Messages

Well, that certainly was a true Jimi Hendrix experience. Surprisingly, it never got confusing, I could always tell whether I need to talk to Jimi or Jimi.

A good all-around game, very enjoyable. As AprilSkies said, it's very well polished, I always love those little things like double-click to move faster or space for hotspots. The shooting part was kind of tricky on my touchpad, but totally doable.

Final score: 1296.

Damn, how'd you get so many points? Is there a max score?

I've been keeping my on this project for a few months now, hopefully it gets funded. Oddly, there's also an indiegogo campaign going on, not sure if it's a good strategy to have both at the same time. Visually it's very impressive, if they manage to add a good story and some decent puzzles, it could end up being something special.

This is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing MAGS games I've ever played.
It's quite simple, but has great mood, delightful music and I absolutely loved that sneezing sound!

The way the mouse automatically teleported on the inventory felt a bit unintuitive at first and that text was a kind of hard to follow at times, because longer words kept moving to the second row.

Well done, guys! Really enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading and commenting Stupot+ and AnasAbdin.

I'm afraid to ask about the confusing screeny cos I don't want any spoilers

No spoilers attached. All the weird things on bottom screens are part of the background images, but you won't be able to see them in the actual game, because they're covered up by objects and characters (oh, the goblin is an exeption, he's an actual character). However, since I'm going to release the source, you can see that stuff there. I guess it's sort of an easter egg type of thing.

I had some difficulties with the same puzzle as Cassiebsg and would have also appreciated a save option.
The game could use a bit of additional polish, but otherwise it's a neat MAGS entry. Good job! Eagerly waiting for Jacqueline White.

Spoiler

By the way, you left the debbuger on.

[close]

[Update 13 (01.08.2015) â€" Behind the scenes]

Update 13 (01.08.2015) â€" Behind the scenes

We arrived in Telmah (the small settlement I mentioned in my last entry) a bit later than we planned, but at least we made it here safely and without any major incidents. These past weeks we've been mainly resting, gathering provisions and socializing with other adventurers. Everything I had heard about the place is true, it's a real goldmine for those seeking knowledge, advice and equipment. There are dozens of people coming and going every day, each with their own incredible story or unique possessions.

I'd say that in some ways we've reached a midpoint of our journey. Not really in the sense of time, because I'm expecting the second half to pass much faster, but in the sense of tasks accomplished and lessons learned. And thanks to all the experience we've been grinding during our travels and the help we've gotten from our fellow adventurers in Telmah, I feel much more prepared and ready for the upcoming climb.


As the title of this update already implies, I'm going to share some things that could be classified as behind the scenes information. For instance, have you ever wondered what exactly is hidden under all that external razzle-dazzle and what's really going on inside the parts of a game that you never see?

Let's start with graphics and backgrounds. Anyone who's ever made a game already knows that time and resource management is the most important thing. This is why I never bother drawing a background behind an object or character that never moves. Most of the time I just leave it empty, but lately I've been noticing that these forgotten places are starting to magically fill up. Usually with plain ones and zeros or  mischievous goblins, but every once in while I stumble upon some really weird stuff, like surprised manfaces with mustaches and bowties or creepy kittens. It sure as hell doesn't get boring with them pixels, you plug an useless black hole and it starts to live a life of its own.

[imgzoom]http://tulevik.eu/ags/KOE/update13.1.png[/imgzoom]
I haven't written much about scripting in my past updates and that's mostly because I'm not doing anything extraordinary or revolutionary with the script, it's your standard, everyday AGS stuff. For more complicated parts I usually rely on pre-made AGS scripts and modules or ask Atavismus to help me out. For example, the 4-verb GUI system comes from an old unfinished game attempt by Cino, I've found a place for abstauber's CustomDialogGui and there are various parts of Lemonhead's Extended ALARCOST  template all over the script. I'm also experimenting with few other modules and the AGS forum search function has always been an endless source of solutions. The game is still being developed in AGS 3.2.1, but I might upgrade to a newer AGS version, if it should become necessary for some reason.



I'm actually planning to release an open source version of  the game at some point. So, all you AGS nerds will have plenty of time and opportunity to browse and drool over these unoptimized and clunky elseifs then. Most of the code is (more or less) reasonably commented for my own purposes, but I guess it could be helpful for someone who's starting their first AGS project.

[imgzoom]http://tulevik.eu/ags/KOE/update13.3.png[/imgzoom]
In addition to source files, this so-called deluxe version will also include bunch of development materials, a selection of early and unused game graphics, a bit of Ehcilc lore and other similar behind the scenes goodies. It will most likely go up on itch.io in a pay-what-you-want format, which means that all this extra stuff is still free, but you'll have an opportunity to support the developers, if you get something useful and worthwhile from it all.

Thank you for reading and please don't be shy to post comments, argue or ask questions.

Nope, still the same issue, but I downloaded the file from another computer without problems and then tested it on mine. It's the Pendek.exe that my Avast doesn't like, which is odd, since I haven't had any problems with AGS games before. I solved it by excluding the game folder from Avast scans, so I'll be playing it this weekend

I'm guessing it doesn't really matter what archiving format it is. Avast probably checks inside the archive and disagrees with one of the AGS .exe files. Just repacking or recompiling the game will most likely work, Avast has those weird quirks from time to time. And thaks for your effort.

I'm getting a "Win32:Evo-gen [Susp]" warning from Avast from this .zip. I'm 99% sure that it's a false positive, but might still be worth checking out. A similar problem is described here.

Anyway, this means that I can't play the game, since Avast deletes the file upon downloading and I'd rather not turn it off. If it's not too much of trouble, then I'd really appreciate a repacked alternative download source.

Ooh, I love reading about adventure game design and that was a pretty interesting read. Haven't actually played those games myself, but since they won't run on my laptop anyway, I really didn't mind spoling them.

Thanks for sharing this and hoping to see more.

I was talking more about Eastern Bloc countries such as East Germany and Romania etc. than the actual Soviet Union and sorry if this caused any dramas...

Ah, this clarifies a lot (at least for me), Romania and some other countries were a bit of a different case and I've read and heard some really awful things about the CeauÈâ,,¢escu dictatorship in Romania. I of course have no real idea what was actually going on in there.

It's really fascinating to see what different systems/consoles were called in different regions of the world.

Yeah, the lack of copyright laws in China and Eastern Europe gave birth to some really odd console knockoffs and game cartridges. For example, when I think of NES games, I always think of those good old yellow cartridges that had multiple games on them.

Q: Did any of you ever plan, think about, or dream of escape during those times? I'd imagine you were maybe too young and/or couldn't leave family behind. But did you ever have such dreams?

Soviet Union wasn't a prison camp, Mandle In the 1980s, majority of the people were living normal and decent lives, don't confuse this period with the ultraviolent Stalinist regime. Of course we didn't like living under a foreign communist rule, but most people in occupied coutries were probably dreaming of becoming an independent nation once again rather than escaping. Yeah, some crazy shit happen occasionally and life certainly wasn't perfect (and most likely not even good by my standards), but people got by.

As for video gaming, then can't really help you with that. I was only 6 when Estonia regained it's independence, so I don't remember much about the eighties or the soviet time. I'm not completely sure, but I think that the video gaming history of our family began in the early 1990s (might have been very late 1980s). Anyway, we went through the usual console cycle (Elektronika handhelds - Atari - Dendy (NES) - Zhiliton 938-a (SNES)) until we finally got a Nokia desktop PC in the latter half of the 90s.

One of the earliest Estonian game development companies was Bluemoon Interactive, they started doing stuff around 1986.

A lot of great entires! My votes:

1st: 1
2nd: 5
3rd: 13

Here's a small edit:

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/MchBwkH.png[/imgzoom]
I reduced the white area of the helmet as AnasAbdin suggested and changed the angle of the feet a bit. And this no visible face approach is a actually a good way to go.

If you want him to look more interesting, then I suggest you play around with shading and contrast a bit, just like Mad did. For example, make the shading less symmetrical in some places or use an imaginary light source. You could also try using a different pose, like putting a hand on the hip or something and if your going for a cartoony look then exaggerated poses can add a lot of character.

Some other designs I did for fun:

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/thfUYBq.png[/imgzoom]
Also, I'm talking purely out of personal experience, I have no academic background or any real knowledge of drawing basics, so take it all with a grain of salt.

I agree with the posts above and it shouldn't really matter much in this case. In addition, there's another distinction between them. Formally (or traditionally), might is the past tense of may, therefore it's probably more logical to use may when talking about the present or the future and might when referring to the past.

In situations like this you should actually ask your teacher to clarify. A proper teacher should be able to explain his/her preferences with valid reasons, rules and regulations.

few pixels out of palette but I'll fix it no worries.

Yes, it seems that converting to gif added another black for some reason, I took care of it.

Ahhhh geeezzz... now I need to think of something else for the round shape.

That's sad to hear I actually tried to draw a disco ball at first, but failed.

One of the things that always pops in my mind when I think of the 80s:

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/kl1N8d5.gif[/imgzoom]

Wow! That wormhole just sucks me in, very impressive.

Been pretty busy with alternative solutions and dialogs. Creating different characters sprites for different paths in the game. My notes are filled with arrows and pointers to events and stuff

I'm working with alternative solutions and complicated dialogs myself at the momement and it can indeed get really confusing at times.

[@Davi Vasc:]

Is there a puzzle involved that needs you feeding her snakes or taking off her cloths?

I have some puzzle ideas worked out, but no, there will be no "feeding the snake" This is a family-friendly adventure, there's no room for R-rated pixel boobs (unless you're wearing a special x-ray monocle, of course ).

@Davi Vasc: Yes, I chose this setting, because there's endless amount of material to work with and a lot of freedom for creativity. As for King's Quest, then there might be some similar silly humour and scenery, but definitely no fairytale themes or getting killed all the time.