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Okay, so I've luckily got another bout of inspiration to work on my game, and have returned to it. Thing is, some of the backgrounds look pretty, well, bad. I've been trying to update them to look slightly better, while still retaining their simplistic style, but I've been having a lot of trouble. Especially with this background:



For style comparison, here's one of the completed backgrounds that I'm proud of:



Now for the outside of the school (Which will only be seen in cutscenes), I know I need to do something with the grass and tree. The flag will be animated (And probably redrawn too), and I need to make the sky les... Plain. Any help with any of these would be appreciated, as I'm completely stuck now.

Okay, so what I'm trying to do is code a Save-Game GUI. I want it so that when the player selects a save game from the listbox to overwrite it, it automatically fills in the textbox with the name of that saved game. I've put this command in:

Code: ags

ListBoxGetItemText (5, 4,  ListBoxGetSelected (5, 4),  savbuf);

Where 5 is the Save Gui, and 4 is the Listbox. So now, the name of the selected game is in the string "savbuf". Is there anyway now, to get the textbox to display that string? I've tried the SetTextBoxText function, but it only seems to want to input specific text, and not recall a string.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

I'm posting this in Gen-Gen because while the game is very adventure like, it's probably different enough to not be classified as an adventure by everyone.

So the game I'm talking about is Capcom's new Survival Horror game "Haunting Ground" for PS2. I just picked this up on Friday, and I'm about 6 hours into it, and I must say, it's amazing.

Unlike the Resident Evil (Biohazard) games, Haunting Ground is true survival horror. You play as a young college student named Fiona, and she's the typical horror movie Damsel in Distress. She doesn't have a gun, she isn't super strong, so basicaly any attempt to atack something chasing you will result in your death.

She does, however, have one powerful way to defend herself, and his name is Hewie. Hewie is a dog you befriend early on, and besides helping you solve puzzles, he can attack Fiona's enemies, allowing Fiona valuable time to escape.

And escape is the main plot of the game. You have to escape this castle you're stuck in. If you're being chased, there are tons of hiding spots around the castle. But if you use one over and over, the person chasing you will catch on.

There's no health bar in the game. No stamina bar. You instead, have to figure out how tired and hurt Fiona or Hewie is by their actions. For example if you're running slowly, clutching your side, that'd be a good indication you need to rest. If Fiona gets too paniced, her vision becomes inpaired, and she starts to trip if running too long.

The game, besides it's emphasis on action, has a lot of adventure game elements in it. It reminds me a lot of Sierra's old games, because of the constant fear of death. In paricular, the running part reminds me of "The Dagger of Amon Ra". There's also a few times that you'll die automatically by not doing something correctly. However, there are usually save points right before these moments, plus there are many warnings if you're observant, and Hewie usually will alert you (By barking) of danger.

Speaking of being observant, almost everything in the castle can be examined by Fiona, who describes and gives her thoughts. It really adds a lot of atmosphere, something lacking even from a lot of "pure" adventure games these days. You really get enthralled in the game, and feel the need to escape from the castle.

And since you're so attached to Fiona due to the game's great atmosphere, you tend to get scared like Fiona too. Walking around the castle is just always frightening, and that moment where suddenly you hear two pars of footsteps (And dog footsteps) instead of one, you start freaking. Hewie starts growling, and out of a doorway pops one of the inhabitants of the castle. It's not cheap scares like the Resident Evil games (Ooooh, dog jumps through window. Didn't see THAT one coming!), but instead it's true fear. You just do not want to get caught (Even when you know you just saved 5 minutes ago).

The puzzles, of course, are not very muhc more sophistcated than your run of the mill "This door is locked" and "Push the boxes" puzzles. Though having Hewie adds a new level. Some things can only be reached by him, and you'll have to make sure Hewie likes you enough to do what you ask. You can praise and scold him, even play fetch. It's quite neat.

I know graphics aren't really the a big part of how much enjoyment is taken from a game, but this is one of the best looking PS2 games I've ever played. The chaacter models are truly great, and the animation are very fluid and lifelike. It just adds that much more to the game experience when Hewie just stops for a second, wags his head a bit, scratches himself, and continues on.

Anyway, I'll stop brown-nosing up to Capcom now, but let me just say that this game is really good. I would recommend it to any fan of adventures or survival horrors. Just remember to play it in the dark.

Okay, so here's the thing. My girlfriend live an entire province away, and so this makes Valentine's Day hard. So we're both trying frantically to come up with original gift ideas that are both romantic and funny.

I've already got her best friend delivering roses and a note from me to her tomorrow, and I've recorded a song for her that I'm going to send her tomorrow. But I still didn't think it was enough. So I've created a webpage which has articles which describe how much I love her, and cute little sprites of myself being wacky.

The thing is, I have no place to host it.

So I as wondering if you guys could help me... I know there's a topic that lists possible ideas for free webspace, but most of them are just geared towards being able to host a game for download.

What I need is a free webhosting site that has no banners, and is fairly reliable. I don't need much space, considering the webpage is only HTML and small GIFs (Probably 2-5 MBs total). I also don't need a huge amount of bandwidth or anything, just someplace that will allow me to upload all the files easily, and not have ads/banners/popups.

Oh, and I need this before tomorrow. Can anyone help me?

[What is the Photoshoppin' Contest?]

Sorry about the delay!

What is the Photoshoppin' Contest?

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

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

The two above websites should give a fair idea of what is involved. Also you can check out the earlier Photoshop contests in this forum.

Note: 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.

Also, you don't have to specifically use Photoshop -- Paint Shop Pro, Gimp or any other ~equally good programs can be used.

This fortnight's topic!!
Video Game Board Games!

Inspired partly by the plethora of Board Game photoshops on SomethingAwful.com, I've decided that the topic of this Photoshop shall be board games! The goal is to convert the video game of your choice into a semi-plausible board game.

Example: The Game of Death You and your friends play through the game board as different coloured Manny Caleveras on a four year journey! Be the first to reach the end of the afterlife to win!

NOTE: The games in this photoshop don't specifically have to be adventure games, but considering this is an adventure game board... But don't think you can't submit "Monopoly: City 17 edition" or something.

Okay, so I'm completely screwed now. See, everytime I run an AGS Game, it locks up my computer, causing me to restart. What happens, is when an AGS Game runs normally, in the taskbar, the icon for it pops up with the title "Adventure Game Studio". Then, after a second or so, the name of the game replaces Adventure Game Studio, then the game begins (Full-screen).

But now, whenever I try to run a game, the "Adventure Game Studio" icon appears in the taskbar, but it never changes to the game's name. I try clicking on it, or closeing it, but it doesn't work. Then, when I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and tell Windows to End Task, the computer completely freezes up.

Has anyone ever had this problem? It's becoming really annoying! I can't play any new games, such as Ben Jordan 3, I can't play my own game, etc... I'm running Windows 98 Second Edition, just in case that's relevant. Any help would be much appriciated!

Calling all musicians... What program do you use for Midi to OGG conversions? I've tried alot of things, but still haven't gotten a perfect conversion yet. Is there any secret to it? Any help would be much appriciated.

So, being June 28th, it's election time in Canada! I'm just wondering (Because I'm a nosy little bastard  ) if there's any Canadians besides me out there, and who you voted for.

I'm only 17 (Turned it today actually), so I can't vote for another year, but I was able to convince my parents to vote NDP, as they are the lesser of three evils (Liberal, NDP and conservative) in my opinion.

Okay, I've been working on another background for my game, and I need some help.



Here's the background as it is. Thing is, I don't know how to make the water look more... Water like, without sacrificing the cartoony/simplistic style I'm going for. I've tried a few things, but they haven't worked out. Can anyone help me?

Okay, I've been working at this for two hours to no avail... I was hoping someone could help me. I've been trying to make a custom Save/Load GUI for my game, and I'm completely stuck. I'm *TRYING* to follow the tutorial at GAC (http://atticwindow.adventuredevelopers.com/tutorials.php?id=1), and here's my Global Script:

  if (interface == 4) {
    CentreGUI (4);
    GUIOn (4);
      if (button==3) {
      GUIOff (4);}
        else { index=ListBoxGetSelected(4,0);
        RestoreGameSlot(savegameindex[index]);}
      
  if (interface == 5) {
    CentreGUI (5);
    GUIOn (5);
      if (button==2) { 
      GUIOff (5);}
      if (button==3) {
        index=ListBoxGetNumItems (5, 4);
        if (index<20) {
          GetTextBoxText (5, 1,text);
          GUIOff (5);
          SaveGameSlot (index+1,text);}
        else {
          index=ListBoxGetSelected (5, 4);
          GetTextBoxText (5, 1,text);
          GUIOff (5);
          SaveGameSlot(savegameindex[index],text); } 
       }

The two GUIs in question are set up like this:
  GUI No. 4 (Restore box):
    -Object 0: List Box
    -Object 1: Label
    -Object 2: Button (Restore)
    -Object 3: Button (Cancel)

  GUI No. 5 (Save box):
    -Object 0: Label
    -Object 1: Text Box
    -Object 2: Button (Cancel)
    -Object 3: Button (Save)
    -Object 4: List Box

Now here's what's not working. The GUIs pop up fine, but nothing works with them except the Cancel button on the Restore GUI (GUI 4). Not even the Cancel button on the Save GUI works!! Can someone PLEASE help?!?

I just finished this animation and I was wondering if I could get some C&C on it. 'Took me quite a while, and anything you could suggest would be greatly appriciated.



Whoops, just noticed that her body scrunches together in one frame, and a horrible shading error by her tail in another. Besides THOSE, any suggestions?

Just finished the Battle theme for "Quest for Infamy" and I was wondering if I could get some crit on it.

http://www.ssonicnet.com/lobt/battle.mid

Note: The song is designed to be looped, so the ending may sound a bit weird, but it sounds very neat when it loops back to the beginning.

Just thought you might be interested in the Infamous Adventurer's new website, that just opened a few days ago. IA is currently working on "Quest for Infamy", a darker, though still serious (No QFG 4.5) adventure that takes place in the valley of Speilburg 20 years after it was visited by the hero.

If any of the above text interested you, please drop by and take a look around. And check out our new forums, we're getting new people registering all the time, and it looks like it's going to be a fun place to be in the near future.

The link to the website is http://infamous.iconrate.net/
And the forums are at: http://www.infamous.iconrate.net/forums/

Hope to see you there!

Just thought I'd try to gain some more interest in a project I'm working on with an excellent team... Quest for Infamy: So you want to be a Villian?

Here's some sprites I've completed for the intro, though some of them are not done yet. I've really been trying to capture the feel of the old Sierra games, especially Quest for Glory 1 VGA, as Quest for Infamy is a spinoff of it. What do you think?




Look, a walking animation! Note, this sprite is not yet completed.






Note, Frank is leaning against a wall in the intro. It looks good against the background.


Note, I'm still tweaking this one a bit...



All the sprites, with the exception of Lurg, are done in the positions they are in idly in the opening. So sprites facing away from you ARE supposed to be like that  

[shaless plug]Also, our team is looking for a background artist/dialog picture artist for the game. Experise in Sierra style would be much appriciated! Email me at btails*NOSPAM*@shaw.ca (Remove *NOSPAM*) for access to out ezBoard, where you can see even more sprites, plot outlines, and even a tech demo, with stats and battle system implimented![/shamless plug]

Whoah, where did THAT come from?

Okay, now this is the problem...

I'm having trouble with sound while PLAYING AGS games. I've noticed ALOT of games have had crackling sounds during midi music, and the voices/soundeffects have been WAY louder than the music. They too, crackle horrendously.

At first, it only seemed to happen in some games. Games like AGDI's two KQ remakes, Pleurghburg, etc... All workerd perfectly. But I just finished downloading the ISO of Adv. of Fatman, and the music is crackling like crazy, and the voices are even worse.

Now I know with the quality of this game, they wouldn't release it in this state. What can I do to fix this problem? My soundcard is a Sound Blaster Live Value.

I've tried messing with the options in the config, and also tried turning up the MIDI balance in my Play Control, but as soon as I close it, the MIDI balance goes back down again.

Another notes that may help to solving the problem: I'm using Windows 98 2nd edition.

Thanks in advance, I *REALLY* want to play this great game!

Okay, here's the latest tune contest! Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is:

Write a score chronicalling the adventures of these three men through the cave they are entering.



Requirments are that you use only 4 instruments of your choosing, plus any sort of percussion you wish. Size restrictments is that the song must be in any common format (Mp3, Midi, OGG etc...) but can't be more than 1.5 Mb. The more epic and moving song, the better! I'm looking forward to hearing all the entries.

Song I did for the Tune contest. I'd just like some crit because I'm new to the whole midi sequencing thing... What do you like, not like about it?

http://www.ssonicnet.com/lobt/tune.mid

I'm just learning how to use the Sierra Style dialog... But I'm having trouble swaping the potrait so it's located on the right side of the screen instead of the left. I know it has something to do with game.swap_portrait, unfortunatley I don't know how to use this command! Can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance!

Another n00bish question from the most annoying n00b on the planet!  

This is best described with an example...

Roger finds himself inside a blank room. On the floor is a triangle shape and a square shape, which he picks up. Now there's a door to get out of the room, but it's locked. Beside the door is a triangle-shaped hole. By using the triangle shape on the hole, the door is unlocked.

How do I make it so only using the triangle, and not the square, will open the door?

In other words, how to I make a puzzle solvable by using a specific inventory item on a specific place?

Thanks in advance!

As you may or may not know... I'm working on a game entitled "The Tablet of Altheria" (More info on it here)  Anyway, I'm looking for an artist to help with the title screen of the game (And perhaps dialog pictures and/or cutscenes, but not as of yet). I would prefer a sortof anime style art, but it doesn't need to be. Artist also doesn't need to colour their drawings, since I'll be able to do that myself. Full credit will be issued in the credits to the game, along with a copy of the game before it is released. If you're interested, and would like to try out, please draw a quick sketch of the main character (sprite below) and post it in this topic. Thanks in advance!


Jon Rutherford, the main character of The Tablet of Altheria.