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July 21, 2004
 TWIGZ Engine is Complete
Shattered Realm Productions' ambitious point-and-click adventure engine is finally finished!
Point-and-click adventure games have not been the most popular format for up and coming QB game programmers, but Shattered Realm Productions' new release hopes to change all that. On July 14th, Shattered Realm released the TWIGZ Engine, which "was designed as a tribute to the greatest adventure game series of all time, the Monkey Island series."
The TWIGZ Engine is a "SCUMM" engine, based on the engine created by LucasArts in 1987 for their adventure game, Maniac Mansion. (SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion.)
The SCUMM Engine developed by LucasArts allowed game designers to quickly and easily create massive point-and-click worlds without having to worry about the nuts-and-bolts programming that made the game actually work. Shattered Realm's TWIGZ Engine has been designed to achieve the same type of simple user interface so that users can create their own adventure games without having to figure out complicated programming routines on their own. Now it will be possible for games like Maniac Mansion, Escape From Monkey Island or the Sam and Max series to be created in QB, even by those with little programming experience.
Below you'll find the Shattered Realm's press release about the TWIGZ Engine Release:
The TWIGZ Engine has been completed. The TWIGZ Engine is a QBasic and ASM programmed replica of the LucasArts SCUMM Engine. The engine has been released as part of a Software Development Kit (SDK) so any and all users who wish to make their own adventure games can.
You can supply all customs graphics and text. The engine supports all of the following:
-Custom Scripting Engine
-Costume files for on-the-fly character animations
-Completely customizable GUI
-100% Flexibility
-Shortest Path finding algorithm based on connectivity matricies
-On-the-fly sprite scaling routine for 3-D feel
-Powered by T*LiB (our Custom programming library designed solely for this project)
-Much more
You can download our Twigz Game (a compltely functioning demo of the engine to see all of its capabilities) at Shattered Realm Productions.
The TWIGZ Engine was released with a simple three-area demo, meant to show off the power and flexibility of the game engine. Using the TWIGZ scripting routines, game developers can easily create their own point-and-click adventure, essentially run through a QB program. This begs the question, though: are programs run on the TWIGZ Engine truly QB games, or are they in an entirely different league, since they're just interpreted by a QB program?
What remains to be seen is whether the QB Community will embrace this ambitious engine and start making and sharing game programs. Certainly the potential for great games is there, but is the fan dedication?
To find out more about the TWIGZ Engine, visit Shattered Realm Productions.
Submitted by
Pete
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