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I would also avoid buying an mp3 player. I just bought Sony Ericsson W580i and at has about everything from 2MP camera to top-notch Java support to a really good mp3 player (with equalizer, random, shuffle, etc etc).
If I wasn't so concerned about battery life, and had a bit larger memory card, I would ditch my current mp3 player.

About current player? It's Sandisk c250.
A bit expensive, maybe, but battery is extremely powerful, I could carry it around for a week playing and not recharge. Also, no standard batteries, it has it's own and is rechargeable via USB cable. I also have additional 2GB memory card to original 2GB one, and 4GB of free space is enough to come by. Especially if you're a pirate, arr. For music, it's more than enough. Especially since ipods are so much more expensive.

Small screen is also capable of photo display, but resolution is a bit low, cellphone does this job much better.

Thanks.

I'll unscrew this damn fan tomorrow, take it to a store and see what they have to offer.
Maybe I'll try pen-jam-thing first, too.

Indeed, dualcore system with laaarge video card heats quite high, and indeed, my room is very cold for most of the time. Way below 20C. Temperature changes tire even myself, I guess this applies to electronics too.

Still, what a shame. My machine is about a year old and fan started malfunctioning in about 4th month. I thought Intelâ,,¢ is a reliable company, but if even such simple things as fans fail so quickly...

I have an issue with my computer and due lack of technical knowledge, I'm pretty confused.

Inside the main case is a cooling fan, that's supposed to circulate air inside the case (Not the cooler on processor or one in power unit. An additional one).  By Intel Chassis Guide, it's supposed to blow heated air out of the case.


The marked one!

Well, it's broken. When I start computer, it won't go around, but vibrates very little and produces clicking sound. Continuously. Just like it's trying really hard to spin, but doesn't have power to do so.
And of course, everything starts heating up.

When I give it even a slightest push, it starts rotating, and keeps doing it nicely until poweroff.

So, basically every time I start my machine, I must open case and manually push fan to work. Sometimes, when I turn machine off for only brief period, like half an hour, fan starts with computer nicely. But longer period, it's all manual.

I cleaned it as well as I could, it isn't too dusty anyway, tried to shake it a little (if it has bad angle or something), checked for obstacles, checked wires... nothing. I just have to start it manually every time like an old motorcycle.

I want to get rid of this problem. But guarantee is expired, and even if it wasn't, I would dare to live few days to a week without my machine. Also, I guess that by opening case, I voided warranty anyway. So, if anyone could answer any of those questions, my gratitude is yours eternal.

* What could possibly be the problem?
* Is there something that could work?
* Is there a way to give it deeper cleaning? Screwing it out or not?
* Is changing a fan difficult?
* Does it have to be original (Intel) fan then?
* If I buy a fan, is there any parameters I have to follow? Like voltage or spin speed or something?
* Anything else that I could check/try?

I'll have to disagree with InCreator. For instance, Mr. Iglesias Jr. Is a pop singer, who, as pop is, does ballads too. Most ballads are pop. Now the word emo comes from emotional, but if you think that all emotional music is emo then you are wrong.

And I disagree here.
There is no such genre as "pop music". Pop is whatever majority of mainstream radios play and children listen to. And depending on era, it could mean just whatever.

For example, in Europe...

In early 90's, "pop" meant white chick singing 4 lines of lyrics, black man rapping and bass pumping with some very catchy synth stabs. Nowadays, no-one calls this pop. It's eurodance or swedish techno. Almost every genre popular then took something from reggae as base. I still don't know why. But I personally love those times.

Later 90's, "pop" meant cheesy ballads, boybands, less techno and, of course, Britney & various clones singing about sex. Subtly. Emphasis on singing with boring, but very professionally made music background. There was strong movement towards crazier, less traditional beat found in later RnB. Again, loads of quality music. People started to hate boybands because they listened to those too much, not because they were bad(Because they were not!). Until... hip-hop broke in.

And it all went downwards.

Today, "pop" means usually woman singing (or pretending to sing), but without noticeable melody or any beauty in it. Beat consists shakers and other strange instruments, and sounds like a hip-hop beat cut into pieces and taped together randomly. Sometimes, some rapping is included aswell. There's no melodic background, simply some random, strange sounds. Singing often becomes simply screaming or cursing and yelling. This retarded child of human ability to create music is called Rhytm'n'Blues.

Well, that was an example. There is alot more genres called "pop", but they all have true names besides this. In 20 years, pop means something entirely different.

And Iglesias & Co, are they really trying to deliver musical experience? Or simply gouge some additional tears out of teenage girl who has just been dumped by her boyfriend so she'd buy another album?

But of course, that's my personal take on the subject. I don't think that there's constant, solid truth to be found here.

Basically most music is based on emotions and what I'd define emo is like overacting the emotional side of something.

By this definition, exactly how can you call fake metallists emo and not this or this?

Well... I tried to texture this too, but decided to not show it at first, since I'm not very good at realistic rendering/shadows
Anyway, here it is:



Maybe it'll give you some ideas about wall texturing.

I like this background. Pipes and hole remind alot of ManHunt.

Indeed, your shadows are okay. I made a 3D version to check, and you seemed to handle the thing pretty well.
Using single-color light attenuation doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
Not at the level background is detailed.

I know, it's simple and drawing simple gets your game made quicker, but it... it just ruins the whole background for me.

Okay, here's what I found out:

First image:


Your shadows are quite realistic, and light is set about as bright as yours was. Even though it looks nice, the room lacks atmosphere and creepiness.

Second image:


I colored everything as it was on your image, and used alot darker light. Well, it looks better now. Maybe too dark.

Third image:


I used Final Gather to simulate how light rays bounce off things. Result is somewhat lighter and maybe more realistic. This is how I would shade your room.

Now, things to notice:

* Your pipe ends and lamp-hanger-thing don't have round edges, which is veeery strange, considering that otherwise, everything looks good. Definitely fix this.
* The pipe shading is brighter near light
* Right ontop of your light is little cap thing. This MUST cast a shadow onto ceiling.
* Door handle casts a shadow onto door.
* Floor of the tunnel(hole thing) gets some light and is brighter

Now, I suggest you to use lighting system I use, simply because I'm not too familiar with other ways.

* Look here
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=20848.msg254860#msg254860
* Get a paint program that supports layers (I mean, anything but MSPaint)
* And give it a try. As you can see, you can still draw simple with this technique, but my weird "overshading" gives you quick way to have more colored look.

(personal note: Lately, for nearly every problem in Critics Lounge, I can find a link to similar problem where I tried to help. Conclusion - I've been spending time on AGS Forums and CL too much)

(Thanks CJ)

Ah! I totally forgot about "Mechanism Eight", never-dying theme of Unreal Tournament. Probably one of coolest game music ever made.
A kind of track that gets me fired up in the morning.

* Use line tool. It helps to avoid double pixels and ugly shapes.
* Avoid freehand pencil unless there's absolutely no way to do without it. (infact, there isn't)
* Since your computer-drawing-style is in vee-ery early phase yet, avoid PhotoShop aswell. Or any other "so-called high-class" program. This particular picture would have turned out much better in MSPaint.
* Avoid anti-aliasing until you're good enough to use it properly. Using MsPaint would have done this for you.
* Avoid filters... same text as previous.
* Try to sketch *whole* screen before starting to fill/paint it. It's much easier than making changes later.
* Keep on practising!

I won't second wacom idea. While it's superb thing to do something nice, I suggest you to master mouse first.

I bought this baby today, and instantly loaded some some songs from Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion onto it. Music in this game is simply too good to stay in game, and I like to carry it into "outside world" for casual listening.

Apart from TES4:Oblivion, I find main theme of Stronghold very good, also some. good. tracks from Age of Empires 3 and many-many songs from Hitman games. Jesper Kyd is simply a magician. There was some other music I liked too much, but unfortunately I can't remember those game titles right now.

Is there music you like in game so much that you take it outside?

Boybands.
Any male that sings about love in whining, just-been-castrated, female-like voice.
Ballad singers. Enrique Iglesias & rest of the clone bunch.
Even some - otherwise very good - rappers (jungle emo, often called R'n'B or "pop music failed in all 3 points - no proper melody, rhytm or singing").

This what I consider true emo. Not hairy kids with black makeup and zero guitar skills.
And I hate it.

Girls love it though.

Just one more question, say I have a team of a designer and a coder, would that make my role in the game look really small?

Adventure game is more or less interactive novel. So I guess that the story writer is the "most important" one. But your role is as big as is your contribution to the game.

Right now I'm more concerned about problems with making the game than popularity with my blog, I think there has been a lot of confusion over what I was talking about.

That's because you should have started by pointing out what you're up to. 'Community' is a wide term.

My personal advice to you: don't take game making so seriously. If you're thinking about it, writing about it, acting all like completing one would gain you a Nobel prize, you're in for disappointment. Most likely, your hair will drop out before you get past first screen.

If you're going for AGS game, I suggest a simple, tiny, funny one-two-roomer which you make at your spare time. The positive points of project like this are countless: it won't take much time, since low graphical content, you can make the graphics as beautiful as your limits let you to, and the chances of getting it actually released are high. Also, it could be a nice introduction to whatever "big" you dream to make.

Make a game, get yourself a bit of name and fame and I'm quite sure that like-minded people will flood in.

An idea...

theory
To have a popular blog/whatever, it has to be good. I mean, something someone would actually spare time on to read.
It should be interesting enough, either having interesting thoughts or stories or comedy in it. Or something really extreme. Basically, anything but typical "woke up, browsed net, ate, walked in the park, listened to Slipknot, like it, here's a photo of my cat".

"Can I finish making even one game?" - a blog of process of making a game/developer's diary is actually pretty good idea. Its true value will come out with the game, especially if the game happens to be very good. Then people would love to read how you got through during making it and how it all went. Or even if you release a demo at some point, fans would stick to your diary to hear more about progress in making game further and how well it's going.

idea
If you blog often, and also post at AGS often, pick out a short, interesting, maybe even mysterious line from your newest blog entry, quote it in your signature, and add a link to "read further". It would advertise your blog much better than "read my blog here!".

A (stupid) example:

"As we reached outskirts of Baghdad, cpt. Morris spotted armed men near the mosque. We radioed to HQ and were told to engage..." click to read more

It would draw people in much better, and as you said, help to find "like minded people". Knowing only that here's a link for blog won't tell people if the blog's "mindedness" fits with theirs. A tiny bit of its contents would make much better job.

Hope this helps!

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=33380.msg433646#msg433646
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=31167.msg400216#msg400216
Have fun!

Lost has *nearly* worked on me too.
That Locke-centric episode in first season where in the end, turns out that he was disabled before crash... music and scenes really build something... very sad and deep. Something that later seasons have lost by now and degraded the show into more ordinary and less deep soap opera. I still pirate every new episode... our TV shows third season yet and I'm not patient enough.

-slaps on forehead... it's time! Haven't seen the Constant yet!-

Have one I clearly remember.

A sad, sad movie called "Bill". imdb reports this as TV movie so I think it counts. Well, saw it on TV anyway, I think it was in 1989 or 1990 or so, during Soviet era when all Estonians secretly tuned their TV's to receive Finnish channels. You know, to get into touch with Western world. Our own media was under strict no-USA censorship, much like Russian media still is.

There was a moment where Bill realizes he's being left into mental institution again by his friend and... well, the face Mickey Rooney makes at this scene is best, most realistic and saddening acting I've ever witnessed.

Damn awesome movie.

Also, I recall some kind of very violence-heavy WWII series going on on Finnish tv that time. One time, it showed a large group of very naked people (jews maybe?) taken into warehouse, gassed, and buried into a ditch near railway. A naked pile of dead people. They don't do movies-series like this nowadays... And there was this girl who didn't die and was buried alive. This time I also cried, but I don't remember when that was or anything more about it. But these gory scenes seen in childhood donated to my chronic insomnia I suffer until today.

Right now, music in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion sometimes gets me all sensitive and crying. Don't know why. Especially the theme in intro video. Maybe it's simply too good. Ah, and this video shooks me up quite badly too.

Yeah, as saying here goes, "your own eye is the king".
It wasn't that bad. And imdb score of 6.1 (last time I checked) usually goes for "watchable".

Watchable it is. Nothing to write home about, though.

get a proper pc you damn hippy! 
(no really, i mean it)

Seconded.

I second nihilyst. During summer, when I'm at my country house or simply when my machine is broken, all I do is keep thinking about what all kind of cool stuff I would create if I'd only get to my PC. Every object I see, I imagine if I could model it, every news bit I hear, I think if it would make a good story, and so on.

Sadly, returning to a PC ends with hardcore gaming for few nights and long brain blockage again.

Anyway the real reason for him not teleporting to get guns is cos he doesn't want to kill SLJ. That's why he dropped him in egypt and left. He never wanted to kill or injure SLJ too bad cos he saw himself as a good guy.

Yeah, he's a damn pussy.
That's why I didn't like the movie.