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Wow, 25 years old... wait a minute, this game engine I've been using is nearly as old as me! 
...
I don't know if I should feel old or young? 

I have a lot of nightmares so nothing really nice to share

Nightmares make the best stories though! And they're usually easy to remember and write down too, especially if you write them down as soon as they wake you up in the middle of the night. Which I did once... my dad was very confused when he came in that night and saw me writing on a laptop in the middle of the night.

- The 3rd one is my sub-conscious telling me I need to go to the toilet. It often involves having to hold until I find a toilet (not an easy task) and then once I find it, there's always something wrong with it, that stops me from using it (no lock on the door; I lock the door, just to realize there's a second door - that is open - on the other end; that one of the walls is a transparent glass... and so on...)  With so many obstacles I end up waking up and get to the real toilet in time... 

I have that one. Although usually the toilet is overflowing or outright horrifically disgusting. I think it's my mind's way of trying to stop me from wetting myself. 
Some other reoccurring dreams I have is teeth falling out, having to walk around outside with no shoes, and really steep hills that everyone walks up with ease but I have to crawl to get up. I think it's easy to psychoanalyze all of that as well.

I dream I remember from the other day was quite funny. 

My niece didn't believe I had a fringe (I don't really, but I did in my dream).  So I cut if off to show her, and prove it to her.  Then as soon as I cut my fringe off, the rest of my hair stuck straight up in the air.   

Kind of ironic that to prove you had a fringe, you had to get rid of your fringe.

This thread is fun. 

I had this random thought for those working on AGS games...

Wouldn't it be awesomesauce if Yuzo Koshiro (yes, THAT Yuzo Koshiro) did music for an AGS game?

That would be nice! Thanks for the discovery, I didn't know him.

You should check out Yoko Shimomura.
If there's a memorable piece of music you can recall from a game that was made in Japan, chances are she's the one who composed it.

She's the only composer whose music I can instantly recognize as having been made by her, and I have no musical ability to recognize that kind of thing whatsoever.
It was amazing when I was randomly playing a game, heard a song and thought "Hey, that sounds like Yoko Shimomura's work", and when I looked, it was!

Wow, amazing in many ways - that you dream a movie-like, well-planned plot and that you remember so many details. Though I don't quite get the ending - what was the proof she was talking about and that the police man found?

Well that particular dream is my number one highlight from five years of writing them down. The majority of my dreams are quite random and end suddenly. And so SO many of them are just about video games, particularly the Thief series for some reason.
I think remembering the details of your dreams though, is just a skill you pick up from constantly trying to remember them, and even then it's random how much you'll remember. Most of my entries are two paragraphs long.
I think I only have three or four dreams in that entire journal which is written like an actual story. The rest are written like plot summaries because I simply don't remember enough details.
So it goes without saying that when I get a dream like that, I make sure to write it down. 

As for the proof the girl was talking about. Honestly, I'm not sure. That was one of the weird dream-logic things. Presumably she meant the way the butler and the maid were dressed, since they were dead in the crypt and dressed to look like her.

I write down my dreams (when I feel like it).
I've been doing it since 2016, so this is right up my alley. Let me just find a really good dream to share...
This is a dream I had on the 20th of December 2020 (I remembered two dreams that night, this is the second one):



It was in the early hours of the morning the morning, and young maid had just arrived. The estate where she worked was quite large, and had a variety of servants working in it throughout the day, although she was usually the first to arrive. It was still dark, and she suspected that the master of the house and his wife were still in bed. There was a good chance their daughter was fast asleep as well, unless she had sneaked downstairs to watch the midnight programs again. Last time she had caught the young girl watching the old 1960s classic Psycho. The two of them had an unspoken rule, if the maid caught her, she would go straight to bed, but the maid also wouldn’t speak a word of it to either of the girl’s parents.

The maid got herself ready, and went upstairs and into the main lounge. As she opened the double doors, she noticed an odd smell, one she instinctively thought she would have to track down and sort out later that day. Then she noticed the red. Then she noticed the bodies. The master of the house and his wife had both been brutally murdered, smashed vases and upturned furniture littered the room. A window at the back had been smashed. And standing among it all in a catatonic state, holding her teddy which was now soaked in blood, was the little girl. Her white gown was covered in blood, and her cute brown pig tails had red ends, almost as though they had been dyed.

The cops came later that day, and the girl soon found herself living in a psychiatric ward, as the butler, her legal guardian, looked after the estate. The young girl slowly left her catatonic state, but she never did speak again after that incident. And she also refused to ever reveal any information about what had happened, instead retreating inwards.

Ten years passed, and the girl, now seventeen years old, was returned back to her home. The butler had rather enjoyed his time as the master of the house, although that time was soon to be nearing its end. He had a yearly Halloween party, where he invited some of the wealthy elite. A week long party that ended on Halloween. Unfortunately this year would have to involve the girl. Someone who due to her childish nature and inability to talk, more or less ruined the sophistication of the mood. Plus there was the matter that there were rumours that she had killed her parents all those years ago. An unfounded rumour of course, as the killer was never caught, but one all the guests were well aware of.

Most of the people in the manor, treated the girl poorly, as though she was an unwanted guest. Then four days before Halloween, one of the guests was found dead. It appeared to be an accident, a simple fall from the upstairs banister. But it aroused suspicion among everyone, especially when someone else was found dead the following day. Once again, it appeared to be an accident, as the victim appeared to have fallen while taking a shower, smashing their head open on the kitchen sink. But fear was starting to build up in the guests. Some were planning to leave, but the butler convinced them otherwise. Two days later, another guest was found dead, hanging from a rope in their bedroom. There was no denying it, there was a murderer in the house, and everyone knew who it had to be. The police though had no evidence, but they knew how to get it. With permission from the butler, they placed cameras around the entire manor, and would monitor the entire building during the Halloween party. The current guests all agreed to stay in order to bring this killer to justice. They especially felt safe knowing that the police were now watching over them.

The detective who had been assigned the case, a black man with a thin moustache and a love of noir fiction, had interrogated everyone. There was only one suspect with a clear motive and no alibi, and that was the girl. The butler, who unbeknownst to him, had been a suspect ten years ago, had a solid alibi for the time of death of two of the recent murders. It couldn’t be anyone else, it had to be her. But they needed proof, and this would provide it.

The next day came, and Halloween along with it. As per the girl’s written request, a literal cauldron of full of candy was placed outside the front door, with a ladle beside it. The party as usual, was quite small, being for sophisticated individuals. That being said, the girl had insisted on costumes, and so some had obliged. One guest wore a military outfit, another a sheet with holes cut through it, while others had simply worn their usual tuxedos and dresses. It was an odd mix. The girl, still with her brown pigtails, although they were now much longer than when she was seven, had chosen to dress herself as a maid. More specifically a psychotic maid, one whose apron had blood splatters on it. If it hadn’t been for her constant cheerful demeanour, she would have looked somewhat unnerving, although for the guests who all knew of the recent murders, no amount of cheerfulness could put them at ease.

The girl then noticed the cameras strewn about the manor. They had been put up without her knowledge, and she had only just noticed them now that the night had come and the party was underway. A look of betrayal passed over her face. A look missed by the police, as the man whose job it was to watch the cameras, was instead busy watching an old horror movie.

The girl went into the kitchen and open a drawer. There she grabbed a large kitchen knife. She then brandished the knife, pointing the blade downwards as she tightened her grip. A cook then came into the kitchen and began shooing the girl out. She turned towards him, an evil glare in her eye. Suddenly she closed her eyes, tilted her head, and gave him a warm friendly smile.

Then she stabbed him.

She stabbed him repeated in the face, blood spurting everywhere, an eyeball popping out of its socket and rolling across the floor. After the man fell onto the floor, the girl walked out of the kitchen in search of her next victim. She began killing guest after guest, and they soon began running in a frenzy. Some would even run towards, and moments before she stabbed them, they would utter not “Why?” but “How?”

Soon the manor was littered with bodies, the outside too. But there was two she was missing, and there was one place she hadn’t been yet. The family crypt where poor old mom and dad had spent the past decade. She sneaked into the crypt, and while hidden in the shadows around a corner, she saw something quite astonishing. Herself. Or at least, someone who looked remarkably like her. Then someone walked past her, not noticing her in the shadows. This person also looked like her, although more masculine. The two clones talked to each other. They confirmed who they were, and when they spoke, the girl instantly recognized their voices. It was the butler and the maid, her legal guardian and the woman who had found her all those years ago.

“She’s caused quite a mess hasn’t she?”

“Yeah, but it’s all good. All we have to do now is kill her, say it was in self defence, and we’ll be living the high life for the rest of our days.”

The butler then passed her once again and began to leave the crypt. The girl then walked up to the maid who had turned her back, and pattered her on the shoulder. The maid turned around and for a moment thought she was staring at the butler. That notion was soon put to rest once the blade pierced her abdomen and upwards into her heart. She let out a death moan which brought the butler running, but in one swift motion the girl remove the knife, swung around and stabbed the butler in almost the identical place as the maid. He let out a much more quiet moan before falling to the floor dead.

The girl took a moment to admire her handiwork, then walked out of the crypt. There, outside of the crypt was a woman with her child, who had just walked onto the estate having seen the sign outside saying that trick or treaters were welcome. The woman looked concerned over the bodies on littered on the lawn, but the girl smiled her innocent smile, and said her first words in over ten years.

“Don’t worry, they’re just Halloween decorations. Do you want some candy?”

The mother breathed a sigh of relief, and along with her child, followed the girl to the porch. As they reached the porch, the girl bent down slightly to reach the child’s height, and said “do you want to hear a scary story?”

The child nodded.

The girl grabbed the nearby ladle and scooped up a large portion of sweets. “Long ago, a family used to live here. Although the mummy and daddy used to argue a lot. One day, they more than they had ever done before, and the little girl couldn’t take it anymore.” The girl then poured the portion of wrapped candies into the child’s pumpkin bowl.

“What happened?” inquired the child.

“Well the little girl killed her parents.” The girl continued. “They say she still roams this very house. So you better run, otherwise she might get you!” She said this last sentence with a sweet and most innocent smile.

“Happy Halloween.” The mother said happily as she guided her child out of the estate. They walked past the detective who had watched the final ordeal, having chosen not to interfere lest the mother and child get traumatised. After those two had left, the police ran in, and handcuffed the girl, whose only protest was that she had proof that it wasn’t her.

“Proof? What proof? We’ve got you on camera!”

“I have proof!” she exclaimed.

“Where?” the detective finally relented.

The girl then pointed towards the crypt. After a moment’s thought, the detective brought the girl into the back of a police car and went into the crypt.

There was a moment’s silence, and then the detective could be clearly heard shouting “God fucking damn it!”

The girl then sat there in the back of the police vehicle, thinking to herself. She was briefly reminded of the ending of Psycho, that movie she had watched as a kid. If only there was a fly nearby that she could use to tell herself that she wouldn’t even hurt a fly. That would be poetic she thought.

Ok, so let me get this straight. Your problem is that the character is scaled in a jerky way, rather than a smooth continuous way?
Like it's being scaled to 76% then suddenly 77%, then to 78%, rather than a more appropriate 76.1%, 76.2%, 76.3%, etc.
Unfortunately that's just the way AGS scales characters I'm afraid.

It seems alright to me. No glaring errors as far as I can tell.

I'd personally change:
"Just slip into his role and figure it out!"
to
"Just slip into his role and find out!"

But that's just personal preference.

My games are teaching Christianity so yes that is a very good idea.

Well that should make your game easy to advertise. Just find a religious site and promote it there.
If crappy bootleg games have taught my anything, it's that religious parents will buy anything for their kids if it has Jesus Christ plastered all over it.
It'll be nice for them to finally get some GOOD games for once. 

Also, you can claim your game is edutainment and teaching kids what they would learn from playing any game. Such as problem-solving, hand-to-eye coordination, etc.
A lot of people consider the Humongous Entertainment games to be edutainment, despite not having any edutainment qualities whatsoever.

["Modules, Plugins & Tools"]

Because we could always do with another suggestion, why not just "Modules, Plugins & Tools" as the name?
To be honest, I actually thought the board was already called something along those lines. Mandela effect anyone?

What grinds my gears is the recently announced title for Amazon's Middle Earth series.

You know it must have taken a large committee months to settle on a name as stupid as "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."

There is no other possible explanation for such a cringe-worthy and redundant title.

Wait what... is it based on the game by Naughty Dog?
[imgzoom]https://project2612.org/thumb.php?551[/imgzoom]

By the way, it's a fun game. Although crushingly difficult. You can easily lose during the tutorial fight.

I don't know how useful this would be to advertise to parents, but Project Wonderful is pretty good for advertising on a budget. You can even get things advertised on there for free.
Although the last time I used it was nearly ten years ago, so things might have changed since then.

EDIT: And looking it up... it looks as though it's been dead since 2018. 

[reason]

OTOH, when we hear Ego when they talk to NPCs, but we do not hear Ego when they look at things, well, that's something that can be repaired with suitable motivation. Give a reason why the sound is off. For instance, let Ego Think() their thoughts when they are examining, perhaps even put their explanations into white thought bubbles. Keep Ego's mouth shut. Voilá, no wonder we aren't hearing anything: Ego is only thinking.

As I said, I'm probably in the minority here, but what you just described is exactly what I dislike. The explanation that "He's thinking it, so that's why you can't hear it." is exactly what I don't like. I want to hear him thinking in his head, and that explanation just doesn't justify it for me.
Rapidly switching between reading and listening is just annoying to me in general, because it feels inconsistent, even if it's done in a logical and consistent way. I just don't like it.
I'd personally prefer no voice acting than that, especially the whole "thinking = no voice". But at the same time, I'd feel as though I'd be ruining the experience for myself if I turned off voice acting.

But that's just me.

I once played a game where all the narration was voiced - played when describing what you see, what you take, and so on, and frankly it was driving me mad. Partially because it was done in a pompous theatrical manner.

That does sound very annoying. What were they thinking?
Then again I've seen that thing work well in another game, namely The Stanley Parable. Although I guess the Narrator was kind of his own character in that.

[only that one "what's up?" at the very beginning of a conversation with an NPC]

(About voicing)

I've been giving a lot of thought to this.
Two facts :
- Silent games are more and more out of place in nowaday's "all-talkie" game space.
- amateur games can't afford to have fully voiced games.

I've been thinking of doing this :
- Voicing only introductory sentences. For example, only that one "what's up?" at the very beginning of a conversation with an NPC. And their very first, short greeting back.
- I would also voice non-verbal things : loud scream, *oumpf!*, sighs, etc.
- Maybe (maybe!) the whole intro if possible. that's already in the realm of wishful thinking.
- Putting a lot of effort in the sound design for other things : music, object interactions, white ambient noise, wind, etc.

I might be in the minority on this, but I personally dislike it when games only half-ass the voice acting like that. It ruins the immersion for me, due to the lack of consistency.
The only times I'll tolerate it, is when it's a JRPG and all of the important dialog is voiced, but everything else isn't. Or when it's only the main character that isn't voiced. And I only tolerate those two, because I've gotten used to them.

For example, I played an adventure game once where all of the dialog that's spoken out loud (like when talking to other characters) was voiced, while all of the internal dialog (looking at items) was not voiced. I stopped playing ten minutes in, because I just couldn't tolerate it.

On the other hand, I do like Cat's idea about using a babble. I think you could really do something good with that, especially if you messed around with the lip-syncing functionality and assigned certain sounds to certain letters (like what Animal Crossing does). It could make something quite nice.

Hi guys I have trouble

Spoiler

finding something to compare the handwriting with the one of the note found on the victim. I was hoping to be the calendar but it is not.

[close]

Also I read in previous hints that

Spoiler

the fire needs to be turned off? If yes how please? The tea in the cup is not enough anyway :-)

[close]

Finally do I really need

Spoiler

the binoculars? If yes how to find this sheet that is requested in order to get them please?

[close]

Many thanks to all!! And great little game until now by the way!

Spoiler

For the handwriting, you need to compare it with the thing in the safe.

[close]

Spoiler

The tea in the cup is enough to put out the fire. Now that you've put the tea on the fire, it will go out when you reach a certain point in the game.

[close]

Spoiler

Pete the drunk mentions that he has a sheet, and that he wants to be a rag salesman. Give him some rags and he'll give you the sheet.

[close]

Good comic strip, the shorter three-panel version is definitely a lot better.
That being said, you've made some very simple easy-to-fix mistakes.

Firstly, try to make sure that the tail of the speech bubble draws a line towards the mouth. The angle of the tail on the second panel could be improved a little bit but is otherwise ok, but the third panel makes it look like her eye is talking.

Secondly, center the text in your speech bubbles, and go for either a triangle pattern or a jaggered pattern for the text.
For example:


Thirdly, have gutters between your panels. Gutters are those white spaces between the panels. Gutters denote a passage of time. Without them, you're suggesting that the panels are happening almost simultaneously. Gutters don't have to be white, they can be transparent, or you could use really thick panel borders. Whatever your choice, I do suggest adding them.



I've been making comic strips since 2009, and done a lot of research onto the matter, so I know what I'm talking about. I used to make all of those mistakes as well, so I hope that I've helped. 
Great joke by the way, and I hope you make more.

(Some more advice, which isn't relevant to this comic but might be relevant to future comics. Don't overlap speech bubble tails. Apparently that's a big no-no.)

I don't think I'd be able to stand playing a silent game, unless it was done for artistic reasons (like imitating a silent film).

Music almost always makes a game for me, and can determine how I remember feeling when playing the game.
Sound effects will always make me more immersed.
I also rather enjoy voice acting of any kind, but as someone who has spent way too much time putting in really bad voice acting in too many of my games, I completely understand why most people don't add voice acting. (And I don't recommend going to the effort of adding it.)

Besides, why would I want to listen to a podcast or something while playing a game. I play a game to play a game. If something deserves my focus, it's going to get it 100%. Otherwise, what's the point of doing that activity. You should listen to podcasts when doing something mundane, like jogging or drawing.

Be The Richest? 

Close enough.
The game's name is actually Be Richest.
Your turn. 

I still don't know what it is but I would be very surprised if it wasn't available from Big Fish Games.

Hahaha... the purveyors of stimulating hidden-object "adventure" games?!

So true. Although those hidden-object games have become more and more like adventure games in recent years. They have more in common with Myst than the "Where's Waldo" gameplay they used to have.

Also, speaking of Big Fish Games, you're right about this being on there. Although it's quite unique in there if you ask me. More like a simplified Tycoon game than one of the usual Time-Management games.

Last Christmas?

That's it! You got it!
Your turn. 

Nope.

I think I might have gone for too obscure of a game here.