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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...

Character Art.

I can design a character for 3d Modelers to use and make a character turnabout, I have no real experience working with others but is willing to learn.

What I can do:

Furry
Anime-style
cartoonish

What I can't do

Photo realistic
Detailed machines

PM if interested.

All I really have to say is wow!

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 looks great, I cannot wait to play it.

Speaking of Japan, I use millennium ink pens which is made in, ta da, Japan by Kuretake Co. for any kind of final works. Sketching I use Rose art mechanical pencils, and some times color pencils. When done I take it, scan it then bring it into gimp for touch up.

That alone is for my artwork, games is basically traced and retraced then taken into the gimp then pixelized.

Speaking of books and other art related learning I have a large stack of "how to..." manga series, one even about animation which is extemely helpful if one wants to learn about animation, and Draw Mag which is the biggest influence.

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()
{

}

Thanks for your help, I will use these tips and shading refenernces for her later on.

Of course I am a little confused that perhaps I should use minimal shading unless nessary?

Nice shading Arboris! 

I was thinking about trying to put some pixels on her, but hadn't good idea how to strip her. May be she isn't low res enough for me... 

So if she was only a hundred and twenty pixels less then... (wink-wink).

2 ginanubismon: IMHO this girl is much better than your old furries, but keep in mind: it will be quite difficult to animate such big (200px) shaded character. May be it is better to drop the shading for player character or to make it smaller - about 80px high.  You can still use big shaded character for intros.

Thanks.

And about the size I tend to use high pixels because I like to usually scan in everything I had hand drawn, scan them down then go pixel by pixel outlining them then moving onto the next on frame/sheet, it may be time consuming but it is the best way that works for me.

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.

Okay, I have to say this is officially the strangest AGS game I had ever seen. In a good way.

My favorite is Ned's graveyard nightmare....

Spoiler

Where you had to defeat the zombie girlscouts, eat the cookies than walk into the arms of a zombie grandpa to be squeezed into the air. Afterwards you had to help a ghost girl get something, which involves closing the jack in the box, jumping on it then the bed and hit the pianta enough to swing into the bat. What the girl says, in the most sweetest voice, is one of my favorite moments...

Next to the singing rats.

[close]

The story sounds pretty interesting, I want to download when it is done.

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.

Wow, this seems pretty interesting.

My question is where are you getting your photos and props from?

This is neat, it is kind of cute like it was an etch-a-sketch turned AGS game.

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?

Thanks, that will help.

Trivial fact: A die is a singular for dice.