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I love it!  Only downside is it makes me ashamed of my own background inabilities.

The style reminds me a lot of Bud Tucker in Double Trouble.  But if you took out the rather cartoony TV, it would work for a serious Martian Memorandum style game too.

Hurrah - this has helped me get this part of the game finished

Thanks Khris - your name will be in the 'With Thanks To...' section of my game's manual!

That makes sense - thanks   Following the code you provided, I've switched to a simpler GUI interface (instead of a room with hotspots approach I was using before) so everything can be dealt with in the global script.

However, I keep getting "Parse Error in expr near gl" when I try to call the update_time(gl++) or update_time(gl--) functions.  It seems to at least recognise that the variable exists but isn't capable of performing the function on it - and I can't figure out any way of manipulating it to work.

Thanks for the hints but I'm still getting something wrong.  I've tried setting gl +=1 and gl -=1 for the FF and Rewind buttons respectively and there it is causing no change to the label.  I can only make 00:00 appear whenever I click on either button.

Hi - One part of my game I'm hoping to implement, despite being a bit difficult for me to figure out how to script, is a control panel of a security camera.  The goal is for the player to skip ahead to a precise frame to find a clue (every other frame would display camera static).

From what I understand, it should be possible to create a variable, two buttons to increase/decrease it and a label to display the - however, I'm guessing that would only create a regular decimal number instead of a time.  Is there any way to get around this (manipulating SetTimer?)?

Thanks for the tips - I was wondering about the ItemAtIndex command but I assumed this would simply work to highlight a specific inventory item based on its relation to the number of objects in the inventory instead of targetting only the one currently on screen (with 'TopItem' referring to the first in the inventory, not necessarily the only item that would be visible at that time).  Not entirely sure I understand yet but I will fiddle around with those commands to see what works

Buttons To Directly Alter The Inventory

Hi, I've tried searching through a few topics with 'buttons' and 'inventory' but haven't found anything I'm looking for but I can't figure it out (though that could just be my stupidity talking).

Basically, I've put together an inventory GUI which serves as my main character's email program, with each email sitting on a single screen that can be scrolled up or down by the use of scroll buttons.  At the moment, the only way I've figured out how to interact with these items is by placing buttons which change the cursor to different user modes to look or interact with them,  However, this forces the player to click once on the cursor button and then on the item they want to interact with.  Is there any way to program the script so that a single button press would automatically apply the function on the inventory item currently being displayed in the scrollbox?

Thanks

I'd recommend adding something to help detect the hotspots, because right now it's pretty user unfriendly in that regard.

I'll weigh in as a newbie (but please don't kill me for saying it!)

I've played several RoN games and enjoyed them a lot.  But ulimately, the question of why not make a RoN game falls into the same category of "why not make a King's Quest/Space Quest/Police Quest/etc game instead of your own fantasy/scifi/police/etc adventure?"  Personally, a lot of the fun of planning and (slowly...) working on a game is creating the world and the characters.  For example, why make a game focused around the bum when you could make 'Sydney Finds Employment'?   

Several smaller series would more likely reach out more people, and these would also be easier to follow and get into as there could have 4 or 5 series with 15 games each, instead of one big series with 75 games.

I like this idea a lot.  Working as a group to create a series of "episodes" could create a bunch of interesting miniseries'.  Sign me up if this ever happens!

[BACKGROUND ARTIST WANTED]

BACKGROUND ARTIST WANTED

Hello - I'm working on a full-length historical adventure (with a slight supernatural bent) entitled 'One Flesh', along the lines of Gabriel Knight and Broken Sword.Ã,  I'm looking for an artist who could provide backgrounds that would suit this style and make for a more visually appealing game.

The characters will be created in Photoshop and Poser (for ease of animation), so that part of the artwork is taken care of, though help providing some 'sketches' drawn by one of the characters would help.Ã,  Ã, 

THERE IS A REWARD/PAYMENT: I have a decent amount of Amazon.com gift vouchers to offer to whoever's who'd be willing to make quality backgrounds for the entire game (so 50+ bgs, of varying levels of detail - the design document is about 80% finished and I wanted to try and get an artist on board so I could play to some of their strengths before finalising the rooms).

If you're interested, PM me with any questions and any samples and I'll be happy to answer any queries you may have.Ã,  Thanks!Ã, 

Ooh - those backgrounds are awesome!  They're very Quest For Glory 3

I wish I could make ones even half as good for my game!

It reminds me a lot of that game Masters Of Dimensions (?), which is a good thing.

Did you talk to the detective so he lets you into the room? It shouldn't be possible to get into the room before talking to him.

I couldn't get up to see the detective - I was expecting to run into him when I went to my room, so not being able to visit it, despite having the key, threw me!

(I actually went into the ally, found the hat rack, clicked on the window and climbed up in my very first play without even entering the hotel.Ã,  Maybe you should make the hotspot only appear after you know which room it is - or have all the windows originally highlighted then have 'Rachel's window' appear when you know what room she's in).

Very interested to play more, though.

Nice looking game!  But I'm having a little bit of trouble, which could just be me being an idiot. 

I've gotten the room key, looked at it so I know which room it is.  So I'd expect I should be able to use the elevator to go to that floor (or at least be able to ask the receptionist which floor it's on) but that's not possible. 

So instead I go outside and do the hat-rack puzzle to get into the room and end up talking to a disembodied voice about something I've never heard about. 

Other Improvements I would suggest:
- Change the in-game font!  (it especially hurts the ambience on the title screen when the 'start a new game' text appears over the stylised font of the main menu)
- Left clicking meaning to look and right clicking to exit isn't the most intuitive way to play, given I'm used to doing the reverse
- Having an open door in the hotel that leads nowhere is fairly annoying - just adding a "closed for the evening" or "employees only" sign helps.

Thanks for the comments.

I noticed the grass thing myself and since other people are commenting on it, I'll try to make an improvement.Ã,  I like the idea of adding depth but the trees are two-dimensional (Photoshop filter) and they're supposed to be an orchard in the distance but I'll try adding one nearer the front as a walk-around area.

I'm glad people like the GUI!Ã,  I'm definitely planning on 'customising' the phone to make it more suited to the main character (probably a 'Hokier' phone or a bad pun like that )

I should point out that I didn't use presets or 'rips' in making this (except the GUI, of course, which is very much 'work in progress'), though I downloaded the grass texture and used a SketchUp model for the tent.Ã,  The characters have been made in Poser made but toon-rendered and adjusted in Photoshop so they look a little nicer

I thought I'd test this one first as I'm having the most trouble with outdoor scenes and this one is pretty sparse by default - these suggestions should help me figure out how to fill it up

Will check out the White Chamber too!

Hi,

I'm currently in the very early stages of planning my first proper game - the first two chapters are written out, so I thought I'd try and work on the graphical style of the game (in the Gabriel Knight/Broken Sword tradition).Ã,  As a newbie, I know it'd be hard to get someone to help out with backgrounds so I've tried to soldier on anyway and started with this:



As should be pretty obvious, I have little to no artistic abilities.Ã,  The background image was rendered with a fairly old copy of 3D Studio Max (and still struggling to figure out how to use it) - the tent was a prebuilt SketchUp circus model free from Google.Ã,  The trees and character were added in Photoshop.

Graphically, here's two things I'm definitely planning on doing in the final version will be:
- Improving/personalising the mobile phone
- Adding a table or something inside the tent

Any other suggestions on how to improve the scene?Ã,  (whether or not I'm competent enough to do it is another thing!)

THE GUI

At the bottom of the screen is the early draft of one of the main characters' GUIs.Ã, 

As you've probably guessed, the four commands are taken from wedding vows -
- "I" is a basic look icon
- "Take" is, you guessed it, picking something up (when applied on a character, it interacts with him or her physically)
- "Better" is a positive action: used to start friendly conversations and use any object in its intended function
- "Worse" is an aggressive action: use this if you want to mess up something or begin a conversation aggressively

Clicking on the mobile phone brings that up, while clicking on the bag brings up the inventory (or it will, once I figure out the coding)

Any comments on the useability/aesthetics?Ã,  Any suggestions to change it?

Thanks for any comments

Just had a go at this - overall I'm very impressed and will definitely check out the full version.  The opening worked very well, setting the scene with some very nice graphics.  How did you make them?

As you asked for constructive criticism:
a) I'm sure you are thinking about changing the inventory buttons and font already, but make sure you do - and make all your inventory items look nicer.  The huge gun against a white background really stood out.
b) For such a simple interface and a desolate environment, the more things you can look at the better.  Adding a close-up of the noticeboard in the lounge, or the sinks, would make the environment seem a lot more immersive.

Looking forward to more and glad to see someone making quick progress (while I spend a week working on a single walk-cycle! :'()

The new version is nice!  But I think the menu should depend on the graphics of the overall game - if there's no other 3D graphics, then the other menu (with different text) might work better.

Sounds interesting so far!

Oops - so many "lost" titles (not to mention TV shows: Lost, The Lost Room...) I'm getting confused!  At least it's appropriate I couldn't remember the word "forgotten"

And though I'm not usually a huge fan of first-person games, I'll be rushing to download 'The Marionette' and 'Heartland Deluxe' (if it gets expanded).

Wow - I just read this thread back in the old posts - and now an update

Awesome graphics + compelling storyline = me in eager anticipation!