Hi people! I've been following this thread with much interest and I'm glad with many of your posts, both those filled with enthousiasm for our project as well as those questioning parts of it. Unfortunately I haven't got the time to reply all of your posts but I'd like to say a few things:
First of all, Audio Game Maker is an experiment. Fact is that there is a bigger demand for audio games than there are audio games in existance. Another fact is that many people would like to have a go at making an audio game themselves but when faced with the challenges of game development, especially the the technical side to game development like programming, only a few brave souls make it. Audio Game Maker is intended as a solution for this problem and focus on the more fun side of game development, such as quickly turning your idea into a game. It is absolutely true that at some point you will have an idea for something in a game and that when you try to execute that idea in Audio Game Maker, you find that it isn't possible. In all of my experience with computers, I haven't encountered a single application where I couldn't think of something that would improve it. It's all the same for Audio Game Maker - there simply isn't an application which allows you to do "everything". Not for game development, not for word-processing, not for audio-editing, etc. The only solution to execute your specific idea is to start writing your own game in code. Many people have already posted about this, so I won't press this issue. But I wanted to repeat it, since it makes all the difference in the world. So where does this leave Audio Game Maker - where you are (fact) limited in what you can build? I believe, even with the limitations of the application, that Audio Game Maker can contribute a great deal to the field of audio games. First of all, I think that 'limitation stimulates creativity'. Many ideas for audio games that I read here are based on existing games, with only a change of narrative, but which still incorporate the same game mechanics. Since Audio Game Maker might not feature the functionality that allows you to rebuilt exactly the same game functionality of another game so you are forced to either use a clever work-around or change your idea. And this might lead to an even better, more original idea which might even be more fun. Of course Audio Game Maker should allow you with enough functionality to get somewhere. But I think it does :) Audio Game Maker is also an experiment in the sense that it is the first time that something like this has been tried. So far I haven't heard of a similar project/product. I know about RPG Game Engine and Audio Adventure Engine and so forth (please see http://www.audiogames.net/page.php?pagefile=links under "Audio Game Development Tools") but those focused on specific genres of games, so to say. Therefore it is still a big question what an 'audio game maker' should consists of (of which functionality). Time will tell and hopefully we can continue improving Audio Game Maker over the next couple of years. For this we do need your feedback, though!! Audio Game Maker is also an experiment in the sense that we don't know how it will impact the field of audio games. I hope that the community will see through Audio Game Maker's initial flaws and get their teeth in. I hope that many people will start co-operating on making games and sharing games. I can already tell you that Sander and I are already working on "online game sharing community"-functionality either for www.audiogames.net or to http://www.audiogamemaker.com . Kind of like YouTube, but then for games ;) . I personally don't think Audio Game Maker will put current audio game developers out of business. Instead, there will simply be "professional" games as well as "home-made" games, two categories that already exist for many years in this field. What is boils down to is probably this: most folks here are interested in games as a form of entertainment, aimed to fill leisure time with an interactive activity that is fun and exciting. Audio Game Maker provides you with a variety of tools to build interactive activities that are fun and exciting. You have to add the fun and excitement yourself. Maybe not every interactive activity can be achieved - no: you cannot use a webcam, microphone, joystick, wiimote or mouse as an input device in Audio Game Maker, no: you cannot build realtime multiplayer games that work over the internet with Audio Game Maker, no: you cannot create real-time online hiscore tables for a website, no: the sound library will not contain a sound sample of everything that can be recorded, etc. - but you can certainly create a fun game, like yes: you can create a ghost world where you roam free and have to hunt down the 13 ghosts before the bell of the old church tolls ;) Greets, Richard _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. [email protected] To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web.
