Topic: Kingdom of Ehcilc

[horusr]

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[Khris]

I'll henceforth pronounce it eshilk, given the word's origin.

[Hobo]

I pronounce it Ehh-Kilk.

Yeah, I guess that's what I was leaning towards (in Estonian at least), but I'm actually fine with all of these options. It's a made-up word in a fictional fantasy universe, no rules here

And thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.

[Hobo]

Update 16  (22.08.2017) – The surprisingly uneventful migration of the game called Ehcilc

When we started this journey, I proudly declared that we're going to take on Mount Modnar and reach the top of the kingdom. Well, we tried and we failed. Was it the rough weather conditions, poor equipment, overconfidence or naivety? It doesn't matter. What matters is that the mountain is still there, clouds and darkness circling around, towering higher than ever. It's waiting for us, calling us back. And we still want to conquer it, we're getting on top of that mountain, one way or another. New tools, reorganized plans and rekindled motivation. This time, we're not backing down.

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As mentioned in the last update, one of the most notable changes for Ehcilc this year was the migration from AGS 3.2.1 to 3.4. If I had to describe it with one word, I'd say it was smooth, but there's actually a little bit more to it, because I used this opportunity to restructure most of the scripts and throw out some dead weight. I wasn't only updating the engine, but also making everything cleaner and more logical for my non-programmer brain.

Thanks to the great work of Crimson Wizard and other contributors, the engine seems to be fully backwards compatible and had I left the script compatibility level setting alone, I probably could have continued without any errors or changes at all. But since I was already rewriting some of the scripts, I decided to up that one as well.

This created some very minor issues (mainly the ProcessClick error), but nothing significant. I let the engine do its checks, followed the error reports, fixed and tested them and everything seemed to be working perfectly fine. No lingering problems, no hassle. It should be mentioned though, that the game doesn't use any plug-ins and all my scripts are rather basic and simple. So, I wasn't really expecting anything to break anyway.

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The first noticeable improvements that I instantly benefited from were the all the removed engine limits. For example, I use a GUI to portray the treasury and because they were limited to only 30 controls, I ended up creating a lumped together dual-GUI monstrosity to have room for all the sweet trophies.

I'm also enjoying the enhanced compatibility and setup features, some new useful script commands, various usability tweaks and probably lots of other little things that I haven't had time to fully explore or don't even know about. If someone is still contemplating about upgrading their old AGS project, I recommend you make some backups, grab a big blue cup of your favorite beverage and give it try.

Thank you for reading and please don't be shy to post comments, argue or ask questions.

[Hobo]

Update 17 (08.10.2017) – Options on the menu

I've been packing up my new equipment for the next climb and there's a lot. Maybe I've even gone slightly overboard with it. I mean, do I really need all this junk? For example, this repellent for undead Ehcilcian platypuses or this spell that turns all food into cheese. Well, I guess they might come in handy... And even if I myself don't need them, then perhaps someone else does. Adventuring is a very unpredictable business and you can never know what waits around the corner. The more options, the better. Yes, it is decided! I'm taking it all!

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I feel that a lot of AGS games don't really use the full potential of the engine when it comes to allowing players to customize their gaming experience. I guess it's perfectly understandable for short and free projects, but most of the commercial releases also seem to be rather barren in that department.

I don't actually even mean anything elaborate, but basic stuff like separate volume sliders, a reasonable amount of save slots or options to change your text reading and walking speeds. Maybe it's a personal kink of mine and others don't really care about it, but I've always appreciated games that let me map my own keys and make small tweaks to the user interface.

Well, the world of Ehcilc is all about making different choices and I think it would be very fitting if this was also reflected in the options menu. I definitely want the game to have more sliders and buttons to fiddle around with than your average point-and-click adventure.



Among other things, I'm planning to add rebindable keys for the verb commands, mouse button switching and a possibility to change the font colors to improve readability in certain areas. Also, you can either settle with the default verb bar/inventory window combo or pick the fancier version visible above.

A number of potential little features that I'd like to have probably won't get implemented because of my lacking programming skills and the design decisions I made at the beginning of the development process, but I'm sure I'll find a place for them in my future projects. I know that all this means extra work and effort, but if it makes my games more accessible and user friendly even for one more person, then it's certainly worth it for me.

Thank you for reading and please don't be shy to post comments, argue or ask questions.

[AnasAbdin]

First of, I don't know how I missed your previous update! I apologize me bad
Your backgrounds are amazing and they make me feel.. I can't draw

About the user customisation and control, I think the more the merrier. And later when people start playing you'll know that you did the right thing.

Keep up the good work

[lorenzo]

The options menu in Don't Worry, I'll Bring The Beer was great, this one looks even better! Making options menus might not be fun, but I'm always grateful when developers put time and effort to create them.

I like the look of the game, best of luck with the development!

[Gurok]

I don't actually even mean anything elaborate, but basic stuff like separate volume sliders, a reasonable amount of save slots or options to change your text reading and walking speeds. Maybe it's a personal kink of mine and others don't really care about it, but I've always appreciated games that let me map my own keys and make small tweaks to the user interface.

Yes, this is really important, particularly in the context of people playing on devices with different capabilities. It can also help to make your game accessible to people with disabilities.

At first I was thinking, who would want to turn off v-sync? But you might perhaps be playing on a low-spec machine or a high refresh rate monitor where v-sync might interfere.

Good use of tabs in the dialogue too. I'd like to see what's on the remaining tabs.

[dactylopus]

I still love the art, and now I can also say I love the attention to detail in options.  Often in games, I want to turn down the music without turning down the sounds and speech.  Sometimes it's because the audio mix isn't right, other times its because I just want to listen to some other music while I play, and still other times, I just want it nice and quiet.  So anyways, thanks for creating additional options sliders for this game.  I'm sure I will use them when I play.

[Hobo]

It's good to see that there are people who appreciate more options, makes me feel that I'm moving in the right direction with this.

I apologize me bad Your backgrounds are amazing and they make me feel.. I can't draw

What a silly thing to apologize for And I think you got it the other way around, every time I see you posting those quality updates with awesome animations, I always think that I still have a long way to go as an artist.

The options menu in Don't Worry, I'll Bring The Beer was great, this one looks even better!

The menu in Don't Worry, I'll Bring The Beer was actually pretty basic by my standards. I was limited by the 64x64 pixel resolution, so I didn't really have the screen space for more stuff. Ehcilc will definitely be a major improvement in this area.

...devices with different capabilities. It can also help to make your game accessible to people with disabilities.

Yes, accessibility and flexibility are my main goals here. As someone who uses a relatively old laptop, it feels always nice when there are settings in games that suit better with my low-end specs.
The remaining tabs are mostly still a work in progress, but I'll be sure to share them in a future update.

Thanks to everyone who found the time to read this, I'll try to get another one up in a couple of weeks.

[lorenzo]

The menu in Don't Worry, I'll Bring The Beer was actually pretty basic by my standards.

For a full-length game I would agree, but for one that can be played in 5 minutes, the options available were much better than I expected. Especially considering the lacklustre customisation options you often find in commercial games. And, as I said, this menu looks much better. I like the tabbed interface and I always appreciate having rebindable keys!

[Uhfgood]

It's really cool to see the progress.  How did you go about writing your story, was it just some trial and error thing where you wrote down some game tropes and then built a world around them.  Did you do a whole 3-act structure kind of thing, and write out everything as a walk through first?  Or did you put down some plot points and then tried to fill in with some puzzles?  What was that process like?