Messages

You should put the buying method question to the start.

Because that's basically what finished this survey for me. Completely.

In that case, can't wait for results of your crusade!

Gen-gen is slowly becoming a memorial board for celebrity deaths.

I say... stay away from Blue Force. Well, you got a speeding ticket?
You will survive.

Starting a jihad against cop who had a bad day won't make yours any better.
When you go to... or even worse -- win at court, you will look him bad before his superiors, and make this miserable cop even more miserable.

Come on, he's punishing civilians for driving cars in illegal way on a tiny stretch of road. Way to improve our civilization! Maybe he just thought about this... and was really stressed at the moment.

If he acted like he acted, that's because he's either a rookie or trying a bit too hard to get a promotion. Either way, a court case won't help him. But battling him would probably piss him out more, open some tiny invisible psychological doors of his' to future corruption, more police abuse or hell knows what else.

For hundred bucks, it could be hell to pay.

But you figured it out yourself I guess.

Excellent detail, Minimi!

For first image, I have 4 suggestions/crits:

* More ambient light. If possible, use Final Gather or Global Illumination or simply some weak ambient lights to even contrast out a bit. Also, extra light behind window would give strong sense of realism here.

* Light is almost NEVER purely white. And for cozy room like this, white fluorescent is a crime! You should definetly use warmer light color. Add yellowish or red tone to the lights.

* Where's light source? It's cooler to use many small ones instead of one large one. Would help with contrast and too dark corners too.

* The blue couch looks totally misplaced. Paint it red or green or brown or something. It screams into my face in a room colored in mostly warm colors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

As for second image, it looks pretty cool. For crits, I simply doubt that those cellar(?) walls could be so clean and purely white. Some water damage, dirt and cracks would do alot.

P.S. On the first image, radiator looks a bit huge. I would scale it down to about 70% of its current size.

I suggest extending the deadline. Try to get atleast 3-4 entries before closing the compo.

My first venture into 3D backgrounds. Any suggestions?

Yeah, anti-aliasing and better camera angle. And sharper floor texture.
Otherwise, apart from a bit boring decoration, I like it.

Also, in the age of realistic 3D lighting, I suggest you to try some. Like Global Illumination or radiousity(sp?) or photon emitting or Final Gather or all of them... whatever your program could offer. This black corner near counter looks very... 1999. And... Add a light "outside". Right now, the door looks pretty much like mountains were painted onto it... em, if it isn't so already, in which case you should change this and make glass material for door.

For less important suggestion, try chamfering edges of ceiling beams (and much everything else) and add a bumpmap to the floor. It would work like magic, I think.

1) Age group
X   20-25
o   26-31
o   32-35

2) Gender
X   Male
o   Female
o   Other

3) Occupation
o   Student
X   Professional
o   Administration
o   Other:____________

4) Level of education
X/2   Secondary school (primary yet)
o   Diploma
o   University degree
o   Post graduate

5) Status
o   Married
o   Dating
X   Single

6) Ethnicity: Nord... hehe. Caucasian really.

7) What kind of movies do you like?
(Number in order of preference. 1 being the least and 5 being the most favourite)
1   Horror
2   Comedy
4   Action
   Drama (eckk)
3  Adventure
5   Thriller and suspense
   Sci-fi (Never seen ANY Star Wars movie, never will)
   Fantasy (Stab yourself, Harry Potter)

Cool What do you look for in a movie?
(Number in order of preference. 1 being the least and 5 being the most favourite)
4   Good Story
5   Good Visuals
3   Good Soundtrack

9) Do you often watch movies with:
o   Friends
o   Family
o   Your Spouse
X   Yourself

10) What is your opinion on sexual innuendo used in movies?
o   Good
o   Okay
o   Bad
X   Don't really care

11) What is your opinion on a homosexuality-based story?
o   Good
o   Okay
X   Bad (I wouldn't sit 2 hours and watch ass rubbing even if paid for it)
o   Don't really care

12) What is your view on full or partial nudity used in a movie?
o   Good
o   Okay
o   Bad
X   Don't really care (I don't. Sex scene forced into action movie sucks)

13) What do you think of comedy based on awkward situations?
o   Good
X   Okay
o   Bad
o   Don't really care

14) What do you think of movies containing crude or offensive language?
X   Good (If it's not overdone. Yippee-ki-yay, motherf--)
o   Okay
o   Bad
o   Don't really care
o   Other:____________

15) What do you think of movies dealing with political issues?
o   Good
o   Okay
o   Bad
o   Don't really care
Other: If it's war or anything else very thrilling, super. Lame drama will be lame drama, whatever the issue is... See Pearl Harbor and Fahrenheit 9/11 comparasion

Completely original? Check.
No ripping from original content? Check.
Chance to win this contest? None!

If your ears dare, there's my tribute to the X-Files. Well, there's loads of books, so I didn't pick any particular one.

http://www.increator.pri.ee/muz/xfiles.mp3

It's style is supposed to be drum'n'bass, so I won't have false hopes knowing that majority of AGSers are rockheads.
I don't recall anyone offering anything like this in tune contest, ever.

But it was still fun to make. Vocal is from some very old radio show, totally unrelated.

Looks nice, I especially like colors. But your character lacks a bit of originality and design.

How do I say this... it's like a box with hands and feet, looks clumsy and robotic, not like animals in real life.
Further, the limbs are like cylinders with fingers. That's what makes it look so lifeless. Give things some shape and curves, don't go so uniform!

Pity that you're 3d-izing an existing character, otherwise I would (or suggest to) totally redesign it to look more like alien insectoid.

I suggest - for other characters, draw some sketches first to get design in place.
And for this one, meshsmooth (subsurface as you called it) the second version to get best out of it.
Some good textures (and why not bumpmaps) would improve alot too.

Once you go 5.1, you won't go back.

I liked this compo!

But let the winner make next one, with a theme or title or something. Currently, entries were so different that it was almost impossible to compete with some.

And word count could be doubled too.

I do have hard trouble getting into 3.0.
Old interface simply looked much easier to use. Even despite fact that some things took menus in menus in menus to find, like setting a "run script" event for hotspot.

Visual Basic-style property sheets were never my favourite, but I guess one day I have to upgrade too.

Hehe!
* spoiler warning! *

Crits coming up:


First movie feels really interesting. Once I understood what the experiment is about, I kept on watching with interest. Also, being a wannabe film maker myself, I was quite amazed how so believable environment was put together with simply some junk and clever editing. What came as a disappointment, was the ending. How did it end? I was hoping for some horror or really special thing to happen every second the flapwing was in test... but no, it didn't come. Confusing end... A nice work though.

Second movie was too bizarre to start with. I didn't get it and I guess many won't. It's not important I think. The thing I'd WANT to understand is why those short artsy films must be so confusing most of the time. It won't make them better or anything..?

Third movie feels the weakest, but easiest to digest for casual watcher. I mean the one who don't understand previous two. Its content was funny, as were techniques used to make this. The high competition for stuff like this makes it hard to be as good as it could. I liked it nevertheless.

Overall, in all films, camera work was extremely good, editing superb and being low-budget was almost nowhere to spot. And that's the best that could probably describe short films like this, IMO. Well done.

I'm too lifeless to promote those (no friends  :'() but I would if I could.

Indrek looked at the thread. It was quite long already, and some good stories were there.
First time in his life, he had tried writing.
It felt good.
"For my fourth story, I shall write about..."
He focused on his creative part of brain...
"Boobies..."
The signature of jetxl had totally blocked his attempt.
____

Chris looked from window down to Hollywell Road. Two-story buildings looked quite peaceful, there was no one moving. Slowly, carefully, he locked room door. Then walked to a window and closed curtains.
He stood and listened. The house was quiet, with everyone sleeping.
"Time to finally make this game."
He sat and started Wintermute.

Stylish start, creepy atmosphere, nice graphics...

And yet, I can't play this game.
I simply cannot. Where to go? How to go? Where am I? Use this man for talking?
Why is everything black? What room did I have to get to? Aah, quit!

Sorry Gord10. I just posted to tell that this game isn't available for everyone.
I'm sure you spent helluva lot of time on this, but some things are simply TOO left out to make this appealing.

Why isn't there some aid for directions, like changing cursors? A bit more lights in rooms? Maybe a diary of protagonist explaining things and goals? A map of the town? Some-thing to help out a bit? Like HOTSPOT names?

Also, nice 3D mixed with awful 2D sounds... lazy. You surely could google for a photo of key and cut it out, instead of keeping original AGS sprite? Same for cursors...

Maybe myst-like games isn't simply my thing, but I really wanted to like this one.

Suggestions:

* Fix plants
* Fix angles. Look at the plant pots! Make them either flat or give 3D angle, not BOTH!
* Shade opposing walls
* Why put plant infront of the window like this? This kills the whole purpose of a window?
* Use eye-friendlier colors. Your colors are extremely contrasty, dark and saturated. Why?
* Don't use black outlines on plant pots and corners.

This bg has potential, but needs some further work.

Ahmed looked down. The base looked busy as usual, with two soliders chatting near entrance and humvee taking it's usual sentry route.
With shaking hands, he loaded his RPG-7 and lifted it onto shoulder.
He waited  $80000 hellifire missile to strike any second and rip him apart.
Nothing happened.
He aimed down and pulled trigger.

__

FSI, eww!

I watched them come. Even standing still like this, I felt adrenaline pumping into my veins and muscles stretching.

It was time.

I inhaled enormous amount of air, concentrated onto target, and jumped. Creature, almost my own size, splattered under my boots, producing a square-shaped airwave sounding like a simple click.
"Take this, Goomba."

____
This is fun! 55 is way too low limit though.

Happy birthday, Grundislav!

Now, back to work!