Monkey island?

[thelovegoose]

Sorry if this is a bit of a dumb question, I've looked through posts and example screenshots but can't work out whether it would be straightforward to make a game with the same principles as monkey island...

IE :


3d visually but rendered to 2D backgrounds,
movement and best path finding simulating depth in that pretend 3d scene.
events system - an event is triggered by a an action that can only be performed after another event has occurred.


Many thanks and looking forward to maybe using novashell in a very exciting project...

[whisperstorm]

There's no 3d in novashell, but that being said you could do what you wanted with the waypoint system that is built in.

[thelovegoose]

I've been eagerly waiting for a reply all day! -
You mean you can't simulate depth within the scene - thats what i was trying to ask. all the screen shots i've seen have had either cross-section 2d or isometic single-plane 3d. IE mario or diablo style. Is it possible to do a monkey island/ broken sword type game, where characters appear to getting further away from the viewer when they walk into the distance?

[Seth]

Hmm, well, anything that Monkey Island 1, 2, 3 could do I think you could find ways to script.

For instance, I think you want the player to be scaled smaller and move slower when he is further back on the screen, depending on the scene, correct?

In script, SetScale and SetDesiredMoveSpeed would need to be set to match the current area.

One way, would be to overlay rectangles that tell the entity(s) what scale to use in that position. Like, a bunch of horizonal strips, a 10% size strip, a 20% size strip, etc.

Or maybe just markers setting the top and bottom of an area and letting the engine calculate the scale inbetween them. Depends on the scenes I guess, but it means a lot of hand-placing things in the editor for each scene.

[Uhfgood]

Actually the old sierra games... i'm talking old school SGI (I think that was the old one, ie Sierra Game Interpreter) used horizontal strips on the floor/ground plane to determine where a person was in relation to an object. Of course with Novashell you can do this by having a script switch layers that any moving objects are on when they cross these horizontal strips. Then you can do what Seth said with the scaling.

Usually the old quest games would do a view based on location... For instance indoors was more of a straight on (not entirely) view, outside it was slightly more isometric (although maybe not technically iso... essentially more of an off the ground view).

You could make things more cinematic by planning your "shots" accordingly.

For instance...

Int. Office. Day.
JOE walks in and sits in a chair facing THE BOSS.

The Boss <Talking on phone>: You have 24 hours to get me the money or else!!!

The Boss turns to Joe.

The Boss: Now tell me, what can I do you for?

--- Obviously this is psuedo-screenplay-esque and not at all interactive, however if you're planning for Joe and the Boss to have a conversation with a dialog tree, then you would use something like this, and you would frame your shots in a medium, so it's just the two guys across a desk. If you really a miser you would use the same animations for two characters talking in long shots, but then fake it by positioning it so that only the top half is seen.

Just to give you some ideas.

Keith