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I kinda feel bad adding to the negativity already present, but I really didn't enjoy Silent Hill 2 or 4 (the only ones I've played) at all. I found SH2 very tedious to play indeed - after I made it to the bowling alley I just stopped playing and looked at an online FAQ to find out the story instead. I'm kinda glad I did otherwise I would have felt like I had wasted my time playing

SH4 was interesting up to a point, but the terrible gameplay and design of the whole thing turned me off completely... especially when I got up to the 'Alternative Apartment' level and had to go looking for notes. Ugh.

It's a shame as there's not a lot of games that take their inspiration from Jacob's Ladder, which is a fave film of mine.

Yeah, be warned about 800x600x32, the file sizes skyrocket. It's not a question of speed anymore, certainly, more about practicallity. If I were making a commercial game that were to be distributed on CD or DVD then I'd certainly go for 800x600, but it's not worth it otherwise.

Art done right at 320x240x32 looks extremely impressive, so you might want to experiment there first. I also tend to find lower resolutions much more immersive - perhaps that's just a personal thing though. The higher resolution = better myth is a trap that many seem to fall into nowadays, what with all their fancy schamncy 3d graphics cards being able to render the hairs on an Ogre's arse 100 miles away

The answers to the rest of the questions are down to what your project vision requires though. I go for Lucasarts style because of the style of game and the atmosphere I want to create in my games, but if you like the Portrait style then go for that.

Hopefully when you're older and more world-weary you'll read back on your political thoughts (or more likely regurgatating what your parents and peers think) as a 13 year old and realise how ludicrous they sound.

P.S. Shawn of the Dead sucked!

Them's fighting words, boyo!

I agree with Gilbot, there's no way I'm going to distribute a freeware game that uncompresses to 600mb, especially if the music's been lossy-compressed.

Also Nikolas, I think your explination of lossy-compressed music is a bit... lacking Obviously uncompressing an OGG or MP3 will not put back in the data it chopped out when compressing, but it won't necessarily be 'bad quality'... unless you compressed at 64kbp/s or something silly.

Anyway, I think the point is to not get worked up over this niggling issue to the point of surprising people with games that uncompress to half a gig. You can still do crossfading and lots of cool little iMuse things without needing to syncronise two tracks.

could PlayMusic and SeekMP3PositionMillis have an optional variable to excecute the crossfade and seek to the time defined until the chunk is decoded?

I think CJ took out packing wavs into the .vox file for the sake of sensibility, but if you put the .wavs in the compiled folder it works fine.

It would be a very heavy-handed way of doing things, but I guess you could do. I mean, you can already crossfade audio tracks in AGS so if you can live without syncronised crossfading to get that "same track, different instruments" effect then it's not really worth doing.

Perhaps there's still something that can be tightened up within AGS to allow this to be done - perhaps some extra variable in the Seek and Get functions to compensate for the decoding? I've been pushing for this since the Dos days so it'd be nice if it could be done flawlessly

With digital audio unfortunately the functions don't seem to be terribly accurate, so you'll get it half a beat on or off or so everytime it transitions.

It's not the accuracy of the functions as such transitions work beautifully with .wavs - it's something to do with the compressed audio decoders.

I have a suspsicion that SetChannelVolume isn't actually working... I'm sure I've reported this one before, perhaps it's just my hardware? Anyone else mind doing a quick test?

Yes, Game Maker is what you'll want to use for pretty much anything 2D and non-adventure.

On a side topic, has there actually been a good, playable game made with it yet?

On another note: I'm still waiting on Byzantine, Revenants and Run Hot. I'd love to see some new shit from those games

Byzantine will surface next year.

The biggest problem we have here is people making big deals out of these threads when they should really just ignore it if it isn't interesting to them. There's absolutely no need to made needless drama out of a harmless post, and yes we all know Flukeblake should really be out playing with children his own age but there's no need to constantly go through the same routine every time the kid makes a post.

If you don't care for the topic, don't reply! It's simple! And if you're reading this Flukeblake then feel free to make a fresh new topic on the subject of your holiday. I'd suggest waiting until it's over though, then you can provide us with a fuller account of your travels, and perhaps some pictures if you have any

I still have fond memories of the 'Ezboard days', although this is probably just a psychologiclal thing as things usually seem better when wearing the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia (although we'll never see the likes of "Courtland Leksutin Vs. The Ninjas" again). But the real good old days?

* Spending 12 hours on public transport to meet a bunch of europeans from the internet in a field somewhere near Staines, subsequently getting extremely wet from a combination of rain and Thorpe Park in the company of some extremely awesome people.

* 5 days in the Mittens Cottage in Orust in the company of some extremely awesome people.

* Flying to New York, driving through the night up state, exploring 'diahrrea island' and generally estroying Eric's family cabin in the company of some extremely awesome people.

* Sleeping overnight in Athens airport, learning to play poker and swimming in the Agean Sea in the company of some extremely awesome people.

Horror films aren't really my bag to be honest, perhaps because I'm neither scared or grossed out by them (with the possible exception of Event Horizon). Only the game 'System Shock 2' and the book 'House of Leaves' have ever managed to instill a real deep-rooted sense of fear in me... well, in terms of media anyway.

Not to say I don't enjoy John Carpenter's films, and I loved the 'video' in the American version of The Ring because it's generally unsettling. Night of the Hunter, The Shining and Rosemary's Baby are also favourites... Cronenberg of course if he counts... surely there are more if I put my mind to it.

Oh yes, Jacob's Ladder. More psychological than 'horror' I guess. And Shaun of the Dead, which sort of doesn't count but I'm listing it anyway!

I've never understood the backlash against Family Guy, because between that and Futurama (and occasionally South Park) you'll not find a more hilarious animated comedy (although I guess if you have a rather conservative sense of humour it's bound to leave distaste).

Robot Dance shall live forever!

but I'll bring some dice or cards if there's the slightest interest in some roleplaying.

Only if it's Cthulhu!

Touche, you smart arse

On various forums - as well as here - I have read through people discussing the ending of the book and combing over evidence to suggest there's something more twisty to it. Has anyone considered that Rowling is just a bad writer?