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There might be a separate dialog box when rendering from your art program that can change your resolution.  When I use Flash I can set the document to a certain size (640 x 400, for example), but then when I export (the equivalent of rendering) the graphic as a PNG a dialog comes up that can change the final resolution (optional dpi, etc.).  If these numbers get changed they tend to persist (ie not default back to original settings) and it can throw all my art out of whack.  Something to check anyway, since it seems as if you think your draw program is changing the resolution on you.

I even tried opening INN with SCI Studio VGA and looked at hundreds and hundreds of Views but just couldnt find it...

There's no real point for display graphics to be a part of a view.  If SCI Studio organizes itself like AGS, the graphics would probably just be individual sprites.

These guys are right, you're never going to learn unless you do it yourself.  I'm sure if you ask a specific question to help do it yourself someone would be more than willing to answer it, but I doubt very much that someone is going to do it for you.

[*Dualnames feels depressed*]

I did some tour on the old forums to get those. Now I remembered how boring the forums have turned.
*Dualnames feels depressed*

Why not start new topics with exactly the same posts as those back in 2002 (without telling anybody, of course) and then compare how the train of communal thought has changed over the years?  If you get less exciting responses than in 2002 you will have indeed proven your theory, but at the same time generated some personal excitement at having us as unwitting participants in your master experiment.  If you get more exciting responses than in 2002 then you can quietly discard your theory and reap the dividends of living in truly the best of times.  Finally, if you get equally exciting posts (which, if you want to be picky about semantics, would be the exact same posts), then you can live the exciting reality of being caught up in a nine year feedback loop which keeps repeating over and over and over again.  Just remember to bet huge on the Red Sox in 2004 and if the number 3 starts repeating itself over and over again do whatever Commander Riker suggests.

I finally put an hour together and listened.  I thought Ron Gilbert relied a bit much on Limbo as an example of the contemporary direction of adventure games (why hasn't he played my work?!?!?!), but his insights and memories about the game making process were definitely interesting.  The "filler" for the last 20 minutes or so where the hosts just gabbed about old time adventures conjured up all kinds of old memories.

Oh Hitler, you'll be waiting a while yet.   :

This looks fun -good luck!

Awesome -thanks.

However it would be nice if you had Question > answer and not a list of questions and a list of answers.

That's due to the interview's format: Dualnames threw all the questions at us at the beginning and we had to answer as best we could remember. 

Greetings tech savvy Forumites,

    I'm trying to script parabolic movement.  It seemed simple enough in my head, and I've come up with a forumula that suits my purposes on paper, but I just can't seem to get AGS to give me the two thumbs up.  The basis of my code:

Code: ags

while (cPrincess.x < 650){
    cPrincess.x ++;
    princessy = (0.004 * cPrincess.x * cPrincess.x) - (2.56 * cPrincess.x) + 650; //****
    cPrincess.y = FloatToInt (princessy, eRoundNearest);
    Wait (1);
  }

  In theory the princess moves one pixel to the right every game loop, and her y coordinates are calculated by the standard y= ax2 + bx + c formula.  Princessy is a float, since usually the formula won't return an integer.  I then attempt to  take that float and update the princess's y coordinate, and update the screen with Wait.  The problem is AGS throws me an error saying Cannot convert float to int for the asterisked line.  I've tried creating float variables for all of the contents (princess.x, a, b, c) but it still thinks there's an int involved somewhere and I'm just not getting what it's asking for.  Am I messing up my syntax or misunderstanding how the float data type works?  Any help would be appreciated.

I suggest keep practicing.  Many artists have done phenomenal animation using many different programs, so there is clearly no "magic bullet" method.  It's good you are experimenting with different methods/programs -keep it up and find one that works best for you.  Quality will increase over time if you keep striving for it, no matter what tools you are using.

If you aren't going to use the spinning pictures elsewhere in the game, I'd make everything into room objects.  The spinning effect is only possible in AGS if you import a whack of sprites each at a different angle, and then string them together as a view to animate the object.  Zooming in and out is possible using scaling (although that might only apply to characters so read up on it in the manual before making everything into objects and then cursing me  ).  It might look a little funny since it's only an algorithm: to keep the details as you want them you might choose to draw different sized sprites and then achieve the zoom effect through animation as well.

. Now gimme me 50!

Yes sir, sergeant sir!    1......   2........   3.......

..... or did you mean 50 posts?

Those are better than most of the comics I see in the papers these days.  Good stuff man!

I'd second this.  Comics in the papers these days suck!  Not to imply that you are just above the level of sucking....  I'd put you somewhere between Bizarro and Dilbert, which from my perspective is decent to good.  The problem with comics is consistency.  Even a crappy comic can get a chuckle out of me once in a while, but it's only the good ones that make you laugh every single time.  Is this a random sample of your work, or just the highlights?  If these are just your latest run-of-the-mill outings I think you've got a serious shot at being syndicated, since your work is easily better than 3/4 of the crap in the papers.  They'll probably give you some crap about readers being attached to the characters they can relate to, but I swear if Tina keeps that clueless ditz Monica in her friendship circle a minute longer I'll  -ah, there I go ranting again.  I say the world needs more one-liner comics!

EDIT: I read a random sample of comics from your site and I'm going to up my fanboy status from "probably read your stuff" to "definitely read your stuff".  You've got the seventh sense, brother!  (That is, the sense of humour).  Good luck getting syndicated.

Ah, the elite 1000 post club -Congratulations!  According to the membership stats there are only 121 members who have ever achieved such status.  There should be a name for you old timers who stuck it out for the long haul.  Something like the Circle of Wisdom, or the Seasoned Squad, or.... something.  I'll get back to you on that.  Anyway, thanks for thinking of your community for such a landmark post, unlike somebody....

5000 was somewhere.

Talk about your special moments.  That's like the real world equivalent of farting at the altar or losing your virginity to a sheep.  I demand something classy and memorable for your 6000th!

Thats what I always say! BaSS is awesome!

BaSS is "Beneath a Steel Sky"?!?  All these years I thought people around here were just really fond of fish....

("anyone with a sophisticated sense of humor should be laughing right now")

Well, I'll laugh anyway.

i'm also giving people the chance to write in their own WTF moment to appear in the game, since it's going to be a one hit wonder, and everyone will love it and think i'm the best noob ever.

   I personally already think you are the best no0b ever.  However, I do question your advertisement and detailed description of the "easter egg", which by definition should be some hidden bonus for the astute or determined player.  At best what you've created is a marketing gimmick.
     Anyway, on to the WTF moment.  How about at the end, conditional on the easter egg being discovered, your other inanimate object wife -oh, let's say she's one of those packing tape dispensers - serves you divorce papers and then gets into a white trash cat fight with the home-wrecker Bush.  There'd be an "Oh no you di'n't!" line, followed by an all-out scrap, and then maybe some sort of weird passionate make out scene.
     Just a suggestion.

Nice game so far -haven't finished yet, but I'm enjoying it.  I liked the bug squishing -sure it wasn't very challenging, but it was a good excuse to explore the house.  The music adds atmosphere to all the locations I've played, and the sound effects (ie for stepping on different surfaces) make the game come alive.  Some of the animation is a little out of place (Egore's walk compared to the professor's, for example), but most of it I thought was pretty good.  The backgrounds were amazing, but sometimes a little too complex for your sprites (the angle of the stairwell really calls for diagonal walking loops, for example).  I say all this to help you with your next project -visually this project is quite good, and your attention to detail (sounds, small animations) grabs and keeps the player's attention.

Oh, and that jumping screaming cup on the AGS splash screen was awesome!  Is there any chance CJ can use it for the next version of AGS so I can watch it every time I run the program?  I'm sure he'd pay royalties....

 

Was there more to the intro sequence (page 2/3 seems to be the last one posted)?

    I see why you winnowed it down -that would be a lot of work to fully animate and execute.  Not to take anything away from your original story concepts, but from a player's perspective I definitely think you made the right choice in simplifying the scenes. 
     Any chance of some (short) analysis justifying your edits?  I'm interested in how one improves one's story-telling while saving work at the same time, but I'd like some insight into your thought process (outside of just comparing the original concept to the finished product).

@Ascovel:  That's more of a brain storm concept sketch than a story board, per se....

What kind of video will that be? One of those video where each games have 6 seconds, for a grand total of 100 games shown in 10 minutes? If so, when you get your list of 100 games, I suggest you find what area each games excel at and showcase that, some games have great jokes, for others it's the animation or puzzles or gameplay that would shine the most in a video.

Wow, that'd be a lot of gaming (100 games!).  I think loontje should kill two birds with one stone and join the ratings ubergesellschaft  -er, panel.

You can filter the games you see on the Games Page by length, genre or number of cups (although strangely not by user rating.....).  It's hard to make further suggestions without some criteria -is it just ANY 100 AGS games, or do you want the best?  Or most popular?  Or most recent?  Or pinkest?

Nice short article, and very informative.  Unfortunately reading it has compelled me to scrap 10 backgrounds and start again -thanks!