Adventure-Games-Design-Tools

Specific tools for Designing Point and Click Adventure Games. Engines, articles, examples, design documents and everything related. Originally stored at https://adventure-games-design-tools.zeef.com.

Game Engines

Frameworks, add-ons and specific engines to make Adventure Games.

1. Adventure Game Studio. AGS is an Adventure Engine to create graphical point-and-click adventure games.
2. Visionaire Studio. Visionaire empowers you to create adventure games without requiring programming skills. It provides a clear layout and an intuitive user interface.
3. Adventure Creator. Adventure Creator is a fully-featured Unity toolkit that has all you need to make your own adventure game. From 2D point-and-clickers like Monkey Island, to cinematic epics like Telltale's The Walking Dead.
4. Escoria, Godot framework. Escoria is a set of scripts, template scenes and a dialogue scripting language, which are meant to be used within Godot Engine to create classic graphic adventure games.
5. Bladecoder Adventure Engine. The Bladecoder Adventure Engine is a set of tools to create interactive graphic adventures (classical point and click games).
6. Fungus. Fungus brings your game to life easy to add colourful characters and gripping storylines to your Unity 3D game. Its intuitive interface lets you create beautiful story games easily. For Free and without coding.
7. AGE.
8. Wintermute Engine. Wintermute Engine Development Kit is a set of tools for creating and running graphical “point&click” adventure games, both traditional 2D ones and modern 2.5D games (3D characters on 2D backgrounds).
9. SCUMM-8, point&click for PICO-8. SCUMM-8 is a PICO-8 "demake" of the SCUMM engine that powered most of the classic LucasArts adventure games, such as Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion.
10. SLUDGE Adventure Game Engine. SLUDGE is an open source, cross-platform system by which anyone can make an adventure game.

Puzzle Theory

Articles about puzzle theory sorted by Date.

1. Why Adventure Games Suck. Grumpy Gamer - Why Adventure Games Suck And What We Can Do About It, by Ron Gilbert. 1989. Backup from archive.org.
2. Designing The Puzzle. By Bob Batres, Legend Entertainment(www.legendent.com). 1997. From the proceedings of the 1997 Game Developers Conference. Backup from archive.org.
3. Blake Speers' Puzzle Theory. Puzzle Theory by Blake Speers in the old AGS e-zine. 2002. Backup from archive.org.
4. Designing and Integrating Puzzles in Action-Adventure Games). By Pascal Luban. Originally in Gamasutra. 2002.
5. Designing Adventure Puzzles. By Jonathan Partington. 2002. Based on a Connote8 talk given on July 3rd 1987.
6. Application of Puzzle Theory). Application of Puzzle Theory, by Scarpia. 2003
7. Puzzles and problem solving. Puzzles and problem solving by Mike Rozak. 2006. Backup from archive.org.
8. Puzzle Design in Adventure Games. Degree Project in Game Desgin. PDF. By Rabi Afram. 2013
9. Point and Click Puzzle Design. Video by Game Maker's Toolkit. 20015
10. Aproximación al rompecabezas. Approach to the puzzle. 32 pages e-book in spanish. 2016 revision. Biggest guide about puzzles in the net.
11. The Craft of Adventure. PDF. Graham Nelson's paper on the creation of Interactive Fiction, second edition. Added to archive.org at 2010
12. How to Design Brillo Point and Click Adventure Game Puzzles. By Dan Marshall. 2014
13. About Dialog Puzzles. By Ron Gilber. 2015

Design Documents

Official design documents from commercial games. Sorted by Game Date.

1. Labyrinth. By David Fox. 1986. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
2. Maniac Mansion. Early Design. By Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick from Gilbert's website. 1986.
3. Mutiny in Monkey Island Game Flow. By Ron Gilbert. 1990. Early Secret of Monkey Island Design Document. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
4. Mutiny in Monkey Island. By Ron Gilbert. 1990. Early Secret of Monkey Island Design Document. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
5. The New Monkey Island. 1990. By Ron Gilbert. 1990. Early Secret of Monkey Island Design Document. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
6. Leisure Suit Larry 5. By Al Lowe from his website. 1991.
7. Day of the Tentacle. 1992. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
8. Sam & Max: Hit the Road. 1992. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
9. Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist. By Al Lowe from his website. 1993.
10. Gabriel Knight, Sins of the Fathers. By Jane Jensen. 1993, updated at 2012. Backup from archive.org
11. Indiana Jones & the Iron Phoenix. 1993. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
12. Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!. By Al Lowe from his website. 1993.
13. Torin's Passage. By Al Lowe from his website. 1995.
14. The Dig, part 1. 1995. Early Design Document 1990. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
15. The Dig, part 2. 1995. More advanced Design Document. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
16. The Curse of Monkey Island. By Larry Ahern & Jonathan Ackley. 1995. From Aric Wilmunder dead website: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html . Backup from archive.org
17. Gabriel Knight 2, The Beast Within. By Jane Jensen. 1995, updated at 1998. Backup from archive.org
18. Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love For Sail!. By Al Lowe from his website. 1996.
19. Grim Fandango. Puzzle Design Document. 1998. Posted by Tim Schaffer. Backup from Gameshelf.
20. Gabriel Knight 3. 1999. Originally at pinkertonroad.com. Lost in the web.
21. Resonance. Early Design
22. Quiero Morir By Manel Fernández. 2007. Design Document in Spanish from the game "I want to Die".
23. Lienzo en Blancho. By Manel Fernández. 2013. Design Document in Spanish from the game "The White Canvas".Backup from indiefence.

Puzzle Dependency Charts

Theory

Articles about Dependency Charts. Notice that different authors use the name Dependency Charts/Diagrams/Graphs and some people call them flowcharts. Sorted by Articles date

1. Puzzle Dependency Charts. The Original Tool by his creator.
2. The Arcane Art of Puzzle Dependency Diagrams. GDC Video. The Puzzle Design Diagram was invented by Ron Gilbert at Lucasfilm Games to complete the design of Maniac Mansion. This talk describes the PDD and how to use it, with examples both from classic graphic adventures and modern action/adventure titles.
3. Puzzle Dependency Graph Primer. By Joshua Weinberg. From a talk at GDC 2016.

Examples

Examples from commercial games. Notice that different authors use the name Dependency Charts/Diagrams/Graphs and some people call them flowcharts. Sorted by Articles/Games date.

1. The Secret of Monkey Island. 1990. From archive.org. Originally at lucasforums.
2. Monkey Island 2 with Analysis. 1991. Marcus writes about puzzle design for adventure games and, to do so, analyzes Monkey Island 2 puzzles.
3. Monkey Island 2, Lechuk's Revenge. 1991.
4. Day of the Tentacle.1992. An analysis of the puzzles and narrative structure of The Day of the Tentacle using a Puzzle Dependency Graph as a guide.
5. Grim Fandango. 1998. Almost all the Puzzle Design Document are charts.
6. Dead Synchronicity. Analysis and Puzzle Dependency Chart for Dead Synchronicity by Fictiorama Studios. A raw and dark story set in a post-apocalyptic future.
7. Broken Age. Analysis and Puzzle Dependency Chart for Broken Age by Double Fine. Tim Schafer's crowdfunded return to point and click adventures!
8. Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space. Analysis and Puzzle Dependency Chart for Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space, huge fan-made sequel to the original Point and Click Adventure by LucasFilm.
9. Technobabylon. Analysis and Puzzle Dependency Chart for Technobabylon by Technocrat Games/Wadjet Eye Games. Chasing a mind thief in a nicely crafted sci-fi and cyberpunk world.