[CANCELLED] By the Sword: Conspiracy

[TerranRich]

Wow, right place, right time. The first post to the Games in Production forum...

Project: By the Sword: Conspiracy
Web Site: http://www.rain-day.com/harbinger/bts/
What's Available: A rolling demo, which only is the entire intro to the game. (Download not yet available) AND a fully playable demo of Chapter One of the game, which may be downloaded HERE!!

Summary:
You play Ronald Ganon, a lieutenant in the Star Force, in the year 2197. You serve aboard the U.S.S. Merrimack under Captain Jonathan L. Perseus. One day, on a routine survey mission, the crew comes across an uncharted planet, called Jel'ek IV. You go down on a planetary mission with the ship's second-officer, Lieutenant-Commander Nathaniel Hathaway, as the team leader. Little do you know that the planet is already inhabited. What happens? Check the demo/intro and find out for yourself!

Screenshots:
http://www.rain-day.com/harbinger/bts/bts_new_offlounge.jpg: An example of the new graphical style, the Officers' Lounge, complete with dead bodies.
http://www.rain-day.com/harbinger/bts/cargohold_new.jpg: The new Cargo Hold.
http://www.rain-day.com/harbinger/bts/crashsite3.jpg: The shuttlepod crash-lands on a planet's surface. Modelled using Bryce, the old style. Not sure if I can re-do this in Poser well.
http://www.rain-day.com/harbinger/bts/new_vipsuite.jpg: The new VIP Guest Suite. Not sure if I'm going to keep it as a one-room deal with bed and desk in the same room, or a multiple-room deal with only the office area available.
http://www.rain-day.com/harbinger/bts/newcorridor.jpg: The new corridors. Darker, rougher, and more ominous. Just how I like it!


Current Project Status:
Story/Plot: 100%
Dialog: 30%
Graphics: 10% (re-doing all rooms, characters, items, objects, etc.)
Speech: 5% (will recruit soon, a bit of dialog done by LGM as Narrator)

[Flippy_D]

Umm, TR, either my computer is screwed or you just don't know how to post images. In any case,












Oh, how I bleed to get your work here

[Squinky]

Heh, the funny thing is flippy, I can see Terranriches, but I can't see yours.....

[Gilbert]

I can't see both, but that's probably due to my office's connection, as I'm behind a firewall I guess.

[Flippy_D]

now that's weird. They were working last night, and now I can't see either of 'em! lolism.

[ratracer]

still can't download.
either I get a TEMPORARY connection error or the 404 not found page!

[Privateer Puddin']

very cool indeed

[TerranRich]

For those of you who couldn't download it before, can you now? If so, did it work all right?

[ratracer]

Yes, Richard, I could download it...
The intro is fantastic -really long, detailed, nice graphics ...
Do you think you could finish the game in 2 months?
Thanks for including my name on the credits (although my contribution is meaningless!)
I still don't know where you moved the forum to...

Once again, great work...

[TerranRich]

The forum is at http://www.bts-dev.tk/ I thought I emailed everybody with the new information. Don't worry, you didn't miss much, just a new script by Nellie, and some notes by a few of us. I was wondering why it's been dead lately :p

And yes, I do believe I can finish it in 2-3 months' time. I am working very hard on it, getting all the kinks out now before I run into problems later. Once I work out a system of using true/false flags for certain situations and determining whether or not the player did something or figured out something, then I'm sure everything else will be quite easy.

At the most, I figure 5-6 months. Still not that long, I hope.

[Petteri - School]

I think you should make some of the animations faster in some place. Walking and running looks pretty weird when animation is too slow. But very cool looking intro. Can't wait for game to be finished.

[TerranRich]

Hmm, actually, I'm working on making the running/walking look better. As it is, you're right, it's too slow and sluggish and time-consuming. I'm probably just afraid to alter the speed numbers, for fear that I'll mess something up and it'll look even worse than ever.

[TerranRich]

Well, I'm still hard at work on this game. Just wanted everybody to know that I've purchased a Dot-com address for my software company, at which has yet to be updated, but for now it's a more reliable link to my game's intro-demo!

The By the Sword site page and demo can now be found here:
Harbinger Software Online :: By the Sword: C0NSPIRACY

Enjoy!

[TerranRich]

I'm selfishly bumping this topic back up again...tho it will be lost again in a few days

I added a promotional poster!

[Quickstrike]

Can't wait, TerranRich!

[Snake]

Hail Hail Promotional Posters!!1

(I'm thinking of doing one myself actually...)


--Snake
It'll beat yours, Terran....It'll BEAT YOURS!!11...IT'LL BEAT! YOURS!! MUHAHAHA!!

TERRAN'S LILYLIVERED!!!111!!!
*runs before Terran can beat him up*

[Quickstrike]

TerranRich, I can beat up Snake for you.  Price:  Let me BETA for you.

[Quickstrike]

Just played the demo!  It's so real!  

[SilverHawke]

Looks great Terrain. Can't wait to play the finished product.

[Neole]

Wow, great looking intro! The running is a bit slow, but that can easily be taken care with animation speed etc. The midi is too soft (as seems to be the case with most AGS games).

[TerranRich]

Heh, thanks guys, tho it's a bit late for me to reply.

The running will be fixed. In fact, it already has been fixed. The intro will be re-done when the entire game is finished,  as I am using better methods of modeling and stuff to make things look better and more realistic.

Anyone who wants to Beta can get a free copy of the game on CD-ROM (no shipping either), but the catch: fill out a survey, AND give a detailed description of what you thought was good, bad, needed work, was perfect/fine, etc. Then, you'll be added to the ending credits of the game!

i'm going for realism with this game. If you noticed, the intro is mostly still shots where closeups are concerned. This will not be the case with later cutscenes and the re-made intro. You'll see. It will ROCK!!

[Matt Brown]

I'll do it

[frobozz]

Me too.

Looks fantastic, by the way.

-Fro.

[remixor]

I'd be in to beta test, if you'd be willing to let me.  Your game looks really cool.  The intro graphics are great, especially the close up rendered faces which blew me away.  Best of luck  

[TerranRich]

Thanks again, guys.

Anybody who says they're in will receive an email whenever the game is done. Make sure your email is in your profile.

NOTE: Anybody who replies in this thread with an affirmation that they wish to be a beta tester, will get an email, and then a free copy of BtS on CD when it comes. I expect the release date to be sometime this summer or fall.

[Joseph DiPerla]

Hey if you still want beta testers, I would be willing to to do it also. My e-mail is ajdiperla@netzero.net

Joey DiPerla

[Femme Stab Mode >:D]

If you STILL want beta testers my e-mail is sasha@itkid.com. I'm downloading the intro right now. The screenshots look awesome btw.

[Pet Terry]

I could be one of the beta testers if you need. My email can be found in my profile.

[Rincewind]

Well, you've probably got enough of them now, but if there's room for one more, I'd love to be a beta tester...
Looks incredible!

[TerranRich]

Well I think that's plenty. Thanks everybody! I will send out emails when the game is finished. Just make sure either your email is visible in your profile, or in your post above.

I'm seriously debating whether to release the first Chapter as a demo, but even that will be too huge to upload (and for others to download). Maybe just more screenshots!

[Barcik]

I want to beta test too, if it's not too late.

[TerranRich]

So, I bet you thought this had faded away into oblivion, eh? Well GUESS AGAIN! No...guess again... uh...guess--- BAH!

So here are my full plans with this thing. Right now, I am nearing the end of Chapter One (out of 6 chapters), and am planning to release Chapter 1 as a fully playable demo (a mini-game actually) once it's done, which should be SOOON. Then it's on to the rest of the game.

It's already at 70 MB compiled, so I'm pretty sure the full version will be released onto CD. I have decided on a price: $10 (USD).

But that's not all! For an extra $5 I can include a Bonus Disc with extra features, such as audio commentary (available at the beginning of the game), "outtakes" (which aren't really outtakes of course, but still), The Making Of By the Sword, where I walk you through behind-the-scenes, concept art, wireframes, etc. Whatever I feel like adding in. Also, there will be a complete walkthough and hidden cheats throughout the game will be revealed.

With permission from m0ds, I will also include a free Soundtrack CD with all the music from BtS inside (The $5 will be for the Bonus CD, not the Soundtrack)

And even some extra options, like a DVD case instead of a jewel case for $2 extra, a paper manual instead of electronic manual for an extra $4, etc., etc.

So those are my plans. Right now, I'm about 81% done with the Chapter 1 demo, which I will release for upload sometime next month.

So how do ya like THEM apples!?

[Snake]

70MB, Tarn? Holy shmoly! ...Guess I'll be waiting for the full game ...Hell, I still have to buy Fatman....

Good job, though, seems like you've got everything under control and rolling smoothly


--Snake

[Vel]

* Vel smirks

[Goldmund]

So, can one get a blank DVD case from you for 2 $?

I'm puzzled.

[evilspacefart]

awesome intro. can you make it so its not such a huge dl? the demo was huge but the full version must be enormous.

*edit*
nevermind... it's on cd.

[TerranRich]

Heh.

Goldmund: No, I simply meant that those were added options you could have when buying the full game.

So yeah, the Intro/Rolling demo is around 5.8 MB alone.

The Chapter One playable demo will be 70-ish MB.

The full game could be as high as 100-200 MB, but with voices and music, maybe as high as 300 MB !!!

[agsking]

Your crazy terran!  

[Minimi]

Terran.. i have this question! Could it be that you are using Bryce for the scenes and poser for the characters? Because thats what it looks like! If that is so, maybee we could one day pass over eachothers work, and you could maybee help me to improve my skills. I have sometimes trouble using the lattice to make the object that i want. I am btw making a tutorial for bryce, and how to use it to make nice backgrounds for a game. Btw... very nice screenshots, though you can work on the expression of the characters. I was looking at the screenshot in wich 2 gauys were scanning the area, and the right guy... looks a bit awkward. I look forward playing your game!

[TerranRich]

GOOD NEWS!

The By the Sword Playable Demo is here! And it's only 18MB!!!!

How did I do it? The wonders of ZIPing a file made it possible! It went from 70MB to 18MB. Woohoo!

So download the demo...

HERE!!!

[Vel]

*Downloading*

You should know that ags doesnt compress files very much

[remixor]

Excellent, Rich!  Downloading as I type...

[Vel]

Im stuck

Spoiler

I just got all the piecesof paper, but I cant use this code anywhere.

[close]

[Timosity]

Excellent stuff, I've been waiting for this for a long time, good to see you've been productive, I'll tell you more when I've played it.

[TerranRich]

Vel: It's used, believe me. Maybe I should make this more obvious, since it really itsn't apparent at all. In the very first room, the CryoStasis room, did you try using all the panels? It's the rightmost panel where the medkit lies.

Timosity: Yup, I've been working hard on this from Day 1, and work will progress very smoothly now that this is out of the way.

[Quickstrike]

Downloading....

[Timosity]

Looking good Terranrich, I just noticed one thing, if you look at an inventory item, after you click off it, the menu gui at the top of screen remains off. (this is the case when you click outside the inventory large image and you don't go back to the normal inventory screen) you can get it back by pressing tab & closing inventory. Also when you restore a game, the top menu gui is off.

I'll get back and play some more, very interesting

Spoiler

a couple more things:  in the inventory window, if you use the hand on the blue cup, you smudge the finger prints, but then you have two cups, the smudged prints one and the original.

in the hanger if you press the 'release shuttlepod' button, a message behind the gui comes up and the game is frozen, you can only press alt-x to quit. - this is before you are probably supposed to press this button as I haven't finished the demo.

[close]

[TerranRich]

Goddammit! A month of beta-testing and I still can't get rid of all the bugs!



This might affect gameplay with this demo. And I swear I thought I got rid of all the bugs. Fuck.

If anyone finds any more bugs, let me know and I will re-release the demo after I find most of them.

[BOYD1981]

i tried to play the game, and this happened...


is there any way you could make the actual exe file smaller and just have several not as large data files for any future, if any, demo releases?
i think this machine is just having problems loading the exe into memory...

[Pet Terry]

Great game Takes some time to load on my computer, but it doesn't effect to actual gameplay.

Although,

Spoiler

I can't find any use any for that mystical code you find when you collect all the pieces of paper and don't know how to solve that password puzzle in lounge room. I guess it has something to do with that ice cream list you find from the body...?

[close]

Oh, and that tune I made, in the start, it's the older version without atmospherical strings I added to the newer version.

But keep up the good work

[milquetoast]

Looking forward to playing the demo Rich! I've had your intro on my HD for quite some time.

[TerranRich]

Everybody who doesn't know what to do with the code on the papers in the captain's quarters: did you even try the panel in the first playable room? Try all three panels on that console, including the rightmost one right near where the medkit was.

As for the memory problem, I will make the data chunks larger I suppose. Or just get with the century and upgrade

As for the Officers' Lounge puzzle, yes it has something to do with the ice cream menu. See how they're numbered?

[Timosity]

It's great so far but after a few days of trying I need a bit of help

Spoiler

I've found 5 pieces of paper so I can't get that code, are all the pieces of paper in the same room cause I've exhausted that room, and I did get the one in the random book, how many pieces are there.

Also with the frequency in the cell, is there a number somewhere or is it just trial and error, cause if it is trial and error, i've tried many between 100 & 10,000 and always get the same message, no message saying I'm closer or anything, there must be a number hiding somewhere.

[close]

[TerranRich]

Meh. As for the security cell frequency, it's supposed to be trial and error.

Spoiler

To get the frequency (a cheat!) simply shoot the upper-right corner of the room, beyond the visible part of the room itself. This will give you the frequency directly.

[close]

And as for the piece of paper, you do know there's a second room in the captain's quarters, right?

[Timosity]

thanks for the cheat thing, no offence, but I hate those sort of puzzles, maybe not such a huge range anyway.

And as for the piece of paper, you do know there's a second room in the captain's quarters, right?

I know there's a second room, if you mean the bedroom, but he just walks in and out, I guess I need to have something to go in the room, but I've tried everything I've found and accessed all the other rooms.

Spoiler

A couple more little things, in the captains room, the walkbehind on the chair on the left bottom of screens walkbehind needs fixing, you can stand way below it and you're still behind it, also you pick up a helmet in the guest vip room but it doesn't appear in your inventory.

[close]

It's a tough game, that seems easy at some points, I guess I'm just missing something, or not using something I have right?

[TerranRich]

What do you mean he just walks in and out of the bedroom? There's supposed to be a very narrow room with the captain lying on the bed, dead.

It seems I might have to re-think the force field frequency puzzle thing. You're right, it is a very large range. Maybe a smaller range? Because the closer you get to the right frequency, it's supposed to disrupt the forcefield more and more. I'll reduce the range by a large amount and re-release it.

I never noticed anything about the walk-behind. Or the helmet. I'll fix both of these for the re-release of the demo. Thanks

[Minimi]

I have the same darn problem as Boyd... I get the memory problem. Please o please make a version of the demo where the exe is in seperated parts, because I'm dying to see, and play the game, and learn about the style you are using the graphics with and such... for making that city in bryce... you know... Could you do that? split the 65mb file into some smaller files?

[Timosity]

What do you mean he just walks in and out of the bedroom? There's supposed to be a very narrow room with the captain lying on the bed, dead.

It says something like, there is too much debris in the way, I'll just assume the captain is dead like all the others.

It seems I might have to re-think the force field frequency puzzle thing. You're right, it is a very large range. Maybe a smaller range? Because the closer you get to the right frequency, it's supposed to disrupt the forcefield more and more. I'll reduce the range by a large amount and re-release it.

When I cheated, I tested some numbers closer just to see what happens, and I think it's a good puzzle, but yeah, reducing the range will stop people getting pissed off.

I never noticed anything about the walk-behind. Or the helmet. I'll fix both of these for the re-release of the demo. Thanks

No worries, glad to be of help.

[TerranRich]

Crap! I forgot that the skill level affected whether or not you could visit that room! Dammit. I'll definitely fix that as well. Try it with a skill level of, say, 90.

What happened was, originally I forgot to put a 6th paper location in the main room, so I thought I was clever in deciding to hide one in the bedroom as well. Guess I forgot about that. Sorry!

[Timosity]

I totally didn't even think of skill level, and what is harder 1% or 100%?

maybe it should be clearer, is it your skill, or the games skill against you.

Thanks for the help

[TerranRich]

I should change skill to difficulty level. Quest for Glory IV used a "Skill" setting, so I just borrowed that idea from them. I guess difficulty would make more sense. Also, 100 is hardest, and 1 is easiest. The higher the skill level, the harder the game, but the more rooms and features you get to see. The lower the skill level, the easier the game, but the less you see out of the game.

There are many big differences later on in the game. I won't spoil anything, but people should try two very different skill levels with the final game.

[remixor]

I really like the difficultly level thing (although that's got to be a bitch to beta test--wait a sec, I signed up to beta test.  crap!), but I think perhaps you should separate it into several graduated levels instead of a percent.  I wasn't really sure what I should put in, so I sort of chose one at random.  I don't know how many subdivisions you have, but I'm sure there aren't 100 of them.  Perhaps you could have 5 (or however many) difficulty levels from which to choose?

[Kweepa]

Another RON game!

Nice work so far.
There's a lot of subtle humour in there, and some nice reactions. I was impressed when

Spoiler

I picked up the antigrav unit, then looked at the computer, and he said, "oh it's just the antigrav unit I got from behind those barrels".

[close]

Really adds to the atmosphere.

Why is Ron's portrait not smoothed, and why does he not have a background?

Also, how did you do that "loading" screen?

Cheers,
Steve

[GarageGothic]

It seems I might have to re-think the force field frequency puzzle thing. You're right, it is a very large range. Maybe a smaller range? Because the closer you get to the right frequency, it's supposed to disrupt the forcefield more and more. I'll reduce the range by a large amount and re-release it.

Well, I suppose you meant the static to be more intense the closer you get to the frequency? The thing is that it isn't really visible, I couldn't tell the difference. Especially since it takes so long to use the communicator that it isn't really possible to do before and after comparisons. Maybe some sort of dial to turn would be a better interface - and you could add a sound, so the pitch gets higher the closer you get to the right frequency or something (6 different looping tones wouldn't add much to the file size).

I've been looking forward to this game, but that puzzle almost turned me off it. I'm looking forward to cheat my way past and get on with the game.

[Pet Terry]

Duh! Call me stupid, but I can't solve those puzzles In the lounge room I've tried:

Spoiler

Blue
Red
Grey
Pink
Yellow
Orange
...because that's the most logical way according the ice cream menu

[close]

And about that paper pieces puzzle...

Spoiler

I'm not sure if the number is 976W8ZH97J ? I've tried putting that in first room's console and to the second console... I don't know. I even tried to read the paper upside down, but it didn't work...

[close]

I can't remember which skill level I chose... I think it was 100, but I'm not sure

[big brother]

Has anyone noticed that  the main sprite becomes larger in size when he walks (particularly in side view)?

[remixor]

Probably just a slight sprite scaling problem.

[GarageGothic]

I noticed it mostly in the behind view, when going from standing to walking. Actually I think it's a Poser problem, depending on how the camera is set relative to the body parts.

Example: If the camera is set in a fixed distance to the part closest to the camera, when the character walks towards the camera, his foot will be closest, and due to perspective, his body will become smaller than when he's standing normally. If, on the other hand, the camera was set in a fixed distance to the hip, you wouldn't see any difference in height.

But yes, of course it could be fixed by scaling.

Edit: Thinking about it, the side view shouldn't have this problem - that might be related to a different camera distance being used for that view.

Edit2: Talking about rendering and such, am I the only who thinks that more attention could be paid to lighting the backgrounds? They seem very bright and flat, which is really a shame when you've gone through the trouble of building it all in 3d. I suppose it works ok for a space ship full of fluorescent lights, but if you have different locations later on, maybe you should work on some more atmospheric lighting setups.

[TerranRich]

EVERYBODY: I've discussed this with Vel, and I am going to change this in the re-release of the demo: The voicechip number is 5-G. The voicechip BIN number is the number on the piece of paper. I realize now that it's too confusing to bother with, so I'll have Ron automatically enter in the "5-G" part on his own.

As for the forcefield puzzle, I'm going to make it easier to keep trying different frequencies. Instead of having to open up the inventory, then interact with the communicator, I'll just have it keep asking you for a new value, until you get it right, or enter 0 to cancel. I will also reduce the range of frequencies a lot so that it is easier. I realize that I made it way too difficult.

As for the skill level, there are points in the script where it checks for a random value, like "if SKILL<50", "if SKILL>=75", or "if SKILL>80", but yeah I could change that so that there are five different tiers of skill levels. This will mean redoing the entire first chapter whenever the skill level is checked, but that's okay. It will also mean writing out a list of features for each skill tier, what rooms will and will not be shown, what characters will and will not be present, etc.

So the code you entered in the lounge terminal doesn't work, Petteri? The following:

Spoiler

blue, red, white, violet, yellow, orange

[close]

SHOULD work, and worked for me.

As for the bin number on the piece of paper, that is randomly generated each time you start a new game, so whatever you type down can't be verified.

Finally, as for the walking views, I just noticed that the side walking views look larger than the still walking views. I will have to re-render all those animations in that case. Oh well.

[remixor]

As for the skill level, there are points in the script where it checks for a random value, like "if SKILL<50", "if SKILL>=75", or "if SKILL>80", but yeah I could change that so that there are five different tiers of skill levels. This will mean redoing the entire first chapter whenever the skill level is checked, but that's okay. It will also mean writing out a list of features for each skill tier, what rooms will and will not be shown, what characters will and will not be present, etc.

I didn't mean that.  I meant you could just have five tiers and in the script itself, those could be equal to maybe 20, 40, 60, 80, 100.  There would be no need to adjust the script but it would be more manageable for the player, I think.  Obviously you have better insight on what values to use; I was just giving examples.  If this doesn't work for some reason, though, never mind

[Timosity]

Just out of interest, I had the same trouble as Petteri, where do you find the code '5G' I couldn't find a reference anywhere for it.

Spoiler

Is it actually possible to finish this demo, I think I have done everything, I've even unlocked the pod, but it tells me I have no reason to leave the ship even though I know I'm heading for a star, and I've seen the hologram. I also can't use the release button as the bug I mentioned earlier.

Another little thing I noticed earlier with the messages, on the easier level, in the room where the ice cream note is lying next to the guy, if you get the note then try to search the guy it says something like, there is something in plain view to the right of him, when you already have it.

[close]

As for the difficulty levels, as remixor said, you don't have to change all the code, all you have to do is have, say 5 buttons labeled Easy - Hard and when you choose one it just sets that value to 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and bingo, problem solved

[TerranRich]

When you look at the viewer in the main bridge, does Ron say that you have to get off the ship? If not, then you didn't attempt to alter the course of the ship.

Ron's face doesn't have a background because I messed up his portrait and didn't bother to fix it. I will fix it, however, in the future.

Tim, I'll fix that message in the re-release, I must've overlooked that. Thanks.

It might not be able to finish this demo, but the re-release should be fixed.

I'll re-do the skill levels for the finished version, but not for the re-release. You'll have to deal with 1-100 for now.

The "5-G" code can be found in the intro. Players WERE expected to pay attention, but from this point on I'll have it done automatically, don't worry.

The lighting on the ship is supposed to be flat. This way, once you see the outdoor rooms, you'll be amazed at the refreshing difference. Chapter 2 is meant to be a refreshing change of scenery.

Anything else?

[TerranRich]

WONK!

The re-release has been...released!

DOWNLOAD HERE!!!

I fixed every single bug and error mentioned above and on IRC except details to be fleshed out in the final release.

Enjoy! (And yes, it's still 18.6 MB large, sorry.)

[Timosity]

Ok, I finished it, well I think so, cause it just crashes at the end with an error that says something similar to 'unable to load room37.crm, check that it's in the game folder etc'

Spoiler

There are still most of the same errors:
the chair at bottom left at the table in the captains quarters, if you walk to that corner your feet are way below the base of chair and you are still standing behind it.

the top menu still dissappears on quite a few occasions:
*if you look at an inventory item, while the picture is on the screen, if you then move the mouse outside the picture and click, the picture dissappears and doesn't return to the inventory, thus causing the menu gui to still be off.

(the best way around this is to disable being able to click outside the picture, so you always have to go back to the inventory)

*when you restore a game it is still missing, I had this problem once and it was to do with saving a game rather than the retore part, but I don't know how you've done it.

*after you press the open hangar button it dissappears

*after you disguard the voice reader thingy it dissappears

(this probably happens on other occassions aswell, just check every inventory item you interact with and make sure you return to the inventory after the messages are over, and if not make sure you turn the menu gui back on)



also if you play the easy version and you already have the icecream code, and you interact with the man on the ground, it still says it is in plain view but it's not cause you already have it.

some less important things, there seems to be a lot more waiting time after, and in between display speech's (you can probably adjust the text speed, but that doesn't speed up the wait command, and I was playing at nearly full speed) and the text was so small it was hard to read, even in full screen mode (maybe it's a temp thing casue of the ttf font bug)

[close]

The other stuff seems fixed.

Is there an end to the demo or does it just end when it tries to load the missing room?

[TerranRich]

That's it, Tim! You've finished the demo.

Errors:
base of chair in captain's room: forgot to fix that, sorry, will do
could you explain the menu disappearance a little more? which menu disappears? the inventory or the pop-up gui?
i think certain inventory interactions cause the inventory gui to disappear, and that's on purpose. i'll change them
interact with man should be different: forgot about that, too, sorry, will do later

Well, I was told that not having the lo-res speech font be enlarged would look better. Guess it doesn't, sorry

Also, the waits between displayspeeched are on purpose. it's supposed to play like a movie, where there are dramatic.....pauses.

And yeah, it just ends when you get that missing room error. I didn't think it was imperative to have a real ending, since it's just a demo.

[Timosity]

could you explain the menu disappearance a little more? which menu disappears? the inventory or the pop-up gui?

It's the pop-up gui at the top of the screen that disappears. (so you can't access the inventory, or other menu's at the top of screen, unless you press TAB, F5 etc)

eg. if you look at an inventory item, you get a big picture, if you then move the mouse outside that box and click, the picture goes and so does the inventory gui (which is supposed to happen) but you've just not turned the pop-up gui back on.

This seems to be the case every time you leave the inventory window, when you HAVEN'T clicked on the bottom right button to exit it.

eg. after you throw away the voice reader thingy, you have performed the action from within the inventory, but you never return to the inventory (so at the point that action is complete you just need to add GUIOn(pop-up)

It is also missing when you restore a saved game, even if it was on when you saved it.


(so what happens is, when you turn on the inventory GUI, you've turned off the pop-up GUI, but the ONLY time it gets turned back on is when you click the bottom right button of the inventory GUI)

I hope that's clearer.

Also, the waits between displayspeeched are on purpose. it's supposed to play like a movie, where there are dramatic.....pauses.

I thought that might be the case, that's fine

And yeah, it just ends when you get that missing room error. I didn't think it was imperative to have a real ending, since it's just a demo.

Yay, I finally finished chapter one.


Just play the game, look at an inventory item, move the mouse outside the boundaries and click. Then try to access the pop-up gui, then everything will be clearer.

Good luck

~Tim

[Sockmonkey]

terranrich-

The character animations are wonderful. Might I ask what software was used to create them?

[TerranRich]

Tim: Ah, okay, that's clearer, thanks. I'll have to check that out and fix those instances. Thanks

As for the saved games, that's an AGS bug, because I use the default AGS GUI for save/load games. I'll report it to CJ.

I really don't know what to do about the clicking-outside-the-closeup-GUI problem. Maybe I should report that one to CJ while I'm at it.

Sockmonkey: I used Poser for the people and Bryce for the backgrounds. I'm redoing everything in Poser 5 because of its new renderer, so watch out for the final version!

[Ciro Durán]

Quoting from a message earlier in this thread (posted about a year ago)...

And yes, I do believe I can finish it in 2-3 months' time. I am working very hard on it, getting all the kinks out now before I run into problems later. Once I work out a system of using true/false flags for certain situations and determining whether or not the player did something or figured out something, then I'm sure everything else will be quite easy.

At the most, I figure 5-6 months. Still not that long, I hope.

lol... guess we all estimate our times wrong ... I saw the intro and it's impressive, terran, your game looks quite pro with the rendered images... good work

[TerranRich]

Wow. Yes, I am still working on By the Sword, although it's tough beccause of school and work and homework and stuff.

I made a brand-new web site, still being worked on, at www.rain-day.com/harbinger

I am STILL re-doing the characters as well as teh graphics for the first chapter. I really don't know when this game will be finished. No more deadlines, though; it'll be finished when it's finished.

The demos aren't uploaded yet, but they will be in good time.

[Pet Terry]

Just the other day I was checking that site to see my name there Oh, and come to irc some day, I've got a better strings to the main theme and would like to send it to you!

[Hollister Man]

Don't know if this was posted before, but I LOLed when I found this.  An 'Internet Movie Database' entry for BtS!  Perhaps it could be considered an 'interactive movie,' eh?  Not much info there, but cool none-the-less.

[TerranRich]

I put that in, and it's valid... there are other computer games listed in IMDb.

All the actors are AGSers as well as the other credits.

[Migs]

Yeah, I saw that before, too.  If nothing else, putting one's game in the imdb is an interesting idea.

[TerranRich]

With a game as important as mine, why not!!

[TerranRich]

If anybody cares, I've created a setup file. It was meant to be used with C.Net's Download.com but they now charge $79 to submt a simple free demo.

http://www.terran-x.com/setup-btsdemo-0.1.exe

UPDATE:
I've been working hard on the dialog. So far, I am 95% finished with Chapter 2's dialog and have Chapters 3 through 6 remaining. Now that I am on a roll, it won't be long until I go on to graphics and then gameplay/puzzles in the AGS Editor. Once dialog is done, I'll be recruiting voice actors for various roles in By the Sword. There are over 70 characters (not all are vital to the game) and plenty of room for lots of people to try out.

I don't know if I should make a thread in the Gen Forum (or even the Adventure Talk and Chat Forum) to recruit people, or just contact forum members who have the "voice acting" icon in their profiles. Of course, I can't search profiles for those icons, but I could just go through random threads.

Hmm, maybe that won't work. I'll just make a thread. Soon.

[mätzyboy]

This game has been looking promising for quite a long time now, how far have you come?

BTW do you know that last woman before the text in your avatar look sooo much lik Julia Roberts?

[TerranRich]

Yeah, i've also been told most of the male characters resemble John Malkovich.

Check my previous post for how far I've come, as well as the initial post.

[TerranRich]

Due to a hard drive crash, By the Sword is now lost forever. I could've had the data retrieved for $500-$1200 but I don't have that kind of money and, let's face it, the game isn't worth that much. Best Buy (a U.S. electronics store) could've done it for $60, but since it was physically damaged it was not possible. Since I had to return the old drive to Dell or pay the $190 for the new hard drive, I returned it this morning and it is now gone for good.

Moderators can lock ths thread now.

[ghostface]

Rich, that really sucks...i was really looking forward to it. I just hope that this doesn't relieve you of your confidence to make adventure games for us...because you rock! I hope to hear from you on what you do next!Ã,  Ã, 

Yours truly,
Bottles