Well hi there, first post, not the last one that's for sure. I'm writing you guys from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and here's why: A couple of weeks ago i met a guy that loves programming as i do, and also shares a common interest / dream that is developing games. I must say that although we have some pretty experience using Languages such as Visual Basic, Delphi, Turbo Pascal, C, and some C++, we have no experience on game developing, except for a 2D startegy game i made on Delphi 5 as an assigment i've got at "Algorithms and Programing III", at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA: http://www.uba.ar),where i'm studying system engineering. Anyway, a couple of days ago we arranged to start doing some research in orden to enter this great world of game programming. As we just love the old GUI that (Aric Wilmunder and Ron Gilbert) developed for Lucas Film (now Lucas Arts) graphic adventures such as Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Indy and the fate of atlantis, etc, we decided that we wanted to develope one ourselves. We began doing some research and found that the engine this guys developed is called SCUMM which stands for (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion). Unfortunatly as we are not yet capable for developing an engine based on that one, we started looking for free engines, and found that some proyects have been canceled such as SCRUMM, which aparently had pretty nice info on how the SCUMM engine worked (what parts is it made off, how does the interpreter works, etc). I found a free engine called "GLUMOL", developed by two guys from france which may be found at "www.glumol.com", but i had no response to a mail i sent to them, i guess it's another "put-to-halt" project. SO, if you are still reading after my boring life story , i'm hoping that somebody in here could give us all the info you can about the SCUMM engine, how does it work, what parts is it made of, in orden to be able to develope one ourselves, no matter how long it takes us, but right now, we don't know where to begin. Some things we now about the engine is that it uses resources files where the sounds, animations and scripts are kept, and used by the "interpreter" which is simple .exe file, that can be used for different graphic adventures of the same style, cause it just uses the resources files in orden to run the game and the scripts in it to "direct" the characters and response to user events (point and click principle). But there are lot's of things we don't know, basically, how to program this interpreter, video card / graphic issues, what scripting language use or for instance, how is it possible to use different scripting languages, path boxes, etc. So ANY ANY kind of information about SCUMM will be really appreciated, and it's needles to say, that we are planning to develope this game for free, and in case we develope the engine, it will also be free to download, cause our main purpose is to get into the gaming world step by step and do this for the experience and fun( besides we are trying to make a graphic adventure which is a pretty advance thing to do, we also are developing some basic games like a multiplayer tetris, a pac-man, etc.....which will allow us to improve some basic skills). Regards, Alan F Kennedy. Buenos Aires, Argentina http://www.3dgames.com.ar Edited by - Bu6mAn on October 23, 2001 4:16:10 AM

Thanks for the SLUDGE info, been there already. I''ll give it a try anyway, but i''m very focused on a SCUMM based engine (just LOVE that system).

Thanks Lowell too, hope you rested well and have new info for me by the time you see this

You should really consider trying to write your own - it would be great experience.

Start off by thinking of the things your engine needs to handle - dialogues, objects, puzzles, movement etc. and see how you might implement them using what you already know. Do this hand in hand with a game design doc for your proposed adventure - the game doc will help you outline everything the engine needs.

I''m sure if you made the effort you''d see that these sorts of game engines aren''t too complicated to write. I wrote most of one in assembly language for the Gameboy so I can honestly say: knowing what you want to do is 75% of the hard work completed.

Good luck,

E

Hi there again:

Well we decided to create our own engine from scratch. I'm currently working on the game design document (if we are going to do it, let's do it by the book ).

Just had a question i hope somebody that has already worked on this type of games will answer. We are planning to use Allegro Libs instead of directly using DirectX since:

A) This is our first project
B) We are not going to sell it
C) We are aiming at a Monkey Island 2/3 style game (Simple 2D Graphics stuff)
D) Using an existing library (Allegro, Clanlib, Whatever), will give us development speed, and allow us to abstract from "hardcoding" directX.

The question is, do you think this is a smart move? Yes/No, justify :p

Greets from argentina, Bu6 //

Edited by - Bu6mAn on October 29, 2001 12:59:57 AM

Edited by - Bu6mAn on October 30, 2001 1:08:43 AM

Lowell: "Lucas Arts most recent adventure game (Escape from monkey island) used a modified version of the Grim Fandango engine."

On another interesting note, the engine used in Grim Fandango is a HEAVILY modified version of the Jedi Knight engine. It was also used for that Indiana Jones games (the 3D one), DroidWorks, and of course Escape from Monkey Island. Just thought I'd throw that in...

Bu6mAn, I think that is an excellent move. I've used Allegro and find it to be fast and easy. And it is supported by many different platforms so porting your game wouldn't be too terribly difficult. Good luck.

--Buzzy

Edited by - buzzy_b on October 30, 2001 1:30:43 AM

Alan, please mail me. I have some knowledge
of the original SCUMM interpreter, plus I''m
doing my own clone!

nospam@zenzer.net (<- IS valid. the beauty of owned domain


Regards

--llyod