Topics

I'm getting warnings that my password may not be secure when logging in here.

Is there a reason that the forums don't seem to be secure (at least according to firefox)?

On this page: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/ags/ -- the "Ags Resources" link is broken -- url is: http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agsresources/

Also in the Critics Lounge there is a sticky entitled: Quick Links to Forum Tutorials! and is found here: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=30939.0

The actual forum threads listed, a majority of them have images that don't seem to load anymore, and thus rendering some of those threads unusable.

A majority of those tutorials and links are broken, needs to be cleaned up.

I'm actually using Waterfox which is a 64-bit firefox variant, but I'm in windows 7.  Basically some threads in the forums will be perpetually loading, in other words, it will never time out.  This results in some parts of the thread pages not to finish loading.  If I use internet explorer or chrome or something, usually it results in stuff like broken image links, but in those browsers it tends to just time out.

So for example this page - https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53367.0 -- the two screen shots that are supposed to appear underneath the youtube video, won't load up in Waterfox, but it will load up fine in Chrome.

Anyone having any other problems like this?

I'm looking for content to put onto the subreddit I'm moderating at present.  I'm interested in anything that is specific to adventure game development.  For instance, backgrounds, characters, animations, writing.  Granted you can find a lot of stuff on each of these as individual subjects (for instance how to draw/paint), but not as specifically applied to adventure games themselves. 

For instance I can learn how to paint a nice fantasy scene, but doesn't mean it would make an interesting and useful background for an adventure game.  ADV games are a bit like animated cartoons.  The background with an animated cartoon has got to support the animation that's going to be displayed over said background.  So you find ways of drawing the eye to a particular location, and try not to make it too busy because it will eventually be filled. 

However, an adventure game background may require several areas where the action will take place, and will have some general animations (not specific ones, for instance in the washing scene in the animated film snow white, only half of the dwarfs bodies are animated, and the wash basin or trough is in the center.  They didn't need the area around in the background to be used so they made the background very specific to the animated scene, which might not work for an adventure game where characters may need to roam around).

Also in writing the story for an adventure game, you may want to use the 3-act structure, but not necessarily want to write the game like a complete screenplay (since a game is more dynamic and less linear).  So while I can find tutorials on screen-writing, even writing for some other types of games, I'm interested in writing specifically for adventure games.  In fact ADV games might have slightly different story requirements than, say, an action game which might only be concerned with cut-scenes).

Sound and music is similar to this.

So could anyone point me in the direction of tutorials that specifically deal with adventure game development?

The reason I posted this in here is because each of these threads are in this forum:

Technical art questions and discussions
Quick Links to Forum Tutorials!

Half of the pictures no longer exist, causes firefox to hang (and chrome just times out so they appear as broken image links).

The first link on the forum tutorials, took me to a website where it showed a windows-style blue-screen of death (it was just a web page, so nothing evil), and kept popping up a password dialog, that no matter how many times I hit cancel would continue to popup, I was forced to shut down the browser at the os level.

A lot of these tutorials just don't exist anymore, or maybe are located elsewhere.

Please update these threads, and possibly other stickies which may have suffered a similar fate, thank you!

I didn't so much come here to advertise a new subreddit, I came to ask a question in relation to it.

Basically I was looking for any ags subreddits because I wanted help, and generally just looking for some discussion.  When I came upon /r/adventuregamestudio -- there were no posts and the moderator hadn't logged in, in over 2 years.  So I figured maybe if I became the moderator I could generate some interest.

See, it's really for selfish reasons, if more people use AGS and discuss it, I can chat with a lot more people than just the few that are active on the forums.  Don't get me wrong, you guys are great, but there's only a limited amount of participation for various reasons such as, you're too busy actually making games (always a good thing), you have day jobs, you're not interested in whatever someone posts and generally may just not have any time.

When I posted about actual production processes I only got 11 replies, and about 3 of them weren't actual answers to the question.  I don't have a problem with someone not wanting to answer me, but I figure if there were more people that used AGS and then I asked a question I'd get more answers.

Okay so to bring me back to a point, I'm now moderating the sub, and I want to ask if it's okay if I link to the "finished" ags game posts in the completed game announcements forum?

More eyes on completed AGS games can only be a good thing, but I thought it might be a courtesy to ask first.

Please keep in mind, my goal is NOT to convince you guys to go over to the subreddit from here, but since the posts will automatically post to /r/all it should mean we start getting more eyeballs on AGS which potentially means we get to expand the community more.

Thanks for your time.

I know I've asked this before, but it was at least a year ago.

Basically I want to know how YOU make an adventure game.  Like what is your process like from start to finish?

To further work on my adventure game development skills, I'm considering working on both demakes and remakes, and then also original games based on already existing properties.

I would like to know what would be better/easier to START WITH, remakes or demakes?

And could you please explain why you feel one way or the other.

Would anyone mind explaining how they make their adventure games?  Do you start with characters, a plot, a mock-up?  What do you normally do to actually create your adventure games?

Please let me know because I'm interested in how everyone approaches it.

I set up a hotspot, and was trying to get it to walk there before interacting with it.  There was a problem because if I was using the walk cursor, it wouldn't interact, and the interact cursor wouldn't walk.  So I solved it by writing code in the global script that basically made the pc walk, and then process click, and it worked fine.

However when I cut the code from that hotspot and tried to put it into an object's code, it will interact directly without walking over there, and if I comment out the line ProcessClick he will walk to the position but not interact with it at all.

So basically I want it to walk to the object I clicked on, and then do the interactions.  Below is some code.

please note this is in GlobalScript.asc:

Code: AGS

function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) // called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
{	
	if (IsGamePaused() == 1) // Game is paused, so do nothing (ie. don't allow mouse click)
	{
	}
	else if (button == eMouseLeft) 
	{
		if( gPieMain01.Visible == false )
		{
			gPieMain01.SetPosition( mouse.x - (gPieMain01.Width / 2),  mouse.y - (gPieMain01.Height / 2) );
			
			if( gPieMain01.X < -44 ) gPieMain01.X = -44;
			if( gPieMain01.Y < 60 - 44 ) gPieMain01.Y = 60 - 44;
			
			if( gPieMain01.X + gPieMain01.Width - 44 > 640 ) gPieMain01.X = (640 - gPieMain01.Width) + 44;
			if( gPieMain01.Y + gPieMain01.Height - 44 > 420 ) gPieMain01.Y = (420 - gPieMain01.Height) + 44;
			
			gPieTextOverlay.X = gPieMain01.X - 64;
			gPieTextOverlay.Y = gPieMain01.Y - 64;
			
			//if( (gPieMain01.Y + gPieMain01.Height) > 420 ) gPieMain01.Y = 420 - gPieMain01.Height;

			gPieMain01.Visible = true;
			gPieTextOverlay.Visible = true;
			
			startx = gPieMain01.X + (gPieMain01.Width / 2);
			starty = gPieMain01.Y + (gPieMain01.Height / 2);
		}
		else
		{
			pieOption = subOption;
			if( mouse.x > (gPieMain01.X + 54) && mouse.x < ( (gPieMain01.X + gPieMain01.Width) - 54) )
			{
				if( mouse.y > (gPieMain01.Y + 54) && mouse.y < ( (gPieMain01.Y + gPieMain01.Height) - 54) )
				{
					pieOption = 0;
				}
			}
			
			clear_screen();
			gPieMain01.Visible = false;
			gPieTextOverlay.Visible = false;
			cEgo.Walk(mouse.x + GetViewportX(), mouse.y + GetViewportY());
			ProcessClick(startx, starty, eModeInteract);
		}
	}

}

This next code is in the room script:

Code: AGS

function hPainting_AnyClick()
{

}

function hCrystalBall_AnyClick()
{
}

function oPainting_AnyClick()
{
	if(pieOption == 0)
	{
	}
	else
	if(pieOption == 11)  // look at
	{
		if( lookAtCount == 0)
		{
			lookAtCount++;
			cEgo.Say("It's a painting of a top-down view of the room.");
		}
		else
		if( lookAtCount == 1)
		{
			lookAtCount++;
			cEgo.Say("This was taken...er..painted before a few additions,"); 
			cEgo.Say(" like the rocking chair and the giant crystal ball.");
		}
		else
		if( lookAtCount == 2)
		{
			lookAtCount++;
			cEgo.Say("So it's actually a painting of a rug!");
			cEgo.Say("I love that rug.");
			cEgo.Say("Of course this was also before the rug was moved in front of the fireplace.");
		}
		else
		{
			int randLook = Random(2);
			
			if(randLook == 0)
				cEgo.Say("You don't need me to describe it for you!");
			else
			if(randLook == 1)
				cEgo.Say("You've already seen the painting.");
			else
			if(randLook == 2)
				cEgo.Say("It's the same painting you've looked at several times before.");
		}
	}
}

The hotspot is of course hPainting, the object being oPainting.

Any ideas?

Can you make a hotspot have an animation (or view) associated with it?  Or do I need to make it an object for it to be animated?

i created some hotspots, and generated "any click" events for them in the room script but they don't seem to do anything.

I think it has either something to do with my gui's (these are only for display, as I turned off the clickable properties, and just set their visibility flags in scripts), or the cursors.  The gui is a custom gui I created that pops up whenever a user clicks anywhere (it pops up like i said in script via the visibility flag).  I'm using the walk-to cursor only right now as I'm not doing the typical user interface.  I read somewhere about setting a certain cursor to allow interaction (the interact cursor maybe?)

For the most part line drawing is working.  I made a gui that's non-clickable cover the whole screen (or at least I think it's doing that, the viewport width and height is 640x480).  I then built a dynamic sprite and then draw the line to it, and then I set the graphic of the gui to this dynamic sprite.

Not sure why this is, here is the problem -



Notice how the red line does not go all the way down to the cursor?

Here's the code:

Code: AGS

// main global script file
DynamicSprite *screen_sprite;
int startx = 0;
int starty = 0;

function draw_line_on_screen(int from_x,  int from_y,  int to_x,  int to_y,  int r,  int g,  int b)
{
	DrawingSurface *surface = screen_sprite.GetDrawingSurface();
	surface.Clear();
	surface.DrawingColor = Game.GetColorFromRGB(r,  g,  b);
	surface.DrawLine(from_x,  from_y,  to_x,  to_y);
	surface.Release();
	gScreenGUI.BackgroundGraphic = screen_sprite.Graphic;
}

function clear_screen()
{
	DrawingSurface *surface = screen_sprite.GetDrawingSurface();
	surface.Clear();
	surface.Release();
	gScreenGUI.BackgroundGraphic = screen_sprite.Graphic;
}

// called when the game starts, before the first room is loaded
function game_start() 
{
	screen_sprite = DynamicSprite.Create(System.ViewportWidth,  System.ViewportHeight);
}

// put anything you want to happen every game cycle in here
function repeatedly_execute() 
{
	if( gPieMain01.Visible == true )
		draw_line_on_screen(startx,  starty,  mouse.x,  mouse.y,  192,  0,  0);
	else
		clear_screen();	
}

// put here anything you want to happen every game cycle, even when the game is blocked
function repeatedly_execute_always() 
{
}

// called when a key is pressed. keycode holds the key's ASCII code
function on_key_press(eKeyCode keycode) 
{
  if (IsGamePaused()) keycode = 0; // game paused, so don't react to keypresses
  
  if (keycode == eKeyCtrlQ) QuitGame(1); // Ctrl-Q
  if (keycode == eKeyF9) RestartGame(); // F9
  if (keycode == eKeyF12) SaveScreenShot("scrnshot.pcx");  // F12
  if (keycode == eKeyCtrlS) Debug(0,0); // Ctrl-S, give all inventory
  if (keycode == eKeyCtrlV) Debug(1,0); // Ctrl-V, version
  if (keycode == eKeyCtrlA) Debug(2,0); // Ctrl-A, show walkable areas
  if (keycode == eKeyCtrlX) Debug(3,0); // Ctrl-X, teleport to room
}

function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) // called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
{	
	if (IsGamePaused() == 1) // Game is paused, so do nothing (ie. don't allow mouse click)
	{
	}
	else if (button == eMouseLeft) 
	{
		if( gPieMain01.Visible == false )
		{
			gPieMain01.SetPosition( mouse.x - (gPieMain01.Width / 2),  mouse.y - (gPieMain01.Height / 2) );
			
			//if( gPieMain01.Y < 60 ) gPieMain01.Y = 60;
			//if( (gPieMain01.Y + gPieMain01.Height) > 420 ) gPieMain01.Y = 420 - gPieMain01.Height;

			gPieMain01.Visible = true;
			startx = mouse.x;
			starty = mouse.y;
		}
		else
		{
			if( mouse.x > (gPieMain01.X + 54) && mouse.x < ( (gPieMain01.X + gPieMain01.Width) - 54) )
			{
				if( mouse.y > (gPieMain01.Y + 54) && mouse.y < ( (gPieMain01.Y + gPieMain01.Height) - 54) )
				{
					gPieMain01.Visible = false;
				}
			}
		}
	}
	else if (button == eMouseRight) // right-click, so cycle cursor
	{   
		//mouse.SelectNextMode();
		ProcessClick(mouse.x,mouse.y, mouse.Mode);
	}

}


function dialog_request(int param) {
}

Ideas on why the line is cutting off?

I would like to restrict everything to a certain area of the screen.  (Letterboxing purposes).  Without having to do each thing seperately.  Mouse position, objects, sprites, gui's you name it.

Is this possible?

I'm trying to draw a line over everything, using a drawing surface and an overlay (and dynamic sprite).

Code: AGS

// main global script file
DynamicSprite *screen_sprite;

// called when the game starts, before the first room is loaded
function game_start() 
{
	screen_sprite = DynamicSprite.Create(System.ViewportWidth,  System.ViewportHeight);
}

function draw_line_on_screen(int from_x,  int from_y,  int to_x,  int to_y,  int r,  int g,  int b)
{
	DrawingSurface *surface = screen_sprite.GetDrawingSurface();
	surface.DrawingColor = Game.GetColorFromRGB(r,  g,  b);
	surface.DrawLine(from_x,  from_y,  to_x,  to_y);
	surface.Release();
	Overlay *myOverlay = Overlay.CreateGraphical(0,  0, screen_sprite.Graphic,  true);	
}

Usage: (at the bottom of the function)

Code: AGS

function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) // called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
{	
	if (IsGamePaused() == 1) // Game is paused, so do nothing (ie. don't allow mouse click)
	{
	}
	else if (button == eMouseLeft) 
	{
	  if( gPieMain01.Visible == false )
	  {
		  gPieMain01.SetPosition( mouse.x - (gPieMain01.Width / 2),  mouse.y - (gPieMain01.Height / 2) );
		  gPieMain01.Visible = true;
	  }
	  else
	  {
		  if( mouse.x > (gPieMain01.X + 134) && mouse.x < ( (gPieMain01.X + gPieMain01.Width) - 134) )
		  {
			  if( mouse.y > (gPieMain01.Y + 91) && mouse.y < ( (gPieMain01.Y + gPieMain01.Height) - 61) )
			  {
				  gPieMain01.Visible = false;
			  }
		  }
	  }
	}
	else if (button == eMouseRight) // right-click, so cycle cursor
	{   
		//mouse.SelectNextMode();
		ProcessClick(mouse.x,mouse.y, mouse.Mode);
	}

	draw_line_on_screen(50,  50,  100,  100,  255,  255,  255);

}

Could anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong? Thanks!

I'm actually building a radial (pie) menu for my game.  This doesn't use the typical buttons.  It requires a dead zone (ie a place in the center where it doesn't activate).  The angle of the mouse relative to the center of the clicking area (where the dead zone is), and the length of the "drag".  A drag is defined as hold down the mouse button and moving the mouse to another location.  The various buttons are at different angles and distances from the center.  To give you an idea here are two mockups.





The "buttons" won't really rely on an absolute position and this is designed to be one-button useful (makes it good for some touch screens in the near future should I port my game to some tablets or something).

So this is what I'm asking.  Do I actually develop an AGS GUI for these, or can I just put an image on screen with script?  And what is the best method to put an image on screen?  Also are there any performance issues to doing something like this verses a standard gui display?  Is it also possible to draw a line on the screen from my mouse to wherever I drag it?  And can this line drawing function be used in production games (that is, is it something other than a debug feature)?

If you need more clarity please let me know and I'll try to make myself a little clearer.

On my way to creating my big game, I decided to do a smaller "prologue" style game in AGS.  Since I don't have any in-game screenshots or real progress reports, I'm going to update this thread once a week.  Maybe once it gets going enough I can put it in the AGS Games In Production forum.  I just wanted a place to promote my game and hopefully get people to get on me to finish it.  Of course the stuff I do have already isn't great, but I will make it great.  I also didn't want to post some of this "artwork" in the critics lounge because it's garbage and I know it's garbage, no point in trying to make garbage not stink ;-)  Of course this is all concept stuff and mockups and stuff so it wouldn't really be relevant for the CL anyhow.

Enchanted Lands is a magic kingdom turned vacation resort.  During the soft-opening of the resort, the Bank is broken into, and tourists end up missing.  The Grand Wizard and most trusted adviser to the King is sent to investigate (primarily because it involves Magic, but he also is overseeing the resort).

Here's a few images -


This first one is a vague concept of my main character.  Yes I know it sucks, but I will get better as time goes on.


This next one is a test for two possible menu sizes.  I was opting for the larger before
but I might change to the smaller once I decide on the layout of the sub menus.




These are mocks of the various "modes" of the menuing system.  Essentially you click and release over the "activation ring" and then that first ring with the buttons comes up, that is your main menu.  Then if you click on any of the buttons with a submenu it will just pop up and you can click them to activate.  But there's sort of a quick-mode where you click drag over the ring and over the submenus to release on the option you want, which makes it quicker once you get a handle on where everything is situated.

These mockups aren't final.  In fact the sub menus will probably have buttons spread out even further and readable... but they will still react to mouse angle.

So that's about it, I may opt to shorten the explanations and point you to relevant blog posts and just include images, but i'll do it about once a week in this thread.

Apparently the default game template has gui problems.  It might be something to do with the recent changes to AGS.  Wasn't sure if this was the right forum to post this in.  But here's a picture of the error (keep in mind I don't know how long imgur keeps images) --


Notice at the top the icon bar is not displaying properly, and the window as well when I click on some random place on the icon bar.

Basically i'm planning an old school agi-esque game (it's not going to strictly keep to agi, custom 16 color palette being one difference), and I'm sort of having trouble getting started.  I have a couple of approaches I want to try.

A) try to build the game as quickly as possible, doing thumbnails/scribbles/whatever
B) try to get some existing photo references to build something similar to what I'm going to do in the finished version
C) try to rip some graphics of similar games (which may entail a little extra work making it fit for my game) to my finished game
D) any combination of the above

The goal is not to release a version that has these things, but rather build a prototype until I can get to properly making art/sound/music.

What are your thoughts?

Hello, my name is Keith.  I posted recently on Pixelation about a character I was making for my agi-style adventure game.  A forum member did a paint-over and said at one point "2. More contrast with the colors you have, I added black shadow below the neck for example. Right now your version is too high-value. It would work against certain dark backgrounds, but if you put it on top of a light one (think Space Quest in an 'Ice World' scenario) he'd be lost. You have to take these things into account for an AGI-type situation." --

So that got me to thinking whether or not I wanted to work on model sheets for the character(s) before I had backgrounds to put them in.  If the sprites don't read well on certain types (too light or too dark) I will have to redo them.  So I wanted to ask your advice as to whether I should think about all of that stuff first.  Also perhaps equally important is your character sizes within the backgrounds.  So what about for that... do I work out some sprite sizes before I do a background or after?  How would you approach this.  -- Sprite sizes vs backgrounds vs sprite colors etc...

Any suggestions would be appreciated.