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This news hit me like a hammer. Larry Vales was, like, one of the initial experiences I had with AGS. Definitely one of the games that spurred me on to learn the engine and create my own games with it.  It was legendary in the early days... reading this just makes me incredibly sad. It's hard to hear about someone struggling so bad. Rest in Peace.


Bt

Well, I did write a custom script for it, but it's caused problems in generating the speech lines.  When you use DisplayTopBar - it counts that dialogue as a NARR line, as opposed to the character line.

The custom function looks like this

Code: ags

function TopBar(this Character*, String WrittenText)
{
  /* Game.NormalFont = eFontSpeech;
  DisplayTopBar(40, this.SpeechColor, 16, this.Name, WrittenText);  
  */ Game.NormalFont = eFontNormal;
 }

So if I have a character, Rose, instead of typing out

Code: ags

DisplayTopBar(40,15,16,"Rose","This is the text the character says.");

you enter

Code: ags

cRose.TopBar("This is the text the character says.");

The color of the box, text, etc. are set in the characters property boxes... it makes for nice, easier to type code, especially when there's a lot of dialogue.

Speech Center has labeled all these lines as ROSE1.ogg, ROSE2.ogg etc. 

But all Display lines are counted as NARR lines - so, I'd have to rename all the NPC voice files from the character names to NARR, and then hand number all their lines above 3000, as there's about 3000 lines of narrator speech in game.

For NPCs who do not have a speech portrait, I like to use "DisplayTopBar" to show their name with dialogue.  Instead of having to write out that longer command every time, and for better integration into Speech Center... could we have a property added to Characters that would let you select if their text is displayed normally or with a top bar?  It'd be so much easier - I've run into a big problem with a project right now with this, and trying to integrate speech.

In one of our games, we wrote a simple custom speech command for NPCs without dialogue portraits using the DisplayTopBar command.  It looks like this

Code: ags

function TopBar60(this Character*, String WrittenText)
{
  Game.NormalFont = eFontSpeech;
  DisplayTopBar(60, this.SpeechColor, 16, this.Name, WrittenText);
  Game.NormalFont = eFontNormal;
}

Which works nicely, because you can just call the character name, and what they say easily

Code: ags

cRoberto.TopBar60("I'm saying this here sentence.");

as opposed to always having to type

Code: ags

DisplayTopBar(60, 15,16, "Roberto", "I'm saying this here sentence.");

It uses the color set in the character properties for the display window color, etc.  Nice.  Only problem is now I'm trying to add voices.... annnnddd, there's really no way to numbers these or use speechcenter.  I'm kind of stumped here. 

Any ideas?

Very cool! This looks amazing!


Bt

Yep, I'm getting the same error as Aaron.  "error loading plugin 'agscontroller.dll', it may depend on another DLL that is missing."

Yeah, I have the latest version! I missed this though, I'm going to try. My guess is it will work, and my brain fog has flustered me once again! Thanks, man.

I keep getting a strange error when I load AGS - and I can't get Speech Center to work. Has anyone else had this issue?

Hey, if anyone out there is interested, I'd really love to port our games (Quest for Infamy, Order of the Thorne and our upcoming QFI:Roehm to Ruin) to Mac.  Get in touch with me if you're interested.  I could use the help with this kind of thing.


Bt

A hint to authors: Now might be a good time to offer discounts on your games

Not a bad idea: If you haven't played our games, here's a special sale just for you AGS forums peeps - $.99 on Itch.io this week, get it while it's hot. Order of the Thorne is nominated this year, and Quest for Infamy is a previous AGS Award winner!

https://infamousquests.itch.io/AGSAWARDS

Bt

Haha, this is what I get for releasing a game in Jan. of 2016! Forgot about this... thanks to all who nominated "Order of the Thorne: The King's Challenge" for best voice work!

That's what you get for not posting in the "For your Consideration" thread. It's not related to the month of release.

haha, no I'm blaming myself! I totally forgot we released in in 2016, cause it had been so long since the release.  I forgot to come around and do a "For your consideration!" I only knew now because a friend had told me it was nominated for Voice Acting!  I hadn't checked the general forums in a bit, spend too much time lurking the technical ones!  There's a lot of great games nominated this year; I'm just kicking my own butt for not being pro-active!



Bt

Haha, this is what I get for releasing a game in Jan. of 2016! Forgot about this... thanks to all who nominated "Order of the Thorne: The King's Challenge" for best voice work!


Bt

Hey guys! I meant to post this here earlier, but it's been kind of busy.

We've made a little one-room demo game for the TV series "Stranger Things" on Netflix.  It's basically just a little demo to explore, but if you're a fan of the show, you'll probably have fun with it! It's available for free on itch.io - link provided below.



DOWNLOAD HERE - https://infamousquests.itch.io/stranger-things

Steve Alexander (Blackthorne) - Writing & Programming
Jon-Taylor Stoll - Art & Animation
James Mulvale - Original Music (Forest)
(Stranger Things Theme by SURVIVE)

Hope you have fun with it, thanks to many in the AGS community for always being so clever, supportive and awesome.


Bt

I know sales are sluggish out the gate, but adventure games have a pretty long tail.  Hang in there.


Bt

Big congrats on your release! I saw Kathy Rain when we were at PAX East too; just super excited for you all.  Great work!


Bt

And we're now live for sale on GoG.com and Steam!!

Thanks to everyone who's been a help to us over the years! Hope you enjoy being a bard!


Bt

Woo hoo!  Thank you again, sir!!

Bt

As far as dialogue scripting goes, it'd be nice to tie "DisplayTopBar" to characters.  Often with NPCs without a portrait in Sierra Style Games, I use this.

This may be related to custom speech style and/or individual speech style idea.
Can you make an issue in tracker?

So, I was programming a bit again today and it made me think of this again!  Would anyone else like this function - to be able to choose TopBar as a "Portrait Mode" for characters speech?  Often in games, when characters do not have a portrait, I like to use 'DisplayTopBar' so you can see the name of the character speaking, but it creates problems in tracking it with the Speech Center plugin.


Bt

The King's Challenge has moved into Beta Testing on Steam!  We're gearing up for release, and super excited about it.

Thanks to everyone here who has offered encouragement, helped out, given us programming tips/tricks/hints - I'm really excited about the game.


Bt

[Blackthorne]

2.0.1 now available with a minor fix related to Character, Object, or GUI FadeIn FadeOut tweens. Thanks to Blackthorne!

No problem! Thanks to YOU!!

Bt