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Regions, my friend!  Regions make the world a fine and dandy place.

At least, I imagine so in my mind.  I have been using them without incident thus far.  But that does not mean things will not go fubar at the drop of a hat.

The progression is very nice.

In the newest drafts I was at first bothered by the way her left fore arm seemed longer than her right, but after further refection I think the shading provides enough of a feeling that her left are is bent more so than her right, solving the problem.  Though it might be shaded a bit more, to dispel all doubts.

I am baffled by her hair in the back view, however, which seems to constrict itself at neck level with out any visible means, then explode.  And though the hair is nicely textured, it has no shading, in contrast to the dress, which is very well done.  Thus, her hair seems very flat, despite the illusion of volume suggested by its width.

Hmm, that may be a good point.  I certainly hope I don't build a game around it have have it implode due to the character flying abou thte screen.

But, for the moment, a simple walkable area seems enough to keep the sprite based persona from falling off the edhe of the screen.

Perhaps it is my monitor, or even my browser, but it seems to me that the difference between light and dark is too much.  As if the candles are flares going on and off.  The effect might be nicer if it were subtler.  Also, the animation seems kind of jarring.  I'm fairly sure animated backgrounds can support up to six frames.  Perhaps you should take advantage of that.

Have you tried Blogger?  Never used it myself, so I don't know about setup, but the web site makes it out to be pretty simple, and it seems to work well.  You can even allow people yo make comments and such.

See it in action at, for example, AtomicToy.Org

Man, that is one small website, dimensionally speaking.

I like what's going on so far, from what little I can see.  I will more likely than not download it when completed.

My only concern is the resolution.  I am sure that you are far enough along that it matters little what I say, but to me there is no noticeable difference in quality between 640x480 and 800x600 and the latter will eat up recourses like free candy.  It may not run well, if at all, on my three-year-old system.

Ah, I see what you are saying, and it had not even occurred to me.  It is all so clear now.  You see, the trouble is that, having learned to use this stuff in bits and pieces, some in the manual, some on the web, I have no solid beginning to ending understanding of the language.

Anyway, none of that is really important.  What is important is that you fellows are coding fiends and the whole system works now.  Many thousands of thanks to everyone, and let us hope the subject is closed.

Well, I've added a-v-o's code and it works perfectly.  But I'm a picky bastard, and have to take things one step further.

My thought is to have things such that if you the player presses two arrow keys at the same time the character will move diagonally.  For example, is one presses the up and right arrow keys at the same time the charater move up and to the right (fuh).

Here is an expert from a-v-o's code

if ((IsKeyPressed (371) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (55) > 0)) Direction = DIR_UP_LEFT;    // 7 Home (numeric pad)
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (372) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (56) > 0)) Direction = DIR_UP;         // 8 Up arrow
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (373) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (57) > 0)) Direction = DIR_UP_RIGHT;   // 9 PgUp (numeric pad)
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (375) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (52) > 0)) Direction = DIR_LEFT;       // 4 Left arrow
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (376) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (53) > 0)) Direction = DIR_STOP;       // 5 Stop (numeric pad)
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (377) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (54) > 0)) Direction = DIR_RIGHT;      // 6 Right arrow
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (379) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (49) > 0)) Direction = DIR_DOWN_LEFT;  // 1 End (numeric pad)
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (380) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (50) > 0)) Direction = DIR_DOWN;       // 2 Down arrow
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (381) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (51) > 0)) Direction = DIR_DOWN_RIGHT; // 3 PgDn (numeric pad)
   else Direction = DIR_STOP;

And here is the same, with my additions:

if ((IsKeyPressed (371) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (55) > 0) || ((IsKeyPressed (372) > 0) && (IsKeyPressed (375) > 0))) Direction = DIR_UP_LEFT;
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (372) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (56) > 0)) Direction = DIR_UP;        
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (373) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (57) > 0) || ((IsKeyPressed (372) > 0) && (IsKeyPressed (377) > 0))) Direction = DIR_UP_RIGHT;  
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (375) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (52) > 0)) Direction = DIR_LEFT;      
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (376) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (53) > 0)) Direction = DIR_STOP;      
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (377) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (54) > 0)) Direction = DIR_RIGHT;      
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (379) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (49) > 0) || ((IsKeyPressed (380) > 0) && (IsKeyPressed (375) > 0))) Direction = DIR_DOWN_LEFT;
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (380) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (50) > 0)) Direction = DIR_DOWN;      
   else if ((IsKeyPressed (381) > 0) || (IsKeyPressed (51) > 0) || ((IsKeyPressed (380) > 0) && (IsKeyPressed (377) > 0))) Direction =DIR_DOWN_RIGHT;
else Direction = DIR_STOP;

So here's the problem.  The above works, but only for up and left.  AND!!! If I were to switch, say, the code for up-left with that of up-right, than up right would be the only combination that works.  In other words, it is only the first bit of code.  I don't know if all the ||s and &&s are fouling things up, or the “else if”s, but something is going on.

It is not the end of the world if these never works, but I am mostly just curious as to why it only half works, for reference in later coding escapades.  Any thoughts?

Yeah, as for the rooms being too small, I think I may use different scales.  Some rooms bigger (that is to say, closer to the "camera"), to emphasize detail, and some rooms with a wider shot, to give the idea of a lot of space.  And, as you said, scrolling goodness.

edit:  And oh yes, though the rooms may be small in terms of space to move about, the graphics are huge!  You should see poor Roger wonder about.  He's almost as tall as the couch!

Please, call me Jam.

And yes, the only major bit of bother I think an isometric view will cause is that I must make eight walk cycles, talking animations, ect.  But I think I'm up to it.  If I make a simple enough character, thought, I could get away with only making five angles and mirroring them.  Shhh... don't tell anyone!

EDIT: the way your example rooms are set up, technically the closet in the northwest of the living room couldn't exist, but things like that shouldn't really matter much.

Why do you say that?

edit: Oh, wait, I see what you mean.  In an architectural sense.  Thanks, something to think about in future designs.

wasn't LBA in an isometric view?

The caves and such were, good point.  But they were also more platformy than adventure, while the over world had a good amount of adventure elements, but had pre set rendered viewpoints.

If ever you decide you do want to part with it, I have a sister that may pay top dollar for the Quest for Glory Anthology.

I say may because 1) She may have already found a copy and 2) She is in collage now, and frivolous spending (even that pertaining to adventure games, poor lass) may not be an option.

After finding AGS and learning to use it, I decided to go back and re-do all the old games I never managed to finish using TADS.  The problem I encountered is that most all text-based adventure games tend to be heavily based on a grid of rooms (that is, most of mine where) so doorways leaning to various places could be very unclear in a graphic adventure game.

Rather than abandon the projects, I decided to experiment with a viewpoint really (if ever) used in adventure games.  I'm putting up a few examples I whipped together to show you what I'm thinking of.  I'm probably not going to end up using the images shown in a full game, they're just a means to illustrate an end.

Click on the pics to bring up a larger version, to give a better idea of what they may look like in game.
     

So the question is, would a viewpoint such as this be viable, let alone enjoyable, for an adventure game?  Stepping on one of the edges sticking out of a room would bring the character to the next room (for example, above the top left doorway in the living room would bring a character to the bedroom, while the bottom ledge would bring him to the kitchen (not shown)).

And of course, this being the Critics Corner, what do you guys think of the art itself?

[Edit by strazer]

Edit by strazer: Superseded by the KeyboardMovement script module.

--

Telling the character to move about with simple keystrokes is easy enough.  Tapping left, for example, can be used to make the character walk as far to the left as possible, until he hits the edge of a walkable area.

But what if one wants to use the keyboard in a more digital sense, moving the character if the button is held down and having the character stop if the button is released.

I've tried several methods to accomplish this, but to no avail.  In all cases, holding down the button causes the character to stay in place and jerk about.  I can see why this would happen, I just can't see how to fix it.

Thoughts?

Many thanks indeed.

Greetings.  I just became aware of AGS and am working my way around this very fine program, putting together a trial game as we speak...  er, I speak... er, I type.

Anywho, my question.  I noted in the Demo Quest that in the GUI there was a room for a Verb Coin interface, such as that used in The Curse of Monkey Island but that it was not ready.  Indeed, the room didn't seem to exist at all.

I was wondering if any progress had been made on a Verb Coin GUI that one could import into AGS, like the LucasArts GUI included with the program.  It has always been my favorite interface; elegant, simple, and easy to use.  What do you guys say?