Topics

1

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Writing Software

« on: 29 Mar 2013, 19:27 »

Hey, I was looking into different software packages to use while writing my next project since Google Docs, while convenient for sharing and collaborating, sucks for writing branching and conditional dialog.

I've had my eyes on articy:draft and it looks great, but waaaaay out of my budget.  (Though it's on sale for a decent price on Steam right now, and I may pick it up.)  I'm planning on giving the 30-day trial a go this weekend.

I also stumbled upon Chat Mapper during my searches and it looks great AND IT'S FREE (Edit: for non-commercial use).  It looks perfectly tuned for writing adventure projects, with branching dialog, and some great export options allowing for voice actors' script printing and translation.  Looked pretty neat. 

These would have come in handy during Resonance's development. I didn't use AGS' built in speech or dialog systems, so Janet had to write a special little program to parse through all the code, number the lines, and create voice actor scripts.  Not to mention the confusion and complications associated with formatting a branching and looping dialog on a flat Google Doc in a way understandable by all.

Any one else tried any similar software and have recommendations?

2

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Resonance Design Document (Resonance spoilers abound!)

« on: 14 Mar 2013, 15:30 »

Let's get this out of the way upfront.  This thread will be loaded with Resonance spoilers, so stop reading if you haven't played the game and don't want to be spoiled.  I'd rather the thread not be cluttered with spoiler tagged text.

It's my birthday.  And as my gift to my favorite internet community, I'm releasing Resonance's original design document.  This document was written in March of 2007 and became the jumping-off point for the game's development.  During development, the game obviously morphed and changed, deviating from this original document, but it's interesting for me to read through it now, six years later.

I thought this document might be interesting or useful to people who are trying to write and plan their own game. It provides some insight into how I plan out puzzles and mapped out the story.  If nothing else, it might serve as an example of how NOT to do these things.

Anyways, have at it.  Let me know if you have any questions.  I'm open to discussing anything about the game or this document! Ask me here or on Twitter.

• Resonance's Original Design Document

3

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Gorogoa - Try this demo

« on: 09 Oct 2012, 17:18 »

I just posted this on Adventuregamers forum, but you guys should see this too.

I was just at the Indiecade conference last week and one title that I had previously not heard of jumped out at me: Gorogoa.

 

The first time I saw the game it was being demonstrated in a room of indie developers, and there were several moments where the whole room gasped and broke out in applause at some of the moments and ideas contained in the brief demo.  I met the developer and spent a lot of time discussing his methods and philosophies behind the game, but to reveal too much would be spoiling the experience.  TRY IT!!! It's an amazing new take on adventure games.

Here's the website, and here is a direct link to the (Windows only) demo.

4

Completed Game Announcements / Resonance - Now on Steam!

« on: 19 Jun 2012, 04:24 »

This won't actually be released for 12 hours or so, but I'm going to be on a plane then, so I hope you don't mind me posting a little early:

After five years of development...

is finally available!



Buy Now via Wadjet Eye Games: (will be available for purchase as soon as Dave flips the switch at about 10AM EST)

 

Story:

A particle physicist's mysterious and spectacular death sparks a race to find his hidden vault and claim his terrifying new discovery. The player will take control of four characters whose lives become entangled in the search for the scientist's vault. They will have to learn to trust each other and work together to overcome the obstacles in their way and to keep this new and powerful technology out of the hands of a dangerous organization.

Screenshots:

                 

Features:

• Four playable swappable characters
• A twisting, riveting storyline
• Full voice acting featuring Logan Cunningham (Bastion)
• Unique long-term and short-term memory systems
• Cheat death by rewinding time
• A unique and intuitive interface

Team members:

• Dave Gilbert - Voice Acting directing
• Janet Gilbert - Programming
• Nauris Krause - Backgrounds
• Nikolas Sideris - Music and Sound
• Shane Stevens - Characters and animation
• Vince Twelve - Design, programming, story

Steam Note:

We had a snafu with scheduling and cannot formally release the game for purchase on Steam until next month.  However, everyone who buys the game via Wadjet Eye's website also gets a Steam key, and those keys will work on Steam right away!  So, you can get a Steam copy right now by buying from Wadjet Eye via the link above.  And if you absolutely insist on sending your money to me via Steam, you'll just have to wait a month.

Personal Note:

Thank you guys for sticking with me through this!  I haven't been as active in the community as I used to be over the last two years or so because I've thrown myself into this game mind-body-and-non-existent-soul.  But I owe so much to this community!  Thank you thank you thank you!

5

Completed Game Announcements / ∞ bit

« on: 08 Aug 2010, 08:11 »

∞ bit

Description Travel from waystation to waystation along the unending corridor of the ∞ bit.  Fly your escape pod, run and jump, collect upgrades.  Reach infinity! Features -Two gameplay modes -Puzzle Platforming -Arcade action flight -Upgrades to collect -Awesome music Download Download ∞ bit for Windows Download source code (Requires at least AGS 3.2 Final 5)

How to play


There are two modes of play: Hero and Escape Pod.

===Hero===

As hero, you must run around the waystations of the Infinity Bit's cooridor collecting upgrades that will help your escape pod make it to the next waystation.

Left & Right/A & D keys: Move Hero around.

Up/W keys: Jump.

Down/S keys: Enter or Unlock a door.

Left Mouse button: Fire the gun (once you have collected it).

Move the mouse: "Bend" your shots by moving the Infinity Cooridor.

Save tiles: Stand on one to automatically save your game.  You will continue here if you die.

Gas tiles: Fill up your ship while standing on one of these.  Wait until it's full before boarding, you may need that gas!

Jump into your escape pod when you're ready to fly to the next waystation!

===Escape Pod===

Once you're in your pod, you have no defenses.  You have to avoid all obstacles.

Move the mouse: Steer the ship.  Your ships maneuverability can be upgraded.

Up & Down/W & S keys: Increase or decrease speed, respectively.  You may need to go faster to make your destination before your gas runs out.  But maneuvering will become more difficult at high speeds.

Gas: Watch your gas level.  If you run out, you can only drift a short distance before crashing.


Video

Screenshots

6

Beginners' Technical Questions / Fastest way to handle drawing to a surface every game loop?

« on: 10 Jul 2010, 07:19 »

Hey, with Resonance, I don't do a whole lot of drawingsurface stuff.  I can only think of two places I am using that kind of stuff.  But Infinity Bit is pretty much entirely built around it.  I knew AGS wasn't really intended for that kind of use, but hell, it's just for fun.

But I'm finding my framerate taking a much bigger hit than I expected.  I'm trying to figure out how much of it is due to AGS and how much is due to my approach (I programmed a large portion of the game before I had decided how the game was going to work )

Basically, I'm drawing onto the backgrounds of  10 different GUIs.  Not every loop.  Most loops, I'm only drawing one GUI: the one the player is on.

But to do that, I need to take an existing dynamic sprite or create a new one, create a drawing surface from it, draw on the surface, release the surface, and set the background of the GUI to the surface's graphic.  Is there some way of doing this better than by doing all of this each loop?

Basically my code looks like this and is run through rep_ex_always (pseudocode):

[code]
function drawFrame(int i){
  sprite = DynamicSprite.Create(w, h, false);
  DrawingSurface *surface = sprite.GetDrawingSurface();
  drawEverything(surface, i); //pass surface on to get all the drawings on it
  surface.Release();
  gui.BackgroundGraphic = sprite.Graphic;
}
[/code]

sprite is declared elsewhere so I can manage its memory.

I've tried keeping the sprites and just clearing the drawing surface each loop, but it doesn't provide any noticeable change in framerate.

How do I do this better?

7

AGS Games in Production / ∞ Bit

« on: 05 Jul 2010, 06:00 »

Alright, so I'm still working on Resonance, but for the last week I've been letting myself spend an hour a day on Infinity Bit to help me purge some pent up creativity that isn't getting properly channeled since Res has been pretty much entirely designed for well over a year.

I'm making this for the "A Game By Its Cover" contest at TIGSource.  So it will be done this month.

The idea of the concept is to take a fake box art from somewhere like here and make a game inspired by that case.

I chose

∞ bit

The game will involve piloting a shuttle craft from level to level and then platforming around to collect upgrades for your craft to get you to the next level.

This is intended to be a very open development, so I'll be posting alpha versions of the game every couple days or so, and hoping for whatever feedback you can give me so I know how to tweak the game.  When I release, the game will be open source as well.

Screenshots

Download Alpha


8.1.10 - Alpha 9

-Mouse controls corridor, spaceship
-Arrows or WASD control character.
-Down or S to open/unlock doors.


Help!

If anyone is interested in whipping up some improved ship, character, and enemy sprites in roughly the same black-and-green, lo-res style you see above, send me a PM.  I need the ship angling in 9 directions (up-right, up, up-left, right, straight, left, down-right, down, and down-left), character running/jumping animations, and some enemies.

Also, if you're interested in whipping up some NES-era or chip tunes for the game, let me know via PM!

8

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / A Game By Its Cover - TIGSource competition

« on: 02 Jul 2010, 17:11 »

Thought some of the people on this board would like to join in on the new TIGSource competition:



Basically, you choose any fake box art from anywhere such as:

Famicase 2008
Famicase 2009
Famicase 2010

http://fx.worth1000.com/contests/11213/beta-busts-5
http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/04/21/fun-from-yesterday/?

or anywhere else, and create a game inspired by that case art.  The famicase stuff is especially cool with lots of inspiration to be had.

I definitely think AGS folk could make a bit of a showing in the competition.  Back Door Man, I believe, tied for second (?) in the last TIGS compo, so maybe somebody can have similar luck.  Regardless, it's a good excuse to just hunker down and finish something!

The competition runs through July 31!  All information here.  A ton of people have started posting about their entries here.

I've started my own small hour-a-day project for the game to blow off a little pent up creative steam.  Thread is here.  Hope to see some AGSers join in!  Show off our beloved engine a bit!

Also, you could totally wait to start until the OROW and do a game for both compos at once!

9

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Game Design Question: Rich, deep, or bloated?

« on: 14 Jun 2010, 15:45 »

In Resonance, I've put in a number of completely unnecessary dialog.  I wasn't intending it to be unnecessary in the "God, why don't they ever stop talking!" way, but more in the "Oh nice, I can get a lot of extra information about the characters and plot if I want to take the time to do so" way.

The idea was, if you want to read through all these lines of dialog to flesh out the world and characters, you can.  But I only make story-important dialog necessary.  The rest can be skipped.  So, if you're more interested in getting the gist of what's going on and getting back to the gameplay, you always have that option.

For example, in one early dialog, you have several options of things to ask about or "Wait quietly."  Choosing to wait quietly ends the dialog and moves on to the gameplay.  In another, you're talking on a train and one option "My stop is coming up." causes the dialog to end and, well, your stop to come up.  The rest of the options in both these cases are completely superfluous, but should help the player's understanding of where the characters are coming from.

Later, there's a really big series of dialogs, many of which are the exposition fairy coming in and explaining some plot points.  You get the info you need and are able to end the dialog.  Or you can ask deeper questions to learn some things (like the quantum mechanics governing the plot's central MacGuffin).  People don't need that extra info, but it's like I feel that I've gone through all the trouble of thinking of this shit so I want to give players access to it. 

I thought it was nice to give people the option to get the info or skip it, but I've had a couple play testers and an IGF judge comment that these sections were too wordy.  I agree that they would be if they weren't entirely optional, but maybe they're right.  Maybe since we are trained to exhaust all dialog options no matter what, to an adventure gamer, these sections aren't optional at all.  We're wired to be incapable of skipping them.

So my question is, are these sections of dialog a good thing?  Would you skip them if you weren't interested or would you feel forced into going through them all?  Is there a better way to do this?  How's my hair?


Along the same lines, I have a number of optional puzzles in the game.  These puzzles are often mathematical, logical, difficult, and/or time consuming.  These puzzles express my guilty love for Myst-like puzzles, but as an allowance to players who don't like that kind of thing, I've made them optional.  They offer access to bonus features, give you something that might make later puzzles a little easier, or just give you the satisfaction of solving them.

Same questions.  Are these optional puzzles that are supposed to enrich the game actually a burden for back-broken adventure gamers who are trained completionists?  If someone who hates Myst-alikes comes across a complex mechanical puzzle to get through a door, are they going to throw their hands up and quit the game, despite there being another way into the room that requires a more adventure-gamey (and fairly easy) solution?

10

Competitions & Activities / VOTE NOW! Chain Story - Broken Telephone Edition!

« on: 29 May 2010, 22:26 »

Phew, 2.5 weeks!  It's been a long haul!  But all the stories are in and here for your judging!  For those who are just showing up to read these crazy stories, you might want to understand how it worked by reading the rules here.

The three people who started the chain stories were given four sentences to choose from to start their stories.  The sentences were provided by our "celebrity" guest writer: Britain's reigning "Lit Idol" (because they cancelled the competition after he won it in 2005), my father, Otis Twelve! 

1)  Totally, completely, deliciously, and no doubt illegally naked, Tanya knew her clothes had to be in her car, but she had no idea where she’d left the damned thing.
2)  Randolf’s feet were beginning to burn, and the piano was getting heavier by the second.
3)  Poised on the event horizon, Sheila took exactly one billion years to sneeze.
4)  Melanie knew their marriage as over when she caught Harry eating baking powder straight from the box.


And what you're all here for: the stories!  Here they are!

Set 1!

Set 2!

Set 3!

We will have a vote to pick the best Chain Story, best Telephone Story and the best individual Image Contributions.

Here's how voting works:

*

Best team Chain Story - Vote for your favorite of the three Chain Stories.  These are the stories with the purple background.  Choose the one where you think the team worked together the best to create an interesting and entertaining story.  Just choose one.

*

Best team Telephone Story - Vote for your favorite of the three Telephone Stories.  These are the stories with the beige background.  Choose the one where you think the team worked together the best to create an interesting and entertaining story while sticking closely to the images that they were provided.  Just choose one.

*

Best individual image contribution - Vote for your favorite three images that you think best represented the story sections that they were assigned to illustrate.

EDIT: Just in case there was confusion, the three votes for images do not need to be one from each set.  They can be from any story.

All discussions welcome below!  I will reveal the names of each author/submitter after the voting is done.  Congrats and well done to all participants!  Voting lasts 48 hours.  GO!

*Awesome trophies by Jim Reed

11

Competitions & Activities / AGS Chain Story: BROKEN PICTURE TELEPHONE EDITION

« on: 11 May 2010, 15:18 »

OK, here are the rules for this edition of the AGS Chain Story activity.

The participants will be divided into three teams.  Each team will participate in three "events."

Each team will write a regular chain story, each adding 200 words.  But each story will start with a sentence chosen by the first participant from a list of sentences provided by a special "celebrity" (in quotes) guest writer!  These three stories will continue as normal until all participants have contributed to the stories.  This is the main Chain Story Event.

While that is going on: After each participant finishes his 200 (ish) word contribution to the chain story, those 200 words are passed on to someone from another team who will see only those 200 words.  That person will then have to create an image that illustrates the scene. This can be an illustration drawn on paper and scanned in.  It can be an elaborate piece of photoshop art.  It can be a bunch of stick men drawn with your mouse pad in paint.  It can be a photo you take of people acting out the scene.  Or it can be a single image or collage of images from a google image search.  Anything within your skills that somewhat illustrates the 200 words you were assigned.  The only rules for the creation of this image is that it can not contain any writing to help convey the story.  No speech bubbles, etc.  This is the Image Event.

And during all this: When an image is done, it is passed onto a member of a third team who must take that image and turn it into a 200 word contribution to a new chain story.  So, the first person of this event will have just an image and will write 200 words.  The second person will have the story-so-far, plus a new image and must continue the story with 200 words that relate to the image provided.  The third person will again receive the story-so-far and another new image.  Since the images might not relate to the story-so-far it might be a challenge and might result in some wacky stories.  This is the Broken Picture Telephone Chain Story Event.

This way, each of the members of all three teams will get three turns (not necessarily coming to them in this order since they'll be shuffled randomly for each section):

1. Each member will  participate in one regular chain-story, passing it down one-by-one until all members have contributed.

2. Each member will also have a turn interpreting a 200 word slice of a story from another team into an image.  (Not seeing any of the rest of the stories or images, only the 200 word section they are assigned)

3. Finally, each member will have a turn with another chain story where they get the whole story so far, but their contribution must be created based on the (quite possibly) unrelated image that they receive.

Complex enough?  Here's an image to help illustrate:

Again, I'll serve as the hub, so each contribution will be returned to me and I'll pas it on to the next person.  People will have 24 hours to reply to me saying they've got it and are working on it, and a total of 48 hours to finish and return their submission.  If someone doesn't meet the time limit, they will be skipped to keep the activity moving forward.  This worked pretty well last time.

This thread will be used for discussion of the rules and any discussion about the game while it is going on.  Try to keep all discussion in this thread non-spoilery regarding the contents of any of the stories or images!  I will also use this thread to update you on the progress of the stories.  Thanks!

12

Competitions & Activities / AGS Chain Story: Sign up!

« on: 04 May 2010, 17:38 »

It's been way too long since our last chain story!  So, let's do it again!  Last time was very successful with six awesome and weird stories created by 20ish awesome AGSers.  See the results here.

I've got a fun idea to keep things fresh for this round.  A little simpler than last time, a little zanier than last time.  I'm going to stick with the three teams idea and again make it a competition with a vote at the end and signature trophies for everybody!  So, post below to sign up for this round!

Sign ups will go for one week, and we'll get underway on May 12th-ish.  Don't sign up if you know you're going to be busy or away from the computer for a couple days in the week or so after May 12th.  People disappearing really breaks up the flow!

I'm hoping for around 20 people again.  When I have an idea of how many peeps we'll have I'll announce the rules and then we'll be underway!

Thanks!

Be sure to post your email address as well, or if you don't want it posted here, email it to me at vince.twelve@gmail.com or PM it to me.  Please post below regardless!

I also need a volunteer to create the trophies!  Last year they were generously created by Atelier Games.

Signed up so far:
1) Dualnames
2) AtelierGames
3) Stupot
4) discordance
5) asuka_mercury
6) Babar
7) Wyz
8) Bulbapuck
9) Jim Reed
10) [Cameron]
11) ShiverMeSideways
12) NsMn
13) Tuomas
14) tzachs
15) wonkyth
16) Akatosh
17) Phemar
18) Ascovel
19) Privateer Puddin'
20) Andorxor
21) Scarab
22) Andail

13

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / What Linus Bruckman Saw

« on: 23 Nov 2009, 15:56 »

Hey! It's Linus' third birthday!

In those three years, I've had something like 50,000 downloads from my site and 160 people have added their names to the Hall of Completion.  So, like 1 in every 300 downloaders goes on to finish the game.

Anyway, I figured after three years that I could release a video of the game's "best" ending (the one you get after completing both halves simultaneously).  People brave enough to actually complete the game still have the exclusive privilege to add their names to the Hall of Completion, though!

So, if you want to beat Linus without spoilers, then by all means download it now! (and grab Nik's soundtrack while you're at it!)  But if you just want to watch the ending, go ahead and do so on the YouTubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-NqUsm51_Y

14

Advanced Technical Forum / Crash report on a sprite rotate

« on: 21 Oct 2009, 21:17 »

I've got a crash that has happened only once and I can't get it to happen again.  It takes place during a sprite rotate command.  This is using AGS 3.0.2.


http://www.xiigames.com/misc/crsh.dmp

the line 1127 is:

[code]sprite.Rotate(max(1, min(359, i*rotateSpeed)));[/code]

15

Competitions & Activities / Chain Story DONE!

« on: 26 Aug 2009, 18:17 »

Science Fiction

Runner Up! Science Fiction 1: The Mission
Trihan
AtelierGames
Andorxor
[Cameron]
Phemar
Ultra Magnus
monkey_05_06
Babar
tzachs
monkey_05_06 (again)

Winner!  Science Fiction 2: Be Quiet
Andail
Akatosh
Vince Twelve
The Ivy
Wyz
LGM
DanielH
TheJBurger
Bulbapuck
Wyz (again)

Adventure Game Parody

Tie!  Adventure Game Parody 1: Shpritz 2000
Vince Twelve
[Cameron]
uncle-mum
tzachs
TheJBurger
AtelierGames
LGM
The Ivy
Andorxor
TheJBurger

Tie!  Adventure Game Parody 2: A "Hero's" Tale
DanielH
monkey_05_06
Bulbapuck
Wyz
Akatosh
Phemar
Ultra Magnus
Trihan
Andail
Babar

Medieval Fantasy

Runner Up! Medieval Fantasy 1: Charming Forest
AtelierGames
Andail
Ultra Magnus
Babar
Wyz
Bulbapuck
The Ivy
Phemar
monkey_05_06
[Cameron]

Winner! Medieval Fantasy 2: Oran's Awakening
TheJBurger
tzachs
Vince Twelve
Trihan
LGM
Akatosh
DanielH
Andorxor
Akatosh (again)
LGM (again)

Voting procedure:  Voting is closed!

• Cast your vote for which of the two in each category that you think is the overall better story.
• Feel free to include reasoning behind your pick or mini-reviews of each story. (But try not to reveal which story you worked on!)
• Remember, it was a group activity so try to grade them as a whole.
• Anyone who wants to vote, whether they participated or not can vote
• You can vote for the story you worked on, but please try to be objective
• Voting for each category will last 48 hours from the time the stories are posted.
• After voting is over, I'll reveal the writers of each part!
• Remember, it's just for fun!

16

Competitions & Activities / Chain Story GO! (All done!)

« on: 10 Aug 2009, 21:05 »

This activity is done!
VOTE NOW!

[original post:]
Ok, we've got twenty people signed up.  They are:

[Cameron]
LGM
The Ivy
TheJBurger
monkey_05_06
Babar
Andail
Akatosh
Andorxor
Scarab117
Trihan
Dualnames
tzachs
DanielH
Phemar
Bulbapuck
uncle-mum
Wyz
AtelierGames
Ultra Magnus

The rules

• READ THE ENTIRE STORY THOROUGHLY BEFORE ADDING TO IT.
• Once a story has been passed to you, you have 24 hours to send a response back to me stating that you received it.
• Once a story has been passed to you, you have a total of 48 hours to add your part and return it to me.
• If you do not reply within 24 hours or finish within 48 hours, the story will skip you, going to an alternate or to me.
• Each person may add a maximum of 200 words to the story.
• Do not post anything in this thread that indicates who has written what or what the plot is looking like.  No spoilers.

Six stories have been started with the themes "Science Fiction," "Medieval Fantasy," and "Adventure Game Parody."  For each theme, the twenty people who signed up were randomized onto two teams.  Each team will collaborate on a story.  After the completion of the stories, I'll post them here, we'll have a laugh, and vote on which team did the best job working together.

Current progress:

Science Fiction 1 The Mission 10/10		Science Fiction 2 Be Quiet 10/10
Medieval Fantasy 1 Charming Forest 10/10		Medieval Fantasy 2 Oran's Awakening 10/10
Adventure Game Parody 1 Shpritz 2000 10/10		Adventure Game Parody 2 A "Hero's" Tale 10/10

17

Competitions & Activities / The AGS chain story MACH 3! Signup now!

« on: 06 Aug 2009, 20:17 »

It's been a while since we've done this, so I asked for permission to start one and got the go ahead.

For those who don't know what it is, a chain story is started by one person who passes it on to another person, who passes it on to another, etcetera.  Each person writes a certain number of words and hopefully we end up with something that makes sense!

I'm planning on changing the format a bit to make sure we don't waste too much time waiting for someone who has vanished or something.  I also plan to have multiple shorter (fewer people on each story) stories going on at once so each participant will contribute to multiple stories, so it's not just you writing once and then waiting a couple weeks before you can see what it turned into.

I'll announce the exact rules when we're ready to get started based on how many people sign up, which is what this thread is for.

So sign up now by declaring your intentions in this thread.  Also include your email (or PM me your email if you want it private) so the story can be sent to the right place.  I'll leave this up for a week or so (depending on how fast people sign up) to make sure everyone who wants to participate has a chance to see it.  Don't sign up if you're going to go on vacation or be all busy next week or something.

The order you sign up in has nothing to do with the order you write in, so sign up now!

And if you have an idea for the theme (we did murder mystery and... whatever the theme was last time... social satire?) post that too!

18

General Discussion / Healthcare around the world

« on: 03 Aug 2009, 19:58 »

I'm an American who recently moved back to America after four plus years of living in Japan.  When I left America, I was a young single twenty-something recent-college-grad who was healthy and didn't bother with buying health insurance because I rarely got sick and didn't see the need to spend as much money as it would cost.  When I returned to America, I was a married nearly-thirty father (and now father of two).  So, clearly, it was time to invest in some healthcare.  In Japan, I didn't have to worry about it.  In America it became a huge issue.

In America, it is impossible to have civil discourse with people of opposing views on healthcare because it is such a heated issue.  Part of the blame lies on the media which fires up controversy for ratings and money, and as a result, fires up tempers and divides the country on issues such as this that are about coming together, not being torn apart.  For example, when one politician suggests changing healthcare in our country to be more like another country, another politician will throw about a bunch of loaded terms ("Socialism!") and recite talking points dealing with one or two healthcare horror stories originating in that other country.  (Completely ignoring the thousands of horror stories we have here every year.)

Recently, I watched a PBS documentary about health care in a few countries around the world.  You can watch the whole thing here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02p101&continuous=1

I found that it was a particularly even handed examination of what was wrong and right with the health systems in these five countries.  And even though each of these systems had some negative points, I couldn't help but feel that they were still doing things way better than America.  Particularly telling was the way that the interviewer got laughed at in every country where he asked the question "How many people go bankrupt every year due to medical costs?" 

I wanted more, though.  I would really love to learn about even more countries' health care and here about the pros and cons.

I won't go deeper into my personal views about the American healthcare system, or how it has caused me great distress in the 11 months that I've been back in the States.  But I really want to hear some real, unfiltered descriptions about the pros and cons of the health care systems of different countries around the world.  And since this is such an amazing, friendly, international forum, I thought it would be a great place for a nice discussion on the various types of healthcare around the world.

What I'm hoping for is to hear a general idea of how healthcare works in your country, if there are any particularly good/bad points about it, how much you pay for it (whether through taxes or otherwise), how you would rate it against any experience you might have had living in another country, any personal happy/horror stories you might have, or whatever other comments you might have on the subject.

19

General Discussion / Vince = Daddy, the sequel

« on: 01 May 2009, 03:11 »

I'm a daddy some more.  Emi Robocop Twelve is now a big sister.  Here's my new son, Zen Ghostbusters Twelve.





(forgive the crappy picture quality.  I just snapped these on my phone.  Haven't had time to import the pics off my real camera. I'll post more later.)

A lot easier this go around.  About half the time as the first.  I'm still exhausted though.  Going to try and sleep now.


Update 5/1/09:

We're home now.  Here's a couple more pics:


A few seconds old.


Sleeping.  One of the three things he's good at so far.


With his big sister Emi and his aunt Hannah


The whole Twelve family.

20

Advanced Technical Forum / Character.Move speed adjusting

« on: 01 Jan 2009, 02:53 »

I just upgraded a project to the new release to take advantage of the new Character.Move but it didn't work out how I hoped it would.

I'm trying to make two characters move across the screen at the exact same speed but not necessarily in the same direction, but one has to "Move," and one has to "Walk."  But when I do this, the one that is "Moving" zips across the screen way faster than the other even though their speeds are the same.  I believe this has to do with MovementLinkedToAnimation=true on the character that is "Walking."  I tried adjusting the speed down for the "Moving" character, but to make them move at the same speed, the speed needs to be somewhere between -1 and -2 which I can't do.

Before I start ripping out code to change to my work around, is there a way to make the "Move" command move like a "Walk" command?  That is, can a speed=4 "Moving" character move at the same speed as a speed=4 "Walking" character that also has MovementLinkedToAnimation=true?

And before these workarounds are suggested:

-They're moving in different, determined at runtime, directions, so just having one "walk" and then tie the "moving" one's x and y coordinates to the "walking" character won't work.  But it is important that they move at the same speed.

-The "Moving" character must be "Moving" because there are other frames in the view, but the frame and loop shown on the character are changed depending on other factors besides walking animations.  Because of the different way this character is using frames and loops, just creating a view with one frame would mean that I would have to create hundreds of different views, which I'd like to avoid.

-Using LockFrameView stops the character from moving.  I thought that just using LockFrameView and then doing walk would work, but apparently that also locks them in place as far as the "Walk" and "Move" commands are concerned.

My current work around plan:

-I'm planning on changing how the "Moving" object is handled and instead of having one view that has all the appropriate frames and changing between them manually, I'll have one view that has one frame and then change the graphic of that frame in code to the appropriate graphic.   Then I can just have the "Moving" object "Walk" with only one frame in the animation. It's a little more cumbersome, since I'll have to keep track of all the sprite slots, and I'll have to change a lot of code that I've already put in.  So I wanted to post this question first.