AGS Awards 2014 AGS Client - Now soliciting avatars!

Snarky · Tue 17/02/2015 02:30:01

Adventure game gods willing, there will be a live AGS Awards ceremony over AGS/IRC this year as well. (Here's the one from last year):

[embed=640,360]<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pb03pzWyEJU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]

However, Dualnames is too busy with other projects, so it falls on my far less competent shoulders to update the client for this year's awards. One of the things I would like to add is more avatars from AGS games. (The LucasArts/Sierra sprites are fun, but shouldn't an AGS event primarily feature AGS characters?)

To make this happen depends on you! If you want a character from your AGS game as an avatar for the ceremony, please contact me (over PM). I'll need:

The full set of NormalView sprites (character walkcycle + standing frames, normally in 4 directions)
The name of the character and what game it comes from
Whether or not it's OK to include the character (with attribution) in the open-source release of the app after the ceremony

If you can, it'd be great if you could also include the talk view and a "special move" animation (e.g. a wave, a jump, ...), though I'm not sure I'll have time to implement those features in the app. The characters can be any resolution/dimensions, and the assets in any AGS-readable format (including a .CHA exported character file).

I can't guarantee that I'll be able to include every character you send me, and I probably won't include more than one or two characters from any one game. But please! I'd much rather be overwhelmed by offers than have too few, so Send! Send! Send! (Oh, and one of the avatars will be Oceanspirit Dennis. Any recommendations for which game to take his sprites from?)

Edit: Also, any other suggestions, feature requests or offers to lend a hand are welcome.

AGA · Tue 17/02/2015 08:06:59

The most important feature request would be for the client not to crash so frequently, taking 90% of the channel offline simultaneously. That happened the last couple of years this client was used, for whatever reason...

Andail · Tue 17/02/2015 08:36:08

Awesome that you're taking care of this, I'll try to attend the event this time.

Radiant · Tue 17/02/2015 09:40:58

Great idea! I'll send you some sprites over PM.

Quote from: Snarky on Tue 17/02/2015 02:30:01(Oh, and one of the avatars will be Oceanspirit Dennis. Any recommendations for which game to take his sprites from?)

How about Oceanspirit Danish?

Quote from: AGA on Tue 17/02/2015 08:06:59
The most important feature request would be for the client not to crash so frequently, taking 90% of the channel offline simultaneously. That happened the last couple of years this client was used, for whatever reason...

If I recall correctly, that's caused by invalid characters in a text string; some filtering should do the trick.

AGA · Tue 17/02/2015 10:16:47

Quote from: Radiant on Tue 17/02/2015 09:40:58
If I recall correctly, that's caused by invalid characters in a text string; some filtering should do the trick.

That might be the weird characters IRC to show formatting like bolding and colouring. Stripping it back to plain text should be fine, given the graphical nature of the presentation. And how hyperactive the AGS Awards channel is, making it impossible to catch any nuances fancier formatting might provide anyway...

Snarky · Tue 17/02/2015 10:34:19

Quote from: AGA on Tue 17/02/2015 08:06:59
The most important feature request would be for the client not to crash so frequently, taking 90% of the channel offline simultaneously. That happened the last couple of years this client was used, for whatever reason...

Yes... I haven't been able to replicate any crashes yet, but it's possible Dualnames already patched one particular bug from last year, and he just explained how another one happened, so I'll look into that. We'll have to do another beta test, I think. I'll add in more text filtering (there is some already) and do more testing with text clients participating.

Quote from: Radiant on Tue 17/02/2015 09:40:58How about Oceanspirit Danish?

I was going to say that I was hoping for an avatar from each game that's up for an award this year, to be used exclusively by the creator(s) (I've added a way to password-protect certain avatars). But then I'm shocked to see that OSDanish isn't among the finalists for any award...

Anyway, yes, would love to have an avatar from there! (And also from Heroine's Quest. Past winners/nominees are a high priority, and we don't have any female avatars from AGS games yet.)

AGA · Tue 17/02/2015 11:52:48

I think the extremely high volume of the real ceremony may have caused a problem too, as I would assume beta testing was done on a much smaller scale. Might be good to get tons of volunteers if possiblefor a quick pre Awards test ceremony at some point; get people to really hammer the system as the actual ceremony does.

Snarky · Tue 17/02/2015 12:30:42

Yes, we should definitely try to do that. It's difficult to get enough people to show up all at the same time just for bugtesting, though.

AGA · Tue 17/02/2015 12:56:40

I can stick up a forumwide banner, which might help.

Creamy · Tue 17/02/2015 13:13:04

Hello Snarky,

I probably won't be able to attend the ceremony (different time zone) but you can find some views of Lizaigne from "a night in Berry" here.
You can include her with attribution in the open-source release of the app after the ceremony if you want.

Good luck with the organization.

Radiant · Tue 17/02/2015 19:14:39

Sent a bunch of chars

Snarky · Sun 22/02/2015 16:51:20

Just a small reminder bump: there's still time to have your avatars included in the ceremony!

Thanks to everyone who's sent me their characters so far: I'm so excited to see all the AGS chars mingling!

Also, one quick question: Can anyone identify this character, which was an avatar in the last couple of years' ceremonies? The sprites say "Formica", but although there is an AGSer by that name, it doesn't look like his/her graphics style (at least not in Ugal's Embrace):

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/yxRf0tv.png[/imgzoom]

Dualnames · Mon 23/02/2015 01:30:47

it's from IGOR HARDY.

Snarky · Mon 23/02/2015 12:14:51

Thanks!

moloko · Tue 24/02/2015 20:22:51

I'd love to send in Ponderabilia's Nikee, but I have no access to a PC atm, just the walking and standing sprite animations. Do you think it would be possible for you to convert them?

. I realize this is inconvenient, so I'd be much obliged...

All the best,
Moloko

Snarky · Tue 24/02/2015 21:35:20

Well! Those are beautiful sprites, and I'd love to have her in the ceremony (the importing is no problem), but I'm having some doubts on the dress code front... Since its' an open-form event and you never know what people might do or say, I'm just a little worried (from past experience) that this avatar might encourage a bawdy tone that could alienate some AGSers. And Lord knows the AGS Awards aren't the most formal shindig, but did anyone attend the Oscars this weekend stark naked?

So I guess what I'm saying is it would be GREAT if you had a version with clothes. Sorry to be oversensitive!

selmiak · Tue 24/02/2015 21:40:20

Quote from: Snarky on Tue 24/02/2015 21:35:20
And Lord knows the AGS Awards aren't the most formal shindig, but did anyone attend the Oscars this weekend stark naked?

Well, almost...

Snarky · Tue 24/02/2015 21:45:02

Hmmm, OK, I'm convinced!

I'll add Nikee along with Guido, but maybe save them for the afterparty? (By which I mean, they won't be available for the ceremony itself, but I'll unlock them after the awards are over. Is that OK?)

--- Oh, and it would still be great to get a clothed version for the main event.

moloko · Wed 25/02/2015 15:36:08

Time to add a touch of class, then. Here's a special award avatar. We're not going home with any, so may as well outclass the rest.

. That said, this feels very uncharacteristic for her. Let me know if these will do.

Cassiebsg · Wed 25/02/2015 16:07:31

I probably won't be attending the awards, but maybe someone would like to use Minifeg as an avatar?