Messages

Well, at least nobody got fucked up the ass The graphical style was interesting, but do you intend to make the entire game in this style, or will the playable parts use existing RON graphics? Also, this one could really have used some audio to set the mood.

I don't have a clue. Probably I would have finished my education and be working as a teacher at a high school or the university. Without being too melodramtic, discovering AGS, developing Shadowplay and having it previewed in The Inventory started a series of cataclysmic events that changed the course of my life.

If it wasn't for AGS:

- I wouldn't be writing for a games magazine and a national newspaper.
- I would never have worked for Electronic Arts.
- I would most likely never have visited Vancouver, Boston or Bologna.
- I would never have met my wonderful girlfriend.

So thanks CJ, I owe you big time!

Thanks, CJ!

Shouldn't this:

Code: ags

String MoneyText = String.Format("Money: %s", mon); //This is line 28

be:

Code: ags

String MoneyText = String.Format("Money: %d", mon); //This is line 28

since mon is an int, not a string?

It's not really possible since each page consists of many elements including plain text, formatted text, headers, images, different kinds of hyperlinks as well as script trigger codes. Each of these are added using their own commands. I'm too far into development to rescript this to handle external files and interpret the formatting code from them.

In addition, I'm not thrilled about the idea of using external txt files. Even if encrypted not to be read, the user would still be able to modify them and change the text that appears in the game. I also suspect the encryption would be too CPU intensive since I'm already getting framerate drops when rendering long pages due to the linebreaking code.

er, your code snippet doesn't have matching brackets or quotes...

This is the exact way it shows up in the error message. The only change between the original code and the one that gives this error is the addition of the character n before the period. Perhaps part of the bug is that the compiler doesn't interpret the last part of the line and thus doesn't see the end quote and bracket?

Is there a reason why you can't do:

AddText(String.Format("%s%s", "Very long string 1", "Very long string 2"));

You're right, this works as a way of creating a non-limited String, and since you can add linebreaks between the individual strings, that issue is also avoided. Thanks, this is a very good suggestion. However, the whole point of rewriting the code for Strings was to avoid this. Since I deal with large amounts of the text (on one of the websites you can even read a short story) I wanted to avoid any kind of manual splitting so I could just cut-n-paste from my text doc. In addition, it seems that String.Format uses old strings for the "%s" strings, so the individual pieces of text would have to be even shorter.

I spent several days rewriting the html-like hypertext module I've developed for Shadowplay, so that it would accept the new String format rather than old strings with their 200 character limit. It seemed worth the effort because the old system was a pain in the ass and required an external linebreaker program to convert longer text files. This way I thought, I would be able to add whole blocks of text at a time instead of just single paragraphs. But just as I had finished rescripting the whole thing and started testing, I discovered that it had been one big waste of time.

1) You see, my main function is called AddText(String htmltext), and inside the function everything is handled with Strings rather than strings. But when I call the function from the script, I get a compiler error if it exceeds a seemingly arbitrary character limit (not the 200 chars of strings)

An example (temp text from AGS manual with some additions):

Code: ags

AddText("AddText("AGS now has the ability to dump all of your in-game text out to a flat text file, which you can edit by hand and then import back later. This is useful you need to edit lots of scripts or messages for some reason, and then recombine them all back into the game.
When does this get too long? Two more words will break it. Or will it? Most likely .");

This compiles fine (with 345 characters). But if I add ONE character, even just inserting a space, I get this compiler error:

Error (line 1120): Parse error in expr near '"AGS now has the ability to dump all of your in-game text out to a flat text file, which you can edit by hand and then import back later. This is useful you need to edit lots of scripts or messages for some reason, and then recombine them all back into the game.
When does this get too long? Two more words will break it. Or will it? Most likely n.'

2) Another problem that limits the use of new Strings is the 300 character limit in the script editor. Unless you insert a linebreak in your code, you get this:

Error (line 1120): line too long (300 chars max)

Usually this isn't a problem. But if the linebreak has to be inserted in the middle of a String, it will show up as two square characters in the text when displayed in the game (at least using RawPrint, haven't tested otherwise).

I hope there is some workaround or that a fix can be implemented soon, since I can't progress much in development before I know what kind of input I can expect for my text functions. I was very happy when the apparent no-limit Strings were introduced, but now they're becoming a problem rather than the solution.

Thanks for reading this, CJ.

Interesting concept, and it works smoother than anything else I've seen using video transitions in AGS.
I must admit the lockpicking mini game was too tough for me, and it didn't seem to have much to do with real lockpicking. I much preferred cracking the safe.

I discovered a bug though:

Spoiler

If you keep tapping ESC really fast to skip the FMV after using the axe on the door, the alarm won't go off

[close]

"Timetravelling Freelance Police upset space-time continuum"

I decided to finish the concept I started out with, and I spent quite a bit of time on this, so I thought I might as well post it. However, the previous picture remains my real entry, since this one doesn't fit as well with the topic.

Commenting on the find, Mr. Threepwood said: "I found Jimmy Hoffa's body, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!"

Is it the same if you put just

Code: ags

EndCutscene();

instead of

Code: ags

int stopCutscene = EndCutscene();

? The functionality should of course be the same, but I'm not sure what the skip cutscene code checks for.

You could also use SetViewPort command to create your own scroll function. That way you could update the scrolling and the object coordinates in-sync. Perhaps you could use some code from this thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=25937.0

How about using labels instead of text boxes and using on_key_press to add to a string displayed on the label? Then you could control whether the cursor character should be added to the end or not. I'm doing something similar for search boxes in my game, except I'm using RawDraw instead of labels.

I just lost all my savegames by quitting the game using alt-F4 (I was at the carvings in the cliff and couldn't exit that screen whatever I did)  Aside from that, it's a nice looking demo.

Edit: Alright, I found that they were saves to the "Documents and Settings/Username" folder, but apparently the game didn't know to restore them from there after restarting the game. I had to move them to the game folder to do that. Either way, even if it worked, it's a mess saving there. Please save to "Documents and Settings/Username/My Documents/Fountain of Youth" or similar. I know that you're using a very recently implemented function in AGS so it's understandable that it's not working properly, but nevertheless it's very unfortunate.

Edit 2: So I finished the demo. And I must say the graphic style and the atmosphere is spot on. It truly feels like a LucasArts game from around the time of FoA. One thing I didn't enjoy was the puzzles which I found quite obscure with lots of pixel-hunting. But it should be said that I'm not much of a LucasArts fan and as for Indy games actually prefer TLC to FoA. The one puzzle I liked was the inscriptions at the end, but it did seem a bit derivative of the Gabriel Knight tomb writing.

Wikipedia is your friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_charts

Record charts are compiled using a variety of criteria. These commonly include sales of records, cassettes and compact discs; amount of radio airplay; requests to radio disk jockeys; and, recently, number of downloads.

That's pretty much how it works in the U.S. as well. Check out the Wikipedia article on Nielsen ratings for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Ratings

Could the first one be Voyeur? http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/voyeur
I'm in doubt since it doesn't appear to have been released for Mac.

Oops, sorry didn't notice that. Would upgrading the game to 2.72 be a problem if you just unchecked the enforce oo-scripting and new strings boxes?

Otherwise, here's the code from the Greek AGS Community site. I can't get the link to work either, but I had it saved on my HD:

GUI 0 (Restore interface) :
Object 0 : List Box
Object 1 : Button (cancel)

GUI 1 (Save interface) :
Object 0 : Textbox
Object 1 : Label (Save game name)
Object 2 : Button (cancel)
Object 3 : ListBox

GLOBAL SCRIPT :

Code: ags

string text;
 
int index;
 
 
 
function on_key_press(int keycode) {
 
 
 
if (keycode==363) {
 // Press F5
 
SetTextBoxText(1,0,"");
 // Clear Text box
 
ListBoxSaveGameList(1,3);
 // Fill List Box with saved games
 
index=ListBoxGetNumItems(1,3);
 // Count how many saved games there are           
 
if (index>19){
 // If saved games 20 (maximum) 
 
Display("You must overwrite a previous saved game");
 // Display warning 
 
}
 
InterfaceOn(1);
 // Bring Save interface on              
 
}
 
 
 
if (keycode==365) {
 // Press F7 
 
ListBoxSaveGameList(0,0);
 // Fill List box with saved games  
 
InterfaceOn(0);
 // Bring restore Interface on 
 
}
 
 
 
 
 
function interface_click(int interface, int button) {
 
if (interface==0) {
 // if Restore interface
 
if (button==1) {
 // if cancel is pressed
 
InterfaceOff(0);
 // Close interface 
 
else { index=ListBoxGetSelected(0,0);
 // else get the selected game
 
RestoreGameSlot(savegameindex[index]);}
 // restore the game
 
}
}
 
 
 
if (interface==1) {
 // if save interface
 
if (button==0) {
 // if enter is pressed  
 
index=ListBoxGetNumItems(1,3);
 // Count saved games  
 
if (index<20) {
 // if less than 20
 
GetTextBoxText(1,0,text);
 // Get the typed text
 
InterfaceOff(1);
 // Close interface
 
SaveGameSlot(index+1,text); }
 // Save game (text as description)
 
else {
 // if saved games are 20
 
index=ListBoxGetSelected(1,3);
 // Get the selected save game
 
GetTextBoxText(1,0,text);
 // Get the typed text 
 
InterfaceOff(1);
 // Close the interface
 
SaveGameSlot(savegameindex[index],text); }
 // Overwrite the selected game
 
 
 
}
 
if (button==2) InterfaceOff(1);
 // if cancel is pressed close interface
 

Maybe you could use SSHs savegame with screenshots module: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=23320.0

Not sure if it suits your purposes since I've never tried it.

If you looked under "Icon" in the help file you would have found this:

Custom icon
If you wish, you can use your own custom icon when you build a Windows EXE file. To do this, simply place your icon in your game's folder, and name it USER.ICO. Then, load the editor and save the game.
If you are using Windows 95, 98 or ME, your icon must be 32x32 pixels in 16-colour. If it is any other size or colour depth, AGS will not be able to use it.
If you are using Windows 2000 or XP, your icon can be of any size and colour depth. This will not cause a problem for people who play your game on Windows 98; it is simply that the editor can only compile high-colour icons when it is running on Windows 2000 and XP.

NOTE: The icon must be a proper Windows .ICO file, not just a renamed BMP file. Icon editors, such as AX-Icons from http://www.axialis.com, will convert it for you.

You can also have a custom icon for the Setup program generated. To do so, create your icon as above but name it setup.ico in the game folder.

As for the second question, the "window image" is identical to the icon of the .exe file.