My Maniacs Mansion games Please stick to the topic

[evenwolf]

Now, now squinky.   Let's be constructive.


ahem....   Rub, how about you put some plants in it?

[Vince Twelve]

Squinky is right!  Don't be a Rubacant, be a Rubacan!

[Squinky]

Heh, I'm all for helping flesh something out, but to expect people to just come up with a good idea for a "Plant room" is grade A lame.

Why do you want a plant room? Where is it located and what is going on? Do you have anything that might give people an idea as to what you need help with?

[skyfire2]

Isn't the point of AGS so that you come up with your own game instead of asking everyone for help? If you really need help there's a recruiting thread. Threads like these show how lazy you are.

[Dred Rubacant]

Im asking for IDEAS.  NOT asking THEM to MAKE my GAME.


But if you people dont have ideas thats ok. I dont really care.

[Squinky]

I'm full of ideas. But lay out the scenario a little if you want anybody to have a starting point visualizing where you are coming from.

[evenwolf]

Squinky sarcasm.

Rubacan:   Start with a room.     And I don't mean the first of 800 rooms in your game.    Make a playable, fully coded puzzle in a single room.   Kind of like 6 Day Assassin. 


That's the best advice I can give you.   Start small.   Put plants in it if you want. But I don't think your Maniac Mansion series will get off the ground at all.   Not one game.   But good luck.  This is a message of hope.

[Squinky]

I would tell you that I understood the sarcasm, but I probably shouldn't for fear of not sticking to the topic......

[Hammerite]

what's a plant room?

[JimmyShelter]

what's a plant room?

[Dred Rubacant]

This is what i did so far  This is just Beta Background  tell me what you think and what COULD be better in it

This is just the background




And this is the background in game with objects

[skyfire2]

This is what i did so far  This is just Beta Background  tell me what you think and what COULD be better in it

If you post this in the Critic's Lounge you're far more likely to get the constructive criticism you need.

[Ghost]

I don't mean to be harsh, and I don't mean to offend, but it looks no good.

It's too crowded, too much. And what's worst, there's nothing in it that says "I made an effort to make it look cosistent". You merely edited an existing background (from the starter pack) and put scans or photos of plants in it. The result is erratic and looks like, well, you just whipped off some stuff and threw it into a room.
In my opinion you should make everything yourself. Really, do it. I mean, why not? You are full of enthusiam about your MM game, and such an enthusiasm can carry you through a long phase of learning. Use that fire inside, friend, and try to make your game something you can call your own. You're quick now and flush out screenshots, but while they look sort of okay or even quite good, you're just assembling stuff, occasionally putting something in, and it hardly ever fits. This will not happen if you use the starter pack stuff as a guideline, but create the locations yourself. You'll learn a lot. You'll learn about perspective, colour composition, animation. The MM style is a good "entry point", a proving ground where good-looking results can be achieved qithout too much effort, and you should defenitely reconsider your sources.

This may sound harsh, but it's my two cents: Rather start with a small game that's done by yourself to get used to scripting, graphics and plot writing. That's a lot to learn, and as it seems you're still uncomfortable with scripting. Taking existing stuff may seem a nice "shortcut", but in the long run it won't work out.

One last thing; you may want to create and update ONE thread for all of your screenshots. It's becoming hard to keep track of your posts.

Ghost out.

[Dred Rubacant]

What part looks no good 

Too many plants / Objects

Plant sprites

Bricks

Mould

Room Walls

Floor

What should i do

[Ghost]

I told you. Please read my post again.

In a nutshell: Do the three Ps. Practise, Practise and Practise.

Here, it took me the best of two years to come from bad stuff to good stuff (in my opinion):




Please LOOK at the pictures. Click on the image to see it full size, and then think about the differences.
This is done by starting small, then growing up. I too wanted to start big, but you grow by making small steps, then returning to the big project when you feel comfortable with everything.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I'd be happy if I could make a BG half as good as your "Before" image, Ghost.

[Ghost]

I'd be happy if I could make a BG half as good as your "Before" image, Ghost.

Thank youÃ,  .I hate it, but keep the first few screens around should I ever need a good laugh.
That's the point I'm trying to get across to Rub, you need to get comfortable with your tools, and you need to build up some self esteem.
The first shot was done in a very crude way, using Paint, doing everything very half-hearted because I was so busy lurking the forums, trying to learn scripting and everything. It took me ages to improve the style and come up with something like screen B. There is no soft road for learning to use your tools, and today I can draw and script in the happy knowledge of the combination of graphics, scripting, AGS engine and everything.
Instead of throwing stuff together, you need to have it all in one style, and that style SHOULD BE YOURS.
Okay, actually BigBrother helped me a lot with the character sprite, but that's another point: If someone helps me, I try to improve what I've learned.

Rub, do it too.

Ghost out, back to topic.

[Kleener_Apfel]

It's very hard for me that you asked everybody about your pics, but in the end you don't care about what they say. I told you some of that things below in the other forum but maybe you don't want to know about that.



Red line: You don't care about perspective.
Yellow/orange circle: Why is that plant IN the wall?
Yellow box: What happend to the plant?
Blue "?": Are there mirrors at the boarders or did someone paint a line on the wall?
Beige circles: The table legs are in the wall, too.
Green circle (hard to see) on desk: You can't place objects on a line. They are ON the table not hanging on an edge of it


The marked objects are on the line to the GUI? oO How can you place something somewhere when that "thing" doesn't exist like this fictive line?

Besides the room is too "full". You placed one plant here and there exactly next to next. It's all unbalanced. It looks like you just put plants in the room; main point: fill that room no mather how.

[Buckethead]

room with objects has big plants in them, other one doesn't. Does this mean that those big plants are objects you can take with you? 

[Nacho]

What is this doing in gen gen and not in CL?