[Indiana Jones] Hilfe mit Godot? yes, please!

[indy7cog]

Hallo,

(Sorry for writing in English but my German is not good enough)

This is the "Indiana Jones and the Seven Cities of Gold" team speaking. You can see our project here, and maybe play the demo if you haven't played it yet https://www.raidersofthesevencities.com/

At the moment we're trying to migrate the engine from AGS to Godot but it's a complete disaster. Is anyone experienced with Godot and willing to help?

Danke schön

[Kikimora]

Have you checked the Godot Discord already?

I'm not active there, but based on my experience with other game engine discords, such a specialized community can be very helpful.

[indy7cog]

Have you checked the Godot Discord already?

I'm not active there, but based on my experience with other game engine discords, such a specialized community can be very helpful.

The problem with Godot Discord is that it's a huge mess -- it's too open. Each time you ask a question there, you need a tremendous amount of explaining because every user uses Godot differently; half the time you get an answer about 3d or high resolution, from people who don't understand the challenges of 2d pixel art. We need someone who will have some memory of the issues we encounter.

[SpionAtom]

Maybe you already knew, there is a Godot Adventure Framework

https://github.com/godot-escoria

(I have no experience with that)

[indy7cog]

Escoria

That's what we're using, and it makes our problems ten times worse; that framework is great but it adds even more troubleshooting because in Godot every issue is cryptic.

Anyone proficient with Godot and willing to help?

[z10]

I haven't done much in Godot, but it always seemed relatively elegant to me. Why are the issues cryptic? Do you have an example?
Perhaps it's a problem with the framwork of Escoria still being under major development?

[indy7cog]

I haven't done much in Godot, but ...

I will send you the issue in private message if I don't get satisfactory results on Discord. Deal? I'll go with the people who use Godot a lot first. But we're definitely looking for someone proficient with Godot who would have a loose (yet regular) involvement with us.

[S-Made]

Hi! Just wondering, can you tell me why you left AGS?

[indy7cog]

can you tell me why you left AGS?

For two reasons:
1) AGS' scripting language makes it too hard to create data structures (cannot put objects inside objects). It's not a problem for 90% of retro point n click games, but it becomes annoying as soon as you want "advanced" tools: Parsers of some kind, debugging tools, Internet connection, etc.
2) Modern engines make it easier to make some things quickly, like layers/particules/tweened movements/etc.

AGS is great for the vast majority of retro point-n-clicks (I mean it!) but we need to take our game to the next level; we're trying to switch from a "grinding" development process (where content production is linear to the time spent) to as much leveraging as we can (1 person doing the work of 10 people because the combined tools create a multiplying effect).

[S-Made]

Okay, I see. Thanks for the answer and good luck with your project!

[indy7cog]

EDIT: "replied" instead of "editing" by mistake.

[z10]

Just looking at it from the outside AGS looks a bit dated and Godot is probably a lot more flexible and extensible. Personally I feel like you won't get a 1 person doing the work of 10 people just by switching from AGS to any other engine - I guess you did not mean it literally. Content creation for point and click adventures is rather linear in and of itself. Writing story, puzzles, creating all the assets seem to be the main time drain. The implementation of those assets into the game should be fairly quick in comparison. Maybe AGS maked it more difficult than modern engines - it surely wouldn't surprise me. I just don't see a potential factor 10 time save when using a more general purpose engine vs an engine specialized for the genre.

I will send you the issue in private message if I don't get satisfactory results on Discord. Deal? I'll go with the people who use Godot a lot first. But we're definitely looking for someone proficient with Godot who would have a loose (yet regular) involvement with us.

I wasn't offering help (my abilities are probably not better than yours), I'm just curious why you were getting cryptic issues where it's hard to find the root cause.

[indy7cog]

AGS looks a bit dated (...)
Content creation for point and click adventures is rather linear (...)
Writing story, puzzles, creating all the assets seem to be the main time drain (..)

That is correct.
But many ppl underestimate the time need for satellite tasks. That is, bullshit tasks like (non-exhaustive list) scale the UI depending on configs, sound engine, new control devices (gamepads, screen tap), publishing on an online store that requires a certificate, etc. The list is endless. It's all the "little things" that add up. The little things that have a ridiculously disproportionate ratio between "effort required" and "apparent size of the final feature". The things that are outside of the realm of retro-tech programming and slide into the realm of state-of-the-art programming. A few more: Serious versioning, cloud storage, etc.

That's where AGS' weakness lies, and not at all in "dated tech" like many people believe and keep writing on the Internet. Those tasks are made slightly easier with a powerful scripting language; however AGS script focuses mostly on point-n-click stuff. That's AGS' strength and weakness at the same time.