Messages

Da_Elf, have you tried using Flashlight.FollowCharacter(cEgo) instead?

Lt. Smash, what do you mean that DynamicSprites only can be created from bmp and pcx? Perhaps there's some mistake in the module code, so it doesn't work for that reason, but DynamicSprites can certainly be created from existing sprites.
There would be some trouble combining a 32-bit png with alpha channels and a GUI using transparency though, since alpha channels an the transparency setting are incompatible.

I haven't used SSH's module, but as I understand it (and if it's anything similar to my own html module), all the handling of mouseovers and links is handled by the module itself, without any GUI objects such as listboxes. Thus, you can't change the color of a Listbox item, but you can achieve a similar effect by creating a list of links similar to a listbox. Of course this means that some of the listbox specific commands related to savegames etc. can't be applied.

It looks like the font is simply too big to display within the screen area using the default dialog option box. One possible solution could be to check the "Dialog options on GUI" box in general settings, and then sizing/positioning that GUI so that all options will fit onto the screen (i.e. make it taller and position it higher up on the screen to leave room for the last option).

Using five overlays plus not being able to use transparency? This doesn't seem very efficient. I take your original post about not being able to use overlays as they can't be bigger than 320 to mean that you moved the entire GUI around?

What if, on the other hand, you instead had a GUI with five buttons - a middle one using the flashlight mask sprite, and the four surrounding buttons entirely black? Their positions and sizes could then be adjusted accordingly so the edge sprites always aligned to the center one. This would allow you to do any degree of transparency.

I think the best solution would probably be to change it from "Worst game" to "Best joke game" and maybe change the name in the process. When looking at the awards from previous years, the only game I see nominated which isn't a joke game is Flashbax - an otherwise excellent game which just grossed some people out. All the others have been produced exclusively to be crappy and vulgar for a cheap laugh.

There's really no reason for a booby price if it's given to games that are intentionally bad anyway. Instead of lowering the prestige of the awards it could then be just another catagory in the real awards. The only "danger" I see (meaning a big, maybe too big, change to the concept) is that well designed parody games such as Sven Gordan would run off with the awards due to being listed in the joke games category along with the usual nonsense joke games.

Edit: I guess this is "The cold shower option", though I dislike the idea of a committee.

Edit 2: Have the FOREGOs been dropped entirely? If so, should we really keep the P3N1S award? Even though it has to do with game making, I always saw it more along the line of the community based FOREGOs than the engine based AGS Awards.

New version is much better. I never saw a bathroom with a ceiling as high as the first one, and why waste all that screenspace on the sides. But as the others are saying, it is very dark. The muted colors remind me a bit of the style used in Darkseed.

Thanks for clearing that up, CJ.

I wonder, would everyone be happy if we had nominated the Al Emmo DEMO instead of the full game?

I think you're right. The 3.5MB Savegame compresses to 33KB by the way, so I think there's not much actual data.

This is not a bug report as much as something I'm quite curious about. I was playing Duty & Beyond, and discovered afterwards that my savegames were huge (around 3-3.5MB each) considering that I didn't recall seeing any use of dynamic sprites or large arrays. So I decided to look at the files in a text editor. What I came across was several entries of this format:

jre1.5.0_04\lib\ext\QTJava.zip CLIENTNAME=Console CommonProgramFiles=C:\Programmer\Fælles filer COMPUTERNAME=ZNOTE42

nd;C:\Programmer\QuickTime\QTSystem\;;C:\PROGRA~1\FLLESF~1\MUVEET~1\030625 PATHE

àèL àèL xŠ’^
er\Adobe\AGL;C:\Programmer\VDMSound;C:\Programmer\QuickTime\QTSystem\;;C:\PROGR

Seemingly folders that should have nothing to do with the interior workings of AGS. I then started checking my other savegames for games like 1213, 6 Days a Sacrifice and Access Demo, as well as my own game. AGS Version numbers were 2.62.772, 2.70.864, 2.72.920. Same results.
My first thought was that it was some kind of memory leak, but seeing as they refer to QuickTime,  maybe it has to do with the sound or movie playback or other external libraries accessed by AGS. But why refer to the Java folder then? Anybody got a better explanation?

Did you check the "Import for 640x480 resolution" checkbox when importing your sprites?

Wasn't this inspired by the Dogma Manifesto?

I'm not sure if it was, could be, but your mention of Dogma 95 made me remember this Gamasutra article which, to be honest, I found much more inspirational (and less self-righteous) than the Scratchware manifesto.

What if clever terrorists started making bombs that DIDN'T have wires and batteries sticking out? It boggles the mind

I haven't tried this, but if you combine SetSkipSpeech(3) with game.skip_speech_specific_key(27), only mouseclick and ESC should be able to remove the text. If you don't want ESC to work either, you could try putting in a very high value, which isn't attached to any key.

Is this normal or is it something wrong with my computers display settings?

I don't remember having any problems, but tearing is quite normal in AGS games. You may try to activate the "Use 85 Hz display" option in the game's setup. Unfortunately the Vsync feature - which might eliminate it entirely - can only be activated through script code, so only the developer can implement that as a fix.

Well, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and Blade Runner are excellent example of how well suited point-n-click games are for film licenses. Less succesful were Capstones licenses of The Dark Half, Wayne's World, The Beverly Hillbillies, An American Tale, or the Plan 9 From Outer Space game - though it had little to do with the film.

I think there was a MAGS contest about games based on films, but the only one I remember right now was the Donny Darko game.

What you need is this:

Code: ags

function dialog_request (int parameter)  { 
  if (parameter == 1) {
    character[BUT].ChangeView(1);
    character[BUT].Walk(198, 142);
    character[BUT].FaceLocation(199, 88);
    character[BUT].ChangeRoom(6);         
    Wait(160);
    character[BUT].ChangeRoom(2, 198, 142);
    character[BUT].FaceLocation(197, 155);
    character[BUT].Walk(224, 147);
    character[BUT].ChangeView(7);
    }
  }

I haven't checked the entire code, but the function declaration was definitely wrong. Let me know if you get other problems further down.

I think we need to make a decision whether the p3n1s award is meant for INTENTIONALLY bad games (such as Are We There Yet, which was obviously meant as a joke), or UNINTENTIONALLY bad games (which Al Emmo imho is an excellent example of). If the first is the case, we might as well change it to a category for "Best joke game".

There's also the OTHER excellent Ben Jordan parody Sven Gordan Paranormal Parody by Buloght, and El Ammo & The Flying Dutchman's Mine.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I voted for Al Emmo in the P3N1S category. The thing is, sure you can't compare Al Emmo to Are We There Yet, but the fact that it's a commercial game puts in in a whole other league when it comes to criticism. Hell, I didn't even pay for the game because I wrote a magazine review of it, but if I had spent almost the price of a brand new game - which it cost with overseas postage included - I would be even more harsh. I also see how people can be very disappointed with such a sub-standard game from a team who should be able to do so much better.

The exterior background art is mostly great, which is why a lot of people, me included nominated the game for best backgrounds. And the voices seem to be something people have to get used to. Even when I no longer shivered from the sound of Al's squaky voice, the narrator's lame puns and Al's reaction to them still got on my nerves. Then there's the embarrasingly predictable and unfunny jokes, horrible 3D cutscenes, awkward interface, characters who are either dull or annoying, random puzzles with little story relevance. Oh, and the story itself feels like it's being made up as we go along. Why, for the love of god, am I spending a whole act on creating a bottle of sunscreen for a Pamela Anderson clone? And wasn't this supposed to be a treasure hunt? Instead I'm running around the entire desert, searching for the single cactus whose thorns can be used as a fishing hook.

The Tierra fanboys love it. Just Adventure gave it an A. (There's no accounting for taste - I mean, there are people out there calling Runaway 2 the game of the year). Yeah, I can see that a lot of work was put into the game, and that's admirable. But that doesn't mean I have to like a game that tries so hard to be like the games of yesteryear but fails in almost every aspect. Most of what I consider the game's flaws aren't even in the costly part of production (except the 3D scenes, which should just have been left out), but should have been caught in the design document.

It may not objectively be the worst AGS game of the year, but considering that you're likely to avoid the most amateurish games just from reading their threads, and that you don't waste many minutes on a plainly boring freeware game, the fact that this is commercial does make a difference. You want your money's worth and are not likely to give up before the end - and as such, this is among the least entertaining game experiences I had all year.

P3N1S factor = (expectation*price)/(production quality+gameplay value)