MAGS July “The Bride” (CLOSED)

[fernewelten]

I'm stuck on the shoes puzzle. I've exhausted the dialogue, and the shoes basically tell me

Spoiler

that they want to be polished.

[close]

You're n-e-a-r-l-y there!
But it seemingly isn't clear that a substantive is needed. I'd better rephrase the dialog option then. Would the following work better?

Code: ags

player: "I could find you a present! What do you say to the following item:"
    String answer = Game.InputBox("!My offer:"); 

Any answer for "present" will work

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that contains "shoe polish" or for that matter, "polish" in any (upper or lower) casing.

[close]

[heltenjon]

My problem was that

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The dialogue box wasn't showing. I didn't know that I could type anything. This ought to be inside a square, I think.

[close]

[fernewelten]

My problem was that

Spoiler

The dialogue box wasn't showing. I didn't know that I could type anything. This ought to be inside a square, I think.

[close]

In my opinion, that's more of a bug in the AGS than a coding error: I am using the command "Game.Inputbox()" and that should show the box no matter what. If there is a way to reproduce the error, we might report it. I've had no luck reproducing it on my system.

[Shadow1000]

I don't know exactly where you're stuck.

So far the only progress I've made in the game is to

Spoiler

find a book, move the nighttable around, and turn on and off the lightswitch

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. I've tried interacting with each hotspot (there are actually a LOT of them for one room) and using the one inventory item on them and I don't see any way to progress.

So here goes:

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If you examine some things, specific details will only become apparent if you are really near to them

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Spoiler

Examine under the canopy when standing on the nighttable

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It says something about

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tasteful nudes. This is true when the nighttable is on the far right or middle position, with the lights on or off

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Am I missing something?

[Shadow1000]

Shadow1000:

I assume you haven't found the alarm clock.

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Check all the hotspots in and surrounding the bed.

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I am pretty confident I've done that.

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This book is judged by its cover. It's a _big_ book.

[close]

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the only book I've found is Surviving in the Jungle. I've really tried using it on everything but I've made no progress in this game

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[fernewelten]

This might be a left-click / right-click issue. In order to find the alarm clock, I've coded that

Spoiler

Bumbly must EXAMINE (right-click on) the spot under the bed.

INTERACTING (left-click) won't work (Bumbley will think that you want him to dust there and won't see the point of that)
USING INVENTORY won't work either without having examined the spot first (Bumbley will think that you want to deposit the book there for bedtime reading).

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[Shadow1000]

This might be a left-click / right-click issue. In order to find the alarm clock, I've coded that

Spoiler

Bumbly must EXAMINE (right-click on) the spot under the bed.

INTERACTING (left-click) won't work (Bumbley will think that you want him to dust there and won't see the point of that)
USING INVENTORY won't work either without having examined the spot first (Bumbley will think that you want to deposit the book there for bedtime reading).

[close]

I seem to have missed that. Thank you!

I am confused about your first suggestion of

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standing on the nighttable and looking under the canopy

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How does that participate in the solution...?

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is there any way to read the book?

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[fernewelten]

I am confused about your first suggestion of

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standing on the nighttable and looking under the canopy

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How does that participate in the solution...?

This will become important when Lady Anemone has got her alarm clock.

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Bumbley will find himself imprisoned in his own bedroom. So now he must somehow sway his captors. It may be called, "freedom", but it isn't free of charge...

[close]

[heltenjon]

My problem was that

Spoiler

The dialogue box wasn't showing. I didn't know that I could type anything. This ought to be inside a square, I think.

[close]

In my opinion, that's more of a bug in the AGS than a coding error: I am using the command "Game.Inputbox()" and that should show the box no matter what. If there is a way to reproduce the error, we might report it. I've had no luck reproducing it on my system.

How is the input box supposed to look? It might be some setup of mine that's the culprit here. EDIT: The Save/Load commands doesn't match with the squares on my screen either. I suppose they do on yours.

There's one leap of logic that escapes me:

Spoiler

After striking a deal, Bumbley will suddenly remove the curtain. Perhaps he could say something in the camera to make the player know that from now on, something will be different? I don't entirely get why he won't even check for curtain parts earlier.

[close]

Other than that: Great humour and funny characters that I'd love to see more of. The musical themes work very well! And we get right from the start that Bumbley will understand significantly less than the player, that's the deal here. The movement of the shoes are very "alive"!

[fernewelten]

How is the input box supposed to look?

Here's a screenshot of my setup:


Yes, this is u-g-l-y and a custom GUI would look much nicer. But there's a very good reason to prefer the humble Game.InputBox() in a game jam context: AGS doesn't have the concept of a "modal" GUI. As soon as you put up your own GUI, you break up your program flow very drastically and are saddled with lots of gratuitous code ugliness.

For instance, here in the current example, I'm in the middle of an AGS 'dialog'. I can EITHER  do String answer = Game.Inputbox(); and continue with processing answer at once. That's all I need. answer is a local variable, and when I've done with it, it will go away automatically.

OR, the alternative is to design a custom GUI, which is time-consuming. Then I need to do SomeGui.Visible = true; into my code and exit out of the AGS 'dialog' completely at this point. Control will continue at a completely different place in code (i.e, with the event handler of the OK button of the GUI), so the context of where I came from is unavailable.  In order to get at the answer and process it, I will have to use an ugly global variable (probably a text field of that GUI). That variable will never go away, and remnants from old answers in it can wreak havoc when I'm not careful. When I happen to call that custom GUI several times from different places, then the program flow will always end up at the same place, (i.e., in the exact same button event handler), no matter where the logic has come from, so I have to resort to very ugly kludges to keep the different control flows apart. ...

,,, well I'd better stop with my ranting right now. You get the picture. The point is, in a jam context where you're stressed for time, the lowly Game.InputBox is far superior to custom GUIs, for all its ugliness. 

[heltenjon]

Rant received and understood. I totally get that there's no time to do a GUI for such a thing in a MAGS. Your screen looks exactly like mine, so I guess I can delete all those screenshots I just made.  Though it's no fault of yours, I failed to understand that this was a box for typing, probably because the bottom line/cursor is invisible. Somehow, I thought that this box would fill up with items I could offer the shoes after gathering them. User error. 

But I agree. If there is an easy way to make this command show the entire box (with air around it) in an update, this would probably make life easier in such cases as this. On the other hand, not many games use typing.

[fernewelten]

I _think_ there's a way to get all of the InputBox input to show: Namely, by configuring a really tiny font directly before calling Game.InputBox() and restoring the original configuration directly after.

I'll have to look up the details. If I remember correctly, you need to configure some specific font number (might be the font #1) or the font used for Dialog() commands or some such ... 

That shouldn't be too hard to put in and make the Shoes puzzle much more playable.

[Stupot]

Sorry for the delay.
From what I can see, Castle Escape: Chapter 1 by Fernewelten is the only entry, and therefore the winner. Well done for completing your entry, Ferne. I'll be in charge touch in due course, about choosing a topic for September.

[Shadow1000]

I finished the game!

- Graphics are pleasant to look at, as always.
- Extra points for a creative story
- Definitely meets the theme for the competition.
- I think the strongest point is the personalities of the characters. Both COMPLETE opposites and I felt really bad for him being forced to marry a complete b---h like her...
- It took some time and help to get into it, but some of the puzzles were fun! There is certainly a lot to do in a one-roomer game like this!

Any lack of polish (no pun intended here) in the design is completely understandable considering the time constraint of completing the game by month-end.

Overall, well done. Something tells me that this game will win this month's MAGS...

[fernewelten]

I _think_ there's a way to get all of the InputBox input to show: Namely, by configuring a really tiny font directly before calling Game.InputBox() and restoring the original configuration directly after.

I've found it. Include some tiny (for a 720p game) font and name it, e.g., eFontTiny. Do

Code: ags

FontType current_font = Game.NormalFont;
Game.NormalFont = eFontTiny;
String answer = Game.InputBox();
Game.NormalFont = current_font;

The input box won't get any bigger and will stay just as ugly, but the text that is input now fits into its area, and the button texts aren't off.

In principle, that would work with SaveGame() and RestoreGame(), too. But there's no good place to restore Game.NormalFont to what it was. These windows are always displayed after the end of the current control flow no matter where the corresponding functions have been called.


Edit: Implemented this in Castle escape; 12 pt seems to work best with the font
Also reworded the "Present" question.