is SCUMMVM looking for an source game creation tool?

[Longcat]

Heh. I don't even know where to begin in replying to that. So I won't.

Keep it up prettyboy. Rest assure, trolling is rewarded by bans around here.
I won't tell you again.

[KuroShiro]

Kind of pathetic signing up to troll a months old post. Oh well, whatever floats your boat.

Also, omae no okusan o buta to yondara, buta no waruguchi ni naru.

You seem like a lovely fellow and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

[sev]

moderatorial: ReasonableVoice, you gained two warnings here. Next one is permanent ban.

[ReasonableVoice]

Calm down guv I can see where I'm not wanted.

But surely Herr Moderator, you realise you're 'advising' people on things already covered in the FAQ. I also know for a fact I'm not the only corsair on this thing. But that just can't be news to you, eh?

One thing I did have trouble understanding... Do you disagree with pirating software... Or is it just taboo on this forum? A way of keeping things hush hush? 4.99 for Broken Sword might be a good deal on the face of it, but it's a very old game. Outdated in fact. To the point where its own genre is verging on extinction. The last bastion of point-click 2D 'adventure' games may well be scumVM. Surely asking 4.99 for a game as old-fashioned as marbles is a con?

In any case, I've said my piece. If you take into account the extent of the ignorance of the majority of users, you'll be able to cut down the amount of time you spend answering mundane questions. None of these questions help with any further development of scumVM, surely.

I'd best be off; I'll be playing Broken Sword tonight I think, and I'll spare a thought for Jobsworth the king of the morons.

Gentlemen, once again - I wash my hands of this weirdness!

[NLS]

...10 years later...

Would the ScummVM community be interested in a proven adventure game creation tool becoming open source? This is my first post, so forgive me if I misunderstand the situation.

According to a recent thread on the AGS forums, some people here on ScummVM were hoping that AGS could become open source, so that AGS games could run on multiple platforms via SCUMMVM. I couldn't find the thread in question, do forgive me for starting this new one.

AGS developers were excited about this, but Chris Jones (the creator and king of AGS) said he can't make AGS open source due to private promises made to commercial users of AGS, though he left other possibilities open (e.g. an AGS-lite or something).

Anyhow, is it true? Is there a general interest in making SCUMMVM compatible with an established freeware game creation tool? Or is AGS a special case due to the large back catalog of AGS games?

It seems to me that if SCUMMVM supported a game creation tool, even an obscure one, it would attract a lot of developers to make new games, in order to gain cross platform support. Which brings us to Sludge and today's bombshell announcement.

I'm a great fan of Hungry Software's Sludge development kit. It's an excellent set of tools, as seen from the various Sludge games. It's also relatively simple. It does not use DirectX or DLLs (except for a sound engine), so it works well in emulators, and should be relatively simple to port to other systems. Last year Tim Furnish (its creator) made the engine freeware. He's becoming busier and busier in his real-world job, so doesn't have the time to devote to Sludge any more. A few of us dedicated Sludge users suggested that he make it open source.

So here is the point of this post: Today Tim said yes, he does plan on making "Open Sludge" when he gets the time.

Wow! My immediate thought was "what if Sludge was adopted by ScummVM - a match made in heaven!" Like the song says, Sludge and Scumm.... Scumm and Sludge... go together like a horse and carriage..."

Please note that I have no authority to speak for Tim or anyone else. All I know is what he said today. I just thought people over here might be interested.

I am a great fan of both Sludge and ScummVM, so an Open Source cross-platform Sludge would be a dream come true. But I wonder what other people think? Is there any demand for it? If Tim goes ahead and makes Open Sludge, would anyone care enough to work on it? Do the ScummVM folks really want to attract new game developers? Am I wrong to think that an interest in AGS could transfer to an interest in other engines? Was the interest in AGS blown out of proportion?

[samlii]

...10 years later...

Wow interesting how these things get brought back up.

I am guessing this is more of a time/resource thing. We do now have other engines (SCI, Wintermute) and sludge has been open sourced (https://opensludge.github.io/.)
But as I am neither a developer on this project or have any real interest in the sludge engine, I can't really say what the future holds.