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Visitor 3! Played it, loved it the the most of the Visitor trilogy. Another one that You might want to take a look at is The Knobbly Crook -- I haven't played that one yet, so I can't say anything about it (other than that it has insanely gorgeous graphics!).

Try GameJolt. The interface is a little tricky, you'll need to prepare banners cut to a specific size, etc. -- but it's a friendly platform with lots of things going on, such as gamejams, weekly features (my game Gray got featured once), etc. Plenty of AGS'ers on there, too. Desura is a platform for commercial games, mostly, but they do accept free games, too. Haven't tried it myself -- but I think it might be worth a shot. IndieCity, on the other hand, is hard to recommend -- they have this long approval process of about four weeks, and then the game gets much less exposure than it could've due to the site's mandatory download engine that requires registration.

Anyone have any thoughts on IndieVania?

Resident demonologist, at your service, Grundislav! Beelzebub is actually an intentional misspelling. See, Baal Zebul -- Hebrew for "Lord of the Underworld" -- was a deity that was deemed a competition to the emerging cult of Jahweh. So, in order to discredit the deity, they called him "Baal Zevuv" -- lord of the flies.

As for replaying old games -- I don't do that very often. Too many games to play (old and new), too little time. BUT I did replay both Little Big Adventure games last year -- and I got Sam & Max, Monkey Island and Fate of Atlantis on GOG the other week. Funny thing: right around this time 20 years ago was the first time I played Indy -- and it's one game that I've re-played the most, a couple dozen of times. Mainly because, as a newb to the wonders of PC gaming, I wasn't aware of this miraculous thing called "SAVEGAME" -- and so, for about a month or so, I started the game from scratch every single day

I've finally sat down to re-work the original background for the first location:



It's not a far cry from the original -- I basically made a more intricate brickwork, with each brick differing in shade, cast a light over the display and added an awning. It's still work-in-progress: might add a few little touches here -- AND change the letters -- but overall, I like it, as simple as it is.

The past two weeks didn't see much progress in the gameplay area. I was mostly busy developing and implementing a checkpoint system -- with quickloads and menu access at all times, which is not something AGS likes. So there was a lot of work, a lot of ugly, ugly code -- but clunky as it is, it works What does it mean for you as the players? If you fail, you can easily access either the last checkpoint -- or any previous save slot -- at any time. Also, prepare for fun checkpoint/achievement badges and titles -- such as, say, LoveFist (who can tell me, without the help of Uncle Google, where I took that one from?).

And last but not least -- THE GAME'S GOING TO HAVE SOME MUSIC!!! I approached Problem, who did the soundtrack for Visitor 3, figuring the kind of music he did there would really work with the "lonely girl traversing the city by night, looking for trouble" type of story. He liked what he'd seen so far -- and so he agreed. I have nothing to show just yet, since his priority at the moment is Rogue State -- but last week he told me he already had a few ideas. If you'd like to hear what captivated me, though, check out Visitor 3's OST, which he made available for download.

And if you haven't played Visitor 3 yet -- DO SO! NOW!

I think I got it!

1. I set the cutscene skipping to eSkipAnyKey

2. I set new int global variable for cutscenes:
- by default it's set to 0
- as soon as the cutscene starts, I give it a value:
    a) if it's an animation of failure, I switch it to 1
    b) if it's a success/insigificant, I switch it to 2

3. I set condition in rep_exec_always for F6 - the checkpoint menu trigger

Code: ags

if (IsKeyPressed(eKeyF6)) {
  if (Cuts==1) //meaning failure
    {
    Cuts=3;
    }
  if (Cuts==2) //positive or neutral outcome
    {
    Cuts=4;
    }
  }

4. If there's a dialog starting at the end a positive/neutral outcome, I placed it inside a following condition:

Code: ags

if (Cuts!=4) {

5. I set a condition in rep_exec_always:

Code: ags

if (Cuts == 3) //failure
  {
  cMag.ChangeRoom(9); //go to a dedicated checkpoint menu room
  Cuts = 0;
  }

if (Cuts == 4) //positive or neutral outcome
  {
  gLevel.Visible = true;
  mouse.EnableMode(eModePointer);
  mouse.Mode = eModePointer;
  Cuts = 0;
  }

That way:
1. F6 ends the cutscene, just like any other key, but it also modifies the Cuts value
2. As soon as the cutscene is over and nothing blocks it, the game decides what to do:
- if F6 has not been pressed, it proceeds as usual
- if it has been pressed, the game automatically does one of the following:
  a) if the outcome was negative, it changes the room to checkpoint menu room
  b) if the outcome was positive/neutral, the checkpoint menu loads in the current room

I'm still testing it -- and there'll be a LOT of coding involved in activating the game dialog if the player leaves the same-room checkpoint menu -- BUT it's... interesting, to say the least!

Do you remember the code enough to check? Like, put a RestoreGameSlot in the button's code. I didn't have the chance to check the build yet, it needs some dll that I have to get and I'm busy with something else right now -- but yeah, if it lets you interrupt everything and load a game, then we have a winner. Entering and exiting a pop-up menu is not a problem, I tried that and it works -- it's trying to kill the game's processes and go do something else that's the tough part.

I have another idea, too. Each cutscene can be skipped with Esc. What if I changed it to eSkipAnyKey -- and if either F5 (which I use for checkpoint menu) or any quickload hotkeys were pressed, the game, instead of going to Room10, containing a VCR-style rewind sequence symbolizing going back to the last checkpoint, would go to a separate room with the checkpoint menu! The room would have no cutscenes, no blocking events, so you could run any script. If, however, you exited the room without choosing a checkpoint to load, the game would go back to Room 10, play the rewind sequence and load the latest checkpoint. The only things to determine:
1. Where do I put the code that'd link to the eSkipAnyKey to determine which of the "any key" was pressed?
2. How do I limit it to the cutscenes only -- because in normal walking mode it'd be unnecessary? Do I set a boolean and put 1 at the beginning of each cutscene and 0 at the end or did I miss some simple IsCutscenePlaying property? I could've sworn I've read about such a thing -- but memory is a fickle little thing
3. Is there a way to kill a dialogue option menu and return to it later? There is no dDialog.Stop -- which would've been very handy. That's just optional, though -- if the solution above worked, it'd solve a million problems and that one is just a minor inconvenience.

But realistically, the more I think about my idea, the crazier, more convoluted and unfeasible it all looks. I might be able to get some things working (e.g. fail/death cutscenes), but when I think of what it'd do elsewhere (regular cutscenes that have more action following, for which I'd have to code individual code in response), everything comes crumbling down.

Looking through it right now -- and obviously feeling like a monkey looking at a space rocket engine SuspendableWait does sound like a step in the right direction -- because the player needs to be able to click the checkpoint buttons (regular GUI buttons), and I can't put the code for buttons into rep_exec_always. But the one thing I'm wondering is whether SuspendableWait can just put game's other processes on hold but only to return to them later (via unpause), or can it go all the way, including terminating other processes to carry out RestoreGameSlot?

Yeah, thought of that, too -- and while it's not perfect, it might be enough. The whole checkpoint/quickload system is intended for players who've already been through a given part or the whole game and want a quick access to some previous chapters. When you play it for the first time and you just want to get to the end, neither will really be necessary: the gameplay's pretty linear, you go from left to right, and if you fail, the game brings you back to the last checkpoint automatically -- and the cutscenes (including animations of failure) can always be skipped by Esc. So yeah, for a person who's already played the game, skipping a given line of dialogue shouldn't be an issue. I'll work this solution into the code once I figure out the pause system.

No, the problem is deeper than that -- I can't do anything during cutscenes, either, and they are PLENTY (and include lots and lots of talking, which pops up over menus)! I need a method for quickloads, exiting game and using game-loading buttons at any time -- a method that overrides EVERY other action (cutscenes, speech, dialog options). If the speech's ZOrder is untouchable, I might simply reduce the checkpoint menu's position and size so that it doesn't overlap with the speech (which usually displays in the upper half of the screen). So, I'll have a look into your code first. BUT MyEakinBack does make some good points there that I might have a use for. So, thank you both -- and I'll let you know how it worked out (or just come back with more questions ).

Loading savegames and displaying menus works just fine when the game's not busy with some blocking action. The problem is much of my game consists of dialog trees leading to cutscenes leading to new dialog trees -- during which loading and menus are unavailable. And even though I can have menus pop up by putting them in rep_exec_always, and that part works ok-ish (other than character speech displaying over the menus), loading savegames can't be put in rep_exec_always at all. All of that makes the checkpoint system I devised, with quickloading buttons, etc, not just clunky (because it can only be accessed when the character's walking freely), but impractival and inconvenient, along with such basic functions as being able to leave the game at any time (other than Alt-X, which is not quitting game, it's aborting it). Am I missing something really simple here or are those hard-coded behaviors that just are how AGS works and there's nothing you can do about it?

Some forum searching revealed that Peder worked on the exact same thing back in 2006. I took his code -- and it worked like a charm. The savegame system is up and running! Thanks!

Now, any suggestions on those mid-cutscene savegames? I mean, I've got something that works, but it's clunky and I want something more elegant.

Not THAT easy -- but it was FUN!!! I loved the very idea of a head in a jar dodging space rocks -- and I didn't mind a little bit of pulse-raising action at all. And this is coming from a guy who usually hates games requiring short reaction times (and still plays them, anyway) I get where Blur's coming from, most arcade sequences in adventure games annoy the heck out of me -- but this one particularly tickled my fancy.

I'm trying to make a simplified savegame system, based on autosaves/checkpoints. The game saves automatically when a certain point in the game has been reached -- and there's a checkpoint menu where the player can go back to any previous checkpoint (but not a checkpoint they haven't reached yet). The checkpoints would be auto-saved via SaveGameSlot command and loaded by the player clicking their respective buttons in the menu (which would run the "RestoreGameSlot" command). The question is:

- how do I get the game to detect whether a given savegame exists, most conveniently by the number I gave it in the code (say, 21 for the 1st checkpoint in Room 2)
- which property should I assign to the respective button if a savegame is absent: clickable = false or enabled = false?
- should I have those properties checked upon loading the checkpoint menu or somewhere else?

Also, another problem with savegames is that the game can't be saved inside cutscenes, only when the character is walking freely. If I put a savegame inside a cutscene, at the end of which a dialog is started or my custom fade-in gui runs, after the savegame is loaded it looks like none of these have been executed (there's no dialog started/the screen stays black). Is there an elegant workaround for that? Because the only way I managed to make it work is have a timer set to 20 cycles and disable all mouse modes, so that the player can't do anything in that time, save the game then, and enable the mouse modes again when the timer's expired.

That is so true. But even if you're an avid gamer, there will still be surprises. Before I had my first pc, I only had C-64 and NES -- and arcade games were all I knew. So imagine my puzzlement when I first played Fate of Atlantis. There was the tutorial level that let you ease into the new game mechanics -- but still: talking to people? picking up objects? And it wasn't until a month later or so that a friend told me of this amazing feature called SAVEGAME! So, before that happened, for a few weeks I'd start the game from scratch each day and go over the same locations, mechanically repeating the same actions day after day.

And yeah, it does sound like a thing Sierra would do. I think it was Grundislav who mentioned one instance where you got naked -- as a result of which you died of shame.

Andrea:

Spoiler

1. Get one of the clamps that held the the blue guy's hands to the wall.

2. Use it on the pipe. It fits, but it's loose. You need to tighten the clamp around the pipe.

3. Give it to the dying robot. He'll do that for you.

[close]

Finished it -- and one thing I have to say is: I WANT VISITORS 4!!!! I want more Moss! He needs a cartoon series of his own! Or a movie! Neil Blomkamp needs to ditch Aliens and do a Visitors cinematic trilogy instead!

Also, I almost forgot: THE MUSIC! It really added to the atmosphere. I love that kind of subtle, jazzy electro. Thanks for making it available for download, Problem. It's definitely going on my mp3 player!

Not just yet

Spoiler

I'm in the shaft. I summoned the repair robot -- which allowed for the hand to go down to where there are two buttons. Both seem to do the same thing - turn the electric current below on. But there's nothing else Moss can do right now. He needs a tool for the manual override -- which I can't seem to find anywhere.

[close]

Nope, doesn't work. Tried to switch the fuse off and on, and had the hand turn the current on and off and back on, and still nothing. Could I be missing something?

EDIT: Wait, nevermind, looks like I got something. I was trying to summon the elevator with the button, which is what didn't work -- but it turns out I could get into the empty elevator shaft all along by just walking in.

Looking good, I like the color schemes and the art direction.

And that's a Delorean, isn't it? That was the first thing that struck me about the image, even before I got to the part about this being a little pop-culture quiz.

I've already played the alpha and you know I loved it, but it gets even better afterwards. The sheer plenty of playable characters (if you can even call some of them that), with different skills and gameplay mechanics, makes the game so much more fun. It does get confusing, though, and sometimes I had no idea how I did what I did -- and right now I'm completely stuck at one point:

Spoiler

The hand went up when Head switched gravity in the vents off and it pushed a button that made the two nearby coils connect (there's a visible electric current flowing between them) -- but I have no idea what it did! I'm trying to access the elevators, but no luck with Moss or Head. Head won't tamper with the fuse anymore (did twice) and the only thing Moss can do right now is switch the fuse on and off. Help?

[close]

Puzzles involving technology -- or those requiring synchronizing different combinations of symbols in two different places -- are my least favorite in adventure games in general, but overall yours are still mostly very intuitive and easy. There was never a puzzle that seemed illogical once I solved it.

As with the previous games, I absolutely loved the humor -- Moss is brilliant as always, and Head's a great new addition. His unyielding optimism is just endearing. The broken robot's fun, too. Loved trying to pour goo on him, that particular exchange was probably my favorite in the game (and that's saying a lot, because Moss is just a walking factory of classics). I also noticed a nice little promos for some upcoming AGS games -- and it might just be me, but was Head's question about alien's green complexion a reference to Gray? It damn better be!

I've seen others mentioning the pacing and amtmosphere. Yeah, all Visitor games felt oddly tense, I always feared that if I stayed in one place for too long, I'd get shot, eaten or torn to pieces. V3 goes a step further and actually makes this feel like Aliens -- with facehuggers, monsters laying eggs, and more! I laugh and shudder at the same time. Great attention to audio, too -- various noises startling me wherever I go, reminding me this ain't no picnic.

Overall: a worthy successor to Visitor 1 and 2, with their humor and atmosphere, and more of everything that was good about them. A great cast of fun characters, fair puzzles and a huge area to explore.