Topics

Well, after that background blitz entry:


This was a lot of fun, and yes it has like 4 million flaws, but it was my first attempt at such style, and people actually liked it. Which is great.
So here are some few.

A title screen. I know it's a swastika, but please focus on the art side.


A room. Entrance of a train station.
I'd love to know if it's appealing, and if you would play a game like that. Also some edits or points would be more than welcome. Those are my first attempts so be gentle.

It's not a great amount of money, and well, people may go: "Fuck off Dual", but I'm in the direst of needs. The amount is near 250 Euros. I know it's probably as in nowhere to reality to get them, but worth a shot. I will not reveal why exactly I need the money, because it'd be whoring out and disrespecting you lot.

Most importantly I must come up with that money within the next two weeks, otherwise things will end up really hard for me. Well, I don't want to get donated without working for them (unless you really feel like it), so if anyone knows a great way to earn those kind of money via Internet, I'd be more than happy to know.


I might as well hand this over.
Please don't judge me. Love me.


In case one asks the button is named as its named, because I couldn't figure out how to make a new one.

Not sure, if this is just ported from 2.72, 3.0 but it exists on 3.1.2, if you set game.top_inv_item value less than 0 by accident game crashes, and a red x appears, saying it has created a crash dump file. Perhaps the function is now considered obsolete, so really sorry to bug you with this. If you care, i have the dmp file, and it's no trouble of sharing.

I need someone to actually point me out in something I think I'm missing from this whole era.
I've listened to WASP, Def Leppard, Poison, Van Halen, KISS, Winger, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Motley Crue

Any songs I should hear or bands I should grab and listen? Based on the greatness of the bands above?
Some may say Glam is like shit, but I just can't get enough.

Silly topic, but nevertheless, a topic I crave answer for!

This isn't a reason to just go bump my game or anything. Bad games shouldn't be bumped.

So fellow froods, what are you doing on that day? Need ideas? Here's what happened globally on last year's event:

http://towelday.org/archives/2009/index.html

It's late, I'm semi-drunk so you might as well excuse me.

I noticed that if you put a -1 in the image property of an object in a room, the room ends up unusable. I was able to overcome this, by not saving the changes, but if someone somehow messed up with this, I believe it would be frustrating, even if we all know we shouldn't put minus values on object.image property.

Just thought I should mention this.

[Foreword]

Foreword
You like those creepy rooms in certain games? Yeah, horror giving rooms! From a torture chamber, to an empty gas chamber, to a room full of bodies.

Rules:
Make a background that can either disturb, disgust or give the chills to someone.
"Splatter is always welcome." -SMS
"I love horror!" - Asuka

The contest will be running until the 21st of May.


Voting: Same as the last time, public voting after the contest has concluded and a majority vote will determine the winner!
Here are the criteria for voting.

Sex
Sex
Sex

Ehm..

Idea - How strong and original is the concept? Is it a good response to the contest topic?
Technique - How well executed is the background as a piece of art within the chosen style?
Usefulness - How well would it work as an adventure game background, and how useful would the background be in a game?

Vote ends on 24th. So please all contestants at least should vote!

Trophies

[What is MAGS?]

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers.

MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favorite" games, and not the most artistic. You may get help for the competition, as long as you end up doing something yourself. You should however be warned that it should prove hard to organize a big team within 30 days.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public. Modules and templates are allowed.

Please do not just enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created in just some hours)

This means that you can make a game and rush it, but don't do it to just win by default.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Topic: Complete Your Game

This month's guidelines were set by ProgZMaX:


This MAGS encourages anyone with unfinished games from any era to complete them in a month (at least enough to be playable)?  This may attract the interest of people like me who have several 25-75% finished full length games that for whatever reason we've abandoned.  This way everyone wins even if there has to be a courtesy 'win'.

I believe Chicky also mentioned extensive interest in such an event, and if mags does not do it I may host a separate event to get some of the older games that fell off the map back on.

Thread Rules:

1)  Comments are allowed at all times. Anyone can comment, critic and express his opinion about an entry, the MAGS, and the host's mother, without being obliged to hide it! As long as the critic isn't like "You suck", something more elaborate could be more useful because after all this is a test for all developers to see if they can really make a game within a month, therefore feedback is crucial. [/i]

2)  Participators are allowed to patch their games even while the voting but I should be informed via pm or here, and only IF the game has a serious bug that makes it crash. Due to the inability of keeping track of versions of the games, I've settled to this.

3) It would be wiser to add the game to the AGS database, so you can easily do changes to the game, while the voting is going on, without having to inform me at all.

So you can patch your game, if it crashes or if it can't be completed.


Winner

Markbilly! With his wonderful entry : Wall-E



MAGS A (January, March,May, July, September, November)

It starts on 1st and ends on 30/31st

The winner sets up the theme of the next MAGS A
Voting and playing lasts whilst MAGS B is going on. (2 weeks each)

MAGS B (February, April, June, August, October, December)

It starts on 1st and ends on 28/29/30/31st
The winner sets the theme of the next MAGS B

Voting and playing lasts whilst MAGS A is going on. (2 weeks each)


The winner of this month if not deadly obvious from this post, will set the rules of July. MAGS A and MAGS B are just a way to clarify and indicate condition of the competitions.

To sum up, there will be constantly a 30 days game making month, and a 30 days voting and playing month for that, whilst on the second process another game making month of 30 days will overlap.

Due to the great Days of No Entries, this will be confusing to all of you. Summing up: Every month one new game making month round, one game voting month round.
It's about time you get what you deserve. I know this changes will be a little off the book, but the rules are just guidelines.



Moderators, don't lock the other topic. To you, nothing prevents you from entering the other MAGS. So Game Makers of this Month, we salute you. Let the games begin.
If you're working on a MAGS entry the last days, don't frigging post it here! It goes on the other topic if not obvious already!

Well, there are many topics, but nothing based on what I'm after.

I hope this goes actually here and not the beginners.
Now, I'm having some modules, and a quite big global script (10.000 lines just the GC), anyway, Although the visual effects are possible to be disabled, and that actually boosts performance, the modules and the global and the room, run constant commands via the repeatedly execute. Perhaps merging some of them into one repeatedly execute command would boost things up?

My FPS are around 60, but the rooms which are less than downfall which is 20 times bigger, take 2-3 seconds to load. My computer is quite perfect, and also Jim Reed, has noticed a slowdown there. I'm using 3.1.2 and I'm using ogv files and a preload pcx. However when skipping a cutscene, is the most obvious, as the game freezes and takes like 5-10 seconds to skip. When there are visual effects on, I'm not allowing the skipping of cutscenes because it makes around 1 minute to unfreeze.

I know people will going to say clean up your code and stuff, but I'd love some really helpful suggestions besides that. Would replacing repeated fractions of script with functions improve speed? Would merging all modules into one huge one fix stuff?

I have this list in a GUI. Good for me really. Now I have two buttons (one that scrolls up the list and one that scrolls down).
I did a search, but I couldn't find what I wanted. What I want is ten bucks on my PAYPAL account, and someone to tell me how to turn off and on the buttons only when necessary. I don't want them to be constantly on.

The list can contain about 10 items. When items 1-10 are visible scroll down should be available. When items 2-11 are visible scroll up should be available and scroll down too (if number of items >11). if items are less than 11 there's no point scrolling the list is there.

This is just an example.

[POLL]

After this April OROM, there will be a MAGS on May running along parallel with the voting on the April's entries. Due to the lack of votes the last time, unfortunately I have around 14 days to come up with a cool theme.

I'm thinking something loose and about the End of the World. But please post your ideas.
Please read all the themes and vote only once. Voting link down the page.


POLL
Themes to choose from:(in order of appearance)

1.Leon:
Title: No limits!

"No limits".

No theme at all. Just see what you can do within a month without limitations...

2.Ascovel:
Title: B-serious

"B-serious"

2 requirements:

- over the top, violent B movie type of story in an established pulp genre (horror, biker film, martial arts, chambara, spaghetti western etc.)

- the game needs to take itself completely seriously - no intentional humor allowed

3.ProgZmax:
Title: Complete your game (Title not a courtesy of ProgZ)

How about a mags that encourages anyone with unfinished games from any era to complete them in a month (at least enough to be playable)?  This may attract the interest of people like me who have several 25-75% finished full length games that for whatever reason we've abandoned.  This way everyone wins even if there has to be a courtesy 'win'.

I believe chicky also mentioned extensive interest in such an event, and if mags does not do it I may host a separate event to get some of the older games that fell off the map back on.

4.Dualnames:
Title: Demakes!

Okay just an idea, someone might just like it.

What about demakes?

You know, no-limit, no nothing to stop you, no genre restriction as long as it's AGS and a demake(and apparently no team size limit to this one).
What's a demake?

Here's some wiki knowledge waiting for you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_remake#.22Demakes.22

5.Crimson Wizard:
Title: Extreme NewbieGame Make-Over

Help newbie to make a game of his dreams!

Find an AGS newbie with cool game idea. Every participant makes a game based on newbie's scenario, regardless of how silly it is.  

RESULTS HERE

Perhaps its been addressed, but I  couldn't find it. I want to use a silder to scroll a listbox. The listbox items number will not always be the same. I've tried some stuff but totally no go. If this is a newbie question, I apologize.

CODE can be found below.

[line 797]

I wasn't really sure where to get this so anyway.
I figured (well, Jim Reed did), this bug:

Code: ags

Error: An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 1, position 148.
Version: AGS 3.1.2.81

System.Xml.XmlException: An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 1, position 148.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String arg)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseEntityName()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseEntityReference()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc)
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
   at AGS.Editor.NamedPipesEngineCommunication.MessageSenderThread()
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

It's caused by this line (an error that showed up without the total red crash only once) on version 1.5 of the Smooth Parallax Module:

line 797
       Game.GetViewFrame(player.NormalView, player.Loop, 0); // Set it to their current Normal View


The bug is caused because I'm using a view with more than 4 loops. In fact 29. I've done a workaround, but well, it should be pointed to either CJ or Ali.
And this is what I'm using:
cDent.LockViewFrame(11, 3, 0);

It's not totally started and certainly not finished. I want however to listen to your opinions on where I am going with this one.

Original sketch.

What I've accomplished so far.


EDIT: Some things may seem off, but they are objects that fill the image. See Maze topic in the critic's lounge.

Well, most people around here do it the classical way: Reproduce what they did. And just create the links of the hotspot interactions. I've created another copy of my game that contains all the modules, global scripts ecc, and I've just edited the room. Added walkable areas, hotspots, regions, objects. I've scripted the whole thing. Now I desperately need a way to actually copy the room to my original way, without having to go to that trouble.

So any ideas? Any SURE ways to do it?

I've thought of actually copying the crm files. Will this actually just not move the sprites? So I'll only have to replace the sprites that will be blank with what I had?

[What is MAGS?]

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers.

MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favorite" games, and not the most artistic. You may get help for the competition, as long as you end up doing something yourself. You should however be warned that it should prove hard to organize a big team within 30 days.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public. Modules and templates are allowed.

Please do not just enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created in just some hours)

This means that you can make a game and rush it, but don't do it to just win by default.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Topic: ONE ROOM ONE MONTH

This month's guidelines were set by Dualnames:


I know it may sound silly. But keep it simple, keep it plain. We've seen best of AGS games in the OROWs, and I've always wondered, if you had to have one room, what could you make more in a month. Keep it two people team MAX!

Calin and Ben304 aren't allowed to team up!



Thread Rules:

1)  Comments are allowed at all times. Anyone can comment, critic and express his opinion about an entry, the MAGS, and the host's mother, without being obliged to hide it! As long as the critic isn't like "You suck", something more elaborate could be more useful because after all this is a test for all developers to see if they can really make a game within a month, therefore feedback is crucial. [/i]

2)  Participators are allowed to patch their games even while the voting but I should be informed via pm or here, and only IF the game has a serious bug that makes it crash. Due to the inability of keeping track of versions of the games, I've settled to this.

3) It would be wiser to add the game to the AGS database, so you can easily do changes to the game, while the voting is going on, without having to inform me at all.

So you can patch your game, if it crashes or if it can't be completed.


Have fun this month too!!

Winner:

Ben304 and Calin Leafshade with their game Eternally Us
You guys will set the rules for June! You will be pmed both with some instructions.

CHANGES
From the first of May, some changes will occur on the MAGS competition, hopefully for the best of developers and for the attraction of outsiders to this community.



MAGS A (January, March,May, July, September, November)

It starts on 1st and ends on 30/31st

The winner sets up the theme of the next MAGS A
Voting and playing lasts whilst MAGS B is going on. (2 weeks each)

MAGS B (February, April, June, August, October, December)

It starts on 1st and ends on 28/29/30/31st
The winner sets the theme of the next MAGS B

Voting and playing lasts whilst MAGS A is going on. (2 weeks each)


The winner of this month if not deadly obvious from this post, will set the rules of June. MAGS A and MAGS B are just a way to clarify and indicate condition of the competitions.

To sum up, there will be constantly a 30 days game making month, and a 30 days voting and playing month for that, whilst on the second process another game making month of 30 days will overlap.


Due to the great Days of No Entries, this will be confusing to all of you. The rules of May, are going to be set by a public poll. Those rules are set by me. You have one month to make a game. When May arrives, no more entries will be accepted. However partecipants and non-partecipants, will have the right to play and vote the games during the whole May. In May the rules set by the poll, or whatever we decide to set them anyway, will run another competition.

Summing up: Every month one new game making month round, one game voting month round.

It's about time you get what you deserve. I know this changes will be a little off the book, but the rules are just guidelines.

What's going on with the world lately, I mean wow, stupidity!! There's like those guys in youtube that no one actually watches and/or likes and they like have 45.000 views the moment they upload their non-sensical video. And it's okay that I'm not liking this guys, but how do they get those views when no one's into them. I mean see the comments!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_hWp_FUcpg

And what's with Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus craziness!! Jesus, stop that bloody annoying promotion!
And the biggest dickhead I've fallen is this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZM0EGBdHOw&feature=related

People even think he's actually playing..Ahahahha..sorry cases.

Dualnames, out.

Wish I knew the translation of the word ομόηχα in english, and I'm not trusting any translating service anyway. Not even Babel Fish yes. Anyway, anyone knows a good site/way where I can like put a word and have a list of words of any language that sound the same and/or similar.

Perhaps this is not like possible yet via internet, so if anyone knows a program, I'd love to hear it.
Nikolas, if you bump into this, and know the word, please do say so.

[ISSUE #1: CURSOR]

I haven't like worked on my project for like 4 months. So some parts of the game felt really odd now that I caught up with them again.
You may find yourself lost in this topic, but it would be a real mess, if I just went and created many topics inside the CL.

ISSUE #1: CURSOR Fixed

Spoiler

Well, okay it's been constantly bugging me, and it is an issue for me. First it needs to stand out against the background, and secondly against the GUIs.

And that's what I've got for it.
First, yes it's about HHGTG, and indeed it doesn't give any feel that it's from that show/book or any other sci-fi.


Newest Version is


Wait Cursor: (I'm mostly happy with that, and it feels okay and all.)

[close]

ISSUE 2# GUIS Mostly Fixed.

So there follows:

Spoiler

GUI
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q53/JustLedZep/hitchcopy.png

I think it goes wayyy too much blue too. It used to be totally daft, but still remains rather too much.

[close]

ISSUE 3# Maze Room

There's this room in HHGTG, that well, nevermind how you actually get there, but anyway, there's this room, you need to find a way out. There's no time pressuring you, and you're supposed to be inside your brain, where all is artistic choice actually and you need to find a black particle, which if you examine it means that it's your common sense. A fact that I find totally funny. Now, I haven't gone much drawing it but the sketch. So it's mostly raw and I want to see how certain stuff would actually work in-game.

So here's a pic of the room.

And here's what you should actually get as a resource.

Download link below on this topic.

[cEgo]

Well, I pride myself in scripting. Mostly because it's written in such a complex way, that even the simplest function appears like something really out of the box. Now, what's today's menu. I want to have a character, that we will name cEgo To have its previous animation leave a trail of a transparent images of himself that will fade away.

It's the exact thing your mouse can do. But i want the mouse trail to fade away, but instead of using a mouse as a template use the current character sprite. I think with my lack of concentration skills it would take me forever.