Topics

Hi, This is not really an interesting topic but I just felt like notifying anybody who might be interested in reading this. I write articles for another independant gaming site and I felt like directing a few of the misguided game makers over here to AGS so I came up with this: http://www.gamingw.net/view/70310/Adventure+Game+Studio

If you want to help more people hear about AGS you can also digg the article as soon as digg comes back online by going here if you feel like it: http://digg.com/pc_games/Adventure_Game_Studio_and_the_Best_of_AGS

I'd like to finish off by saying that the games I included in my top 10 are my PERSONAL top 10, which is why it is biased and includes every single yahtzee game in one entry. I haven't played every AGS game ever so I'm sorry if I missed you game out and your game is fantastic, it's not like it was done by public vote.

Anyway I know I'm not really an AGS regular but I hope I've done the community and the maker justice.

I think that perhaps we can turn this into a more discussion based topic if everybody else shared their own personal Top 10 AGS games. So what are your guys opinions?

EDIT: I am also being pressured into mentioning that Hillbilly Burger Bastards is the greatest AGS game ever and that I am a dumb person for missing it out of the article that I actually wrote a few days ago before I even know of the existance of the game. Either way, this post is not about anything other than Hillbilly Burger Bastards...

FIRST THING: Sorry if this should be a beginners AGS question but I'm not really well versed in AGS and it seems pretty complex to me. Secondly I'm not really looking for anyone to post a step by step tutorial on how to do this, I'm more curious as to whether AGS is capable of doing something like this and how one would go about doing it.

So yeah sorry if there is some really simple solution here and I'm just a douche for not knowing it but I'm more interested in composing music for games than actually knowing how to code them myself so I'm coming at this from a musicians perspective and knowing about this would really help me out with pulling some COOL TUNE stuff.

I've kind of had this idea floating around for a while of using dynamic/evolving music coupled with locational music/ambiance. A lot of games recently just settle for locational music. THIS IS A CASTLE. HAVE CASTLE MUSIC. and I'm not really happy with that. I like it but it's cool to do something a little more interesting for instance what Tobin did with the Chaos Theory soundtrack. It uses separated layers of music that would be triggered. So at all times the basic ambiance/locational music would loop, as an event is triggered a separate layer of music would then be added, perhaps more intense or a battle theme or something and depending on what is happening in game, the music can adapt to that situation. Is AGS capable of playing multiple layers of music at one time and if so is there any way to insure that the music would keep in time with the other layers.

Another question I'd like to bring up is with the way room music works in AGS. You're in one room, music is playing. You move to the next room and then while in the next room, the music from the previous room fades out, there is silence and then the new music fades in. It is kind of distracting and not a very controlled efficient way of handling the music. Is there any way to kind of crossfade the tracks so that one tune fades out as the other fades in at the same time. (This would work really well with the idea coupled above.)

And if the multi-layered music system is impossible (which I am kind of assuming it is, there are too many problems.) Is there any way to seamlessly fade into the next track of a piece of music based on trigger events. For instance instead of multi-layered mp3's or something. There are two completely separate loop files for the tune. ie CASTLE MUSIC REGULAR.mp3 and CASTLE MUSIC INTENSE.mp3. When the trigger event occurs the music seamlessly changes between the two.

So yeah these are really my BIG QUESTIONS and sorry for just not knowing this if it is really simple but if you guys could just let me know if it's possible and what the best way of going about doing it is, that would be pretty stellar thanks.

EDIT: WOW DUMB... I read a few more topics in this forum and I think this would have been better suited for the beginner section

Although I would consider myself a pretty competent percussionist. I'm not sure I really need critique on HOW TO DO BETTER AT DRUM. What I'm really looking for is advice on how to take the sequence that I compose and make it sound more professional and realistic which is very hard with electronic drums and sometimes I get to the point where I have been fine tuning drums for about 4 hours and it ends up sounding worse than it did two hours previous. I think this is probably because I am not very good at LEVELS and COMPRESSION and EQUALIZING which are pretty vital to knowing how to make music sound good and professional.

Anyway I've been practicing with bettering my compression technique over the past half hour or so and I think I'm finally getting somewhere. (I don't really need critique on the composition because what I've actually done is taken the composition from another song to save myself time. (Cat People - Cujo) so yeah.)

I had the song in my head and I just wanted the production practice so I tapped it out on my keyboard and run with it.

Here is the short loop: Download

So yeah, what I am really asking for is general compression tips/equalizing/leveling that any of you guys might have. I'm quite happy with how the bass drum turned out and even the snare isn't too bad I don't think. Could possibly do with a little more verb but I'm hesitant to add more reverb as I see it a lot in amateur musicians thinking MORE VERB = GOOD when I don't think that's the case. I like to use as little as possible. Maybe just a tiny dynamic double-tap delay?

MAIN PROBLEM I feel I have is with Cymbals/Hats etc. I really don't know what I am doing that make these sound so fake.

So yes, please, any advice you might be able to give from your own experience.

Thanks.

[Project Mexica]

Project Mexica
---------

Thanks for checking out the topic. This is a little game I've been working on in my absence from the AGS community. It started off with a script I pitched to ildu, but I thought to myself "damn I can't start working on a project as big is this without something smaller to show for myself." So I said to ildu I was going away to work on something smaller to become more familiar with AGS and well here is the spoils of my work so far. (I have become too invested in this project, but I have to see it through to completion.)

Project Mexica is a working title because I really have no idea what it is going to be called ultimately. I am writing it along with a friend of mine and although storyline and scripting and things is pretty much decided, a definite name isn't.

Storyline
The storyline is pretty basic, I didn't want to get overly complex with something that was really just supposed to be a LEARN HOW TO MAKE GAME AGS GAME. But here is where we are at so far:

It's the late 1920's and you play the role of two explorers searching for the ruins of a lost empire, deep in the Mexican desert.

And that's it... Wouldn't want to give too much away now would I?

Basically one of the two characters that you control has heard rumor of an ancient relic that will grant immortality to any man who holds it. But it is lost in the ruins of this ancient civilization. Throughout the game you solve puzzles and do stuff until you find it. There is also dialogue and story. (Pretty much what you would expect I guess.)

So yeah I'm gonna shut up and give you the screens which is probably all you are looking for anyway.

Screenshots:







Excuse the default GUI stuff, I haven't got around to changing all that just yet. But I will do. All the graphics were done by Frankie who you can CHECK OUT over at his pixeljoint. I don't know if I am allowed to do this but I would feel bad posting and not giving him his credit: http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/4628.htm

Music:
I've put quite a lot of time into the soundtrack of the game so far and I'm quite happy with it. I am PRETTY MUCH done on that front thoughso that's one less thing for me to worry about. In fact EVERYTHING is pretty much done except for sitting down and actually opening up AGS which is what I am kind of worried about doing.

For anyone interested in TUNES and stuff you can check out some of my unfinished WIPs right here and now. Here are two tunes associated with the screenshots shown above:

Desert Sands - Download!

Cold Stone - Inside the Temple - Download!

If you can't tell I am a huge fan of Mark Morgan's game soundtracks.

Progress:
Now I know I'm supposed to post some percentages or whatever here but damn what am I supposed to just pull some random numbers out of a hat or do you really want me to calculate the percentage of shit that I actually have done?

Story:
Story is pretty much done, I've nailed down the outline, written up a complete game flow and all story plot/twist aspects have been nailed. The only thing left to do is actually script the dialogue and I have a friend of mine helping me with that right now so I don't expect it to take too long, especially on something that is pretty much a SHORT GAME.

Sprites:
There is only actually two characters in the entire game, and as you can see from the screenshots they are both there, so I would bet that I can safely say this is 100% done.

Backgrounds:
All done.

Puzzles:
We have all the aspects of the puzzles nailed in design doc format but as for actual in game coding and playability we have nothing on this front so far. Kind of waiting for all the script to come through before I start coding. (This is an excuse, I am actually too scared to open AGS. (I really want to make a game.))

Actual Coding:
heh

Music and Sound:
On the music front this is all pretty much done. Some of the music just needs to be finished off but other than that I am really happy with the soundtrack/score. Sound however I have no progress on. Need to start scouting out sound effects and things that I can use in the game.

Conclusion:
Really don't know why I am posting this. It is not for hype or anything, I just need to remind myself that I need to actually finish this project. I hope however that it looks interesting enough that you might download/play it when it is finished.

I expect the game to completed fairly soon, hopefully. Really just need to get this dialogue stuff sorted out and then actually knuckle down and code the game.