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« on: June 05, 2004, 08:16:05 AM »
I wouldn't be talking to G4TechTV to have SCI Studio on again. Sure, on G4 or the Screen Savers it would have received more publicity, but I believe that the SCI development community is about as big as it would ever be. There are indeed lots of people who still enjoy and play the SCI games, but very few people with the motivation to actually make games in SCI Studio. Going all the way down to LA to promote SCI Studio again would be a lost cause. I paid for it all out of my own pocket, the airfare, hotel, etc.
It's unfortunate, but most people just don't have motivation or patience to finish their game, and it's very clear if you check how many people have actually made SCI games. It isn't just SCI of course, it's all homebrew games in general.
I know people are awaiting SCI Studio 4 for VGA games, and it will be done eventually. It's still under development, but as you all know, the progress is slow right now due to it not being a top priority. I have other more important things I must be working on right now. I've been in the AGI&SCI dev community for seven years now, and the community just keeps getting smaller. I know that there are many of you out there wanting SS4, but honestly, there aren't _that_ many of you that justifies losing sleep and taking too much time out of other things to get it done right away.
The first SCI Studio I released only worked with graphics. It wasn't in huge use, but I "knew" once I did a script compiler, people would start making games. I sacrificed more sleep and school work than I can remember to finish it, but still, people weren't making games. Well, it "must have been" because it contained no template game, just a script compiler. So, I "knew" once I finished the template game, people would being making games. I spent ages disassembling and coding the entire template game, with full documentation, created a very in depth tutorial. Yet still, very few people make games with it.
SCI Studio 2.1, which contained the script compiler and full documentation has been out for two years now. How many games have been made in SCI Studio?
I now DO KNOW, that sacrificing more years of my life to finish SCI Studio 4 with the VGA support will not create a boom of homebrew SCI games. I finally see the light! I'll finish it, so that it's finished, but know that finishing it won't start massive flow of new SCI games.
Many people claim that they aren't making SCI (EGA) games because they are waiting to make VGA games. This is true for a couple of people, I know, who do have the motivation and dedication, and have already started artwork and story. However, the rest, I do not believe would make VGA games when SS4 is released. Why do I know this? Well, because I repeatedly tell them that SCI VGA games use the same scripting language, syntax, and are basically EGA games with a point and click engine. I tell them to start in EGA, learn it, make a little game, so when VGA comes out, they will be able to start right away. However, they don't. If they don't have the motivation to learn SCI now, they very likely won't when VGA comes out.
If I started seeing 15-20 complete SCI EGA games done and released, I'd be very likely to put the extra effort in to finish SCI Studio 4 quicker. However, I highly doubt this will happen. I need to work and do other things now. Most of my coding now is either for work, or something I truly want to code, for myself.
Four years were put into the eventual SCI Studio 3.0. The result of SCI Studio with a template game and full documentation being released two years ago? About as many complete games as I could count on one hand, and a bunch more politically incorrect demos about people such as Osama. I'm all for free speach and what not, and people can make games about whatever they want, but when four years of work goes into development, and that's all there's to show for it, it's not very motivating to say the least.
I've enjoyed all the work I did on SCI Studio, and all I learned from it. It's always been about creating games though, and I just don't see enough use to force myself to get it done right away. If it were a commercial program, it would have been out of business long ago. I can't sacrifice my life and lose hundreds more hours of sleep for a handful of loyal users.
15-20 games... is that really too much to expect? Since that's only an additional 10-15 (when I count short "complete" games). Five years of work on a development system to see 15-20 homebrew games created with it? I really don't think that's much to expect at all.
So, I guess the moral of the story is that from expeince, another version of SCI Studio won't really cause many more SCI games to be created, since two years == about 5 games. If I did see a number of more complete games springing up though, you could change my mind.
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I just don't want people leaving the "By Brian Provinciano" as the author of their game.