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Short answer: Yes, but…

Long answer: As Dave said, it takes time. You mentioned Lamplight City, which was my third commercial game. It’s done well, yes, but it’s the first of the 3 to actually make me a decent living (A Golden Wake still sells, but not nearly enough to live off and Shardlight was 1.5 years of salary) During the development of Lamplight City, I reached a point where I was running out of savings and had to get the game out sooner rather than later to start earning money. That was not fun.

Lamplight City has earned enough to sustain me over the past 4 years (especially with iOS and Switch ports) but sales have definitely dipped recently, which means Rosewater needs to come out within the next 6 months or so. The key is, if you’re a solo dev, you want to build up a catalogue as quickly as possible. Having 3 games that earn you money is better than 1. Dave is an outlier because he also makes money from the games he publishes, so take that into account.

So yeah, go for it, but don’t expect any miracles. And definitely don’t pour all your time and money into your first game, because it’s not likely to sell unless it’s got an amazing hook and gets lots of attention.

Rosewater has been cast! I still need to get everything cleared with SAG-AFTRA, but as soon as that happens I’ll be making the official announcement. In the meantime, if you’ve played any of these games, you’ll recognize most of the voices…

Today marks 10 years since we began the podcast.

Here is the final episode: Episode 126

Thanks for listening, especially Ponch.

Also, stay tuned for some exciting news about the voice cast!

Do you hire Amy Poehler or Samuel L Jackson for the voice acting? 

_

Like I could afford them

Hello! It's been a while, but Rosewater is coming along nicely. Hopefully, it will be released later this year.

Here are three new screenshots:






Also, stay tuned for some exciting news about the voice cast!

Happy birthday AGS! It's been a very interesting 25 years, that's for sure!

Great, thank you!

Here is an archive with several tests for 2 tracks. All notes provided in the readme.txt.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vayozljgedx3rx0/AudioTests.zip?dl=0

I use Oggs, so it’s not the issue with MP3s. Also I was assuming it was because of the SDL_sound update, but I’m probably wrong on that. If it helps, the version of the alpha I tested where the issue was not present was alpha 10. Is there an archive of previous versions where I can download alpha 10 again to make the test games for comparison?

It happens with any music track, and has been happening since at least version 2.72.

[Engine:]

Engine:
- Updated SDL_Sound lib to recent version, this is purely internal change but it's unknown if this will lead to anything noteable in particular.

Unfortunately this seems to have brought back the annoying issue that was in the previous audio system.

Let's say you have INTRO.OGG and LOOP.OGG, and code it so one plays immediately after the other for a seamless transition:

Code: ags

CurrentMusic = aIntro.Play();
SetGameOption(OPT_CROSSFADEMUSIC, 0);
CurrentMusic = aLoop.PlayQueued();

But there is a very small hiccup when switching tracks. Sometimes it's more noticeable than others, but the problem had been completely resolved in an earlier version of this alpha.

An audio bug: when the game initially loads, the music volume is loud, but when a game is restored, the music volume drops by about 10%.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/221048075207180288/896953768694910987/volumechange.mp4

I realize I've been neglecting this thread a bit! Rosewater is still in production, although will most likely now be a 2022 release.

Meanwhile, you can wishlist Rosewater on Steam.

Here are some more screenshots:

[How can you get away with doing this sort of thing _first_?]

It must take days and hours to produce this level of intricate detail. How can you get away with doing this sort of thing _first_?

The short answer is: you don't do it first!

And I would bet you that before Grundislav shared those first screens and that animation, he'd done a ton of work on the pre-production. Just because it's the first thing you got to see doesn't mean it's the first thing that was done.

That's exactly right. The very first screen I posted looked like this before I actually sat down and drew it:


At that point, I had already spent months on the design and puzzles, as well as actually building the game. Generally speaking, I avoid doing the final art until I know for certain that I'm not going to change or cut a section. Occasionally, it turns out that testers react badly to things and changes have to be made that do require assets to be cut, but thankfully it's rare. Similarly, I find that it's necessary to have the final background art in order to know exactly what items in the room will be hotspots and need descriptions written.  This all comes after the game can be fully played and has the bare minimum amount of interactions allowing you to get through it.

Anyway, that's just how I work. Your mileage may vary!

Happy holidays from Blue Cup Tools!

Here's Episode 125!

This is incredibly sad news.

I met Progz at Mittens 2012, and he was the voice of the old prospector in Ben Jordan 2. He was always very passionate about his work; we've lost a talented guy.

RIP Shane

A little bump to let you all know that a special Gamescom demo is now available to download on the Rosewater Steam page! It'll only be available until August 30th, so don't delay!

People seem to enjoy my door animations, so here are a couple of new ones:

Episode 124!

Yeah, we're still alive.

This looks amazing! Always nice to see more high resolution AGS projects.

Thanks for the update!