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From the look of it, fantastic work as ever. You've come a long way since the first Ben Jordan (which was brilliant too by the way)

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Thanks! I just copy/pasted some code from A Golden Wake so it wasn't too tough
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Curious about how it works. I've done mirrors before, don't have my scripting handy, but my basic method was:
The mirror is against the back wall. There is a walkable area within the wall with walk behinds on either side, above and below the mirror. When the player enters a region in front of the mirror (but much larger than it), a character (the mirror image) is triggered to appear in the wall walkable area. It then mimics the player's movement (but only visible when not under the walk behind) by resetting its x and y co ordinates to that of the player plus or minus various amounts depending on distance from mirror etc. The view of the mirror image character is essentially the same as that of the player but with front and back images transposed.

It works okay, but does have one noticeable issue: As the mirror image moves by re calculating the x and y co ordinate based on that of the player character, the mirror image appears to glide stiltingly along as opposed to walking. But of course if use the walk function, it tends to lag fractionally and the arm swing, leg positioning etc gets out of sync with the player. These issues are even more noticeable than the stilting glide issue.

Any quick tips on this one? Sorry to ask for a tip here and not in the general help forums, but its more a curiosity seeing as we are talking mirrors here.

Well, this has certainly turned into a major production! Looking very good so far

Choice, thanks Danvzare. I just tried out bosaceoil and its by far the simplest I have seen. Played with it for ten minutes or so and managed to make a usable jaunty little tune! Can really see myself turning out some useful product once I get the hang of it properly

Hi Eric

Many thanks for producing all of these and for offering them up for free. It is hugely appreciated.

I have no musical talent myself but would like to try my hand at creating my own. Can anyone recommend a free downloadable music making software for dummies- ive looked at some of them and they seem extremely complicated. So im wondering if theres a nice simple one out there designed with us novices in mind?

Holy crap. Many thanks my friends.

I had never found that functionality.

I have wasted many extra hours on several games coming up with many complicated ways to try to achieve what it appears this does in a straightforward manner.

Really appreciate your help.

I will try it out as soon as I get home tonight

Hey all. Sorry to be a pest. This has vexed me on a few previous games I've made. Never found a good solution. Essentially I am wanting to know if there is a functionality for detecting whether a non player character is moving or static. I've tried a few clumsy solutions in the past. At present, the player deals with NPCs who are possessed by demonic forces who like to crack out their telekinesis from time to time. I have rooms full of objects created as characters (chairs, tables, knives, pots and pans etc). Have set it so that at random intervals the possessed will hurl one of these objects telekinetic at the player. Easy enough. The character (chair, pot etc) projects from where it is to where the player is, non eblocked. Problem is, I am wanting it to only inflict damage while in motion, not to cause damage if a player sprite collides with it when it is static. In past games I've made with projectiles, I've rigged them with timers. Problem is if they land to close, they remain dangerous due to the timer status even when static until the timer runs down. I am trying out a clumsy method at the moment whereby I establish multiple definable variables for each throwable thing. Example: WHere cChair = the throwable chair character Where Chaircurrentx =  the x position of the chair in the current loop Where Chairpriorx= the x position of the chair in the previous loop Where Chairmoving = an assessment as to whether or not the chair is moving Chairpriorx=Chaircurrentx; Chaircurrentx=cChair.x; If (Chaircurrentx != Chairpriorx) Chairmoving=1; THis isn't the exact script I've used for this. I dont have the internet at home so have come to an internet cafe to make this query. But I'm sure you all get the gist. The same tests are sett for Y variables too. Essentially each loop tests whether the co ordinates of the chair character are the same as the previous loop. If not, it returns a 1 to another variable that indicates that the chair is in motion. This will factor into another IF conditional statement which will lead into a damage assessment and infliction subroutine. etc. Given that I intend to have situations with a great many objects that can be psychically thrown at the player, I was wondering if there was a less cumbersome method than replicating numerous variable sets for each throwable object?

Cheers guys,

Khris, does that mean that whenever i create a room intended to be over 300, i have to create it as 300 and then change in properties? If so i would be best to move everything that connects to my current 300 and set that as something else and keep 300 blank as a space to create new rooms to then re assign to other numbers through properties?

Just confirming if i understand the drill correctly?

Awesome,  was going to post a question about this myself tonight. All solved for me many thanks guys
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Hi all

Ive had a good look through the forums, all i can find on the subject of rooms 300 + is that they dont retain changes.

I have an interesting problem. Whenever I try to create a room above 300, the number immediately resets to 300.

The fact that rooms over 300 do not retain changes suggests that it must be possible to create rooms beyond that number.

If anyone can help with this, it would be much appreciated.

A little background: Ive recently finished a game as a birthday present for a friend (took 8 months, graphics very crappy but a very large game which was a mixture of problem solving and action). It has gone down really well with the recipient and other friends that have played it. Despite my horrificly bad graphics and inability with sound. Anyhoo, just shy of 150 rooms.

Ive started a new project involving extending it into a wide roaming RPG. This is going well so far, but I've calculated that i will need a capacity of rooms in excess of 300. But for some reason, at the room creation screen, if i enter a number greater than 300, the number automatically resets.

Any ideas?

Excellent, thank you my friends, I will try it over the weekend and let you know hot it goes.... its the last obstacle to game completion

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Hi guys

Im sure this will be simple for many of you.

Essentially I'm still working on my zombie slaying epic (a present for a friend) which I started in July last year.

The problem background:

I have built firearms discharge hits through an equation whereby firing a round generates a calculation for each zombie in the vicinity based on the position of the crosshair (mouse.x and mouse.y variables) is assessed against an area bounded by > and < x and y variables. This if statement should add clarity to what I am trying to explain:

if (cZ1.Room==cP1.Room && cZ1.x <mouse.x+15 && cZ1.x> mouse.x-15 && cZ1.y>mouse.y-5 && cZ1.y<mouse.y+80)

cZ1 is character zombie 1.
cP1 is the player character
So it's looking at whether the x and y co ordinates of zombie 1 fall within certain spatial parameters of the mouse cursor position.

The problem:

This works really, really well in situations where the whole room fits into one screen. In larger screens which involve scrolling, the system falls apart. For example:

You may have moved the character a ways off to the right, causing the screen to scroll (as it should). Then you place the weapon crosshair (the mouse cursor) over a zombie and pot it one. As far as the zombie co ordinates (cZ1.x and cZ1.y). cZ1 may correctly have the x co ordinate of 500 (for example) whereas the placement on the screen will cause the mouse cursor when placed over said zombie to have a x co ordinate of 20 (for example).

I am hoping to find a way to resolve this. I suspect that the solution involves somehow translating the mouse x and y variables into a new set of variables built around the room positioning. Have been working on this problem for a couple of weeks and no joy I'm afraid.

I apologise if I have not explained the problem clearly. Any help would be dearly appreciated.

Pharlap

There are some great tips on perspective here that I may well take on myself. My backgrounds are pretty terrible.





My main problem is a total lack of artistic ability. The above represents a great de3al of work.... I just cant draw worth a damn. Its proving to be my main obstacle. Ive produced many games but havent put any up yet as the graphics just spoil the product

I am very impressed with that background! That is seriously awesome!

I can't finish this adaptation of an erotic masterpiece unless I feel other AGSers are also in it to win it!

Mwahhaha!! I really must enter one of these competitions at some point when I find the time

Scary hat wearing moderator guy...  Thanks for merging the extra 8 screenshots to make the required 10. But the commentary has kind of got mixed around in the process. Easy enough thing to do.

Steptoe, yep. Correct- the backgrounds are mostly photos given my total lack of artistic ability when it comes to MS paint. I have about half a dozen people play testing the game at the moment. So far they seem to be enjoying it. They seem to like the gameplay, problem solving and humour element. Having said that, the former are all subjective and those play testing it do have a similar sense of humour to myself.

But ultimately I guess the proof will be in the proverbial pudding. Some people will like it. Some will hate it and some will fall somewhere in the middle.

I think that for a first AGS game this is a worthy offering. Again time will tell.

Im looking forwards to this! The Ben Jordan series and the Trilby series are what really got me interested in AGS to begin with. Since then I have discovered a world of awesome games!

This looks awesome. I will download and play the first Visitor game next weekend (got totally obsessed with making my own first game and havent downloaded one in a while) then after the first will download and play the second.
Looking at the gist of it and the screenshots, this looks like a most excellent game!

Hey all, please bare with me. I am doing my damndest to attach these screen shots so I hope they come into the thread okay. From what I have read the shots themselves should come up, although to me only a link appears in this post.

First up, many many thanks to NickyNyce for some great scripting advice that helped me a lot. I would still be stuck on the first room if not for Nicky.

My game is a star wars parody that I making as a birthday for a friend who is a hard core starwars nut. This is my first game for AGS and I hope it goes down well. It is a combination of traditional AGS problem solving and some action bits and pieces (the latter arent hard).
The player is an inept bumbling storm trooper doing his best... but gets off on the wrong foot with Darth Vader and finds himself sent on a series of absurd missions.
It comprises five phases:
1. Training. A few rooms of basic training. Learning to walk around, talk, pick up items, combine items etc. Culminates in a session at the firing range.

2. Mission 1: Endor. The protagonist must deploy to Endor to fight the evil feral care bears living there. A very basic mission in both problem solving and action termsn.

3. Mission 2: The player is posted to a prison space station to guard the detainees there. The rebels raid it and our character is imprisoned. He must escape from his cell and then retake the station. Heavy problem solving orientation with some action.

4. Mission 3: The player is deployed to the Mos Eisley space port at Tatooine to eliminate Princess. Some action stuff but mostly out of the box problem solving. As a tribute to the original Star Trek, the character encounters the Gorn in a rocky desert area outside the space port. No spoilers but how the player overcomes this encounter will give the advantage to those familiar with the old star trek episode in question.

5. Mission 4: Dagobar. The player is tasked with the assassination of the legendary Jedi Master, Kermit. Far more problem solving than action oriented phase (although a bit of mad running around is recommended when encountering certain adversaries). Not wanting to say too much, but there is a settlement of cliche rednecks that the player must contend with.




This is a screenshot from the intro cut scene to Mission 1.





Our Storm Trooper flees angry care bears



The protagonist takes the fight to the enemy on Endor and storms the Care-Bear village of Care-A-Lot!!



Mission 2: The prison space station. Trooper Webb discovers a strange and bangy looking device attached to the stations main reactor. But how to disarm it? Well, theres a lot of puzzle solving, finding and combining things involved.



Mission 2 again. The character re captures a pair of vile rebels!



Mission 3: Tatooine. Our character confronts the Gorn in a tribute to the original star trek. This scenario involves several screens of being chased around aquiring and combining the necessary materials to eliminate the Gorn in the same way Kirk did.



Mission 3 again. An annoying small child tries to rob Trooper Webb in an alleyway in Mos Eisley



Mission 4: Dagobar. The storm trooper tries to talk his way out of a potential shotgun wedding with one of the local rednecks



More Mission 4: Our hero searches the swamp lands for Kermit

Okay, hopefully this is enough screenshots to meet the rules. Really really trying not to give spoilers

This is a screenshot from the training phase- at the firing range. A variety of different targets, some are pop ups, some are mobile. I've built it in structural terms along the lines of automated firing ranges. A minor part of the game, but a fun one to create.

The game is basically complete. I just need to do some fine tuning. Should hopefully have it up her for you all in a few weeks.

I've spent almost every waking hour on this (when not at work) for a few months and think the product is AGS worthy, at least for a first game.

Its built around a mix of off the wall humour, problem solving and basic action stuff.

Hope you all enjoy it!

Hey thanks everyone! Your help has been most excellent.

As for the not recognising the existence of room 1 error, I ended up deleting the whole game and starting from scratch.

Also I when it comes to making my actual contribution I will use a medium other than MS paint to construct my sprites as that appears to be the root of the problem there. For the test version I will continue with it as I have built all sprites in this format and the test is really just to teach myself how MS paint works before creating a proper game.

I am having a couple of issues presently which I have failed to overcome, perhaps due to my interpretations of the manuals and tutorials. In particular this infernal "Parse" error. From what I can interpret from my readings on the subject it appears to be some sort of conflict or inconsistency between rooms scripting and global scripting, but I have not yet been able to unravel it. Essentially the error occurs when I try to create a situation of picking up an object.

I have also had difficulty (which I believe to be rooted in room scripting) around the placement of the character entering a new room. I have built several rooms in my test game and I can get characters to move from room to room by crossing edges. But they always appear in the top left hand corners. I have gone through all of the rooms scripting etc (admittedly I am still learning the scripting) and options (but cant seem to find a means of controlling the point at which the player enters the new room.

Any assistance would be appreciated

Cheers all. Sorry if this is an overly basic question

Hi all

I have been playing AGS games for a couple of years (and loving them!) and decided that its time I contributed myself. I have been working for a while on a first test game- essentially a minor game just to teach myself how constructing AGS games work before moving on to a proper contribution. I have hit two major snags- neither of which I have been able to resolve through the tutorials. I must confess that I am not a programmer and so there may well be a few concepts basic to the rest of you that I am failing to comprehend.

The issues are two fold:

1). I have been working on the initial room. Room 1 as per the default first room. I have not attempted a second room yet. I have built a character and got her walking around the room via the run option to test this and was all working okay. Now for no apparent reason when I try to test run it an error message is produced informing me that "room 1 is the start point but it does not exist yet" or words to that effect. I don't know what I've screwed up, but room 1 does still exist, I am still working on it and it still shows in the menus and tabs as room 1. Spent the last 4 evenings trying to figure out what Ive done wrong and how to fix it.

2). I am building my characters in MS Paint and uploading them. This has been working well except that there are random white spots (like a creepy aura of some sort) surrounding the characters as they move. Its really messy and kinda spoils the effect. I've tried recreating all the characters from scratch and re uploading them many times, but for some reason it just isnt correcting the problem. But what I have noticed is that each time I copy and paste the same image to another file and upload that, the spotty effects (although still there) have changed position everytime.

I have prepared screen shots to demonstrate what I mean but seem unable to paste them here

I realise these are total basic questions for you guys, but I have not been able to find solutions. Any help would be appreciated

Pharlap