CraigD asked me to say a little about how to make your own games. As a Sludge fanatic, I don't need asking twice!
I've been thinking about making my own game for years. It's more of a book than a game, but you can wander about and do stuff, and it runs on a computer, so I call it a game. Five years ago I learned how to program (C++) and began, but programming from scratch was taking too long, so two years ago I decided to use a ready-made engine. I chose
Sludge for the several reasons:
1. My game involves exploring, solving problems, and a lot of dialog, so the adventure game format is the obvious choice.
2. The easiest way to make an adventure game if you've never programmed is to use AGS, but it is too hand holding for my needs. My game has thousands of variables and over 100 thousand strings, and needs to run quickly at a reasonable resolution, so AGS wasn't really an option.
3. There are other game engines, but Sludge appeals to me for various reasons. Technically, I like the demo product (Out of Order), I liked the attitude of the the creator and the user community, and it's lean and flexible. If you've done any kind of programming - even HTML - you should find it fairly easy.
Some Sludge background: as you may have guessed, it's inspired by Scumm (of LucasArts fame - Monkey Island, etc.) Tim Furnish created it as part of a computer course, and has been improving it ever since. It's not as beginner-friendly or feature-rich as AGS, but for a big game like mine it was the only choice. Although it was designed for adventure games, it's flexible enough to adapt it for any 2D format.
Anyway, if you've ever wanted to make your own games, and basic programming doesn't scare you, I strongly recommend Sludge. Visit the website, download the files, experiment with changing the example programs, and before you know it you're creating our own worlds!
Most games are just for fun, but in my opinion the adventure format is ideal for serious topics - you can see things, do things, talk to people in great depth, and generally explore ideas. My game is pretty serious (though there is a fun side as well - too serious is no fun), and it requires a lot of custom coding, but Sludge is more than up to the job.
Finally, a word of reality. Anything worthwhile takes time. Drawing backgrounds takes time. Writing dialog takes time. Creating sprites takes time. Learning the basics takes time. If you want something quick and fun, you can cut corners, but if you want something worthwhile, be prepared to put in the hours. That's why the shareware fee ($50) is not really an issue. Compared with the time it takes to make a decent game, $50 is nothing. And you don't have to pay the fee until you are seriously committed - all the essential features are available in the free version you download.
Well that's it. Find Sludge at
http://www.hungrysoftware.com/, a little bit about my game is at
http://www.zaksite.co.uk/chris/chris.htm, or if you want to compare Adventure Game Studio, just Google it. Enjoy!
