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I got a character that had gone through an endless parade of designs, redesigns, names, renames and endless sketches and story edits before even considering it finished (maybe). Actually I have tons of characters that is constantly getting changed.

Thinking about this I was wonder how many other people have characters that goes through a million (or more) changes before settling for a "final" design for a game/comic/story/project?

I am an hobbist animator and I love how they had done all of the special animation in Curse of Monkey Island and heard somewhere on this form that to create those frames the artists made a black outline around each cell/frame so it can be used in game, is this true?

I was curious if it is possible to set up an object to animate while the screen scroll (I.E. Animate on Loop X, frame X if screen is scrolling X 5.)

Thanks for the help.

P.S. I am not telling what it's for except for the most technical aspects, it's a secret...

Ah, the air is getting cooler, day is shorter, leaves are changing colors and all of that poetic fall garbage talk and that means one thing.

Time for ghosts.

And being September also usually means it is time for the Hungry Ghost festival at my house, which food is put out and hell money is burned and departed family (and friends) are welcomed in. And in honor of this time and everything else to do with spooks (obon, all hollow's eve, day of the dead and the fore mentioned Hungry Ghost Festival) I will share a game, a test really, of courage.

A word of warning though, this can get dangerous so make sure to have A) your friends nearby in case something happens, )B leave your windows and doors shut and C) leave some like a radio or tv on.

Things you need: A doll, any thing with movable limbs will work, a lot of rice, hair clippings, finger nail clippings, red string, a cup of salt water (full), a sharp object like a knife or a scissors, an area blessed (religion of choice) and a tub full of water.

First thing you do is hollow out a doll and replace the insides with rice, place hair and clippings inside and stitch it up with the red string then bind the body up with more red string, place the doll in the tub filled with water and say "I'm it" over and over then go to your blessed area of the house and wait a few minutes before coming back and cut the string that binds the doll and tell it that it's it (say that five times fast) then go back to your hiding spot.

To end the game, and you have to do this, you must take the glass of salt water and place half of the glass in your mouth then find the doll. When you do spit on the doll with the water, then pour the rest of the glass on it while saying "I won", repeat saying it over and over (usually it is three times but keep going to be safe) then destroy the doll by burning it.

And if you want, or need, to know where the doll is just turn on a tv or radio, for some reason it tends to screw with the signal.

Well, that is basically all I really want to say. If anyone has a comment, or their own courage game/test/challenge for the coming ghost season (fall) just go ahead and post.

In an counterculture action I was wondering what makes a bad, or downright awful, adventure game.

For me, it has ANYTHING, I do mean ANYTHING, to do with sliding things like puzzle boxes and plates. In example:

Spoiler

While not an adventure game in Resident Evil 4 when you take the role of Ashley you have to solve a sliding puzzle that drove me insane and only solved it by random chance and a walkthrough. But I did tough that one out because I am a RE whore.

But another game I had just gave up on was Murder on the orient express, getting stuck on the crime scene I ran to the walkthrough I found out that there would be a difficult puzzle box AFTER I solved it to gain an important item. After that I had just gave it up, uninstall the game and toss the thing aside.

[close]

And that is what makes a bad game for me.

This is for an unusual came I am cooking up and when I had tried to compile the test room I get an error saying that the display code is wrong, there is there anything I am doing wrong?

And as an extra note I wanted this code to become active as soon as the character enters the room, is there a way to do so with having to click anything?



// room script file
function hHotspot1_Any_Click;
Display ("You are walking in the middle of the forest when a monster pops up.");
Display ("Press A to fight. Press B to flee. Press C to Hump.");
if (presskey(a)){
  Display("Grabbing a stick you fend off the monster until it gives up and leaves.");
if (presskey(b)){
  Display ("While running away the monster eats your head, sucks to be you.");
If (presskey(c)){
  Display("You sick bastard, the police is called and you are arrested for the attempted assualt on a monster.");
function hHotspot1_AnyClick()
{

}

This is my main monkey girl, I wanted to shade her but was unsure of how to do so, because every time I shade something it turns out too, icky or dull. What I am looking for is basically tips on how to shade her without looking too funky.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. If you have any other things to add to make her look better (without changing her core design) it will be welcomed.

How does one start a topic like this? Well, here it goes. Since before I had started with AGS, which was almost five, or six years ago, I started off as a fanfiction "writer" and tried my best to bring most of my favorite characters to the adventure genre like I did with the so-called written form.

Which ended with failure, horrible and very nasty failure.

After that, a few hundred bad start ups and many annoying ideas C&C I had learned something odd. A taboo within all forms of Fan "writing", almost a sin in and of itself, creating an original character. It was new, dangerous and fun yet I was left out in the rain when it came to this. I only knew how to follow a very rigid set of rules set by what many call a camera, I think.

The challenge was fun but a little tiring on setting on a single concept, I grew tired on looking up writing tips on the net because they all have this problem with this hillbilly girl named Peg, or Jane-Lue or something. While I realize that the same writing tips apply to games, just like anything else, I had realized there is a balance to preserve, at least for the gamers.

On one hand, the character must be interesting and have something to relate to but on the other they must have something that the game can use, a skill like strength, detective skill, stupid luck or something that can be used in a game. Something that could be potentally over powering in any other media works here, and only here

My topic is a question, how does one strike the balance for gameplay while keeping a character from being so annoying/boring that the player will stop playing?

Sorry if it seems disconnected, but I tried my best to keep it all on topic. And thanks in advance for reading.

Okay, there is one big problem I have with all of my walkcycles and I bet a lot of other people here does too. Timing those arm swings.

I had figured out the legs, which is easy for me, but I have troubles on making the arms swing in time with the movements. Each time I tried, the arms were horribly out of sync and no matter how I try they always seems to fall too far ahead than "snaps" to the center or goes to far back and mysteriously goes to the center.

Does anyone has any tips or methods of remedy this sort of problem?

Hi, I was wondering how can create a "working" 20 sided die that is completely random.

Okay, the scene is a basement of a very twisted mad scientist. The character walks down the stairs to discover the blood on the floor leading into the drainage system and a tray of medical tools plus a door with no handle.



The biggest problems I have is figuring out perspectives and the lighting, any advice on that sort of stuff is greatly apprachated(sp?).

And any advice on how to make it more, scary/mysterious is welcomed.

In 1981 a German company called Senneslochen had near secretly release a game into the local portland area, some in bars while other in backwater arcades. The game was suppose to be so popular it nearly caused local coin shortages in the area, but afterwards players would act strange, some swearing off games (and some becoming anti-game activist), have nightmares, vomit, become enraged and some times even die, both from mysterious causes and suicide.

This game, was called Polybius.

And it is all a bunch of bull, a supposed hoax that was created by a member of usernet that took off like wild fire and changed into an urban legend. Many people have claimed to have played this game, but no proof of this game exist.

Until now.

A young collector, about fifteen or sixteen years old, had just bought his first arcade machine from a private seller for five bucks just to practice fixing arcade games. After getting it home he gets to work, which his mother kind of thinks is fruitless. A few weeks pass, the young collector was found dead in this room without any cause of death; he was healthy, there was no signs of suicide and his window and door were locked.

You come in after his funeral, arriving with your other child you begin to try drink yourself to death, wondering into the garage where the hunk of juke sits. In anger you blame it, curse it then kick it when you heard someone scream, checking the house you think it was in your head until you see someone, or something, hiding by the window.

It just gets stranger from there.

That is the game idea, it is you, a grieving mother, verses an freaking obscure entity of an arcade game that seems to be bending reality all around you.

I plan on a short game, just one mid-size house with some alternate pockets of universe and a few characters.

P.S. the urban legend is "real", just look up the name on wikipedia to find it.

Basically the question is how many frames is enough for simple things like walking, taking things, talk, ect. and when it is too much?

Personally speaking I try to have a "high-frame rate" which I try for at least twelve frames per second for slow animations (walking and grabbing things) and about five-eight (sometimes even four) frames for fast frames. Anything after that I just get kind of bog down, I could aim for sixteen some times but I get tired and distracted easily (hey, a duck).

On the other end I also believe that anything going over 30 fps is kind of a waste, and maybe a little insane and going over 60 is utterly out of one's mind.

That is all I really got to say, what's your opinion?

Out of pure curiousity since I read a lot about AGS' limits I was wondering what about Multi-scrolling.

I know that there is a plug in for parallax but I know nothing else.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d68/ginanubismon/Test.gif

(In case the image does not work.)

What I like:

- His feet.

- The bishonen/feminine/Boy's love design.

What I am on the fence about:

- The fur "collar", I wanted to draw him with a fur collar for "cuteness" but it turned out "meh".

- The jeans, iffy about those ripped cuffs.

- The hips, I wanted girlly and narrow hips as a joke but I never wanted them to be THAT narrow.

What I dislike:

- The Dorthy Hamel hair cut.

- The hand paws, I wanted thick but cute yet I get this.

- The tail and ears, at first I thought it would look good but in the end I hated who it turned out.

General notes:

I'm going to change the animal design from fox to bunny because it might be easier to animate and might make some sense in some puzzles (such as long/high jumps).

Technique for creation:

Original design sketch I used number 2 pencils and a lot of papers, during the last copy I switched to a mechanical pencil (.07 MM) and then scanned in at 150 DPI in greyscale then in MSP I reduced it further to one setting just before monocrome (makes it easier to shrink down then "trace" around.)

What am I looking for:

How to make the next design better, and any art tips would help greatly.

We have touched on the subject of adventure game puzzles many, many times before now I must bring up another thing I believe to be another curcial - Spelling? - part of the point and click community, the arrow icon.

I thought of this while trying to decide on what kind of interface I should have, which I am still trying to settle on but that is for later, and the thought of that the wong icon would and could break my game's atmosphere.

On one hand I could have a shifting arrow, when it rolls over an hotspot or person it would change to a shape and the player just click it, what's annoying is the lack of choices for the player to interact with the surround but I kind of love the whole streamline thing so I can focus on the puzzles, gameplay and story.

Yet on the other hand there is the standard look/grab/item arrow that is used a lot, they are great if used right, it can bring the player further into the whole game (and story even) but if the icon does not quite matches the atmosphere it may distrupt and even ruin the whole game like a bad, out of place puzzle.

What it comes down to in the end is the how and where.

Sorry for the rambling and if it did not make scene, I wanted to discuss the topic and really do not have much of an idea to bring up a classic part of the Adventure games.

I am trying to figure out how to create a Full motion video by using objects as a "screen", I hope to string together one object to another to create the illusion of an animated FMV.

Problem is I cannot figure out if it is possible to begin one object and have it animate until the end then when it ends to go to the next object without a break between the objects such as the first object reverting back to first frame or a blank room.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Here's the problem; you are a ten year old trying to get an important book on occultism but you cannot get it out of the library for futher study (it is a very thick book) and the head librarian is pretty stern on the rules and won't let you take it out.

The goal: Getting the head librarian away from the desk and allowing the inexperinced librarian to check you out with a swapped card to avoid getting caught and walk out with a book.

The hard fact: The card swap (taking a book from the child's library and taking the card out then placing it into the occult book and fulling both the computer and the new librarian.)

The solutions to "puzzle": One must get the head librarian away and make the inexperinced one take her place, thus "distracting" her.

There is two ways I wanted to do this, one is to go into the computer lab and "break" one of the computers ether by crashing it or unplugging it. Then getting the head librarian to take a look.

Another is using a cell phone, hiding it among some books then going to a payphone outside then "calling" it to annoy the head librarian, then go back in to find the inexperinced librarian in charge. Thus allowing you to get the book and check it out freely then leave with the book.

The real problem: Making it seem logical and not too out of place (despite the main character being a ten year old), the head librarian is a bitter and mean - ergo won't tell you quat unless you break a rule - and the inexperince librarian does not talk much about herself.

I am trying to think of ways to point out these hints without taking a stale Frenchbread and hitting people over the head but not to obscure that only me and a walkthrough to figure it out.

Does anyone has any suggestions to help out?

(NOTE: While writing this I am thinking of using both solutions for the "goal".)

I was wondering if anyone had ever used AGS to make or even attempt creating a FMV game before?

(NOTE: I put this question under general because technetically(SP?) it is now about adventure gaming.)

I had just gotten my own mircophone and I was wondering what is a good free recording program (or at least a program with a trail period).

Thank you.