Messages

Well, this proves what I've always said: verb coins are a terrible UI and should never be used!

The Verb Coin is not a terrible UI. What makes it terrible in most cases, is having to hold in the left mouse button to make it appear. It should appear as soon as you click on a hotspot.
If that was the case here, everyone would have figured out the system as soon as they tried to click on something. Since it's quite literally a single-click system with more variety.

If you truly think that Verb Coins are terrible, then you must hate the pop-up menus on windows, which appear every time you right click on something. Since other than the buttons being reversed (and instead of the choice of buttons being context sensitive, the actions the buttons do are context sensitive instead), they're basically the exact same thing.
You click on something, a list of actions you can do with it appears in a menu, you click on one of those, that action is executed.

This is making me worry, my current project uses the verb coin. I didn't realise there was so much dislike for it. But I would struggle to replace it even if I decided to change it to something else.

I was planning on having a text box pop up explaining how to use it, at least.

Don't worry about it too much. This is a forum for Adventure Game enthusiasts. We're all a bit elitist when it comes down to the simple things.
Just make sure that the verb coin comes on whenever you click on a hotspot, don't make people hold the left mouse button like on CoMI or Full Throttle.

Also, a tutorial never hurts. You can easily put in an extra room, which includes detailed instructions on how to complete the very simple puzzle in it. The tutorial could be something as simple as picking something up, looking at it, talking to someone about what you just looked at, combining the item you picked up with the item you got from the guy when you told him what the item looked like, and using that combined item on a slot in the background. The tutorial could even be optional, with players being given the option as soon as they start a new game.
I actually recommend a tutorial like that for the left-click right-click interface as well, to force people to use that damned right mouse button.

Beauty and the Beast?

Every time I use a self service checkout, something goes wrong and a member of staff has to fix it.

You ever had it give you the wrong change? Or none at all?
I've seen that happen TWICE!
Once to my mother, and once to my father. Both times the staff had terrible manners, thinking they were just out to steal.
Both completely different stores as wells.

I rather like it.
It's got that overused minimalist thing going on. But it's not TOO minimalistic, because it uses a nice gradient and skewered angle. Which is why I rather like it.
Give it about ten to twenty years though, and all icons and logos will become overly complex again, and I'll be complaining about that being overused.

I actually like this new icon more than any of the other AGS Icons (even the one currently being used).
I'm not fond of that classic CJ cup though. It clashes too much.

Congratulations again, everybody! It's really interesting to read the explanations and additional details about the different ideas in response to the feedback. One thing I'm learning from this is that it's really hard to predict how someone else will interpret a short pitch, and which phrases they'll pick up on in a positive or negative way. It just goes to show how crucial it is for someone doing this for real to both practice the pitch and actually test it before going live.

That is 100% definitely true.
And I'm quite surprised at much I've been learning about making pitches from this competition alone.

Just finished adding weapons, witnesses (currently only used for verifying the alibis of suspects), a whole bunch of tweaks, and a some more customization options.
Because I like to keep the screenshots coming, here are the three types of possible weapons you can find:
[imgzoom]https://orig00.deviantart.net/202d/f/2018/173/2/c/weapons_by_danvzare-dcf4gwf.png[/imgzoom]

Now it's time for me to take a nice... long... break.
EDIT: And by nice long break, it seems as though I meant one day.

Ooo my favourite thing to program, I'd love to hear about what technique you use to go about creating a random yet solvable puzzle.

I'm glad it's your favourite thing to program. At this rate, I think it would be quicker and easier to custom make two hundred cases.

My technique to make the cases random but solvable, was by first having distinct rules, such as needing to find at least three evidence against the killer, their motive, and make sure they have no alibi. Then when the case is generated, it sets which one is the killer, makes sure that all of those needs are met, and ensures that at least one or more of those needs are not met for the other people.

The biggest mistake I made at the start, was hardcoding the game to have four suspects. Four seems like a good minimum, and the game is certainly hard enough, but I'd love to have it vary between four and six.

of the nth kind.

What grinds my gears, is when shops only have 1 till open when there's a big queue, and keep the other 10 tills closed. 
What's the point in having multiple tills, when they don't get used?

It's because they're understaffed, and the staff are struggling just to keep the shelves stocked and the prices up to date.
Although I have to agree with you. What IS the point of having multiple tills if they never get used? If you don't intend to ever hire more than ten people, don't have ten tills!

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement. It helps a lot, and I'm really grateful!

I've fixed a few minor bugs, and added portraits to the conversations you have with suspects.
The reason for the portraits, is that I really wanted an excuse to have a character creator screen.
[imgzoom]https://orig00.deviantart.net/0195/f/2018/170/3/4/portraits_by_danvzare-dcetjtt.png[/imgzoom]

Thus ending the alliteration.

On the one hand, I completely understand why that person posted what Golliwog meant. The person seemed to be trying to be helpful, but their response to you was completely out of order. It was THAT person who was being passive-aggressive, you were simply correcting them.
I've actually heard people complain to me about the word crackers being offensive, as that's what black people call white people in America. But that won't stop me from using the word, because A: that's what we call those things we pull apart at Christmas, and B: what else am I supposed to call people who crack games?

She is bowing down to this SJW (who is white of course)

It grinds my gears when people use the word SJW. People use it too much to dismiss others. I've heard people who certainty are NOT an SJW being called an SJW, just because they say things that other people disagree with. The world is starting to become overrun with SJWJWs who call everyone SJWs!
These are the same people who claim everything is becoming offensive, and I hate it when people are easily offended about other people apparently being easily offended! And Facebook is full of people who are trying to find every excuse to be offended about easily offended people!
What's worse, is that I've not seen a single person notice this meta trend!

In their defence, there's no actual clear rules for these games, but yes I agree it should be a game/film/tv show that's been released, otherwise we open the floodgates to cancelled games, films still being shot and so on. Also, please tell me that isn't a game you're promoting for!

(Author of pleughburgh, crikey, that was one of the first AGS games I played!)

I remember someone posting a screenshot of a Hero's Duty from Wreck it Ralph. That game doesn't even exist as a real game! Yet no one had any problem with it, and it was guessed quickly.
So, I think it depends on whether or not the game was released, and if it isn't, is it well known.

The Fly?

You could of course filter out dead ends, but you did write that the randomizing would be "making some puzzles impossible and others possible." The pitch reminded me a bit of Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures, which I always thought was incredibly boring and repetitive (like most randomly generated games), so that didn't really win me over.

But it sounds like a lot of these ideas are going into your Private Detective game, so I guess we'll see. Good luck!

Note to self, be more aware of wording.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more about boring and repetitive when it comes down to randomly generated games. Which is one of the main things that was wrong with my pitch, that and could you imagine the story, or the lack of one? Adventure games live and die by their stories. A randomly generated one isn't going to have a good one, if it manages to have one at all.

As for my Private Detective game, here's hoping it comes out better than I could ever see my pitch going.
It's a learning process though.

My entry got two votes. I do suppose my pitch sounded too much like a horror game and not enough like an adventure game.

Assuming yours was number 10, no wonder since it said it was a horror game in the pitch.
By the way, I voted for number 10 because it sounded more like a horror game than an adventure game (which made it sound interesting to me). Survival horror games, are basically just badly designed adventure games anyway.

[Private Detective]

Private Detective is a procedurally generated murder mystery game, where you must solve randomly generated crimes by finding leads, questioning suspects, and gathering evidence from the crime scene to compare with samples found in the homes of the suspects. It plays a lot like an adventure game, but with a lot more deduction and a lot less inventory object puzzles.

The game has no end goal, except for the completion of as many cases as you can. I'm developing it to be something akin to Minesweeper or Solitaire. A fun little distraction that you play for a short while. As such there's no story (although I'm thinking about adding something extra after a hundred cases).

I know the title is really boring, but it's the best I could come up with. And unless I think of something better, it's probably going to stay like that.

Screenshots:
[imgzoom]https://orig00.deviantart.net/e507/f/2018/165/0/d/3_by_danvzare-dcedrsu.png[/imgzoom]
[imgzoom]https://orig00.deviantart.net/648e/f/2018/165/6/f/4_by_danvzare-dcedrtb.png[/imgzoom]
[imgzoom]https://orig00.deviantart.net/2468/f/2018/165/8/8/5_by_danvzare-dcedrtk.png[/imgzoom]

Current Progress:
The game is roughly 94% complete. I would be more specific, but I'm kind of winging it, so I'm not sure how much more I'm going to add.
What I can say though is that it's fully playable, but it's lacking a few cosmetic things, and it probably has a few bugs.

Release Date:
The deadline I've set myself is mid-july (which would make the full development cycle for this game around four months). And if I continue at the pace I'm going, and nothing major happens that distracts me from working on the game, I think it's quite likely I will meet that deadline.

I was also going to give that guess a try but remembered they had a motorbike strapped to the back of the camper. Oh, and also it's not a camper...

Yeah, I thought they didn't have a camper, but it's been long enough that I can't properly remember.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the 2003 remake)?

Cabin in the Woods?

intros later, and the

Also, I think Danvzare can be confirmed for 6, because he said he didn't do 5, and Snarky said he did 1.

Yep, that's right.

I've got quite a few things to say about what people have said about my pitch as well. Most notably about how it would be filled with dead-ends and random solutions. But I'm going to refrain from doing that. As far as I'm concerned, people are right that it wouldn't work, but for the wrong reasons. So it doesn't matter.