Messages

1

General Discussion / MOVED: Which is the best Lovecraft-inspired adventure game?

« on: Today at 14:15 »

This topic has been moved to Adventure Related Talk & Chat.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=54018.0

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Beginners' Technical Questions / Re: How to check if a custom property is set?

« on: 15 Sep 2018, 15:43 »

But also, if you do a GetProperty() call for a non-existent property name, I don't think it will crash, just return a 0 or null (for text properties).

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Beginners' Technical Questions / Re: How to check if a custom property is set?

« on: 15 Sep 2018, 14:22 »

If you create a custom property for Hotspots, all hotspots have that custom property. When you create it, you can also set a default value that will be used for those hotspots where you don't set it directly.

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Competitions & Activities / Re: Game Pitch Competition - Round 5 (RESULTS!)

« on: 14 Sep 2018, 13:31 »

OK, here's the list of the authors of each pitch:

The Grapes Are Always Sweeter – Mandle
Amandarin – Creamy
Young Crone – Snarky
What could have been – Bulbapuck
Dragonville – tzachs
Background Battle – CaptainD
Inside these white walls – Durinde
Naive – horusr
The Antidote – dactylopus
Meet Me in the Rings – Dream
Verb Coins – Stupot

Thanks for a good round, everybody!

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Beginners' Technical Questions / Re: Question on a very lazy scripting tactique :)

« on: 13 Sep 2018, 15:08 »

If I understand what you're trying to do, you could use a dummy character for these "pseudo inventory items". This character's inventory will never be seen, but can still be accessed from the script.

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Completed Game Announcements / Re: Lamplight City

« on: 13 Sep 2018, 14:32 »

Congrats on the release! Disco, Puddin' and me are discussing breaking off our road trip and skipping a visit to Acadia national park to play the game instead. (We won't, but we have purchased several copies.)

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Competitions & Activities / Re: Game Pitch Competition - Round 5 (RESULTS!)

« on: 13 Sep 2018, 14:23 »

If anyone wants to try some more guessing, get it in now! I'll publish the full list tomorrow.

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Competitions & Activities / Re: Game Pitch Competition - Round 5 (RESULTS!)

« on: 12 Sep 2018, 14:39 »

3: Young Crone - Snarky

Correct.
Thanks for the votes and feedback. I think this is the first round I've won.

This is a concept I like a lot myself, and I also worked pretty consciously on making the pitch as appealing as possible. I wasn't quite able to squeeze in a good teaser for the gossip-based gameplay, which I conceive of as the main puzzle mechanic, but oh well.

Also, there was no space to mention that the setting is inspired by the Italian Alps during the late renaissance, with the scientific revolution and religious reforms going on at the time as a backdrop.

If I ever got a team together it's something I'd quite like to make one day.

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Competitions & Activities / Re: Game Pitch Competition - Round 5 (RESULTS!)

« on: 10 Sep 2018, 16:48 »

11: Verb Coins

The mechanics are interesting, but it doesn't work as the main hook of the game for me. It can be the "something extra" you tell people AFTER you told them what the game is about: "oh, and btw, it also has this interesting mechanic where you earn more verbs as you progress through the game".

In that GDC talk I posted (or rather, reposted from Discord) last round, this is described as the difference between the hook and the kicker.

I also think it's quite interesting how consistent the feedback on the different entries is so far, with only a few exceptions.

Snarky- Amandarin

Nope.

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Competitions & Activities / Re: Game Pitch Competition - Round 5 (RESULTS!)

« on: 10 Sep 2018, 14:49 »

What could have been.
This got my vote

Mine too!

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Competitions & Activities / Re: Game Pitch Competition - Round 5 (RESULTS!)

« on: 10 Sep 2018, 13:42 »

Well, maybe people want to guess for a bit first?

Here's the list of people who entered (sorted alphabetically):

Bulbapuck
CaptainD
Creamy
dactylopus
Dream
Durinde
horusr
Mandle
Snarky
Stupot
tzachs

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Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: Mittens 2018 confirmed - Boston 15-22 September

« on: 09 Sep 2018, 20:27 »

OK, you win! 

But then again I feel like you're always on the move. See you in Boston! (I just realized that I'll be landing 00:25 my time, so the drive that evening should be interesting...)

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The Rumpus Room / Re: *Guess the Movie Title*

« on: 09 Sep 2018, 08:34 »

Hmm... food or internal organs?

[Add spoiler tag]

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Competitions & Activities / Re: Game Pitch Competition - Round 5 (RESULTS!)

« on: 09 Sep 2018, 08:29 »

OK, voting is now closed. Thanks to all the contestants, and congratulations to the winning entry, Young Crone!

I will post the list of participants so people can start guessing who's behind each entry, but (unless you all strongly object to the idea) I think I'll hold off for a day or two so we can discuss the entries a bit more first. I should also mention that by hiding the "Forum Name" column in the entry spreadsheet, I remain unaware of who the authors are.

For me the choice was obvious this round: I had a clear favorite and was never in doubt about what I was going to vote for.

My subjective feedback:

Add spoiler tag for Hidden:

1: The Grapes Are Always Sweeter
I called it Jean de Florette-like, and the similarities are so great that I have to wonder if it was the inspiration for this entry. Length aside, I like the idea of a family saga as an adventure game, but would have liked to understand the gameplay (I'm guessing something like The Walking Dead with a focus on choice?) and particularly the viewpoint. Do you play as a single character throughout or as multiple? From one or both sides of the feud? I also wonder if it would have to be told chronologically or if you could jump back and forth between the different periods, Godfather II-style.

2: Amandarin
Breaking out of a mental institution is a classic adventure game premise, and this sounds like a fun take. Acting as an unreliable imaginary friend could make for some good puzzles, so it would be interesting to hear if any have been designed yet. (Speculation: Is this the pitch that tzachs was thinking of having Britney Spears star in?)

3: Young Crone
Congrats! Not the one I voted for, but one I like. It sounds like a somewhat more naturalistic take on what being a witch was all about, and for me it also brings to mind Terry Pratchett's books. The bit about "learning secret gossip" is a bit jarring (I know: word count), and something I'd like to see explored more.

4: What Could Have Been
I love the idea of reminiscing as a game mechanic, and think it's really cool to have an entry that seems more on the "walking simulator" (i.e. without traditional gameplay goals) side of the spectrum. Still, my instincts are nevertheless to add a bit more tension/mystery to the mix, and ask the question of why these oldsters feel the need to fantasize their past: is there something there they'd rather not remember the way it happened? Perhaps discovering the truth of that might provide an overall goal. I also feel that a pinch of darkness could help cut the sweetness of "these wonderful lives" that might otherwise be a bit too cloying. (Think Pixar's Up!)

5: Dragonville
I'm surprised this didn't get any votes. Dragons are cool, and this pitch sounds like one of those medium-short AGS gems that combine classic gameplay with a fresh and appealing little story. I'd play it!

6: Background Battle
The most intriguing thing to me in this pitch is the bit where you are trying to put a peaceful end to the conflict. Too many "warring AI" stories use the simplistic "one is good, the other is evil" template (though the original Neuromancer notably did not). But then the pitch seemed to veer away from that again.

7: Inside These White Walls
Cool. Presumably it's a horror? The premise is very clear and absolutely compelling, though not terribly original. When the setup is basically "Sci-Fi Plot #5: Explore deserted space ship after unexplained catastrophe", I think it would have been good in the pitch to reveal a bit more (gameplay or further story developments) to avoid seeming too generic.

8: Naive
This pitch, on the other hand, is very unique. It seems like it's going for a kind of literary effect in the pitch itself, conveying the character's mental state through the presentation? I would guess it failed to attract any votes because it's kind of hard to grasp, and somewhat off-putting ("You play an idiot who most likely will die"?). A more straightforward explanation might have stood a better chance.

9: The Antidote
I really like the two-pronged gameplay here, trying to solve the mystery of who poisoned the PM while also trying to find an antidote. I sort of imagine it like The Riddle of Master Lu, where you travel the world as part of some Indiana Jones-y plot, while also picking up artifacts and curios to keep your struggling museum afloat along the way (Beyond Good & Evil has a little bit of the same with the wildlife photos). That secondary gameplay element is something I've always wanted to include in an adventure. A comment about how the pitch is written: a lot of words are spent describing the society and the PM, but it doesn't add that much to the pitch: it's not clear why it matters that it's the leader of a united western hemisphere, for example, or that he's a good man "by all accounts". I think you could have cut most of this, giving you more space to expand on other interesting aspects.

10: Meet Me in the Rings
Who doesn't love a zany space adventure? I don't think the details of the plot matter that much in games like this, but since this sounds like a comedy game, I think a joke or two in the pitch would have helped create interest (granted, "conscientious gelatin" is fairly amusing).

11: Verb Coins
The mechanic is well described. It might just be my bias, but I feel like this type of meta-game where you gradually gain access to the standard gameplay elements is an idea that comes up a lot in indie circles. That's fine, but it does mean that I would want the pitch to be something more than that – to say a few words about the story, for example.

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Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: Mittens 2018 confirmed - Boston 15-22 September

« on: 08 Sep 2018, 19:33 »

So I bet I'm the first to be leaving for Mittens, tomorrow morning!

Why now, a week before the start of the event? Well, since the place I'm living now is inconvenient for the airport, I'll be stopping over at my parents' for a couple of days before catching a flight to Boston, joining Disco and Priv. Puddin' for our pre-Mittens New England road trip. But it does mean I have to get all my packing done and anything else that needs doing out of the way before I leave.

See you on the other side!

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Competitions & Activities / Re: Game Pitch Competition - Round 5 (VOTING until 9. September)

« on: 08 Sep 2018, 19:24 »

Hey, just a quick reminder that voting in this round closes soon, so if you haven't put in your vote yet, do so before it's too late!

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Beginners' Technical Questions / Re: Immediate autosave/overwrite of AGS projects... why?

« on: 08 Sep 2018, 17:16 »

Well, the key part of CW's response is this bit:

But it also DOES autosave the room when you run the game, it cannot do otherwise.

In order to run the game, it has to save it (and the rooms) first. That's just unavoidable. I suppose I can see how as a newbie you might expect it to work more like a preview, but building a game so it's runnable involves complicated processing of the game's project files, and so those files have to be in the state the game needs. The alternative would be to create a copy of the whole game project every time you compile, which would be a bad idea.

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The Rumpus Room / Re: What's on TV?

« on: 04 Sep 2018, 17:31 »

Wait, I just noticed Privateer Puddin's post (I was responding to Gurok, didn't see there was another page on the thread). Yes, it is Frasier.

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The Rumpus Room / Re: *Guess the Movie Title*

« on: 03 Sep 2018, 10:39 »

Don't say the truth hurts, little girl... 'cause it hurts like hell.

This movie is awesome.

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The Rumpus Room / Re: What's on TV?

« on: 03 Sep 2018, 07:58 »

But you're not too far off: it's a farce.