Introduction/Newbie on a mission (point-and-click puzzler)

Getting Started Tell Us About Yourself
#1

Hi folks, after playing a popular 2D point-and-click puzzler (Fire Maple Games ftw), I noticed they had designed the app using Corona SDK. I’ve always enjoyed the Myst-type games and my 5 year old daughter has recently taken it up as well. I’m hoping to get in the game myself and learn Lua and Corona to build my own puzzler!

While I have no formal coding experience, I’m savvy enough with HTML and CSS to figure things out. At least I hope. I’ve always been a self-starter with motivation, so I’m looking forward to learning from you all here on these forums. 

Cheers,

Justin

PS: If you have any tips/tricks/graphics/templates involving 2D point-and-click adventure games, please pass along. Thanks!

#2

Welcome Justin!

It sound like you have all the components to make your Corona experience enjoyable and successful in terms of sales or the pleasure of completing your creation.

Go through the sample Corona apps line by line and browse all the Guides to get a sense of what the possibilites are- that’s a great way to learn.

I believe the creative genius behind Fire Maple Games doesn’t really do that much programing per se - rather he uses very strong logical underpinnings between his scenes and items to manage the game.  ( I believe he said that here sometime - or might be confusing him with someone else who makes similar games).

You should also check out Glitch Games as they produce the style of game you are interested in and have a new game they are about to release called Veritas.  Graham their programmer is an active member of the community and has also donated libraries for all of us to share. Check out his Puggle library - it probably has solutions to some of the challenges you will face.

I think you can avoid using physics for now (which will reduce your learning curve ) but should probably really spend some time learning how to use the composer and transitions.  That is the exact opposite of what I do (tons of physics - custom composer) - so when you are ready for physics on your next project we can talk.

Enjoy your Corona journey!

  • Jonathan (sporkfin)
#3

Fantastic advice Jonathan, many thanks! There’s a lot to digest here but I’m soaking it all in. I’ll definitely check out Glitch Games as well. Nothing like a good challenge to kick start the right-brain. Exciting stuff. 

Cheers,

Justin

#4

If you didn’t already know, Firemaplegames is active on these forums and I’m sure would love to hear your feedback. I know I would =)

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/74522-thickety-creek-new-adventure-game-from-fire-maple-games-just-released

#5

Hey Justin, welcome! As Jonathan mentioned, I am 50% of Glitch Games and like FireMaple we only make the types of games that you are interested in making. 

I have created a framework, Serenity, that allows us to make the games fairly quickly ( although if you say that to the people still waiting on Veritas they’ll no doubt question my use of “quickly” ) which I had intended to release however decided that it would probably take too much time to write full documentation for ( and also quickly embarrass me considering how bad parts of it are that haven’t been touched in years ).

To that end I started working on a new framework, called GAS ( Glitch Adventure System ) that will allow us to make our current crop of Mystlikes but also 3rd person adventure games ( Monkey Islandlikes ? ). This new system is fully powered by my Puggle library that Jonathan also kindly linked to. 

I haven’t had as much time to work on GAS recently as I’d like but Puggle is actively developed as I’ve also integrated it into Serenity so that I can take advantage of some of its features as well as using it for my personal projects.

So to keep this short basically I’m saying if you have any questions about these sorts of games please do ask, and also take advantage of Puggle if you like as it might help ( it’s not adventure game specific though, it just takes care of general game stuff )

In reality, these types of games are fairly straightforward to make once you have a framework set up.

#6

@Richard , wow thanks for sharing. Now I’m all flustered. Quick, how do I look? What do I say? uhh uhhhhhhh. Should I be sweating this profusely?
 
*cue the anxiety from meeting a famous celebrity* 
 
@Graham , nice to meet you as well! A quick search through the app store led me to your games and oh hey look. Another celebrity encounter! I played Alice’s Story a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it. A belated thank you! Honestly, I was impressed at its quality, which was refreshing to see amidst the low quality offerings the marketplace pumps out. Between you and FireMaple, I have no qualms about dropping a few bucks to get your games. You guys create such a fantastic experience along with impressive graphics and a great story. Combine that with some challenging brain teasers and there you go. A fantastic app easily worth a few hours and a couple of bucks. Such a deal too when compared to an expensive PC/console game. Thank you both for creating such fantastic offerings! 

 
Question for you if you don’t mind. When you got started building your games, did you focus more on the creative/story, puzzles themselves, or the framework/coding behind the app? I would imagine as you built up your framework that the coding piece took more of a backseat. So how did you excel in all three areas of this? I’m in awe of your (collective) ability to pump out various puzzles wrapped up in a narrative arc so color me impressed. 
 
I’m finding that I’m brainstorming and writing down a ton of ideas, scenes, characters, and storylines that pop into my head. But when I sit down to try my hand at learning Lua or Corona its overwhelming. I know I need to start small and pick up some basics before I can convert some of my ideas to an actual prototype. Not sure how you handled all three phases when you got started.
 
Thanks for taking the time to post here, I do appreciate it!
 
Cheers, 
Justin
 
 

#7

Thank you for playing one of our games! Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

When we started Glitch I had already been programming for over a decade, and had already been using Corona itself for a few years, so I guess my experience will be different to yours.

As you are just starting to learn Lua and Corona, the best thing to do is to start with the documentation and tutorials/examples without thinking about making an adventure game but rather just making something simple.

Specifically for us, I developed our first adventure framework ( called Mango for reasons ) whilst we were making the first Forever Lost episode, we then also used it for the 2nd but it was already showing its age and its limitations. 

After fl2 was released I then started working on Serenity whilst we were using it to make whatever game we were making then, I think it was either Ferris or Cabin Escape but my memory fails me.

#8

Welcome Justin!

It sound like you have all the components to make your Corona experience enjoyable and successful in terms of sales or the pleasure of completing your creation.

Go through the sample Corona apps line by line and browse all the Guides to get a sense of what the possibilites are- that’s a great way to learn.

I believe the creative genius behind Fire Maple Games doesn’t really do that much programing per se - rather he uses very strong logical underpinnings between his scenes and items to manage the game.  ( I believe he said that here sometime - or might be confusing him with someone else who makes similar games).

You should also check out Glitch Games as they produce the style of game you are interested in and have a new game they are about to release called Veritas.  Graham their programmer is an active member of the community and has also donated libraries for all of us to share. Check out his Puggle library - it probably has solutions to some of the challenges you will face.

I think you can avoid using physics for now (which will reduce your learning curve ) but should probably really spend some time learning how to use the composer and transitions.  That is the exact opposite of what I do (tons of physics - custom composer) - so when you are ready for physics on your next project we can talk.

Enjoy your Corona journey!

  • Jonathan (sporkfin)
#9

Fantastic advice Jonathan, many thanks! There’s a lot to digest here but I’m soaking it all in. I’ll definitely check out Glitch Games as well. Nothing like a good challenge to kick start the right-brain. Exciting stuff. 

Cheers,

Justin

#10

If you didn’t already know, Firemaplegames is active on these forums and I’m sure would love to hear your feedback. I know I would =)

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/74522-thickety-creek-new-adventure-game-from-fire-maple-games-just-released

#11

Hey Justin, welcome! As Jonathan mentioned, I am 50% of Glitch Games and like FireMaple we only make the types of games that you are interested in making. 

I have created a framework, Serenity, that allows us to make the games fairly quickly ( although if you say that to the people still waiting on Veritas they’ll no doubt question my use of “quickly” ) which I had intended to release however decided that it would probably take too much time to write full documentation for ( and also quickly embarrass me considering how bad parts of it are that haven’t been touched in years ).

To that end I started working on a new framework, called GAS ( Glitch Adventure System ) that will allow us to make our current crop of Mystlikes but also 3rd person adventure games ( Monkey Islandlikes ? ). This new system is fully powered by my Puggle library that Jonathan also kindly linked to. 

I haven’t had as much time to work on GAS recently as I’d like but Puggle is actively developed as I’ve also integrated it into Serenity so that I can take advantage of some of its features as well as using it for my personal projects.

So to keep this short basically I’m saying if you have any questions about these sorts of games please do ask, and also take advantage of Puggle if you like as it might help ( it’s not adventure game specific though, it just takes care of general game stuff )

In reality, these types of games are fairly straightforward to make once you have a framework set up.

#12

@Richard , wow thanks for sharing. Now I’m all flustered. Quick, how do I look? What do I say? uhh uhhhhhhh. Should I be sweating this profusely?
 
*cue the anxiety from meeting a famous celebrity* 
 
@Graham , nice to meet you as well! A quick search through the app store led me to your games and oh hey look. Another celebrity encounter! I played Alice’s Story a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it. A belated thank you! Honestly, I was impressed at its quality, which was refreshing to see amidst the low quality offerings the marketplace pumps out. Between you and FireMaple, I have no qualms about dropping a few bucks to get your games. You guys create such a fantastic experience along with impressive graphics and a great story. Combine that with some challenging brain teasers and there you go. A fantastic app easily worth a few hours and a couple of bucks. Such a deal too when compared to an expensive PC/console game. Thank you both for creating such fantastic offerings! 

 
Question for you if you don’t mind. When you got started building your games, did you focus more on the creative/story, puzzles themselves, or the framework/coding behind the app? I would imagine as you built up your framework that the coding piece took more of a backseat. So how did you excel in all three areas of this? I’m in awe of your (collective) ability to pump out various puzzles wrapped up in a narrative arc so color me impressed. 
 
I’m finding that I’m brainstorming and writing down a ton of ideas, scenes, characters, and storylines that pop into my head. But when I sit down to try my hand at learning Lua or Corona its overwhelming. I know I need to start small and pick up some basics before I can convert some of my ideas to an actual prototype. Not sure how you handled all three phases when you got started.
 
Thanks for taking the time to post here, I do appreciate it!
 
Cheers, 
Justin
 
 

#13

Thank you for playing one of our games! Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

When we started Glitch I had already been programming for over a decade, and had already been using Corona itself for a few years, so I guess my experience will be different to yours.

As you are just starting to learn Lua and Corona, the best thing to do is to start with the documentation and tutorials/examples without thinking about making an adventure game but rather just making something simple.

Specifically for us, I developed our first adventure framework ( called Mango for reasons ) whilst we were making the first Forever Lost episode, we then also used it for the 2nd but it was already showing its age and its limitations. 

After fl2 was released I then started working on Serenity whilst we were using it to make whatever game we were making then, I think it was either Ferris or Cabin Escape but my memory fails me.