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Sir Sean Connery death: Legendary Scottish actor who played James Bond dies aged 90

[Deadline:]

Idyllic: suitable for or suggestive of an idyll; charmingly simple or rustic.

Create a scene from paradise. Originality is encouraged, but a classic remains a classic.

Deadline: 23 November 2020

Voting:

Concept: Your background should tell us something about the place you have depicted.
Playability: Does it have clearly defined walkable areas, things to interact with, etc?
Artistic Execution: Does the image convey the wanted atmosphere? What's the feeling of the place?

[Winner:]

Once here lived a people that accomplished wonders. They have left and time is retaking this place.

Winner: lorenzo

                      



Deadline: 26 July 2020.
Deadline: 29 July 2020.
Voting until: 2 August 2020.

Voting:

Concept: Your background should tell us something about the place you have depicted.
Playability: Does it have clearly defined walkable areas, things to interact with, etc?
Artistic Execution: Does the image convey the wanted atmosphere? What's the feeling of the place?

Entries:

lorenzo (Winner)




DBoyWheeler




Your gracious host




Mandle

[SCALE]

SCALE

Make a background that brings across a feeling of unusual scale. Go microscopic, go big, or get creative, like applying the scale to your style as lots of detail, or very little.

Deadline: 20 February 2020.
Voting closes: 28 February 2020.
Results announced

Voting:

Concept: your background should tell us something about the place you have depicted.
Playability: does it have clearly defined walkable areas, things to interact with, etc?
Artistic Execution: does the image convey the wanted atmosphere? What's the feeling of the place?

Entries:

jwalt:


Racoon:


lorenzo:


stylez75:
[imgzoom]https://i.postimg.cc/pXw35VjL/Simms-Upload.jpg[/imgzoom]

blur:

Results:

1st Place: Racoon
2nd Place: lorenzo
3rd Place: stylez75

Trophies:

                     

I think it would be nice if the games listing in a forum profile would be sorted by release date instead of alphabetically.

In the same vein, can the "creator:" page (when clicking on a game's author on the site) default to /date/desc/ rathen than /name/asc/?

Does anyone find it odd how the festival of death is celebrated widely and blindly, while the opposing festival of life is generally not known?

This seems to be caused by certain posts, but I have not checked which. When some posts are in the RSS list, it times out loading.

At the moment if you add a limit of 15 to the list you can see the issue, a higher limit will probably guarantee you encounter it. It's been happening more frequently.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?type=rss;action=.xml&limit=15

Hidden Plains is a survival / adventure game hybrid, in which you take the role of Terry B. Davis, a relic hunter on the trail of a long lost survey ship, when you crash on a Y-type planet.

Collect parts to repair your ship, meet the locals, learn about the illegal operation being hidden on this planet, and possibly discover your destiny.







Resolution: 640 x 360

Controls:

Left click: Interact
Right click: Examine

Esc: Pause menu
F9: Quicksave
Q: Quit

Download

It would be great to have a few scaling options other than simple pixel resize in DrawImage for DrawingSurface.

Usually blitting or resizing functions include a flag or enum to specify other resizing methods, like resampling. I am hoping that the function which the AGS engine uses for this allows something similar, so that it is just a simple matter of passing an optional parameter through AGS to whichever API it is employing for DrawImage. Default will be what it currently uses of course, and it will up to the game dev to take the needed CPU time into consideration.

It would make a huge difference in the game I am working on.

The film that turned me into a movie nut is American Beauty.

Until then, movies were entertainment to me, but American Beauty made me realise that they could also be art.

I looked about and it seems the forum hasn't had a dream thread in a while, so rather than resurrecting one from 2008, here goes one about weird and interesting dreams:

Of the dream I had this morning, the first detail I can remember is foiling a robbery by a chicken riding on a horse. Not an anthropomorphic chicken, a normal one. They were trying to jump over a fence to steal a farmer's produce. Once that was done, they became a young woman, with a boyfriend encouraging her to try again (obviously). After this, I hijacked a car on the highway, but it turns out it didn't run, so I gave it back. After securing an old friend's help in pilfering one from the car dealership he works at, my efforts were comically frustrated by an overeager workshop foreman. As I tried to cross the workshop floor to get outside he kept interrupting me, saying customers weren't allowed there, while I kept agreeing to leave and making my way a bit closer to the opposite exit. I don't quite remember which actor it was that portrayed this role, but let's say it's Michael Richards to get an idea. Once outside, my friend's manager started showing interest in the fact that I had just bought a car, when in reality we had just faked the paperwork of a sale. In order to make the sale seem legitimate, the friend led us all to the bank, where the dealership manager and I both made fun of the bank manager for looking too much like Julius Malema (sort of like the South African Donald Trump). And then one of my teeth fell out.

When I remember to take it, I use choline to help with dream recall/vividness, and it works quite well if you take it at the right time. I've also tried liquorice root, but could discern no effects.

What weird or interesting dreams have you had?

When you have a lot of AGS games, creating shortcuts for all of them is a pain. Not any more. Add the parent folder of your AGS games to the launch panel, and it will provide you with shortcuts to each one.

There are still a few things I want to add to this before I consider it a v1.0, like threaded scanning and hooking into the USN journal so that it automatically detects new games added, but at the moment it should be able to do what it was designed for.

AGS Launch Panel v0.6

[A singular coherent vision of OS design]

I've used windows all my computing life, and until recently, taking the wide road in that way led to more pros for me than cons. This is now changing. Theoretically we could go on using W7 and XP forever, but in reality it will at some point need to be replaced with something equal or better, which is not tied directly to the insanity of a few people with too much money.

The logical choice for this is Linux. In terms of openness, modifiability and security, Linux is as good as it gets. But server stability does not translate directly to desktop stability, and having most of the best and the brightest in the computing world using your OS does not translate directly to having a full suite of apps ready to replace something like windows.

So here are a few things which windows has spoiled me with and are currently impeding me from completely migrating to linux:

A singular coherent vision of OS design

While windows uses iterated releases where everything down to calculator is updated to the new design, Linux is assembled from many disparate applications and libraries that are changing all the time. Shuttleworth apparently recognised this and executed such a vision with Ubuntu, but unfortunately for desktop users it turned out to be the wrong vision, Ubuntu now being little more than another apple/android clone, lacking the abilities and customisation of windows. (Having said that I look forward to the day I can have true linux on my phone).

A rock-solid window manager

DWM showed its mettle in vista already but seems to be pretty perfected in W7. No matter how hard a game crashes, you can always CTRL-ALT-DEL and be returned to the windows desktop after terminating the offending app. This was not the case in XP and earlier, and it's not the case in Linux, where an application can still screw your desktop up enough that you need to reboot. WINE is one application that is pretty much guaranteed to do this on a regular basis.

A capable file manager

Pretty much every distro comes with nautilus or some variant thereof as their standard file manager. In this manager there is no way to see the expanded folder view for instance of a network drive and a local drive at the same time, as you can do with explorer. There is also no queued copying and no way to install queued copying, which again is the case in windows. Linux users will invariably suggest a replacement which has the two-pane interface of an FTP client. I will call that the old people interface.

The AGS editor

Requires no explanation. It's on my to-do list.



Also lacking and often sought is far greater driver support, and more apps to fill in the niches which has become windows' staple over the years. But this will only come with more users in my opinion. Certainly with apps like GIMP and Krita, they have the most critical bases covered.

My favourite windows replacement candidate at this point: Linux Mint.

As a user of windows, what is preventing you from fully switching to Linux?

[AGS Awards 2015 Winners List]

AGS Awards 2015 Winners List

Best Demo - Troll Song Verse One - Completely Stoned
Best Background Art - Technobabylon
Best Character Art - Technobabylon
Best Animation - Technobabylon
Best Music and Sound - Technobabylon
Best Voice Work - Technobabylon
Best Programming - Rogue State
Best Puzzles - Technobabylon
Best Gameplay - Technobabylon
Best Short Game - Cornelius Cat in: The Uncontrollable Pest, Mess Goblins, The Surprisingly Short Adventure of Leopold Kettle
Best Character - The Jimi Hendrix Case (Jimi Hendrix)
Best Writing - Technobabylon
Best Non Adventure Game Created with AGS - Rogue State
Best MAGS Game - Mess Goblins
Best Game Created with AGS - Technobabylon
Best Freeware Game Created with AGS - Camp 1

Recording, supplied by Gurok: AGS Awards 2015



AGS Awards 2015 ceremony client

For those who can't run it, you can follow along in #Awards on the server irc.adventuregamestudio.co.uk



AGS Awards 2015 Ceremony beta
AGS Awards 2015 Ceremony beta 2

This has several bugfixes and all of the core features, including all the sound I intend for it to have.

There are a handful of mostly cosmetic things I'd still like to do before tomorrow, like finishing the intro, fixing the irc window, and adding a few more joke animations. Then I also keep forgetting to get more than just a screenshot for the voice, music and animation nominees. So make sure to update tomorrow rather than using the beta.

Let us test the clap system.



AGS Awards 2015 Ceremony alpha 1

Still a few things I need to do, but the core features should all be working.

All sound is still conspicuously missing, but that's a metaphor for the long wait.

I await you in the Grand Hall, where breasts and awkward rehearsals will be served.

A thread for the wondrous things that can be accomplished when creative people realise their potential.

We'll start things off with a marbleously catchy tune played on a device both modern and quaint.

Wintergatan - Marble Machine (music instrument using 2000 marbles)

[AGSAwardsCeremonyClientTest01.zip (3.17 MB)]

I tested this on a 13-year-old laptop I have and was surprised to find that it kept a steady 40 FPS without taxing the processor. Still, the windows experience index for that processor is 4.1 (apparently), and I'd like to know if anyone else is having trouble keeping up a steady 40 FPS.

Please run this on whatever hardware you see fit and let me know the results. If it can't maintain 40 FPS, let me know the specs of your PC, most importantly the processor. I think we can use the experience index numbers for simplicity's sake.

AGSAwardsCeremonyClientTest01.zip (3.17 MB)

I'll probably have more tests later in the dev cycle, so any help testing would be appreciated.

[Auditorium background screen]

The time has come again to do the AGS Awards, and it looks like I'll be putting together the client to run the ceremony. We can use last year's assets if we had to, but it would be really great if we could make some updates this year. The parts we need are as follows:

Auditorium background screen

1280 x 720 background of an auditorium with a stage, ample standing room and a large main screen behind the stage. The screen should be undistorted (not at an angle) and in aspect ratio 16:9. The height of characters populating this background is 100px. The perspective should be such that no character scaling is needed for the walkable areas. There should be a light and dark version of the background, the dark version being where only the stage is lighted and the crowd is minimally lighted. Have a look at last year's BG below to get a general idea. 20-25% of the screen on the right side will be used for a hide-able interface, so this part should not include the stage. It would be a good place to put the entrance. I think for this year the auditorium's style should be relatively modern. Please send links of designs and examples of the art style you would like to use as a PM.

[imgzoom]http://i.cubeupload.com/N62Son.png[/imgzoom]

Music

Music is needed for the gathering before the show, or when the host spills their drink. Anyone is free to contribute music in any style they wish, but I would prefer to use a handful of tracks all in the same style. My wish list is 3 or more muzak (relaxing, instrumental) tracks with melodies inspired by great adventure games.

Sprites

We will probably re-use all of last year's sprites, but it would be good to add a few new ones. A full walk cycle of your sprite is needed with four directions. Character height should be close to 100px.

Performances

Last year there was an excellent performance following the awards by Pixel Hunt of their song about trolls. (See it here at 1:46:15) It would be great if we could have one or more such performances again this year. Typically this will be an audio track accompanied by an animation.



That's it for now. Comments, suggestions and drunken rants below.

[Tales from the Eureka Cluster : The Abtyon Case]

Tales from the Eureka Cluster : The Abtyon Case
Medium-length adventure game, 800 x 600

While conducting archaeological recovery in an unknown star system of the Eureka Cluster, the crew of the FSV Thrift is abducted by some form of purple energy alien.

Only one man, Jeff Tobel, is left behind, and must find a way to save his crew-mates after being stuck aboard a disabled ship which he doesn't even have full clearance to use.

WARNING: This game contains adult themes. Players must be 18 years or older.

Game page

Download link (21.5 MB)

This is my first game, but hopefully not my last. It started out as a 3-week game jam-type exercise, but here we are a little more than a year later.

I'd love to hear what you think about it.