Messages

Heh.  Just gave it a try.  It works like I thought it would, but the gradient is too big and gradual.  The end result is a really nice fade to black, but it isn't sharp enough to give that darkness closing in effect.  The most appealing unconsciousness-like effect I managed was when I tweened in four different instances of the gradient sprite consecutively, and simultaneously tweened in the solid  black image.  So the whole screen gets darker all at once, but the edges get darker much faster, so you get both the "closing in" feeling and the "shit things are getting darker" feeling at the same time.  The only problem is I end up with an artifact.  A single white pixel in the center of the screen.  I'm not sure what's up with that, but I think it has something to do with the gradient sprite, and the pure transparent spot in the middle.  Probably could hide it by messing with z-order and putting the all black GUI on top anyway.

The only other problem I can think of is that if you have five simultaneous GUIs, four of which display instances of a fairly complex, screen sized sprite, it might cause some nasty slowdown on some machines.

Still, the effect was really neat.

What I meant was fade in a pre-made sprite like this

And then fade a black object in on top of it to complete the effect.  But if you've got something that works go with that.

But now you've got me wondering if AGS could generate an image like that.  I think you could do it with dynamic sprites, but it might take a while to process.  I haven't really messed with those functions to see how they handle opacity, though, so it might not be possible?

Hmm.  That might be real 3D or it might be a 2D animation like you said.  I can't really tell from the video.  If we are talking the fake 3d, I'm pretty sure KQ2+ used the 4 or so frame version in the seahorse chase scene.  If you want to do something fancy like Full Throttle, I don't think there is a good way to do an animation of any real length, in engine, but isn't there a plug-in that lets you imbed Ogg Theora video files into the background?  So you might be able to display a 2D turtle riding sprite on top of an actual video, though syncing everything so you die when you hit the cacti or whatever might be a bit of a hassle, depending on how you do it.

I'm reminded of the chase scene from Triplets of Belleville.

Yeah, I suppose I should have mentioned it.  I went ahead and compromised, I'm don't think there is a way to change a prescripted function.

What about a two phased thing?  Gradually fade in a screensized sprite with with a gradient of transparency, so that the edges are more opaque and the center is less opaque.  AGS can do that, right?  Then once that has faded in all the way, use an all black sprite or the tint function to uniformly fade to black.  The combined effect should be the screen gradually darkening from the sides first and then closing in on the center, until the screen is completely black.

I would find the ability to write to ViewFrame.Flipped extremely useful.

I don't know that I've ever seen a game that had both speech styles running simultaneously.  Honestly, my initial thought is that it would probably be a little distracting, as you have a "voice" attributed to two separate locations on the screen.  Technically this is true any time you use the mini-portrait style speech, but when the rest of the screen is largely static, the portrait gives the illusion of sort of taking over the display, as it places focus on just the face and text/voice of the speaker.  Still, I would be interested to see it in practice.

Having a flexible gaming experience isn't a bad thing, though.  It is true that some players have specific tastes regarding how they interact with and perceive the game world, and others just like to tinker.  From a player's perspective, I've rarely felt that having these types of options, especially if tucked away in a discreet menu somewhere, ever distracted the playing experience, and in a few cases (especially with things like controls) having the option to change things has really helped my immersion.

From a designer's perspective, I'm not sure I agree with Phemar, unless perhaps you are working with a strict deadline.  Adding additional features to a game takes time and energy that you could theoretically be devoting to story, art, puzzles, etc., but unless these resources are very limited, adding a couple of menu options and simple animations shouldn't be enough to significantly handicap the other aspects of your project, and the extra scripting may help you figure out some things about the game engine and design in general that will be valuable in future projects.  That said, it is certainly possible to get completely bogged down scripting extra features and never actually get to your main project, especially if you go overboard, and try to make all the extras before you get to the rest of the game.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as you will still learn a lot, but it is something to keep in mind.

Another thing to keep in mind is that while extra features can be fun for a player to fiddle with, sometimes it is just as good to show confidence in your own vision for your project.  Letting players change their characters' names, for instance, is neat, but it will rarely be missed, and may not even be that appropriate in a game with a serious story where the default names were chosen for a reason.  In the case of LucasArts vs. Sierra style speech, your own aesthetic vision for the game may well mean more, in the end, than your players' general preferences.  Portraits let people see their characters up close, and can help show characters' emotions in a way that can be difficult to pull off with small sprites, on the other hand, Lucas style is less intrusive and possibly less work.  If any of these or other aesthetic considerations are important to the intended thrust of your story or the feel of your world, it may be better to pick one and go with it, instead of going out of your way to let players opt out of part of the experience of your game.

In the end, you can't please everyone, so focus on pleasing yourself and your target audience.  Anyone else is a bonus.

Neat, but I can't get it to work.  When I try to run any of the applications it says it can't find cxcore110.dll.  Not sure where to find such a file or where to put it.  I'd try reading the manual, but it's loading at dial-up-like speeds.

And btw, Keyboard Movement is built into the current release of AGS in the form of a module.

Yeah, I should have mentioned that.  I kind of assumed he meant a hot-seat or two-people-crammed-onto-the-same-keyboard sort of multiplayer (as far as I know AGS does not support additional controllers/joysticks?).  But if he intends to move two characters simultaneously with the keyboard, he will need to either modify or duplicate the existing movement codes to allow for the second character.

I've been in the on-again-off-again* process of making a fighting system for a couple of years now, and it's tricky business.  I'm assuming you have visualized the battles to some degree, but it isn't very clear what exactly you are going for, from your post.  Is it real time or turn based?  Are the positions of the various combatants relevant, or will it be like those old RPGs where you just select an attack and a target from a list and then the game calculates damage?  If it is an action battle system, is it a side view like a platformer or fighting game, or is it a top down view?  This sort of information will help people advise you.  

My advice is just pick one of the features you want and try to script it.  Try implementing a health bar, if you intend to use one.  Make some global ints to represent things like exp, attack power, etc.  If you're planning to have a lot of different stats or more then a couple characters, I strongly recommend studying arrays and structs in the manual.  Also, read through the thread on making RPGs with AGS, at the top of this forum.  Even if that isn't the type of battle system you want, you might find some useful information in there.  Try to implement keybord movement for two characters simultaneously (there should be a few modules and other scripts floating around for single player keyboard movement - study them).  If you want NPCs to attack when your character gets close to them, you might want to try scripting a function to measure the distance between two points.  The more you script, the better idea you will have of what you need to script to have a working battle system.

*Mostly off or I'd have finished a long time ago.  It shouldn't have to take that long if you actually stick with it.

I had a difficult time following the story.  I was a little bit confused about my character's motivations for most of it, and the appearance of the villain toward the end seemed a little out of nowhere.  I think more dialogue/narration would be helpful, especially at the beginning.  Also the ability to slow down the text when people are talking, as I had trouble keeping up with some of the longer lines.  The voice acting in the deluxe version should render reading speed moot, though.

Personally, I enjoyed the comic scenes.  They were fun and fast paced, in contrast to most in-engine animated scenes in amateur adventure games which tend to be a bit sparse and confined to a small area of the screen.

I loved the spam e-mail.  I started reading it and at first I thought it was going to be the plot of the game, but then I realized "oh, I'm reading a textbook example of an e-mail scam.  On a crystal ball.  Brilliant."

I'll definitely play the deluxe version when it comes out.

This is one of the best video game stories I've seen in a while.  You've inspired me.  Can't wait for the sequel.

Woooo.

Nanobots was pretty sweet, and by all indications this one will greatly improve on the concept.  Looking forward.

Not something I've looked for explicitly, but I have noticed some of my mice move far too quickly with AGS games.  I would probably put a mouse speed slider in my own if the option was there.

Semi-related note.  I've tried using a pen tablet with AGS games, but it is impossibly sensitive, so that the cursor jumps across the screen at the slightest movement, or else gets stuck in the corner.  I think this has something to do with the lower resolution using only a small region of the tablet, but I'm not sure.  Is this standard behavior and would it be affected at all by a slower cursor speed?

Whoops.  Guess I missed that feature.  I still think winsetup would be a good place to set that, though, as it would work with copy/paste (and browse?) which are easier for some people than memorizing and retyping potentially lengthy paths of folders.  And since the player is the one setting it, it might not be so necessary to limit access to the game folder and My Documents.

Would it help if the player could specify save game locations in the setup file?  Or at the very least give designers the option to include such a feature?  I think it would be an improvement over the current "one size fits all" functionality.

One of my current projects is planned to have a large number of characters as well, and I'm keen for any feature that will let me cut corners anywhere in the drawing and importing process.  If I ever get this project, or one of similar scope off the ground, I would definitely use a feature like this.  (Being able to also specify flipped sprites would be a must for me, since I do plan on using symmetrical characters as another work saver.)

What is Malakey's goal?  What is the outcome of his journey?  Or the destination? What is the key conflict that forces him to leave home to begin with?  Who is/are the key bad guys, romantic interest(s), or other vital characters?  What are their goals, or what's important to them?  What befalls them at the beginning or the end?  What are the central themes of the plot, what is a singular overarching fact about the world, the plot, or one of the characters?  In other words, what is the game REALLY about?

This information is, I think, exactly what you don't want to give away, for good reason, but it is also the sort of information that would be most helpful to anyone trying to help you come up with a name.  So far we have Malakey, something about a falling star or a gate of unknown significance, a journey to an undisclosed location, and a scattering of stops along the way that may or may not have central importance, but we don't know.

If the game is mostly about the journey, then a journey sort of name would probably be appropriate:
Malakey's Journey
Malakey's Travels
The Travels of Malakey
Malakey Travels to the Ends of the Earth
Around the World (With Malakey)
Beyond the Gate
Malakey's Adventures in Geography
Gateworld

If he is looking for something you get more easy titles
Malakey Searches the Globe
In Search of Fallen Stars
Finding the Gate
Makakey's Adventures in Geographical Lost And Found

Or the star or gate themes
The Star that Fell and Crashed into a Gate
Fall from the Sky
Comet
Meteor
Twinkle Twinkle
Malakey's Twinkler
Lucky Star
Unlucky Star
If You Wish
Dreams Come True
How I Wonder (And/or What You Are)
Or some other line/partial line from a song/poem about stars.
Open the Gate
Fantasy Gate
Watergate
Defend Your Gate
The Great Gate
The Great Gatesby
Snippets from songs about gates if you can think of any
And while we're on songs and poems, there's a lot on traveling and journeys
On the Road Again
And I Would Walk Five Hundred More

Admittedly a lot of modern songs will have modern connotations.  Nursery rhymes are a good place to look for more of a fairytale feel, or just look up songs that are more historical in their content or origin.

People dig references.  You don't have to limit yourself to songs or poems, if you can find a relevant quote from a famous person, or a book, movie, play (Shakespeare is good), comic.  Iconic sources are good because people will recognize them, but you can probably get away with taking from some obscure source, especially if it is really literary, and you'll give the people who actually recognize it a sense of satisfaction.  And you don't have to quote word for word.  Changing one key word from a line or another iconic title can work, but try to make is clever.  Also it is good if at least one theme from the work you are referencing lines up with a major theme in your game, otherwise people who think too hard will become confused and irritable, and take it out on the people they care about most.

EDIT: Oops.  I just noticed you DID give us his goal (to stop the corruption of the land).  And also that you specified a preference for a two word, "Golden Sun" like title.  Um.  Nothing much comes to mind.  I remember I played Golden Sun and I could never figure out what the title referred to.   You can try reducing a line from an iconic song to two words.
On the earthy theme.  Um.
Save the Whales
With Our Powers Combined
Mother Fuckin' Nature
Go Gaia
Recycle, Reduce, Resort to Violence
Stop the Corruption
Salinization
Gaia Gets Grumpy
Decay
Rot
Rotten
Our Friends in the Forest
Deadwood
Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute
Malakey in: Get those Republicans Out of My Fantasy World!

Eh.

You could make a GUI, but another pretty simple way to do it would be something like this:

At the top of the room script make a string like

Code: ags

String numberDialed = "";

Then make each of the numbers on the phone a separate hotspot and put something like this in the interact script

Code: ags

numberDialed.Append("1");  //or whichever number or "*" or "#"
//Might also add in a dialing sound effect

In the room's repeatedly execute script or in the button scripts put something like

Code: ags

if (numberDialed.Length==7) {
 if (numberDialed=="5557777") {
  //that consersation
 }
 else if (numberDialed=="5552583") {
  //that conversation
 }
 //and so on for all the phone number you want the player to be able to dial
 else { //if the player dials any other number
  //do a busy signal or whatever you feel like
 }
 numberDialed=""; //resets the string so the player can dial another number
}

If you choose to call this in each of the button scripts, you can avoid some excessive copying and pasting by storing it in its own function.  Just paste it into

Code: ags

function MakeCall() {
 //the above script here
}

at the top of the room script and then put MakeCall() in each of the button scripts.

EDIT: Good first game, by the way.  Particularly the jokes.  I especially loved the shop.

Here is a rounding function.  It probably needs some tweaking, but I think it might be useful. 

Can anyone think of a more efficient way to home in on value?  The while loop might get lengthy, rounding big numbers to small numbers.  There are probably other places where it could be trimmed down.

Also not sure if it will return the proper values for negative numbers.

Code: ags

float Round(float value, float roundTo, RoundDirection dir) {
 if (roundTo==0) return 0;
 if (roundTo<0) roundTo = roundTo * (-1);
 if (value<0) roundTo = roundTo * (-1);
 float a = roundTo;
 while (a<value) {
  a+=roundTo;
 }
 if (dir==eRoundDown) return a - (roundTo * (a =! value) )
 if (dir==eRoundNearest) {
  if (a - value <= value - (a - rounTo) ) return a;
  else return a-roundTo;
 }
 if (dir==eRoundUp) return a;
}

One Gimp function which I absolutely love is Copy Visible, which lets you copy sections of the image as you see it, instead of just copying information from one layer at a time.  Saves a bunch of trouble merging layers and such.