Messages

Firstly, dig the sprites.Ã,  They look cool.

Alright ... onto the question.

I went through this debate a few years back when flash intros were all the rage on websites.Ã,  How long is the perfect intro ...

Well, when it comes to adventure games, I think (my opinion coming up) that there's really no set length to adhere to.Ã,  If the cutscene is interesting/well put together, it could be ten minutes and I wouldn't care.Ã,  As long as it holds my interest.

I think it's similar to the graphics or story debate ... well, with intros, if the story is gripping and interesting the length of the intro isn't what you notice.

Short answer, I don't think there should be a set length, but a set quality level.

If an intro doesn't hold my interest, 10 seconds is too long and I'll just skip over it.Ã,  If it's good, I'll just keep watching.Ã,  But I'm also like you where I like my games to be more like interactive movies.

Last night the cable and internet went out around 9pm and they just came back now, which is good cause I think boredom would have driven me to insanity otherwise.

Well do I know that!Ã,  We were only without power for just over 1 full day and I was already going crazy.Ã,  The only day we didn't leave the house was Saturday (and I was still going outside to take pictures!)

It's funny 'cause even when the trees where bending over doing toe-touches Sara and I sat on the back porch and just watched it all.Ã,  The wind, for whatever reason, just never found it's way into our back porch.Ã,  It was very cook, but bizarre.

Everybody who said I would regret anticipating the storm turned out to be right though ... but not in the way they meant.Ã,  I regretted anticipating the storm because I also didn't anticipate the ammount of boredom I would experience!Ã,  Good God!!Ã,  It was hours of NOTHING!!Ã,  It was so boring!!

Here's some pictures of the aftermath ... rather than being REALLY damaging to our area, it looked more like your house after a big party.Ã,  It was more messy than damaged.


this may have been done intentionally ... but either way it was funny.


the atrium gate at my parent's house (in Coral Springs)


it's hard to tell, but that tree is laying on it's side, completely uprooted.


there IS a parking lot under there somewhere ...

[GIP's FORUM RULES]

Darth comes out of the hurricane with a vengeance (and a severe case of boredom) ...

Send me a PM with a screenshot and a plot summary ... that shall be the key that shall unlock this rule-breaking thread!!!

Until then, please read the GIP's FORUM RULES.

[EDIT]

Sara and I decided to head East (toward the Atlantic) to see what we could see over the waves.Ã,  This was as close as we got ... They weren't letting anybody through.



I think the owner of this miami subs should win a Darwin award 'cause that's just not gonna help much buddy!!



The wind started kicking up while we were out:



You could really see the wall of the hurricane as we were headed home:



I found a way onto the roof of my building:


EDIT - screw this storm ... it's downgraded to a category 2 and is stalling over the bahamas.Ã,  Now all we're going to get is a bad thunderstorm for several days.Ã, 

I feel jipped ...

Well, there's always Ivan.Ã,  Here's hoping.

Right, that's it, anymore use of Force clichés in this thread will be dealt with severely!

Anger, fear, agression ... the darkside are they.  Remember AGA, once you travel down the darkside, forever will it dominate your destiny.

This looks pretty promising.

I too am a HUGE (old school) Star Wars fan.  I was working on my own Star Wars game awhile back ...  but anyway, if you need any help (as Barbarian said) let me know I'd be happy to lend my [geeky] knowledge to your cause.

The force looks strong with this one ...

[Best Story]

Best Story
I once waited on Jewel at a Red Lobster (where I worked at the time) in Coral Springs Florida (we mother (I think) lives in Boca Raton (just up the coast).

She wasn't famous yet, but I knew who she was 'cause I'd seen her broadway 'Wizard of Oz' show and was MADLY in love with her. Ã, I was so nervous waiting on her. Ã, She came back after her party left and said, "I've got a tip for you ... keep up the good work, you were great!" and handed me an additional 10 dollars on top of the already generous tip they'd left.

Cool Story
Myself and one other guy (years back) started a website (www.dragonmount.com) as a fan-site for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Ã, We built it slowly at first and I slowly detached myself from it (I'm barely involved anymore) but it now has something like 10,000 members.

Anyway, a few years back I went to a book signing and met Robert Jordan. Ã, I was wearing my Dragonmount t-shirt. Ã, He recognized it and knew my nickname from the website (which is Mandarb by the way!) Ã, It was great, and he signed 3 of my books instead of the limited 2.

Ahhh ... good stuff!

[Tiki]

I decided to head out to see what was going on around town ...

No too ominous ... yet.


The local market was jammed and most of the shelves were empty!!

Decided to get some petrol.Ã,  I was waiting in line at the station for well over an hour.Ã,  And this is no joke, the pumps ran out AS I was topping off my tank!!

And this wasn't even the worst that it got ... the rest of the free space filled up too.Ã,  I had to yell at several people who were trying to cut in line.

It was hairs breath from falling apart ... crazy stuff!!

Tiki - Yeah, my dad was boarding up his offices (he's in Pompano Beach, right under the gun!) and he said Home Depot was a mad house!!Ã,  Anyway ... good luck man!

MAN!!  This is insane down here!

People are running around like it's kingdom come or something.

Armegeddon is fast approaching.

I'm documenting it all (taking lots of pictures!)  As soon as this thing blows over (literally) I'll post some of them up!

(Is it wrong of me to be enjoying this??)

I think it looks much better!

It looks like her hips are swaying when she walks.Ã,  Which is how women walk (more so then men I mean ... nothing sexist)

That walk cycle looks remarkably life-like considering how small it is.

Great job (to all who helped!)

These big storms should have less wimpy names.Ã,  It's been said millions of times, but I want my house to be levelled by Hurricane Attila, not Frances. That sounds like somebody's ancient auntie who brings you cookies.

When I was first crafting this thread I said much the same thing.Ã,  Why couldn't it be hurricane Genghis Kahn or hurricane Conan.Ã,  Something manly and threatening sounding.

But I didn't want to offend anybody reading this who might happen to have the name Frances.

But since you did it ...

I rather liked that.

I think the second bit of zoom-in isn't necessary.

I like how it zooms up the table, focuses on the typewriter, and then backs off a bit.Ã,  But then it stops, zooms back in before pulling out to the fade to logo.

I think you'd be better suited if it;
zooms up the table, focuses on typewriter, pulls back and then fades into the logo.

Might also be cool if the typewriter keys are being depressed to spell out the company name?

But Perseida and Leónidas happen every year, Darth...Ã, 

Yes, but those years were the 'strongest' displays of them (or so I was told) in recent history.Ã,  I could be mistaken?

They are activating the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) at 5am (thursday morning) and are expecting to put us under a hurrican watch later tonight (Wednesday).

Tiki - yes I'm in the city limits of Davie, but my address is a Ft. Lauderdale address.Ã,  I think we're far enough inland that we don't have to worry about an evacuation though.Ã,  Which is good, cause I wouldn't want to leave anyway.

My latest project's inventory I want to work like this:

The spacebar will pop up the inventory (you can also access it from a menu)

There will be an option for 'combine' and 'exit' and that's it.

Moving the mouse over an item will display a message about what that item is

Clicking an item (if you haven't selected combine) will select it and close the GUI.

Combine will let you use 1 inventory item on another.

I haven't even started making it so I don't know yet if all that's possible.Ã,  But it's been my experience with AGS that you're only limited by your willingness to experiment and your ability to keep trying.

I was never a big fan of the lucas arts gui (down at the bottom like that) I prefer full screen graphics with GUIs that you can access by keystrokes or mouse movements.Ã,  Stuff like that.

The GUI I have for JP & Cosmo is a little clunky because it has 'Select Item' and 'Use Item' and it could get confusing what to do.Ã,  And sometimes you'd click an item, then click Use when it should be the other way around.

Ease of use is the key to any good GUI.

Another example of the critics lounge coming through!

- First attempt
- Current

Bravo!

The new one is great!

It looks like there might be a tiny little glitch ... the waistline gets a double line of the dark blue outline when her hands are in the back position. (I'm being very nitty about that!)

[edit]

PS What program did you make them in?

Read the bottom of the images

edit - I stand corrected

Minimi - I think they're pretty darn good! 

I like the details on the legs and the chairs.  The close-up on the 12 ball looks a little jaggy to me though.

And of course, shadows would make it all so much prettier   Please post the lighted work when/if you have it.

When I am designing inventory GUIs I always make the 'shell' first, just to get a feeling for it (in Photoshop).Ã,  Then I refine it slowly.Ã,  I put it over a background and turn the layer on an off to see how it looks.Ã,  I do all of this before taking the time to make it in AGS (as that's a lengthy process).

The LucasArts folks tended to put it down on the bottom of the screen with the scroll arrows.Ã,  This is pretty effective as it doesn't 'clutter the screen' as you put it.

I, personally, prefer it centered on the screen brought up only when you need it.Ã,  This way it doesn't really matter how big it is, as the game is paused while you're accessing it.

[Help Section]

First of all this is covered in the Help Section and several of the 'Read First' threads, but since I'm feeling generous today ...

Unfortunately, there's a bit more involved than just pasting an image!Ã,  You'll need to upload the image (jpg, gif, or png NO bmps!!) to a webserver, then link to it in your message.

Here's Neole's Quick Upload Space for AGS Game Screenshots and Midis Here where you can upload the screenie.

You might also want to check out this thread, Post your suggestions for worthwhile servers to upload demos to here as it lists a few servers you could use if not Neoles.

Then as always check the BBCode reference page for the 'how' to do it!

Don't be thrown off by how confusing it seems at first ... once you get the hang of it it's quite easy to understand.

Best of luck!

[Alec]

Alec - That was pretty funny!

Grundislav - Yeah, my girlfriend was here for Andrew too and she is dreading this one.Ã,  She thinks I'm nuts for being excited because she remembers being without power (electricity) for 18 days.Ã,  I told her that if that happens this time, by the 3rd or 4th day, I'm out of here.Ã,  There's just no possible way I can survive that long without my internet access.Ã,  I'd go nuts!Ã,  I love going camping for a few days to get away from technology, but this would be different ...

I was up in Michigan last year for the Big Black Out (August 14th, 2003), which some of you may recall.Ã,  At first it was fun, but after awhile it was just annoying.Ã,  So I guess I can add that to my list ... though it's not really a 'natural' disaster so to speak.

I saw Halley's comet when I was a kid, and Hale Bop a few years ago.

I saw the Leonids (meteor shower) in Nov. of 2001 and I even remember the Perseids way back in '83.

Ozwalled - Sara and I are planning a trip to Hawaii (so I can put a check mark next to volcano) though technically it's safe to view that volcanoÃ,  ... perhaps I'll move to the base of Mt. St. Helens and cross my fingers

Andail - I bet insurance is super cheap there!Ã,  Then again, most other countries probably don't have the scam of insurance like the good ol' US of A.Ã,  (but that's another thread!)Ã,  Actually sounds like a rather nice place to live ... South Florida isn't so bad (I prefer Michigan), the only things you have to watch out for here are alligators (which you rarely ever see), a few snakes, and the 2 fast 2 furious idiots who think they know how to drive ...

[hurricane Frances]

Well it appears that hurricane Frances is bearing down on us South Floridians ...

This will be my first hurricane (if it hits here that is) that I've actually experienced.Ã,  I'm only about 5 or 6 miles inland from the Atalantic Ocean so it should kick up something fierce if it hits us head on.

I've watched tornadoes from less than a mile away (on more than one occasion).

I've been in two earth quakes (mild thankfully).

I've been in several floods (one REALLY bad out in Salt Lake City).

I've been in more blizzards than I care to recount (I was driving from Florida to Michigan in the blizzard of '96 some of y'all Statesmen might remember that little ditty)

We had to run from a forest fire one time out in California.

I've even been in a mildly destructive sand storm in New Mexico (or was it Arizona) one time.

A hurricane is my 'final frontier' of natural disasters and I must admit that I'm somewhat (naively) anticipating this.

I've stockpiled my provisions and have battened down the hatches!!

BRING IT ON FRANCES!!!