- AWESOME SUPPORT AND COMMUNITY. You need help with that bodacious puzzle you're building? No problem, you've got an ocean of support/help and examples/information from the community. PLUS, if you still can't find what you're looking for, just message one of the creators and *POOF* instant personal attention. (I'm fairly positive at least half the creators and community behind Visionaire are Wizards and/or Aliens).
- DAT ASSET management. If you're a lazy person, like an artist, you will literally fall in love with this software. Creating playable characters, NPCs, menus, buttons, items, backgrounds, special effects, animations, transitions, etc, etc is only limited by the time it takes you to draw the actual asset. You throw art at it, and it's like "oh that's cute, soo...is that all you're made out of? Because I'm already done converting that to the game object." And if that wasn't enough, YOU LITERALLY DRAW your BOUNDING AREAS, WALKING PATHS, PLACEMENT POINTS, and ACTION AREAS. Seriously, what more do you want lazy?!
- One word, PARTICLES. I can't tell you how much I love the particle engine in this thing. Yeah I KNOW, it still has a few quirks here and there, but for what you can create with it and how easy (yet highly customizable) it is, I love it. I spend way too much time playing with this voluptuous part of the engine.
- FUTURE FEATURES AND PUBLISHING OPTIONS. Like a bottle of fine wine, Visionaire just keeps getting better as it ages. Awesome new community-feedback-inspired features are always on the way. Visionaire is adapting and evolving and I can't wait for the new features they'll add to an already stellar piece of top-notch software.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
In all seriousness, If there's any creation software and communities out there that deserves your support, it's these guys.
Create an adventure! who among us has not dreamed of creating one?!?
I have tried many programs like Multimadia Factory, AGS, Game Maker, but nobody could meet my needs. One of the first adventure games I played at the time of Commodere 64 was Zak McKracken! WONDERFUL! An Italian magazine on April 1st wrote on a hypothetical hereafter "... Alien Mindbenders are back!"! Could not believe it! I had to have it! But unfortunately the news turned out to be a joke! From that moment always expected that Lucasfilm (arts) did a follow-up ... but it was not so! By chance one day looking for free software to create video games saw a fangame of ZakMcKracken ... (between time and space) in GERMAN, I tried other information until I arrived at VISIONAIRE. I found that many software houses used this program for their graphic adventures but mostly it was possible to download the program for free! So I did! Initially it does not seem very intuitive but using the guidance of GLEN (Fx Fernandez) and various video tutorials that can be found on the forum ... and with a little practice even those who do not know how to program can create your own graphic adventure! Thanks to ALL of the forum ... (Marvel and AFRLme above) that with their experience and their support are always available to help people like me (we) want to try to "create" something ... even for the just fun.
Pro
Once you understand how it’s work s…the only limit is your immagination!!!
Cons
Where is the manual?!? (AH! Luckily there's Glen!)
LUA is for many….not for ALL
-Sorry for my english (I’m Italian) often i use google translator :D
Denis Marani
Visionaire is one of those rare and underappreciated top of the line jewels. It's an amazing engine where creative people and artists can let loose their imagination and create high quality professional adventure games without having to write a single line of code.
Since you don't need to have programming knowledge, you can focus on building your game's stories and visuals while creating all sort of puzzles and interactions using a long well designed pre coded action list were very elaborate and advanced interactivity can be created with ease and by anyone.
It also supports programming for those who want to extend gameplay features so is not limited to the already long list of possibilities for building rich interactive games.
It's one of the best engines i have worked with, and is the first engine on my favorite list.
----En ESPAÑOL----
Visionaire es una de esas joyas extraordinarias y raras que a la vez no es apreciada. Es una maravillosa herramienta donde los creativos y artistas puede dar rienda suelta a su imaginación y crear juegos de aventuras profesionales de la más alta calidad y sin necesidad escribir una sola línea de código.
Ya que no se necesitan conocimientos de programación, los creativos y artistas pueden enfocarse en el desarrollo de las historias así como los gráficos y animaciones mientras elaboran los rompecabezas e interactividad usando para ello la larga lista de acciones pre codificadas de manera sencilla y sin complicaciones, pero muy versátil donde se pueden realizar interacciones muy elaboradas con facilidad y por cualquier persona.
También soporta programación para aquellos que lo necesiten o si quieren expandir aun más la ya extensa lista de posibilidades y crear juegos ricos en interactividad.
Es simplemente uno de los mejores motores que he usado, y es el primero en mi lista de favoritos.
I've been asked to write a review of Visionaire Studio 3.x for you ungrateful bugrits!
I will split my review into categories: visual, difficulty, sound etc ...
Ease of Use:
Visionaire Studio is probably one of the most straight forward & easy to use game engines available as most things can be done inside the editor which uses a very visual approach - similar to that of Visual Basic where a user adds images, animations & so on then selects actions & commands from tabs & drop down menus.
Most things can be done without resorting to LUA Script & even then, a lot pre-made scripts & code snippets are available for you to learn from!
You should be able to grasp the basics of the editor & begin making a game within a day or two of messing around! so as you can see the learning curve is really not that steep!
Visual Aspect: GUI, Resolutions, Image Formats, Styles & So On.
Currently Visionaire Studio is really a dedicated tool for anyone wanting to make 2D games
(2.5D support is planned to be integrated into a future release)
One of the nice things of VS - unlike AGS - is that it supports transparent .png files & HD resolutions. You can choose from a dropdown list of pre-defined resolutions or you can create a custom resolution via the "explorer tool".
the GUI itself is simple & very easy to use ...
minus a few missing translations/mistakes for the non-German language users.
Sound: Music, Sounds & the Engine in General ...
Speaking as someone who produces music; there are plenty of things I want to add & change about the current Sound Engine ...
-- * pros * --
1. music can be continued into next scene
2. volume/balance settings can be changed for individual sound/music files
3. most formats are supported (.mp3, .wav, .ogg etc)
-- * cons * --
1. sometimes certain file types/encodes do not play (.ogg is recommended)
2. lack of option to carry sounds over into next scene
3. lack of audio fx - I would like to crossfade, control filter, add reverb, delay, echo etc on the fly!
4. not many control options with LUA Script.
this sound review is somewhat void as - to my knowledge - a new multi-platform sound engine is being worked on for the next official release!
Platform Support ...
Until recently Visionaire Studio has been a windows only application but recently an unoffical mac port version was released which will come out with the next official release of the editor.
there are also plans in the future for including iOS, Android game version exports ...
but no dates/timeframe have been set for that as of yet!
System Requirements ...
Most PC's, Laptops from the past 5 years or so shouldn't have many problems trying to run Visionaire Studio - providing you have Open GL 2.0 support - as it's not very cpu intensive.
I'm currently running VS on an oldish Acer Aspire which is about 4 years old.
my only gripe is that DirectDraw/Direct3D support was dropped back when VS 3.x was released & opted for Open GL 2.0 only as some older laptops may suffer due to lack of dedicated video memory - quick fix for anyone using a mobile intel chip card is to enable fxt1/s3tc texture compression found in your 3D card settings - there will be a slight degradation of texture/image smoothness but any game made with VS will run without any issues!
I think this sums up Visionaire Studio quite nicely; even though I may have forgotten some of the points I was going to talk about due to this taking me an age & a half to write up! ;)