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In that case, yeah why not, I'll mentor you . It'll be fun! I have pretty good knowledge of ags, and what i don't know I can figure out..
PM me.

Which reminds me, some people in the Offer your Services thread have posted that they can tutor, though not always ags-related, so that's a step forward.

Ok, I hope I'll make some sort of entry tonight or tomorrow, from Grin Fandango.

Well, the thing is I can't use flash very well (though I do have it), and animating in it is difficult, which is why if you can make logos that look just as good in pixelart, I may prefer that so I can animate it. That is unless you'd be willing to animate it for me.. heh. Which I would of course give you credit for in the game and the site .

Btw, here's a description of how I imagined the logo, but I'm interested in your idea, if you have one.
I'm not sure if it should have a black or a white bg, but since my site is bright (will be ), I think it's best to use a white bg, which I would make transparent.
So, I see it as a large open eye outline, with the text The Insomniac Lab in it (or "the" could be outside) with,umm I dunno, something OR papers scattered..
Actually, I don't like either of those much, Iprefer to hear your design idea. I think I want to include an eye or something though. The tiny logo would just be an eye with "TIL" in it (or is IL better, without the "prefix"?), and the large one, for the game, could be the same as the normal internet one, or something, umm, else? Maybe I'll relate it to the game in question each time.

Well, as my sig says, "Sorry for my random babbling..." .

I never knew calling a function that is running as it is, or calling a built-in function in general, was possible. Creating a custom function for it to override the wait(1) would probably work better, yes. And the code would be less messy than mine, which is so messy cause I wanted to avoid the wait(*) function .

Umm, one thing I was wondering was wether GetPlayerCharacter actually returned the name of the char or the number. If the latter, then you can do this in repeatedly_execute or repeatedly_execute_always (in the new beta version, but backup your game before using a beta):

SetGlobalInt(0, GetPlayerCharacter());

and then use GetGlobalInt(0);
Then again, this doesn't help much, as it's just as much hassle to write as the original option..

I don't see why it wouldn't let you set int n = GetPlayerCharacter() at the top of the script. But in this case, you could do: int n;

and in repeatedly_execute (or _always, as that lets it happen even during blocking commands):

n = GetPlayerCharacter;

as for exporting and importing this variable for use in rooms, I'm no expert on it, but as the manual says:

export n;
//at the end of the global script. I'd put it before the different inventory interactions you may have just for notmaking things messy, though of course it may not work then, so try both ways

and in the "Script header" (a seperate script file in the same menu as the global script) put:

import int n;

That should work so you can use it anywhere.
I don't think defining ints in the header it possible though.

Exporting a function is the same, except you don't use the export thing at all.

import function n();
in the script header. When importing functions with parameters you use just the types, btw.

I just noticed Ben actually wrote the same thing, anyway. using a function for this is Imo the cleanest solution.

edit: Whew, I am so lucky this posted before I accidentally closed the window.

Yes, that feature is great! A workaround though could be using it like this:

int animating;
-----------------------

AnimateCharacter(POD,8,2,0);
animating = character[POD].animating;

while (animating != 0) {
animating = character[POD].animating;
}
if (animating == 0) {
MoveCharacter(POD,204, 177);
MoveCharacterPath(POD,9,4); //moves the character to these coordinates only after the char has completed the previous move
animating = 1;
}

I'm not sure this'll work, but it might..

Of course, using the new function would be much easier.

Whoa, amazing logos penguin! I've always liked your pixel work, but you are definetly a logo master too!
If it's not too much trouble, could you try making a logo for "The Insomniac Lab" (or just "Insomniac Lab", dunno)? I'd like to hear what that name makes you think of first, before I tell you what i imagined it.
I really love the smoothness of the vector logos, but is it possible to animate them? Aswell as properly resize and adjust them to different places (website logo, small web logo (pretty tiny, on top of the menu, good for a signature) and the in-game one, which would be the only one that animates (unless I have the large website one animate too).

Great stuff, Mr. Logo Designer.

What do you mean by half-kidding?

I'm thinking, maybe if someone new wants to have a mentor, they would post in a thread and a willing mentor will volounteer or something, but the newbies need to write what is the most problematic issue for them (if any, it could just be general need for logical help), and maybe what they're goals are, how advanced they wish to be..

I really like the #ags-tech/#agstech channel idea for not wasting bandwith on simple questions. if a question is asked and isn't that simple, the person who asked it could also post in the forums, with whatever replies he got on irc, and if it's a helpful question it might get moved to the archive (the main reason for posting it - so others may use it).

Oh, hehe, I had the impression you may be from israel vause of you nick.. hehe
I can imagine your accent if your from Glasgow! Sorta like in Taggart, no?

Jpg's pretty much mess up the whole quality of the pic, gifs are the perfeect type for sprites. However converting it to gof now may not make a difference if it's originally saved as a jpg. If you used Photoshop of PSP, or something else with it's own filetype, you may have a file of that type to convert to gif.
Also, you can't use jpg's or gif's (i think) in ags, just bmp, png(? not sure), and pcx.

That's a great character you have there! I don't see why his foot is pointing upwards, though, unless it's a first frame of a walkcycle.

I love characters in long robes/cloaks/jackets/coats/etc..

P.s. Where are you from?

Yes, naturally there wouldn't be many there from critic's lounge, except for the voice acting one, it's the only one I can think of. But from Adventure-related, there are many threads which I think are very useful and worth saving .

RGB adjustment could be used, but that usually not all that's used for night scenes, sometimes things may change such as signs being lit or not, etc etc..

Yeah, the other method of using bg frames is ok, and animating can always be done with objects. However I prefer the new room version:

Ashen and proskrito: Jeez! Why didn't I think of that for cloning? Thatnks, that's a good idea. With this it would only require me to make adjustments to the text, change the background, and no need to redor all the areas.

So, basically, the problem is solved, thankyou .

I think that's a good idea. There are many threads I'm sure can be useful. Also, in terms of game design, I'd put all the GTD's in such a forum by default, but maybe only after they were over, or something...

I was going through some game designs, and noticed that a lot of my games have both day and night scenes in the same location, so I started thinking what the best way to allow this is. I dunno, I may be missing something, this could be a lot simpler than I think, but as far as I see it, the only way would be to 1) make a new room with the same (or maybe altered) interactions, or possibly with a function that gets the day room interactions. A lot of dry work.. 2) use an animation view. This allows for not only day and night but 3 more different "modes", but eliminates the possibility of background animation (of course I could always use objects to animate).
So, I was thinking, would it be possible to have some kind of "mode" property to every room? not neccessarilly a time, these could be used for other things too. each mode would have a different background, lighting possibly, object artwork, and some variables about places being closed at night could be added.

An alternative could be room cloning, since we can't copy the whole code just as it is because of the way interactions work. Copying the whole room once it's done is somewhat difficult.

This isn't at all urgent to me though, as I seem to have solved my own problem by posting this (and maybe someone has other suggestions?), but would be a nice feature someday in the future.

Yes, I have nothing against the colour either, blue is great! However the space could be used for more games in the same size of banner. Or, just reduce the banner size a bit..

I'm in 800X600 resolution, and the banner fits in perfectly.

Hmm, I would really love to try for a role in this game. I'm female, 15, with a rather american english, living in israel. If you need a voice that isn't
You can judge the acting yourself (I've never acted before), but I don't think I'll suit the main role very well, as she is much older and I'm not an experienced actor, so one of the smaller female roles would be best.

Now, the only trouble is, I have mike trouble (heh, no pun intended). Apparantly, my pc has nowhere to plug in a microphone, cause I used to plug it into my old monitor (weird, huh?). Then we replaced the monitor, and I can't get the microphone to work, cause there is no logical place to put it. Still, I'd be glad if you PMed me nevertheless, and in the meantime I'm looking for a solution to this problem.

The script is amazing btw! Very cinematic feel to it, I can tell you design these cutscenes very visually (in your mind at least) and with lots of atmoshpere. The dialogs were superb and immedeately had me speaking out the lines!

P.s. You can try looking in the Offer your services thread to see if anyone is available for voice acting.

Hmm, but then again, why tile it? wouldn't it be better to use this empty blue space to include a few more games in the montage? The overall design looks great, though!

Ooh, I remember this, not this post though, I remember you posting images of the different Esquans. They were really good! this story/plot would be totally awesome if you make it!

[Tutoring]

Tutoring
I am happy to help people with AGS and scritping problems, aswell as game design sometimes.
If there is something that isn't clear to you, hopefully I can explain it, and if you need to fix a bug in a script, I can sometimes help (no garauntees though). As long as you speak english (or hebrew ) and have at least a basic understanding of computers, I'd be glad to tutor .

Coding / Scripting
I sometimes feel like I spend so much time trying to finish at least my main character artwork first, that I begin to miss scripting. I find inventive scripting enjoyable, and if I am to be scripting your game, expect suggestions on how to improve puzzles and stuff . Of course if you don't agree with my suggestions that's fine by me.
I am willing to help with small scripting issues and short games mostly all the time, but if it's a large project I want to be sure it'll be finished (artwork etc I mean ) and wether or not the idea appeals to me (most ideas do ).

Story Design
I am currently helping someone with puzzle design and general plot discussion. I really like talking to people about their game, and discussing ideas. I bring sometimes complicated ideas, but can simplify things. I believe I think inventively and have original ideas and ways of implementing features that players will enjoy.

If you are looking for a story from scratch, I don't always get ideas (especcially good ones), but I can try. I enjoy the whole proccess very much. Except for making up names. I suck at names.

You can contact me via PM, email ( natalye @ netvision.co.il ), Icq (102269515), MSN messanger (same as my e-mail), or Yahoo messanger (perhaps tell me in pm first so that I actually remember to log onto it - ginny30303 @ yahoo.com).

Are you compiling one font with all languages or am i confused?

What about languages like hebrew and arabic? The lettres are completely different, no "special" characters though, except there are things like adding "pronounciation marks" or "vowel marks" or however you want to call them, which often come instead of vowel letters.