Messages

While it bothered me that extra puzzles were kind glued on to the old game, Broken Sword Dir. Cut actually had ok puzzles with letters and decription and it was made for touch devices, check out the beginging of this clip:
(SPOILER WARNING) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyBZmFoJc-8
And you can actually make it with various level of difficulty by revealing an element or two within the code or somewhere.

Although those solutions are for higher resolutions than you probably are prepearing, it still might be adaptable by a map-like (so you look at it and can move in certain direction to see the rest) overview of the periodic table. Then you can add some notes (like they began to correspond in codes so somebody wrote bits while trying to figure it out) on the sides of the Table so on the easier difficulty players have a hint.

I think you would only publish a mix of poetry and prose if you were an established writer and wanted to make some kind of "best of" volume (like "the collected works of Oscar Wilde" or whatever), but as a debutant, definitely release them separately.

I agree. separate is usually the way people publish these things, because not only does the readership usually differ, but the tone changes when there's mixed forms in a book.
And indeed they're usually together only when there's a collection or bibliography compiled of a certain author.

Not to step on any toes, I was just basically bored, here's something for ya Ponch, hope you'll like it:

Spoiler

[close]

EDIT: I updated the picture, because I saw I accidentally turned off a layer before

Blender has a set up for an animated texture where you place an image with frames (like eyes blinking) and it changes it up, but don't know if it's used outside game engine.
In Max animated textures can be made in various ways by animating the exchange of textures in key frames (choose Bitmap then find a sequence checkbox, fall off maps, changing on/off of materials, Mix materials etc.) or even putting .avi files as textures works. But I don't know how that works for game engines.

If you're not just painting the eyes on, then I think the easiest thing you can use is a target. Basically you make a shape (in Max they're called Helpers) which won't render. Then you link the eyes to it then add that they follow the Helper, so now you can move the Helper and the eyes will follow it, just be careful to make the Helper wide enough (basically the width between the pupils, think glasses) and far away enough so the character doesn't appear croseyed.

For blinking, again in 3ds Max, there's a modfier called Morpher which does exactly what it says, check this: http://www.polygonblog.com/character-rigging/
So you model the eyelids in one face then retract them in the other (have to keep the same number of polygons), and the Morpher transitions between those two or three or more. It's used for animating talk and expression in faces as well.
Then again you can just model half-spheres that roll over the eyes, so it seems like the character is blinking.

[Idea:]

Idea: Kastchey
Atmosphere: gameboy
Design: gameboy
Composition: gameboy
Functionality: Nighthawk
Technique: Kastchey

[BEAUTIFUL! MAN! IN THE WORLD!]

It would be cool to see a Supernatural game, though I haven't watched the series lately (I stopped around 6th season). The song is usually used in the final episode of the season as a "Story so far" part of intro, so might I suggest you use something like that at the beginning of the game, it'd seem like a natural intro I think.

My only warning about posting stuff from a Supernatural fangame in the lounge is that I will be VERY hypercritical of attempts at rendering Jenson Ackles' face.
He's the most BEAUTIFUL! MAN! IN THE WORLD!

Well I wouldn't say that, but he does bring the comedic timing to the series. Still, just for you Eggie: LINK

Not every game is art, not every composition, poem, painting, movie etc. is art either, yet some are. Nor do they have to be, but sometimes they are. Stop trololololololing.

Even though I like it so far (the style is pretty cool and I'm learning a lot about Canada), I can't get pass that crowd. I won't say I've tried everything...but I've tried everything.

EDIT: finished now, very meta game. Now I want to go to Canada even more. The puzzle I was stuck on really broke me, I just...it has nothing to do with gameplay

Spoiler

I understand the trick, but even if the igloo is round, if there's a line crossing it...this is some Sierra/rubber ducky mental stuff

[close]

Not a fan of CoMI? What's wrong with you!? 

The interface will stay the same and you'll see the progression TT have made with controlling a story within an episode style production (they've really almost perfected it with Walking dead for instance). There are some annoying things, I remember there's a maze you have navigate through at one point and the click & pull gets reeeally annoying.
It kind of lacks the warmth of the first MI games and the story is again with fighting Le Chuck and saving Elaine. I guess it's not bad overall but not overly memorable either.

Isn't that highlight/removing options etc. style the same as when you have conversation options which are coloured if they're not used, removed if you already did them and stay if you might get a different result if something is done? I'm just asking if I got the concept right.

...this is probably gonna be a downer, but here it goes:
Well it's a good production for something with multiple people not in the same room playing. It's a bit unusual that there are so many people playing it at once, just seems like it turns from a video about playing the game, into you guys talking while you play something. Don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but the game was kind of lost with all your comments on it.
Also there seemed a lot of text skipping, which I don't get the point of, if it's in a Lets play video and I think it's a side affect of the whole "playing while talking" and no the usual "some talking while playing". Also I actually don't like it when people read all the text (nothing personal, Noa, I just don't like it in general, although I'm probably in minority on that part). It all seemed like nobody wanted to play the game for the game, you just wanted to do a Lets play.

I know it's sort of a test, but personally I either watch lets play videos of games I played long time ago or don't want to play (for example Farenheit, I just suck at QTEs but I wanted to see the story). This game on the other hand is something I played recently, so that might have made it strange.

[Tetris]

I had to beg for a year to just get the original Gameboy (actually it's not an original, it's the colored edition, so it's green with grey buttons), but yes, I am f***ing old I guess.

Best games though -
Tetris (actually found a cartridge on a parking lot it was in 3 pieces and my dad glued it back together and still works like a charm for years (played it even in multiplayer with a cable during a class in college few years ago)
Batman TAS - brilliant game my cousin had, great action and style for a sprite game and a great Batman game, me and my cousin used to play in turns as Robin/Batman, brilliant
Super Mario Land 2 - while I don't get people's fascination with Nintendo and Zelda etc., this game was super addictive and fun.

[un]

I have an animated gif and use save for web in photoshop but somehow the used frames don't disappear and are shown under the new frames. There is transparency in the gif and so you can see the old frames. When I save it with background it works fine. In photoshop only one layer is shown per frame and there are no settings left to check... how can I make the gif refresh the canvas?

I haven't tried this, but I think you're suppose to add an alpha channel into each frame then save as gif, that way Photoshop overwrites everything for each frame.

On a more practical level, you might not have checked the box for Transparency (in the Save for web and devices panel). I've just tried with and without this checked and when I try without, the animation leaves a certain trail. Also you have to choose No transparency dither in the dropdown menu right below the the Transparency check box just to make sure (gifs don't have transparency blending, it's either 100% or 0%).
Also uncheck the Interlaced option just to be sure.

I found for GIMP there's two solutions depending on the version:
- by choosing from "Frame disposal where unspecified" option "One frame per layer (replace)"
- For the current version (2.8.0), in the name for each frame layer, include (replace). For example: 

Code: AGS

frame 1(250ms)(replace)

Anian, thank you.

Spoiler

Pixie dust is supposed to be wind essence, which is, as stated in the spellbook, a part of any magical wind creature. And pixie is one of those.

[close]

Fair enough, I missed that.

Really sweet game. Art was beautiful, although there's some odd scaling issues when characters walk in perspective, but still that's minor.

Puzzles were fun although one thing about confused me a bit:

Spoiler

is pixie dust supposed to be wind element?

[close]

It's nice to cross elements, makes things seem connected, but why are those squares that in the background of 1,2,3 a slightly different color from each other?
I may like the 1st one the most because there's no squar that distracts from the background and the illustration, but just has a clear contrast of text. Then I'd say the 3rd because again there's a clear contrast between the background squares and the square with the title and credits and the darker colors are used for farther objects.
4th would be very nice if all the text is in that white banner, but the illustration doesn't just stop below it, but sort of continues behind it and upwards.

In the extra .pdf option, I kind of like the 3rd one, if it's for younger people then it holds a certain creepiness about it that I like. The 2nd one wouldn't be bad if it's for lessosn/teaching, because the design is slick and serious, yet stylish.

[Ilyich]

Ok, I'm pretty busy, so I'll close the competition
Idea: Murray
Atmosphere: selmiak
Design: Ilyich
Composition: cat
Functionality: cat
Technique: yarooze
----


So, if my sleep deprived mind counted correctly, it was a rather tight race, but the winner is: Ilyich!
Congrats, please carry on the torch.
And thanks again to all participants.

Try to combine the color version in an overlay or multiply (or other PS effect) layer over the sephia version.

Also see how the Path has the ink spot on the end, well compared to that "h" everything else looks too clean, add a bit of very small imperfections on the letters so they're kind of more ragged and imperfect.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk?

Indeed, it was my gateway book to the weird collection of Palahniuk's worlds. If you think that novel is weird, it only gets weirder from there with stuff like Haunted, Diary, Choke, Rant, Lullaby etc. It's not for everybody though, some of the stuff gets really naturalistic and graphic (if you thought Fincher's Fight club movie was extreme, the rest of this stuff won't be for your gentle soul).

Here lies Rosa Blackwell
last of her kin,
stopped a lot of ghosts,
but didn't stop smokin'