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Introduction
   Program Overview
   List of Features
   What's New

Creating software without scripting
   Getting Started Tutorials
   Some Techniques and Tips
   Creating puzzles without scripting
   Creating third person games
   Creating interactive 360-degree panoramas
   Creating software for PSP
   Creating software for iPhone and iPod touch

Creating software with VBScript
(Full Edition only)
   Introduction to VBScript
   Language Reference
   Objects Reference
   VBScript Techniques and Tips
   Sample Source Code

Pictures, sounds and music
   => Creating Pictures
   Music Maker help
   Creative Painter quick help
   Sounds and Music
   Videos, Icons, Cursors

Plugins (Full Edition only)
   Overview of the Plugins System
   Downloading/Uploading Plugins
   The Plugin Properties window
   About the Flash Plugin

Tips
   User Interface Tips
   Reducing the project size
   End-User System Requirements

Advanced tutorials
(Full Edition only)
   Creating a custom startup menu
   Using ActiveX components (ocx)

Troubleshooting
   Common issues and solutions
   Known bugs and limitations

About us
   Credits
   Website
   Contacting us
   Helping out

"iPhone" and "iPod" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Inc. "PSP" is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

As of the release date of this version, Adventure Maker is NOT affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc., Sony Corporation, SCEI, or any Apple or Sony subsidiary.

I. Overview

In addition to creating software for Windows, Adventure Maker Free Edition (v4.1 or newer) is capable of creating software that can be played on the PSP (firmware 2.x or newer). No scripting or programming is required. The created software is safe HTML-based software that does not require any system modification or hack of any kind.

Adventure Maker is able to generate an installer for the PSP, so that the software is copied locally to the PSP memory card and runs without an Internet connection (more details in section III.).

What you can create with this version of Adventure Maker is any software that involves static pictures, pre-rendered animations, and simple point-and-click puzzles. Here are some examples:

- first-person adventure games
- interactive magazines
- interactive visits (museums, sites...)
- trivia games
- educational software
- tour guides
- interactive presentations and brochures
- interactive comics
- other point-and-click software

For example, take photos of your house, and let people visit it by clicking on the doors and on other hotspots. Or, create a tour guide (of a museum, a site, or a shop), and tell people to bring the PSP with them when visiting the site, so that they can get more information on what they see. Or, make some hand drawings, and then create an interactive comic. Or, create an interactive magazine. And so on... You will find many more ideas by having a look at the games created by other people.

Please note that NOT all the features of Adventure Maker are currently supported. Unlike the compiler for Windows, the compiler for PSP does not allow you to create 360-degree interactive panoramas or third-person games. Many other features are also currently not supported (audio, inventory, savegames... read the section "what features are supported?" below for more information), but it is possible that they will be supported in future updates of Adventure Maker.

II. Are there examples of created games?

Yes, there are many free games and demos created with Adventure Maker that are available for download. Just visit the following page:
http://www.adventuremaker.com/games.htm

Those are compiled games, meaning that you can play them, but you cannot see how they were actually created.

To see what the source of a game looks like, you should have a look at the sample game that is included in the Adventure Maker package. It is called "Sample game for PSP" (or "Portable game demo"), and you can open it by doing the following:

1. Launch Adventure Maker (Free Edition)
2. Click "Load Project..."
3. Click "Jump to the projects folder"
4. Select "Sample game for PSP"
5. Click OK.

That sample game was specially created for the PSP, meaning that you can directly compile it (just click "Compile" from the Project Menu), and play it on the PSP.

Note: You will notice that the Adventure Maker package also contains several other sample games. Those games are designed for Windows or for other platforms, and therefore they cannot be compiled for the PSP.

III. How can I create my own game?

Creating a game with Adventure Maker is very simple. You don't need to know any programming language, because everything is done with mouse clicks.

Before starting using Adventure Maker, you should think of what type of game you want to create, and you should create the images for it.

For example, if you want to create an adventure game inside your house, you should take photos of your rooms. If you want to create a sci-fi adventure game, you should create 3D-rendered graphics, or make some drawings (if you decide to do so, make sure to try out the free utility called "Creative Painter" included in the Adventure Maker package). More ideas for creating pictures are available on the creating pictures page.

Once you have your pictures, you can start using Adventure Maker to put them together. The general steps are very simple (for a more detailed tutorial, read the section "complete tutorial for creating your first game" below):

1. Start Adventure Maker,
2. Create a new project,
3. A window will appear asking you to choose the "target platform" (see screenshot below). Make sure to select "PSP" before clicking OK:

4. Import your pictures (by clicking "Create New Frames"),
5. Edit the newly created frames by double-clicking on the corresponding thumbnails, and add hotspots to link them to one another,
6. Optionally, create puzzles with hotspots being enabled or disabled and pictures being hidden or shown depending on the value of some variables (read the next section for details),
7. Go to the Project Properties and choose the "initial frame" (i.e. the first picture that appears when the game starts),
8. Click "COMPILE for PSP".

The compiler will generate a set of files that you can redistribute for free (if you are using Adventure Maker Free Edition), or for profit (if you have purchased the "Full Edition for commercial-use").

Among the generated files, you will notice that there is a Setup.exe file. It automatically detects the PSP, and installs the software on it (to see it in action, download a sample compiled game). The Setup file requires the VB6 runtimes to run, but these are included by default in Windows XP, so you don't need to distribute them. For older operating systems, you may want to link to this page, which contains an updated link to a place where people can download the VB6 runtimes (1MB).

Legal note: If you plan to make money with the software that you have created (directly - through sales - or indirectly - through advertising for example), be sure to buy "Adventure Maker Full Edition for Commercial Use" registered at your name. You cannot use the Free Edition to make money.

For a more detailed tutorial, please read the section "complete tutorial for creating your first game".

IV. How can I create simple puzzles?

To create simple puzzles, you can use the two options that are under the "Variables" tab of the "Hotspot Properties", which allow you for each hotspot to:

• change the value of one or more variables when the player clicks on the hotspot,

• enable/disable the hotspot (if the hotspot is transparent) or show/hide the hotspot (if the hotspot contains a picture) depending on the value of one or more variables.

Surprisingly enough, with only those two simple options it is possible to create puzzles as complicate as those found in most commercial first-person adventure games. You just need to spend a few minutes getting used to them. Try experimenting with them, and try also understanding how the sample game included in the package works.

V. What features are supported?

This is what you CAN do with the current version of the compiler for PSP:

- Move from frame to frame.
- Display cursors
- Use variables to create puzzles (all the options under the "variables" tab of the Hotspot Properties are supported).
- Use both transparent and graphical hotspots.
- Display text messages at the bottom of the screen.
- Use timers to go to another frame after X seconds (from the Frame Properties window).
- Use animated GIF's.

This is what you CANNOT do with the current version of the compiler for PSP

- Play sounds
- Use the inventory (instead, you can use a variable to remember whether the item was picked up or not: see the sample game for an example)
- Create savegames
- Play videos (use animated GIF's instead)
- Display text at any position of the frame (the text that you create by right-clicking on a frame)
- Use VBScript
- Use plugins (3rd person plugin, panoramas, etc.)
- All the other advanced features.

VI. Complete tutorial for creating your first game

This tutorial will use the three following pictures that are included in the Adventure Maker package, inside the "Tutorial Graphics" folder of Adventure Maker:

1. Run Adventure Maker v4.1 or newer (any edition).

2. Click "New Project...".

3. Enter a project name and then click OK.

4. An "information" window will appear. Click Continue to close the information window.

5. A window will appear asking you to choose the "target platform". Select "PSP" and then click OK, as shown in the following screenshot:

6. An "information" window will appear. Click Continue to close the information window.

7. The Frames Management window will appear. Click "Create New Frames (by importing pictures)", as shown in the following screenshot:

8. A file selection window will popup. Make sure that the current folder is "Tutorial Graphics" (located inside the Adventure Maker folder). Then select the three following files (you must select all of them at once):

- House_Near.jpg
- House_Far.jpg
- House_Very_Far.jpg

Note: to select the three files, you can hold down the Ctrl key while single-clicking on them.

Make sure that the three files are selected, and then click the Open button to continue.

9. You will see several of the following questions, one for each of the imported picture:

Make sure to always click "Yes" when such a question pops up. Normally, the question should pop up three times, because you are importing three pictures.

10. Three thumbnails should have appeared inside the Frames Management window. Double-click the thumbnail named "House_Very_Far":

11. The picture of the island with the sea should appear. In order to create a new hotspot, create a selection over the island. The selection should have the size of the island.

Note: to create a selection, just draw a rectangle as if you were using a drawing utility (hold down the left mouse button, drag, and then release the button), as shown in the following screenshot:

12. The "Hotspot Properties" window will appear. To choose the appearance of the mouse pointer when the player moves it over the island, click the button "Click here to change..." under the text "Cursor when over the hotspot".

13. A cursor selection window will pop up. Double-click the icon named "p_up1.ico".

14. You will be brought back to the "Hotspot Properties" window. Now click the option "Go to another frame" that is under the "Hyperlink" section.

15. The frame selection window will appear (if it does not appear automatically, click the button "Click to choose a frame..."). Single-click on the thumbnail named "House_Far" in order to create the hyperlink.

16. Now click OK to close the "Hotspot Properties" window.

17. Click the link "Go back to project menu" that is at the top-left corner of the screen, as show in the following screenshot:

18. Now double-click the thumbnail named "House_Far", and do the same as you did with the frame "House_Very_Far" (repeat exactly the steps 12, 13, 14 and 15).

19. The goal is to create a hotspot that allows getting closer to the house. So, this time, when the frame selection window appears, single-click on the thumbnail named "House_Near" (instead of single-clicking on the thumbnail named "House_Far" as you did at step 16).

20. Click OK to close the "Hotspot Properties" window.

21. Click the link "Go back to project menu" that is at the top-left corner of the screen.

22. In order to choose which picture must appear when the game starts, click "Project Properties...", and then select "House_Very_Far" under the "initial frame" section:

Then click OK to close the "Project Properties" window.

23. Click "Run Project (Start)..." to test your game. You can move towards the house by clicking on the house.

24. To quit the game, you can either press Ctrl+Q, or click "Exit" from the menu at the top of the game area.

NOTE: In order to be able to walk backward (currently you can only walk forward), you should create some large hotspots at the bottom of each picture, and link them to the parent pictures.

25. Now click "COMPILE for PSP" to create a package that is ready for distribution:

26. You will be asked to choose the folder where you want to save the compiled files. For example, choose the desktop, and click OK.

27. Wait for the compilation to finish. When the compilation is finished, you should see the following message:

Click "Open with explorer" to see the compiled files.

28. The files are ready for distribution. In order to easily distribute them on the Internet, it is recommended that you compress them into a ZIP archive.

This is the end of the tutorial.

To advertise your games for free on the games page of Adventure Maker website, please feel free to tell us about them.

VII. Two pictures that you can use in your software

In order to tell the users how to play the software, please feel free to include the two following pictures in your software (click "Create New Frames..." to import them into Adventure Maker, and then create hotspots over the text "Click here to continue" in order to create hyperlinks). You can also modify them with a program such as Paint, to better fit your needs.

VIII. Example of "Readme" file for your software

When you distribute your software, it is recommended that you include a text file named "_Readme.txt" that contains some useful information about the software.

Below is an example of typical "_Readme.txt" file. Please feel free to copy/paste it into a new text document, and to modify it to fit your needs (replace "MY_SOFTWARE" with the name of your software):

IX. Legal

"PSP" is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

As of the release date of this version, Adventure Maker is NOT affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Sony, SCEI, or any other Sony subsidiary.