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Hi everyone, it's been a minute,

Just wanted to get your thoughts on something.

I moved on from AGS to Gamemaker and unity, specifically for mobile support.  The thing is, I'm still working on adventure games in gamemaker and due to my background with AGS I instinctively structure my games like AGS would.

If I do a really good job and make it nice and neat I could release the code to the AGS community so they could make their own games mobile friendly with a relatively painless conversion process.

Is this something you'd like? My intention isn't to take away from AGS and I don't want to do that either, but it would be neat to have more AGS originals being able to play in-browser...

Well guys, this is it.

I wanted to post the latest episode of the podcast here as not to bump the Project Birthplace thread anymore as well as say goodbye.

Devan and I are in agreement that we won't be making any more games with AGS at least for the near future.

This has been great. Thank you all for tolerating my shenanigans as I stumbled to make some form of creative identity. I still and will always recommend AGS to people as a fantastic way of learning how to make games.

Of course I'll still be popping my head in every now and then to check on DM's so if you ever need me that's how you can grab me.

Just a heads up, if you're interested in keeping up with the podcast, I suggest:

• Following my twitter @SpookyGlenjamin (I tweet out links to episodes on upload)
• Joining our discord (I send out a ping on upload)
• Bookmark our patreon. The progress report will always be free, patreon just gives us unlimited hosting

We're also working on some kickass new stuff. You'll be able to find it there as well.

Without further adieu, here's the latest episode. Thanks everyone!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/progress-report-25375400

Also, we're extra crass this ep. Hope that's the way you like it.

Hey everyone,

We've got a brand new episode of the podcast! We talk a lot about our plans for the future, upcoming games, and more.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/25105206

(Still free listening despite patreon link)

maybe adventure games are dead?

Hey guys, maybe if we're looking for an audience... we should go to the CINEMAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

Nailed it.

I've neglected a big part of my business training which is fail hard and fail fast. The truth is I realize now that I had no reason to expect a large reception.

Within the next few months I'm going to do extensive research into the games zeitgeist and see what works. I have a few leads. I'll be making ultra-light short yet meaningful projects.

I'll be sure to share any findings with you guys. I do believe there's enough people in the world for each dedicated artist to have a decent fanbase.

After all if this were about being successful we'd all draw hentai and be done with it.

Anyone have an experience with finding an audience?

I've become all too familiar with the feeling of publishing a game at the end of a lengthy > 6 month long dev cycle to receive very small metrics, if any.

We've improved, promoted on social media, diversified, added routine non-game content for retention,  It just doesn't seem to be working out.

In the past I've discussed going to expos/conventions and demoing the game but realistically you can only really see about 30 people a day. Of those 30, maybe 4 or 5 will follow up.

It's time!



Come download the game at our itch.io. DRM free.

https://glen-devan.itch.io/project-birthplace

Thanks to everyone for checking out the project. Here's to many more awesome updates!

WHATS THAT?

OVER ON THE HORIZON!

A new hecking episode of The Progress Report with Glen & Devan! Sorry to get your hopes up pal.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/24559565

(Still free listening despite the patreon link)

We're very sleepy this episode so the topics are all over the place. We did get around to the pre-alpha and the whatnot.

I'm also not going to bump the thread every episode in an effort to keep the thread from feeling spammy. You know where to find us. 

Thank you for the replies and views so far everyone!

Dan's a little nervous for his big day on the 10th, so he's preparing with a little liquid courage:

(Yes, I just wanted an excuse to post this animation ya turkies.)

If you can't say "Eff off grandma" here, where else can you, really??

I'm glad you like it! It's important to me that you're allowed to play the way you want and say how you feel. A lot of the characters will be less-than friendly, so it's important that you're verbally armed.

Most of the dialogues are designed with a gradient of manners followed by (or preceded by, not sure yet) conditional options.

For example:

• Hello, It's really nice to meet you!
• Good evening.
• Hi.
• Need something bucko?
• I didn't realize I was wearing my "Idiots come talk to me!" shirt today.
• [conditional]

Conditional options are context based. What the player knows, previous events, even what the player is wearing can add conditional options.

Can't wait for you all to see VeEeEeEery sOoOoOoOon.

Hello everyone!

January's long gone, so here's everything that was implemented during those cold winter nights.

This is a sample of of what the "Cultist" tier will get at the end of every month. So if you're interested in the nitty gritty of Project Birthplace's development, consider checking out the patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/january-in-24435495


January in review

January was one of the most productive parts of Project Birthplace's development. Having winter break right at the start of the game's dev was very lucky. Hopefully things will still go smoothly since school and work have continued.

Events:

Not quite January but February 2nd was the winter play expo. Special thanks to everyone who came out and played “Escape the Room?”. It was great seeing you all!

Major updates:
A majority of Shadetown (The current update's main area) has been implemented
Added room for the first grotto and wilderness areas
Re-tooled the scumm interface to have only 8 verbs
day/night cycle structure is now functional
Dan and Sarah's costume mechanics can be accessed via wardrobe
NPCs can be moved from location to location and animate according to the time of day
Character's now have a numerical value for miscellaneous animations, meaning their miscellaneous animations change depending on what they're wearing.
Added variables for Health, Energy, Character relationships, Societal relationships
Added framework for dream sequences, mind altering substances, and interdem variable tracking


Design updates:
No more bland Tee's. Dan and Sarah now have cool new default costumes
Re-skinned dialogue system to fit the game's themes
Added broken versions of many in-game items
Functioning main menu will change depending on the player's location
Shades now have their own unique “Face” patterns while remaining indistinguishable to the untrained eye.
Fog now appears in shadetown in the morning.
Angels have attack animations
Lighting changes according to day/night cycle

Specifics:
Added Anchovy, Gio, and Cheryl's setpiece event
Stocked Cliffside imports' shelves with mead
Added marco's subs and fries kitchen appliances
Added seven new NPCs
Three NPCs have day/night cycle behaviors
Francis will introduce the player to Shadetown's main questline from the temple
Added the first meditation event
Added framework for the “exasperated shade's night quest”

Nice work. Does this game take place in the same world as "Project Beach House" and if so will any of the characters from that game be appearing in this one?

Glad you asked! Project Birthplace is a direct sequel to Project Beach House. The main characters: Dan and Sarah are still front and center, although Sarah may be taking on a new role in the game.

The cultists who kidnapped Dan at the end are the leaders of the five main cults that appear on the island. The Shade, named Francis, is the leader of the children of the void. You'll be able to find him giving sermons in the temple at the center of shadetown.

Many new and interesting characters await you in Project Birthplace. 

In regards to Project Beach House:

There was what I'd call a "Silent release" where I realized that the last update I uploaded was probably as good as I could make it. I was inexperienced at the project's inception, leaving less room for improvement.
I couldn't have done any of my subsequent work including Project Birthplace if I never worked on Project Beach House with Slasher. Though I'm often critical of it I hold it in high regard.

That being said I plan on releasing one final update which will add a crucial function relating to Project birthplace, giving players a good reason to go back and learn the story. No solid ETA on that.


Also a special bonus:

We're going to be showing a pre-alpha demo at a local convention this Saturday! This will help us address any important responses/issues players come across before launch.

Hey everyone,

Ever wanted to listen to two egomaniacs talk about Project Birthplace?

That's odd, since the game was only announced yesterday...

But you're in luck, because Devan & I do a weekly podcast where we talk loosely about our lives and plan out our next steps when it comes to Project Birthplace.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/progress-report-24335427
(Still free listening even though its a patreon link)



I'll be uploading episodes two and three later on today.

-Glenjamin

I was a bit spooked off by this "pre-alpha demo" thing at first (reminded me of the darkest hours of OSD) but the screenshots are promising.

The idea of the pre-alpha is to give you an idea of what the mechanics are and how they're implemented.

The demo will contain:

• Three characters with full day/night cycles.
• 75% of Shadetown's full map. (Mainly the implemented/stable parts)
• The intro to Shadetown's main quest.
• 5 set-piece events
• Some but not all objects will have reactions to the 8 verbs
• Sarah's mechanics are not yet implemented

In short, you'll be getting bite-sized glimpses of how the game will work as a whole.

Are the waves/water level animated for realsies?

Whats that? You wanted the long answer? Gotchya! The main game is going to be divided into three sections:

• Towns - Like shadetown, this is where the majority of human NPC's will be.
• Grottoes - Similar to dungeons in other games, this is where many monsters and treasures reside.
• The wilderness - Links the areas of the game. Harsh conditions give the game a survival edge. Make sure you pack enough food to get from town to town!

So Shadetown's main grottoes mostly take place underwater! The underwater levels have full swimming animations. Working on some bubbles/fish to bring it to life.

Project Birthplace's Pre-Alpha demo is available now!
https://glen-devan.itch.io/project-birthplace




Set the mood with one of Project Birthplace's demo tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/glenanddevan/project-birthplace-demos-shadetown-acoustic-v1

Project Birthplace is a point-and-click survival game about a young man on a quest to learn about and track down his missing father.


Welcome to Shadetown!

The first stop on Dan's journey: Shadetown, is populated by eccentric robed figures called "Shades". A shade's enchanted robe obscures their voice, height, face, and gender, allowing them to live anonymously.



Is this truly a utopian society free of discrimination and bias, or an unsustainable cult of hedonists and cowards?

Features:

• Day night cycle to bring the world to life
• A cast of over 25 unique characters with backstories, personalities, and daily schedules
• A dense, intricate open world
• Meticulously designed areas where every object is interact-able
• Secret variables which manage in-game permutations for hundreds of possibilities!

Why scumm?

I find modern western role-playing games to be too combat centric. At the same time, in many scumm based games most of the verbs go largely unused.
My goal in designing the game's mechanics was to have every verb have an equally entertaining/valuable reaction per object.

What's next?

Project Birthplace is scheduled for a pre-alpha release February 10th. The main goal of the demo is to show you the intended scale of the world and how the features are currently implemented. Tell your friends!

Screenshots:











To help ensure development continues, consider checking out our Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/glenanddevan

Rewards include: In-depth monthly progress reports, early access to updates of the game, and a weekly podcast, Q&A, and even your likeness becoming a character in future updates!

With my game's day/night cycle, characters move based on the time of day, and their current coordinates.

A timer starts at game_start, and when it expires, one in game minute is added. After 20 minutes, the hour increases and the minutes reset.

I've calculated that characters can move 58 pixels per minute rounded down with a standard movespeed of 3.

If a character needs to move vertically and horizontally, I'll split the 58, moving them 29 pixels along each axis.

This is what a standard movement looks like:

Code: ags

//NOON
   } if (WorldTime == 24){
         
        if (WorldMins == 1){
        
       if ((player.Room == cgranny.Room) && (cgranny.x == 1090)) {
              cgranny.AddWaypoint(1148, 124);
             }else if (player.Room != cgranny.Room){
                cgranny.x = 1148;
                cgranny.y = 124;
                } 
                
        }else if (WorldMins == 2){
        
       if ((player.Room == cgranny.Room) && (cgranny.x == 1148)){
              cgranny.AddWaypoint(1206, 124);
             }else if (player.Room != cgranny.Room){
                cgranny.x = 1206;
                cgranny.y = 124;
                } 
//this continues until WorldMins = 20
   }

Occasionally characters do not move to the specified coordinates.  For example instead of cgranny.AddWaypoint(1206), they move to 1207 or 1205.

Sometimes they'll walk somewhere completely different to a coordinate that appears nowhere in the entire project, no less the specific script.

I can't find any correlation between each instance of these errors.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

I figured it out.

Whenever I added another condition to the function, it factored in the else statement which moved the character if the player was outside the room.

The solution was to break it up.

So instead of this:

Code: ags

 else if (WorldTime == (12)){
                  if (WorldMins == (0)){
                      if( (player.Room == coscar.Room) && (coscar.X == 705)){
                      coscar.AddWaypoint(889, 107); 
                
                      }else{
                        coscar.x = 889;
                        coscar.y = 107;
                      }

Do this:

Code: ags

 else if (WorldTime == (12)){
                  if (WorldMins == (0)){
                       if (coscar.X == 705){             
                          if (player.Room == coscar.Room){
                                 coscar.AddWaypoint(889, 107); 
                
                                     }else{
                                      coscar.x = 889;
                                      coscar.y = 107;
                                    }
                                    }

I'll defiantly work on my indentation. This project is pretty big and should be as relentlessly clean and neat as possible.

Thanks

Hey everyone.

My game has NPCs that walk around according to the time of day.

There are two time variables.  24 hours, and 20 minutes per hour. (I added minutes to have a greater density of actions as one an hour didn't give any room for complex walking)

After a timer is expired, the minutes increase. When the minutes reach 20 the hour increases and the minutes are reset.

Adding events for heach min/hour is done with if and else if statements in a script. While it seems a little messy it's actually not too hard to work with.

Here's a clip, the hour keeps increasing until 24:

Code: ags

 if (WorldTime == (1)){
   
   } else if (WorldTime == (2)){
               

   } else if (WorldTime == (3)){
               

   }

Within each hour, I then have checks for the minutes. This is where I add the events for the NPCs:

Code: ags

   } else if (WorldTime == (12)){
                  if (WorldMins == (0)){
                      if (player.Room == coscar.Room){
                      coscar.AddWaypoint(889, 107); 
                
                      }else{
                        coscar.x = 889;
                        coscar.y = 107;
                      }
                        
            
            }else if (WorldMins == (1)){
              if (player.Room == coscar.Room){
                       //coscar.AddWaypoint(801, 114); 
                       
                      }else{
                        coscar.x = 801;
                        coscar.y = 107;
                      }
            }//else if etc 

An issue I'm coming across is character's walk speeds seem to randomly fluctuate between AddWaypoint functions.  Sometimes they move at default speed (3), and other times they slow down to a crawl.

I measured the amount of space an npc could walk between time intervals before and it came out to about 53 (I guess pixels? Units?) a minute and 1056 units an hour. They're defiantly not moving at that speed.


This code IS in the repeatedly_execute function so I figured it might've had something to do with the addwaypoint function being called repeatedly. To counter this I tested a few variations of the following:
Also I wanted these events to be effected by blocking which is why I have both the minute timer and the actions in repeatedly_execute rather than late_repeatedly_execute.

Code: ags

} else if (WorldTime == (12)){
                  if (WorldMins == (0)){
                      if ((player.Room == coscar.Room) && (coscar.Moving == false)){
                      coscar.AddWaypoint(889, 107); 
                
                      }else{
                        coscar.x = 889;
                        coscar.y = 107;
                      }

            }

Instead of calling the function once this made coscar move even slower and flash constantly between being invisible and visible. I have genuinely no idea what this could be.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

I used snarky's snippet and It worked like a charm. Thanks guys.

When the game first loaded every character in the game started doing a rolecall of "Looks like im dead, friend". I thought it wasn't working until I realized they only said that because I didnt declare their health variables yet!

Time to really get cracking.

Sorry for the several posts lately,  this should be the last one until i'll have a great base to work off.

Once again we're talking variable management with characters.


For example, I have this script to indicate a character has died:

Code: ags

 function repeatedly_execute(){
    
 if (NPHealth[cJerry.ID] == 0){
   
   cJerry.Say("Looks like I'm dead friend.");
   
   }

 }

With the current setup I'd need to do an if statement for every NPC in the entire game.

I'm looking for a way for AGS to grab the character.ID of any NPC who's health has reached zero, and then use it to run the death script.

(Theoretically looking like this)

Code: ags

 function repeatedly_execute(){
    
 if (NPHealth[Character.ID] == 0){
   
   Character[character.ID].Say("Looks like I'm dead friend.");
   
   }

 }

(I've also added +1 to the health array so the character.ID's align properly)

Thanks.

I used Khris' method and everything seems to be working according to plan.

I'll be sure to keep an eye out as to not have my variables in the header.

Thanks everyone!

Sorry about the missing info.

I intend to define the arrays in their own script called "NPCvariables" to keep things neat. NPHealth is currently defined in the header of that script.

I'm getting the error for the testing lines:

Code: ags

 cCharacter.Say("health is %d",NPHealth[5]);

Code: ags

NPHealth[5] -= 20;
cCharacter.Say("health is %d",NPHealth[5]);
 

Both lines are in a room script, in hotspot anyclick functions just for testing purposes.

Going to give Khris' method a shot and get back to you. Thanks so far!