Story Telling Game Design Tool

Has anyone ever used Articy Draft? This looks like an amazing tool but I've been burned before by Gamr7 (Small European company that use to make middleware) and am hesitating on spending the money to get it. I remember posting about the $25 ShareIt promotion for Gamr7's UrbanPad (down from $800) and then soon after the promotion ended they filed bankruptcy and the site was immediately taken down. Along with the site was the software validation server which made it impossible to reinstall the software at a later date.

Articy Draft also validates online upon installing so if the company goes out of business all the customers will get burned. A few red flags shared with Gamr7:

* Little or no user community

* Forums are sparse with little activity (6 months ago)

* New company (founded in 2009)

* Small European middleware/tool company (do they get some kind of government assistance to start a business and reimbursed if it fails? Uwe Boll use to finance his films by acquire funding for his movies thanks to German tax laws that reward investments in film. The law allowed investors in German-owned films to write off 100% of their investment as a tax deduction; it also allowed them to invest borrowed money and write off any fees associated with the loan. The investor was then only required to pay taxes on the profits made by the movie; if the movie loses money, the investor would get a tax writeoff)

* Small team

* No marketing (I learned of this software through a tornado twins video)


I'm using the 30 day trial and the software is amazing, I really enjoy it and although it's way overpriced would consider buying it if I was confident of it's future. Does anyone know of any similar tools specifically for game design?

Cheers!

 

Thanks for bringing this to the forum, it does seem like a very useful piece of software,
and the videos are top quality. But, as you said, pricy and little activity on their forums.
I'd like to see it at about half the price and know that it was going forward in a strong future, but these things seem to be lacking.
Too bad, I'd like to really build (layout my game in detail) into something like this, it looks quite versatile.
I hope there are other programs that do what this does and are going strong.

 

Not sure about what all Articy Draft can do, but what about ChatMapper

cheers,

gryff

 

@Don- Agreed I think half price would be much more of a fair price. The power of this software is that there are layers in the UML-like interface. You can zoom in and it'll have another layer of UML like diagrams in one element, if that makes any sense.

@gryff- wow this looks sweet thank you for sharing Ill check it out!

 

Yes, the ability to create layers within layers is one if not the main feature I would like to see in a program like this.
I'm not really interested in a chat tree creating program, though I suppose I could alter it for my use.
I could also just create it all in Adobe Acrobat (though it would be much more work).
The Chat program isn't nearly as flashy to look at as the Articy Draft program.
Maybe someone here will offer some encouragement on how I would use the ChatMapper program in leiu of the Articy Draft program?
Think I might email the Articy Draft people (after I've fully explored all the info on their site , including whatever is in the forum)
and suggest I might buy it at a lower price and see if they are interested in making some kind of a deal.

 

They has a booth at GDC this year promoting it (booth cost a bomb), so I had a chance to see it in action, its look good, however I feel it is a little pricey.

 

An survey/analysis of 4 tools - articy:draft, Chat Mapper, the Dragon Age Toolset, and Excel - on how well they support the unique needs of game writing.

A Report on Software Tools for Interactive Storytelling

The overall ranking is the same as the order of software I listed above.

The report includes a table of strengths and weaknesses of each piece of software. Which one you might use then, may depend on what you are trying to accomplish.

cheers,

gryff

 

Yes, I spent an hour or more going through this last night and as we've all mentioned,
one of the main drawbacks of the AD program is the price. Quite an interesting, in-depth analysis on the programs.
I did download the 30 day trial of AD this morning, looking forward to getting into it tomorrow.

 

Probably great for bigger organizations and bigger games that have a top-bottom hierarchy in the production and where everyone can't possibly know everything.

 

One thing to consider is I was able to help a company translate their game because their flow was recorded in Excel. I would not have been able to help so easily if that had been using one of those other tools; although those tools, at their price, probably support export to Excel or XML.

As I am poor I'd go for a PlayMaker and Excel combo.

 

Articy:draft does support exporting to XML, didn't look closely at the others.

 

@goat- I'd add that articy draft would be great for indies and freelancers too. As an indie/small developer I think it's important to be organized; too many times I've seen groups trying to design as they go (i've been guilty of this too). For a freelancer, they can get a single license and quickly get a well organize story design to the client or even connect to a client's articy server and work with the rest of the team if the company already uses the software.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the email I sent, hopefully I'll get a reply this week. In the mean time I'm using, learning, and loving the software.

 

I received a reply today from Nevigo in regards to my email (in contained basically everything in my original post of this thread). It was nice to see they responded very quickly and thoroughly:

"Dear Jordan,

Thank you for your very interesting mail which gives us an good overview over your thoughts and concerns. And believe me, I can fully understand your concerns after what happened to you with Gamr7.

Please allow me to give you a few insight thoughts:
For the pricing of our software we have talked around 6 months with many freelancer and game studios to become a feeling, at which price most of them have a good feeling and don't think articy:draft would be overpriced. Now, after 8 month being in the market, most of our clients and interested person are saying that our pricing is absolutely okay, (a few times we have heard it would be to cheap!) and, luckily, we are not forced to sell articy:draft over the price.
Also we have a very good support and will release after the GDC Europe the update 1.3 with many really great new features, and all updates by now have been free of charge for our customer. So we think articy:draft is realy worth his price.
Of course we know that rd. 430 $ is not cheap, especially for freelancers, so we are always open for special deals when we talk with freelancer or indie studios. That is we, the founders of Nevigo, have been Indie developer for ourselves as we have started working in the game industry in the 90s, and we will never forget that. We will try to take care of such concerns and thoughts and, hopefully, we will never stop to be an Indie in our hearts.

About the online registration: It is illegal to sell software which can not be installed. So normally Gamr7 had to have to release a last version/update which removes the online validation before they have filed for bankruptcy.
We are a start-up and partially held by a government institution, which would never allow that we would do anything illegal, because they would be liable for it. So you can be sure that at least, if we have to file for bankruptcy some days, we have to release a last update which removes the online validation.

But, as our vision is that articy:draft will be the standard for designing computer games some days, which we know is a long and hard way to go, we hope that Nevigo will reach this goal. And as we have allready our first really big customers by now, and also have sold the first few universitie campus licenses, we think we are on a good way.

Communities are a really important issue for us, and we know we have to to much more to build up a base of articy:draft. Thank you for your hint, it conforms us that this is an important point and we have to work harder. For example we are discussing a cooperation with Unity3D by now, and we think this is one step to become standard in the industry.

Overall, I can fully understand your concerns and that using our software gives you not a good feeling now. I hope that we are allowed to name the big customers which are using articy:draft by now soon on our website, so perhaps this will give you a little more safety then.

It would be a pleasure for us if you will stay connected with us and see, where our travels goes.

Thank you for your time.


Kind regards,

Carsten
Managing Director"


I'm really happy to hear all this and can't wait to see some of the features in future updates.

 

Well, an interesting response and one that does seem to be encouraging toward a sense of stability.
I guess my main question is why they haven't updated the website more recently, but there could be plenty of reasons.
Maybe they will work with UT to get us some discounts.

Once I dig in and really like it, will I be willing to wait before buying though.


Thanks for keeping us informed and doing the footwork!

 

Definitely getting the bug...
It's starting to get fun!

 

I've been pondering this issue for the last two weeks. And it leads me to this question:

How many games actually tell stories?

It seems to me there are lots of games that give a brief intro - then you blast anyone that is a zombie or has 3 heads (easy game design?).

Where are the games where the story evolves and the player actually has an impact on how that evolution occurs?

gryff

 

Umm... everywhere? There are plenty of story driven games out there. And plenty of games in which story takes a back seat to the action, or where story simply doesn't matter (e.g. puzzle games, etc). Both types of game are equally valid.

 

Examples that are not just hack and slash?

Err .... by your own definition these are not story telling games "story takes a back seat to the action" and "story simply doesn't matter"

Where are the story telling games ?

cheers,

gryff

 

Don't know if it will be to your satisfaction, but seems appropriate to me, is this Wikipedia entry,
which goes into various aspects of the adventure game genre, which I find a story driven type:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game

 

@Don: Played a lot of them - never was very good with thw WASD keys ;-)

But none of them ever really satisfied me - well a couple of exceptions Grim Fandango and maybe Amnesia and Darkness Within

cheers,

gryff

PS You and me are not far from each other - why are we up so late ?

 

I work nights and am off tonight.
I intentionally like to live on this schedule and find it best for my creative intentions.


I got hooked on the MYST series but wasn't all that good at them either.
I've always wanted to create my own mystery game in that line and have been working on mine for three years,
and only since Unity became a windows version.
I tried a few other game creation tools but never got far,
I'm the graphic not the coding type.

 

Me too Don

Here is a video walkthrough of something I created 7-8 years ago (long before Unity?):

Ripper - A Mystery

Done for 4-8Mb video cards - and it was interactive chat!

Be interested to see your own mystery game if you have one up somewhere.

cheers,

gryff

 

Are you still working on the game in the video?
I take it that is the ripper at 11:38-39?
Are you now building it in Unity?
*Forgot to mention, I like the scene layout, graphics and mood. *
Couple of critiques: could use more variety in the audio files and more interactivity.
My game is not ready yet so the only info online is my poorly written blog (see signature).
Just so we don't get chided for wandering into off-topic, personal stuff,
here's a jpg of a scaled down view (in ArticyDraft) of one of my scenes and some areas I've marked off.
If nothing else, the interface sure is pretty.

 

Agentsmith-
In the Nevigo response letter it reads at one point:
"will release after the GDC Europe the update 1.3 with many really great new features, and all updates by now have been free of charge for our customer",
I'm wondering if you have any further information or idea on the matter since on their Buy It page they have a 1 year subscription for €199 or @ today's exchange rate in $ 245.92. I'm wondering if they are waiving the subscription fee or what.
Guess I'm going to have to ask them.
Probably a good idea anyway so they know others here are interested.

Edit: Email sent.

 

For those still tracking with this thread, I received this response 20 minutes after contacting them with my inquiry:
"Hello Don,

the subscription gives you access to all updates within 12 months, including at least one major version update.
By now we have released updates to 1.1 and 1.2, and 1.3 will be released a few weeks after the GDC Europe. The release 1.3 is now in QA state. But our developers are already working on our first major update 2.0. And this major update 2.0 would be included in the subscription package.
A major update will cost 65% of the list price, so a major update for a single-user license will cost normally around 225 EUR, instead the subscription for 1 year cost only 199 EUR, so with a subscription you will always save some EUR for the major update. And if we release 2 major updates while your subscription packages last, you will receive both major updates for 199 EUR!

Hope this helps to clarify the subscription package.

Have a great day,

Carsten
Nevigo Sales Team"

 

@Don So as not to hijack this thread, I've sent a private message about the little video link I posted above.

cheers,

gryff

 

@Don- Thanks I was wondering that too. Here's some additional questions I asked:

1) Are there any limitations or differences between a freelancer/indie versus a single-user license?

2) What will future major updates cost (2.0, 3.0, etc)? For example Final Draft costs $300 but the upgrade is $79.

3) As a freelancer/indie developer I'm often using two computers (my desktop laptop), will I be able to install articy:draft onto both computers or will it cost me more money? If it costs more, how much more?

4) Are there any plans to create a tablet version (iPad/Android)? It would be incredible to design games from a tablet and connect to the articy server. It would completely change industry and how the designers work; they can take their tablets with their ideas to different workstations, offices, other people on the team to answer questions, further clarify game information, etc.

Now just to clarify they may or may not make a tablet version, that was more of a, "hey you probably thought of this already but in case you haven't..." wishful thinking; From their FAQ I surmised they've been inundated with requests for a Mac version (currently you have to use bootcamp, parallels, vmware, etc).

My numbers:
Single license: 349 euros ~= $430; upgrade: 60% of 349 euros = $209

Subscription license: 199 euros ~= $245/year

If they came out with 1 major version every year (starting 1 year after your purchase):

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total
Single $430 +$209 +$209 +$209 +$209 $1266
Sub: $245 +$245 +$245 +$245 +$245 $1225

Total as you go:
Single $430 $639 $848 $1057 $1266 $1266
Sub: $245 $490 $735 $980 $1225 $1225


After 7+ year the subscription price will start becoming more expensive by ~$36/year (depending on exchange rate, current price tiers, etc) Not to say I'll be using this for the next 5+ years but I just wanted to weigh the pros and cons. Single user in the long run will be cheaper (although it will be pushed back to 8 years if you get hit with an upgrade in the first year).

With the single user license you'll actually "own something" (kind of ) which means if you want to wait on upgrading or something you can continue to use it but if the subscription runs out you'll be stopped dead in your tracks (albeit you'll always be using the latest version).

Again in case it was missed, there is a coupon code: TWIN-GIFT to receive 18 euros ~= $22 off. I know it's not a lot but hey every bit helps. This is from tornado twins that did a video on story telling and articy draft: http://youtu.be/W792uQyjivg


@gryff -

Articy draft can be used more than just writing stories. You can create the design document in it (and later export it to XML) In one example they use an overhead map of the level and plot way points, bot paths, item locations, spawn locations etc. I respect your question very much because I don't think every game needs a story; ie tetris doesn't need a 5 minute intro before play or simple vertical/horizontal shooters "may" not need a thorough story. I don't believe you should put in a story for story's sake but this is why I like articy draft: I can use it to design games without stories too.

 

@agent Agree with you. As you say games like Tetris or Sokoban don't need a story - probably would be a total waste. I've spent the last 3 weeks though looking at how games companies are now are developing stories - which is why this thread attracted me. Sadly there it seems there is very little discussion of story telling on the Unity forums though I gather from a couple of articles which sought opinion from game producers that story telling is improving.

gryff

 

Here's some more info:


1) Is it possible to upgrade a subscription to a single user license? Perhaps at the upgrade price (60%)?

2) If I buy the single user license but 2.0 (major update) comes out 9 months later will I get a free upgrade since it's within a year? I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of single user license, subscription, or waiting until 2.0 comes out.

This isn't a deal breaker for me, I know many companies do this; others give a grace period of a couple months (ie: buying a PC or Mac a couple months before they release the new OS will usually land you a free upgrade).

Another cool feature is that you can run multiple instances of articy draft.

After looking over the pros cons I'm leaning towards a single user license.

 

Yeah, I would be buying a single user license, myself.
I kind of go in and out of using the program (AD) since my time working with my game is pretty limited and I kind of get the thought
that putting things into the program just takes away from actual time spent on working on the game,
which I've done pretty well (by myself) for three years.
However, I soon get the bug to put an area puzzle or other game related document into AD
just to see the whole thing (game) in a more laid out manner, instead of a bunch of notes on paper and mostly floating around in my head.
It's really pretty cool and fun to use and to see it develop as I put more into it.
Still a real novice when actually using it and still hoping to see more of how to put things in order
and connect them inside the program like I envision.

Question Agentsmith, do you know if you can nest Locations inside of Locations?
I haven't found out how to do this yet but have been thinking about it since I last closed it.
Going back in to see if I can do this.
Also @ AS, have you visited their forums yet?
I've posted a couple of times but not seen any other activity.

 

Hey Don,

To put a location in a location you'll need to do it by links. Most of articy draft is design by using links. Perhaps you already figured this out but here it is anyways:

Just select "Location 2" and then drag "Location 1" onto "Location 2's" grid. Screenshot

In one of their videos they describe how links are used everywhere. You can drag characters, items, locations, etc onto a location's grid. Then when you click on the icon it'll bring you back to location 1 (or if it's a character, item, etc it'll bring up that object's property page). Pretty cool if you want to make a map of a city and then each link would be linked to a map of the inside of a building. Perhaps more links (upstairs/downstairs) can be used to show maps of rooms etc.

In the video they show links where you can see all links pointing at an object so for example if you click on a character it can show you everything he's associated with (locations, which characters he has a dialog with, quests he's part of, etc). I'm not familiar with how all this works yet since I'm also a novice with articy draft.

I saw your post in the (AD)'s forums but I haven't been approved yet (just registered when I saw your message). I know they're busy with GDC Europe which ended 8/14 but they might be doing follow ups with clients for the next week or so. They've been really fast on their email replies (1 day).

 

Ok, cool, another step along the way, thanks (dragging the item onto the location grid)!
I'm doing quite a bit of repetitive things (duplicating information on more than one level of a Flow Fragment)
and figure later after I have more experience I will want to clean up my starting work.
I responded to one of my own inquiries on the forum, I had asked for a keyboard shortcut for the "submerge" operation
but found clicking in the lower area of a Flow Fragment brings you down one level.
It's also nice that the forward and back buttons on the mouse work, bringing you up or down in the level or area already visited.
Kind of strange that if I am using more than one window (one on each monitor) editing is instantaneous in the other window (if same window is open) but clicking on one does not bring the other one forward on the desktop.

 

im going with Chat Mapper because i need to get my RPG story done before the end of the year

 

one thing that stopped me from using articy draft was the fact that its windows only and they have no intension of porting to mac, which is a bit strange because if they are going to do something with unity wouldn't it make sense to make a version for mac. correct me if I'm wrong but i believe i read somewhere that unity was designed for apple computers which kind of separates them from other engines like UDK.

if articy draft wants to become the standard tool for writing stories for games then surly they would have to do a version for mac, all the other tools have even UDK are planning a mac port (i think). the only tool i use which isn't on both is logic pro hence why i switched to mac in the first place. i must admit i purchased windows a few days ago to test out articy as it looks really good but i doubt i will pay 800 for it to use it on a different platform, as i don't really want to be switching back and forth from the two OS, ok i could just load articy on my other computer, and share everything on my network, but i don't want to and i all my other products are mac versions, so i would still be switching around to draw the scenes.

i would gladly pay for a mac version but i read on there website somewhere that there was no plans to port it to mac, so im out until they decide to do it

 

Spent some time (8 or more hours) building into the program during the trial and
decided I wanted to continue after the trial ran out so I bought in yesterday.
As soon as the sale is complete you get an immediate upgrade to 1.3.
These people seem to be really customer friendly.

 

i would buy in a heartbeat if they had a mac version, i havent even used it yet but from what ive seen it is amazing, i tried looking for something similer but cant find nothing. i might write them an email to see what their plans are

 

Yeah, I wanted to use Unity but could not until they moved it from a Mac only program.

 

well i deiced to stop trying to pursue Articy Draft for being too expensive

 

Maybe I missed it, but is there any connection whatsoever between Gamr7 and Nevigo?

 

Not heard of any connection, why do you say?

 

Does anyone know if there is add on Unity dialogue engine that supports the Articy or Chat Mapper XML?

 

I realize this is kind of an old thread but i just thought i'd let everyone know articy:draft has an introductory sale on the steam network for $84.99
I dont work for valve or nevigo, just looking out.

 

I was really excited their Greenlight on Steam was successful; I completely forgot about this thread so thank you for updating us! I asked on Nevigo's website a question in regards to the difference between their standard version and the Steam SE version and here is their response was the Steam version will stay at 1.5 and the standard version will be updated to 2.0.

 

Will stay at 1.5? That's pretty dodgy..I'm using the trial at the moment and it's great. But, now that I know this I'm not sure I'm so interested any more.

 

is the steam version expensive like the normal version ?

 

SE version on steam is $99 and the upgrade to "commercial" is an additional $99 for a total of about $200. This is more than half off their "commercial version" on their website ~$450 dollars. I'll have to clarify with them if the commercial version on Steam is the same as the commercial version on their website.

 

Have a look at this tool that was released recently, several enhancements have already done after some customer feedback.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/173984-Quest-and-Dialog-editor-for-games-developers

 

Hey guys!

I’m Phillip from Nevigo and am currently the Product Manager/Marketing Dude there. We started a Steam Spring Sale for articy:draft SE yesterday.

The Steam sale will last from March 27th - April 1st.

Link to the whole thing: http//store.steampowered.com/app/230780/

You can find an FAQ right here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/230780/discussions/0/810919056970814311/.

You can check out the articy:draft trial version (fully featured) for 30 days for free here: http//www.nevigo.com/products/articydraft/try-it.html.

Just thought I'd let you guys know.

If you have any question, please let me know!

Cheers,
Phillip

 

WTF?! I almost hit the buy button... Nevermind.

 

Articy Draft 2.0 released today! Here are some of the new features:

http://www.nevigo.com/en/articydraft/whatsnew/

Also articy:access is in beta; it's a middleware tool that allows you to export the data from Articy Draft into your game. I haven't seen anything for Unity specifically but the middleware is written in "C/C++" according to their site. Perhaps a plugin can be created...

http://www.nevigo.com/en/articyaccess/overview/