Hello - 2D top-down adventure

[Cevo70]

Hello everyone,

I am just getting my project off the ground and my friend pointed me in the direction of this website.  I've been exploring, and it's fun as hell,  but I don't see many top-down (i.e. The Legend of Zelda) style games akin to what I am looking to do.

I was wondering if there was an authoring program that was best suited for that type of game?   

I'll do some searching, but I just wanted to post that in case someone had a quick answer for me...

Thanks!

[ad7venture]

Those are actually rpg's, so you'll need an rpg maker.  There's a list here.  I think some of the links are dead, though.  Good luck.

[Cevo70]

Thank you sir - interesting.   I guess how I can see it being more RPG than Adventure - appreciate the clarification.

[Erwin_Br]

I think most adventure engines are more than capable of building RPG games. The two genres are the same, interface-wise.

--Erwin

[ad7venture]

They won't do the infinitely scrolling map. 

[Erwin_Br]

They won't do the infinitely scrolling map. 

You're right about the map. Forgot that one. Of course it could be coded in, if you pick a versatile engine like Wintermute. Even AGS might be able to handle it.

--Erwin

[Cevo70]

Yeah it's the map/background that I was worried about too.   It's not "infinate" per say but it would certainly have to scroll as the player moved.

[NigeC]

You could do it with a combination of Flash and Lassie for the map.. i just thought of a way lol.. dunno how you'd handle fighting tho.. you'd probably have to do a turn based thing like Final Fantasy 9 (i think) totally Flash

[ad7venture]

Yeah it's the map/background that I was worried about too.   It's not "infinate" per say but it would certainly have to scroll as the player moved.

Most adventure game engines allow some scrolling.  It's mostly a question of how much texture memory you can use.  rpg's reuse a lot of things and so they can get away with larger scrolls.  Also, like Erwin said, you could do something of your own where you were constantly replacing sprites as the screen scrolled.  At least I think you could, but it's something built into rpg engines.

I know one pretty popular one with multiplayer is Arianne

http://arianne.sourceforge.net/?arianne_url=content/about

However, you need to be careful with that kind of thing because it tends to be a lot more than what most single developers can handle.  There are a few that actually manage to get a game out, but it's a small percentage of the ones that try to do it.  A single author really has to consider scope, especially if you're inexperienced.  If you're inexperienced and starting out on an rpg, your odds are virtually nil of finishing.  That engine has been out for a long time so take a look at how many finished projects have been made with it, then go over to AGS and see how many finished games have been made with it.

[rock_chick]

A great program to make single player rpgs that doesn't cost anything is RPG Toolkit. http://www.toolkitzone.com/toolkit.php
I have also used it briefly but it does a good job at what it's designed to do.
It has a decent size community, many starter packs as such and programs made to make making a game with it easier. The style of games made with it are generally that of old school rpgs, think early version of Final Fantasy.