A Game for the AG(e)S

I'm a big fan of the classic point-and-click adventure games for the PC, e.g. Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, King's Quest 6, etc. I'm also scrambling to build some game design experience, since I didn't decide I wanted to do it until halfway through my sophomore year of college.

Enter Energy Crisis -- or as I like to call it, killing two birds with one stone. There's a nifty little engine out on the Interwebs called Adventure Game Studio, which allows anyone with a few resources at their side to build their own point-and-click. And so my little amateur project was born.

I had been tossing the idea around for Energy Crisis a couple of months by the time my friend Alex introduced me to AGS, so coming up with an idea wouldn't be the problem. What I needed was someone to design the puzzles, the dialogue, art, music and then someone who could handle the basic scripting to incorporate all of these elements into the engine.

Currently I've been handling everything except a lot of the scripting and artwork, because I'm a mediocre programmer and an even worse artist.

Right-click here and select "Save Link As" to download an early build, or do the same on the image above.

Not Your Average Spring Break

It’s the end of Spring Break in 2138. College freshman Ty Taylor’s parents left on vacation, leaving the house with their son for the week.

Ty is a bored and rather jaded youth, and who can blame him? LA's a hick town in the middle of nowhere. An embargo on switchgrass and electricity causes constant rolling blackouts. The beautiful Shannon, the love of his life, moved to Fairbanks the year before. She wants him to come visit her at the University of Alaska this week, but the train loses juice barely an inch out of the station. Ty’s parents took the family HydroCar. Shannon's apartment may have been invaded by ecoterrorists -- or worse, a fraternity. What’s a lovestruck youth to do?

And then he sees it. The Petersen Automotive Museum’s latest acquisition: A riced-up Toyota Tercel -- “circa late 20th century,” according to the security guard. What a strange, exotic beast. The guard asks Ty to help him move it, and maybe he'll give him a lift.

And then the engine roars to life. Impossible -- gasoline hasn't been refined in decades. Ty's mere touch of the steering wheel breathes new life into an archaic relic. Nothing to do except get in and hang on.

And so, with the police on his tail and no guarantee how long the car will keep running, Ty makes his way north to rescue his beloved. It certainly won’t be easy. He’ll have to face everything from beautiful renegade hippies to paranoid federal agents to radioactive bears to a very annoying taxi driver.

How did Ty develop this ability? Is he a blessing or a curse? Will he stay faithful to Shannon? Can Shannon stay faithful to him? And for heaven’s sake, will he ever be able to get back before school starts?

Crisis Management

I envision Energy Crisis as episodic content, divided into six installments. Each episode is a new day on Ty's chaotic road trip. A lot of the puzzles are based around Ty's "Power of Power," manipulating old machinery from before America launched the Green Project, swapping oil for switchgrass, solar panels and hydrogen.

I wanted to combine the feeling The Oregon Trail gave you of traveling a long distance, with the gameplay of my beloved old Lucasarts and Sierra point-and-clicks. The narrative itself takes inspiration from comedies like Road Trip, with some satire of our society's -- as well as my own, heh -- current hysteria over global warming.

Life After Global Warming

Partially based around my own interest in the environment, the entire game is set in the year 2138.

In many ways, life isn't too different from what we're accustomed to in 2008, except the effects of climate change have been felt full-tilt. Subpolar Alaska became temperate, and with that a population boom. Fairbanks is now one of the largest cities west of the Mississippi.

California has reverted to miles of open desert -- an American Outback. The state has fallen on hard times, what with most of the youth leaving upon reaching college age and many of the state's economic staples moving to the economic strongholds of British Columbia and Alaska.

It's all pretty ambitious, I'll admit -- half homage to movies like Road Trip and half satire of our society's current global warming hysteria. But I intend on seeing the project all the way through, in some shape or form. Keep an eye out on this page for updates to the game as they come

Release Date

TBA

Status

*7/5: New build added for the screen outside Ty's house

(Top and Bottom: Early concept art for some of the characters)

(Middle: Uncolored panel for outside Ty's house in Episode One)