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[UPDATE 11/3/19:]

UPDATE 11/3/19: Phoenix Tales is officially available on Steam for $4.99.  Steam sale page:  https://store.steampowered.com/app/1187490/Phoenix_Tales/?beta=0

After 10 long years of on and off progress (mostly off), I've finally published my first game. Phoenix Tales is live and available for purchase for $4.99 @ www.phoenixtalesgame.com and on the indie game site www.itch.io.  This was 100% a labor of love. Ever since I played my first Sierra adventure game as a 5(ish) year old, I wanted to make a game just like it. 30 years and some ungodly number of hours of work later, I finished one. Life goal complete. Onto the next one, I guess?

ABOUT THE GAME

Something strange is happening in the land of Rydanthia.  You arrive in the town of Northern Cross and quickly discover things are not what they seem.  Merchants tell stories of nearby towns that are deserted.  There are frightening creatures lurking in the forest.  Can you solve the mysteries surrounding this threat?  Can you live to tell the tale?

A CLASSIC ADVENTURE GAME
At it's core, Phoenix Tales is an adventure game.  Modeled after classic point-and-click style games of the 1990's, you'll have to use your wits to solve the puzzles.

RPG ELEMENTS
Gain experience and level up your character as you progress through the game.  With individual stats and several weapon / armor upgrades to find, Phoenix Tales is an RPG-lite experience too!

A UNIQUE COMBAT SYSTEM
While you'll need your brain to solve the mysteries plaguing the town of Northern Cross, sometimes a little brawn comes in handy too.  Master a unique combat system that requires both timing and strategy!

MULTIPLE PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
Sometimes being a hero requires help.  Along the way, you'll meet a companion who will prove to be quite helpful on your quest.  He has his own play style, attributes, and attacks.

A FULLY IMMERSIVE AND DETAILED WORLD
Using real world locations and motion capture actors, which are then "cartooned" into a unique art style, there is plenty to see, do, and explore.


CHECK OUT THE TRAILER

SCREEN SHOTS

This is probably a silly question, but my brain is seriously not working here.  I have custom save and load GUI's for my game, and they work perfectly, except for one bug.

If I make a call to the load game GUI, and there are no save games currently created, the game crashes.  I know I can solve this with a simple 'if' statement, but I can't figure out how to phrase it.

Here is the code I use to call the GUI:

Code: ags

  if (keycode == eKeyF7) //OPEN LOAD GAME GUI
  {
    lstLoadGames.FillSaveGameList();
    lstLoadGames.SelectedIndex = 0;
    lLoadName.Text = lstLoadGames.Items[lstLoadGames.SelectedIndex];
    gLoadgame.Visible = true;
  }

I know its crashing because the index is empty, but the only way I can think to fix it is by creating an auto-save when you start a new game, so you always have a save game.  That is obviously a band-aid fix.

I did do a search to see if I could find the same problem, but I couldn't find one specific to my exact error, which is "ListBox.Items: invalid index specified"

Thanks in advance, and yes, I know once I see the code I will slap myself for not realized how easy the fix is lol.

[THE STORY:]

I would like to officially announce my game, Phoenix Tales, is in full production (technically, BACK in production, more on that at the bottom of the post for anyone interested), and is currently estimated to be complete in May 2017.  If you like the project, please support it on Steam Greenlight!    Click here to support Phoenix Tales on Steam Greenlight!

THE STORY:
Connor has been traveling north for some time, heading to the capital city to look for work.  Upon stopping in the town of Northern Cross, he discovers everything is not as it seems.  Mysterious figures have been seen wandering the forest, and local merchants are spinning tales about nearby towns being completely deserted.


GAME FEATURES:
-A hybrid Adventure game / RPG, complete with character level and stat systems.

-An immersive world with real, motion capture actors rendered in a cartoon style.

-A unique combat system that requires both timing and strategy to master.

-Two separate playable characters, each with their own play style, unique attacks, attributes, and gear.


MEDIA:

The first trailer for the game is available here:  Phoenix Tales Trailer #1 on YouTube



In combat with the enemy!


Gone fishin'


Inventory and stats


Wandering in the woods


The bridge to town


Various character models


WHERE YOU CAN LEARN MORE:

Here are all the places you can hear more about the game on the internet.  Feel free to like and subscribe as you see fit, it would be much appreciated!
Website: Adventurers Guild Entertainment website
YouTube: Adventurers Guild Entertainment (the home of Phoenix Tales!) on YouTube
Facebook: Adventurers Guild Entertainment on Facebook


THE BORING STUFF:

Phoenix Tales has been developed by just me -- a one man show.  I started working on this project in 2010, and after 9 months, life got in the way (two children, etc!), and I shelved the project.  Here I am, a little less than seven years later, and I have decided to finish what I started.  I've been working at a ferocious pace for the last 2 months, and things are really coming together.  All of the core systems are complete including combat, enemy AI, etc.  All of the primary character animations are finished.  The entire story is fleshed out.  There's still a massive amount of work to go though!  Just. Need. To. Push. Through!

Phoenix Tales

WEBSITE:  http://www.phoenixtalesgame.com

VIDEO(S):  http://www.youtube.com/uplinkgaming

THE STORY:
Something evil is afoot.  Towns to the far north have been burned to the ground, and its citizens slain.  Whispers and rumors of a tribe of dark warriors have been spreading like wildfire.  Luckily, Everything has been safe in your village so far...or has it?  After a horrifying event occurs, you become bent on retribution.  You must discover the evil that is terrorizing the lands and conquer it...but will unlocking the secrets of your past do more harm than good along the way?



FEATURES:
-Phoenix Tales is an adventure-RPG that takes you across a vast world, with tons of content, and a very immersive story.
-A unique combat system that requires timing and strategy to master.
-Multiple playable characters, each with their own play style, attributes, and attacks.
-An epic quest line with countless puzzles to solve, characters to interact with, inventory to aquire, and much more.



SCREENSHOTS:










Development Progress:
Story: 100%
Scripting: 52%
Graphics: 52%
Sound/Music: 20%



Expected completion date:  Summer 2010



Development Diary:

January 29th, 2010 - new screen shot posted

January 16th, 2010 - Initial posting


looking for assistance for the following positions (PM me if interested):

I am not currently looking for any assistance (BESIDES OPINIONS!   )

This is going to sound fairly stupid I'm sure, and honestly I'm not even sure if I'm phrasing it in a logical way, but here goes:

I have several fairly complex animations near the beginning of my game. 

One in quite literally the first room, that begins the moment the first room loads.

One within the first minute or so of the game being launched.

When I say fairly complex animations, I mean more than 30 or so frames of animation, 32-bit, alpha channels, etc.

Here is the problem:

When both of these animations play at first they are fairly laggy (I'm running the game on a dual core 3GHz box, 4 gigs of DDR2 RAM, and a GeForce GTX260 video card, so a very beefy PC).

However, if I cause the 2nd animation to replay itself, or if I F9 to restart the game for the original animation, everything runs smooth as butter, without any hint of choppiness.

Is there a trick to avoiding this issue that I'm not aware of?  Its definetly not the PC...just to be sure I've tried it on two other PC's (one much, much slower, one significantly faster) and the problem is identical.  The slow machines performance is identical to my main PC.

Thoughts?