Messages

I agree with merging those categories, and dropping Best Demo.
There aren't that many demos posted anyway, and sometimes, they aren't even clearly marked.

I would too be sad to see Best Short Game go, for the same reasons Snarky stated.

As for "Programming",  the problem is we don't really see how things are done in code. Thus it ends being, how one think the dev programmed and/or "that looks awesome, it must have been hard to code". The reality might though be very different, and maybe there's not really much wizardly coding, but just a bunch of "hard-coded cheats", or something like that. I remember Gurok mentioning that when he own a Best Programming award (Not that he doesn't do wizardly code, that he wouldn't have deserved the award... but maybe just not on that particular game ).

So while I agree we should be awarding this category, I don't think the current way to do it is the most fair for the devs.

This suggestion is made out of the assumption that the nominations is the bottleneck, but if votes are as low in numbers as the nominations, then that may be based on a false premise.

This.
Do we have some statistics about number of people that nominate vs. people that vote vs. people that attend the ceremony.

Also for the nominations, another statistic worth taking into account: how many of those that nominate, take the time to nominate in all categories and nominate more than say 3-5 games per category?
do the majority try to nominate 10 in each category, or they just pick 2 or 3 or games per category and only in certain categories?

Then we can see if nominations might improve if they become simpler to do.

There seems to be the remaining of last Halloween...
And that bird... it gives me the goose bumps... the memories... I'm sure it can't be trusted!

Don't worry too much if it's a movie or a game, you can always add "steps" to make it more game, or just release it as "interactive movie". It's fine...

["Nomination and voting"]

Last year, was an off year for me. Sorry. I did meant to attend the ceremony, but I simply forgot. :/
Hope I manage to find the time to help with the collecting and organizing the assets this year.

"Nomination and voting"

I think I mentioned this before, but opening a dropdown menu with 100+ games, find and pick a game to nominate, then do it again *9, until you filled the first category up (I like to always nominate the max possible in each category), is exhausting. I realize we don't need to do all at once, but still, it's a lot of hard work, just to nominate.
If we added check boxes to the games DB, where the author could check the boxes that fit ones game, then we could have this "endless" list of games shorten up to only those that apply to each category (minus eventual fail/missing checks).
It would be nice to open up the dropdown menu, and instead of seeing all 100+ games in the voice category, you only had 15 or 20 to pick from, cause those are the ones that actually fit the category.

I don't know if it would help with more people nominating or not, but probably worth a try?

Another way to pick, could be to have a text box and just type the name of the game you want to nominate (having both options would be optimal). I know some members keep a list of what games they played and "score" them on the go. So I bet that just copy pasting the name in, instead of having to find it in a list would be good. I know I wished I could have done that before at least.

I know there are some categories I never vote, those are best character and best story. For character I ever hardy remember any characters name, much less type them to nominate. Also I feel I would have to have played the games to be able to judge those categories.... On the other hand, art, character art, animation, and music I can vote on even if I have't played the game, as I see screenshots or skim a lets play video, or hear the sound track.

Wecome back jwalt!
Looking forward to see what you've been cooking up.

Yeah, if you already gone thru the YT and the book, just start making your own game. There's only so much you can absorve thru tutorials. The rest comes with experience and practical challenges, like "I want to do this in my game, how to I do it?".  And if you can't figure it out, search the forums, check the manual and/or just ask.

This forum and it's users are the best you can get, right after the tutorial and manual reading. Keep in mind that you don't need to know every single line of code and how to use it before starting your project. Or memorize the manual. Most of the time just knowing the command exists, is enough... because checking the manual is free and painless.

And I started by watching the YT turorials, played a bit with a few start new project, and then a some months in I threw my self head first to a MAGS game. Because, sometimes, having a deadline for delivering/finishing a project is better than having endless time.

To be honest I can't really remember, I found AGS cause I was looking for Maniac Masion, and read somewhere. that someone was doing a remake with AGS (which I had no idea what it was back then). That brought me here, and then once I found what it was, I got so distracted learning and making my own game that I never did get Maniac Masion...

A MAGS game might have well been the first AGS game I did play, but not sure which one.
But I do recall playing (and enjoying) "Escape the barn", "Second Place is for Losers", "All pigs deserve to burn in hell" and "Deadly Consequences!"...
All great games btw.

And then some of us, eat toasts for breakfast.

Yes, nothing stopping anyone from making a OROW, 24H or even 1 hour game. You have a month, but you can use as little or as much of the month as wish/have time for.

I finally have some time free again, so I might still be game. As said I have like 3 ideas... though one of them would be "wasted" in a short MAGS games. It's better suited to a longer story line.

@Babar.... "How dare you to cross the road when I'm coming? I'll show you and just speed up and cut in front of you." (instead of just lifting the foot of the gas and let the vehicle roll for a bit).

I know the feeling, even though I don't run, but experience that often while driving. :/

You probably miss something, or you found an obscure bug.

Solution:

Spoiler

I'm assuming that you have the written invitation, and that you do not have the bat.

Basically you should LOOK at the bat, then INTERACT to pick it up.

Once you have the bat in your inventory, just use the letter on the bat (the one on your inventory, of course).

If this does not work for you, please send me the save file, so I can check what's going on.

[close]

PS - Sorry for the late reply. Been pretty busy and I didn't saw your reply on the "All unread topics" page.

I always had a feeling that if it was possible to screenshot the room without the mouse cursor

But wait, it IS possible to do this.
You just have to hide the mouse cursor and any GUI you don't want in the screenshot, take the screenshot and reactivate everything right after.That's how we take screenshots to use as thumbnails for save games.

Thanks for the feedback and congrats Durinde.

Spoiler

Well I have arrived at a point where I think I should send the invitation (after having dealt with the skeleton), but I can't figure out how.
Any tips here?

[close]

Hint 1:

Spoiler

Have you looked at those cute bats?

[close]

Hint 2:

Spoiler

If you have looked, why not pick one up?

[close]

Hint 3:

Spoiler

Have you written the invitation? Then you just have to send it.

[close]

Hope these are enough without bluntly give the solution away. Other wise, ask again.

Thanks, but it doesn't seem to work.
Clicking on it does nothing, hovering the mouse over the button does nothing as well. The button "Go Down" right next to it, works just fine when I click and shows me the URL when I hover over it.

-^O^-

LOL
I still have no time ATM.
So I'm out, even though I have like 3 different ideas...
And after not Blending for a year or so, I'm back feeling like a toddler who just learned to walk....
I might still do a 5-6 day game at the end of the month, as my time should be freed slightly.

No promises though.

[The Distant Door]

Finished playing.

The Distant Door (by Durinde)

Spoiler

Nice little game, and with voice acting as sherry on top. Plus check on having 2 endings!
Strong story, and ending 1 just felt so wrong, that even when I replayed it to get ending 1, I wished I could have changed my mind half way through the task.

Maybe if you decided to release a polished version, you can allow the player to exit the building and go to to the Hospital anyway, even though she said she couldn't? On that note, one could also blow Matt and leave the package by the door and end up on ending 1 (or ending 3 - you've been a total douchbag by saying yes and then not doing it).

One thing that annoyed me was the displays. Maybe next time consider using CW's TypedText module, and get the narrator's text on the lower black end of the screen. I think it would fit the game.

Great job anyway!

[close]

Yes, I meant bottom-center, not middle-center. Otherwise all that I wrote afterwards makes no sense...
Post edited above.

As for how to change the sprite, you can right-click the sprite in question and choose edit sprite. This will open the sprite on your chosen image editor (you need to set it up in the AGS editor settings), cut the top, and close the image editor. Repeat for any other sprite you may need to do this.
Alternatively you can export the sprites to a folder, and then edit them from there, and reimport after they're nicely cut. It's also possible yo cut them at import (never used this feature myself). There's an auto-cut empty areas of the sprite as well, but I think that one will cut all empty around the sprite, which may screw bottom and center position (probably only good for non-animating sprites).

You can use pre-made art. Don't let art stop you, if that is the only hurdle.