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This looks really sexy. And I agree with everyone else, you've struck a really good balance with the pre-rendered art.

The only reference to "zooming" I found in Draconian Edition thread is this:

Fixed Scaling on D3D (and now works fine with "Smooth scaled sprites" option)

It does not sound as same issue to me; could it be you were talking about two different problems?

That's exactly the fix that's needed for this version of AGS.

And you are correct! In the Draconian version that has scaling fixed, if you scale up a character and have smooth scaling enabled in the winsetup it will still retain the effect that exists now that AGD2 requires.

game.disable_antialiasing doesn't do anything as far as I can tell.

I know that this was because it uses the gamma slider and the character scaling is fixed and he told me himself.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52224.0

No suffering. This would be an optional line in the .cfg file, and the default would be set to the new fixed style.

I think it'd be better to have it in the editor options to compile with it. I wouldn't want players changing it by mistake.

Like Scavenger says, this is a hideous bug that should be fixed ASAP, and I find the decision to deliberately inflict it on your game deeply disturbing. Plus, relying on players not changing the filter settings?! Madness!

I don't think we should all suffer just because your one game uses the bug in a strange way. Most people would prefer to have it fixed.

I'm curious, why doesn't this version of AGS include the character scaling fix from the Draconian version of AGS?

Not only that, I believe.
May someone make a list of things that were not copied from Draconian yet?

I think it's just the character scaling and the gamma adjustment, unless anyone cares about the DirectDraw pixel shaders, you shouldn't use DirectDraw anyways.

What are the chances of fixing the character scaling in this engine branch though/how soon? I know the Draconian version is open source too.

I'm curious, why doesn't this version of AGS include the character scaling fix from the Draconian version of AGS? I like that feature in the Draconian version but I also want custom resolution sizes from this version.

Hey guys. I just released another game. It's not an adventure game but some of you might get a kick out of  it. Check it out!


http://ryantrawick.itch.io/dogwolve


http://ryantrawick.itch.io/abyssinia

I made an adventure game so short people were telling me it wasn't even an adventure game.

Good talk this week. Also I disagree with the LA Noire sentiment. I missed a lot of evidence and even failed cases and it changed quite a lot of dialogue.  A lot of stuff changed the second time I played. I think it's a fantastically designed system. Each case is its own self-contained narrative and depending on the way the case turns out it will determine how the first 10ish minutes of the next case is told.

Can we use the song within the game? It'd be freeware so I doubt there'd be any legal trouble.

Sweeeeeeet.

I replay games a lot. It's like going back to a great movie. There's something new to find each time. The story or world changes every time you look at it. The game ages with you, you know? They also inspire, and make you want to make something just as good or better. Also playing so many bad games can get old, so revisiting what made you inspired is pretty great.

I like to focus on composition first, getting just the greyscale black and white shapes looking good. Usually I have an idea in my head of how the walls and floors are shaped and contrast and the lines converge and create an appealing composition to me.

Then I fire up Google Images and look at every single reference image I can. I think about the type of lighting commonly used in the location. I pick out all the little details like a broken pole, or chipped up concrete dividers. You should really think about how and why things are where they are. How did something get damaged and what were the circumstances that lead to it. Where does the litter collect. Etc.

Then I draw out my horizon lines. Make the perspective 100% correct then I start painting over. I like to paint as if there is no light source at first, just to shape things out and make it easier to use placeholder colors. Then once I have the shape of every object done I begin recoloring, plan out where the lights are and start drawing shadows on top of the image. Then I finish it off with adding some highlights.

And that's about it I guess. Just look at a lot of images, really study them and see what all the details are or why it's visually stimulating to you. Also it sort of comes down to game design. With adventure games you can get stuck making a bunch of connecting rooms with nothing in them just so the environment seems real, that is not only boring to draw but it's boring to play. So plan out your scenes so you're getting the full production value out of every location before you draw them.

iirc from an old Lucas Arts interview about Hit The Road they said a playtester got stuck because they wouldn't pickup a knife or something. The playtester had never played video games before, which is usually a pretty good person to test your game. It's always been interesting to me the perspective of people that have never played games. There's so much visual/mechanical language we take for granted as players because 'that's just how games are.' Most normal people think of things in such a real world way when playing for a first time.

I love the theme, it's open to so many possibilities. Can't wait to see what people come up with!

I love it. Getting strong The Thing vibes from it.

No episode for two weeks in a row.

Oh well look what we have here Ben!

http://www.gog.com/game/zak_mckracken_and_the_alien_mindbenders

Granted, it's not the original art. But it's still worth playing.

Speaking of Rob Blanc, Yahtzee recently replayed all of them and recorded his thoughts. Very interesting to watch.

You haven't played Zak McKraken!?!?

For adventure games I really like Joshua Nuernberger's approach. Since adventure games pretty much rely entirely on content and very little gameplay it makes sense to just have the absolute bare bones of the game with placeholder art. Every plot point and dialogue tree. Don't worry about the art at all, you have to make sure your story works and flows first. Then it's also easy to tweak and shift things around, rewrite sections. From there you can start drawing and designing characters.