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There's nothing wrong with creating a character as a wish-fulfillment device.  I'm guilty of doing this myself.  Way back in the dark ages of 2003, I wrote a game about a laid-back surfer with a very sunny disposition, who was allergic to work and only cared about the next wave.  I am nothing like this character.  I live for the city and am not a huge fan of beaches.  But at the time, I was working in a corporate cubicle factory, sitting under florescent lights all day, doing really boring corporate things.  I was envisioning the prospect of spending the rest of my life like that and it was terrifying.  So I came up with this character as a way to escape.  I suppose the character could be considered a Mary Sue (a Marty Sue?) to a degree, taken in that context.

But I think what makes a wish-fulfillment character a Mary Sue is when the wish-fulfillment is so generic and boring that is ceases to be engaging to anybody but the creator.  Just wanting to be liked by others and good at stuff is a good wish to have, but is that engaging?  In terms of adventure games, I always felt that Brian Basco from Runaway fit this description.  He was just so banally nice and pleasant.  Everybody liked him.  He magically had the knowledge to solve any situation he was in ("Oh no, I'm at the edge of a sheer cliff face.  Good thing my uncle taught me how to rockclimb when I was a kid!"). Hot chicks fell in love with him for no reason other than he was the "hero." There were no major flaws to speak of, nothing to make him interesting.  Admittedly, I haven't played the other games in the series but he was definitely a Marty Sue in the first installment.

Of course, by the same token, George Stobbard of Broken Sword fits the same description, but I still enjoy playing the games he is in because the writing is so good (disclaimer: I haven't played BS4).  So as with anything, it boils down to the talent of the creator.  Nothing is wrong with a wish-fulfillment character, as long as the character is interesting enough to others.

Ah, thanks!  It works perfectly.  I used this this code to set/call the music:

Code: ags

AudioClip *thisClip
thisClip=GetCurrentMusic();
thisClip.Stop();
//play recording
thisClip.Play();

Thanks for the help!

Hi all!  

Here's what I'm trying to do.  I have an audio recording that the player can play at any time during the game.  I want the current music to stop, let the audio recording play, and then continue the music from where it left off.  Since the player can run this recording at any time, there is no way to know what background music will be playing.

In earlier versions of AGS, there was a command called "GetCurrentMusic()" which let me assign the currently playing music number to an integer.  Since music is no longer called by using integers, this command is obsolete now.  I'm trying to replicate this command in 3.2.1.  My gut tells me the solution to this is very simple, but I've been trying to recreate this command for days and can't seem to manage it.

In v3.2.1, it seems that the only way to get the music file is to know what channel it's playing on first.  But since I've just been using the Play() command and not assigning the music to any specific channel, this won't work for me.  

Is there a way to do this?  Or is this no longer a possibility in the latest version of AGS?

-Dave

5 Days a stranger length is fine.  As always, it depends on the game.

Sexy elves in space, eh?  Sure, link me when it's ready.

It depends.  I decided for the next Blackwell game to not do animated talking portraits.  It's less work, and you can make more of them.  Also, I realized that the animated portraits look very silly unless you can do proper lip synching.  It can be done in AGS, but it a mechton of work.  Grundislav once tried to explain the process and my brain shut down in protest.  As with anything, it depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put into it.

Pff.  Don't sweat it.  I've never met a single deadline I've ever set for myself. 

Hi MiGo.  I *might* be able to help, depending how many lines you need.  I'm in the midst of doing VO for another game, and there are several female roles.  If the roles are small I might be able to convince the actresses to do some extra lines for a side project. 

Ah, if you plan on blowing off the deadline anyway, then there's no reason not to polish it as much as you can.

Regarding music, if you're in a hurry to hit that 6 (?) week deadline, relying on other people at this late stage would be a mistake.  Google some royalty free music sites.  With some digging you should find what you need.

I live in a one-room studio, and the Yeti and mic stand don't take up much space.



It's easy to disassemble it and put it away somewhere.  And I never bothered with the foamy stuff myself, although my apartment is extremely quiet so I never needed it.  Dunno what your place is like.

I will say that for five years I used a $20 headset mic from Radio Shack to record all the VO for all my games.  And nobody ever really noticed.  Well, sometimes professional audio people did, but not the general public.  Eventually I leveled up to the Blue Yeti.  If you have a tiny space and can't be bothered with all the bells and whistles, a USB mic is fine.  

You're in New York, yes?  Send me a demo reel!

Edit: But to answer your question, I use a blue yeti mic for all my VO recording now.  It's very reasonable and I've been very happy with it.

Last summer I took a few weeks and made a prototype of a magical combat system (art by Ben304!):


 Fighting an evil monkey!

How it worked was that you had spell gems in your staff, which each represented a word (like "throw", "fire", "lift", etc).  You combined these gems to create spells, and you'd fight monsters with them. It was a fun little experiment and a nice way to cleanse the creative palate after finishing Puzzle Bots, but in the end I had to admit that the system just wasn't terribly fun.  So I scrapped it and started making the next Blackwell game instead!

Nope.  Doesn't have to be AGS.

So do you only accept games that have portrait talking, a serious story, and Gabriel Knight-esque backgrounds?

Nah.  If I like the game, I'll consider taking it.

Any chance you're looking for someone to help with the game design/story writing aspects?

Unfortunately, not.  Sorry.

I have a question, actually. I'm pretty decent at programming, but pretty terrible at art. I have a few friends (and my girlfriend) that are good in the art department. We've started something...but it really lacks direction. I have to ask out of curiosity: Is WEG interested in writing/designing games? Or is that too much in the "building a game from scratch" category?

Hi Domithan.  Yes, that would definitely fall under "building from scratch" category.  Sorry.

-Dave

Hi M0ds.  I dunno where I got the family-friendly label from, considering that my first game involved a rabbi punching out a thug and throwing him under a speeding subway train.  8)  So, I guess my answer would be go ahead.

[* PR.]

Hi everyone!  

So, most of you know me.  If not, here's a brief introduction.  Since 2006, I've been developing commercial adventure games using (mostly) AGS and selling them under the banner of Wadjet Eye Games.  Two years ago I was joined by my wife Janet, who now helps out with programming.  We do this full time.  Working on these games is our sole source of income, so we're pretty serious about it.  

In addition to the games that I've written myself, we've published two games from other developers.  In 2010, we published Erin Robinson's Puzzle Bots.  Last February, we published Josh Nuernberger's Gemini Rue.  Working with other developers and their games has been such a positive experience that we'd like to work with more of you.

So, consider this a call for submissions.  If you've got a game that you think would fit within our current roster, we'd love to see it!  Here are the services we'd offer:

* PR.  Once the game is done, how do you get the word out?  We'll handle all of that for you.  Not only will press releases go out to adventure-friendly news outlets, but we will also follow up with them to make sure it gets the coverage it deserves.  We've also got a mailing list of about 8000 customers who will hear about your game the instant it comes out.

* Sales/hosting.  We'll host the game, deal with the customers, collect the orders, and handle tech support.  We'll give you an itemized sales report every month along with your royalty payment.  The royalty percentage will vary depending on the game and how much work/investment is required by us.

* Voice acting. We have casted, recorded, and directed the voice overs for eight games in the last five years.  We've got a regular crew of professional actors, and add to that crew with every game.  All of our games have voice acting, so we'd gladly do this for you as well.

* QA.  We've got a revolving team of about 30-40 testers who will give your game a thorough thrashing.  

* Production help.  Not all of us can do everything.  If there's one area of your game that's lacking, we can help bring it up to par.

Keep in mind, we are not interested in funding a game from scratch.  We are mostly interested in finding some quality games, polishing them up, and helping to bring them the rest of the way to completion.  If you've got something in-the-works and have been considering going commercial, drop us a line.

...

This was the most fun I've ever felt guilty about having.