Play Designs

Okay, so if you took a look at my last entry, I talked about how BioWare is hosting a contest to end all contests, but you’re thinking “Eh, the RPG genre is too blah for me. They only talk about swords and magic and crap like that. I don’t like crap like that.” Well, thanks for offending a gigantic portion of our readers who happen to like RPG. Like me. Let me go cry now…

Alright, back and I’m better. Anyways. So, you don’t like writing RPG stories… there’s a solution for your problems. Perhaps you’re a fan of the adventure game genre and you have a hilarious story with great characters and terrific plots. Maybe you’ve played the Monkey Island series 3.2 million times (like me. LOVE IT!) and would like to make your own smart assed pirate story, but you just don’t know where to start. Or maybe you have an idea for a great First Person Shooter, what with all the aliens and the blowing up of stuff. Well, my strange little friend, you’ve come to the right place. There are half a dozen great tools out there that are easy to use. Let’s talk about some of them:

• Adventure Game Studios: Adventure Game Studios has made an incredibly easy to use piece of software that will allow you to create a Point and Click or FPS game. For a really basic game, there isn’t even any programming involved. There’s also a whole crapload of support on their forums, if you really do want to venture into the world of programming. And the best part? WAIT FOR IT… It’s FREE! That’s right! FREE! Ohhh, the sweet freedom.
• SLUDGE: Sludge is also a pretty easy to use point and click developer, which also has tons of support out there. Now, SLUDGE depends more upon your programming L33T Skillz to use it, as SLUDGE is its own programming language. This might be for the people out there who want a little more leeway for what their game will do. There aren’t as many restrictions as many GUI interfaced programs, so this might be good for you. It is free, but if you pay for a copy of it, you won’t have any Sludge like advertising. It’s worth it if you want free reign.
• AGAST: AGAST is another easy to use program and is more for the beginning to intermediate programmer. Their website says that it takes relatively little programming skills to get it to work, but once you figure it out, you’ll have a much more flexible game. Again, AGAST is free software, so have fun with your freedom! This site doesn’t look like it has a lot going on anymore, but it’s still a great little program.
• Wintermute Engine : Wintermute Engine also makes really great Point and Click games. It also uses a combination of programming and a GUI interface to create the game. These guys are big wigs in the Point & Click games, so take a look at them, because they’re pretty dang cool.

If none of these tools look like they’ll be of any use to you, Adventure Gamers has a whole dang list of different tools you can use right here: Some Tools… yay! Don’t be scared.

And there you are. Game creation made easy.

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