So... on average...

[Tawmis]

... how long do you think it would take for someone to develop...

An AGI game - about as big as King's Quest 1 or 2?

What about an SCI game - say like King's Quest 4?

[Collector]

There are others here that would have a better idea than I, but are you getting bit by the game making bug? The AGI resources and community isn't what it once was since http://www.agigames.com closed down. There are efforts to get it back up and running, but for now it is on hold. The SCI community was in a coma, but has alive again. The SCI Programming Community is the best place to go for help. There are few SHP members here that are members of the SCI community. Myself, MI, Gumby, Omni and lance.ewing, who has been involved with the AGI group, but more recently has taken an interest in SCI.

In fact there are efforts to further develop the SCI tools and resources. A number of us have been developing an SCI programming Wiki, which has links to SCI tools and resources. Omni has been working on the source for Brian Provinciano's SCI Studio and more recently, Phil Fortier's (Troflip) SCI Companion. The SCI Studio source is on SourceForge and Companion's will soon be. Gumby has created a couple of tools to aid in SCI development.

There are also a number of tutorials to help you get started.

[MusicallyInspired]

It depends on how much time you have (or want) to put into it. I started my KQ2SCI remake back in 2006 or so I believe. Just fooling around with remaking a KQ2AGI scene in SCI. I showed it to some people and there was a positive response and I figured I make some more and see if I could make this entire game myself in my absolute spare time.

It's 2011 now and I'm only just now on the verge of having the game completable. That's bare bones completable. There are no random encounters or anything snazzy. Just a skeletal game with only the necessary elements needed to complete the game and get full points. There's a few alternate puzzles programmed but not many. Red Riding Hood doesn't appear in more than one screen and doesn't walk around. She doesn't appear out of nowhere. She's always there until you do what you need to do and then she disappears forever. I'm still using about 85-90% AGI placehoder graphics for everything.

The soundtrack hasn't even been started yet, ditto for the sound effects. I'm not a fantastic artist so I don't yet have all the backgrounds finished. I do have a lot of backgrounds finished (maybe almost half or so?) but I might go back and redo some because I've learned a lot since I first began. Even referencing (and sometimes borrowing from) artwork from other SCI games like KQ1 and KQ4 is not enough sometimes to make the speed of producing backgrounds any more efficient.

I'm still planning on completing it, though. The great thing about it being a side project is that I'm not tied to actually having to finish it....which motivates me to pick it up every now and then and continue on. Eventually it'll get done. Although, I was really hoping it would have been finished long ago so I could remake other games like KQ3, SQ1 (AGI graphics style), and SQ2 in SCI. But I'm not even finished with KQ2 yet. But it IS fun to do when I'm doing it. I just got caught up in so much stuff. I got married, had kids, went to school, created a band with a friend and we're trying to promote that, working to further my musical career by composing for freelance for video games and such. It's mulled my free time quite a bit so that plays a big factor.

But above all else, it's still fun to do. Sometimes I look at it and just shake my head and say "this will never get done" or "I don't want to do this" but every now and then I get a surge of inspiration and motivation and do a little more. The programming is the funnest part for me personally. I don't really like doing the graphics myself, though I do enjoy having all the control for everything in the project. I wouldn't mind help, though, if anyone ever offered. One guy drew me a couple sketch ideas for some redesigned backgrounds and I'm using them. He only gave me 3, though. The exterior and interior of the Kolyma church, which looks fantastic by the way! Can't wait until I get to do the church interior, but I want to get all the Kolyma outdoor scene completed first.

All in all, I guess I made that seem pretty daunting and intimidating, but I really didn't mean for it to be. It's just that you need to have (or want) the time to work on it. AGI games are a heck of a lot easier to make, I've heard, programming-wise and graphics-wise (obviously) and you don't really need music or sound effects. And if you want them they're super easy to make. But there are way more limitations to AGI than SCI if you really want to get into something interesting beyond a simple short game.

I really enjoy programming in SCI. It has a bit of a learning curve at the beginning if you've never touched a programming language before, but once you get beyond that it becomes a thing of beauty and gives an intense feeling of accomplishment. At least, it does for me. Iy can make me pull my hair out of my head at times as well, but at the end of the day you figure out the problem, you learn more about the language, and you overcome it and feel confident to try new and more advanced challenges. I love that.

Give it a shot if you're curious, dude. Also, it's not like the graphics need to be top-notch or anything. That's just my obsessive-compulsive tendency for the project I'm doing, which is probably another factor in why it's taking so long. It can look like the worst artwork ever (not saying it would be) and still be a tremendously fun game if you have a great idea. There's a whole community at the SCI Programming Website as Collector said who'd be willing to help you along. It's always nice to have new SCI developers around. SCI never really took off as much as AGI did back in the day and that's a shame. A lot of the reason why I still hang around there, help out, and work on my own SCI projects is to try and make it more popular.

So, give it a go if you like, man. It's fun and we'd all like to see what great adventures you can come up with! I've seen people develop great games very quickly. I haven't been so lucky, but that's me. You may find differently, hopefully!

[Collector]

Didn't it take Cloudee about 2-3 months to do his Black Cauldron remake? He take the shortcut of just using the AGI graphics and gave it an SCI point and click interface. I suppose if he wanted to, he could go back and replace the AGI graphics with better new graphics. Little, if any, scripting would have to be updated, too.

[gumby]

I've been working on my Zork project (SCI) since middle of last year, and it's like MI said, you just start shaking your head at what's done (and mostly not done). The only thing that helps for me is that I keep plugging at it. I stopped at one point for about 4-6 weeks & coming back to it was brutal - my train of thought was gone & I had to re-learn where I was.

Of course, if I could do it full-time I'm sure it'd get done much sooner...

[MusicallyInspired]

The SCI Community used to have small monthly competitions where you'd have to make a small game based on a theme. The winner would get a nice pixelart trophy . Haven't done any lately because there hasn't been enough time/interest/competitors. That's why we need more SCI-ers!

[Tawmis]

There are others here that would have a better idea than I, but are you getting bit by the game making bug?

Well the recent post about the AGI/SCI stuff... and I know there's a few here who know about the programming... But I have always wanted to make a game... and it needn't be anything super complex. I am talking sometime like King's Quest 1 or 2 would work for me. I have this idea in my head that would work well as a Sierra type game. I just don't know anything about the programming aspect of it; I'd just be the designer for the game puzzles and the writing. And thus leaving the harder part for everyone else (the actual programming). I even have my old B.C. Quest notes (which was before my friend and I realized, that Sierra actually did a game for 'B.C. Quest' for the comic - ours was an entirely different idea, where the 'B.C.' stood for 'Before Civilization' and the star was a cave man named 'Duh Ugg' (Doug))...

But I wouldn't mind getting this out and into a game of some kind some day.

[Collector]

Try doing a small project. It will allow you to see if it holds any interest for you as you learn. If you like it, you can take on a more ambitious project and feel a little more confident about it.

[DeadPoolX]

I'd say make it as easy as possible and just recreate a scene from an a Sierra game. Sure, those CAN be complex, but all the content is there. It'll be an exercise more than anything.

[gumby]

The SCI Community used to have small monthly competitions where you'd have to make a small game based on a theme. The winner would get a nice pixelart trophy . Haven't done any lately because there hasn't been enough time/interest/competitors. That's why we need more SCI-ers!

Ok, I'm inspired (no pun intended). I started a monthly art-based competition over at sciprogramming. Doesn't take much, it could probably even be done with MS Paint.

[Datadog]

I have this idea in my head that would work well as a Sierra type game. I just don't know anything about the programming aspect of it; I'd just be the designer for the game puzzles and the writing. And thus leaving the harder part for everyone else (the actual programming).

You're forgetting the graphics and music. Writing can be done in an afternoon. Programming can be done in a few weeks (for a short game.) But the audio/visual aspect can take months to years.

Like DPX said, it would be worth trying to recreate just one scene from a Sierra game that you like. Time yourself on how long it takes to re-create the scripting and graphics individually, and multiply that by how many scenes you have in your own game for an idea of the time-frame.

Also, learn to program. It's annoying, but having the source code right in your hands puts you in a better position as a director and writer. You'll be able to come up with better ideas as you go along and implement them just as easily.

[Tawmis]

I have this idea in my head that would work well as a Sierra type game. I just don't know anything about the programming aspect of it; I'd just be the designer for the game puzzles and the writing. And thus leaving the harder part for everyone else (the actual programming).

You're forgetting the graphics and music. Writing can be done in an afternoon. Programming can be done in a few weeks (for a short game.) But the audio/visual aspect can take months to years.

Like DPX said, it would be worth trying to recreate just one scene from a Sierra game that you like. Time yourself on how long it takes to re-create the scripting and graphics individually, and multiply that by how many scenes you have in your own game for an idea of the time-frame.

Also, learn to program. It's annoying, but having the source code right in your hands puts you in a better position as a director and writer. You'll be able to come up with better ideas as you go along and implement them just as easily.

I will probably give this a whirl when I finish Neverending Nights, since I feel like I have too much on my plate as it is! But as for music - wasn't even going to put music in the initial program/game I wanted to do. I just wanted graphics, and such. If music came in some later version, awesome. But wanted a working game, with bare minimum first and foremost.

[Tawmis]

The game I'd like to turn into an AGI game is actually the text adventure game I made for DOS, eons ago, called Final Soul. So all the puzzles and everything are done; it'd be a matter of making the game through programming and graphics.

[MusicallyInspired]

AGI would be fairly easy, then. Go for it!

[Collector]

Keep in mind that at this point, with agigames.com gone, AGI tools and programming help are going to be harder to find than those for SCI. If it is a simple game, give SCI a try. You can join the SCI Programming board for help with the programming. And as I posted earlier, there are several good SCI tutorials to help you get started.

One thing that can help with the graphics is that you can import images into SCI Companion for backgrounds. Pallet conversion may be something you will need to experiment with.