Messages

[delayed the deadline to September 3rd]

Ah, no problem, grinder! Thanks for both entries so far, I still hope there are more comming though!

Since I just realized that I won't be here for three days around the end of the original deadline, I just delayed the deadline to September 3rd. Yes, still this year...

Ehm, because I... because I'm with stupid. Yes, that's it. Thanks for giving me this great idea.

Once again, I strongly support ProgZMax's idea and the argument list by Steve McCrea. I think the idea of having the old Roger in a classic-template is great as well.

Considering SSH's suggestion, I'd personally love to be able to decide how the source code looks like (in the global script and header file) for all my new projects. I just hate the way the global script file is formatted initially. Maybe create a text-file in the editor directory with the content for both script files?

Hehe, your microwave ovens must look strange where you live, with an open back?

Very cool! I hope we'll get some more entries, there are still six days left!

Well, your question is pretty much answered. So, let's start with "that's my rig"-talk:



That's mine. (As Pedalboard, I'll use a Behringer FCB1010 with two expression pedals on it and place for 100 presets, I guess.)

Here are some pictures of my TC Electronic G-Major effects unit that I took recently, I didn't have the time yet to take photos of the other stuff (and I still don't have the ENGL Powerball)...






I personally use the tuner that is in the G-Major. It works great and you can even switch it from "fine" to "coarse" mode for live gigs, so it isn't as accurate anymore and enables you to tune up good enough faster.

Make sure you don't use too many colors in your gradient.

To do this, you should first create the gradient normally (as you did in your image). Then select it all (the complete gradient) - I hope you used layers respectively (if not, you'll need to select the gradient by using the magic wand tool and its "tolerance" factor, cut it (ctrl+x), create a new image(ctrl+n), paste it (ctrl+v), go to image->mode->indexed color, select "Local (perceptual)" as palette, adjust the number of colors (something between 4 and 12 should be looking good, make sure forced is set to "none", transparency is not selected, matte is set to "none" and dither is set to "pattern", then click "ok", select the image (ctrl+a), cut it (ctrl+x), close this image (ctrl+w), go back to your original background image, paste the new and improved looking gradient (ctrl+v) and make sure it sits where it's supposed to be.

Sounds hard at first, but once you get it, it's really easy to do and gives you a better nostalgy-feeling to everything. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any trouble following my guideline above.

[The Theme]

TUNE   CONTEST
_____________________________________________________________________

...from August 23rd until September 3rd...

I didn't win the last tune contest, but because the original winner (BunnyMilk) didn't show up in several days, the host of the last contest gave me the privilege set up next round's theme.

The Theme

Write me a song that somehow shows the life of one person. You can really cut it down to a few major events - for example: birth, first boy- or girlfriend, breaking up, finding new hope, wedding, getting children, aging and death. Actually this is still a lot, feel free to cut it down even further and add your own major events in life if you want to! Musically, it would be great if I would hear a wedding organ melody for the wedding or something heavy-sounding for negative-times (such as breaking up or death maybe). Feel free to be creative, but make sure to let me know about your thoughts on your stuff (also, it's appreciated if you'd add the events you tried to describe and the times in your song), this helps me to understand and rate your work better. You can release this information after the entry-time is closed if you don't want other entrants to see and steal your ideas, just make sure to let me know early enough please. Also, you are invited to give this a meaning of some sorts - for example give me a simple birth-melody played with toy-sounds and high bells and then - after a nice death passage, play some of the first notes from your song again to symbolize an eternal circle of life (reincarnation or life after death). Be creative.

Good luck.

I love the new version by ProgZMax. I think we should go with the time, although it might hurt a bit for people that have been knowing AGS for a few years.

I DON'T think that the new version will make newbies turn away from AGS because it looks better and discourages beginners. I also think Prog's sprites (with walking animations) could work great as a template (way better than the old roger did), which would help lots of art-newbies.

And it STILL is Roger.

Anyways, I support the new sprite completly, we'd just need to update the two default inv-items as well (and possibly some GUI images)...

I didn't play it, but why exactly do you call it "3d"? It looks like it is as much 2d as 2d can be.

However you won't be able to sell your game commercially if you use .mp3, plus I think that .ogg compresses a tiny bit better. But I am not completly sure. But really, start worrying about other things, whether you use .mp3 or .ogg won't change anything at all - you should use the format that is the easiest for your composer to export to and it's fine.

Glad you used, liked and obviously understood the tutorial on our site. I would like to suggest that you post your work on our official forums over here, because our main artist Miez (who wrote this tutorial) is browsing our forums more recently than those here, I think. He is known to be quite a helpful person!

Anyways, what you have so far looks very good indeed, you should try to follow the next steps of the tutorial and see whether that works out or not!

Or structure your code well into the global script, the header file, the room script files and into script modules (you don't need to publish those) to avoid getting a 5k-line global script file.

Still, I'd like that feature!

[Vengeance]

I am done with my entry.

I call the song Vengeance. I have spent three days writing the material, two days recording it and one day mastering it. I performed the song on guitar and bass and programmed the drums. Please note, that seven days is really very little time to record a real song and master it while not using only sequencers, plug-ins or generators - you'll need to understand that the mixing is far from perfect and that there are minor glitches in some of the recorded lines, there just wasn't enough time to perfectionize this.

The song is based on three parts, every part has its own tempo, time- and key-signature. It's written in a "progressive" way, rather than a "verse-chorus-verse" way (meaning that there is no chorus-part that is repeated, all riffs only occure once in the song). Still, it barely made the length-rule of 2:30.

Here are the times and some comments on the different parts:

Part I: The Discovery (0:00 - 0:11)

Here, I use some plug-ins to create an ambient sounding intro. I pictured a person discovering the body of a loved person dead. There's a beep in the foreground, that could be one of those heart-beat-sensors they use in hospitals.

Part II: The Chase (0:12 - 1:16)

This part is the most fun to play with bass and guitar. It kicks in heavily and is supposed to be the most intense sounding. The steady double-bass drum rhythm, the pedal tone chucking guitar riff and the way the guitar/bass riff shifts are all clearly representing pure speed - a chase. I picture the person noticing that the murderer is still around in the beginning and then running after him, jumping down the balcony and running through the streets. When the drums stop for one measure, I would personally imagine how they both reach a street crossing and the chasing guy doesn't know for a second which way the murderer took. A second of silence, the guy breathes hard and the camera spins around him, then he hears a noise from one of the streets and sees the murderer running from shadow to shadow and starts chasing him again. That's when the drums kick back in.

Part III: The Confrontation (1:17 - 2:33)

I didn't want so much tempo for the last part. I wrote it in a "duel of the fates"-kind-of-way (from Star Wars), it's supposed to sound dramatic and interesting rather than ripping away with more heavy riffs and action. The first section of this part is written in 3/4 and changes to 4/4 every fourth measure (like this: 3/4, 3/4, 3/4, 4/4 and repeat) by the way - the last section is in 12/8 then. This part continues to tell the story of how the murderer is finally reached by his chaser and the confrontation runs. This could be a fist fight or something, but I personally think that there should be a more honest fight (something like the saber fights in Star Wars for example - of course without light sabers, just something like this - maybe they both equipped themselves with some japanese swords that were in the house of the victim, I don't know) or there could be a dialog. I also don't want to decide on who wins, that's up to the listener or the gamer.

That's it, HERE is the link (click on the lower-right button captioned "free" to download). I hope you like guitars...

People can still quite easily create double accounts and keep voting 100% positive for their own game, only to make people play it. Either we have people control the ratings or we don't offer that feature.

Mad-Hatter says:
you admire Hitler and the Nazis for what they did,

How about the backstore for that one. I hope you have a good one.

Oh yeah, don't worry, I'm working on something...

I finished it yesterday, it went pretty fast, because I already played the original and the remake before (although I got stuck once and needed to read the hints & tips-thread).

It was great, I really liked it. The comics were drawn very good as well (except maybe one or two panels, but that's no big deal) - I especially liked the image of Ben lying in front of the TV.

However, two minor things weren't as optimal as they could've been to me:

- As said before, Ben's voice. I see that he was supposed to sound unexperienced and young, that was completly okay, but he read some passages way to fast, especially at the end of sentences. I had to activate the written text as well to understand some of his words.
- Having no exits to locations and the need to use the map. That just wasn't expected, I spent half-an-hour to try how to exit the first location, the murder scene. I tried walking around everywhere, I thought I had to do something else there as well, I even tried to look at the map (after all, that should've maybe worked as well).

Anyways, it was nice and I can't wait for a new episode. I finished with full points!

The only way to do this that I can think of right now, is through a simple parameter to your function.

For example:

Code: ags

// header
struct my_struct
{
   import my_function ( int index );
};

Code: ags

// main
my_struct mine[10];

Code: ags

// within some function
mine[4].my_function ( 4 );

// or
mine[i].my_function ( i );

You can actually sit down and write a game with as much comfort as you'd write a short story. I mean, that's a programmer's wet dream all right, isn't it?

Nah, more like a designer's wet dream... provided that the designer's background is in writing or something else less logically-oriented than programming.

Continuing this thought, that feature would actually be the nightmare for every programmer...