Messages

I had heard rumors this was coming ... but I just didn't believe it.

Oh well, I suppose it was inevitable.

With the collapse of Amulet of Kings (yes, it's been officially cancelled) I suppose it's no wonder this happened too.

Sigh ... it's a dark time for the world of Amateur Adventure Games.

I'm thoroughly confused ...

Are the screenshots in your first post no longer valid?  They all look like the same basic style to me.  Also, if the screenies in your first post are no longer being used you should remove them.  However, if this is the case, and the second two screenies you provided aren't finished:

Also, please excuse the sloppyness, the room is going to be cleaned up a bit soon)]

It would appear to me you have no completed "in-game" screenshots (as the second [new] one is from a cutscene) ...

So what's going on?

THIS IS NOT THE CRITICS LOUNGE.

I'm going to lock this thread if this rediculousness continues ...

[Offer your services]

I think it's time to add a fourth rule to the "THINK BEFORE YOU POST!" bit ...

4) If you are starting an "offer my services" or "looking to build a team" thread, use the appropriate threads rather than starting a new post.

This is what the Offer your services thread is for.

Oh and ... welcome back ... and stuff.

[Yodaman]

I've cleaned this thread up quite a bit ... keep to the topic from now on. 

Yodaman - Some advice:

1) This isn't the CL.  Don't ask for opinions on the graphics here.  If you want them, post in the CL, that's what it's for.

2) You can't please everybody.  Helm is well within his rights to dislike your graphics and be critical of them (though not in this thread )

3) For the love of holy GOD use the damn modify link.  You had 5 posts in a row for Pete's sake.

4) Focus on one game at a time.

Scientology cracks me up.

They don't believe in modern medicine.  However, I would be willing to bet ANY ammount of money that if (God forbid) Kelly Preston was to get cancer John Travolta would be speding top dollar for the most up to date medicines to cure her.  It's just silly.

Also ... if I become a scientologist, can I become a whiny ass wussy like Tom Cruise?

[wine] South Park made fun of me ** boo hoo ** they called me gay and made fun of scientology ... if you show that episode ever again I won't promote M:I 3 [/wine]

If he's so afraid of people finding out he's puttin' from the rough, perhaps he shouldn't act like such a fag.

I respect the rights of those that practice scientology to practice it as they wish.  However, I think it's hooey.  Granted; I don't know a lot about it.  From what I have seen, read, and learned ... it's hooey.  Seems more like a cult to me (and indeed, as Radient said, in some countries outside the US, that might just be the case.)

(Basically I need to see whether my homemade backgrounds suck or not)Ã, 

Then why not post in the critics lounge?Ã,  I mean ... that is what it's there for!

Keep in mind that if you sell them from your own website you'll have to pay for a secure server ID (about 150 USD/year) and you'll also need a merchant account to process credit cards (can be up to 300 USD / year and they take a percentage of each sale as well).

There is PayPal which, in the end, will save you some money.  But unless your familiar with their API putting it on your website is tricky.  In the end, you'd probably end up sending your visitors to PayPal's site to process the check-out which most people aren't comfortable with and kills the "professional" feel.

I'm not trying to discourage you ... just present the realities of eCommerce   If you think you could sell enough of the CDs to make it worth while with all the costs involved I'd say go for it!

You can expect to spend roughly 300 - 400 USD / year just to maintain an eCommerce website.

This isn't to say you couldn't have something like "send me a check ..." but most people (myself included) probably wouldn't be too comfortable with that either.

I am not is it the right place to post this topic but here goes anyway

So ... you know you're doing something you shouldn't, yet you do it anyway?  That doesn't make a lot of sense man.

Post in the ACR thread, that's what it's there for!

Let me know when you come back to working on this ...

People can try to justify it to themselves any way they like, but at the end of the day you download copyrighted music, you're stealing it. I've downloaded quite a bit over the years, but I'm not going to sit there and pretend i'm on any kind of moral highground by doing it.

I don't deny that it's considered stealing and I'm not trying to take a moral highground.  I think people are getting confused with my point/opinion.  I'm simply saying; the prices of CDs are too high and I won't pay that price when there is a MUCH cheaper alternative that they can do NOTHING about.  If they value my patronage and want me to continue putting money in their pockets, they need to cut the costs MAJORLY and then I'll get on board.  Until that day, they can bugger off and continue to lose this war.

3. CDs are overpriced but it is not just the material that is taken into account Darth.

If they lower the cost enough, they'd increase their sales by a factor of 10.  I know there's a lot more involved than just selling (promotions, tours, marketting, etc) but still.  Lower cost per CD = more CD sales.

I really do appreciate that some of you don't approve of mp3 downloading.  I feel the same way about the prices they charge for CDs.  You all don't approve of mp3 download 'cause you think it's stealing, so you don't do it.  I don't approve of the cost of CDs 'cause it's highway robbery, so I don't buy them.

Bottom line; the number of people that DL free mp3 will FAR outbalance the number of people who buy CDs.  This just isn't, I doubt, going to change.  If they record companies want to keep alive, they need to adapt. 

$15 for music cds? That is ~12â,¬, which is half of what we pay for them here. I can't believe you're bickering over how expensive they are

I'm not bickering.  Just stating my opinion.  It's unfortunate that they're more expensive in other countries, but I don't live there

www.mp3search.ru

www.allofmp3.com

anybody complains after this of prices I am gona seriously have issues and then just believe your pirates and thieves!

I've heard/seen both those links.  They are russian based companies and, yes, they offer reasonable prices.  However; 1) I'm not comfortable giving my credit card number to something like that and 2) a lot of the legit mp3 pay-per-download sites claim that they aren't legal.

Dude ... read the manual.

No, you're greedy. No-one needs music. If you want to listen to music, buy it on iTunes, turn on the radio, or whatever. But don't steal it.

I would buy it ... if they lower the cost of CDs or if the cost of the pay-for-download prices lower.  Believe me, it's not greed on my part.  It's dissatisfaction with their greedy nature.  Whether or not anybody believes that, it's true.  I don't mind paying for things I want.  What I mind, is being forced to pay WAY too much.

I understand why they aren't lowering prices.  I understand the nature of business is to make money.  However, their insistence on leaving the prices so high is driving millions to DL the mp3 for free.  You'd just think they'd get their greed infected heads outta their uptight asses and do something about it OTHER than spending millions of dollars to prosecute some 80 year old grandmother whose grandson was downloading from her computer.

They [record labels] will lose this war they've foolishly chosen to fight.  All they accomplish is necessitating the high cost of each CD to cover the cost of fighting the war, alienating their potential customer base, and making people sick of hearing about it.  In the end, they will look like the badguys.

When they realize that for every 1 employee they have fighting piracy there are 10,000 against that one person, they might clue in that they need to stop resisting, and get on board.  They won't win.  If they'd have gotten on board near the time of the Napster craze they'd be making billions of more dollars, rather than losing money every year.

I've said this before:  It's like the railroad industry from 100 years ago.  If they'd have realized they were in the transportation business, rather than the train business, we'd be driving Santa Fe Explorers and Union Pacific Corvettes rather then Ford and Chevy.  The record labels need to realize they are in the music business, NOT the CD business or they'll become nothing.  Good riddance I say.  If you can't adapt, you become extinct.  Way of the world.  Look at Kodak ... they have jumped in the deep end of digital photography.  Film will die, digital is the future, they realize they are in the photography business, not the film business.  They have adapted, and are MUCH more likely to survive now.

I understand totally that CDs (music) are a luxury and that I can choose to buy, or not buy, them.  At this time, I choose not to buy them.

A CD is a luxury item. In my opinion they can charge whatever they like for it.

I agree.  But when they charge 1000 times the cost of producing the CD, I'm not going to pay for it.  If they want to compete with mp3 [free] downloads they need to drastically lower the cost per CD.  Or, I'm not sorry to say, WAY more people will continue to download them for free.  It's just a simple fact.

The record labels can continue to come up with (spend money) on anti-piracy which then they throw the cost off on their customers by upping the price of their merchandise.  And then, 10 minutes after the new-fangled-impossible to crack anit-piracy CDs hit the market, a 15 year old kid in his parent's basement cracks it and it's like it never was.  Then the downloading continues.

They, the record companies, aren't going to stop it.  They can't.  They need to realize this, stop pissing off their intended customers, and lower their prices.  I'm not an economist by ANY stretch of the imagination but even to me this is a painfully obvious fact.

A band isn't going to tour if no-one buys their songs, either because they don't have the money or because the record company doesn't think it'll be profitable.

Then the record companies should lower the prices   I'm not trying to be argumentative at all Steve, really I'm not.  I appreciate your opinion completely.  It's just that the VAST majority of people aren't going to fork out 15 bucks for something they can get for free at no risk to them.

Do I download mp3?  Of course I do.  I'm not cheap either.  I'm just fundementally opposed to getting hosed like that.  So I don't buy CDs.

Here's how I look at it:

(using simplified numbers)
Cost per CD = 15 USD : Yearly sales = 100,000 units : Earnings = 1.5 million USD
Cost per CD = 5 USD : Yearly sales = 1,000,000 units : Earnings = 5 million USD

If they lower the cost enough, they'd increase their sales by a factor of 10.  I know there's a lot more involved than just selling (promotions, tours, marketting, etc) but still.  Lower cost per CD = more CD sales.

hmm, well, I dont like the fact that people download music instead of buying it.
I mean, if you like a band, you should support them by buying their cds right?
Or am I wrong here??

1) when they stop charging $15 for a 3 cent piece of plastic I might start buying CDs again
2) most bands on a label see almost no money from CD sales, it's why they tour, and I go see bands I care about when they come to town.

But that's not what this thread is about

Now I'm off to download all Metallica's albums so I can never listen to them...

I have fond memories of Metallica ... but ever since that whiny pussy Lars made such a cry-baby rant about mp3 and how they only made 50 million, instead of 60 million, because of illegale downloads, I could give a shit about them.

[Please guys and gals, keep the C&C out of this thread! (send a PM if you must comment)]

Where are their scarves for the house colors

If you want suggestions for what to do with the characters, please post in the Critics Lounge.

Please guys and gals, keep the C&C out of this thread! (send a PM if you must comment)

Good to know you're still working on this.

The X ending and then picking up those thinner lines was bugging me.  I attempted a paint-over:



I just carried the tops of the X out to the sides.  It still achieves that bound look ... but without the break-up of the X.

Just my opinion.

Some suggestions:
- I would suggest making MALVAX and GAMES much smaller.  Seems like the big X is the logo effect you're going for.
- I would change the bright red color of the words as well.  I like the metallic tone of the X, but the red is distracting!

Hope it helps!

[edit]

Don't double post ...

I don't understand why you posted this in here.  You can't convert the BGs to JPG and post in the Games in Production board?  (make sure to use in-game shots and not menues or starting screens)

edit make sure, if you decide to post in the GiP, that you actually have a lot accomplished on this game and mean to finish it.  You've been talking about a lot of games lately and I'm sensing another flukeblake ...