Messages

Syncing that is not trivial. The song never stops, and the singing comes in on cue (waits until the loop is about to start over, and seamlessly cuts to the new one). What you describe as worst case - mixing vocals and backing track together - is almost certainly the way to go.

The tricky thing is having the music flow uninterrupted.

Hi, I'm trying out AGS (it may be the first time I'm trying it out properly since it was called Adventure Creator), and I've picked up the basics by reading the documentation and some trial and error, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something as I'm trying to find what's possible to do with music in AGS.

To pick a concrete example that many here would be familiar with: Would it be possible to make something like the "A Pirate I Was Meant To Be" sequence from CMI?

Correct, however this will only work as expected if there's only one channel available for the sound type. That might be the default for music anyway, just thought I'd point it out.

Does this mean that this sort of thing is not possible to setup if you want more than one music channel? I'm assuming that is a setting that can't be changed while running the game.

I have found the "crossfade tracks" setting in the audio properties. That would possibly solve that problem (since transitions are the main thing I imagine I'd want to use multiple music channels for), but only if it can be toggled by a script, and I haven't found how to do that. Is that possible? I want to crossfade the music in general, but I also want the ability to do a hard cut between scenes.

[I'm a musician]

Hi!

I'm a musician, and I'd like to make music for narrative games. (I was at AdventureX this year, and that got me thinking about my game making.)

Besides wanting to make the soundtrack for a game, I am also interested in playing on someone else's soundtrack. So if you're making music, and think that your music could use some wind instruments, let me know. (I can play several instruments decently. I teach the following instruments professionally: bassoon, trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba, clarinet and saxophones in different sizes.)

Samples can be found on SoundCloud, or you can take a look at the game I made a few years back. You'll notice that I'm not a skilled sound engineer (meaning that my recordings are not as good as I'd like them to be), but I am slowly improving.

Finally, here are a few additional tracks, that I haven't uploaded to SoundCloud, because none of these are original music. Most of them are a couple of years old, and none of them are really polished, but listening to this should help give you an idea of who I am:

• Skatan (The Magpie) - A tune by Erik Rydvall. I play all instruments in this recording.
• Grace - A Bobby McFerrin song. I sing and play the bassoon.
• Around the World - A cover of the Daft Punk tune
• Bad Billie Jean - A Michael Jackson cover
• SCUMM Dance - An improvisation based on a Monkey Island theme.
• The first part of a brass quintet by Victor Ewald
• Lemon Tree (Fools Garden) - If you're as old as me, you'll remember this song from the mid 90s.
• The Red Dwarf Theme - The least polished song in this list, but I'm posting it anyway, as it's a bit of fun.
• A Lady Gaga Medley

Ok, I've probably shared too much unpolished stuff now, but if you've listened to this and are interested, then I can almost guarantee that you won't be disappointed.

You can preferably contact me by e-mail. My GMail account has the same username as the one I'm using here.

Edit: I should add, in case that isn't clear, that I'm not looking for a paid gig.

I did fill in for a tubist at the polar prize ceremony*. I could ask him to fill in for me at the Christmas concert...

* Not as glamourous as it sounds. We played brass sextet outside the Grand Hotel when Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon and the other celebrities arrived for the fancy dinner after the actual ceremony. It was pretty fun, though.

Good luck to you all! I wish I wasn't the only tuba player in our brass band - as it is it's pretty much impossible for me to skip a concert (a British style brass band like ours should have four tubas).

Ah well. Maybe next year.

Hi! I'm glad you like my project, but I'm not looking for a musician or programmer. I have those parts covered myself, and if I should translate it or not is a question for later. (I'm not going to think about that until it's at least in beta.)

I am looking for a writer. That you have no design experience doesn't make me very interested. As Erik Wolpaw stated in a recent interview:

Again, part of that’s because everyone can kind of write. It’s hard to judge whether this person’s going to do a good job writing your game. Again, with the physics system, there’s at least some bar you can test them with, to see if they’re going to get close. But with writing, everyone can write. Unless they have a track record of doing it, [there's no point of reference].

But you're very welcome to try and convince me that you can do the job and do it well. Send me an e-mail, and we can talk about it!

[Update 19-7-12]

--

Update 19-7-12:
I now have a writer, and with two days left until the audition deadline for singers/actors, it's looking good. I'm very excited!

--

Hi!

Some of you may recognise me - I've been visiting this forum now and then for the past ten years, but I'm one of those strange creatures that have opted to use another engine than AGS. (Gasp!) I have made one adventure game before, Frasse and the Peas of Kejick, and I'm now finally about to start work on a new game.

Music is a large part of my life, both professionally (I work as a teacher of various musical instruments) and in my free time, so when Deirdra Kiai got started on a game musical, I took notice. When she started a fundraising scheme, I pledged my support. And when she released a demo, I got inspired to do a musical of my own.

Obviously, when you're doing a musical, the music is important. As a musician that suits me. The singers are also important, and as I'm doing this as a project with no budget to be released for free, I can't hire pros. Because of that, I've started this project in an unusual end: I've auditioned for voice actors before I've even started on the design of the game. That way I know that I have people that are good enough singers and actors to fill the parts, and I'll be able to write the music directly for the performers. It's a slightly mad idea, but I think it can work. There are still two weeks left until the deadline for the voice actors' auditions, and I've already received ten auditions (five male and five female), most of which are good enough to listen to several times and seriously consider.

I'll be writing the music myself, as well as do the graphics and the programming. (Probably using SLUDGE - but I'll need to improve the sound capabilities of the engine first to get it capable to do what I want musically.)

I'm very excited about this project, but the part of it that I'm least excited about is the writing and design of the game. Which is what leads me to write this post. If you think that this project sounds interesting, and you might consider being a part of it as the writer/designer, please send me an e-mail and let's talk about it. My e-mail address is "info at trumgottist dot com".

There are three games I'd like you to take a look at:

• My own game Frasse, so that you get an idea of what you can expect from me. (I plan to do better, but I'm still proud of Frasse.)
• Deirdra Kiai's Pamplemousse Demo, because that's my inspiration regarding how to make an adventure game musical work. (I have ideas for making the music less repetitive.)
• Emily Short's Best of Three, because I expect a musical to be a lot about interacting with the characters in the game, and this game is a good example in that area.

I expect you to have some game design experience (I have it, and I'm looking for someone who does it better than me), or you'd better have a really good pitch if you're going to get me interested.

The writer/designer of the project will obviously have a say in the casting too, both regarding the size of the cast and when deciding which people to pick.

I'm really excited about this project, and I will make it happen. If I can't find a writer to work with, I'll write it myself, but it would be cool to hear from you. If you have any questions, please do ask. Either in this thread or by e-mail.

Regards,

Rikard Peterson

--

Edit: One more thing you may want to look at (or listen to) is the half-finished song I used for the audition of the cast, called "A Matter of Time". It may be used for inspiration. Here it is: Sheet music and Simple mp3. The audio version is deliberately simple and stiff because I want the singers to show their own stuff, and not copy my version of the song. (There are some chord choices there that I regret too. The backing track was literally made in a few hours late one night.) But I like the melody.

Try and mingle with some other communities on the net - wintermute and the other rubbish

As one of the other rubbish, I approve of this post.

I'd love to come, but unfortunately I have a concert on the 16th of December, so that weekend is not possible for me. (Same for nov 25.)

If it ends up on another date, I'll be having a serious discussion with my wallet, to decide if I can afford the trip, but most other weekends in nov-dec would be theoretically possible as far as I'm concerned.

Mati256: What game are you talking about? All released SLUDGE games have been tested to work with SLUDGE 2.0, and should work. (Except the original release of Frasse and the Peas of Kejick, but that game has been re-released in a special edition, which uses SLUDGE 2.0.) But as BigMc says, the error message you're getting does not come from SLUDGE 2.0 - you must be running an earlier version of the engine.

Edit: Never mind. I've seen your post at Adventure Developers and replied there.

Here are some of the best SLUDGE games (which is what I for natural reasons are most intimately familiar with):
Out of Order is a classic. You simply have to play it.
I like Deirdra Kiai's games quite a bit. Life Flashes By is her latest game. It's a bit different, and conversation based.
Nathan's Second Chance is another good one, but it seems to have disappeared off the net.
Frasse and the Peas of Kejick (Special Edition) is my game.

--

I can also second the recommendation of Dirty Split.

ProgZmax: Is that a general comment or a feature request? Personally, I've left 8-bit graphics behind, so it's a feature I'd never use and I'm not interested in doing the work implementing importing of gif images if nobody is going to use it.

Hi, everybody!

I'm proud to announce that SLUDGE 2.0 finally is ready. If you don't know what I'm talking about, the main differences compared to the old SLUDGE are:

• Both game engine and development kit are now multi-platform, and run on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.
• The graphics code is rewritten to use graphics hardware. This makes it both faster and better looking, with support for 32 bit images with alpha channels.

For more information, see the AD forum post.

If you want to try a SLUDGE game, how about Deirdra Kiai's Life Flashes By, or my Frasse and the Peas of Kejick (special edition).

Cool.

Here's a relevant video you might find interesting: http://vimeo.com/10853366 (I've only glanced at the article and this discussion - will read it properly tomorrow - so apologies if it's already been mentioned.)

Edit: Now that I've read through this thread properly, I don't want to touch the subject in this forum.

That one looks better.

I think both are somewhat boring, and the second one more so. Too many straight vertical and horizontal lines. If you want to look at old low resolution 256 colour graphics done right, look at Discworld. Those backgrounds still look impressive despite the 320x200 resolution and the 256 colour limitation.

Anian, it wasn't a question of programming, at all, it was a question of gameplay.

Yes it is,

No, it wasn't. Please don't tell me what MY question means

No, you misunderstand me. Sorry, I wasn't expressing myself clearly. I meant to agree with you that far. Yes, it is [a question of gameplay, and not one of programming].

Use a different walk animation, or play a different kind of music to let the player know that something is about to happen. Build the tension.

Well, above I was speaking about the case when you do not wish player to predict something...

And I was questioning if that's the best way to do it. It is of course difficult to discuss this so abstractly, but I'm having difficulty seeing the problem. Is an anticipation half a second ahead of an event really a problem? Maybe it's better to make it an opportunity!

Personally, I would play through all dialogue. I'd feel like I was missing something if I didn't. If it isn't worth exploring, why is it there at all?

I do appreciate that the question is more complex than that, but I'd probably react similar to your play testers. Except that I may have more patience with extended dialogue. I didn't even mind The Longest Journey much! (You need very good voice actors to pull that off, though.)

Regarding the optional puzzles, that may be a good idea. (Just keep in mind that most people won't realise that they are optional unless you write it on their noses.) I do however wonder about the logic of rewarding someone that's good at puzzles by making later puzzles easier. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Reward them by additional, or harder, puzzles if anything, or just let the puzzle solving be its own reward.

Anian, it wasn't a question of programming, at all, it was a question of gameplay.

Yes it is, and Anian's solution is a good one (in some circumstances): Instead of disabling the skipping when a rock is about to fall on the main character, have the rock falling happening on another, special case, screen.

In other circumstances that approach may not make sense, but then there are other solutions. If it's another character that should react - let them react immediately, before the main character has walked over to the exit. Or if that doesn't make sense - maybe our main character is stealing something from a shop, and it doesn't make sense to have her stopped before she exits - use the extra anticipation to your advantage! Use a different walk animation, or play a different kind of music to let the player know that something is about to happen. Build the tension.

There are many ways to solve that potential problem.