I’m new to programming in Corona but not new to programming. I am trying to write a point and click adventure game in Lua similar to Grisley Manor and wanted to know if there were any templates, sample code or and articles that you could suggest that may help me figure this out. What are my essentials that I need to learn in Lua to get things started? Thanks for your time.
I don’t know much about this type of games, but I know that you will be using event listeners a lot, touch event listeners to be exact.
It’s a bit of an old thread but maybe you are still looking for an answer, so here are my suggestions:
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You should be looking for Lua tables. You will probably need them to generate levels from a file.
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Read/Write files for saving the state of levels, objects etc.
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Touch listeners (drag/drop, touch, swipe actions mostly)
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Layer handling as you will use 3 or more layers most of the time (background + objects, inventory, pause menu etc.)
Here are some of the point & click / hidden object games that I’ve developed earlier. You can take a look at those games and ask for help if you need any, I’ll be glad.
John Raven: The Curse of the Blue Butterfly
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Thanks bgmadclown, I am in full swing of doing all the artwork right now for the game but I am very interested in checking out your links. Thanks for the advice I will be looking into everything that you noted. Thanks for the offer I would love to pick your brain sometime but if I come upon some difficulty I will definitely Hit you up. Thanks again. Thought no one was going to answer this one.
No problem 
You can send me a message any time you want. Good luck on your game.
It’s not publicly released to the best of my knowledge but the guys at Glitch Games (Forever Lost series) make mention of sharing the engine they created for their own Corona-powered point & click-style games. Might be worth reaching out to them. They’re good guys and have contributed a lot to the community over the years. http://www.glitchgames.co.uk/code/
Thanks shroederapps. Yeah I noticed the GG Libs that they have nicely donated to the cause. Thanks for the idea. I’ll drop a message in their box. Thanks again for the response I really appreciate it.
I tried making a point and click adventure game. My artist/writer got busy with real live and we ended up dropping the project. It’s really not that hard but I don’t know of a good game template. As mentioned above, Glitch Games was working on a Lua based plugin to help with this, but I don’t know where that ended up. Graham @ GG is a great guy and he knows this genre and how to implement it in Corona SDK quite well.
For the game I was building, we sketched out the room/scene flow. I setup a bunch of (then Storyboard, now would use Composer) scenes. Each scene had “doors” on them Doors would be defined touch spots that would go to the next scene. I started out with simple buttons: Goto Room 20, Goto Room 21, etc. that I could use to build the scene’s navigation. Each scene will have a background and several objects you can touch. You will need an inventory system where you collect and use objects that are touched. Then each scene you will program in your puzzles and tests to make sure you’ve gotten and/or used the items requires to goto the next scene. You may also need a second inventory system that tracks clues you’ve gathered to help with the puzzles.
Rob
Thanks Rob, I will definitely be contacting the Glitch games guys. Thanks for your help I will be implementing most of everything you’ve spoken of. It will be a few months of artwork before we actually start coding but any help is welcome. This is just an example of how the First Scene is looking with the GUI. Thanks again. 
I don’t know much about this type of games, but I know that you will be using event listeners a lot, touch event listeners to be exact.
It’s a bit of an old thread but maybe you are still looking for an answer, so here are my suggestions:
-
You should be looking for Lua tables. You will probably need them to generate levels from a file.
-
Read/Write files for saving the state of levels, objects etc.
-
Touch listeners (drag/drop, touch, swipe actions mostly)
-
Layer handling as you will use 3 or more layers most of the time (background + objects, inventory, pause menu etc.)
Here are some of the point & click / hidden object games that I’ve developed earlier. You can take a look at those games and ask for help if you need any, I’ll be glad.
John Raven: The Curse of the Blue Butterfly
Thanks bgmadclown, I am in full swing of doing all the artwork right now for the game but I am very interested in checking out your links. Thanks for the advice I will be looking into everything that you noted. Thanks for the offer I would love to pick your brain sometime but if I come upon some difficulty I will definitely Hit you up. Thanks again. Thought no one was going to answer this one.
No problem You can send me a message any time you want. Good luck on your game.
It’s not publicly released to the best of my knowledge but the guys at Glitch Games (Forever Lost series) make mention of sharing the engine they created for their own Corona-powered point & click-style games. Might be worth reaching out to them. They’re good guys and have contributed a lot to the community over the years. http://www.glitchgames.co.uk/code/
Thanks shroederapps. Yeah I noticed the GG Libs that they have nicely donated to the cause. Thanks for the idea. I’ll drop a message in their box. Thanks again for the response I really appreciate it.
I tried making a point and click adventure game. My artist/writer got busy with real live and we ended up dropping the project. It’s really not that hard but I don’t know of a good game template. As mentioned above, Glitch Games was working on a Lua based plugin to help with this, but I don’t know where that ended up. Graham @ GG is a great guy and he knows this genre and how to implement it in Corona SDK quite well.
For the game I was building, we sketched out the room/scene flow. I setup a bunch of (then Storyboard, now would use Composer) scenes. Each scene had “doors” on them Doors would be defined touch spots that would go to the next scene. I started out with simple buttons: Goto Room 20, Goto Room 21, etc. that I could use to build the scene’s navigation. Each scene will have a background and several objects you can touch. You will need an inventory system where you collect and use objects that are touched. Then each scene you will program in your puzzles and tests to make sure you’ve gotten and/or used the items requires to goto the next scene. You may also need a second inventory system that tracks clues you’ve gathered to help with the puzzles.
Rob
Thanks Rob, I will definitely be contacting the Glitch games guys. Thanks for your help I will be implementing most of everything you’ve spoken of. It will be a few months of artwork before we actually start coding but any help is welcome. This is just an example of how the First Scene is looking with the GUI. Thanks again.