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Hi Guys and Gals of the Interwebs.

There is now a playable demo of this game ready for your consumption. (Please do not take orally or otherwise).


The synopsis of the game and plot is above in the first post. The demo cuts off right before the beginning of Day 2.

The dialog in the game is mostly voiced, missing the occasional line here and there.
Positive criticism is something I want to hear from anyone who can spare the time. Keep in mind a lot of things lack polish at this stage, walk cycles etc. but I don't mind being told what I already know.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/75910931/UnlimitedContinues.zip



Enjoy!

Hi guys and gals,

I'm having a relatively simple problem. What I want is, when the cursor passes over the main character, he becomes partially transparent and it's possible to click objects and hotspots behind him.

I'm using the Tween module.

Code: AGS

bool hugoFaded = false;

function repeatedly_execute()
{
  if (IsGamePaused() == 1) return;  //anything above is always done, below is what doesnt get done when paused
  
  
  if (Character.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y) == null && cHugo.ActiveInventory == null && hugoFaded){ //if mouse is not over hugo and hugo is faded out
  
    fadeHugoIn(); //run fade hugo in
    hugoFaded = false;
    }

    if(Character.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y) == cHugo && cHugo.ActiveInventory == null&& !hugoFaded) {  //if mouse is over hugo and hugo isnt faded
      
    fadeHugoOut();
    hugoFaded = true;
    }

The functions mentioned just simply tween the main character (hugo)'s transparency.

Code: AGS

function fadeHugoIn (){
    cHugo.StopAllTweens();
    cHugo.TweenTransparency(0.3, 0, eEaseOutTween, eNoBlockTween);
}

function fadeHugoOut(){
    cHugo.StopAllTweens();
    cHugo.TweenTransparency(0.3, 50, eEaseInTween, eNoBlockTween);
  }

The issue I'm having is that Character.GetAtScreenXY relies on the character having the clickable property enabled, which needs to be disabled when the mouse is hovering over him so that the player can click behind him.
If anybody has a solution or any ideas as to how I can achieve this, your help would me most appreciated.

I'm using abstaubers gui dialog module, but the problem was present before this. I added a new Display("...") to an already existing hotspot and it didn't show this behaviour. I editted a display (that wasn't long enough to test before)  and the behaviour wasn't present either. I've tested a few times and Display is not producing the problem. .Say and .Think are, as is the gui dialog.



(Above, the character is actually the pile of blankets)

As I say, enabling low-res co-ordinates solves the problem but means that all x,y locations (for player.movement etc.) are wrong and have to be halved to reach the right place. This isn't the worst thing in the world, I'm just worried that this won't be the end of the problem and it'll resurface. and nothing will be solved.

There's no overlays, but the room is a scrolling room. What's particularly odd is that the main character can be stood in exactly the same place and depending on whether I click him or a hotspot, the text box will squash to exactly half size. (Which is what made me suspect the room script).

I've just tried adding a new hotspot and this time the string isn't squashed, however, the dialog gui is being squashed and yielding very strange results (wrong sprites being called etc). Creating the room from scratch is also creating the same problem. I started an entirely new project and imported the room and it happened again. New hotspots added to the room aren't producing this effect. Is it possible that AGS is remembering that the low-res co-ordinate option was enabled when the event was created?

Hi guys and gals.

The issue I'm having is that essentially, the characters speech and thoughts are half the length they should be across.
"Hi my name is John Smith and I like kittens."
is getting displayed as
"Hi my name is
John Smith and I
like kittens."
Meaning I need to have 'Use low-resolution co-ordinates in script' set to True for speech, thoughts and my custom dialog to display properly. This doesn't make any sense to me as the project was started in 3.2.1 and I thought this was a backwards compatible thing.

I even attempted to start the entire project again from scratch making sure never to touch the setting, and the problem reproduced itself. Even stranger, is it's not consistent. Some strings are being squashed and some aren't (though it's always the same ones). Speech associated with hotspots and objects are always shortened in one room, but not in another. So I thought it was just the room script, but speech in Room_firstLoad isn't being squashed, and a custom dialog gui is being squashed in a different room. Any help on this would be much appreciated. If it's useful, the resolution is 640x400.

Thanks

the story sounds interesting already, but are the puzzles gonna be repeating every day?

Hi selmiak,

The majority of puzzles will not be inventory based and Hugo will learn more and more through each loop meaning that steps can be bypassed, people can be fooled and puzzles can be solved more simply.

In the case of inventory puzzles, his inventory resets at the beginning of each day. So broadly speaking, yes, Hugo will have to gather required objects each day. However, because nobody else remembers that the day has reset, the player is always acquiring new knowledge and learning smarter and faster ways to accomplish goals.

A simple example would be, on one loop Hugo must find an item. To find the item he must do a favour for the person holding said item. If this is accomplished, the player will now know where to look for the item and avoid the person entirely. Eventually, Hugo will have all the information he needs and will no longer need to do the favour or gain the item.

Once a puzzle is completed in the most efficient way, many of these puzzles will happen 'offscreen' allowing the story to flow smoothly.

There will only be one day when the player must accomplish all of the puzzles one after another, which is the final day.

Hope that clears things up.

Unlimited Continues is a game that I am working on to hopefully be a springboard for my Indie company, as well as being a submission for the final year of my Games Design University course.

A wee synopsis of the story:

Unlimited Continues follows a man named Hugo Evans.

[embed=425,349][/embed]

He lives in London and the year is 2040. Hugo is a product tester for the MyLife Corporation, his latest task is testing out the latest model of the MyThumb, a small device that's mounted on the thumb, synced to the DNA of the user (it handles monetary transactions, acts as a phone etc). He wakes up one morning in his dull apartment and begins to go about his dull daily routine.


On his way to catch the London TravelCube service, he foolishly steps into the road, and is killed.
[imgzoom]http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9095/cubariffic4copy.png[/imgzoom]
He wakes up back in his bed, and proceeds to have the same conversation with his neighbour. It quickly becomes apparent through iterative days, that Hugo is reliving the same day, over and over again, and even death cannot release him. (Think Groundhog Day or that one episode of the X-files/Buffy/Stargate etc).
He goes about uncovering the mystery of the seemingly divine intervention that has befallen his life and tries to have the 'perfect day' to break the cycle. In which, he must; not get fired from the job he hates, foil a bank robbery and 'get the girl', amongst other things.

Hugo feels out of touch with the world, and has now become a man, literally, out of time. He's always been in love with retro technology, like Blu-ray discs and 2D televisions. As an aside, each night when he goes to sleep, he dreams about about his role aboard the S.S. Explorer, a fictional starship straight from his favourite classic TV show, Solar Quest, complete with Captain Pilchard, and the ships android, INFO. This serves as his guide in unravelling the inner mysteries.
[imgzoom]http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/457/spaceorama3.png[/imgzoom]


The game takes a strong focus on humour, and I am confident in my writing skills to that effect and will release regular updates for your tasting pleasure. My drawing skills are improving as the project progresses, but I'm sure I will need a lot of guidance and gentle nudging throughout this project as far as scripting goes, but I will leave those questions for another time. Thanks for your interest!

Current (realistic) progress towards the final, commerciable product:
Graphics: 10%
Writing: 40%
Scripting: 5%
Sound: 0%

A thirty minute playable demo will be available in June.

So far I've found the forums invaluable as an observer, though I've a few hurdles to jump yet.
This is a big project, especially for one man. If anyone is interested in helping (I'll need voice-actors for sure) in any way possible, please don't hesitate to message me.

Edit: Sorry for the confusion, I've added the apartment location with the gui up for clarity. The other screenshots are gameplay but cherry picked not to contain text. (Was feeling a little embarrased that I've not graduated from the default fonts and inventory UI)  .

- Live for awhile and be moderately wealthy -