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This is an image hopefully bringing the Massive AGS Project a step closer to massiveness:


The backdrop is for a cutscene introducing the city of Heliopolis, a modern city strongly influenced by Ancient Egypt. The over-all style has been defined by Big Brother here.

The Egyptian influences in this image may be too suble, but I tried to draw upon the Egyptian revival in Art Deco styles.

The trainline in the foreground is the Dead Line, which travels through the Necropolis. You can see the fringe of the Necropolis at the bottom of the image.

For the background to the story check out the SPHINX Wiki.

I'd like to know how well you think it suits the narrative. In light of the project's open nature, paintovers are more than welcome!

My friends and me recently entered a contest where you have to make a film in 48 hours. We were given the theme 'Ambition', so we made 'Swashbuckle your Seatbelts'.

Out of 27 or so entries we came joint 3rd. We were surprised at that really, it's immensely shoddy.

We had huge fun making it though. The mp4 is just over 40 megs to download, but I believe you can get it podcast. I don't know how that works though.

Link to film:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thepocketcinema/The_Pocket_Dojo_Cinema_7.mp4

Link to podcast website:
http://www.podfeed.net/category_item.asp?id=3663

Let me know what those of you who have the time to watch it think.

[HIDDEN IN HIS PAINTINGS!]

I've just become profoundly stuck playing Sherlock Holmes and the case of the Silver Earring and it's started me to thinking about the importance of puzzle integration. (Apologies for the lengthy post, but I'm fueled by 'that-puzzle-was-ludicrous' energy.)

I don't think I'll give too much of the game away by describing the set up of the puzzle: I want to get into an inventor's safe. The safe has a model of Noah's ark on it.

In order to open it I need to lead a series of 8 animals into the ark. The clues I need to work out this order are hidden in a series paintings and a document I recieved by solving another one of the inventors puzzles.

Having read about 5 walkthroughs I am aware of the three problems I had with this puzzle:

1. I can't tell the difference between the developers' drawing of a bear, a pig and a gorilla.

2. Only 4 of the animals have to go in in a particular order, the others are arbitrary.

And most importantly:

3. No one, not even a 'wacky' inventor, would keep the combination of his safe HIDDEN IN HIS PAINTINGS!

The puzzle is un-motivated by it's surroundings. A brilliant inventor would surely be aware that just not telling anyone the code to a combination lock is safer than hiding the solution about his house.

Likewise, locking a door with a key, and then not losing it is the best way of keeping a door locked. That's why very few of us lock our houses with complex coded key pads, levers or arrangements of crystals.

The bit I'm finding tricky is how to integrate obstacles and puzzles into a game in such a way that they are motivated by character, plot and story. I think this is crucial, and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the matter.

Hi, I'm working on a cypher puzzle for a pirate game Nelly Cootalot. I'm aware most reasonable people seem to hate codes, but I really like them and so does my girlfriend (for whom I'm principally making the game).

I do want the game to be enjoyable by people who aren't me and the missus, though. So I thought I'd ask for your opinions on this code and cypher.

I've put the code info in a spoiler box, because solving this puzzle now will make my game easier to complete if I ever get round to finishing it.

Cypher:

Spoiler

You recieve a message from an old pirate with the initials JMF which Nelly Cootalot reads as:

"Quick! Gold, Silver and Sea be the prize! - JMF x."

Though the old pirate's spelling is quite poor, and it really says:

"Quik! Gowd, Slva 'n' C B the pryz! - JMF x."

[close]

Code:

Spoiler

Nelly's task is to decode the Pirate's Oath, which is written in Piraglyphics:

(The numbers will be replaced with special Piraglyphic numbers, but for now...)

1 cswdr bc nf edst s prqefgk 2 iast,

2 paggt sc nf iqusc qabcg

& jdgc s qjbvg, s rgaa fby cb lbvg,

s abbvgk ytbc bak kqzgf lbcgp,

dg pqsk, so fg tagqpg 2 aszg bc rdg pgqp

eqtpiqaasbc dggk rdsp ibnnqck,

wb oswdr & dqzg oyc, kescv oaqwbcp b eyn,

uyr pbagncaf eqspg fbye agor dqck,

& dbcbye, fg vcqzgp rdg wbkp b rdg jqzgp,

& pjgqe cbj rdsp bqrd rdqr s pdqeg:

s kb qp s kb, q tseqrg pb reyg,

jsrd tbbeaf vgtr ubksaf dqse!

[close]

What I'd like to know is whether I should put a 'Make-Nelly-solve-this-for-you' option, in case most people would get bored.

Also, if any of you care to decode the message, have I made any mistakes?

EDIT: Here's a picture of Nelly, to make this post a little less dull:


Thanks in advance for any responses.

I felt that one of Syberia's best technical features was the smooth scrolling movement, the way it sped up and slowed down when following the player character.

The game I'm working on is 640x480 and I feel that implementing this sort of scrolling would make camera movement look nicer in my game.

I feel it's bad etiquette not to make an attempt to code this myself before asking for help, but I'm really not sure how I would go about it. Any thoughts on how I might approach this idea?

[NELLY COOTALOT: Spoonbeaks Ahoy!]

NELLY COOTALOT: Spoonbeaks Ahoy!

Pre-amble:
All-too-recently (Edit: About a year ago) I decided to make a game with my girlfriend as the hero for a Christmas present (she loves adventure games, I'm not just the worst boyfriend ever). Needless to say, I didn't finish it in time. She was happy with just a demo though, and I submit it now for cutting and brutal examination. I'm aware that I'm on well-trodden ground making a pirate game, but my aim wasn't to be startlingly original. I just wanted to make a game that would be fun for my ladyfriend and hopefully for other people too.

Plot:
Nelly Cootalot, fearsome pirate and lover of tiny and adorable creatures, is charged by the spirit of a dead buccaneer to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a fleet of birds known as Spoonbeaks. Her adventure will bring her face to face with the nefarious Baron Widebeard as she uncovers corruption and wanton punning in the Barony of Meeth.

Screenshots:





Features:
640x480 Resolution
Verb Coin Interface
The opportunity to aquire morally dubious items for minor aristocrats
More skull imagery than you'd expect in a game that centers around cute animals
Real-time particle effects courtesy of Akayumo's Particle Engine.

Demo:
The aim of the demo is to get a hold of a map of the Barony of Meeth. The demo's puzzle(s) won't actually be in the finished game, they're just there to give you something to do.
http://themonkeyhut.tripod.com/Nelly_Cootalot.zip
(Use 'Save Target As...')
If you're not using Internet Explorer:
http://www.xtrafile.com/uploads/cb29de7b39.zip.html (Thanks to GBC!)

Update 13/5/6:

Well, progress has been slow because I've been very busy with other projects. I haven't forgotten about Nelly though, and I don't want you guys to forget either so here's a quick update.

After realising I'd missed my original optomistic deadline, I decided to rethink the weaker parts of the plot. I've added new rooms (drawn new backdrops) and worked out new puzzles where they were needed. The completed game should now be comfortably medium-length. I hope.

I'm glad to say that m0ds has agreed to use his magic fingers* to create some midi tunes for the project. You can hear what he's been up to on this thread:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=26241.0

Update 1/10/6:

Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy is currently about one 'pick-up' interaction away from being playable start-to-finish. I still have to script the final cutscene and plenty of non-essential interactions, but the gameplay itself is in place.

Also, here are some of the latest tunes m0ds has worked up:

Main Theme

General Exploration

Uh-oh!

The game now uses Akayumo's Particle Engine for some special effects too. I'm tempted to set myself a deadline for completion, but I'm so busy at the moment that would be foolish. Hopefully, it won't be too long before I can ask for beta-testers.

Update 19/12/6:
The game's so nearly finished I can taste it... no wait, that's metal. Is that bad?

It's missing a few music tracks and a couple of sound effects, but the bulk of the work is done. Check out the statistics below. I plan release the game in early 2007, depending on how long beta-testing takes. My plan is to make sure everyone has forgotten about it in time for the 2007 awards.

Update 13/2/7:
The music is complete, and it's all gorgeous. Huzzah! All that remains is dropping the tracks in place, and a wee spot of beta testing.

Statistics of a now pretty damn accurate nature:
Plot/Dialogue: 100%
Background Art: 100%
Character Art: 100%
Animation: 100%
Scripting: 99%
Music/Sound: 100%

*Fingers may not be magic.

I don't really know what I'm talking about here, a wierd thing occurred that seemed like a problem in AGS but was probably down to my lack of knowledge about the way the editor works:

When the Load button on one of my GUIs is clicked it runs this script:

Code: ags

LoadList.FillSaveGameList();
if (LoadList.SelectedIndex != -1) listselected = LoadList.SelectedIndex;
if (buttonSprite != null) buttonSprite.Delete();
buttonSprite = DynamicSprite.CreateFromSaveGame(savegameindex[listselected], 73, 47);
if (buttonSprite != null) LoadScreen.NormalGraphic = buttonSprite.Graphic;
gLoad.Visible=true;

'LoadList' is the list on my load GUI, 'LoadScreen' is the button that shows the screenshot, 'gLoad' is the Load GUI itself. buttonSprite is the pointer that I load the screenshot into.

This loads a screenshot from the currently selected saved game and works absolutely fine. When I click the cancel or the load button on the GUI it calls:

Code: ags

if (buttonSprite!=null) buttonSprite.Delete();

A wierd thing happens though when I copy the script from the GUI button to an interaction on one of the objects in Room 0. I was using an object as a 'Load' button rather than make a new GUI. The Load GUI works fine and the screenshot appears, but the dynamic Sprite is not deleted when the cancel button is clicked.Ã,  When I exit the game I get a message from AGS telling me that I didn't delete the sprite slot I loaded.

Indeed if I remove the

Code: ags

if (buttonSprite!=null)

part of the script the game crashes telling me that buttonSprite is null.

I worked around this by making sure only to bring up the Load GUI from another GUI, but I thought it was worth asking if anyone (or perhaps everyone) understands this better than me.

I originally posted this problem in General Discussion, but having re-read my error message I realised that I'm supposed to post the details here. Sorry!

I wasn't able to download BJ4 from the games page, the link was dead, so I downloaded it from grundislav's website. When I unzipped it and tried to run the game I got this message:

An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x8FF98868 ; program pointer is -189, ACI version 2.62.772, gtags 0,0)

I'm wondering if the error was something to do with file paths rather than the game itself, because all of the html manual files were looking for images in a folder that doesn't exist on my computer, presumably the location they were in on the author's machine.

I'd appreciate any help with this, I'm so keen to play #4!

I'm not sure if this should be in the technical forum. Please move it if it's in the wrong place.

I wasn't able to download BJ4 from the games page, the link was dead, so I downloaded it from grundislav's website. When I unzipped it and tried to run the game I got this message:



I'm wondering if the error was something to do with file paths rather than the game itself, because all of the html manual files were looking for images in a folder that doesn't exist on my computer, presumably the location they were in on the author's machine.

I was browsing through the first of these links and thinking about how useful scans of old manuscripts and woodcuts might be in coming up with and developing ideas for adventure game-ish type plots (The last of the links here leads to a document featured in Broken Sword 3).

I thought AGSers who weren't familiar with these libraries might find them useful:

Fantastic images from art and literature:
http://fantastic.library.cornell.edu/

Ancient Egyptian Papyrus scans:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/

Medieval manuscripts:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/browse.htm

Early US adverts:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/

Scans of the Voynich Manuscript:
http://www.voynich.nu/folios.html

Let me know if you find these sites interesting, or if you know of any interesting libraries I haven't discovered. Likewise, let me know if you find the whole business dull and want me to go away.

[Inventory Enchanted]

This weeks topic: Inventory Enchanted

Magical oddities that you might discover in the dusty corners of a Magic Shop.
I mean a real Magic Shop, so not just incense sticks and books on crystal healing.

Max Size: 100x80
Colours: Unlimited, but try to keep it within the visible spectrum.

Thank you!

As a child I watched a cartoon which upset me so much I can still remember it vividly, but I have no idea what it's called so I can't get a copy. I think it might have been shown on Tony Robinson's Toon Time. It's old, but it's in colour.

As a last resort, I thought the cartoon-literate denizens of these forums might be able to help me:

The main character is a mole. He lives with his mother and is almost totally blind. The film starts with him going out to play and taking in his surroundings. He thinks that they're all very beautiful, but he longs to visit a Palace he can see.

Along comes a travelling salesman (fox, weasel?) who opens up his suitcase. Out springs a wheel of fortune. He tricks the little mole into buying a pair of glasses.

Once he has the glasses on he sees that he lives in a junkyard, and the palace is nothing more than a mound of tyres. He crys profusely and at length if I recall, and falls into a river where his glasses are washed away and though the current is dangerously fast, it brings him home to his mother.

Does anyone recognise this story? There may have been less crying, I can't remember what was the mole and what was me.

These images are works in progress and are untextured. I'd love to hear any thoughts on the modelling composition or what direction I should move in regarding texturing or lighting.

http://themonkeyhut.tripod.com/Chairscene.gif
http://themonkeyhut.tripod.com/hector.Gif
(Drag links into address bar, or scroll down to view Darth Mandarb's generosity)

These images haven't been produced with a specific game in mind, I hope that isn't a problem.

-Ali

[What is a Photoshop Phriday?]

What is a Photoshop Phriday?

Photoshopping isn't drawing a completely new image -- It's editing images to create a new image, such as editing one image or combining several images. The contest usually lasts for a fortnight. Also, you don't have to specifically use Photoshop -- Paint Shop Pro, MSPaint, or any other programs can be used. Please make sure your image doesn't exceed the width of the screen.

See this link:
http://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop/

And for other examples, see here:
http://www.worth1000.com/

-------------------------------------

This contest's topic: Lost In Space!

Put pictures of your favourite game characters or AGSers in space. Like putting a monkey in a hat - easy to do and instantly hilarious. Unless the monkey doesn't want to wear the hat.

Have you ever wondered where astronauts keep their luggage?

OK, I've travelled throughout history commissioning works of art to include in this week's Caption Contest. So please, at least enter out of pity.



The rules of the game are simple: begin by choosing your playing piece, either orange, apple or plum. Roll the strawberry dice to determine who goes first.

Wait, that's not the Caption Contest. I'm thinking of Trivial Perfruit.

[Nemeses]

We live in an age without heroes...
So it's pretty good going for arch-villains and the like. This week's topic is:


Nemeses
(Which I believe is the plural of nemesis)

Entries must be:

The evil version of anything (game characters, famous people, household appliances etc.)
100x100 pixels or less
No less than 20x20 pixels (I'm looking at you, skullkid22)
256 colours

Here's an example. Think Postman pat ... think evil Postman Pat:



It's as simple as that.

I've been really busy recently but in my free moments I've been messing around with Blender (mainly because I'll do anything if shbazjinkens suggests it often enough).

I've also just played Escape from Monkey Island and wasn't happy with the characters' graphics so I thought I'd attempt a low-poly cartoonish character to see if I could produce something I liked.

I know low-poly 3D characters have no real application in AGS, and this isn't expressely for a game, but I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have all the same.



(Obviously this is just a basic pose. Try to imagine him in a spouse-murdering frenzy - ta.)

I had a go at a kind of shading I'd never really attempted. I've been working on concept art for a character (not specifically for a game). I wondered what people thought.



He's a scientist by the way.

[monthly]

The answer is in the question, or rather, the question is in the title.

Esseb has suggested that the Photoshop Contest run monthly rather than weekly.
(see here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=17811.0)

Would a month be too long for a competition though? Perhaps fortnightly would be better...

The advantages I can think of for a longer contest would be more time to work on entries, more time for entries to come in and longer for people to come up with exciting topics.

Any objections, or should we give it a go?

It seems to me that the best words are ones I never have an excuse to use. To save the Oxford dictionary from collapsing into "Hw 2 txt" by 2020 I suggest we fortify a collection of rarely used but excellent words. My recommendations are:

1. Paraphernalia

2. Smithereens

3. Cockles

4. Leviathan

5. Humbug

Anyone else have favourite words on the brink of extinction?

[mumbles to self]I hope this thread is considered silly rather than stupid...[/mumbles to self]