Topics

1

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Adventure Game Companies

« on: 24 Feb 2013, 05:37 »

So... If one wanted to apply for a job in gaming industry, what are the companies he would try to get an interview with? Apart from the obvious ones, like Daedalic or Double Fine, which doors would you guys knock on? I've tried googling it up but all I found was dust and a load of nothing:(  Can we maybe compile some kind of list of places together?

2

Recruitment / Let's make a game in one year!

« on: 06 Jan 2013, 04:26 »

Hey;)

I guess I've established myself enough in our little community to prove to you all that I can finish what I've started and make a fine game. But it just takes too long to work on a project alone... So, lately I've been thinking about getting a team together to speed up the process. It's stupid to spend 3 years working on one thing. I want to make a game in one year. I'm sure it can be done...

The problem is this: all these years doing my own stuff I don't know if I can actualy work well with other people. No matter how good they are, what they produce will always be different than what I've planned/imagined it to be... And even worse- I've accepted that people have tendency to let you down and while at first they feed you wonderful promises and reassure that what they're supposed to do will be done in a day or two, they end up not doing it at all or losing interest. That's why there is so much vapor-ware around these forums and fair enough- it's extremely difficult to focus on one thing for such a long time and not get bored of it. And that's exactly the kind of person I'm not looking for;)

Who I'm looking for then?

Well, I'm not sure exactly... Animators? Character artists? Programmers? These are the areas that I consider my weakest and having on board some individual with strong skills would save me a lot of time and help me make a better game.

I'll put it like this: if you think you have this *special something* and can make a game with me in one year, get in touch and show what you've got, and you might become a part of Harvester Games, make some money on it, and develop an awesome game;)

3

Completed Game Announcements / The Cat Lady - Italian version & CD album now available

« on: 01 Dec 2012, 09:33 »

 

THE CAT LADY LATEST NEWS:
Italian version is exclusive to Zodiac Store and available here:
http://www.zodiac-store.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=621



Use discount code CHRISJONESAGS at the official site or Screen 7 for £2 off the DRM-free only copy!

Please help Greenlight the game on Steam!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=114327732




Where to get it
Deals! http://www.thecatlady.co.uk
GOG! http://www.gog.com/gamecard/the_cat_lady
Desura! http://www.desura.com/games/the-cat-lady
ShinyLoot! http://www.shinyloot.com/the-cat-lady
Fire Flower Games! http://fireflowergames.com/shop/the-cat-lady/
Phoenix Online Studios! http://store.postudios.com/products/the-cat-lady

Susan Ashworth, known in her neighbourhood as the crazy Cat Lady, is a lonely 40-year old on the verge of suicide. She has no family, no friends and no hope for a better future.

One day she discovers that five strangers will come along and change everything... But those five, "The Parasites", are also the most ruthless, deranged and cold-blooded bunch of psychopats the city has ever known. They will stop at nothing to hurt Susan. Unless, she hurts them first...

Susan's few weeks journey doesn't take her across the world and won't turn her into a hero. She has little faith in others and hardly even cares about herself. She can't fight and has never fired a gun in her life.

But she's hanging onto that thin thread of hope, that in the end, as promised, there's an ilusive reward waiting for her. Something worth trying for. Something that'll help her find an unlikely friend. Something that'll give her life a purpose...

Susan's journey takes her on a rollercoaster ride between the world of the living and the world of the dead, where the only way to survive is to overcome her biggest weakness: her own self.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wx6j2I8v2Z0" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/Wx6j2I8v2Z0</a>

"A horror story that should be enjoyed for years to come" - Link Dead Gaming

 

The game contains themes of violence and gore, strong language and nudity and is suitable only for persons of 18 years and over.

Reviews & player bloggings:

"Despite the surreal nature of the game, the realism of the dialogue is spot on. The developer absolutely nails emotional trauma, whether it�s a character discussing her partner�s reaction to a cancer diagnosis or the painful ways in which we dig at and hurt each other when we argue with the ones we love. 4.5/5"
http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/23373

"It�s so good that it single-handedly breathes new life into the adventure game genre and shows that mature storytelling with an artistic presentation is not dead. 10/10"
http://emotionalmultimediaride.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/horror-games-week-2012-review-of-the-cat-lady-pc/

"Susan Ashworth is no heroine, she is a flawed and damaged human being, with a past so devastating it will bring you to the verge of tears."
http://www.thereticule.com/the-cat-lady-review/

"Altogether, this muddy patchwork of horrific imagery, terrifyingly real emotion and superb sound design comes together to create a horror story that should be enjoyed for years to come."
http://www.linkdeadgaming.com/that-indie-kick-the-cat-lady-fibrillation/

"If you are looking for a shallow, quick play this game is not for you. However if you are looking for a lasting experience that will most likely keep you thinking long after you have finished the game, then you�ve spent your money wisely and will not be disappointed."
http://www.pcgamereviewsandnews.com/2012/12/the-cat-lady-release-information-and.html?spref=tw

"The controlls are very easy to master, the characters are lovely, as is the voice acting."
http://goodgamefelicia.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/the-cat-lady-review-eng/

"Susan Ashworth may be one of the most human characters I�ve encountered in a game."
http://indiestatik.com/2012/12/13/impressions-the-cat-lady/

<a href="http://www.screen7.co.uk/ads/TheCatLady.swf" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.screen7.co.uk/ads/TheCatLady.swf</a>

4

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / The Walking Dead

« on: 04 May 2012, 01:09 »

Played through the entire part 1 on PS3 today and personaly I really loved it!!! Never cared much about other Telltale games, but this one I think was excellent. They are definitely heading in the right direction. I can't wait for another chapter! I wonder what you guys think. Anyone had a chance to play yet?

5

General Discussion / Netflix - keep it or bin it?...

« on: 05 Feb 2012, 05:09 »

6

Beginners' Technical Questions / Fonts for 640x480........................

« on: 17 Oct 2011, 16:48 »

I think I'm going crazy....... Every fonts I try are worse than the other.... the final result being a blurry mess of a text.... I know this has been probably done 100 times before, but please, can someone send me a default AGS font with black outilne for 640:480 resolution? I would be very very grateful.

EDIT: Never mind. I was going crazy... but I'm healed now. Please ignore this post.

7

Beginners' Technical Questions / AGS 3.2.1 copy/paste loop problem

« on: 27 Feb 2011, 21:43 »

Hey, I'm using the latest version of AGS 3.2.1 and I think I encountered a nasty bug when using copy/paste loop option....

Seemingly, the loop gets copied and frames show sprites like they should on the screen. But when I go into preview mode, loop 2 contains no frames... Nothing at all. You can see here:



Game crashes too, with an error of: loop 2 does not contain any frames.

Any idea what's going on with copy/paste? It seemed like such a cool option but is clearly broken... or maybe I'm just doing something really stupid... Please help.

8

Beginners' Technical Questions / Changing sprite size & format doesn't make game file smaller...

« on: 21 Feb 2011, 10:44 »

Hi,

I've done my research befre posting but I still can't find the answer...

As my game grows bigger and bigger I've gone back to large un-cropped sptites I used in the beginning and saved them as much smaller cropped png files instead of bmp. I thought it would make a significant difference, since the old file size of 1.3 mb on average for one spite has now come down to 15-20 kb.... But after replacing sprites in the editor the size of the game stays exactly the same.

  Having read the other posts I made sure I had "compress the sprite file" option enabled ( it was from the start anyway), added one new sprite, rebuilt game files several times, compiled, tried to split resource files into X mb chunks.... and no change. I thought that even if sprite format wouldn't make any difference, at least cropping the sprite from 800x600 to 200x600 would make the game smaller. But no. It doesn't.

What am I doing wrong?

9

Beginners' Technical Questions / Problem with 2 Sky objects moving on an infinite loop (SOLVED)

« on: 17 Jul 2010, 22:32 »

Hi,
I'm done trying to solve this on my own... That's 2 sleepless nights now...I need help, guys.

I'm trying to make a sky sprite move sideways, right to left. The idea was to have two screen-sized objects- one starting its loop at x=0, and one just before, at x=800. When the first one reaches x== -800, it's supposed to move directly to x == 800 and then continue moving left. And the same with sky object 2. Of course, the sprite is designed the way that it seamlessly blends into another one. But I end up with this empty gap between them after just the first loop....

Here's the sprite I'm using:



I started off with this code (oS1 = sky sprite 1m oS2 = sprite 2)  :

function room_AfterFadeIn()
{

oS1.Move(-800, 536, 3, eNoBlock, eAnywhere);
oS2.Move(-800, 536, 3, eNoBlock, eAnywhere);


}

function room_RepExec()
{
  
     if (oS1.X == -800){
 
oS1.X=800;
 oS1.Move(-800, 536, 3, eNoBlock, eAnywhere);
     }
    

 if (oS2.X == -800){
 
   oS2.X=800;
     oS2.Move(-800, 536, 3, eNoBlock, eAnywhere);
  }
  
}

Please, have you any idea what I'm doing wrong? Is moving objects directly to the other side of the screen causing some sort of delay that creates the gap? But if so, the gap should be growing with each loop, and it isn't.... Perhaps you've got a better idea how to do it?

10

Completed Game Announcements / The Parrot Snatchers

« on: 28 May 2010, 22:44 »

This months MAGS entry, and my first ever game....
A month ago I found the original version on a dusty CD tucked away in the darkest drawer.... and I thought I'd try to make it into something half-decent. It's possible that I failed.... But anyway, it will always be a special game for me. Made at that strange time of my life when changes were coming, it was my way of saying goodbye to the life I was leaving behind.

Even though I spent nearly a month trying to make it prettier, repainting all the shitty graphics and translating it to English I am fully aware it might be quite embarassing at times. But maybe for those of you who played Downfall maybe it will be interesting to see how it was born from this strange medley of ideas?

  



[/img]

[/img]



They took his parrot... He must get it back before it's too late- before its little good heart becomes a gift for Satan himself...
There's only one man who can help him.
His name is Grim.  

FEATURES:
-320:240 resolution
-swearing nuns and perverted police officers
-bad jokes about feaces and urine
-low quality sprites that didn't make it over the years
-typos and -possibly- bugs


Download it HERE

11

Beginners' Technical Questions / Using light levels (or tint) to make character fully black(SOLVED)

« on: 24 Apr 2010, 01:29 »

Hi:)

Is there any way that can be achieved? I'd like to use all-black character as a shadow on the wall following the main character, like in a mirror. The light level makes character darker but but only to a certain degree.... Any ideas?...

12

General Discussion / Son Of Grim Reaper- has already come:)

« on: 18 Apr 2010, 21:55 »

Hey, I know it's got nothing to do with AGS... but I just wanted to share with my favourite community that my partner's water just broke and we'll be heading to the hospital any minute now... I am obviously very excited:) I know I shouldn't be posting now, but I'm waiting for the midwife to arrive anyway.. and just needed to tell someone. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

This is what he looked like few months ago:



I will post another (screen)shot when he's out. Hopefully later tonight:)

Oh, the plan is to call him Gabriel, as in Gabriel Knight:) I hope his mother doesn't change her mind! I tried Guybrush...but she just wouldn't have it:)

13

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Music in trailers copyright

« on: 18 Jan 2010, 15:25 »

For the upcoming trailer of my(commercial) game I'd like to use some copyrighted music. Now, I've seen people posting home-made trailers on youtube or www.gametrailers.com that used popular songs by various famous bands but is it legal or will I get sued for this since it's my game I am promoting?... I know there were several threads about copyright but I can't find what I'm looking for. Anyone has any ideas?

14

Beginners' Technical Questions / And evrything crashed.... anyone knows what I did wrong?

« on: 12 Nov 2009, 17:21 »

Error: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
Version: AGS 3.1.2.82

System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
   at GetRelativeSpriteWidth(Int32 )
   at AGS.Native.NativeMethods.GetRelativeSpr iteWidth(Int32 spriteSlot)
   at AGS.Editor.NativeProxy.GetRelativeSprit eWidth(Int32 spriteSlot)
   at AGS.Editor.ViewPreview.previewPanel_Pai nt(Object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.PaintWithE rrorHandling(PaintEventArgs e, Int16 layer, Boolean disposeEventArgs)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmPaint(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl. WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNat iveWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNat iveWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callb ack(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

Now, what has just happened to my AGS?

15

AGS Games in Production / [ RELEASED ] The Cat Lady

« on: 01 Nov 2009, 00:20 »

Demo & pre-order now at: http://www.TheCatLady.co.uk

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/1P3o9LZJwrY?rel=0" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/1P3o9LZJwrY?rel=0</a>



It's Halloween. Midnight... It seems like a good time to announce Harvester Games' new project. Here goes

The Cat Lady


  FIRST TRAILER

  SECOND TRAILER

click on above link to watch on YouTube









Susan Ashworth has woken up to a beautiful dream... She's in a field of barley, at a strike of dawn. Warm wind blows in her face, her hair waving as she stares at the sunrise. She's dead. Through her dream she can barely hear the sounds of reality breaking through- the screaming of a friend who found Susan's body on her bedroom's floor, the ambulance crew resuscitating her on the way to the hospital. She has taken an overdose, and willingly at that. Life has been tough on her lately. After her husband's death everything lost its meaning, her world was empty and grey and she decided to end it once and for all.
And for the first time in a long time she is happy. Not really aware of what is happening... but she's enjoying being in this strange beautiful place on the edge of life and death.

What she doesn't realize is that it's all a trap, an illusion, a road to hell.
She'd fall for it, she'd go through the fields into an abandoned tunnel filled with wrecks and further into the darkness, if not for something that happens. Somebody's tricked her again- she finds that someone wants her to live after all...
So she's back in the land of the living. Accused of wanting to kill herself she has been assigned a Suicide Watch. They'll keep a close eye on her... But for now she's back home, in her two bedroom apartment where neighbours know her as the Cat Lady. She has a thing for cats...

She decides to give it another go, try to find her happiness again. The only problem is that she brought something back from that other world- a warning. Something bad is going to happen and she'll have to fight to survive. Five people will come into to her life. One of them will change her life and make it better. But the other four have nothing but cruel intentions. They'll have their own reasons to hurt her...



Team:
 story, scripting, graphics: Grim Reaper
 soundtrack: Micamic
 technical help & GUI: Dualnames

Overall progress: 100% complete, Testing in progress, VA in progress

Will post more info soon. For now, Happy Halloween everyone:)...

16

Beginners' Technical Questions / Russian translation

« on: 28 Jul 2009, 11:20 »

Hi,
I do realize that this problem has been mentioned before on these forums, but in none of the topics searched I have found answers I'm looking for...

I've just been offered a great business deal- if I can put the Russian translation into my game Downfall I can distribute it as a BOXED copy on the territory of Russia. That's awesome, isn't it? The problem is, I'm not Russian myself and I have no idea how to do it. I imported some fonts into the game that are apparently Russian cyrilic, but they look like normal fonts in AGS and the random Russian text I pasted in the game is being displayed as ?. Please, somebody help me! I really don't want to lose this deal!!!!

17

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Request for help with designing interface to a new horror game

« on: 09 Jun 2009, 10:56 »

Hi!

I need someone to help me design interface for my new project. As some of you may know, I've just released commercial game Downfall under the banner of Harvester Games and soon will begin to work on another game. I've learnt quite a lot about scripting but I'm still not clever enough to design the GUI I need. I have a very clear idea of what I want it to look like, though. I'm looking for a reliable person willing to experiment with AGS and create a very different GUI, inspired a bit by games such as Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain. I hope I'm posting this on the right section of the forum?

Ok. I'll try to give you a quick idea of what I'm planning.

The game will be made using AGS 3.1 or higher, with resolution 800x600. I want character (3/4 size of screen in height)to be seen from the side, like you'd expect it in a platformer but only from the knees up, and able to walk only left or right at the press of the arrow buttons. Pressing down or up arrow at the hotspot would open a pop-up GUI, ideally with different options for each hotspot. At the bottom of the screen there would be 100px GUI bar, with few separate boxes displaying time of day in the game, active inventory item, and a simple stats bar. Game will take course over the period of one week, each day split into morning, afternoon and night. It would be mostly keyboard controlled, with long scrollable backgrounds and NPC characters acting independently around the game area.
As you can see, it's going to be quite a challange. The above description is just meant to give you an idea but if anyone's interested please PM me and I'll explain in more detail what I'm trying to achieve. I know it's a bit chaotic now... but I don't want to go into details here. All I'm trying to say is that I need someone who can help me materialise my vision and write the script under my instructions.

18

Completed Game Announcements / Downfall

« on: 14 May 2009, 13:37 »

After all this time Downfall is finally getting released!





Watch the game's trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0hj9jSW2R8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprawkonj.republika.pl%2Fharvest%2Fgames_downfall.html&feature=player_embedded

Download the demo here:

http://www.agsarchives.com/game-files/harvesterindiegames/downfall-demo.zip

The game's website: www.harvesterindiegames.com


Quiet Haven Hotel was supposed to be just a one night shelter for Joe and Lucy Davis. But things soon start to go wrong. Lucy's panic attacks get worse and soon she disappears. And in the morning hotel changes too. Nothing is what it seems anymore. Joe is left alone, trying to understand what is happening, trapped between reality and the nightmare. Then everything changes again and the world turns black and white. Only the colour of blood is still red... And it's all around him.
While the raging storm outside gets worse by the minute, it turns out the hotel isn't completely abandoned. There's a party on the third floor... but the birthday girl surrounded by her silent guests just keeps crying... The doctor in room 202 is hearing voices coming from the walls telling him to perform a certain experiment... And one girl who is asleep in her bedroom is dreaming a strange dream that soon turns into her worst nightmare...


Downfall is a point & click adventure game featuring:

- 70+ hand-drawn locations
- original soundtrack
- hundreds of lines of dialogue
- multiple playable characters
- mature storyline
- multiple endings

PLEASE NOTE: Game contains scenes of violence and gore, sexual content and strong language and it is suitable only for persons of 18 years and over.

Also, this is a commercial game. It wll be sold at a low price on D2D and associated websites. I hope you will try and enjoy it. I need your support now.

The game should officialy launch on Friday of May 15th. Here's the link to the D2D download site:

http://www.direct2drive.com/8021/product/Buy-Downfall-Download

Also, a game's demo is now  available on FilePlanet:

http://www.fileplanet.com/200070/200000/fileinfo/Downfall-Demo

 It's a different demo to that released few months ago and features a large portion of gameplay.

19

Beginners' Technical Questions / problem with cursor and inventory bar not responding after loading saved game

« on: 23 Sep 2008, 23:52 »

2 problems I have just encountered with AGS 2.72. Maybe someone knows a solution to these?


1. During a battle with an enemy character's inv item which is used as weapon gets knocked out of his hands every so loops number. In between the idea is that this item is used on enemy before he has a chance to attack. The problem is that if it's currently selected inv (and cursor changed to this inv graphic) character keeps that item and everything goes t*** up! What code should I put in rep_execute to prevent that from happening?

2. I'm using (see, I'm not completely sure here) either broken sword or left right click template. It's got this inventory bar on top with 2 blue arrows on each side for scrolling . The problem appears when game is loaded and moving cursor over those items in inv does nothing- doesn't display their names and doesn't react to clicking on them.  Clicking on the scrolling arrow brings everything back to normal and items work again, but I'd like to avoid player's confusion with that. It doesn't look very professional either. What should I do?

This game is nearly finished.... I desperately need your help, guys!

20

Beginners' Technical Questions / Cursor says:label4obj0 when not pointed at objects.SOLVED

« on: 10 Feb 2008, 13:52 »

Hello again

I've upgraded my version ags to 2.72 from 2.61 and the game I'm working on upgraded itself( I didn't know I could do that!). Anyway, the problem is that wherever I point cursor this text is displayed next to it : label4obj0. When cursor is over objects or hotspots it displays the name of  that hotspot or object, but everywhere else I get that silly message. Is it something to do with GUI or cursor settings? Please, help!:)