Messages

Please use a full TTF that also supports non-ASCII characters (e.g. German Umlauts, French accents,...). I think it is more important to have these than to have a completely new font.

Most TTF don't look good at that resolution, but whatever font we use I will make sure to complete the extended version of it.
I have already done the characters for the font that JimReed provided:

It lurks in the dark, waiting for unsuspecting capitalist pigs... once he finds your scent, you won't be able to escape from the ghost of the communist threat!
It will take all your possessions and distribute them equally, giving power back to the proletariat... fighting against das kapital!

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/O55gSGa.gif[/imgzoom]

You could always try changing the Keyboard layout, until you find one that will have the < > and | keys on some other place.
Or you can create your own keyboard layout and make your own key combinations: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/keyboardlayouts.aspx

KAnd when this is over, might I suggest another contest for a new AGS Awards client GUI?

I don't know who is in charge of the AGS Awards client, but I'd be more than happy to help with that.

Perhaps we should open this up as a competition!

As I said before, if you have a font, or are interested in making a font send it over and we will ask people to vote which one they want for the template (the font shouldn't be bigger than Jim's, otherwise it will be impractical for a 320x200 screen).

Khris created a nice font here (example).

That is a nice font indeed, but as Khris mentioned it is taken from a game.
I was hoping to use an original font that came from the community (otherwise we may just as well go to the source and copy one of the fonts Sierra used).

But again, if anyone wants to offer up a font they made, just post it here and we can vote on it.

Jim Reed sent me this font he made:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/atsH5dN.png[/imgzoom]

Unless anyone objects, I will be using it for the template.
Otherwise if anyone wants to offer a different font, we can set all the offered fonts and vote to decide which one goes.

I see your point there, well, I see nothing except black and it indeed looks empty.
About that contest, we should limit the palette to the colors in the Iconbar, colors on the new roger, black + white and maybe some 5-10 more.
Should we have a theme? Like a spaceship like abstauber already started and it is fitting for roger. or no theme at all, just free creativity? Or something more down to earth like a living room or a bedroom? I'm all for freedom.
Should we enforce a keep it simple rule as this background is about to get changed anyways. this gets a probably not from me.

I don't think we should add many restrictions. I mean, even on a 256 color game, you'd give the background artist at least a 100 color palette, if not more. I like Abstauber's background, but it is made for a SCUMM UI in mind (a lot of empty space on the bottom third of the screen).
I believe we should just give them nu-Roger, and ask for a nice 320x200 background that works for him without scaling.
I wouldn't add any other restriction than the size and having nu-Roger in mind for it.

If you are Ok with it, I will start the competition since I don't plan to enter it. I already won the icon bar one, and I think it would be nice to have different parts of the template made by different people in the community.

While you're palette-swapping the sprite, I wonder if it would also make sense to change the skin tone to something a bit more like the forum smileys (in turn based on CJ's Roger), and the hair color to match. Roger doesn't need to be so lily-white, and it would also serve to distinguish him from the Sierra character.

Well, if someone is up to it, great. I think the hair and the skin share colors, so it would be a little more of work than just a quick palette swap to use the old Roger's skin and hair color.
I see if at some point I get the time and add the sprites to the github as well.

I totally agree with you. Can these cursor animations be disabled by a simple click? Having to delete a lot of frames from a view probably works too and will teach the noob a lesson on how to use AGS... lol. Or we just keep it simple with just an animated hourglass.

I'd recommend just the animated hourglass. It's simple, and shows the user that AGS does support animated cursors.

about these next steps. I'd say we keep the background as the last thing to do. it is the most fun thing to do, maybe there is no more fun in the contests when we only have menus left to do. idk.

Personally I don't think the order will affect the outcome, if people find making a menu boring, they won't participate no matter if the contest is before or after the background one.
The only reason I have not done the menus myself is because we talked about making this a group effort, otherwise I would have already started working on all the UI elements myself.

About the font, is this really neccessary. We could and should just use a free pixel bitmap font found on dafont with a very free license, preferably not needing and credit whatsoever or we need another credits file and have to maintain it and 5 people read it.

Well, honestly I wasn't thinking about people having to make fonts for the template. We already have a lot of fonts made by AGS users over the years. I think we can pick from the ones people want to offer.
Hell, I have made several fonts myself. And all these fonts need would be to extend the character range. So it would be more of a matter of picking a font, asking for permission and possibly extending it to 256 characters (I don't mind doing the extending myself).
Here are some of the fonts I made:

Also good job on that roger recolor CC!

Thanks, but I just reused the palette swap Hobo made earlier.

[imgzoom]http://www.tulevik.eu/ags/roger_blue.png[/imgzoom]

Where would we write down the license anyways? Within the Global script at the beginning? Add a readme.txt or license.txt to the files.
I'd say both. and then I checked the current default template and there is no license text within the global script or elsewhere I looked. Maybe I overlooked something but up to now I found no license for the default template we are  basing this on. Maybe hidden deep in the sourcecode of AGS? Again this is just a template, you want people to use it in the first place, either unchanged or improved or heavily modified or something else based on it without caring about licenses very much.

I was saying just adding a license.md on the project. Checking the AGS GitHub, you can see they have a license and a copyright files, mostly to document who worked on the project and what type of license it has for information purposes mostly.

I updated the GitHub. I added nu-Roger and some text I found missing on the status bar (@OVERHOTSPOT@ and @SCORE@).

I think we should open a contest for a background, it looks so empty on black:

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/7Q5NLzR.png[/imgzoom]

[uses]

I watch this repo now, if you see me there, send it over to me, let me see how this works for a day or two, then I'll transfer it back to you if you want to maintain it, or maybe I decide it's easy to maintain, also I wouldn't mind sharing this responsibility

I invited you as a collaborator and transfered the project to you (you have to agree on both accounts).

about that license, if noone else minds, what about a wtfpl license. if github doesn't have this, I'd use the least restrictive license ever. besides the wtfpl, this is a template after all, no sophisticated module.

I don't mind, but we are basing it on the previous default template, so we would have to check if it is ok to default to the wtfpl or any other less restrictive license.

any chance to see the spritesheet of the the icons on github directly? I haven't checked out the whole template yet...

If you want I can add them on a different folder as pngs. I guess github should be able to preview those.

The cursors look nice. Can AGS handle animated cursors? I'll make an animated hourglass then just because it's fun.
Can we have on click animations? I never used this in AGS, but is it possible? Like, the hand grabs something on click (actually it grabs nothing because there is nothing more in the icon, but you get the idea). The look icon could grow bigger a bit on click, it is a magnifying glass after all. Shoes be walking and talk icon could have one more !? set coming in from right to left (like reading or talking) and end where it was before.

I know AGS can handle animated cursors. It would be nice to have the hourglass rotate and stuff.
I don't know about click animations, but I'm sure we could have the cursor briefly change the view on the process click with some code, thought that might make the template more complex to use for new users.
I think this would be a cool thing to add on a demo more than a template.


The next steps for me should be (in no particular order)

• Create a background for the template (maybe a competition would be nice).
• Create or use new fonts with 256 characters instead of the old 128 the template uses.
• Recolor New-Roger. (After finding out who did it, so we can credit them).
• Design the GUI elements:
  
         
  • A background image for text buttons on all states. (this one I could do by reusing the current border of the verb buttons).
  • Custom sliders (also decide if we want the sliders horizontal like they are, or vertical like the original Sierra ones).
  • One background to use as a template for all the GUIs (Inventory window, Restart, Options, Load, Save and Quit. This could be just plain or make a contest so people can get creative on the design).
  • Create a Text GUI border (derived from the other GUIs or original).
  • The status bar.(Not only design, but probably add hover text and maybe points?)

There are also things I think would be nice to do

• Create a Roger portrait, so the Sierra template uses the Sierra dialog.
• Add blink and talk animation to said Roger portrait.(I think this would be nice, considering AGS has built in talking and blinking animations).
• Modify the default items, so they work nicely with the UI and as cursors. (Should we use the built in cross-hair, add one, or create custom cursor item images).

I think we should also go through the code and check the comments and see if they need to be modified to be more user friendly, or if some parts of the code need scrubbing.
The template could use some basic interactions as examples.

@Github: I'll look into that, I never maintained a project there yet though.

It's been ages since I touched Github myself, but since I had some time I decided to put the icons in the bar to check how it looks: https://github.com/caesarcub/AGS-SCI-Template

If you want I can add you as a contributor, or transfer the project to you.
Same goes to anyone else that wants to lend a hand.

I was not sure about which License does all of this fall (or who has to be credited for the previous work on the template).
I'm guessing it uses Artistic License 2.0 just like AGS, and that the template is by Chris Jones, but I don't know how accurate that is.

As for the inventory icon, I kept the suitcase temporarily.
Whenever we decide for a different one, I'll change it.
Personally I would have gone for the open box, since it's the less setting-related, or the suitcase because it's the most sierra-like one.
Either way, if someone makes one that is readable and stays consistent with the rest of the icons, I have no problem to replace it.

I reused the examine and interact buttons on the inventory GUI, but we can change them as well.
I also modified the status and inventory GUIs backgrounds to match the colors of the menu. But I think we could benefit from having some nice sprites with better borders, and maybe in the case of the inventory, an inner border to delimit where the items will be.


Separate question:
[imgzoom]http://shatten.sonores.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/rogertalkdown.gif[/imgzoom]
Who is the author of the "New Roger" sprites?
If/when we add it, we should credit him/her (and also make sure they are ok with adding it to the new template and about the proposed recolor to make him less Roger Wilco looking).


I added the cursors (I made them black and white versions of the iconbar verbs) to the project:

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/A84CUTe.png[/imgzoom]

I like the flipped hand. Still don't like the suitcase. To really judge the colors I'd have to see it in a game.

My bad, I'm left handed XD


As for what happens next, I guess we should start making the new template. Maybe fork/create a new one on github, and put the new parts we have.
Check what things are missing and if the code should be updated or cleaned up a little.

I remember someone offered to recolor the new Roger so he looked less like the Sierra Roger, if that is done, we could add that, and see what is missing.

Personally I think it would be nice to make new fonts and custom sliders as well.
I for one think it would be a good idea to add a GUI for the Quit menu, because the first thing I have gotten stuck with when I first started with AGS was not knowing where the Quit menu was so I could personalise it.

[1st.- Scavenger]

And with the voting closed, I'm here to announce the winner!

1st.- Scavenger (Kevyn and Levyn)
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/nD5NnuS.png[/imgzoom]

2nd.- Alan v. Drake (Death)
3rd.- Jim Reed

Thanks to everyone that participated!

Have a collection of Inventory buttons I don't feel completely good about, and the talk one with "!?" written on it

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/0s0BzU1.png[/imgzoom]

So CC's winning entry shall define the colorscheme of the rest of this template (Skinned sierra). It is the one we defined in this very thread, which is a nice touch I think.
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/8N5AM5R.png[/imgzoom]

I used that palette because it was the base palette we had. I didn't mean to be THE palette.

I personally would desaturate the blue:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/vcke444.png[/imgzoom]

Or maybe change it for a different color altogether:
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/9pfGX5a.png[/imgzoom]

Those mouse icons are made using the first iconbar, so I should make an updated version. And while there are more mouse icons in the Template, I don't think they are being used at all, that's why I did not make new versions of those.

Alright then, I'll post a picture of what I meant. Here's a quick mockup of combining all the parts I liked of the winning entries: [imgzoom]http://orig03.deviantart.net/66e6/f/2017/144/2/f/example_of_menu_by_danvzare-dba9mrt.png[/imgzoom]

While I like Selmiak's hand icon a lot, we should try to see how it works without all the shading, since the shape and depth is generated with that.
The inventory icon should also be reworked into the style (this one is easier), though I still think a box or something more like cat's bag should be more contemporary.
My idea of the active inventory icon was to leave it empty, so the item could occupy as much space as possible.
With the load and save icons, I went for a folder on my second version, because people now a days have no idea what a floppy disk is. This is the same reason I reworked the C:\> into a power button.

When I have some free time I'll see about making some variations and update the cursors.

IDK if mentioned already, I've noticed some iconbars contain "C:\>", a reference to DOS command prompt. I wonder if Unix users will like these .

Hahaha. Well, when I did the first iconbar I put the C:\> and the disks because I was thinking retro, and all the older games were for DOS, but after a chat I thought it was a good idea to replace them with more modern icons (after all, kids these days don't know what C:\> is and they have never seen a floppy disk).
That is the reasoning behind doing a backpack instead of a briefcase. I don't see many people using briefcases now a days, maybe a box or a bag like the one cat made are better suited. A pouch just seemed too medieval.

[Frank]

Come on people, let's have more votes for this Sprite Jam!

Frank needs you to pick the love of his life!

Oh damn, I don't have the time right now.
Someone please take my spot.

Get Out?

[01 DBoyWheeler]

And it's time to vote!

Here are all the entries!


   
       
       
       
       
       

01                 DBoyWheeler                 Kaede Hadena	02                 Jim Reed	[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/o4Kt5yr.png[/imgzoom]                 03                 Hobo                 It
04                 BrutalSlakt                 Jeremy	05                 qptain Nemo                 Lovebird-3182-XZ	06                 Ibispi                 Rose
Spoiler [imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/lKBCYFO.png[/imgzoom] [close]                 07                 ehybby                 Lisa	[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/PUBLeiD.png[/imgzoom]                 08                 Tycho Magnetic Anomaly	09                 Alan v.Drake                 Death
Spoiler [close]                 10                 Tycho Magnetic Anomaly                 Hilda	11                 Galen                 Jordina	12                 Blondbraid                 Princess Anna Organa
13                 Nixxon                 Lucile	[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/HHnFna3.png[/imgzoom]                 14                 Rocchinator                 Ruffa	[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/Pjndm0P.png[/imgzoom]                 15                 Scavenger                 Kevyn and Levyn

Vote for your three favorite entries.
Voting ends on the 24th!