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Well lots of people have been pestering me so here it is: The Draculator Source Code . 

A few notes:

-yes, there are many instances of me not following best practices.  I've tried to identify this in my comments
-comments are as comprehensive as possible, but PM me if you have any further questions
-In the interests of version control, if you feel compelled to upload your own director's cut please make this absolutely clear on the title page (i.e. Byte of the Draculator: Baron's Director's Cut) so that I'm not being asked to fix new bugs, etc.

I would hope that being able to play the game earlier would also give more time for revising story and puzzles. I love a lot of the puzzle ideas (eXit! Carrot skin!) and the dialog writing, but I think the overall story and the composition of the puzzles could have been stronger if there'd been a better chance to change things after seeing how they played. Like I mentioned above, I don't think this is a matter of coming up with a better plot in the first place, but being able to get inspired by details that appear during development (graphics, music, animation, voice acting, coding), and thinking of ways to tie together those elements in new and other ways.

I like this idea, but the timeline for idea contributions would have to be strictly controlled: one of the most frustrating things for me was the feature creep of the swarm project.  Every time we were getting close to the finish line, someone would come up with something new.  Yes, the game is better for these contributions, but it was very frustrating saying the game would be ready by such-and-such a time (and it would have been!), but then having to constantly postpone releases due to last-minute extras.

I didn't mean to suggest that the swarm shouldn't come up with the ideas for the game, only that the contributions should be collected and edited by a story director.  Again, this is what Baron did, but he could have been empowered by the swarm to make bolder editorial decisions to maintain stylistic consistency.

....just like the Roman senate voting dictatorial powers for a finite period! 

   Interesting discussion so far.  I would be most interested to see how another swarm project could build on the lessons learned this time around.  I'm WAAAAAY too burnt out at the moment to consider leading it myself, but I'd definitely be a contributor.

Alright, new debugged version is uploading as I write this!  To my knowledge this new version fixes all outstanding issues so far identified.  I've also finalized a translation file (some people expressed an interest in the swarm thread but I thought I'd mention it here as well if anyone is interested).

You know, no one outside of the intellectual elite of a small christian cult would have referred to the 3rd century AD as the "3rd century" -that whole dating system was retroactively imposed once the church became sponsored/co-opted by the Roman state in the 4th century.  Thus, I conclude that the genie is referring to some other third century in some other epoch.

My dad went to university in Ohio back in the 1960s.  Since CJ has opened up the source code to AGS it might just be possible to reconfigure the program to send a message back through time to him.

.........or you could wait for someone who might realistically be able to help you to post in this thread.  Your call.

Well we're getting a bit off topic here so I've posted my postmortem comments in TomatoesInTheHead's new thread here.  I think for the sake of including as many people as possible -people who very sensibly are reluctant to wade through 38 pages of game making discussion -we should close off this intimidating behemoth of a thread and start afresh.  See you there!

Baron

[On the first count, that of the Swarm process being a revolutionary means of making games more quickly and easily than the traditional route, I hereby pronounce the experiment to be a failure.]

It's been a week since release and I've had time to gather my thoughts, so I guess we'll get this postmortem rolling.  I apologize in advance for the wordiness: I've been sick, which means I've been holed up in front of Elizabethan dramas these last few nights  :.  

On the first count, that of the Swarm process being a revolutionary means of making games more quickly and easily than the traditional route, I hereby pronounce the experiment to be a failure.  It was not long into the experiment that the "one hour contribution" rule was relaxed, and for good reason.  It was an idea with appeal, and for some tasks (simpler backgrounds, simpler animations, finding a couple sounds, etc.) it was even feasible.  But many tasks in game-making simply require more time, and it is not at all practical to spread their conception beyond one mind.  I concede that greater organization may well have facilitated some greater spreading of the work load -more experienced animators drawing keyframes, for example, while others filled in the simpler tweens.  I regret, in retrospect, not setting up a specific forum somewhere so that discussions could be organized by threads instead of the intimidating 38 pages that the swarm thread became.  But even so, training (or corresponding with) to bring a contributor up to speed sufficiently to accomplish only an hour's worth of work, and then to be left with the task of starting again from scratch, was quite simply impractical.  
      The project thus quickly evolved into a voluntary contribution scheme, where you could contribute as much as you wanted on the basis of your enthusiasm for the project.  Let's call this the beginning of an evolution of the Modified Swarm Process (MSP).  This worked surprisingly well, though it was not my initial goal.  Here I have come to two important conclusions, however.  
       Firstly, no matter the number of contributors, the success of the project always depended entirely on the willingness of its organizing conscience to see it through.  I'm not now making that extra lunge for personal glory (whatever Ponch may have you believe): this was from the start the Swarm's game; but from a practical perspective it was Baron's project.  That meant that any organization, direction, and all the little bits that were never picked up by contributors all fell to me to undertake.  If someone's sprites were offset from others, someone had to fix it.  If the sounds didn't quite fit, someone had to edit them.  If no one volunteered an essential animation, someone had to draw it, and very often this someone was me.  I suppose if we'd dragged the project out long enough someone could have been found to do these things, but that would have risked losing momentum (making recruitment harder), and anyway I began to question the rationality of spending half-an-hour recruiting volunteers and explaining to them what to do when I could just do the tiny task myself in a fraction of the time.  The project would probably not have worked out so well if I'd tried to control everything (indeed, I tried my very hardest to merge the ideas and artistic output of all swarm members into a harmonious whole), but at the same time it would certainly have not been finished at all had I not been willing to be the workhorse that actualized it.  I say this to anyone planning on organizing such an endeavour in the future: be always flexible and cooperative, but in the end one person must make the game happen.
      Secondly, it would have been more advantageous to lay down from the outset a decision making process.  Here I must apologize to the many contributors who were frustrated by the lack of clear governance in the enterprise.  As the project unfolded I vacillated between open democracy and autocratic declarations, neither of which worked as well as I might have hoped.  The first rarely gave clear direction, and the second deprived the end product of sound ideas in the interests of “just getting it done”.  In retrospect I would have organized the decision making structure in proportion to the contributions of the swarm members, much as a corporation's board votes in proportion to the shares held by its members.  I think this would have kept the peace better, seemed more just than my say-so, and the end-product would have been stronger for it.  Contributors would be rewarded with greater say in proportion to their efforts, which would in turn motivate them further as they saw the game leaning further in the direction of their mind's eye.  Again, something to consider for next time.

On the second count, that of the Swarm process resulting in a unique game that no one developer could conceive of and implement on their own, I hereby pronounce the experiment to be a success.  I'm not a bad game developer, but I could never have come up with such a solid plot and great puzzles on my own, nor could I have drawn such fantastic art or animations, let alone voiced such personality into such well-developed characters (considering their screen time, that is).  I couldn't have even directed talented people to execute such ideas if I had had them: the best instincts of the contributors trumped my imagination.  Organized properly, I think the Modified Swarm Process (MSP) has great potential, as long as the organizer isn't too set on what the project should look like in the end.  (That would be a case where the more traditional approach would be more appropriate).  When many talented people collaborate spontaneously, the best game ideas tend to float to the top.
     This leads me to my final point, the unintended but very much welcomed camaraderie that developed among the collaborators.  Originally I was pretty sure I could scare up several dozen AGSers to contribute an hour each to the experiment, and then they would promptly forget about it, much as university students will participate in a psych or economics experiment for an hour and then forget it ever happened.  This was rare, however: even when the project was in its infancy, and there was no way to tell where it was going, or even if it was going anywhere at all, there quickly developed in the contributors a strong attachment to the project and a happy bond between them.  The experience of contribution towards something bigger than one person made the community stronger, and I am very happy to have been a part of that.  The game may well have turned out well, but it was the process -the journey -that truly made it worth while.
     I thank you all for your time and consideration of my thoughts and look forward to discussing the finer points of Swarming below.  

Fantastic game! I laughed a lot, and now the entire swarm has been Goat Parked.

Yay for publicity!

I will be very interested to hear some post-mortem from Baron, what did it take to manage all that, what worked, what didn't, how many people actually managed to work for under 1 hour, all that fun stuff...

I'll probably get to that this weekend.  I'm in crash mode right now....

And now, for some issue/bugs/quirks I had.

* I didn't hear the music playing for some reason...

The only thing I can think of: is your computer is so advanced that it cannot play MIDI files?  Cause that's what they are -OLD SCHOOL.

* There were some occasions that I had to press the left mouse button more than once for it to respond (probably the mouse mode not always switch after looking at stuff).

Hmmmmm....  I have noticed this once or twice.  I assumed it was the "dead space" on the end of some of the voice lines (thus the left-click would just register as ending the clip instead of activating something new).  I'll look into it further, though.

* No hotspot label for the inventory items.

Ah!  They made me take it out.  They MADE me do it!  Those labels were in there until two days before the final release, but the consensus was they cluttered the GUI.  There you have it -damned if you do, damned if you don't 

.....I now have a human blood in me, so I should not be fast anymore, but I still am...

If the Jedi can lift things with the force, why can't they lift themselves and float around?  I guess this is just another case of "suspend your disbelief" and just enjoy it.

Got a bug here, infinite loop: Merrick says the "I must use this power while I can" spiel ad infinitum.

That's actually a feature.  Dualnames was supposed to turn it into a rap but he never came through for us.....  I mean, he got out the baggy pants and the bling, but there was some problem with the bi-atches and things just ended up falling apart.  Long story short, I guess I should fix the game.

Ha!

Usually ships within 1 to 3 months.

3 new from CDN$ 12.77                2 used from CDN$ 46.23

Send me the..... used one, please.

---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An error has occurred. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 3.21.1115)

in "room8.asc", line 41

Error: Error running function 'room_AfterFadeIn':
Error: Null pointer referenced

Impressive that you caught the 1 game loop that the audio clip wasn't playing!  I've added a condition to check whether the audio channel is playing before changing the volume.  Thanks for the report!

I too am excited by the four cup rating -wow!  I've never been a part of a "quality" project before....  And all along I thought the plan was to do it "quick-and-dirty".  I guess we made a wrong turn in the design document somewhere.....

Ahhh.  Back to the drawing board, I guess.  In the mean time, I've uploaded version 1.1 with a missing animation and some sound edits.  I'll investigate this getting shot nonsense when I get a bit more time.

Btw Shivers, that must feel so awkward being stuck in a game listing to your own voice.

"Vhat do I do now!" 

Hey, you forgot my animation! HMF. Oh well, looks/plays great! Good work everyone!

Dammit!  Too much going on in the eleventh hour.  I'll make sure to plug this in next build.  Sorry!

Party Time, everybody!

HERE is the game's entry in the database.  The "game authors" section couldn't handle all of our information, so I just pasted it into the game description and left the other section blank (if you're wondering why your profile doesn't show your contribution.....).  I'm going to PM a moderator about rectifying this.

The voice of Merrick is hilarious - great work!

But that's ShiverMeSideways' everyday voice......   

Top marks for him, too, fighting through illness to get hundreds of lines recorded in time for release.  What a guy!

I'm very proud of my huge contribution to this project of suggesting adding number 2 to the title.

Gah!  Now I have to update the credits again!

[OFFICIALLY RELEASED!]

Check out the completed games thread!  This puppy is OFFICIALLY RELEASED!

A few notes:

1) I was unable to replicate the bug Cat found.  If anyone finds this, please send me the error message and I'll patch it up.

2) I had to modify Snarky's exploding poodle slightly so that all the carnage didn't accumulate  mid-air.

3) I chickened out on the "right-click = drop item" in the inventory window since it wasn't functioning properly.  I think I know what's going wrong, but I ran out of time.  Again, something that can be patched when I can look at it more leisurely.

I think that's it.  We'll keep this thread open for our post-mordem discussions for a week or so, but that's it for "new" features (I've got a bake sale game I should be focusing on!).

Finally, I wanted to offer my heartfelt thanks to all the contributors for all their hard work in making this game a reality and this experiment a success.  Fantastic work, everybody!  Five months ago I couldn't be sure that this game would even get built, let alone imagine that it would turn out so well.  You guys made this happen!  Everybody stand in a circle, turn left, and now pat that person on the back.  Awesome work, Swarm!

[BYTE OF THE DRACULATOR II]

Just in time for Hallowe'en.....
BYTE OF THE DRACULATOR II

PLOT: You play as Merrick, the erstwhile corporal who became a vampire to try to impress a pair of sexy-vampire twins.  But then he is immediately kidnapped by the army and enrolled in a top-secret robotic implants experiment!  Now he is half-vampire, half-robot, and more than half-confused.  One thing he does know: he must escape the base or spend the rest of his days as the lap-poodle of the military's chief mad scientist!



BACKGROUND: This game is the fruit of the Swarm, an experimental collaborative project.  Have a look at the vast list of credits to see how many, many AGSers collaborated on this project, or see how many I can remember to mention in this Developer's Playthrough  Congratulations on finishing, team!

FEATURES: This short 10 minute game is jam-packed with goodies.....
-Full voice acting! (All by prominent AGSers!)
-Fully animated!
-Humorous cutscenes!
-Exciting climactic boss-fight!
-Puzzles that only a vampire could face!

EDIT: Spanish translation now available!

THE DOWNLOAD: 17 MB Here!

Soon, my swarming minions.  Soon....

Ha, well I worked late tonight and you've all given me a bunch more stuff to plug into the game, so my goal is to release tomorrow, probably late.  Thanks for all the extras!

You have to set "Override built-in inventory window click handling" to True in the general settings for this to work.

Ah, the missing piece of the puzzle!  The right-click drop for the inventory window shouldn't be hard to implement.

QUIT GUI - I'll get to that tonight -these ones aren't hard.

DOG EXPLOSION - It was Armaggedon's first ever animation.  Since I think it's important that he make it into the credits as an animator, I'll only change it if he has animated something else in-game.  I don't have it in my records, but that's not saying much.  Armageddon? 
      In my heart of hearts I'm not really happy with the IV tube just disappearing too, so I'll probably go in and fix that.

ALARM - The alarm gets in the way of the voice acting.  I think it suffices to play it a couple times to give the impression of an alarm going off, then leaving it.

BITING SOUND -Good idea!

LIGHTENING FLASH -Good idea!

SAVE/LOAD GUI - For a five minute game???  I remember customizing one a while ago.... I think it was for Besieged.  I don't remember liking the process....

[If there are no revisions offered within 20 hours this will be the version released to the public this weekend]

OK, 2x it is, with instructions in the readme for people who may want to fiddle with the settings.

Also HERE is the version of the game to be released Friday/Saturday, unless anybody finds any last things to update.  I've got Armageddon's animating backgrounds in the middle cutscene (I had to alter the colour of two of the frames to preserve the flashing alarm effect), what there is so far of Snarky's hand animation, a 20-minute destruction background, all the sounds discussed above, custom text box and all the latest finicky things taken care of.  If there are no revisions offered within 20 hours this will be the version released to the public this weekend.

And good work, everyone.  I get so focused on getting the work done I sometimes forget to be appreciative