Messages

I  want to thank everyone who took the time for the editings!

@Andail: I agree with your opinion that the pose and the mimic isn´t dramatic enough. But when I would change the whole image(like you did(and I know it was only a demonstration)), my drawing and painting work on paper was useless, which took a long time. I thought I could change his mimic and don´t let him seem so imotionless/characterless.

@Ali: Your edit was really much diffrent as my original image. Anyway I was impressed of your drawing technique. And I agree with you in the point that the skin of John is a bit too pale. So I tried to get the color like in your edits but I saw only the way to paint it over because I haven´t found a function in Photoshop(CS4) to overlay his skin-color with this brownish skin color you used but I´m sure there must be such a function. There are some in the "Image"-Section but in my cases it was the overlay color was too red or too dark or sth and it didn´t gave me the aim-skin I wanted.
Can you/anybody tell my where I can find this function?

I´ve also noticed that your edits are really sharp and detailed. If I make my pics in Photoshop usually I just have a backgroundcolor for example skin color and when I draw the face contures I start to shade(black) and brighten(white) until I have my finished image.
This works good but my result with this technique is everytime a bit blurry.
As you can see here on my try on which I´m really not proud of:

It should only demonstrade what I mean with blurry results. My other original work is sharper because I scanned in a painted image.
So, can you tell me your secret?  

Okay I edited the image:



Because the Title:
I could only add a couple of flashes to the "Geisterjäger"/"Ghosthunter" because that´s the font of the original Logo of "John Sinclair" which is a german horror-novel series.
That´s the original german Title of the novel the game is based. It´s an accident that the title has the same meaning in English .
You can see the novel-cover here:

I thought we should continue with the Title-Screen-Stuff in the Critics Lounge:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=40640.0

Opinions to the game or anything else can still be postet here!!!

Okay people, this starts as a "Making Of-Thing"
here in the "AGS Games in Production"-Section but than it turns a bit more in a Critics Lounge Theme.  :
So I´ll go on here:

You've done lots of good art for this game (which looks really promising), but this one has some problems, I think.

Now it looks like you've given him a shiner (black eye) on his right eye (i.e. our left).   :'(

The other thing that stands out is that the pupils are very uneven. His right eye has a larger pupil (particularly because it looks like you can only see about half of it, while only the top sliver is hidden by his left eyelash), and it has a touch of red to it (why? is he bleeding?).

I would also question the anatomy of that fleshy fold that curves down from the left side of his nose, over his cheek and under his lips.

The basic form is good, the pose is good and dramatic, and you have a nice technique, but your shading doesn't really seem to show grasp of the facial geometry. You'd be better served by following Steve's example more closely, and by focusing less on small wrinkles than on areas of light and shade.

Similarly, there's something really strange going on with that wrist, and the emphasis on deep, harsh wrinkles makes it look wizened and ugly.

(I realize this isn't the critics lounge, but it looks like we've got into a critique of this image and that it's welcome, so I thought I'd add my two cents.)

@Snarky:
Thank you very much for your useful feedback!
I tried to solve every problem you wrote me.
@All:
Now you can let me know what´s still bad or what´s good:

[WOOOOOW!!!]

I just have to say: WOOOOOW!!!
This is so beautiful! I´m sure this is the true PQ-Style. When I look just at the graphics I must say it could be the best PQ-Part ever. When the story and the puzzles fits it IS PQ-Part ever(in my opinion).

I wish you good luck, motivation and keep up the genius work!!!

I think it's all a bit flat.
Here's a rough lighting pass:

Thank you! I was about to change this. I´ve made the shadow on his skin:

He looked a bit too red I thought. So I changed his skin a bit:


Do you think it was better before?

Nice Graphics!

I've replayed demo and found another thing:

Spoiler

When sitting down on banch (police station) and while in inventory we see main character standing when reading news paper (right-click) instead of sitting down

[close]

I know this maybe hard to fix and hopefully others can provide feedback.

Were there other works done on demo since 2nd past post?

Thank you I know where the problem is.
Other works? Of course!
I´ve made a lot for the new Demo. It´s not the same story. And so there are many other graphics and animations for the new Demo. I think the ones who played the first (unofficial) Demo will notice all the diffrences.

it looks awesome, very good

though, maybe you could make his face lines less dark/deep, like you did in the pencil one

he looks like he is a couple of hundred years old qhen colored

You´re right. He looked a bit like a chain-smoker.
I changed the picture:

I'd say limit the colours a bit to get a more Sierra-esque look. (256 colours)

Can you tell me how I can change the colors to 256?(with Photoshop or Game Maker-Sprite Editor or another program)?

The central plot from the demo, which is also the 1st Chapter from the game is complete. Now the Music, Soundeffects and Speech is missing. At the moment I´m on "bug-hunt" and probably I´ll very often test the game and let the game test.

Here´s a little bit "Making of-Stuff":

In many old Sierra Adventures Backgrounds, Characterportraits etc. were painted with the hand, scanned and intergrated in the game. I´ve tried this method now the first time on myself for the title screen of my project.

So, at first I drew it with pencil on paper:


Than I scanned the Drawing and printed it again a little bit more transparent because I don´t wanted any contures in the painting.
After a long time precise work the painting was finished(I used special comic-pens):


Than I´ve scanned the pic edited it added a background(Towerbrigde of London) and the Game title:


Finally I added Buttons and put everything in the game:


Do you think all the work is it worth for a 320x640-Screen?
I am quite content about the endproduct. The selfpainted Background has somehow a little bit more character. What do you think?

Did you start from the Verb Coin template or did you import the Verb Coin GUI into an existing game?

You've probably got two sets of code to handle the mouse click, one that opens the Verb Coin and one that moves the character. It's hard to help you without knowing what exactly you've done to get to this point.

I´ve imported the Verbcoin Script(Module) from the VerbCoin-Template.

Code: ags

if (Mouse.Mode != eModeUseinv && process == false && player.Room != 8){
			if (Mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseLeft) == 1) timer++;
        /*LONG CLICK*/
      if (timer >= 7) { 	
        if (GetLocationType(mouse.x, mouse.y) != eLocationNothing || item != null){
				// if there's a hotspot, inventory item OR an object at the mouse position, THEN pop up the action gui
				// this prevents the game from crashing when it doesn't find anything (when it returns a nullpointer)
          if (item != null){
					//this stuff makes sure you see the right names pop up in your text (@overhotspot@) gui
            player.ActiveInventory = item;
            location_name = player.ActiveInventory.Name;
            player.ActiveInventory = null;
            location_is_inv = true;
          }
          else{
            location_is_inv = false;
          }
          // ok, now activate the gui
          gui[verbc_id].SetPosition(guix, guiy);	// put the verbcompass on the right spot
          gui[verbc_id].BackgroundGraphic = verbgraphic_button0;  
          gui[verbc_id].Visible = true;						// activate
        } 					
        clicked=0; 	//click done
        timer=0;		//timer reset
      }
      }

Here you can see that the VerbCoin can only be displayed, when the player holds the left mouse button a little moment long("LONG CLICK").
And my problem is, that when I start such a click my character walks to this position this 7timers long until the game freezes and the Verbcoin is shown.
So I must find a way to keep the character still in the "Short Click"-Section.
There´s a Short-Click section(without timer) in the VerbCoin-Module(from Template) too.

Hope you can imagine it better now.

Look! The Zombie is there again!

@NEON:

1. You say "objects from a room in a roomscript"..The only time anything in the room script (roomX.asc) will ever be executed is when the room is loaded. If I'm misunderstanding you then..perhaps are you saying you have to open the room for editing to edit the room script? Coz you can open the room script without opening the room itself..Or maybe you're saying that to link any events to room objects you have to open the room..? To me that's no different than having to open a character's pane to link events to the character. Maybe a better suggestion in this case would be context menu options for rooms to more easily open a room for editing and select a specific item such as hotspots, rooms, walkable areas, etc. with a single command instead of having to open the room, then select the item from the drop down. I could see the usefulness of that particular idea..

2. There's ways that you can work around the existing limit such as reusing regions and checking co-ordinates to simulate new regions. If you can present a reasonable case for why you'd need more regions CJ might be able to raise that limit though..

1. I mean when I want to script "oDoor.Visible=true" in RoomX.asc and I want my little "Script-Help-Window" which shows you if you have everything written right, I must have open the RoomX and select "Objects" that my "Helping-Window" appears.

2. Because it´s a simplerway to have more regions.

I'm a woman, bring on the gore & guts!!!  

At the end of the "Introplay" there will be a bloody ceremony.
I try to keep it creepy.

Is there going to be at least a translation for the demo? I'd love to try it out and actually understand something.

When the whole game is completed I want to have english subtitles for the game but at first it´ll be in german language.
For the upcoming BETA-Demo english subtitles are possible but I haven´t a translation yet.

PS: Where´s my Zombie-Screenshot? Am I the only one who can´t see it?
     

Hi guys,

My problem is how the title says that my playable character starts walking when I hold the left mouse button to open the VerbCoin-GUI(MI 3-Style).
And when the Verbcoin is visible the character stops walking.
It´s only the time when I hold the left mouse button a couple of moments to open the Vercoin.
Can somebody tell me please how I can make the character doesn´t walk when I open the VerbCoin-GUI?

1.
It´s always annoying because I can´t script something with objects from a room in a roomscript when the Room itself isn´t open and the objects arent selected!
This should be changed.
2.
And there should be more Regions because in some cases(in my case) it is helpful to have more.

These are the things which I can think of at the moment.

Beautiful graphics! My favourite is the zombie face coming out of the dark... Call me a weirdo but I really like this sort of stuff. Keep up the good work!

John Sinclair is a series of horror-novels. So the game will be a horror-adventure(I try to keep it creepy).
But it will not be splatter-game because I think the most adventuregamers don´t like too bloody stuff.
The zombie face will be used as a "shocker-face" in a dream-sequence.(There are more as one shocker-faces.)

Cool Man!!! :o
I can´t wait to play it!

I like the style of the game. Reminds me a bit of Southpark.

Hi there!

The Intro-Play is still in production. Here is a little foretaste: