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I can see things in it now! Just barely, but so much of an improvement for me .

As Snarky said, a CRT is the oldschool type screen monitor, opposite of a flatscreen, and usually gives much richer colours. However, LCDs tend to brighten everything up, because unlike CRTs, they have to "show" colour, even if it is pure black, while CRTs would just show the colour at a less intense level, to make it darker. As a result, since everyone has flatscreens now, developers generally develop things for those screens, and me with my CRT is left behind.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of using literal darkness to show darkness of a scene in game, unless your actual intention is to not have the player be able to see anything as part of the gameplay (eg. those scenes in Fate of Atlantis where you had to set up a light in the underground dig). Even in movies, you'll notice that even when the characters are in darkness, you can still see them.

So like you have it now, a mostly monochromatic (but not monotonic) range of blue, just not so dark. Like in the first two Monkey Island's night scenes, Another World's night scenes, or Future Wars dark cave scenes, etc.

The trick would've been to apply the filter FIRST, THEN shrink it down (except you'd want 320x240, not 200). It still doesn't look nice, though, because 800:320 is 2.5, and you can't apply a Mosiac filter of size 2.5. If you do it to a size of 5, and then shrink it down to 160x120, it looks more appealing, but then it is 160x120 .
Some (technically quite useless) experimentation (with all of the images zoomed into ~640x480 for comparison:


Simply shrunken down to 320x240:

The aliasing and stuff is quite jarring, and not in a nice, pixel-art sort of way


Shrunken down to 320x240, with a 2x Mosaic filter applied:

Since the ratios don't match, it still doesn't look good.


Shrunken down to 160x120 with a 5x Mosaic filter applied:

Ratios match now, so it looks slightly better, despite being small


Shrunken down to 267x200 with the 3x Mosaic filter applied:

Ratio matching, slightly smaller, but you could probably fill in the rest to bring it up to 320x240


...or you could just render out to 320x240?

31 is pretty ancient in AGS terms

...although I guess less so now. It seems the entire community's average age is slowly going up? Or at least the active community.

I'm not sure I've ever seen 3D characters work with pixel art or even cartoony 2D.

Not that anyone cares, because I still use a CRT, but all I'm seeing in all the pictures is a big black screen with a couple of red and green dots .

You know, talking about getting rid of extraneous verbs, despite what StillInThe90s said, when was the last time walking was part of a puzzle in the game?
/says Babar, jokingly, slowly realising with horror that it could actually be an argument to remove walking


So a most appropriate interface, allowing for single-click to do all, could be hovering the mouse over any interactable would bring up all the actions you can perform on that thing around it (making sure not to block the view of anything), at which point you can click any of them!

...of course, then we have the touchscreen users complaining about hovering....

HandsFree is correct!

Probably dialog options. In the first case, I have a hard time imagining a scenario where you know a reason to push a character of a ledge but the puzzle is figuring out that you should do it, so the challenge would probably be more about either establishing motivation (navigating dialog tree? Using object on character to elicit the remark that causes you to push them over the edge?), or eliminating whatever obstacles there might be (arranging a diversion or simply timing it so witnesses are looking away, figuring out how to get up close, etc).

It was more: Talk with the guy, he says something that shows he needs to die, say something to get him distracted (or say the same thing again if you missed the window to do it the first time), then when his attention is diverted, push him. So your solution would be "PUSH HIM" as a dialogue option?

But yeah, I hated the verb-coin as well .

I actually don't disagree with Knox, I wouldn't dislike multiple possible actions either. When I'm suddenly placed in a situation where I have to start reconsidering this cool puzzle I thought up (or to be honest, the ONLY puzzle I could think up to move the story along ) because the super-simplified interface won't allow for it, or I have to start thinking of unintuitive alternatives to implement it (I think Radiant suggested using a sharpened coin inventory item as a way to interact with a character who I could otherwise only talk to, so as to be able to pickpocket him), I realise something is wrong, and the interface is not working.
Personally I blame laptops and touchscreens for not having properly implementable middle mouse/scroll buttons. That would solve all my problems (until I come up with ANOTHER interaction mode I want that doesn't have space ). WE NEED A NEW INTERACTION DEVICE! Or some inventiveness to come up with a new interface. Gestures or something on touchscreens to allow for multiple interactions?

I'm not sure how unintuitive the Sierra Interface is for someone who's never used it, I suppose some ways to make it more palatable would be to minimise the number of clicks required to do something. So maybe have a sort of hybrid Lucas-Sierra interface. Have the 5 interactions somewhere permanently on screen, have keyboard shortcuts, etc.

This trend towards minimalisation is kinda interesting. You originally had the text parser with its theoretically limitless possible actions, then someone said "Hey, technically there's only a fixed number of things you can do, why not have them all in a drop-down list as well?", then from there 12 verb-list, then 9, then 5, then 3, then 2, now 1, and probably at every step of the way, the authors/creators complaining. I remember reading that the Two Guys from Andromeda REALLY didn't want to switch over from the text parser for SQ4, and fought that decision as long as they could, before finally accepting it, but sticking in the almost (game-progression-wise) useless SMELL and TASTE icons there as a response to "You don't need so many verbs, get rid of them".

Hahah..I'm sure that's fine.

I did a quick search (AGS and Google) to make sure this game hasn't featured in this thread before, and couldn't find it, but it is probably pretty easy for the veterans here, so:


As usual, stripped of any identifying UI.

You want origin keys? Not steam keys to EA games, but origin keys?

Metal Gear 2!

[The Longest Journey:]

Stupot:
Dunno what games you have and don't have, so I might go over the number you need. You've probably played a number of these, so some of these descriptions might sound condescending to you, but when I use the expression "great story", which is something I focused on mostly for this list, I don't mean it lightly. If you're sticking to adventure games, I'd recommend:

• The Longest Journey: Great game, excellent story, occasionally silly puzzles. A LOT of dialogue and text (some optional, some really helps in world building, some not so much).
• To the Moon: a bit of a shortish game (I finished it in about 4 hours), but well worth it. Was made in RPG Maker, I think, so the interface was a bit clunky for an adventure game for me, but the story pulled me in anyhow. Really sweet.
• Quest for Glory 1-5: Even if it is for 4 and the remake of 1 (assuming you play the AGDI version of 2), I'd say it is worth it. If you don't know what QfG is , they're really nicely done RPG-Adventure game combinations. Except 5. 5 was horrible crap .
• Space Quest 1-3: I wouldn't say 2 was anything special, but 3 (especially) and the remake of 1 was excellent. Otherwise, you could go for Space Quest 4-6, which while I personally didn't care for 5 or 6, but it'd still be well worth it just for 4.
• Planescape: Torment: Not an adventure game, but it really should've been . Awesome story, awesome characters, cool world, all around awesome.
• Beyond Good & Evil: Even less of an adventure game, but I'd still very much so recommend it. Fun gameplay (some people hated that 1 stealth level, but I saw it as part of the charm), great story and atmosphere and music. One of those games I'm fanatic about now.

While not in the 9.99 range (are 5.99 instead), I'd still strongly recommend Simon the Sorcerer 1 or 2, because they're great as well- beautiful graphics, great comedy, engaging gameplay (except that infamous puzzle in 2) and great characters and dialogue (some people found Simon's teenager rudeness in 2 a bit annoying, but I say the game makes enough fun of him for that anyway ). Make sure you don't get 3, though! Gabriel Knight 1 is also 5.99, but well worth considering- great story, great puzzles, sorta detective work.

As for less adventure gamey games, Psychonauts for great dialogue, humour, atmosphere, everything you can expect from a Tim Schafer game (including, as well, somewhat problematic platforming in some places, but I'd still say that is far outweighed by the good points).
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time also, which came out around the same time as Beyond Good & Evil, and unfortunately overshadowed it a bit, but I can't feel too angry with it, because it is a solidly awesome 3D platformer with a great time travelly mechanic that functions as an insta-save. Cute atmosphere and story as well. I can't really recommend the other parts, though.. Two Thrones and Warrior Within tried being "darker" and "edgier" but ended up being stupid (the prince going all gothy in his style, and calling characters "bitch" and other weirdly out of place cussing), and the last one (simply called "Prince of Persia") gave up the time travel mechanic and sorta got boring.
Thief 2: for the mother of all stealth games (a significant improvement on 1, otherwise I'd've recommended that), really cool solve-how-you-want levels that are enjoyable to explore and crack. Thief 3 sorta loses that non-linearity, but makes up for it with more in-depth story and atmosphere.
Fallout 2: and don't be confused, it is nothing like 3. An RPG with more strategic gameplay, more engaging characters, options and exploration.
Ultima 7: An RPG that was the pinnacle of Ultima games if you ask me, and something defining of RPGs in general. Highly interactive game world (and I'm not just talking about the people), with loads of open-ended exploration.
Another World: "Cinematic Platformer". Really pretty and smooth, atmospheric and a deservedly loved classic. Brutally hard, however, so be prepared to slog it out .
Deus Ex: Some sort of incredibly intricate stealth FPS/RPG hybrid that really emphasises the choices you make and their consequences. Multiple paths and ways to solve each mission as creatively as you like. Some people complain that its ugliness today makes it difficult to play, but mods have been released that fix that!

PS: I also have origin keys (not steam, but origin) from the recent Humble Origin Bundle if anyone cares for them.

Probably a play on THX1138, substituted with the initials of his name?

Oh, and my avatar is the baba.

[...] Coming up with a story is the best part of making a game!

I agree . However apart from being the best part, it's the most hardest part to pull off in my opinion!

Is it, though? You could probably come up with a dozen ideas in an hour. It is the part immediately following that that seems so hard .

I personally don't think, at least in your situation, that it is a good idea. While I can understand issues of wanting a separate USE and TALK, as far as walking goes, it doesn't seem necessary.

If you click on something specific, it generally implies you want to interact with it. If you're just clicking on the path, or on nothing, then it implies you want to walk there. You'll never really want to WALK ON the computer or something, and if you want to show the player walking to an item before interacting with it, you can combine those two into interact: the player first would then walk to the item, then interact with it.

I can't think of a situation where walking on to an object and interacting with the object should produce 2 separate necessary results- Pressure plate, elevator platform, door, etc. would all give the same result whether you WALKED on to them, or USED them.

[ citation needed ]

Well, I meant in terms of minimalism in interface. Every time this topic comes up on the forums, the majority seem to be favouring it. It seems in this thread you're even arguing for a single-button interface?!
..or is it just a vocal minority?! I remember Vince did some sort of GTD thing on interface where he lambasted the Sierra interface (deservedly, I guess ) and favoured as minimal an interface as possible. What does that guy know, though, right ? He took 5 years to make 1 game!

I find that most less-common verbs can be replaced by an inventory item. For instance, rather than putting a dig command on the GUI, give the player a shovel. In the case of pickpocketing, a suitable item could be a sharp coin; this is a coin with its edge sharpened, so that it can be used to cut purses (hence the term "cutpurse").

What would be your suggestion for pushing someone off a ledge? Or pulling someone up from one after you've had a stern talking to with them about how they won't be evil anymore?

But I have also been known to code a special GUI with 40+ verbs on it, just to see if it could work

I think I actually nabbed hat code from that game .

If your game features interesting descriptions of everything (and I'm of the mind that LOOK descriptions are a vital part of adventure games!), and then you have an object you can interact with as well, isn't that automatically 2 interactions?

I'd suggest hovering or some such similar mechanism for use as "look", but I get the feeling tablet users will get annoyed with that .

Since (I think) the question has been suitably answered, I hope nobody minds me hijacking this thread for a slightly related topic, which I may have asked ages ago before, but I can't remember the responses except that they seemed to be inconclusive.

Most people say that the two-button interface is the best in terms of simplicity and intuitive design and so on, with one button (usually LMB) for walk to and interact, and the other for looking at. My game features (I dunno WHY I keep designing them like this ) occasional characters you can both interact with- push, pull, pickpocket, etc- AND talk to.
How would you handle that?
I'd really actually prefer an actual control scheme, but for now I've got it so that each character is actually two characters, and if you click the head, it does talk, if you click the body, it is interact, and I do it for every character, otherwise it becomes too obvious which characters you can interact with.

EDIT: Hahah..I didn't notice the second page with the whole new path to the discussion. In this case, yes, I've seen games with single button does everything (I think possibly the new Sam & Max is like that?), but I definitely prefer having a look. If tablets are an issue with not having more than one kind of interaction, I think that is an issue for tablets to solve (or inventive UI designers).

Knox! I forgot about your game! I suppose there IS a Police Quest fan-game of sorts in the works .

But yeah, and their kickstarter video was also not focused properly. Almost half of it was dedicated to retreading old history (intros, meeting up, reminiscing about Sierra).

If there isn't so much demand for a Police Questish game, and they still really want to make it (rather than treating it as easy money from old fans), they should scale back their game, and reduce the funding accordingly, although I suppose they wouldn't be able to have a big team behind them, then.

They obviously are. There are tonnes of Space Quest fan games (some of them quite good), King's Quest also has great fan games, even Leisure Suit Larry had a remake.

Did any fan do a remake/fangame/sequel to any Police Quest game in the intervening years between the last adventuregame Police Quest?

Would probably be difficult to drum up kickstarter interest for translations of a game from several years ago, no? I mean, your focus would be people from these countries who know enough english to know about the game, but not enough to play it. You'd probably have to have a kickstarter video in several languages .
Unless, of course, you actually have some physical or digital memorabilia that would interest a fan who has played it, even if they don't particularly care if a translation gets made.