Legacy LD5

Dino and I talked about this idea of mine about a point-and-click survival adventure game in the setting of his old Absolute Zero Dinosaucers fanfic, and long story short, we decided that I will try to make it, and he will try to contribute lots of plot and gfx stuff and sound and whatnot.

We also agreed (which is rare all by itself) that it shall be actually coded in something, as opposed to using some fancy toolbox where you click together your stock adventure*, and that it should best be platform-independant, like running in a browser.

*Whenever I tried such a thing, I found that a) it takes me just as long to figure out how to get a feature in it to work as intended as it takes me to code the entire thing from scratch, and b) I run into some restrictions that make what I want impossible.

Now while I am open to about anything that has fthe full power of a programming language, and would even take flash, I do definitely NOT want to study the theory and use of it, skim long manuals, or spend ages installing awkwardly distributed bits of software and trying to get them to work together to get a hello world by the end of the year.

I want a working example that does the basics of what I need, and go from there.

So,
Can anybody provide an easily available browser-based coding environment with code that does this:If you can, we will use it for that game.
If noone can, it will be BASIC. Forever.

Thank you very much.

Well from what I can see this is easily do-able in Flash, especially in Actionscript 2.0. (since that's simpler than 3.0 and easily works for what you wish to do with it. Though 2.0 is limited in case you want to go really deep with the scripting.)
You can set up textboxes and movieclips, link them to the script (by giving them a callfunction name in properties like: "mc_itembar" or "txt_roomcounter")
Then you just place them on the stage in whichever fashion you want to, you add an extra layer for the script, right-click the empty keyframe and write the script to make everything work the way it's supposed to and presto!
(Well okay it still takes some time to get used to Actionscript if you're not familiar with that but once you know how everything works the rest is just straightforeward)

As Billy said, Flash and Actionscript are likely your best bet. That, or try to tackle one of the HTML 5 and Java based engines that are floating around the interwebs. The trick then would be finding a freeware one, or a commercial one you liked that didn't cost too much.

And when Blue says we agreed, he means he agreed for me. Oh, Those Raptors™!

I would rather put the story and action more in something like RPG Maker('s latest VX Ace XYZ PDQ PG-13 version), and then be able to concentrate solely on mechanics, gameplay, graphics and story, but Blue's got a very definitive game concept that he won't be happy doing it in any "environment" unless he has full Raptorian™ control over all aspects of everything.

But he's doing all the work (I'll just be "allowed" to "tinker" with some of the graphics, and be "directed" as to what the sound and music should be, I'm sure ), so it's not like I'm complaining or anything. I'm just saying that raptors do everything the hard way.

Thank you.

If noone can provide what I asked for though, I won't start looking into it.

I'm not entirely certain what engine or programming language is behind the new indie game Dark Scavenger, but the pointing, clicking and number-decrement systems appear to be very close to what you are looking for.

Granted, the turn-based battle system feels ripped straight from RPG Maker, but much like branching paths in exploration, the developers claim it is entirely possible to complete the entire game without entering a single combat. Hell's bells, I'm willing to buy and beat this game just to accomplish that.

Just so you know, Blue's said on Faibanx that he's offended that you didn't address his need more directly. Oh, Those Raptors™!

Man, I took a look at the latest RPG Maker, and it's a lot more work than I thought. Was hoping for an easy win.

Try this one maybe ?

http://www.engine001.com/

Well, I think even I have officially given up on DarkBASIC Professional. It's too sandy and flakey to be trustworthy. If only the company would rebuild it from scratch with all the goofy add-ons integrated and with more generic and stable DirectX support, it'd be a viable option, but...ah, well. Just can't stick by a program that requires the end users to jump through hoops to get running.

So as sad as it makes me, DBPro is Forever Alone™. Blue's not wasting any more time on it for this AZ game, and I'm not even considering it for Faibanx 3D anymore. Makes me sad, but fuck it, drive on!

However, on a related note, Blitz3D -- while not having all the bells and whistles of DBPro in the 3D arena -- is lean, tight, and the shit just works, even on newer, 64-bit Windows OS's.* Funny, it's what I used to make the only model/flyby demo of Faibanx 3D (then called 'Stomp Stomp Devastation'). Anyway, I still own a license to it as well, so I just tossed it Blue's way so he can work on AZ:A (Absolute Zero: Aftershock) with it instead. Who knows, I might dick with it s'more as well.


* I think it's because Blitz3D uses OpenGL on the backend, which is a lot more version agnostic...DBPro seems to be hard-coded to a particular flavor of DirectX pretty damned tightly.

I abandoned DarkBASIC Pro ages ago since it was basically build with the old fashioned Basic scripting language in mind and it feels rather limited.
It's easy getting things to work but as soon as you try to go deeper and wish to expand on a project it seems like DBP just decides to give up, leaving you with a messy and buggy prototype of 'what could have been'.

It was a nice idea making a 3d game creation program that uses a simple scripting language, it's just badly executed.

Well, it took no time at all to get Blue's game converted to work in BlitzMax. Of course, *I* had to do most of the work, but there you go. I decided to buy a license of BlitzMax 'cause he can easily port his game to Mac or Linux. It even has 3D support, not that he's gonna need it.

And as for BASIC...well, don't get me started here. I'm about to make a whole 'nother website dedicated to my philosophies of programming.

Oh, I'll mention that I've also peed away money on new music toys, so I hope to have some background/mood music for Blue's game very soon.

If you need QA, let me know. I am a professional!

Just as an update to the thing:
Dino and I successfully ported the DBpro code to that Blitzmax, which does work on Dino's windows now and actually seems indeed to be better.
Here is also a first concept impression of what we, or I, had in mind, so you have something to look at.


Apparently people do not read what I write, but still: This is just a concept doodle to give an impression. There is no point in asking why something looks like it does, or whether it would be cooler to make that one box look different or commenting on a color or lack of graphics skill.
It's just to give an impression.

Can't go wrong with a trusty crowbar. ^^