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[SQUARE JOHN BOY]

SQUARE JOHN BOY

A Game By Logan Worsley

The Story

Jim McDaniels treated his family like trash.  He cheated on his wife, beat his children unmercifully and spent the family's money on methamphetamine.  His wife, Marcia, worked two menial jobs just to support them.

Following an all night drug and alchohol binge, Jim came home to find his wife in hysterics, having received numerous phone calls from her husband's girlfriend Roxy.  A vicious argument ensued.  Marcia McDaniels was never seen again.

Jim told the police that Marcia packed up her bags and left town.  No one believed him, but evidence of foul play could not be found.  The local sheriff and his deputies searched the house and surrounding land, but found nothing suspicious.

Unknown to the sheriff, Jim's son saw it all.  Henry was sitting at the top of the stairs when Jim came home.  He witnessed the entire incident through the pockmarked wooden railings.  Fortunately for Jim McDaniels, Henry was born a damaged boy.  He couldn't speak.  He couldn't think.  His mind was so damaged and its wires so twisted that rational thought escaped him.  As he witnessed that night's events in gruesome detail, the images came in but that was about it.  When police asked him what he knew, he couldn't answer.

Jim's girlfriend Roxy moved into the McDaniels' ramshackle house less than a day after the sheriff completed his investigation.  Neighbors took notice, and rumors abounded.  Everyone assumed Jim and his girlfriend killed Marcia. 

But only Henry knew for sure.


The Game

You play as Henry, a mentally damaged boy who knows the secrets of his mother's disappearance.  You are given the task of unlocking his memories, and piecing together the broken images that fill his head.

Screenshots









Progress

Backgrounds: 98%
Sprites: 35%
Story: 100%
Puzzles: 25%
Scripting: 5%

Update Oct 27, 2006: I've scaled down the project slightly, and plan on drawing only two or three more backgrounds before moving on to sprites and programming.  I don't think this will change the quality of the game at all, just might push forward the completion date to sometime this millennium.

Update Jan 2, 2006: Unfortunately this game has taken way longer than I thought it would, but that's the way AGS goes.  The good news is that all of the backgrounds are done, and most of the character sprite views are drawn for the five main characters.  I've gotten over a really big drawing hump and things are going really well again.  Also, i've brightened up the backgrounds so that people will actually be able to see them!  I'll repost them when i get them all loaded.

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I think the audience wasn't sure if they SHOULD laugh.  The entire situation was so awkward.  NOBODY has confronted the president like this, through satire or other means.  But as other people have stated, I think the value is in what Colbert said and who he said it in front of, not whether or not it was funny.  The NY Times has finally covered this story, but they sorta framed it as, "Was he funny?"  My opinion is...well yes, he was funny, but the point is...he just called out the President on all his sh%t, right to his face.

For those of you who suggest Colbert was mild in his speech...I think you need to understand the culture surrounding the President and media right now.  The press rarely ask him tough questions, he gets offended if they do.  They get called "Liberal" if they ask him anything midly confrontational.  Colbert was saying some hardcore stuff if you ask me.  My jaw dropped on hearing some of his speech.

Finally, I don't want to start a pissing match on whether or not Bush is a good president, or the worst in history...but why should anyone automatically give a person respect?  Respect is earned.  This man hasn't done a single thing to earn my respect.  Sure, he's the President, but that doesn't entitle him to a free ride.

I think a lot of people in the US would consider you unpatriotic for criticizing the government.   Just watch five minutes of Fox News and see!   We just don't get sent to jail for it...well, unless you criticize the government without a permit.  In public.  That can often lead to tear gas AND jail.  And techincally, since we're at war, I'm pretty sure the Sedition Act is still valid...so criticizing the government is illegal:

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918/usspy.html

But hey, at least we're not China!  We don't jail bloggers!

[EDIT] Oh wait, evidently the Sedition Act of 1918 was REPEALED!  Whew!  That was a close one...

Sorry to double post, but I've got some lingering problems with this.

1) How do I set the width of the text within the label?  I've set the size of the label, but the text just keeps going past the label border.  I figure I have to put a DisplayAt command somewhere, but I'm not sure how and where.

2) As it is right now, when i use this custom function to say, call up a message when looking at a hotspot, it looks fine.  But when i then try to look at another hotspot, nothing happens.  Am I missing something?

No, I mean that it hasn't really been talked about in the mainstream papers or media...at least I haven't seen it.  I mean when Harry Taylor confronted Bush at a "Town Hall Meeting" a while back it was all they were talking about on CNN and the like.  What Colbert did was much more confrontational if you ask me.  I mean, you can even look at what happened with the Irish reporter Carole Coleman.  She interviewed Bush and dared to interrupt him, and it was widely reported.  It was a big deal. 

Now I'm not saying there's some "conspiracy" or something, it's just strange that I'm only hearing about this on blogs.

The disturbing thing is that this hasn't received ANY attention in the mainstream media.  It's like it never happened.

I tried watching it but it's just too awkward.  Painfully so.  But I read the transcript...it's fantastic.  I heard Bush walked out early following the speech.

Oh, i guess it was clear enough, I used that very code but nothing happened so I thought it was wrong.  I didn't understand that I had to put FrameEx("I'm looking at a hotspot!") for the script when looking at a hotspot.

It's sorta working, but hopefully I can figure it out from here.  Thanks for bearing with me!

Thanks Ashen.  Ok, so I put this bit in the beginning of the global script:

function FrameEx(String message) {
  FrameList.AddItem(message);
  FrameList.TopItem = FrameList.ItemCount - 1;
}

Now how do I go about importing this into the Script Header.  I've read the section on import in the help files, but I still don't quite get what I'm supposed to write...

Thanks for responding Ashen.  I wasn't experiencing any crashes, it's just that nothing was happening at all.  I originally put the code in the repeatedly execute section because I didn't know where to put it.  Where am I supposed to put it? 

I haven't scripted anything in AGS in many many many months.  I also haven't used 2.71 before today.  So you'll have to bear with me.

Hi, I'm trying to create a GUI similar to that used in Darkseed.  There's a text box at the bottom of the screen that displays text in real time.  When you look at an object, the text should be displayed in that box rather than over the character's head or in a regular text box.  I found a thread that about something similar:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=25169.0

I can't seem to get it to work.  Also, I'd like the text to remain on, and allow the player to scroll up and down to view previously displayed text.  Maybe after a certain number of lines the text would be deleted.  I suppose it's similar to what you have in the Baldur's Gate games.

I'm not a very good programmer so please treat me like an idiot.  I'm using 2.71.  I've created a GUI for this: gFrame, with a label: framelabel.  I tried using the script Ashen suggested in the link above, using this:

function FrameEx(string message) {
  Framelabel.SetText(message);
  gFrame.Visible = true;
  WaitMouseKey(40);
  gFrame.Visible = false;
}

I put it in the repeatedly execute section of the global script.  What am I doing wrong exactly?

Thanks,

Logan

I think productivity goes in cycles around here.  Maybe we're just on an upswing.

This is what happens when "executives" are put in charge of creative endevours.  The art suffers.  The bottom line is all that matters.  I like Star Wars and FPS as much as the next guy, but come on now...the sky should be the limit for computer games. 

Interesting article from the NY Times on LucasArts: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/technology/17lucas.html 

You might need to login to read the article, just nab a pw from www.bugmenot.com if you're so inclined. 

It seems they really want to be the "Number 1" game company.  I found a couple things of interest:

1) They're making a new Indiana Jones game.  They didn't say what type of game it woudl be, but why do I have the feeling it won't be an "adventure" in the traditional sense?  I envision 3 dimensions and endless crates.

2) A former advertising executive is running the company.  That bodes well.  People without any experience with video games SHOULD run a software company.  He actually said, "It is absolutely a sin," that the Godfather game wasn't released on time.  It's people like this that force out buggy games that haven't been properly tested.

3) Finally, I like this quote: "one of Mr. Ward's main goals is to create original franchises."  What a short memory they have over there.  It seems to me that LucasArts excelled at making original franchises until they switched over to mass producing Star Wars games.   No mention of LucasArt's history in the 90s is mentioned.  Anyway, check the article out.

-Logan

The closest thing i ever have is when explaining that I make adventure games, once in a blue moon someone says, "Like Monkey Island"?  I say yes and then have to explain how I'm a big nerd making games that preteens played a couple decades ago.

Well, I'm not familiar with how you do things there, if this was someone over here & I knew what city/county the person lived in, I'd look up county records and see if they own property.  Maybe your sister is too young...and maybe land records aren't public in the UK.  In the US you can search tax assessment records by name in just about every county in the country (often online) & find out the person's home address. 

What country your sister living in?  I could probably find her if she was in the US, but I'm guessing this isn't the case...

All right, I'm entirely flexible, except i'll be in Milwaukee on the last week of May.  If more people could come in September, that's fine by me.  And I'm also open to meeting up in the summer proper...

Not far at all, actually.  There are buses you can catch for 40 bucks round trip that take about 4.5 hours one way (they're called the Chinatown buses, even though they have stops throughout the city).  Greyhound costs a bit more, I think around 90 bucks round trip.  Amtrak is a bit quicker, and much more comfortable, but very expensive.  You interested Big Brother?

Edmundo, I like the suggestion.

Thus far, it seems like May is possible for everyone.  How do people feel about the weekend of May 12th?

Sure, you're check is in the mail!  I've sent it to "England, C/O Mods"...it should get there, no problem.