from the "new sprites" image:

• left: add to Donny sprite-folder
• top-right: add to Inventory sprite-folder
• bottom-right: create a new sprite-folder called "RoomObjects", add to this

...actually, we don't want that extra space around the sprite we just added to RoomObjects. so, right click on it and choose Crop sprite edges:
 
 

create a new View. call it "DONNYMISC" (for miscellaneous Donny character animations)

add one loop, then add a frame to the loop. set the frame image to the sprite we just added to the Donny folder. set the Delay property for this frame to 20.
 
 
 
 

create a new Inventory Item

• Name: iPinkBottle
• Description: bottle
• Image: (choose the bottle sprite we just added to the Inventory sprite-folder)
• CursorImage: (same as Image. click on the mouse cursor image preview to set the hotspot)

 
 

create a new Look at inventory item event for the bottle:open up Room 2 for editing. select "Show this room's" > "Objects". in the preview image, right-click on the ground somewhere halfway between the ladder poking up out of the ground and the left edge of the screen. select Place New Object Here. choose the sprite we just added to the RoomObjects folder.

set properties:

• Name: oBottle
• Description: half-buried bottle

add an Interact with object event to the half-buried bottle object:

I just realised, it may not be obvious how to persuade the editor to play the game scaled-up to a decent size when you test-run it from the editor...

first, choose Build > Build EXE from the top menu.

next, choose Build > Run game setup....

in the setup window that appears, make sure Graphics filter is set to "2x nearest-neighbour filter", and click Save

all done!

this part isn't essential, it's just a suggested bit of project management... not very useful for tiny games, but once you start working on bigger projects this kinda stuff can really help,,,

in AGS scripts, you usually have to refer to rooms using a number. for example:...and so on. it would be better if we could use memorable "names" instead of numbers here.

it's possible, but you do have to do a bit of setup yourself. right-click on Scripts and select New Script. name the new script "Rooms"

don't open Rooms.asc, but instead open its partner, Rooms.ash

add these lines to the script:this is an enum (enumeration) that maps memorable names to numbers... just what we need!

now you can do things like:...and so on

also, once you type a few characters the autocomplete kicks in so you can see the list of available rooms:

it's also a good idea to load up each room in the editor and set its Description property to match the same names as Rooms.ash:
 

....and of course to also do it for future rooms. this way the names will stick in your head when you see them in the editor

of course you have to remember to maintain all this stuff whenever you add a new room. it's up to you to decide when/if it's worth the effort...

while something is actively happening in-game (e.g. a character is speaking), the GUI is not interactive. by default, AGS indicates this by greying out controls on the interface, like this:

there are a few other options, though. the one I'd probably choose is to hide the GUI completely while it is noninteractive. to do this, open General Settings, then in the "Visual" section, set "When player interface is disabled, GUIs should..." > "Be hidden".
 

you can go even further with this by hiding the mouse cursor as well. to do this, open the "Wait" mouse cursor, and set its Image property to 0 - this should be a completely empty/invisible sprite found in the original "Main" sprite-folder
 
 

since the panel interface obscures part of the room background, it might be smart to give a subtle visual indication that there is something behind it, so the player is less likely to miss things... one way to do that is to set the gPanel GUI's Transparency property. this is a percentage value from 0 (solid) to 100 (completely invisible). a low value of about 15 should be enough to give a sense that there is something behind the panel without harming its visibility too much:

some players might appreciate the option to open & close the panel by hitting a key instead of clicking

it can be pretty much any key but let's say, the Tab key

open the script GlobalScript.asc. search for the OpenPanel and ClosePanel functions we created earlier. just after both of these, add a new function to the script:now, we want to call this new TogglePanel function from a special function called on_key_press that already exists inside the global script -- it is what made Ctrl-Q work from the beginning as a way to quit

find this function and add this line to the end of it, after a bunch of similar lines, just before the } line:now, there is a problem here: normally, script functions can only call other functions inside the same script if the function being called appears in the script file before the function that's doing the calling... you might notice on_key_press appears before the OpenPanel/ClosePanel/TogglePanel functions do, so if you try to run the game at this point AGS will instead give you an error that TogglePanel is "undefined". clicking the error message will take us to the line we just added:
 
 

so, the easiest thing to do here is to use cut & paste to move the entire on_key_press function down from where it currently is to the bottom of the file

when you open the built-in dialog boxes (save / load / quit), the panel is still visible & the mouseover effect still happens on the panel buttons (even though clicking does nothing):
 
 

it's kinda weird, I'm not sure why this happens. anyway, one thing we could do is create our own custom dialogs for these actions, but for now, I'd just change the save/load/quit button handlers in GlobalScript.asc to hide the panel first, before opening a built-in dialog:
 

so far I've been encouraging you to set display names for inventory items, room hotspots etc. even though you don't actually get to see them in the game. let's change that...

create a new GUI and give it these properties:

• Name: gHoverName
• Width: 320
• Height: 20
• Top: 180
• Clickable: False
• Transparency: 30
• BackgroundColourNumber: 0
• BorderColourNumber: 0

add a GUI Label control, with these properties:

• Name: lblHoverName
• Text: @OVERHOTSPOT@
• TextColour: (choose white)
• Font: eFontFont1
• TextAlignment: TopRight
• Left: 0
• Top: 0
• Width: 316
• Height: 20

this will add a semitransparent text label in the bottom-right of the screen, showing the name of the current mouseover object. because we set Clickable to False on the GUI, it won't interfere with mouse clicks, and the special label text @OVERHOTSPOT@ is replaced dynamically by the game engine.

you may notice at this point that the main character is himself selectable... this is unusual for a point & click game, so unless you can think of some fun things you want to do with this, let's turn it off:

open the cDonny character for editing, and set the Clickable property to False

first, import sprites from the "extended verb button graphics" image above, into the Interface sprite-folder. you don't need to import sprites from the "MOUSEDOWN" & "SELECTED" rows because they are identical to ones we have already imported.

however, you will need to make a note of which sprite number corresponds to which verb button state -- including the sprites that were already there:
 

once you have sprite numbers for all 16 combinations, open the GlobalScript.asc script.

at the top of the script, add lines for each of the 16 combinations, in this format:...using the sprite numbers you just wrote down.

underneath these 16 new #define lines, add this function:now we need to make sure this function gets called whenever the mouse mode changes. in GlobalScript.asc, use the dropdown list at the top to find the btnWalkTo_Click, btnLookAt_Click, btnInteract_Click and btnTalkTo_Click functions, and in each function add this line after the Mouse.Mode = ... line:now go to the on_mouse_click function, and immediately after the mouse.SelectNextMode(); line, add the same new line here too:now try the game. clicking on the mouse mode buttons should now look something like this:

currently, the left/right inventory arrows are always visible, even when there are no more items to scroll through. it's possible to change that so they are only visible when they would actually do something

add this to the top of GlobalScript.asc:next, add this:finally, search for the following functions: game_start, btnInvLeft_Click, btnInvRight_Click and add this line to the end of each of them:ok, that should be enough to keep the inventory stepper buttons appearing/disappearing correctly 99% of the time, but there are a few rare cases when you will have to remember to call our function UpdateInventoryButtons() on the next line in the script to keep the buttons up-to-date:

• after changing which character's inventory is being displayed by calling character.SetAsPlayer(), or setting the invMainInventory.CharacterToUse property
• after calling the built-in function UpdateInventory() because you have been modifying character.InventoryQuantity[...] values

at the moment, when you click on an inventory item in Interact mode, AGS switches to use/give that item, and it looks like this:

to show the item image and also have the same white arrow that the other mouse cursors have: first need to create a special version of the arrow image where the hotspot is in the centre.

this is the "centred mouse cursor" image. import it as an Interface sprite, using the "Import Whole Image" button

next, go to General Settings. in the Inventory section, set "Inventory item cursor hotspot marker" > "Use crosshair sprite". a new setting called "Inventory item cursor hotspot marker sprite" will appear. set this to the sprite we just imported
 

at the moment, when an action like look at ladder or interact with painting doesn't have an associated response, nothing happens at all. let's set it up so you at least get a generic response

first, add these functions to GlobalScript.asc:hopefully it is not too difficult to see what is happening here. we have separate functions for each type of action, and then split these functions again depending on whether what we are dealing with is a fellow character or an inanimate object. on the first line of each function, we generate a random number between 0 and 2, and then give a randomly chosen response based on this value.

these functions won't be automatically used though. we also need to add in this function, which will be what AGS calls on an unhandled action:

in AGS, special screens like title cards are really just rooms

draw a title screen (could just be a simple placeholder for now) and create a new room for it



since it's not going to be a real room, you can tell AGS not to store data about this room in save-game files by clicking this checkbox here, when you are creating the room:
 
 
...but that's optional, don't worry about doing that if you're not sure about it

anyway, in the room editor for the title screen room, create a new event handler for Enters room after fade-in and set its function to this:
  
also, set the ShowPlayerCharacter room property to False. this is the important thing to remember when you want a room to just act as a static screen

next, edit the main character and set StartingRoom to the new title screen room:
 
 
now run the game!! our title screen should be shown until you click the mouse or hit a key (or wait a few minutes)

I'm gonna use music from here: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/BOPD/2005_Stayin_Alive_InstruMentals/
...the first track "6.6.05" as the title theme, and the last track "2.2.05" as the first in-game music bed

download these two tracks (click the downwards arrows on the right side)

in AGS, open the Audio section, right click on the "Music" folder icon inside it, and choose "Add audio file(s)..."
 
 
select the 2 tracks from earlier. when they are added to the music folder, they will have name-IDs generated for them based on the filenames, but that's not very helpful in this case. instead, right-click & select Rename on each of them, and set their names to aTitleMusic and aInvestigationMusic
 
 
now go to the room editor for the title screen. create an event handler for Enters room before fade-in (note: we previously created one for "...after fade-in", don't get em mixed up!!)

set the handler function to this:also add an event handler for Leaves room, set to this:now open the room editor for the room where you start the game in (after the title screen). in this room, open the Enters room before fade-in event, and add these lines inside the room_Load() event handler function: 
ok, now try playing the game! if the music seems kinda distorted you may have to experiment with changing the audio driver (I had to do this), i.e.:

• in the Build menu, select "Build EXE"
• in the Build menu, select "Run game setup..."
• in the "Sound Options" section, set the Digital Sound dropdown to DirectSound (Hardware mixer)
• click Save and try running the game again

instead of a title screen that you just click through, you might prefer to have a menu that givess you the option to load a saved game etc.

first create a new GUI. call it gTitleScreen. set these properties:

• Visibility: Normal, initially off
• BackgroundColorNumber: 0
• BorderColorNumber: 0
• Width: 320
• Height: 200

add a GUI button with these properties:

• Name: btnTitleStart
• Text: Start
• TextAlignment: Centred
• Left: 22
• Top: 158
• Width: 82
• Height: 33

...and this OnClick event handler:

add another GUI button with these properties:

• Name: btnTitleLoad
• Text: Load Game
• TextAlignment: Centred
• Left: 110
• Top: 158
• Width: 101
• Height: 33

...and this OnClick event handler:

add a third GUI button with these properties:

• Name: btnTitleQuit
• Text: Quit
• TextAlignment: Centred
• Left: 216
• Top: 158
• Width: 82
• Height: 33

...and this OnClick event handler:

now, open the Room Script for the Title Screen room

go to the room_AfterFadeIn() function and remove the two lines we added to it earlier (so now it is just an empty function, but it's not necessary to delete it completely)

in the room_Load() function, add these lines, leaving the other code we added for the music:

in the room_Leave() function, add:
the end result should look something like this:

in an earlier tutorial i added a text label in the bottom right corner of the screen that shows the name of the item that the mouse is over:



this text appears in the same place when the panel is opened, partly covering the space where inventory items go:



it might be preferable to shift the text label up when the panel is opened, so it doesn't cover the panel so much, like this:



to do this, open the GlobalScript.asc script. use the dropdown list at the top to find the OpenPanel() function. add this line to the function body:
then use the dropdown list again to find the ClosePanel() function, and add:

create a new room with this background:



give the room the description rmOutsideDarkBuilding, and add the name/ID to Rooms.ash (see previous tutorial section "project management: using memorable room name-IDs in scripting")

in the room editor, select Show this room's > Walkable Areas, and using the Line tool, draw lines line this:



make sure the lines all join together & touch the edges of the screen on the right and at the bottom

next use the Fill Area tool, and click inside the area:



(if the whole background fills with blue instead, hit Ctrl-Z to undo the fill and look for gaps in the line)

next select Show this room's > Edges. four yellow lines will be shown, two vertical & two horizontal

use the mouse to drag the line running down the right side of the screen inwards (to the left) a little bit:



also while you are here, place the mouse approximately here - near the right edge, but left of the yellow line, on the ground opposite the door entrance:



...and note the two Mouse Position values in the top left. this is going to be the entrance point that the player character appears at.

in the Room Events, create an event handler for Walks off right edge:
 this means that when the character walks past that yellow line, the game will change to the second room we added (the one that looks like this)

also add a Enters room before fade-in event:
 ...using the entrance point values noted earlier.

now, open the Room Editor for that other location, with the building in the distance. edit the room Edges, and this time drag the top edge down to below the horizon. switch back and forth between Edges and Walkable areas - you need to make sure that some of the walkable area is above the yellow line, otherwise the player won't be able to use the exit, so you may have to edit the walkable area a bit to ensure that:



use the Mouse Position thing to get an entrance point position just below the yellow line, in front of the building in the distance:



add an event for Walks off top edge:there will already be a room_Load() function in this script. add this code inside it, at the end:ok, that should be it -- try the game and see if you can walk to the distant building, then back again

the location we added in the last part has a big enticing doorway that looks like we should be able to walk right through, but we can't

instead of fixing that with a new room, for now let's add a hostile character who won't let anyone pass

in the editor, open Sprites, add a new folder called Animals, and add this sprite to the folder:



next, in Views, create a new view and call it DOGVIGILANT. add one loop, with one frame -- the sprite we just added



now in Characters create a new character with these properties:

• ScriptName: cGuardDog
• RealName: blood orange hound
• NormalView: (click the "..." button, choose DOGVIGILANT)
• SpeechColorNumber: 64512
• StartingRoom: rmOutsideDarkBuilding

open the events for this character. for Look at character:Talk to character:Interact character:Use inventory on character:now go back to the Room Editor for the new room. choose Show this room's > Characters, and drag him with the mouse so he is in place guarding the door:



next switch to Show this room's > Regions and select the Rectangle Tool. draw a vertical bar running down the middle of the room:



go to the Events for this region, and add one for Walks onto region:

at any one time, the hero character will have a goal that can be broken down into a To-Do list of tasks

what i mean by "goal" here

• something you can tell you're gonna do, but you don't know why -- "I want to get that thing over there just because it's here and I want it in my inventory" -- instead that should be a task, done as part of achieving a greater goal (even if it's not immediately obvious that's why you're doing it)
• something you know you ultimately need to do, but you don't know how or when yet -- so, even if the hero knows from the beginning that the end result is defeating the big villain, until that bad guy is actually within reach and there's some idea of how he could possibly be defeated, it is not yet "the goal"

 

here are 2 examples of goals & tasks:
 

there's an important difference here... the tasks on the left list can be done in any order. (they could even each be given to different people and done independently.) the tasks on the right list have a fixed order, i.e. you can't do the 2nd task until you have done the 1st, can't do the 3rd one until you have done the 2nd, and so on.

the reason that distinction is useful is that it's a common pattern to have a game that splits broadly into two sections: in the first you are mainly dealing with any-order tasks. in the second, mainly fixed-order tasks.

why's that? well, any-order tasks are a bit more laid-back: you're kinda wandering around, getting used to things. there's a lot of gathering involved... could be gathering information/clues, friends/allies, skills, transportation options, tools/weapons, etc. etc. you DO have things you need to get done, but since you can switch between them when you get bored, there's not so much of a sense of urgency about them. but then, there's a tipping point: you've gathered & prepared enough, you know where you need to go and what needs to be done, you're ready. it's time to focus on the target and zero in. this is inherently more of a fixed-order thing, the hero breaks through each protective layer around the villain/prize, getting closer and closer. these two main sections could be called something like Prepare & Invade

scavenger hunt
find one thing that matches each item on a given list... could be specific thing ("an orange bowling ball") or vague/thematic ("something scary")

• you have only a few hours to get gifts for the whole family, luckily you have a group photo where each family member is doing something/holding something that demonstrates an interest they have, so you need a gift that suits that interest
• save wedding of superstitious couple by finding something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

form a new team
realizing your quest can't be done alone, convince several others to join you...

• maybe you need to make use of special skills/connections you can't realistically get for yourself. maybe you just need to be in several places at once, so you need others to act as surrogate clones. (maybe you just lonely)
• also you might need to find a place to use as your headquarters, and/or get a special vehicle to mobilize the group

recapture the escapees
oh no!! a bunch of {{????}}s have slipped out of {{whatever it was that was meant to contain them}}... they can't have gotten far (yet!!) but you're in big trouble unless you can get em all back, pronto...!

• prison break!
• someone left the cages open at the zoo/biology lab
• you are editor of a local newspaper, preparing to publish a huge expose about the mayor's illegal & obscene activities, when suddenly at the last minute as the first edition is being printed you discover the whole story was a hoax... you thought you'd caught it just in time, but unfortunately one rogue paperboy went out early and already delivered a bunch before being intercepted. it's still so early in the morning maybe no-one has picked theirs up yet, so it's up to you to sneak in and find a way to retrieve (or destroy) each rolled-up paper from the lawns, hedgerows, trees and garage roofs etc...

initiation rituals/hands-on interview process
prove yourself worthy material to join a select group

• Phi Whoopee Delta, the pranksiest fraternity on campus, will only let you in once you complete a series of audacious pranks against the 3 main rival houses

reunite a broken-up thing
could be an object, or a set/collection of objects, a disbanded group/team of people...

• important pieces of your spaceship fell off as it crashed into alien forest
• a powerful artifact/document was cut into pieces & each piece distributed to secret locations
• you need to marathon-watch every episode of Starship Shawty again before the weekend, but cracking open the boxset you realize over the years you've leant out every DVD to different friends, and unfortunately, your friends are all antagonistic weirdos...
• i'm getting the band back together: track down each ex-band member & convince em to be part of a reunion tour

the wheels of justice
prove this smirking perp is guilty of terrible Crime with pieces of evidence that demonstrate means, motive & opportunity

• means: usually a grody weapon
• motive: probably revenge or jealousy or life insurance
• opportunity: knock down this crum-bum's alibi

trail of clues
to get to where you need to go there are a series of clues, and each one indicates where you will find the next one...

• should have some reason why you can't discover a clue out of sequence, e.g. until the main character is "interested" in it there could be a crucial "selectable thing" missing (map-screen location, conversation option, etc.) or maybe you find a useful object along with a clue... or perhaps whoever is leaving these clues is secretly watching and only placing each clue when it needs to be there...
• like in 24 when it seemed like they have caught all the bad guys, but then the last of them reveals in his dying breath that those bad guys were really just working for another bunch of bad guys...

bypass layered security system
thwart each level of security, from outermost (e.g. outer perimeter wire-fence) to innermost (e.g. laserbeam grid surrounding whatever it is you're here to get at)

• could be useful to read up on principles of real-world security system design, e.g.: http://www.simplexgrinnell.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Training/PACEBook2.pdf

stages of metamorphosis
there is a thing/creature/person that must be transformed into some new form/state...

this is a complex change that can't be done just like that... and it also isn't going to be a smooth, gradual evolution. instead, there are two or more brief, sudden transition-events involved. each of these transitions brings on a new, distinctive form.

these transitions are somehow triggered by the actions of the hero character (maybe not always intentionally...) there are various forms of stimulus that might be involved:

• environmental change
• some kind of trauma
• for a creature with instincts, sensing that conditions are right (in a safe, private place etc.)
• passage of time (I mean, in "game-world" time, where the day can stretch on forever until you choose to go to bed or something)

(this is the same kind of thing as Leveling Up in RPGs/evolution in Pokemon)

complex journey
travelling a great distance across the game-world, each leg of the journey has its own problems to overcome, e.g.:

• switching vehicles
• different terrain
• fuel/supplies shortage
• ambushing bandits/wild animals/toll booths
• documentation (tickets, passport)
• danger of getting lost -- problems with map/directions/guide person etc.