[Audyssey] a few thoughts about what audio game maker couldcause

[AudioGames.net]

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