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A large chunk of XBox/XBox 360 owners may never have owned a PC; which may in turn account for the level of popularity and enthusiasm surrounding what are, in my opinion, two above-average yet unremarkable games.

This I believe. How else could one explain such cult-like fanbase around otherwise mediocre games? Blind trust comparable to patriotism or religion?

Get a PC. Even better - get a proper PC and learn to use it properly.

It was fun to play games on nintendo years ago. But it's even more fun to own ALL NES games on my computer and using XBOX360 controller and emulator to play them. Even if it's maybe not entirely legal.

At some point, I agree with Darth. How much money is going into pointless (when we prioritize progress of humankind) things? Like weapons research and manufacture, military training and expenses, and of course, different forms of wellfare and culture? I mean, like why do such sums move in sports and entertainment, why do actors, NBA players, etc own and earn money enough to lose all hunger and diseases from the whole world?

Problem maybe isn't laziness or conspiracies, but unfair division of resources. Imagine if all the effort went into manufacturing and researching weapons to kill human beings, from 1900 till today - were spent on something else?
Imagine when all overpaid actors and sportsmen sell their villas and luxury cars and put all this money together to - let's say - fund cure for cancer? Would moon be the limit for us then? Would we see skinny african kids on tv? Would AIDS roam freely and lower the number of world population? Would Anarcho spam(j/k)  ?

Answer is simple, but not possible - global socialism.

Only then would every AGSer have their own dishwasher.

I'd still like to know what did Darth mean by this sentence.

Anything human uses to keep motion going, still takes some power from "outside". Like heat from sun to grow food etc.
So it ain't feet.

We have the technology to create vehicles that, through their motion and use, can generate the very power they need to continue functioning.

And what technology would that be?

I still think that starting a donation would resulted money for at least 3 dishwashers. As well as selling some extras, like concept art of "Emily Enough" game or something like that.

Aggressive sign-up-for-spam campaigns won't either sound or work very well.

Now I'd like to ask a hypothetical question: If the Xbox never existed, and Halo simply debuted 1, 2, and 3 on the PC in their respective years, would it be anywhere near as popular? How much of its success is due to being on a console?

Halo would be nothing. I've played first game on PC and saw nothing but a mediocre yet-another-alien-shooter with textures made entirely of purple color. Duke Nukem 3D trying to be serious. Doom without tension. Quake without horror  and Unreal Tournament without any coolness. Almost like these Japanese gay anime RPG-s, but in fps format.
Halo.

Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT bad, but it's a game for kids. Ages 6 and up. Any lovers, compare Halo to any popular PC title. Exactly HOW is it better? Or even same?

Console fanboys are who hype stupid things up. So up that it goes beyond any logical explanation.

- I don't give a crap about saving earth. Especially while holding hands with people who give out dishwashers in exchange for spam
- I don't mind another bit of spam, actually. It happens this way or another. E-mail addresses are free.
- But erasing spam takes time. Time *I* could spend on making a game. And since you already got popular title under your name and I don't, click will be not done.
- "New American dream"? "Carbon conscious consumer"? Everybody knows that americans are nothing but earth-friendly, with these big, rusted, polluting cars with big dirty engines and heavy plastics usage everywhere. If I saw this page before your thread, I'd see it as an ironic joke.

In conclusion, the time you find for such senseless "earth saving" contests and spamming here at AGSforums could also been used productively.

For example, doing games.
Or dishes.

It would be nice to have a RawDraw or Dynamic sprite function that had a "perspective squash", that is made a sprite drawn as if it were the a surface of a 3D object.

I thought about something like this 3 years ago. For making semi-realistic shadows... in which case, blend mode should be set too and whole sprite drawn in one color.

My attempt at this image... I doubt you like it though.

* About hand shading: tuned contrast up a bit to hide shading a bit, also, making hand more important
* Tuned heavily down on white hand glow and added purple one instead made by root thingies
* Lost most of the background in process...  not intended though.
* changed color of the roots a bit.

If you like any of these changes, I'm sure you can replicate them better.

Generally, I quite like this cover. I think it could work very well. As said, the title needs more work than hand motif, it's quite boring right now. How about blood/paint drips and something like this? Even this white outline thing could drip white paint...? Also, if it's something metallic... the band I mean, the roots could aswell grow OUT of the hand, not only behind it.

No drugs, sorry.
Even this creative blockade caused me drinking way too much lately.

2. stop being a perfectionist(this means a lot coming from me). you'll never be a 100% satisfied with what you do. Go for 90%.

How... how did you know?  :o

Tallinn doesn't have places to ride? Omg, at that point, i wish I lived in Tallinn because there are tons of good places to ride your bike, like Pirita forest for example. And if you are such a wuss that you forget your bike somewhere for the junkie to take it, then you don't deserve anything, really.  Go get yourself a bike. Biking is fun!

It's not about being wuss. I simply live in one of the most junkie/ethnic russian/crime-infested part of the city. But I don't have anywhere to keep my bike anyway, living in a flat right now. And planning a car in near future, bike would be a waste of money.

But answer to the question,
I find help to boredom from low-budget travelling. Seeing different countries, people and cultures, and sleeping in tent at citypark,in sleeping bag at railway stations or in a forest middle-of-nowhere, eating cheapest but healthy food, jogging at places never seen before. After spending a month in such journey i feel like a completely new person.

Well this sounds fun. Though, it still needs a budget, and TIME. Time is what I don't have, going to school, work, and driving courses at same time. Only time I have is night hours, and the whole problem is that I cannot fill them productively anymore. During the time I cannot create, I'm doing things for myself and her, to live better, to achieve stuff, to have money, to provide, etc. Create-hours are for whole world, not my own little lifecycle.

If you can, i'd like you to answer 2 questions to yourself (not on this forum) as honestly as you can:
1) What purpose does this proving yourself have? (maybe in relation to your future)

I can answer them even on this forum, because I have made peace with myself (on this particular topic) long ago:

Cancelling highschool, led by 3-year alcoholism and three failed choices in further education led me into really miserable state where nobody, even not myself had any trust in my future. Nor did it provide any excuse for electric bill sitting at computer generated, while everything went downwards. There was a time when I had no job, didn't study or do anything useful, thus being major disappointment to my parents and everyone else. Eh, my mother even thought I'm doing drugs because of me being locked into my room most of the time. If these years had ANY use, it's probably the expression on the face of a psychiatrist at recruiting offices of army. "Go and live your life, I won't sign you up" she said, after hearing whole story in detail. I didn't want to go anyway, but never thought this could release me so easily.

Creativity is only thing that kept me still looking into future with slight hope. And it prevailed. I picked up education, got a job, found true love, etc. It's what makes my engine running.

I don't want to be a simple consumer. I want to make something by myself for others to consume. Maybe I'm too radical about this, but I've accused other people for only consuming and not doing anything to make more or new or better. I have some weird disgust in people who are simply a tiny parts of the machine and live from start to end without making any change in this world. Living only to survive and fulfill basic needs or their own.

2) If the way you are expressing your creativity now doesn't fulfill this purpose, how else do you think you could fulfill it?

But it should. I would really love to become a graphics designer or something along this path. But none of my creations haven't generated a single penny of real, cold cash yet, so it's quite difficult to hold continuous trust in things and people supporting me. Especially after mentioned downfall-years. Maybe I'm simply too perfectionist to compile a portfolio and step into real world.

It all sounds like poor bohemian artist/writer case, thinking about it now...   

I've tried to reduce my free time into a pencil, eraser and paper, but this doesn't last even 30 minutes.

3. stop whining and get yourself together soldier!

That's what I'm telling myself, yes

1. don't work on dozens of projects at once. pick one and focus all your energy on it.

An advice I definetly won't ignore. I'm dedicating whole October to it. Let's see if I actually get Henri into beta stage?
Something has to work!!!

Thanks guys, so far.

Hm... Although these suggestions sound like they're straight from modern psychology book and make sense in all mathematical forms of logic, they... don't work for me.

I *have* a dream girlfriend. We spend every day together now, and previously we've survived 5 years of long-distance relationship. I love her and I'm really happy with her.

Tallinn, capital of Estonia, isn't quite a place to bike. But then again, I don't have a bike nor time to ride it. Also, as narcotics-relate crime goes here, I would lose it to first junkie I meet. But that's not the point. Yes, summer was super nice, we went out to barbecue and took some trips and enough of nature to heavy fresh air poisoning. I've wasted most of my paycheck to going out lately, both with my girl and friends and -- everything, well, goes well.

Everything - but not what I tend to do behind closed doors, only a monitor providing light to my face and integral switches computing creative flows of human mind.

I watch movies. Take walks. Play games. Even download full seasons of TV series so I could excuse myself longer.
But during all this, I still feel like I own someone something. Myself! I'm like stealing this time from the time I need to be creating, finishing my projects. I feel guilty.

I like Radiant's advice. It might work. But then again, haven't I tried it enough already? I try all the time. Open, remember, try to modify, get angry, feel weak, quit. No saving changes. Even if I do save, next time I start with removing those last changes.

I sometimes have this strange idea that everything might be going too well.
It's sadness and desperation that often motivated me to create - my songs sound always like sad, piano-ridden hip-hop and my games have dark, serious theme, flavored with somewhat self-critical consolatory (comforting) black humor... Biggest projects were started at the point where I felt completely abandoned and useless, and their meaning was to left something memorable behind, should my life end at next minute... That even if I'm not useful to anyone, including myself any other way, atleast I provide music, or art, or a game... That as miserable thing as myself is able to contribute something to species living on this planet. This is what inspired, or should I rather say - motivated me to create. It's gone now.

Isn't that weird? It does make sense at some points but It's hard to believe.

And even if it's so, shouldn't positive emotions trigger even stronger creativity and quicker progress?
If so, how to "reverse" myself?

[too colorful]

I'm sorry, but I don't really like it. Looks too much like a cover for a reallyy cheap disc released by really cheap band...

All the detail on main image looks really cool, but it's a bit too colorful and disturbing. Especially dog nose and ugly mouth.
On song list part, the font and background doesn't fit one bit. First that ugly body, do you really need this? And the font belongs to a classical music compilation, not something crazy. Either a punk or hiphop band, the font should be something different. To match better with main cover and whole thing.

The image on disc itself is cool and fine in my opinion. Maybe a bit too colorful for my taste, but I like it anyway.

Blocked.

That's all I feel for almost 4 months already.
I waste countless hours sitting and looking at my monitor, not really doing anything. I mean, I'm kind of person who can find entertainment for myself even when locked up in a cage. I'm NEVER bored, unless I'm in really bad situation where I cannot even isolate and dive into my thoughts, like when sitting in a dentist's chair. But otherwise, I don't really know what boredom is.

And yet, I sit for 4 months, feeling desperate urge to do something, and yet cannot do a single thing. All games have been played, all movies watched, no interest in new ones and hundreds of projects waiting to be continued.

I open up AGS, 3ds Max, FruityLoops, ArtGem, Game Maker... I browse some of my unfinished pieces of art, game or music and listen/watch. I really like what I see and I really feel that I want to finish those.

But in few seconds, I hate them. I have zero inspiration and nothing goes right even if I try.
So it's endless loop of opening a file, modifying it, and closing without saving changes. Some of them, Like Henri (AGS game), some Game Maker games and many 3d projects are extremely near to completion and yet these bits and bytes stay unfinished. I hate this. I feel need to create, It's in my soul and veins, but can not actually do anything. Not anything I'm satisfied enough to release or even save.

Is there a cure?

Don't let your nation be ashamed, do something about this!

If this was also response to my post, you made a little mistake. Check my profile to clarify: I'm Estonian.

Anyway, these filthy imperialist scum American spies should know best:
According to CIA factbook, literacy stats in

age 15 and over can read and write
In Latvia, it's 99.7%
United Kingdom, 99%
Russia, 99.4%
(not sure about dates, but no one actually is)

So, seems that Russians are more literate than people on the islands
Of course, this doesn't reflect grammar usage or correctness.

Anyway, you can find bad grammar these days about anywhere.
People at my work have trouble enough to even write a resignation or that paper where you ask for vacation (how it's called in English?). But I wouldn't really blame internet and IM lingo for this, back in days, kids were chasing ball during free time. Now they're sitting behind monitors and reading & writing in instant messengers and forums.

How come this hasn't helped to improve grammar and reading overall?

News from Russian site, criticism-related one and about Brits.
What's wrong here? Where have I seen this before?

Lionmonkey, you live in Riga, yes? Did you think before making this thread, at all?
Aren't we, Balts, under never-ending propaganda war every day? Doesn't Russian press throw crap like this at us in a daily basis? Releasing news that rarely are news, but still sound bad and in long term, finally brainwashes their people into thinking we're pure evil?

Now, why should average russian wake up in the morning, and read about how badly British know grammar before starting his day? Does this sound like news, entertainment, or rather like another invisible sting of negativity towards West this russian gets every day from his beloved government?

Medieval torture methods... though I think that they actually work (Middle Eastern examples?) - unlike modern systems, there's a punishment WAY worse due our informational era... than simple torture.

Simply, the criminal's name and photo should be published in press.
I'd like to see that guy have a social life or get a job for next 10 years.

Whee, another hate thread!

But this case lefts me comment-less, or rather -- speechless.
I cannot even join the happy castration team...
But I know that similar issues were dealt much effectively in earlier ages and eras.
If a knight would pee over sick and dying lady, well... news like this in civilized part of society (hell knows what peasants did live in) wouldn't have been simply possible.
This is our nice modern civilized and supertolerant/humane society that makes things like this possible.

Way to go, humane, tree/pervert-hugging hippie criminal-loving anti-death-penalty Eurosuckers.
What a wonderful world we have now. With cozy prisons and humane laws.

Dark, rotten, rat-infested castle dungeons were there for a reason, not to serve as museums centuries later.
But as saying here goes: Hunchback is only treated by a grave. There's no way going back, it gets worse.

BTW, increator, shouldn't the asterisk the '*' symbol? '?' is the question mark.

Oops! Yeah it should. "Ask" and "asterisk" kind of blend in my old brain. Anyway, fixed post.

I don't think that you can actually edit your AVI in flash!

Okay, remember than if I sound harsh, it's for your own good. I like the background you're going at, even though Maniac Mansion style sucks hardcore, in my opinion.

I made 3D version of this room to show you how lights work. Also, in 3D, perspective is almost always right.
Look here.



See, in your room, you have 4 lights and also there could be light coming from window. I didn't simulate light bouncing off walls and floor, but simpler version of lighting is still visible. Around the lamps, everything should be lighter and brighter. Also, brighter sides of things must be those that face wall lamps, not any other.

The labels I added to image are what you need to pay attention to, if you want to get atleast some quality in your shading.

If you want people to edit your backgrounds, save them as PNG format, not JPG.
Why? Because JPG compression ruins pixels.

The clock is not right. It's at the center of the room, so we shouldn't see it's right side, or atleast not that much. Maybe only a tiny pixel, not two. Why isn't clock face round? This is abnormal.

The light bulbs inside light cast shadows mostly downwards (actually down, left and right), why did you make shadows go right I don't know. Simply pull shadow down a bit more, and less right.

Your barrel is not cylindrical shape. Watch my barrel, it's a cylinder. Your barrel looks more like it's been smashed with a sledge hammer. That is so because it's too wide, making it narrower will fix the problem. Why do you need a metal barrel at the end of the corridor anyway? Who keeps gasoline or oil (that's what metal barrels usually contain) inside house?

Since the lamps and windows are on room sides, the middle part should be darker. Though realistic lighting isn't quite the style you're using.

All questions end with an question mark (?), like

- How should I make it better?
- Is this the right perspective for the clock?

Paying attention to your grammar also helps with paying attention in life overall, so noticing how things look like and memorizing details. You have probably no idea how much it helps to draw better!