Comments

• ChrisIceBox

  May 2015 edited May 2015

  Hi @imagazzell, welcome to the community.
  
  I've made a commercial title with AGS, so it's capabilities are certainly something I've tried to match when it comes to Adventure Creator - though some of the workflows have to be different because of the way Unity inherently works.
  
  You might like to watch the 2D Tutorial, which'll give you the best impression of how it is to use AC, but I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.
  
  - Importing of full-color background images
  

  AC relies on Unity's sprite engine for it's backgrounds, so if Unity can work in a given colour depth, then so can AC.  I don't know of the specifics, however, but I should think Unity is capable of whatever you throw at it.
  

  
  - Full audio dialogue with lip syncing
  

  Absolutely.  AC allows for automatic and Pamela lipsyncing, just as AC does, as well as a few other third-party lipsyncing applications.  Section 10.5 of the manual covers this in more detail.
  

  
  - Background music with triggerable queues
  

  You cannot currently queue up music like you can with AGS, but you can play music just fine, and have it carry between scenes.
  

  
  - Seamless cutscene integration with various video file types
  

  With Unity 4 Pro, or Unity 5 Free, Unity allows for video playback, and AC makes it easy to do this.  But again, you're dependent on Unity for what file formats you can use, rather than AC.  A description of what these are can be found here.
  

  
  - Fully customizable verb coin and mouse pointer
  

  The interface can be styled graphically however you like, as can the cursor, and AC allows for a number of interation modes.  What you'd want is "Choose Hotspot Then Interaction" mode, which involves bringing up an Interaction menu once you've clicked on a Hotspot, to choose what type of interaction you wish to make.  Though somewhat crude in it's visual design, the 2D Demo has a similar interface.
  

  
  - Complex dialogue trees, with the ability for the player character to say something other than what was actually given as an option (e.g. if the chosen option was more rude than what the character is actually willing to say aloud)
  

  Yes - the conversation label is totally separate from the speech lines.  This tutorial should give you an insight into how conversation trees are built.
  

  
  - Scaling of character sprites as they move about the environment
  

  Yes - again, the 2D Demo demonstrates this.
  
  

  - In-game animation triggering (e.g. a character jumping out of the way at a certain defined moment)
  

  Yes - AC events are made by chaining together Actions, with each Action being a single instruction (wait X seconds, run an animation, etc).  Actions can be used to create Cutscenes, Interactions or Triggers, and be made to run whenever you choose.
  

  
  - In-editor zone defining with areas of the imported background image
  that the character can either go behind or stay in front of
  

  Unlike AGS, AC relies on "mid-scene" objects to be separate sprites, which are then arranged in the correct order.  You can then define what's called a Sorting Map, which will dynamically re-order the Player's sprite as they move around the scene, keeping them correctly displayed.  Again, the 2D Tutorial demonstrates this (from around the 19:00 mark)
  

  
  - Character name & hot-spot labeling that can evolve if/when desired (e.g. if you first approach a character and they are labeled "man", then after you speak with them and learn who they are, they become "Bob", or after inspecting a mysterious object and figuring out what it is)
  

  Yes, you can rename Hotspots.  NPCs also rely on the Hotspot system, so in turn you can re-name them as well.
  

  
  - Popup inventory screens (full image style, not just the basic box at the bottom of the screen)
  - Fully customizable save/load/quit interfaces
  

  I'll group these together, because the entire menu system can be customised.  You can make use of buttons, labels, sliders, input boxes and more - either with AC's built-in Menu system, or by hooking up a GUI made with Unity's UI system.
  

  
  - Optional subtitles
  

  Yes - subtitles are optional, and the setting to display them is stored in Options data - which means it's saved separately to your save game files.
  

  
  And lastly, is the entire program 64-bit and capable of high resolution game creation?
  

  Again, AC is a toolkit that sits "on top" of Unity - so it's down to what Unity can do.  But yes: Unity can build 64-bit games, at any resolution.
  
• imagazzell

  May 2015

  Hi, Chris. Thank you very much for the detailed response. I really appreciate it, and I will be sure to check out the links that you provided. I'm not at the game creation process for my project just yet, but am just trying to weigh all of my options for a good editor. Yours is impressive in a number of areas, and I will strongly consider it when it comes time to make a decision.
  
  Thanks again!
  
• DavMe

  June 2015

  Thanks a lot!  I had a few of these same questions!