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[every thing]

Hey guys, it's been a while.

I was feeling nostalgic today and digged up my old back-ups to listen to AGS-related music I had composed back in the day. For the past years I've been composing mainly for band purposes but now I felt I'd like to try something else for a change.

I graduated a couple of years ago and am now officially a bachelor of arts and media, specializing in website and graphics design. However, the timing was a bit bad, seeing how fast the scene develops, and I have been left pretty much without a suitable job. Companies nowadays want people that can do every thing and there's no shortage of those. Thinking back now it feels I was super lucky in being applied to my school in the first place because there were so many applicants. I'm not complaining, obviously. And anyway, I do have a part-time job which I love but the amount of hours I work per month isn't really enough to keep me monied up.

So my questions now are: is there market for commercial music in the AGS scene? Are there any developers who would pay for soundtracks for their games? I see a lot of commercial games coming out of the community nowadays and it's very cool to see, so I suppose there has to be some market for music as well.

I would perhaps need some pointers from composers who have gone commercial, mainly about how much to ask for the music and such (if it's not a Great Secret). I will also try to get some samples of music I have composed in the past online (as in, got to get my portfolio back up, note to self...) so people can hear what I'm capable of. This feels like something I could pull off, so why not give it a go!

Thanks for the answers in advance!

[RULES]

Welcome, this is the second round of the fortnightly writing competition.

This time we're going to try something different. Each participant has to write a story inspired by a tune composed by yours truly, download MP3 or OGG. Simply listen to the tune and shape whatever feelings it evokes in you into a story.

RULES
- Write a story of around 300 - 400 words.
- Post your story or a link to it in this thread, all the entries have to be in by June 9th.
- Voting will take place on June 10th - 11th.
- The winner gets to host the next competition.
- Top three entries will get a pixel trophy!

TROPHIES
      

Ready, set, go! And remember, HAVE FUN.

They say that the future of music business is on the internet. While that may well be true, I'm not excited about it at all. I don't pay to download music because I want to have the physical cd/lp/whatever in my hands, admire all the neat cover artwork, read the lyrics and possible additional info from the booklet etc. I also haven't pirated music in ages because I want to support all the good musicians for their hard work.

However, earlier today I decided to buy a bunch of songs by a certain band from the internet. I could have bought all their records instead, but the truth is that, having heard the albums before, I have only enjoyed about half of the songs on them. So I thought I'd pick only the good songs and make a compilation cd of those myself.

After browsing through several internet music stores I came across a place that had all of their albums for sale/download. Unfortunately, that place had their own system that requires customers to download an iTunes-type program through which the music is purchased. After paying for the music, the customers can burn the songs on a cd or transfer them onto an mp3 player. But they also have to use the program to listen to the tracks they've purchased. You don't get actual MP3 or WMA files, all the music you've paid for is only accessible through the program. I thought the system was ridiculous, but decided to go for it because there indeed seemed to be the option to burn the songs on a cd.

Well, that didn't work, the burning process just froze right at the beginning and I had to force my cd drive open to get the cd out. I sent an angry email to the store in frustration after having tried to burn the cd several times without success. If they come up with a solution then everything is fine and I'm happy when I get my music on a cd. But if nothing can be done, I'm left with either recording the tracks from the store's own player and saving them as MP3s or downloading the songs from illegal websites. Because technically that wouldn't be illegal as I've paid for the tracks already... right?

What do you guys think of such means to sell music and do you think it's the way to go? Personally, I'll stick to buying cds as I'm such an old fashioned crazy old geezer!

I've been working on my first big project involving php lately. It's a website for a band and they wanted the site to be easily updated by themselves, so update system written in php was a natural choice. I've had pretty much everything else nailed down now, but I'm having problems with the image gallery page. I'm desperate enough to post about this on the AGS forums because it seems I can't get help anywhere else.

Basically, it's going to be quite a simple system. The band uploads the images in a directory via ftp. The page then goes through all the subdirectories under given root directory, prints all the names of subdirectories on the page and then displays the images from the directories under the names.

I posted about it on the php freaks forum, but didn't really get any useful help. The thread can be found at http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php/topic,183582.msg822546.html#msg822546

The deadline is tomorrow... please, I really need help.

I just got back home from the first ever traditional Finnish AGS meeting. It was hell lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, though the mosquitos and horseflies were quite annoying. The weather was ace during the whole meeting, and we did all kind of cool stuff.

The attendees were: Haddas, Inkoddi, Ishmael, JetXL, Pablo,  Petteri, Stickieee, Tuomas and visy. Some of us also met Azash briefly the other day, and Haddas' sister Fanny kept us company on several occasions.

I've got hell lot of photos, video and 18 pages of Lapaset diary and it all needs sorting out before uploading, so stay tuned!1 For now, here's a photo to give you a general image of the happenings:



Pablo and Ishmael are still at Haddas', but I hope everyone is getting safely home. Especially Inkoddi, whose travel plan gave us gray hair last night.

Hallo.

I'm trying to convert some midis to OGGs using VSTs and soundfonts, however, I've ran into some problems.

I'm using FL Studio 5 and basically the process goes like this: open up a midi, add Edirol Orchestral VST, assign correct instruments to midi channels. Sounds easy enough? Well, it has worked fine before, until now.

I've got some midis that aren't made by me, but The Scorposer. I assigned the Orchestral VST instruments to match the original instruments in the midi and thought I'd listen to how the track sounds. Well, it sounded all wrong. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I noticed that the Orchestral VST instruments had changed. For example, channel three was supposed to have marimba in it, but it kept changing to timpani roll. Cello section became viola spiccatos, classical trumpet became tuba staccato etc. etc. Some of the instruments remained unchanged, though.

I have no idea what is going on. Perhaps the midi has some weird settings that change the instruments. Anyone have any idea how to make the VST instruments remain unchanged?

I don't know if FL Studio has something to do it, but it lacks some quite useful features. For example, pitch bends are nearly impossible to do it when making midis. Perhaps I should finally switch over to some other composing program?

Any help helps! Ta.

Hello, I'm editing a video.

Except that I haven't got started yet because Adobe Premiere Pro doesn't behave. I have a bunch of videos that I converted to XviD-format because otherwise I would have ran out of harddrive space. Premiere doesn't seem to like XviDs though. Everything else works fine except the preview image and just imagine how hard it is to try and edit a video if the preview doesn't work. Even sound works ok.

I would use uncompressed AVIs, but my harddrive space is limited. I tried some other formats too, but encountered the same problem. And converting to some formats took way too long even if the file size would have been okay (I'm using VirtualDub to convert, by the way).

So I'm stumped now. Converting ~300 video clips to XviD took a while and that was the fastest format to convert to. Video and sound quality were fine and would have suited my needs very well, but damn Premiere just had to mess it all up.

Please help me, my life may depend on it.

I went to a local second hand store and saw a video tape that turned out to be none other than 'The Wizard', the classic movie about a kid who rocks at video games. I was about to buy it, it was ridiculously cheap and seemed to be in good condition, but would it be worth anything? I've seen the movie and to be frank it sucks balls (except for the gameplay parts of various games) but it hasn't been released on a dvd and I have never seen it being sold anywhere else. Should I go back and buy it? I doubt anyone has bought it yet.

Every now and then I have seen some old video games turn up, like a boxed copy of Under a Killing Moon (I still regret not buying it) and some boxed NES games. What old stuff (other stuff than games, too) you have purchased? Any real treasures one should keep an eye in case it turns up somewhere?

I drew sprites based on some of my friends (myself included).




Dunno if I'm ever going to use them, but I thought you might want to express your opinion. Some of them turned out quite well and are quite recognizable, some of them not so much.

EDIT: Heads are meant to be too big compared to the rest of the body.

Hello.

I would really have use for neat soundfonts and/or VST instrument packs, but the problem is that I can't find what I need. This tune I have (midi) uses for example the following instruments that I don't have:

- Banjo
- Fiddle
- Honky-tonk piano
- Blown bottle
- Whistle
- Distortion guitar

Any idea where I could find some of those? Commercial or non-commercial stuff, everything is welcome.

Cheerios.

Here's a character. Before everyone attacks me for stealing it, I'll just mention that I used the guy from Automation as a reference for proportions and stuff, it's not just a paintover/traceover, okay?

Now here are things I'd like some comments on.
- The colours. He is supposed to wear futuristic clothes. Does it look like he does, though? Actually, I'd rather go for... more washed out colours/less saturated colours, but I didn't succeed. Paintovers are welcome.
- Shading. On the shirt, mainly, but overall. Is it any good?
- Anything else you might spot.

Thanks.

[a game about pirates, set in the 17th century, so basically what he wants is a piratey soundtrack.]

Theme of the week: Pirates!

Imagine you agreed to make a soundtrack for someone's game. Turns out the someone was making a game about pirates, set in the 17th century, so basically what he wants is a piratey soundtrack.

Your task is to make either:
- main theme for the game.
- caribbeanish background tune.

For inspiration/examples, you could listen to the Monkey Island soundtrack, especially the music in CMI and EMI is what I'm after. You can listen to it here. Another tune I absolutely love can be found in Apprentice 2 when you go to the docks.

So basically what I'm looking for is the feel of the tune. I want it to feel piratey/caribbeanish, but also keep in mind that the game takes place in the 17th century. But if YOU feel this electric guitar or slap bass suits the tune very well, go for it! The main point of this compo is to have fun and improve your skills.

Post the link to your entry here, the entry must be mp3, ogg, midi, sid or module (ie. xm, it, mod etc.)

Have fun! I'm looking forward to your entries!

Hello.

Christmas is coming. Every morning (and afternoon) of Christmas Eve various Christmas shows are shown (at least here in Finland) but it seems the same cartoons get repeated every Christmas. So I was wondering, what are some of your favourite Christmas shows?

My list includes:
- The Snowman (pure classic, Christmas is not Christmas without this one)
- From all of us to all of you (another classic, especially I love the part with Donald wrapping presents!)
- A Garfield Christmas Special
- A Charlie Brown Christmas/Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown! (actually, I just saw this recently. But I have read the book so many times. Rocks. \,,/)
- Mickey's Christmas carol (I remember getting this one for Christmas when I was about six years old. I love it)
- The Small One (aww)

Anything you would add? Some "must see"s? Tell me!

Cheers.

7:45. My clock radio starts blasting popular music, as usual. I set it off and decide to lay on my bed for a brief moment. I'd get up in ten minutes on my own because that's how it has been every morning.

No.

8:39. I wake up. Panic! I'm supposed to be at work in 21 minutes! I have to be there in time to catch the morning meeting! And by this time I'm usually already leaving off to work! What do I do now?

I sit on my bed for a moment, pondering what to do. I could call my boss and tell her I'll be late. Nah, forget it. I'll get up and change clothes as fast as I can. Breakfast! I pour myself a bowl of Cheerios and a glass of orange juice and have my breakfast faster than ever. I proceed to brush my teeth on double speed. Not bad! Now just to get my bag and off to work!

Wait, I'll be needing some lunch. I'm supposed to have some chicken and rice with some salad, leftovers from yesterday. Duh! Mum hasn't prepared my lunch! So I grab a microwave pizza and a banana and stuff them into my bag.

Scarf, check. Coat, check. Shoes, check. Hat, check. Mittens, check. I take my bicycle and start cycling to work so fast that I would make pretty good opponent to Farlander. Woah, better be careful, it's quite slippery outside. The way to work is 1/3 hills going up, 1/3 hills going down and 1/3 something in between.

9:05. I arrive to work. Phew, the meeting hasn't even started properly yet. I take my seat and sit down, sweating like crazy.

How was your morning?

[Tune contest]

Tune contest
2nd of November - 9th of November

Theme
Superheroes/-heroines

Rules
- Make a tune for a new kind of superhero.
- Tune must somehow represent the superhero/-heroine. For example, if your hero is Jumpman, the tune would have some sort of *bouncy bouncy* sounds in it etc. Get it?
- As long or as short as you want.
- Any file format.

Example
Supahero.

So uhm, I have a silly problem.

Some time ago I happened to copy ACDOS.EXE on my desktop. It came with an old version of AGS, from back in 2001, I think. Now I can't get rid of it! Windows XP claims that some process is using it, but I can't see what could it be. I've tried booting the computer in safe mode and deleting the file in there, but no luck.

It's nothing really serious, just a bit annoying because I'd like to clean my desktop a bit.

Or maybe it was CJ's experimental version of AGS that cannot be deleted once it's installed!

... http://www.theadvantageband.com/

NEW "ELF TITLED" RECORD GOT LOST IN THE INTERNET AND SO IT IS BEING PUSHED BACK TO JANUARY!!!!
SORRRY!! WE HATE INTERNET

Nooooo! The album was four days from being released, and now they pushed it back! I hate you, internet!

Edit: The Advantage is an awesome Nintendo cover band.

[Touch in paranormal!]

What is a Photoshop Phriday?

At this point everyone should know already, but here goes, once again.

Photoshopping isn't drawing a completely new image -- It's editing images to create a new image, such as editing one image or combining several images. The contest usually lasts for a fortnight. Also, you don't have to specifically use Photoshop -- Paint Shop Pro, MSPaint, or any other programs can be used. Please make sure your image doesn't exceed the width of the screen.

See this link:
http://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop/

And for other examples, see here:
http://www.worth1000.com/

-------------------------------------

This week: Touch in paranormal!

UFOs, aliens, ghosts, living skeletons, adventure gamers... whatever comes to your mind when you see the word 'paranormal'. Internet is full of hoaxes like this, so let's make some more! So, your job is simply to photoshop an image so that it include paranormal activity.

Examples:
- Aliens visiting Mittens!
- Your favourite game including something that wasn't there before!
- !

Actually, we got to witness paranormal activity at Mittens:

Helm shows off his skills and levitates a blue cup! This is the original photo, Grundislav just photoshopped that cup out before uploading his photo gallery.

PS. Cheers, Guybrush Peepwood!

Hello.

I've gotten myself a neat interface including transparent GUI that follows the mouse cursor and displays hotspot's name on it. I managed to make it so that the GUI doesn't go off the screen, when the hotspot is close to the screen edge, by using simple code as if(gOverhotspot.X>219) blah de blah. But I was wondering if there is a way to restrict the GUI from going off the screen according the hotspot's name's width?

I was thinking something like:

Code: ags

int width = GetTextWidth(*Get the width of the text on label x here?*)

if(gOverhotspot.X>(320-width)) {
  gOverhotspot.X=(320-width);
}

Obviously the code isn't exactly correct, but is it possible to do that way? I am not exactly sure how to get the width of the text on label x...

Cheers.

Hello.

We've been having a bit of discussion about this in #ags and I thought I'd ask here as well.

So yeah, we're planning to have a day trip to Särkänniemi amusement park, probably some time before 14th of August, mainly because Särkänniemi closes some of the attractions and rides on 15th (and I'm leaving to Mittens on 14th...). Would anyone else be up for this?

The interested ones so far:
- Petteri
- Ishmael
- Pablo

For more info, http://www.sarkanniemi.fi

(NOTE! This is still just an idea. I don't want to spend too much cash on this because I'm going to Mittens, so if I have no other choice but to use public transportation to get to Tampere, I might have to pass this. But we'll see...)