Free Adventure Construction Kit

This picture shows independent, trembling lights. The fireplace is turned on, whereas the lamp is turned off. The light of the fireplace is trembling (of course you cannot see that from a still picture).

The lamp is now turned on. The lamp light is merging with the light of the fireplace. Notice the difference in the shadows of the armchairs, table, and the wall. Also, if the picture were animated, you would notice that the lamp light is trembling with a different pattern.

This picture shows containers, drawers and zoomable objects (the bottle). You can have containers inside containers. You can also drag from one container to another. Objects in containers can overlap, and can hide each other; so puzzles where you have to browse a chest or drawer become possible.

The player is carrying a lit torch, which has a circular halo. The halo fades smoothly, and moves together with the player. Outside the halo, the moon is illuminating the location. The moonlight is trembling too.

The philosophy of FACK Download Browse the code online Contact the author

News 25 may 2005. You can now browse the code online with cross-references. Thanks to doxygen. 24 may 2005. I have removed the source release from the web, because it is too obsolete. Please use CVS instead. I am seeking developers, especially for programming a Win32 package (installer, executable...). I also accept code, e.g. for the save dialog. Contact me if you are interested. 22 may 2005. The PDF document "How to create a good adventure game" was missing cross-references. This is now fixed. 21 may 2005. There are major changes in CVS. Some highlights: the inventory is now like Ultima 7 (overlapping objects, backpacks); you can browse drawers and chest with direct manipulation, again like Ultima 7; implemented movable torches which generate halos; implemented smooth transition from day to night; implemented discourse topics, with which you can speak to characters; implemented zoomable objects, such as the bottle you see in the screenshot. Due to those changes, the latest release is completely obsolete. 30 apr 2005: FACK 0.4 released. This is an early release to allow people to try the test game. See the download page. Remember, you walk with the right mouse button, and you switch player with the space bar. Also keep in mind that there is no graphic editor yet: you can only use FACK as a C++ library. 29 apr 2005. The FACK library is almost usable to create games. There is already a test game in CVS that you can try. See the screenshot in this page. However, the library is not yet API-stable, and lacks some fundamental functionality like game saves, music and sound. The editor is still totally absent but, if you know C++, you can already produce a test game with FACK. 30 nov 2004: website created.

About FACK Welcome to the home page of FACK, the Free Adventure Construction Kit. FACK is a cross-platform engine and editor to create 2D adventure games (think Monkey 2, Indy 4, or SIERRA). The most notable features of FACK are: FACK is free software (which means more than simply "open-source"). It is released under the GPL license. (If you want me to add another license, you can ask me.) FACK has dynamic lighting capabilities, which make your scenes warmer, more immersive, and more credible than any 2D adventure ever made. With this technique, the color of each pixel is computed separately, and dynamically at each frame, by merging the active light sources together. Consequences of this approach are: 1. the lights tremble to simulate the typical effect of artificial lights, such as a candle or a fireplace. 2. the lights can be turned on and off independently. 3. You can have smooth transitions from day to night. 4. you can carry torches, which generate halos that tremble and blend smoothly with the background. FACK features an innovative user interface, verb-based, whose purpose is to prevent "meta-reasoning". More info here. There is a system that allows direct manipulation inside your inventory, chest and drawers. This is like Ultima 7: objects in containers can overlap and can be manipulated directly, by dragging them. You can drag objects within and across containers. This is more immersive and allows puzzles based on direct searching inside chests/drawers. FACK is designed for multicharacter games: you can control many characters at once (e.g. Maniac Mansion, Zak mcKracken). Characters have separate inventories. In the pictures, the button in the lower right corner cycles the active player. FACK has special code to allow players to sit on chairs and lie in bed, like Ultima 7. FACK is cross platform, i.e. works under GNU/Linux too. The philosophy of FACK is described in this document: How to create a good adventure game. I suggest you to read it, even if you don't intend to use FACK. FACK is similar to AGS, but with the differences stated above (both technical and of licensing). FACK is created by Maurizio Colucci. FACK is dedicated to Charles Darwin, the greatest scientist of all times.