Messages

[brilliant]

I don't think punishment is a good idea. I think the best thing we could do would be to leave the matter alone for a while and give the individual in the wrong a chance to rethink his position.

Also, I think Sprite Jam Trophies are a brilliant idea, they really brighten up the forums.

For the game I'm working on (here), I'm using the method you decribe for objects that are supposed to be part of the background, but need individual animations. The advantage is that there's no aliasing around the edges.

I'm uncertain whether to use this technique for objects that can be picked up. I'm not sure they should be integrated into the backdrop, I think they should stand out a little perhaps.

I love the way this 'Happy Easter' thread became almost immediately about bird flu and assassination.

Happy Easter to flu. I mean you.

You could try something like the way the adults talk in the Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. Though "Whorbwhorbwhorbworb" sounds better than it reads.

Alternately, mightn't it be possible to create an interesting situation where the player can read English signs but the player can't. Then the player would have to find away of getting the character to understand.

It would be similar to my experience of Discworld Noir, where I solved the 'AZILE' puzzle before Lewton, and then had to work out away of getting him to solve it. It was quite fun, if a bit like meta-gaming.

I'm not sure you should darken the backdrop, darkened scenes often end up too dim. I think tinting it blue is the right way to go, you just haven't gone the best way about it.

Your blue overlay has made the blacks lighter. The blacks should stay black, mid-tones could do with a blue/slightly monochrome tint while hilights could do with a less-strong blue tint. I guess that should be quite easy to do in photoshop.

Here's an example of an effective use of blue in a night-scene in Discworld 1:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/discworld/screenshots/gameShotId,10644/

I decided to post in this Tintin thread because Tintin in the land of the Soviets was mentioned.

I think its a good example of the way Tintin can be xenophobic, but at the same time the way the books encourage us to be thoughtful.

The Soviet Tintin was written at a time when Soviet propaganda was suggesting that things in the USSR were considerably better than they were. Tintin's tenacity and generosity helps us to see through that.

If you adopt a Tintin-esque attitude towards the material you'll surely avoid the xeneophobia.

Also, to my knowledge there are two animated versions of Tintin in English. One that I watched as a child and one that my Dad watched. Thompson and Thomson are brothers in the earlier version and "no relation" in the second. Oh the bafflement!

I'm not a big player of RPGs so I don;t know what they require, however Blender's game engine is really quite easy to use. The downside is it's not terrifically fast so you might have trouble creating a complicated exterior location with it.

It can also achieve toon shader effects. The first game on this page has such an effect for the skater girl character:

http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Stand-alones.162.0.html

Blender's also free. And free=good. Except in the case of freemasonry, which is sort of a grey-area.

[big]

Okay, but why is it big blue cup?

To my mind the true blue cup is quite small. Is there perhaps a larger mother-cup about which we know nothing?

I'd also like to endorse supportive criticism on the forums, and apart from his lean leaning to the left, this is quite an appealing sprite.

The main reason I like the sprite is I'd love to see a game where you have to pick up trophies in order to get hair. That would blow everyone's mind.

Rolf, if you have trouble making a character look balanced try flipping the image so it is mirrored horizontally. That will show if a character is leaning one way or the other.

[Jack Orlando]

I think those diagrams are super useful, thanks for posting them MrC.

The narrow beginning is very important. I remember being baffled and enraged by the start of Jack Orlando when I knew I had to go to the tabacconist but had to search about several different locations and about 30 screens just to find it.

[ideas]

As much as I disagree with Redwall's anti-Myst stance, I agree with what he's saying.

I think Ron Gilbert identified the problem with Sierra-style games being that you end up unable to write a letter in New York because you forgot to pick up a pen in LA. You should be able to find a pen in New York.

For the player to meet the problem before they find the solution needn't require your paratactic structure. If each location is part of a rounded world, whatever problem you meet on the Lost Island of Dragons should be solvable with items found on the island.

Players shouldn't get objects before they need them, but they can get infomation before they need it. Instead of forcing the player to pick up a certain object it would be more interesting to compel them to uncover certain clues or what-have-you. That way when they arrive at the island of lost dragons they solve puzzles with ideas that they picked up earlier and inventory items that the've just found.

And, if necessary, they could travel back to the library 30 screens ago to re-read that book about can-openers.

It works! It'll take a bit of tweaking to get the speed right but it works. Thanks so much Steve. In case anyone else ever wants to do this the code I used was like this:

Code: ags

// in the universal script header:

float scrollSpeed = 0.0;
float screenCentre = 160.0;

// in repeatedly_execute

float targetScrollSpeed = 5.0; // pixels per second
float slowDownRange = 30.0; // pixels
float scrollOffset = IntToFloat(characterX) - screenCentre;
if (scrollOffset > -slowDownRange && scrollOffset < slowDownRange)
{
   targetScrollSpeed = (scrollOffset/slowDownRange)*targetScrollSpeed;
}
else
if (scrollOffset < 0.0)
{
   targetScrollSpeed = -1.0*targetScrollSpeed;
}
float timeStep = 1.0/IntToFloat(GetGameSpeed());
scrollSpeed += timeStep*(targetScrollSpeed - scrollSpeed);
screenCentre += (timeStep*scrollSpeed);

SetViewport(FloatToInt(screenCentre) - screenWidth/2, 0);

Ah, that explains why I was having trouble. I was setting screenCentre to the middle of my room. Aside from that I had trouble with this line:

Code: ags

screenCentre += FloatToInt(timeStep*scrollSpeed);
// update the viewport here

screenCentre is a floating point, so AGS won't give it an integer value. Sould I use something like this?

SetViewport (FloatToInt(screenCentre), 0);

Also, the editor didn't like the 'Abs' or '1.0f', but I couldn't tell if they were typos.

Sorry for asking so many questions, but my home computer is without internet so I can't try any of this out until later.

Thanks again!

-Al.

Another great game, thank you!

Thanks guys, this is more than I expected!


I think I understand most of your code Steve, and my screens only scroll horizontally so It seems most useful. My maths isn't great though, so I could do with clarification on a couple of points:

Am I right in thinking I should set screenCentre to half the width of the room? Or should that be the current X position of the viewport?

Code: ags

float scrollSpeed = 0.0;
float screenCentre = 160.0;

// rep_ex

float targetScrollSpeed = 5.0; // pixels per second
float slowDownRange = 30.0; // pixels
float scrollOffset = IntToFloat(characterX) - screenCentre;
if (Abs(scrollOffset) < slowDownRange)
{
Ã,  Ã, targetScrollSpeed = (scrollOffset/slowDownRange)*targetScrollSpeed;
}

I think this segment decreases the targetScrollSpeed as scrollOffset enters the slowDown range of 30 pixels near to the player.

Code: ags

else
if (scrollOffset < 0.0)
{
Ã,  Ã, targetScrollSpeed = -1.0*targetScrollSpeed;
}

This passage will invert the targetScrollSpeed if the player is to the left of the screen center, I reckon.

Code: ags

float timeStep = 1.0f/IntToFloat(GetGameSpeed());
scrollSpeed += timeStep*(targetScrollSpeed - scrollSpeed);
screenCentre += FloatToInt(timeStep*scrollSpeed);
// update the viewport here

It's this crucial-looking bit I have trouble following I'm afraid. I guess I should use SetViewport, but which variable should I use to set the X position of the viewport?

Thanks again for your help guys!

I'm so confused. I spent the April Fools weekend away from my computer and now I'm back the world has turned upside down. As I understand it AGS is merging with Coffeemate and CJ has been ported to PaintShopPro.

Still, I'm glad Richard Nixon finally finished Ben Jordan 5.

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?

You could have gotten them for free

Who would even consider illegally downloading material when the alternative is endlessly trailing around charity shops and, in my case, dry cleaners?

Also, I endorse your pun-explaining-policy lo-res-man.

I like the colours, but I also think your vanishing points could do with being further from the edges of your image, though the fisheye look could work.

As for texturing, I like the flat colour look. I would suggest some road markings or dirt on the tarmac. It loses shape as a consequence of its flat colour, and it looks slightly like the pavement/sidewalk is jutting out over a void, if you see what I mean.

I had a similar-but-less-good triumph last summer while visiting my parents. I bought the Quest for Glory anthology from their local dry cleaners.

I still don't know why they were selling it in a dry cleaners.