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[â€" Unknown]

"A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are."
â€" Unknown

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'."
†• Groucho Marx

Friendships come and go throughout our lives. Some happen because we're in the same place as our friend (school, work) or we meet through a new hobby.
And then...there are these.

Your task is to write about a deep friendship between two people who, ordinarily, would want nothing to do with each other. (For example: a high school delinquent and a high school honor student).

Any setting is fine.

RULES

No romance, hinted or otherwise, between the pair. Romance with other characters is fine, but the main characters' relationship should be 100% platonic.
No ending of the friendship in your entry (unless it's of the Fight-And-Make-Up variety where the characters are friends again by the end). This is about a lasting friendship.
No 'friendship for old times' sake' (ie, the high school delinquent and honor student are only hanging out because they've been friends since kindergarten and keep the friendship out of habit). In other words, the friendship has to have started when the pair were already in very different circumstances.

That's it!

Entries are due by July 9, but extensions are always available. We're all friends here, after all

Categories:
Best Friendship: Do we believe that these friends would walk through fire for each other? Or at least lend each other a couple bucks?
Best Difference: Why exactly is the characters' friendship so unusual? We don't need the backstory (unless you want to write a How They Met entry) just show us why people are always surprised to see this particular duo hanging out.
Best Character: Who was the most interesting to read about, even if you didn't want to meet them yourself?
Best Story: What it says on the tin
Best Writing: Whose words jumped off the page, seized you by the throat and dragged you into the story, refusing to let you go until the very end, at which point you collapsed against a wall, gasping for breath and saying, "Wow! That turn of phrase was...you know what? Just WOW!"

Have fun!

[Best Character:]

'Tis the season to travel!

At least, it is in this installment of:

The Fortnightly Writing Competition!

So, your character wants to go on a trip! Maybe to another planet, or into elven lands, or maybe just go on vacation somewhere. Or maybe they're trying to sneak past the border. Or maybe they're in charge of maintaining the border. Whichever it is, sooner or later they're going to run into the local equivalent of this phrase:

Yes, I have been watching Let's Plays of this game rather extensively, but this really is an area of worldbuilding that's seriously neglected. Got a spaceship? Sure, you can fly to a completely different planet and stay as long as you like, with no visible means of support or any proof that you aren't wanted for murder or hamster stealing or unprovoked weasel juggling! Want to cross the border from human lands into elven? Go right ahead!

Well, no more! This is where you guys come in. It can be fantasy, or sci-fi, or realistic, it can be past, present or future, but the central theme must be around gaining access to another place for some reason. It doesn't have to be paperwork in the sense of visas; proof of dragon-slaying or beating the border guards in single combat to earn your way in works too. Or sneaking across the border. Or protecting the border. So long as there's something stopping people from just waltzing in, whatever it is, you're good to go.

Best Character: What it says on the tin. Which character made you laugh, cry, feel or want to strangle them? (Hey, it's not Best-Loved Character!)
Best Story: Does it have a compelling plot? Do you pour a cup of coffee, only to forget all about it and let it go cold as you're swept up in the story?
Best Setting: Be it fantasy or fascism (or fascist fantasy) is the world convincing?
Best Writing: Who can turn a phrase the best? Who can bring readers to their knees with one well-chosen word?
Best (or Worst!) Bureaucracy: Most believable system, whether it's the familiar one of visas or something else entirely.

Deadline is Monday 28th January at 23:59! However, extensions may be granted to certain applicants

[But That's Inhuman!]

What's that, you say?
A Fortnightly Writing Competition with restrictions on the main character?

But That's Inhuman!

Some of the most interesting and well-loved books have been written from the point of view of non-human characters, along with some of the most iconic movies (Lion King, anyone? Monsters Inc? Dumbo?) I love reading and writing xenofiction, and there needs to be more of it in the world! More, I say! More!

With that in mind, I present The Inhuman Contest!

The story is up to you. The genre is up to you. The setting is up to you. The length and style are all up to you. There is only one main rule: your main character cannot be a human. That doesn't mean that you can't have humans in your story, just that they can't be the protagonist (ie, if you're writing a story from the POV of a dog, feel free to include the dog's owners ) Half-humans are also not allowed, but races with traditionally human parts, such as centaurs and mermaids, are fine. Vampires and werewolves are also okay, so long as they weren't human when they were turned. What about a fairy werewolf? Or a centaur vampire?

This doesn't mean you have to create an entire race from scratch (unless you want to!) A story told from the point of view of the family pet works just as well. Or a dolphin. Or a tree. Or a chair. Basically, if it's not human, you're good to go

Categories are:

Most Convincing Protagonist: Is the main character believable as a non-human? Even Wind in the Willows pulled this off; despite interacting with humans on a more-or-less equal basis, Mole and Badger both lived underground, and Rat lived in a hole by the river bank.
Best Story: How good was the story? Did it make you believe in the world the writer created?
Best Writing: Even the best story ideas need a strong turn of phrase

You have until Sunday November 11 Wednesday November 14 to get your entries in! Have fun

I did a quick search and I don't think this one's been done, at least not recently. So let's get started!

Whether you're writing a game, a story, a screenplay or a full-blown novel, one of the most important things is the world setting. The richly imagined five worlds envisaged in Weis and Hickman's fantasy Death Gate cycle are as vital as the characters. And what would Sierra games have been without all those extra forest/desert/mountain screens where one could meet an untimely demise by wolf, falling off a cliff, drowning or lack of custard pie? Well...probably a lot less frustrating. But I digress.

I want to know all about your world. However, I only want to know about your world, such as a mocked up Wikitravel or Lonely Planet entry, or a write-up in a newspaper, or a monologue by someone doing a travel show, or an interview with someone who just came back from that world. Or anything else along those lines you can think of.

So to summarize, your goal is to write about your fictional world in a semi-official style.

-Maximum word count: 3000. If you go over by a little bit, it's fine, but this isn't NaNo
-Only your own fictional places or take on those places. It's okay to write about a city on Mars. It's also okay to write about New York under the rule of aliens or magicians or anything which would make it drastically different from what it is now, but not New York as it is at the moment. You can write about a world, or a country, or a city, or a district of a city; it's entirely up to you.
-Non-human civilizations are also welcome

Judging criteria:

-Most Believable World. That's not to say you can't have a civilization living in the heart of the Sun, but if that civilization is human, you're going to need to explain how they avoid being burned to a crisp
-Most Interesting World. Not necessarily the world we'd most like to visit, but the one which captures our imagination the most
-Best Writing Technique. Word choice, turn of phrase...you know the kind of thing
-Most Informative Entry. If I were going to travel to your world, would your entry tell me what I needed to know in advance (things to bring, currency, things to watch out for etc)

Deadline is midnight Sunday 28 June. Voting will start on Monday 29 June.

I was just wondering, can you run a DisplaySpeech command for two or more characters at once, so it looks like they're talking in unison?

The situation is this: at one point the player will wake up with screaming nightmares and go around each of their friend's houses in turn, looking for a place to sleep (long story; makes sense if you play the game).

Later they'll be talking to four of those friends and will say something like, "I've been having a little trouble sleeping lately," at which point all their friends will say in chorus, "WE KNOW!"

At least...they will if I can find out how to script it

I can get around it with objects and animations (put object that looks like all characters on top, make characters unclickable, animate object with speech, turn object off, make characters clickable again) but it seems a very complicated way of doing things.  I can't use just one object and no characters, since the player needs to speak to each character in turn.  

I'd be grateful for any help/thoughts on the subject.  I'm using AGS version 2.72

After some years away from game design, I'm trying to get back into it again.  Although I admire the work that goes into upgrading the versions (3.0 looks particularly impressive!) I'm really much happier and more comfortable with good ol' 2.62.  I tried 2.72 only to find that most of the functions I was used to using had become obsolete.

Does anyone know if I can get 2.62 anywhere, and if so where?  Thanks

The game I'm currently working on features more than one player character talking to the same NPC.Ã,  Rather than rewrite entire dialogues just to change the name, I was wondering if there was a way to get the character's name?

Example:Ã,  Alice goes up and talks to Mr Flip

Alice: Hi, how are you?
Mr Flip: Hi Alice.Ã,  I'm fine thankyou.

The player then switches to Ben, who goes up and talks to Mr Flip

Ben: Hi, how are you?
Mr Flip: Hi Ben.Ã,  I'm fine thankyou.

(A/N: This example wasn't taken from the actual game )

Instead of writing separate dialogues for Alice and Ben, is there a way of scripting it so that Mr Flip says, "Hi CHARACTER.Ã,  I'm fine thankyou."?Ã,  Please can someone help me with this?

The game I'm working on has an option to switch between characters.  On the Interaction GUI there is a button reserved for 'special' actions.  I want each character to be able to do something different when the player clicks on it but I can't get my head around the script

Example:

When controlling Joe, the player clicks on the Action button and Joe starts to swim.
When controlling Bob, the player clicks on the Action button and Bob starts to fly.

I can't get the GUI script to work on this at all.  I'm using the latest version of AGS.  Can someone please help me?

I did try the idea of having individual GUIs for each character, but that didn't work either, and it seemed pretty stupid for the sake of one button.  I know what I need is a command along the lines of "if playercharacter=Joe then do this, else if playercharacter=Bob do this" but it doesn't seem to be working.  Please help

I'm not sure if this is in the right place-mods feel free to move it-but it didn't seem to fit into any of the other boards.  I can't seem to edit my profile, and I've been trying for the last half hour or so.  I've scoured the Help sections but it doesn't have an answer.  Here's the thing:

Where it says My Games, it says that I haven't worked on any finished games, but I wrote and released Out of Time several months ago.  Am I being really thick here or should I have done something?

It's not majorly important-this is actually the first time I've noticed it-but it's really bugging me now.  Does anyone else have a similar problem?

I've checked and rechecked the manual, but I'm a little stumped on this one.Ã,  What I want is when the player interacts with an inventory item, to have the character describe it; example:

Player LOOKS at flashlight
Character says "This is a blue flashlight."

The problem is whenever the character speaks, the text is underneath the inventory window.Ã,  I've tried DisplaySpeechAt and that works up to a point, but it's very clumsy.Ã,  What I really want is for the speech to be above the GUI and centred over the object in question.Ã,  Is there a way to do this and if so, can someone please point me in the right direction?Ã,  Thanks

Okay, so I'm a little embarrassed posting again for help on this so soon, but I'm completely and utterly flummoxed.Ã,  My GUI is set to appear whenever the user right clicks, to allow them to select the action they want.Ã,  The Smell button just turns the GUI off again and the Interact button quits the game for some weird reason.Ã,  The buttons for Save and Restore seem to work, but Quit and Restart are playing up.Ã,  I had it set so that there would be one prompt after another; the first one being along the lines of "Are you sure you want to quit/restart?" followed by another saying "Do you want to save first?"Ã,  Even if I click No or Cancel on this second one, I'm still taken to the savegame dialogue and sometimes kicked out the game.Ã,  I don't get any error messages; the line at the bottom says "Game ran successfully" so can anyone out there please tell me where I'm going wrong?Ã,  For what it's worth, the code is as follows (again with problems highlighted in red)

if (interface == INTERACTION) {
Ã,  Ã,  if (button == 0) {Ã,  // LOOK
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(1);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 1) {Ã,  Ã, // interact
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(2);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 2) {Ã,  Ã, // smell
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(8);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 3) {Ã,  Ã, // sense
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(10);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 4) {Ã,  Ã, // listen
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(9);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 5) {Ã,  Ã, // inventory
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOn(2);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 6) {Ã,  Ã, // talk to
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(3);Ã,  Ã,  Ã, 
GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 7) {Ã,  Ã, // walk
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(0);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 4) {Ã,  Ã, // listen
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(9);
Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 8) {Ã,  Ã, // save game
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  SaveGameDialog();
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  Ã,  else if (button == 11) {Ã,  // load game
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, RestoreGameDialog();
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  Ã, else if (button == 10) { // quit game
Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, GUIOn(6);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, CentreGUI(6);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, }
Ã,  Ã, else if (button == 9) { // restart game
Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  GUIOn(5);
Ã,  Ã,  CentreGUI(5);
Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  }
if (interface == SAVEPROMPT) { // save game
Ã,  if (button == 0)
Ã,  Ã, SaveGameDialog();
Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(4);
Ã,  Ã, RestartGame();
Ã,  Ã, }
else if (button == 1) { // don't save
Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(4);
Ã,  Ã, RestartGame();
Ã,  Ã, }
else if (button == 2) { // cancel
Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(4);
Ã,  Ã, }
if (interface == RESTARTPROMPT) { //yes restart
Ã,  if (button == 0)
Ã,  GUIOff(5);
Ã,  GUIOn(4);
Ã,  CentreGUI(4);
Ã,  }
else if (button == 1) { //no don't restart
GUIOff(5);
}
if (interface == QUITPROMPT) { //yes quit
Ã,  if (button == 0)
Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(6);
Ã,  Ã, GUIOn(7);
Ã,  Ã, CentreGUI(7);
Ã,  Ã, }
Ã,  else if (button == 1) { //no don't quit
Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(6);
}
if (interface == SAVEPROMPTA) { //yes save
Ã,  if (button == 0)
Ã,  GUIOff(7);
Ã,  SaveGameDialog();
Ã,  QuitGame(0);
Ã,  }
else if (button == 1) { //no don't save
Ã,  QuitGame(0);
Ã,  }
else if (button == 2) { //forget it
Ã,  GUIOff(7);
Ã,  }
}

I've checked numbers of buttons, cursor modes etc; in fact, done everything I can think of.Ã,  What's really bugging me is that I had it working six months ago, before the virus hit and I lost most of my files and programs, including the AGS ones and backups.Ã,  I know it's probably something pretty simple that I'll kick myself over, but for the life of me I can't see what I'm doing wrong.Ã,  Any help?

I'm working on developing the interaction circle for my next game, but whenever I try and save it, I get a message saying 'Parse error: unexpected 'else' line 148', referring to the global script.Ã,  I've checked and double-checked the numbers, the GUIs, everything and I can't work out why it's messing up.Ã,  Anyone out there able to help?Ã,  I've pasted the entire code with the line in question in red, just to make it easier.

if (interface == INTERACTION) {
Ã,  Ã,  if (button == 0) {Ã,  // LOOK
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(1);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  Ã,  else if (button == 1) {Ã,  Ã, // interact
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(2);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  Ã,  else if (button == 2) {Ã,  Ã, // smell
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(8);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 3) {Ã,  Ã, // sense
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(10);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 4) {Ã,  Ã, // listen
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(9);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 5) {Ã,  Ã, // inventory
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOn(2);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 6) {Ã,  Ã, // talk to
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(3);Ã,  Ã,  Ã, 
GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 7) {Ã,  Ã, // walk
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(0);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 4) {Ã,  Ã, // listen
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetCursorMode(9);
Ã,  Ã,  }
else if (button == 8)Ã,  Ã,  // save game
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  SaveGameDialog();
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  Ã,  else if (button == 11)Ã,  Ã, // load game
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, RestoreGameDialog();
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  Ã, else if (button == 10) // quit game
Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, GUIOn(6);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, CentreGUI(6);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, }
Ã,  Ã, else if (button == 9) // restart game
Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(3);
Ã,  Ã,  GUIOn(5);
Ã,  Ã,  CentreGUI(5);
Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  }
if (interface == SAVEPROMPT) {
Ã,  if (button == 1) // save game
Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(4);
Ã,  Ã, SaveGameDialog();
Ã,  Ã, RestartGame();
Ã,  Ã, }
else if (button == 2) // don't save
Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(4);
Ã,  Ã, RestartGame();
Ã,  Ã, }
else if (button == 3) // cancel
Ã,  Ã, GUIOff(4);
Ã,  Ã, }
}

Thanks!

I've added three new buttons/interactions to the interaction GUI-Smell, Listen and Sense (replacing Inventory, Recently Used Inventory and Help).  I'd like the player to be able to cycle through them by right clicking, but when I try, it only goes through Walk, Look, Interact and Talk, then back to Walk.  How can I get it to cycle through the others as well?

Yep, it's finally finished and you can download it from http://www.freewebs.com/equilibrium-movie/EQGame.zip !  (For some reason, linking didn't work; the only way to get it from here is to copy and paste the above into your browser; it seems to be a freewebs thing Zipped it's about 1.3MB but the opened version is about 8 in total.  One little note; this is a fan adventure game based on the movie Equilibrium, so if you haven't seen this, one or two things may not make much sense to you Just thought I'd mention that.  It's my first game, so please be tactful Hope you enjoy it!

I was running through the final tests for my game and suddenly found this bug.  It happens whenever I try to load a game.

There's a point in the game when the character changes clothes.  Up until that point, games load fine.  Whenever I try to load a game that was saved after the change of clothes, however, I get this message and it crashes.  Any ideas?

It only just started happening and I don't know why.  Whenever I try to load a particular room for editing, I get this message saying AGS has to shut down.  The code is

(Exception 0xC0000005 at EIP=0x005D9D73, AGSE v.2.60.454)

Does that mean anything to anyone and is there anything I can do? It's just this one room; all the others work fine

I posted a similar message a while ago about having problems displaying sprites, but as I was able to restore from a backup, this was solved.  I now have a far more drastic problem.  For some reason, when I backed up my files, the .spr file decreased in size from 3.8MB to 1.2 MB.  I've now lost almost every single character, every single animation I have; as far as the sprite file goes, these no longer exist.  Some of these can (thankfully) be restored from earlier backups, but most are gone.  I'm not particularly hopeful, but does anyone out there have any solution?? I mean, should I start doing backups of the backup files or something?  :'(

(Okay, I know I've been posting a lot of help requests lately, but please bear with me; I've never tried anything like this before )  Anyhoo...

Is there any way to move an NPC to another room at specific coordinates, like a player character?  Moving when the character enters the room isn't much good; he's supposed to be sitting at a table, and it looks a bit weird if he glides through a table and onto the bench.  Is there some kind of script I can add saying 'when you move him, move him here'?

I want to add something to my game that prompts the player to save when the quit button is pressed, something like "Do you want to save your game?" and relevant buttons (yes/no) If they say yes, they're taken to the save screen, then when they've saved, the game quits, if no the game quits immediately.  I've tried a few times on my own but no luck.  Can someone please tell me the script I need and whereabouts it should go?
Thanks!
JudasFm

AGS was working fine until yesterday; now whenever I try to start it or run an AGS game I get an Error Starting Program message saying "The DSOUND.DLL file cannot start.  Check the file to determine the problem."  I've checked tem and can't see any problems.  I've also tried reinstalling it but no go.  Any help out there...?  :'(