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I've been replaying Planescape: Torment some time ago and I marveled at the fact how much this favourite game of mine is actually a damn good adventure game.

See, this time I allocated all the points to "intelligence" and "wisdom" (to those wondering, YES, surprisingly the game is much more easier when you do this) so I could avoid most of the combats with smart talk. Anyway, I don't know how many of you know Torment, but there are long parts of it that consist of solving puzzles using inventory and - the best ones - solved with talking to different people.
Inventory-related puzzles must have been really easy to script, as all of them are solved using the dialogue engine (and are still involving!)

The best thing about Torment is that it paradoxically combines the player's freedom characteristic of RPGs with memorable characters and a great and thought-provoking story. The case is similar with two Fallout RPGs.

RPGs feel much less constrained in terms of player's choices because GUI is the king there. You choose to attack a person important to the story and the protagonist doesn't go all "I cannot!", "He's much stronger!", they just do it (in such cases the designers save their story by making the important person strong enough to kick the protagonist's ass blindfolded.) In Fallout I can go back to my village and wipe the entire population - I will fail my quest, but hey, I have free will, right? The houses don't appear on a map when I learn about them, but when I go north, they just are there.

Whereas RPGs have simpler and less varied graphics, the designer's effort goes into scripting much more characters and more ways of getting out of a predicament. You have hundreds of characters instead of - what - 20, 30? Also, they're more life-like, as you have to sustain the life of the main character, dress him/her, feed him/her, sleep (when you feel like it, not when you solved everything the designer wanted you to during this "day") AND solve puzzles in a world of characters with own agenda.

Of course, it's not true of all RPGs, but in my opinion Torment, Fallout, Ultima, Nomad Soul (which was an action game as well) and Gothic (the latter most combat-heavy, but still a great experience) are just adventure games with more freedom to the player (nice plots, puzzles, important dialogues - forget the Deus Ex's one-liners).

All this (and the fact that RPGs still do sell) made me wonder whether RPGs aren't the future of adventure gaming...

But but but Goldmund, why're you using Wait(0); ?
If you want to wait, it should at least be Wait(1);, it's not documented what will happen if it's 0, though most probably it will do nothing (so your code will become an "infinite" loop), you can expect problems with it as it's not in offifially supported range.

STFU NOOB!!!11!

...

Um, I changed it to 1 and it works now.
I don't even remember why I put a zero there, it was so long ago.  Apparently this edition is more anal about rules and codes...

Tehe, Thanks, Gilborobot!

Speaking funny is an amusing thing to do indeed.

This is a very generous offer, although I have some doubts whether the wider audience would take reviews of my game signed by a person called "poop" with due seriousness .

function wait_mouse() {
while (IsButtonDown(LEFT)==0)
Ã,  {Wait(0);}
}

Does the error occur when you do something (eg. click mouse, press key) or does it just happen in the middle of the cutscene?

No, I don't believe that the overlay even shows. In a game compiled with this version I click "look" on inventory item, which has so far displayed an overlay, and immediately I get the error.

I had a long absence from the AGS Forums and I did not post this kind of thread. I don't know why..........

No exaggerated sense of self-importance?

Unexplainable need for defending people who post "I'm back" threads makes me notice that it can also be attributed for the sense of the forums' importance, not only inflated ego.

function wait_mouse() {
while (IsButtonDown(LEFT)==0)
Ã,  {Wait(0);}
}

P.S.

The "depending on x" speech option works very fine; indeed, there is a little confusion at the beginning of dialogues, but it quickly comes to order. I understand why it cannot be perfect when there are more than two characters in a room. But is it possible to "make it" so that when there are only two then the x-position sets the portrait position from the start? It's not very relative then.

Good point, well made... I'll do that.

Now I think of it, maybe it would be even more sensible if just the player character's x was the basis for the positioning? Portraits of characters with x lower than the EGO's appear on the left, portraits of those with higher x on the right? What do others think?

I'd say that this genie is mighty grub-like, try to make its bottom parts less obvious to the eye.

Actually, I really like the idea of the main character changing clothes - (maybe because as a boy, I wasn't allowed to play with dolls, due to which I developed a severe suicido-depressional trauma and now occupy myself with murdering women) - but:

At first I was going to tell Mouse it would work better if changing clothes was important in a way (e.g. you have to wear a tuxedo to get to the captain's ball) - but then I went: "How can you be so bloody sure, Goldmund? Why exactly would it work better?"

And I realised I was wallowing in stereotypes. Why changing clothes cannot be a part of the pleasure on itself, without meaning? To hell with meaning! Live new!

Damn TALK TO US!!!111!!!

Less music, more human contact.

The "depending on x" speech option works very fine; indeed, there is a little confusion at the beginning of dialogues, but it quickly comes to order. I understand why it cannot be perfect when there are more than two characters in a room. But is it possible to "make it" so that when there are only two then the x-position sets the portrait position from the start? It's not very relative then.

PLUS:

There's an error in this edition. My game shows close-ups of inventory items when you "look" at them, with such script:
int overlay_id;
overlay_id=CreateGraphicOverlay(110,5,963,1);
wait_mouse();
RemoveOverlay(overlay_id);

And, it worked in previous versions. In this beta it shuts down and announces "Error: Too many events posted."

Well, if you're up to revamping options menu, consider having a "try again" button.
After I got shot (it's sometimes frustrating that you don't know whether you can die in a game or not, and when you find out, it's usually to late) I resigned from replaying the demo because of its speed. The "try again" button would help there.
One more speed issue is when talking to the captain: it got irritating after a while how he performed an animation each time before answering.

The setting and notepad reminded me of Murder on Mississipi (and also Cruise for a Corpse). Any inspiration in these games?

Thanks for the nominations, although I believe that Andail, having four nipples, has an unnatural advantage over the rest of us.
There's a reason he parades without shirt all the time.
I can only ponder whether girls don't get lost during coitus with that plethora of nipplesness.

And Helm was the most popular of all AGSers with Swedish women. I remember being to a mall with him and two girls followed him along the shelves. They even emitted a wolf-like whistle for good-bye.

From the male side, me and Helm decided that the sexiest AGSer is Scotch, but he was below the legal age at that point, so...

Mouse its original but personnaly I would rather play a passion of christ game then it. You need an idea that people can relate to.

This one in which Jesus puts a sheet of papyrus under Pontius Pilates' door and then inserts a writing feather into the keyhole thus gaining him a key?

Very nice backgrounds, although I'd gladly give away 8-10 walk-frames to make the guy move faster.
I'm interested how many frames do you need to create such smooth animations?

Also:

Spoiler

The death after eaves-dropping by the door was too sudden, I didn't know I had any control before being shot by the villains. Does the demo get much longer than that? (meaning: is it worth replaying to see something new)

[close]

I love the "mini-games" you included, like the one with the keyhole and the one with wiping dirt.Ã,  It enlivens the gameplay greatly.

Gilbot has loads of fun insulting us with a vulgar and obscene chinese symbol, whose meaning (apart from the Gil himself + several million chinese people) nobody gets.

Grundislav, this is very nice.

Well, I drew Dart:
(she's sad in this picture)

They will never taste like my grandma's, though.

Ah, to meet the actor who played Chewbacca! I would shower him with great many questions concerning his craft. I'm not sure which of Chewbacca's two groans I like better, though.

I used to fool around with "making games" many long years ago (Back in the old Vic-20, C=64 days)

10 PRINT "SAME HERE!!"
20 GOTO 10