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Actually, at the Practice Level, casting is really easy, and most of the people I asked till now found a touchpad makes things even easier. Either using a mouse, a joypad, or a touchpad, by the way, sensitivity settings may keep things harder or easier. A too high sensitivity can make casting almost impossible (and any other operation with the pc as well, I must say ).

One thing that must be kept in mind is that casting doesn't have speed requirements. So don't rush it. Take your time. Tutorial was made for this purpose. Always play fullscreen, and if you use a touchpad, remember that you should use buttons to click and use pad surface only to draw (you can lift the finger from the pad's surface without failing the casting).

On the other hand, I'm grateful for all of you giving their opinion, cause if it becomes clear most of the users find the casting system frustrating, I will surely do everything that's in my power to lower the difficulty, at least fro Practice Level.

It would be nice to have an options setting to raise the tolerance

There are. Difficulty Levels (Practice, Standard, Expert) raise tolerance actually. You can test them all in the minigames' submenu inside the tech demo.

The OpenFileDialog.SafeFileName property was added in .NET 2.0 SP1 -- therefore you probably need to install the Service Pack.

Alternately SpacePaw could update the plugin to use the FileName property instead which doens't require SP1

Unsurprisingly enough, you were correct. I had the same issue Ruben had and solved it by installing Service Pack 1 for .NET 2.0.

Thank you so much for this plug-in! After learning that AGS did not natively import animated GIFs with their frame delay properties intact, I grew to feel very very guilty for our project programmer after having sent him easily over 1500 frames worth of animated sprites that all had varying delays per frame on most of the sprites.

After I found and tested this last night after wading through a slew of search results on the forums, you really made me a happy man!  No longer will that 486 frame sprite for a cutscene weigh down my conscious, haha.  He will be thrilled when I tell him I found this!

Lol... I truly felt relieved when you told me about this plugin. Then lost again when it didn't work (before installing .NET 2.0 Service Pack 1). But now I'm thrilled, yes.


Last, but not least (quite the opposite, as a matter of fact) let me thank you soooo much Spacepew. Quill o' the Wisp and me in particular, will use it to "forge" a better game, I'm sure.

I have played through the tech demo and I am worried... the tolerance for the "cursor path" seems pretty small and I had problems even when trying. I think they could be widened a little to make it a bit easier (if only optional)?

You're not the first to ask... by the way it seems most of the people who found it difficult to draw the Schematics are either playing in a window, or have a malfunctioning mouse. Don't know if that's your case. Next demo and full game will have keyboard support though.
Are you talking about the Practice level by the way? If you're talking about an harder difficulty level, consider choosing an easier one.

Anyways, I really like how you came up with an interface that has the good old Loom flair while still being new and with a twist.
I hope there's be a fully playable version soon.

I feel particularly happy for this remark, since the idea behind the drawing system has been one of the few significant contributions I gave to the game so far (scripting excluded).

As things are now, a fully playable demo of Chapter 1 will surely be ready before the end of the year. I hope to have it ready before the end of November though. From that release, the future of the Forge will depend EITHER on a background artist joining the team OR the donations. We really hope that, when the demo is out, there will be more people offering their help. Otherwise, the project will be in a deadlock (a stall), until one of the two conditions above are satisfied.

[However, we highly hope that some skilled bg artist will join the team for free, as this would be the most desirable and satisfying scenario.]

We've no intention to sell the game, as the project is born and will remain FREEWARE. Though, we considered the option to make some CDs but even if we'd sell 'em just at the basic price (the cost of the CD itself) I believe it could be considered as a threat by LucasArts. I'd like to know everyone's opinion about it.

But, since we're on topic, I announce to all of you fans that we created a donation system for the Forge. The reason is that we always had to and still are outsourcing the backgrounds to a paid artist, since we couldn't find anyone neither suitable enough nor willing to join us as a pixel-art background artist. We're currently paying (well, Duke is, actually  ) about 100 U.S. dollars for EACH background. Chapter 1 alone (out of the 5 we planned for the complete game) is made up by about 20 backgrounds, so, you probably understand how this can be hard to sustain.

Our donation system, however, is different from the common ones, since we guarantee for any donation (independently from the sum given):

- Credits, both in our website and in the finished game, in the closing credits.
- A special request: you have the chance to ask our team to include a special custom animation that you'll be able to see in-game (which means a sneak peak into the story line).
- Bragging rights.

We've not yet decided for a name, but community-ware has been on our mind, since this system allows community to be a crucial part in the game's development, like they were team-members. A big team, or a big family, as I'd like to call it.

Everything's explained on our forum too: http://forge.freeiz.com/forum/index.php/topic,58.0.html

However, we highly hope that some skilled bg artist will join the team for free, as this would be the most desirable and satisfying scenario.

Thanks in advance to you all.

Please submit all inquiries for free peripheral hardware to Abisso^*.

Is there a spam filter in the PM inbox? 

Maybe we could add a usb-mouse in the game-bundle, together with the Forge's t-shirt and poster, and the OST-CD.

Don't you think so, Duke? 

I vote for the font TM did!!! (I can vote, can't I?)

It's very, very appropriate.

This art style is simply astounding. I just can't find the words to express how good it is.

I wish you'll be able to release this game.

I forgot to give my statement to this, so I will do it now:

This is great and wonderful, it`s like a dream for me. It really looks like the original Loom and seems to be a worthy second part of the planned trilogy. Beautiful graphics and nice gameplay. I`m looking forward to the final version.

Thanks FireOrange!

Great tech demo, I look forward to playing,  and Expert mode seems like at least right now it'll be easier than Looms

You seem to be an expert player... we actually received some complaints about the difficulty levels. Some people found even the Practice one too hard.

On the other hand some people suggested to raise the difficulty.

I suppose the easier solution is the better, in this situation: leave things as they are!
I'm terribly lazy!

You can't even imagine how important is for me to read such wonderful comments. Thank you Simon, thank you Peder and thanks to all the others.

I'm sure I speak for Duke also, when I say this is the fuel we need to carry on with this project. I'm moved. Truly moved.  :'(

Thanks DutchMarco!

To be honest, the text was even faster before Duke asked me to slow it down! Since I'm not a native English user (I'm Italian) and not so much of a fast-reader, I thought "if I can read this, anyone else can". But probably, the fact that I already knew what the text was saying, made me underestimate it's speed.

Critique accepted!

Well, voh... if I'm not mistaken, that Rusty side view you speak about is more or less a revamped version of the original one. That said, I think you're right, he actually is blocky! We'll see if, with the few pixels at his disposal, the artist can improve it.

Thanks for the nice comments!

While we await Duke's answer, I'll try to help you, Subspark.

Let's begin saying that 2 of those 3 screenshots ARE actually in the demo. Watch the preview again and you'll spot them.

Secondly... if you're asking how much time does it take to sprite a complete background like the ones we have, well... it depends. Matt0, the artist who did those, needs about one week. But I don't know how many hours does he work on it each day.

By the way, since Duke is the one who stayed in contact with Matt0 during all the development phase, he can probably answer you in more detail.

Just wanted to say "hi" and "thanks" to everyone. AGS forums is a place I love and care for. I'm not really that famous here, but I've been a member since 2004 and someone might remember me.

Well, that said, I'm proud to be the scripter in this project, and I'm glad to read all those wonderful comments.

For what concerns Besh and his work: well, some years ago, he was in search for people who could help him on his game (not really a Loom sequel, just something "inspired" by it).
I offered to help and we started to discuss a bit. I found his Mouse Gesture System really nice. Basically it's the same as the one you can see in some commercial games, like Black&White and Arx Fatalis.
Unluckily, after a few days of cooperation, Besh had to travel over the Ocean for his studies, from Italy to United States, and told me he decided to abandon the project.

Last year, around July, someone in the Recruit a Team topic asked for help with a "game". It was years since I last worked on a game, and I just wanted to give a hand with the plot and maybe some advice with AGS. After some days of chat, finally that guy (Duke) revealed his intention to do a Loom Sequel. Day after day I became more and more interested and finally I decided to do the scripting job too.

The point is that I suggested the current interface, and schematic-drawing system. Of course I've been inspired by Besh's work, but our system is completely different and I didn't even take a look on the code of the Mouse Gesture System. Let's say something visual like the current system fitted wonderfully in the game, doing visually what Loom did with sounds (notes).

That's all.

Ok, now the problem is actually a real one. Unfortunately, my web-host is terrible, and sometimes it happens that the download stops at a certain point, before the entire file is downloaded. Obviously, the resulting file is corrupt.

I've never been able to understand when that happens, and if it also has to do with the browser used.

The only thing I can suggest is to try a lot of times, until the filesize matches the one reported on the site (or until the archive isn't corrupt).

And, if you want, Indieboy, I can send the game to you by email.

P.S. I believed I've answered some days ago. The problem is that I answered in another topic. 

[EDIT: Sorry, I don't know what I've drunk to do such a mistake, but I meant to post this answer in another thread, like someone cleverly noticed.]

Ok, now the problem is actually a real one. Unfortunately, my web-host is terrible, and sometimes it happens that the download stops at a certain point, before the entire file is downloaded. Obviously, the resulting file is corrupt.

I've never been able to understand when that happens, and if it also has to do with the browser used.

The only thing I can suggest is to try a lot of times, until the filesize matches the one reported on the site (or until the archive isn't corrupt).

And, if you want, I can send the game to you by email.

EDIT: Sorry, I don't know what I've drunk to do such a mistake, but I meant to post this answer in another thread, like someone cleverly noticed.

I'm pretty sure you already have, but take a look here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1496

Maybe you've got an incompatible Itunes version.

@Who?

I don't think it's car glass that froze water here:

Well, actually each material has a different conductivity. And that determines how good it is to exchange heat as well.

Calin Leafshade explains this pretty well, and I agree:

Actually, all objects sitting long enough become 'room temperature', and the reason metal or tiles feel cold to the touch is because they are good conductors. The sensation of the coldness is due to a large amount of energy from your hand being transferred to the other object quickly (so we do not so much feel the 'coldness' but we feel 'negative' heat). This is because the human body is not good at quantifying things, just good at comparing them. e.g. If you put your left hand in cold water, and your right hand in hot water, then put them both in a bowl of warm water, your right hand will feel cold, and your left had will feel hot. Or you can only smell something in a room for a few seconds until your brain accepts this as the 'norm' and stops processing it.

So a metal object which has been in a room for a long time is not still cold, it just heats up really quickly.

[Moonstone: A Hard Days' Knight]

Moonstone: A Hard Days' Knight Strategic-fighting-rpg for PC from the early nineties, if I'm not mistaken. Amazingly funny, gory and (sadly) damn short.

System Shock 2: incomparably better than the first one, and the "sequel" (Bioshock). Similar but much better than Deus Ex, and it was older.

[EDIT: Yes, I am]

"That's the way to show those bast- I mean... good hit, sir!"

Not really sure... I believe it's from either Crysis or Gears of War. But I may be wrong. EDIT: Yes, I am

"Forget about freeman"?

Half-Life, maybe?