Valis Chapter 1: New demo available!

[monkey0506]

I love to code.  It's kind of like solving a puzzle, trying to figure out how to do something, but then you have the added problem of, "Is there a shorter and/or more efficient way of doing this?".

I got started programming in the eighth grade on my TI-83 Plus calculator in school, and wrote my first program in the ninth grade.  It was simple, and very flawed.  And had a lot of Goto-Label statements. :o  Which is probably why AGS appealed to me.  It said you could make a game with next to no coding, and that's about what I knew.  But I've come a long way since then...

And, I'll take this time to continue the previous string of threats:

"If you drop this project then I will disembowel your face!"

And you don't want to know how I would do that.  It's not pretty.

[bush_monkey]

My best friend had his face disemboweled  :'( I'm not about about to let it happen to me...No, not to me... errr, I mean Don't worry, I'll finish this, I promise 

[Squinky]

This looks cool, good job so far man.

[bush_monkey]

Thanks for the comments, Squinky.
Quick update: I know I said I'd release a bug-free version of the demo yesterday but I've nearly finished my shop GUI and I couldn't resist including it in this new demo  It will be up soon, I promise.

[monkey0506]

Well if you don't hurry up with the demo then...then...I'll have to disembowel Squinky's face! :o

So you'd better hurry!*

*Like I would actually do anything...

[bush_monkey]

Squinky, you'll be happy to know that your face is not gonna get disemboweled: The new demo is ready. I just need to test it for last minute bugs and it will be up tomorrow

[bush_monkey]

Ok, a quick bump to let you know the new version of the demo is now on the first page of this thread.

bugs fixed: the infamous Level 3 crash bug, the mix-up between fire powers and water powers, strengthened the monsters and tweaked the level-up system.

new features: Shop now implemented (requires completion of a mission to unlock).

[DiscoIsNotDead]

Congratulations on a great demo! I can't wait to see more.

The music works so well! In fact, please put more in! Love the contrast in music between the map and the fighting.
Love the dialog, good characters, “not in the demo version…” made me chuckle.

I made a list of issues as I went along, which are in the order I wrote them down in as opposed to any actual rating of importance, (which would be entirely subjective anyway).

•   (Still) missing capitals at the start of sentences, this distracts me, please fix it.
•   When you get outside the temple for the first time, the text over the top of temple is difficult to read. Fonts seem hard to read over the blacker backgrounds.
•   Shop keeper says “how can I help” again after buying stuff and in the shop, options are buy or cancel. Instead you could have buy or leave, then go back to the town when you click leave, instead of back to the shop keeper who appears to already have forgotten who you are.
•   Not as bad as outside the temple, but it is a little difficult to read the writing in the guild, same reason though.
•   In the conversation in the guild somewhere, there is a comma not followed by a space. Pedant-a-tron noticed this and noted it down, fix or be damaged!
•   Not very intuitive how to administer health potions while fighting, I even had a hand come up at some point after, pfft, after something.
•   When fighting, “You encountered a air…” and “You encountered a earth…” To which I reply "An sir An."
•   Tried to die to see what beautiful artwork was there. A grave? A crying not dead character? A sunset? Boobies? A white line in the shape of a body? Jessica Rabbit? The Fonz? But to my dismay, it just exited.
•   Tried to load saved game “hello”, got this error message:
---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this
is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 2.71.869)


Error: Restore_Game: Game has changed (dlg), unable to restore

---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------
•   Cannot click through the intro.
•   â€œbut they have become greedy and abuse of their power.” Should the “of” be there?
•   No exit button. (I know how to exit exit a program, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to do so elegantly.)
•   I don't know enough about AGS to know whether you can even fix this one, but when I am over here writing this, the game is in the background with the music juddering.
•    The map music doesn't loop smoothly; this makes me check whether I'm in the matrix or whether I've just tripped over the record player every time.

Hmm, that's it for now, I think it is worth note that most of my issues are nothing to do with game play, artwork, bugs so rotten they ate my hard drive or marmite. Meaning, surely, I like it, I can't wait for the new versions, and I'd like to play/proof read any new versions. Keep up the good work.

Don 

[bush_monkey]

Thanks a lot for the constructive criticisms, DiscoIsNotDead. It helps a lot 

•   (Still) missing capitals at the start of sentences, this distracts me, please fix it.

I know, I know  I'm working on it....

•   When you get outside the temple for the first time, the text over the top of temple is difficult to read. Fonts seem hard to read over the blacker backgrounds.

Believe me when I say, I've tried everything and this seems the more readable combination. I'll try and find a way around it.

•   Shop keeper says “how can I help” again after buying stuff and in the shop, options are buy or cancel. Instead you could have buy or leave, then go back to the town when you click leave, instead of back to the shop keeper who appears to already have forgotten who you are.

He's just a drunk shop keeper, don't mind him  But yeah, you're right, I'll follow your suggestion and change it to exit shop instead.

•   Not very intuitive how to administer health potions while fighting, I even had a hand come up at some point after, pfft, after something.

Again, duly noted. The GUI in the battle is still in development, so stay tuned...

•   Tried to die to see what beautiful artwork was there. A grave? A crying not dead character? A sunset? Boobies? A white line in the shape of a body? Jessica Rabbit? The Fonz? But to my dismay, it just exited.

I'll draw a Game over screen just for you

•   Tried to load saved game “hello”, got this error message:
---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this
is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 2.71.869)


Error: Restore_Game: Game has changed (dlg), unable to restore

Whoops... That save game should not have been in there. It's from an older version of the game.

•   Cannot click through the intro.

The intro will be skippable.

•   No exit button. (I know how to exit exit a program, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to do so elegantly.)

On my list of things to do (by that, I mean it should have been done but I forgot  )

•   I don't know enough about AGS to know whether you can even fix this one, but when I am over here writing this, the game is in the background with the music juddering.

Don't think I can fix that...

•    The map music doesn't loop smoothly; this makes me check whether I'm in the matrix or whether I've just tripped over the record player every time.

It's set in the olden days before fancy CD players...It's just a gramophone effect 

Hmm, that's it for now, I think it is worth note that most of my issues are nothing to do with game play, artwork, bugs so rotten they ate my hard drive or marmite. Meaning, surely, I like it, I can't wait for the new versions, and I'd like to play/proof read any new versions. Keep up the good work.

   Thanks, will do. That's the kind of comments and well-judged constructive criticism I need to keep me going and encourage me to finish this someday. 

[DiscoIsNotDead]

About the text on backgrounds, I don't know what to suggest as a solution, but can point to a good short Raymond Chen article about what they had to do in Windows when faced with this problem. NB: It is not talking about the sexy text shadows in XP, but the cheap square box effect.

The article is here and I'd say most the comments are worth reading through, even if just to hear a good answer the questions.

Hope this is of some use to you.
Don {Use someone elses research instead of finding out the hard way!}

P.S. Looking forward to the long awaited return of the gramophone!

[PsychicHeart]

wow, looks good. It looks similar to Lord Of The Rings in my opinion, but perhaps that's just because i have been playing LOTR: Two Towers on PS2 for the last hour?

[bush_monkey]

Yep, Flukeblake. I think you've been playing too much LOTR  I'll take it as a huge compliment since LOTR has amazing graphics  Glad you're liking the looks of it though.

[jetxl]

What a pressantly nice demo. It's coded very good.
I knew ags could make rpg's, but I was still suprised about how good it looked and played.

Keep up the good work and fix those bugs.

[Nikolas]

Just tried the DEMO.

Looks nice, the only question: Won't you be able to run away from a battle. If you are able to do that, I didn't find it...

Excelent graphics, though and the whole idea looks amazing. It's a good thing that some of you are trying to push the AGS to the limits (Althought there are no limits).

For the record, I will try sometime after Octomber to start writting my own game ()

[bush_monkey]

Time for the weekly(-ish) update. The game is advancing well, all known bugs and grammar/spelling mistakes have been corrected. A few new graphics have been incorporated and I have been playing around with the idea of animating the characters in battles (stay tuned). The biggest thing I've worked on this week is the ability to absorb monster's souls in battles. Basically, it involves weakening the monster enough so you can then absorb it into a special chalice you acquire from the shop. Once 3 monsters have been absorbed, a crystal is formed. There are multiple types of crystals. What type of crystal you get depends on what type of monster you absorb. For example: absorb 3 Fire monsters and you will receive a fire crystal. These crystals can then be traded in for money or can be used either to improve your stats or to gain new Chakra abilities.... Now that it has been implemented, next stop: coding more magic powers, both for the heroes and the monsters...

Jetxl: Thanks for the positive comments. Just one question: Which bugs do you mean? have you found some new ones or just the ones already reported?

Niko: You're right, AGS is surprisingly powerful and good luck with your own game. Believe me, it is very satisfying and well worth the effort. Oh and I'll implement an escape command as some point

[bush_monkey]

okay, weekly update:

For those of you who have played the demo, there have been chnages to the world map. After (extensively) testing the new absorption ability, I have come to the conclusion that the map monsters need to be defined by their chakra types. So now, they are all the same generic spirit sprite but colour-coded so you can strategise which monster to go for.
Overall, I am very pleased with that new system, it has opened a world of potential. As far as everything else is concerned, more missions have been added, more characters to speak to in towns and this week I will be concentrating on new, different chakra powers. (In all honesty, I say that every week but I keep on putting it off  I'm lazy like that  ).

Well, best get back to it, then.

[Jay V]

[post removed and consolidated into new post]

[monkey0506]

I should read this forum more often...like when I'm not on my mom's laptop.  Well...I'll look at it...sometime...when I remember...maybe...

[Jay V]

The screenshots looked awesome and the rest of the thread seemed VERY positive about the game. So I downloaded it and played through about four minutes to get a feel for its style. I must say that I am amazed with the versatility of AGS, as well as your ingenuity.  Congratulations on what so far is an excellent project. I hope to see it completed in the near future.

Have you considered adding voices too? With broadband technology as widespread as it is today, it may be an effective way to fully immerse the players in the pseudo-medeival-asian environment you've created.

[bush_monkey]

Thanks jay for the compliments. As for the voices, it might be something to consider at a later time in the project. With so much to do, I am concentrating first on making it a polished and fun game. Anything superfluous (no matter how tempting  ) will have to wait.... Even though it is really tempting considering my dad has his own personal mini recording studio