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Messages - Ghost

#1121
The Rumpus Room / Re: Tales from On the lash
Sun 29/09/2013 20:19:25
Quote from: Andail on Sun 29/09/2013 19:44:05
We had no idea what to tell him, as far as I remember.

And what DID you tell him, eventually? (laugh)
#1122
Shame, really. It would have been a nice surprise to see that DOTT remake- I had no idea at all that there was something in the makings and I really think that DOTT would sell nicely today. The humour is good, great at times, the time-travel was a neat feature and the "misfit trio" always appealed to me. And most importantly, I like modern remakes. I instantly bought the MI remake for two reasons: It was an easy way to get a game running on my machine without SCUMMVM/DosBox/whatever, and it was the easiest way to get the game in its native language (in Germany, translation voice acting hates you!)

I understand that a publisher will treat such a project as an outdated, commercially risky title. But I really really hate the idea that one day there will only be games that can instantly sell (Battlefield, Bejeweled, and Sims). I do not want to live in such a world.

I'd also appreciate HD remakes of all the classic Indiana Jones games. I wonder if a "legacy title" with a strong license would fare better.

__
edit:
Down below I almost completely switch sides, but both views are totally valid :)
#1123
The Rumpus Room / Re: Tales from On the lash
Thu 26/09/2013 04:16:14
Ghost Tale Time!

(Edit: And, well, I double-checked but there's not one Umlaut in it.)

There is a small island called Terschelling. I used to go camping there with a couple o' friends. Still remember my first trip. See, that place is basically a tourist trap, they actually sell candy that is made to look like seagull eggs, and they make an enormous fuss about some licker they brew there. It's called Friesengeist (Frisian Spirit) and it's basically aniseed liquor with a dash of peppermint.

There is a ridiculous ceremony that you MUST obey when you order and, indeed, drink it.

It goes like this:

Step 1: Order a Friesengeist. Watch cute waitress place a small shot glass of the stuff in front of you. It's milky white, and since I have no sense of smell I must trust my friends that it reeks of something you should put on your chest when you got a cold. I hope you get the picure.

Step 2: Wrinkle your forehead in puzzled bemusement as said waitress places a tiny, copper, pan next to your shot glass.

Step 3: Grow more and more curious as you are told that now you must set your drink on fire.

Step 4: Set your drink on fire.

Step 5: Smile in genuine amazement as the whole tavern starts to chant:

"Wie Irrlicht im Moor, flackert's empor! Trink aus, trink aus: GenieàŸe still und leise, auf echte Friesenweise. Dem Friesen zur Ehr', vom Friesengeist mehr!"
(Like a will-o-the-wisp it flares! Drink up, drink up. Enjoy your drink in peace, just like a Frisian does. To honour the Frision, some more of that Frisian Spirit.")

Step 6: With relief, put the pan on the shot glass to extinguish the flame.

Step 7: Drink your Friesengeist and allow your taste buds to shiver as the still hot aniseed-peppermint-mix does its best to amaze you.

Step 8: Be amazed.

Step 9: Follow the chant's bottom line and order more.

Step 10: Observe the effect the alcohol has on you as both chanting and failing to extinguish the drink before you drink it becomes drastically simpler each time you return to Step 1.

We went through a good amount of the stuff that night. It's a social event and you usually never drink alone. I absolutely overestimated my limit that night, too. In the warm tavern everything was fine, but our tent was close to the sea and we had to walk about 40 minutes. In cold, fresh, Frisian air. The minute the breeze hit me the alcohol tapped me on the shoulder and said hi.

I still swear that night a seagull talked to us.
#1124
This is beautiful, Atelier; really a shame you put it aside for such irrelevant things as education! Would be lovely to see this as a module!
#1125
Dear Moving Thread,

I have to propose a question. Usually I'd visit your nephew, the Ask Something We Can Help Thread, but, well, I know you better. You're wise beyond your years and you never failed to enlighten me.
So here we go.

Why is bacon so very, very delicious?
#1126
I think we have managed to derail this thread.
#1127
Quote from: Ponch on Thu 19/09/2013 19:37:36
Quote from: Ghost on Thu 19/09/2013 19:31:15
Consussion:  Yahtzee has never left at all
Yahtz-EE... Ice-EE... It's all makes sense now! :shocked:

Ah. Both use ZERO PUNCTUATION. You're on to something big here, Ponch!

Or... should I say... Pohtzee?
#1128
It hurts so much when a silly joke backfires, goes unnoticed, or just fizzles :=. Hey, the man's a legend. Everyone who knows AGS and how to make a personal avatar knows Yahtzee. A slightly smaller number of people knows how to write "Yahtzee" without checking a dictionary. Still a few less people PLAY Yahtzee. And a very small number of those manages to win at the game.

But on topic: I am with nemo here, there is a hidden message. Let's analyze it. Let's be all analytical, and if that fails, let's be anal about it.
!) Many cups are blue.
twhO) Blue is a nice colour and goes well with the overall colour sheme of the ZP videos.
Sree!) It's also one of the more pricey colours, so it may be a take that at consumerism, just like the original Dawn of the Dead was.
FORE) So the epileptic tree just trembles, and the subliminal message is revealed!
Consussion:  Yahtzee has never left at all, he's been hiding in Babar's attic all the time, and just now he's rolling the die. The number he rolls, that many games he will buy tomorrow.

[edit]
NO! WAIT!

If you tilt your head a little, and squint, and then tilt the monitor a little too, AND have Minecraft running in the background, see, then the cup looks a bit like a roll of toilet paper hanging from a ( - shaped shape.
The meaning? Hell if I know. Is AGS better than toilet paper? Are AGSers using BLUE toilet paper? Does Yathzee record his episodes while on the toilet, secretly playing AGS games there?
The game's afoot!
#1129
Critics' Lounge / Re: Entrapment - Deluxe?
Thu 19/09/2013 19:27:28
I remember that as if it had been last year!

Many of the goodies you mention make sense and sound good! I'm partial to the soundtrack (because the music was rather good), and I am a fan of DevComments because I love to get a small glance behind the scenes of a game.
It's been a while, but I remember your game as a very classic point-and-click, with good enough puzzles, so extra content, while always nice, wouldn't be my top priority.

This is subjective, but when I hear "Deluxe", I think of extra background material and a Hugh Jackman cameo. An alternative ending maybe; a bit more spit and polish. Not a complete overhaul (THAT much time could well be spent on a sequel!)
#1130
Critics' Lounge / Re: Vague - My First Game
Thu 19/09/2013 18:14:10
Quote from: dactylopus on Thu 19/09/2013 17:23:49
I think the O's noticed they were going to lose, and then quit.  ;)

Alternatively, their strategy for the game was very, very VAGUE.
#1131
Who is that Yahtzee guy everyone keeps talking about? :tongue:
#1132
It lacks pumpkins. But hey, it looks like edudainment, and learning is PHUN!
#1133
I bet there are, and there are many games where at least some actions don't require the player to walk. Kyrandia 2 for example leaves Zanthia in place when clicking on items that are merely picked up.

I also don't think that "movement is key". Showing the player character moving is part of making the game more believable, and there may be puzzles where the game checks if an object can be "reached". But adventure games are notorious for allowing the player to try every action(verb) on everything, often without the avatar ever complaining. You're mostly able to try out everything (and often have the character cross the full screen before stating that "This doesn't work" :-\ )

What do we gain from having a character walk around, you ask. I'd say an illusion of watching actions unfold, creating immersion, and a chance to tie puzzles to where a player stands, and the feeling that we are controlling a character instead of looking at still scenes AND the potential for everyone to complain about the walkspeed ;)

The trick is to have characters traverse the environment using a GOOD control sheme.
#1134
Quote from: AGA on Wed 18/09/2013 09:28:53
There is a MAGS website!

Emberassing... Edited my post! (nod)
#1135
I've got to ask: WHAT is the sun?
Apart from that I really love the concept; it's "make a world out of what's available" to the extreme (nod)
#1136
I LuckyDipped "Next To Evil", and it looks very stylish. http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1364/
Will have some fun with that- apparently it's short, so I shoud be able to post more soon.

[edit]

Well- "Next To Evil" is a 2010 MAGS game by Joel Page, made for the theme "The Bad Guy".

You play Duet, sister to the World's Queen, in a fantasy setting where magic is commonplace and Duet herself has a rather unique talent;
Spoiler
she can duplicate herself (and sing with herself in perfect harmony).
[close]
Right at the start she's approached by a mysterious stranger who seems to want to see the queen dead. And while Duet apparently has little love for the vain queen, she is NOT an evil person... but how good is she?

The game's plot works nicely if you like your fantasy with a little extra drama. There's quite a bit of dialogue to read through and the relatively few characters you interact with all have their little quirks. Much is just hinted about, but that usually works for me, I tend to fill empty spaces with some guesses.
That being said, this is a game that tells a story. Puzzles are few, and, once you're in the groove, never really get very complicated. But it's clear that the tale is the important thing. You figure out how to use Duet's power, you get the usual fetch quests, and between that you get glimpses at relationships, moral values, and what makes a person evil. I'm okay with that, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea. It's also truly a serious story, with little humour and few frills. You get the point quickly, and Next To Evil does see it through.

Graphics are generally good- simple, but the game really has a stylish "flat-shaded" look, with small character sprites that look decidedly 8bit. Someone clearly put some love into the character portraits, which are stills but all rather unique.
There's background music and some singing, apart from that there's no voice over- the music is pleasant but really remains in the background, never drawing too much attention to itself.
There are a couple of odd design choices in the game, and since the readme merely covers the hotkeys for load/save/quit, it takes a while to figure out that the game basically has a BASS interface. There are some glitches like characters poking from behind a walkbehind, or pixel hunts (even for an exit that clearly should be triggered somewhere else), but that is small fry, overall the game plays nicely.

I have some expectations in a MAGS game- I expect a short and traditional game. NTE delivers and I didn't feel disappointed after the ~20 minutes I spend on it. It never felt very fresh or exiting, it was like picking up a pleasant "More Of The Same" paperback from an author you generally like.
#1137
The majority of AGS games is extremely low-res, at 320x240 pixels. Higher resolution is possible and can be set in the game's General Settings; currently 1027x768 is the limit.
The higher your resolution, the "better" (less pixelated, at least ;)) your graphics will look.

If you opt for vector art or any high resolution sprites with transparency, HiColour is a must to take advantage of transparency settings baked into the image file. You should also experiment with the graphics drivers (DX or D3D9)- generally it is advised to use 3D3. As the manual will tell you, higher resolution and colour depth will impact your game's overall performance, but these days it's hardly an issue. Your game files will be larger, too, so a download may become a bit more of a challenge for people with slow/unstable connections.

About size of backgrounds, that's really up to you; a background image should be at least the size of your game resolution to fill the whole screen. If you make it larger, AGS will scroll it automatically as the player walks around and approaching the edges of the current viewport.

And welcome to the forums! I just saw this is your first post!
#1138
Hi there! The problems you're facing are common (and have been asked a couple of times already), but still:

1) When you delete a button (or any GUI element, or GUI), and there are still references to it in any of AGS's script files, the game will refuse to run. If you delete a button that is referenced in the script, you need to remove these references, too! There is no workaround here; you need to do that manually.

2) gPanel is a GUI and GUIs have a "Visible" property. All you need to do is to create a button and add the following command to it's script:
Code: ags

    gPanel.Visible = true;

Note: you'll need a way to make gPanel invisble again!

3) There are several ways to achieve this. One quite simple way is a CUSTOM PROPERTY. There is more detail about them in the manual, but basically it works like this:
Create a new custom property of type string, call it "Description", limit it to "Rooms", and then make a button with the following code:
Code: ags

    String description = Room.GetTextProperty("Description");
    Display("The room's description: %s", description); // make a "Display"



#1139
Quote from: LimpingFish on Fri 13/09/2013 19:24:46
There is no truth to the rumor that panelists are chosen by competing in inter-species gladiatorial contests...yet. ¬¬
Darn. So I trained that mutated ninja-gecko for naught?

On topic: Nice to see the POTM going to be more active; I'll sure give the old db a good browse.
#1140
I'd like to offer these: http://www.mediafire.com/?i1hgdj1d257he9t

These are royalty-free sounds, originally distributed with DIV Game Maker 2000 (spanish DOS game maker), free to use in freeware and commercial games without any need to credit the source. I just zipped them up. Maybe there's something in there you can use.

Most are punching sounds, but some are "people hitting things that are not people, like a wall"... well, it's an archive.
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