Messages

I missed this... a belated happy birthday to Dave and Strazer and me!

And Ewan McGregor, though he doesn't visit the forums often.

Vertical synch is turned on by default in Nelly Cootalot, so that may tie in with what you're saying GG. Nonetheless I'm about to upload a version which doesn't call GetGameSpeed. Hopefully it'll work!

Bah, no one likes pirate games...

Still that character looks very stylish. Often you expect pre-made media to be generic, but this looks really fun. I think these would be very popular.

Thanks guys, I didn't know diagonal loops needed more than one frame.

Thanks for the food for thought Steve. Point one makes a lot of sense sense. I've not looked into Movement Waypoints, but I think that sounds straight forward.

As for point two, that sounds very tricky. I'll have to have a careful think about that. I wonder if the character stopping would be too irritating on a complicated path.

Thanks again,

- Al

No, I've never seen it before.

This looks great, I can't wait!

I wanted to see if I could make a character animate when turning on the spot. I noticed that larger pre-rendered 3D characters looked a little jerky when rotating through 8 directions. I've cobbled together a little script that allows them to animate while rotating - so they could rotate smoothly or step round in a circle realistically.

You can download the game files here (4.09mb):

http://themonkeyhut.tripod.com/Animated_Rotation.html

I will probably replace the on-mouse-click script with a animated turning function that could be called from any script.

The script doesn't work perfectly at the moment. It seems to me that the regular walking function doesn't use diagonal loops, so when he walks diagonally the character snaps into either north, south east or west.

I was wondering if you guys could help me work out a way of specifying what loop to play while the character is walking, so this would work more smoothly. I also wanted suggestions on how to streamline and improve my scripting, because I know nothing about this sort of thing.

I'd apprecate any feedback, including whether this would be at all useful to anyone.

Hmm... I don't alter the game speed, so I guess I'll follow your suggestion Steve, and just make it 60.

Thanks for the help, hopefully this will fix my problem. I won't change the thread title to 'solved' though, as we're not absolutely certain what the root of the problem is.

Thanks dkh,

I can see that this code would stop the game crashing, but if GetGameSpeed is returning inaccurate values I worry that the smooth scrolling script wouldn't work properly. Might GetGameSpeed eventually 'catch up' and start returning accurate values?

[SteveMcCrea:]

SteveMcCrea: Sorry, it is the smooth scrolling script! I've posted the troublesome line in the tech forum, because I can't see a problem with it:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=30739.0

covox & Rasi: You'll have to be a little patient, but I'll get a Linux-friendly version out as soon as I can. If I can't make one with smooth scrolling, I'll release a version with regular ol' scrolling for you guys.

KingBingo: I'm pleased the game made an impression on you. I'm not sure 'brave' is the right word, but it's nice to hear!

Some people have reported a crash when running my game on the Linux AGS engine. The error report is here:

Code: ags

scott@trousersnake:~/Desktop/nelly$ ./ags Nelly\ Cootalot.exe 
Adventure Creator v2.72 Interpreter
Copyright (c) 1999-2001 Chris Jones
ACI version 2.72.920
CD-ROM Audio support enabled.
Pentium Pro CPU detected.
Checking sound inits.
An internal error has occured. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, contact Chris Jones.
(ACI version 2.72.920)

Error: run_rep_exec: error -6 (Error: Floating point divide by zero
in Global script (line 468)
) running function 'repeatedly_execute_always'
scott@trousersnake:~/Desktop/nelly$

The offending line of script is this:

Code: ags

float timeStep = 10.0/IntToFloat(GetGameSpeed());

Which works fine on the Windows version. I wondered if there's a problem with GetGameSpeed on the Linux Engine that would result in a divide-by-zero problem.

I'd appreciate any help people could offer on this, I don't know anything about the Linux AGS Engine.

I think that would be very useful, however I wonder if it would look odd if the room numbers ran out-of-sequence.

Might it be possible to identify a room by its name rather than its number? Then it would be possible to arrange and re-arrange rooms without confusion.

EDIT: In light of Babar's post, I'd like to add that I didn't realise I was asking for something that would mean changing the engine. I do think it would be useful though.

This was a tiny burst of concentrated fun. I really enjoyed it, and eagerly anticipate the rest of the story.

I've played the Deluxe Version, does that version have an improved lock puzzle? I ask because I liked the lock puzzle a lot, but I wasn't sure if I played the controversial version.

Irfanview will allow you to save an image as .ICO, and it's free:

http://www.free-software-space.com/irfanview/

I haven't had any problems using Irfanview with high colour icons, though I think you may have to run windows XP if you want high colout icons.

I hope I didn't misunderstand your problem,

Ali

[bolfar:]

bolfar: Thanks for the thoughtful feedback.

Maniac Matt: Thanks for the succinct feedback.

FireOrange: I'm very pleased you enjoyed it, thanks.

covox & Rasi: That's bad news! I'm really sorry the game doesn't work on Linux. The game doesn't use any plugins, and I thought modules were cross-platform. Nelly uses SSH's Musical Continuity and Akumayo's Particle Engine.

I don't want counter-culture linux-using anarachists to be without my game, but I don't know who's behind the Linux version. If anyone can help me identify the root of the problem I'd happily compile a Linux-friendly version.

RAD Video Tools by Rad Game Tools is another free alternative, but it's not as flexible as Virtual Dub. I just throught it might be worth mentioning.

[Ben304:]

Ben304: I'm glad you enjoyed seeing Roger!

mintymint: I just like desaturated colours, I'm pleased you liked them too.

MillsJROSS: I can't explain the humour, perhaps I just got funnier while I was writing it. I'm surprised you didn't find the music to be catchy. Maybe it's because I've played it so many times, but I often find myself humming the theme. Anyhow, thanks for the helpful feedback!

shbaz: Plus, I used Blender!

Ali hums "Da da, dum-de-dum..."

I'm not sure what you're asking exactly. If it a question of aesthetics, Darth's advice is the best to follow. Or post your efforts in the Critics Lounge for analysis.

On the other hand. You might be looking for anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing gets rid of the stair-stap 'jaggies' you get around lines on a computer monitor.

In Corel Draw, if you select View>Enhanced, your work will display with anti-aliased edges. If you follow the link in my signature, you'll see characters drawn in Corel Draw.

If you'll play the game you'll see that anti-aliasing can also be tricky when it comes to transparency. Unless the game is 32bit you can't have smooth edges on your sprite and, like my game, the edges will by jagged.

I think some of the best names have this characteristic: They are striking and memorable, even if you don't know what they refer to. 'The Silence of the Lambs' is a good example of that.

If you're creating a shoot 'em up, all you need to do is combine two or three words that don't really relate to one another: 'Metal Gear Solid', 'Resident Evil', 'Dark Lemon Wasp' and so on.

[Mods:]

Mods: Yes! Bjorn and Olaffsen is an obscure reference to that particular chain of swanky A/V equipment shops. Non-northerners playing the game will also miss the secret recipe for the elixir of life that I hid in Nelly's northern colloquialisms.

Groogokk: Thanks for your support. Perhaps you're right, maybe we do need a pick of the month 'lobby'.

I recently finished this game and I really enjoyed it.

It was quite short, but very well paced, which is what matters to me. It almost goes without saying that the graphics were very stylish, but the character portraits in particular were really inventive in their use of colour.

I've been waiting to find out how Bestowers of Eternity ended, and indeed what 'bestowers of eternity' actually meant. I wasn't disappointed, and I'm looking forward to the next episode!