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[Beamtendeutsch]

Beamtendeutsch: "Ich bin der Froschfängerformularbereitsteller. Ich sorge dafür, das Leute Frösche fangen können."

(Just a take on German bureaucracy having flimsies and fill-outs for virtually everything. Literally: "I am the supplier of licenses for frog-catchers. I make it possible for frogs to be caught by people!")

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Edit: Yup, selmiak's edit is even more hilarious

I say we forgive Miguel and vote based on his first entry alone, and just roll on with the competition.
I also suggest that, unless the story already has a distinct end, the organizer should write a short finisher when the competition closes.

+1 on both

I like to start with a clear idea of the game's main character. Not a fully fleshed out biography but a strong image. That means a good mockup sprite and some traits. This often leads to the actual conflict (or call it main quest) of the game- undead cheerleader must bake cake, teenage PI solves a crime, student tries to win a sorerity dare. From there on, brainstorming. Setting and tone are good to spark ideas for puzzles, and I like to write them as "fake walkthroughs"; that eventually gives me a list of objects, inventory items, and possible locations. Then it's time to build the world- I don't like rooms cramped up with pick-ups so items have to be spread around, but should be at sensible locations. NPCs appear.

And very often that careful plan really is nothing but a list of things that don't work. While creating the sprites and backgrounds new ideas crop up. Or maybe a puzzle sounded cool but is no fun to play through. I tend to roll with that and just adjust things by making them up as I go along. I spend more time creating actual playable "game" while scripting and spriting than I plan on paper.

tvTropes and Google are my allies. I use them for simple, easy-to-regocnize characterization and for reference images. No idea how an actual rainforest looks like? Bam, Internet. Want to make sure players realise the man over there is a really bad guy? Let him kick a dog. Never tried yoour hands on a three-section-leg walkcycle? Just watch SPLICE. You get my drift.

In the (few) games I made I always wrote the ending last, and spent most of the time on it. That's probably because I tend to pay more attention to the story than to the puzzles. I also like to not draw myself into a corner by knowing how the game "must end". Sometimes the game knows better.

As soon as the game is in anything like a playable state, I call out for testers. Because at that point I play the game on autopilot and wouldn't find a bug if it waved a big glowing sign.

And before the release I try to get a night's sleep, check the game a last time, and then release it. Or if not, at least I spend the next six hours on the internet, waiting for cries of "Found a bug!"

Although technically, sometimes I don't do all of that. Sometimes everything is just a blurry mess and no actual "design doc" manifests at any point, the whole game is just made from scratch. That can be fun too.

Fill yourself up. Read comics. They are great to get ideas. Play games. Collect screenshots of classic adventure games, if only for palette reference. Charge yourself up until a game basically has to form in your brain because otherwise, there'd be grey matter all over the furniture. Collect ideas and never throw anything away- it's hilarious to go through five years of WiP project folders.

Where's his udder?

Since this already is the Rumpus Room. I know that some female cows have horns. But can a male cow (outside of Minecraft) have an udder? I'm to lazy to read it up on Wikipedia.

And it's round, too. Square seems to work pretty well for Sponge Bob.

Make that "square-ish", then Sort of... angular. A Spongebob ghost though. Now that's double awesome.

Now that's a cute ghost!

I have a use for her, too, if I can get a better look.

That is not a ghost. I am talking about these bedsheet-clad spookie things? You know, like Pac-Man ghosts? They should work nicely with that square-is style youve got going there

Do a ghost!

If someone draws it, I'll put it in.

PM'd.

[A Most Magical Christmas Ornament]

A Most Magical Christmas Ornament

The man running the market stall looks a bit odd, but he is selling christmas ornaments and you really want to put up your decoration in time this year. A certain item catches your eye. It really looks nice.
  "Here, what's this?" you ask. The man stops polishing his wand, strokes his beard and chuckles.
  "That!", he booms, "That is a special magical christmas ornament straight from the halls of a wizarding school I cannot name because of copyright!"
  "I want it, please."
  "But it's magical and rare!"
  "I have five euros."
  "It has MAGICKS woven into its very fabric of being!"
  "Yes. Sounds awesome. Look, I make adventure games as a hobby. I know the drill. Can I have it?"
The wizard shrugs, then hands the precious item over, muttering something about being stuck in Monkey Island.

With glee, you take your magical christmas ornament home. When you hang it up, it looks...


So, show us your very own magical christmas ornament!
- There is no colour limit.
- You can flip and rotate the outline.
- If you really must, you can also fill the two holes in the outline.
- Bonus for any combination of tradtional festive ornament and magic. Seriously, don't you think Santa looks a lot like a wizard these days?

Competitions runs from November 26 - December 10. Have fun!

There will be trophies; I have made tiny tiny snow globes. And (and this is just a tiny joke on my part and a shameless attempt at increasing participation) they are all magical.

First Place: Haunted Snow Globe

Second Place: Moonlit Snow Globe

Third Place: Red-Nosed Slow Globe

[DOWNLOAD HERE!]

Ghost presents:

GHOST'S HIS LATE-NIGHT BEEF SANDWICH


Delicious corned beef, horseradish and the secret haunted sauce make it a sandwich to DIE for- are you man enough for the beef?

DOWNLOAD HERE!

Seriously, there's never been much outsider votings here. I don't see how some new buttons would change that; the voting system is pretty transparent. It's just not pretty.

[edit]
No, that sounded all wrong.

A happy one, Stu! Be tenacious about it!

@miguel: Ah, classic! This'll be good!

Whee, thanks for all the votes, guys! And congrats to everyone who participated; this was a neat theme.
I shall start a new round within the week!

Is it Ishar?

ISHAR 2 I think. I remember that compass.

If you are using the last "official" release of AGS (3.2.1), the highest possible resolution is 1024x768. It is not often used; most people prefer low-res (320x240 or even 320x200). The reason is less performance, but mostly low resolution looks great with good clean pixel art. If your question is which resolution works best with your game- well, it's really a matter of personal preferrence. I daresay any somewhat modern computer can run an AGS game in 1024x without problems.

Higher resolutions are implemented in the current beta, and IIRC there's been a lot of talk about true widescreen support, too.

Note: If you want custom screen resolutions, you need the actual source for AGS, a solid understanding of programming, and you will have to build your own "version" of AGS to get them. There is no way to implement new resolutions in AGS Script or a "secret hack" by editing some ini file.
This is absolutely possible, btw. The AGS source code has been released and you can compile it with the free version of Visual Studio. Also, there are builds like the Draconian Edition and AGS 3.3 Beta that (again, IIRC) already have higher resolutions implemented and are reportedly stable.

Scaling is simply a filter that you select in the setup program, winsetup.exe, which is located in your game's compiled folder (or the game folder if you downloaded a game). Scaling means exactly what it says on the tin, each pixel is scaled to x2/x3/x4 its actual size. This required no custom code either. It's very convenient to use if your screen can't run low-res games fullscreen or if the very tiny window (windowed mode) makes you squint.

It could be that you have the wrong size entered for the inventory window itself. Open up your GUI, click on the inventory window and check "ItemHeight/ItemWidth" in the properties window- these should be the same size as the sprites used for inventory items (which also should always be the same size).

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To clarify: you want the "collision rectangle" in the inventory window to be the same size as the item contained in it

> Kindly accept gift and ask if there's any major concern the peasants may have with their lives;

Good idea, miguel- let's do that!
+1

Milk and make cheese!

Milking surely is a free action?
+ 1 !