Several 'game mechanics' and newbie doubts

[Diegan]

Hi!

After watching the 6 hours of the youtube tutorials, and reading some of the enormous quantity of information that's available (I can tell you, a newcomer can be quite overwhelmed by all the info and possibilities), I finally want to ask some existencial questions I haven't been able to answer myself, after seeing a game running. In this case, I have recorded a small video of the beginning of 5-days a stranger, so it´s easier for me to explain my doubt, and for you to see what I am referring to. Please know that, due to watching densmig's tutorial videos, I am not aware of latest changes in AGS, and reading the changelist does not clarify much at my level of knowledge. I hope someone is kind anough to answer my questions

Anyway, this is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1omk1Fm0sU4


And my question regarding it are:

- At 0:07, the char goes out of the car. WHat is that? Everything is a background, but what is the door and the character shadow moving? A view?

- At 0:20 a rope with a grapplinghook enters the room. What is that? WHat kind of object/animation is that?

- Inmediately after, the character enters, and the window closes after him. That would be a view of the character placed in the window? SOrry for my dumb questions but it's hard for me to understand how to make it all flow together (character entering in that spot, rope dissapearing and window closing).

- At 2:04, there's a TV animation. Again, what is it? A view (I mean a new character with those frames) or something else?

- The fire in the next room, is it several backgrounds with small changes that form that fire? WOuld that be the best way to animate stuff that's always animated in a room?

Finally, 3 questions not related with that video:

- If I want a room to be bigger than the size of the window, for the character to be able to scroll to the right for example, can I just import a bigger room and establish where the character starts? What would be all?

- In the completed games forum I have seen the tag [MAGS]. What does it stand for?

- WHat's the meaning of 'verbcoin'?


Anyway, as you can see, my questions are very n00b, but pretty important for me to understand how everything comes together.

Thank you!

[abstauber]

- At 0:07, the char goes out of the car. WHat is that? Everything is a background, but what is the door and the character shadow moving? A view?

Well, nowadays there are a several ways to show animations. I suppose, it' been done with an object here:
You create a room with the option to hide the main character here. Then you create an object, assign a view to it and start the animation.

- At 0:20 a rope with a grapplinghook enters the room. What is that? WHat kind of object/animation is that?
- Inmediately after, the character enters, and the window closes after him. That would be a view of the character placed in the window? SOrry for my dumb questions but it's hard for me to understand how to make it all flow together (character entering in that spot, rope dissapearing and window closing).

It could have been done like this:
All you need is one big character view - (the character animations are always centered at the middle bottom line). You create a view with the width of about 100px and make the first frame completely blank. Then you assign the view to your character and place it where it should stand at the end of your animation (eg. where Trilby stands at 0:27).
On your view you can now play the entire animation (open window, grapling hook, climb in, closed window). Now you just need an object of the closed window and reassign the default view of your character.

- At 2:04, there's a TV animation. Again, what is it? A view (I mean a new character with those frames) or something else?

Yup, that's a character in form of the turned on TV screen.

- The fire in the next room, is it several backgrounds with small changes that form that fire? WOuld that be the best way to animate stuff that's always animated in a room?

I'd do that with an object again. Assign a view to it an let it animate repeatedly.

Finally, 3 questions not related with that video:
- If I want a room to be bigger than the size of the window, for the character to be able to scroll to the right for example, can I just import a bigger room and establish where the character starts? What would be all?

Sort of, yes. You'll also expand the room's boundaries and the walkable areas. But it's not a big deal.

- In the completed games forum I have seen the tag [MAGS]. What does it stand for?

Monthly AGS competition, just take a look at the first post here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=43192.0

- WHat's the meaning of 'verbcoin'?

http://americangirlscouts.org/agswiki/Verb_coin

Anyway, as you can see, my questions are very n00b, but pretty important for me to understand how everything comes together.
Thank you!

You're welcome