Messages

Thanks, Mandle. I just hope the solution for the story will be satisfying.

And speaking of solutions, Baron: You want us to vote and speculate about the culprits at the same time, right? It's your decision, of course, but might I suggest that we guess whodunnit first, then reveal the true perpetrators and only then do the voting? It's just that I think I can only vote on the best mystery and best crime, for example, after I know how well the given clues match the intended solution.

I admit I've been wondering about that as well, especially since I scattered several red herrings through my story I second this suggestion.

(Also on a side note, I love your story, Sinitrena, but I can't begin to guess whodunnit!)

Congrats!

[1a. I'd be interested in participating, provided the timing suits me:]

1a. I'd be interested in participating, provided the timing suits me:
Maybe. I'd like to see how one's run first to get some idea of how much commitment is required (not being fussy; my life is insanely busy right now!)
1b. I would probably only be interested/able to provide critique and not participate:
No

2a. The best time period for me would be:
Anytime after July 5; I have a big exam that day and right now all my time is devoted to studying

3c. I feel comfortable working with thumbnails when it comes to paintings:
No
3d. I feel comfortable giving critique in general regarding other's pieces:
Along the lines of "If I saw this background in a game, I'd think this but maybe it needs more of that", yes. However, I'm still too much of a beginner to feel comfortable offering critique on a purely technical level.

4a. I would be interested in providing a tutorial in some area:
Not in art, no. The only thing I'd feel qualified to offer help with is fiction writing, but there's not much call for that here
4b. I would be interested in participating/help in some other area:
See 4a

Yep, got it now Thanks!

Let me first say that I'm not sure I understand the piece 100%. You talk about a platypus... are the islands supposed to be the animal, with the bill on the left? I don't really see it; maybe making them more clearly animal-shaped, not just "round things sticking up of the water" would help. I also don't think it's entirely clear that there's a waterfall behind there: the rushing water isn't quite successful, and shouldn't there be some sign of a current before you get right to the edge? It's hard to convey from this perspective, and I would probably experiment with the composition so we're not at risk of mistaking the waterfall for the horizon, maybe add some rocks and stuff to the edge, and maybe let us see a bit more of the riverbank.

Actually, the gray thing is the tail; the house is built on the back of the platypus and the other round island is its head. I tried several times to put the bill in, but it didn't work; the head is so low down in the water that it would just have looked odd.

The other point is that the sky is gray but the water is very high-saturation blue. In fact, the color of water is mostly reflected sky, so it should more or less match. Even if you're going for a cartoony style, I would try to keep them relatively close in hue and saturation. Apart from that, I like how you've done the water. That same technique doesn't work quite as well for other objects, though, with the soft brushes making them look either blurry or a bit plasticky (even if you've tried to add texture to the house). I think the way you've done the steps looks better in terms of "finish". I'd also recommend varying hues more across objects, and not to keep the saturation cranked up all the way on everything: the way you've done the grass is quite nice in these respects, and you could apply a similar technique to the islands, hut and roof.

I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean by saturation. Although I have a couple of favorite brushes I use - mostly for shading in the ground and sky - my entire artistic technique consists of drafting in single solid blocks of color, and then using Dodge and Burn and occasionally various Blenders to get the shading and light effects that I want (I said I was a beginner ) I see what you mean about the water though; I'll definitely bear that in mind for future pieces

Beware of texture brushes (the thatched roof, the wall texture) and 3D-rendered objects (that curved log in the water, right?). They're a shortcut, but they don't blend well with hand-drawn elements, and you're better off doing as best you can on your own.

Just to clarify here: the thatched roof is a texture brush, but the wall isn't (done with Dodge, Burn and a rough blender). The curved log was also hand-drawn; I feel the same way you do about 3D-rendered objects in a hand-drawn painting, so I never use them (plus, the 3D options in TB kind of suck!) Still, I'll try and make my hand-drawn 2D stuff look a little more 2D in the future

Finally, it's a small thing, but you want to make sure the painting extends all the way to the edge of the canvas, not leave a fringe of unpainted "paper" along the edge. You can also end up with unintentional effects where some level of the drawing (the highlights or the shadows, for example) are much sparser or look different by the edge, because they're harder to draw there or you had to use vertical strokes instead of horizontal ones, for example. Therefore, I usually make my canvas 10 pixels wider than I'll need on each side, and then crop off the edges again after I'm done.

Yes, I can see exactly what you mean. Again, really good advice; I'll be sure to do that next time :-) Thanks so much for taking the time to write such a detailed crit; it's really helped me!

STOP THE PRESSES!!!
I might have one:

Ooh, interesting I think I've narrowed it down to two possible suspects, leaning far more in favor of one than the other...

My vote:

1. Bohnito. Amazing pixel art!
2. Anke, for the amazing concept
3. Cassiebsg. I don't know what it is, but something about that coin really intrigues me...

Grok and JudasFM have the basics down pretty well, and I think it's just a matter of practice to improve further.

Thanks for the comment.  If you have time, are there any glaring areas that you think need a lot of work? (If so, PM is fine to avoid hijacking the thread! Either way, don't worry if you're busy) I'm always after constructive criticism, especially since this is my first serious piece and I want to avoid getting into any bad habits, if that makes sense.

Voting was hard, but here goes...

Concept: Grok. I love the idea of floating stones; it puts me in mind of the old Sierra games, where you had to figure out by trial-and-error which ones would kill you

Artistic execution: Ykni. Clear-cut and with some nice variety, yet it's not cluttered with too many objects that would detract from the main scene.

Playability: Ykni. For much the same reasons as above

There are so much wonderful works here that i couldn't resist and join in
Still a WIP.

I like it Even if it's a WIP, it's very atmospheric.

Thanks, I'm so glad you liked it I've already written the continuation story for when the time comes, so you'll find out for sure after voting.

Thanks This is the first time I've tried doing a background of my own; most of mine up until now have been remakes of old Sierra screens just to get the feel for it And the less said about my early MSPaint backgrounds, the better, I think It doesn't match most of the backgrounds on this threat (that Gypsy wagon is amazing) but I'm quite pleased with it.

And yep, there's nothing wrong with liking children's picture books XD I'm with you on that one

My entry...



Witch Sally has lived in her little house for as long as anyone can remember and is always willing to help lost travelers. The water around her place is fairly shallow - at least in places - but the waterfall beyond the house is very high She added the steps after one too many visitors fell off the giant platypus that her house is built on.

Sally used to have the traditional chicken-legged hut, but found out too late that chickens aren't particularly good at swimming, hence her enchanting a platypus to grow to the size she needed to build on it, which also makes it too big and heavy to be swept away by the current.  The platypus itself is in a state of magical suspension, needing neither food nor water, nor, luckily, oxygen.  Sally makes sure to give it nice dreams

She also makes sure no would-be trophy hunters get anywhere near it, and is always watching. 

Don't believe me? Take a closer look at the door

Thanks And I will definitely do a reveal, probably as a continuation story. Writing is my life

[DEATH IN THE STARS]

Here's mine: 1991 words Packing it into such a small number of words was hard, but hopefully I scattered enough hard-to-spot-yet-solvable clues through it. I also have two questions: will all the entries have the big reveal, or just the winning ones? Also, will the big reveal be in story form, or just along the lines of, "Well, it was so-and-so who did it and you can tell because A said this but B said that..."

DEATH IN THE STARS

James Lawson, head of communications and second-in-command of the city-sized spaceship Nemesis, paced the bridge in an uncharacteristic display of anger, pausing only to let off epithets in his native Mercurian like verbal grenades.

"How the hell did this happen?" he demanded of no one in particular.

Cy, the captain of the ship, sighed.  "How many times?  We're still working on that."

"We need to work faster!  This is a public relations disaster!"

Cy raised a dark eyebrows.  "That's a rather odd view of the situation, don't you think?"

"Perhaps, but it's a realistic one.  The crew is going to kill us!"

"They've already had a pretty good try," Cy pointed out.  "Or had you forgotten that we're up here at three in the morning because our navigator got her head smashed in?"

"You know what I mean!" James threw himself onto his seat so hard he almost went over on his back.  Righting himself and glaring at Cy and weapons operative Amelia Crewe in a way that just dared either of them to comment, he went on in a slightly calmer voice.  "None of them wanted to let tourists in.  You didn't want to let tourists in.  I didn't want to let tourists in, only it seemed the only way to convince people that we're not the evil murderers that the government is making us out to be!  And now this!  Don't you think that it's a bit too convenient we've survived this long with no major crimes, and two days after a group of strangers come on board, we have a murder!"

"Then let's discuss it," Cy said.  "What about the tourists?  Where were they when this happened?"

"Two groups were in their rooms," Amelia answered.  "Three more were out with their guides getting breakfast at a diner on the rec-deck."

Cy paused.  "There's an elevator that goes to that floor opposite the...the crime scene, isn't there?"

James nodded slowly.  "Yeah.  But they'd have to sneak away from their guides to use it and that wouldn't be easy.  And I don't think they're responsible anyway."

"We'll see about that.  Which tourists were outside when it happened?"

"Neptunian Kanae Godai and her two nieces, age five and seven.  She worked for us as a freelance actress for six months.  I think we can rule her out.  I only assigned her a guide because she couldn't be seen to be without one."

Cy nodded.  The oldest member of the Nemesis's crew was twenty years old, and since they made their own films and dramas, older performers had to be found from outside.  Kanae Godai had been the first and was one of the very few outsiders considered a friend.

"A bunch of college students from Mars.  They've been a bit of a nuisance, but they're more annoying than dangerous.  And an elderly couple from Mercury, who have so far been very well behaved no matter how much provocation was thrown at them for being outsiders.  And there's been quite a bit, Cy; we really need to look into that."

"I'll deal with that after we solve the murder.  Who were the guides on the rec-deck?  Maybe they saw something."

James tapped a few buttons and scanned the results on his console.  "According to this, Ismene of Team MRXâ€""

"She's sound," Amelia interrupted.  "The only way anyone could sneak away from her would be to knock her out."

"â€"your friend Alec who's been looking after his fellow Martians â€" he's with the students I told you aboutâ€""

"It's not Alec either," Cy said immediately.  Alec's loyalty to him was beyond question.

"â€"and Tania Delarose of Team Gamma," James finished.  "She was the one with Kanae."

Cy paused.  "I don't know much about her.  Do you?"

James shook his head.  "No.  Team Gamma doesn't have any noteworthy members; they just get on with their jobs.  Four are cleaners, Tania herself works for CGT and the sixth member works in the dining hall under Fredrica.  The real question is, what would anyone have to gain from murdering one of the bridge crew?"

Cy massaged his forehead.  "Who found the body?"

"Race Palmer.  Team Ace.  He was pretty cut up about it.  Well, he would be; he and Paige had been going steady since before we arrived here."

"Right.  No chance he could have done it then?  Only we all know what he's like when he loses his temperâ€""

James sighed, swiveling around in his chair to face Cy fully.  "No.  Race's T-card was clocked on at six am, two kilometers away from where Paige was murdered.  She didn't clock on at all."

Cy leaned back, staring at the ceiling.  Six am was an earlier clock on time than most crew members, but there was nothing actually suspicious in that; by and large, people on the Nemesis set their own working hours.  "And there's no way he could have got to her in time to kill her?"

James was already shaking his head again before Cy finished the word and.  "Paige was killed at ten past six.  The only way Race could have got to her was if he hitched a ride on a cleaning machine, and he didn't.  I asked CGT â€" you know they have a monopoly on those machines â€" for the passenger records and Chelsea sent them up this morning.  No one bought passage on any machines until the beginning of the shift at eight am.  Besides, that corridor is pretty out of the way.  There were a couple of machines there, but it's not a good place to go if you want to guarantee finding them."

"So what was Race doing there?" Amelia demanded.

James shrugged.  "You tell me.  Maybe he needed some space to get his head together.  He wouldn't be the first who went to an empty sector for some peace and quiet."

There was a knock on the door and without waiting for an invitation, Race Palmer opened it and came in.

"I found this," he said, holding out a folded scrap of paper.  "I think it's something to do with the murder."

"Where did you get it?" James asked.

"It was in my box, so I thought I'd better bring it to you."

"Atâ€"" Cy checked his watchâ€" "twenty past three in the morning?"

Race looked down.  "I couldn't sleep.  Not after...you know.  Have you found anything out?"

"Not yet," James admitted, "but we're working on it."

Race turned and walked over to the exit, then paused and looked over his shoulder.

"It was one of the tourists," he said.  "I'm sure of it."

"Of course you are," Cy said wearily.  He'd spent the entire day dealing with crew members who were sure the killer was a tourist.  He could understand their reasoning; it was much easier to blame an outsider than to face the fact that one of their own could be capable of something like this.

Race's eyes narrowed a little, then he strode out without another word.  Cy waited until he was sure Race was gone before he turned to James.  "He hasn't ever been in the running for a job on the bridge, has he?"

James shook his head.  "No.  He used to work for CGT until Chelsea fired him for losing his temper with a customer.  Now he's something of a gofer."

Cy nodded.  The Nemesis was full of gofers, people who would do all sorts of odd jobs to earn the virtual tokens that served as the ship's currency.

"So it looks like we can rule him out.  But why would someone give him this note?"

James shrugged.  "To increase his suffering?  To ram the point home?  Or to make sure it found its way to us, maybe.  Our rooms are out of the way, so anyone there would be remembered.  Race and Paige's room was opposite the dining hall; it's one of the busiest places on the ship.  Anyone could have slipped that letter in.  What does it say, anyway?"

Cy unfolded it and started to read. 

Why did I want her dead? That Well, if you knew how much I hated Paige Kerr â€" how much everyone hated her â€" you wouldn't bother asking me that.  And She was the worst navigator you could have chosen.  I could have done a better job, even without any expertise.  So

Of course, if you expect me to tell you my name, you're out of luck.  I don't intend to make things that easy for you, nor and besides, the thought of the likely penalty punishment doesn't do a great deal for me.  Though

So, it looks as though you need a new navigator, huh?  Bet you wish you'd offered me the job when you had the chance.  Then Oh well; live and learn, as they say.  I know Paige won't couldn't do either, but I can't help that.  She And you know what?  I'm actually glad she's dead.  She was the most useless waste of oxygen on the Nemesis.  I don't know why you let her be navigator to at all.  Maybe now you'll get someone who's better at the job.  Like me, for example.  You

Actually, forget that; I know you wouldn't take a murderer.  Although personally, I think that's rather mean unfair of you, 'Cy', or whatever your full name is.  I don't notice you didn't object when your wonderful crew killed those people to keep everyone else safe. 

Oh, and I haven't left enough evidence for you to call Conclave on me.  So don't even try it.  You I wouldn't bother to answer the summons anyway, and that I know you can't send your hired lackeys to arrest me just because you want to.  And I also know that I haven't won't be the most popular person on the crew when you get this, but that doesn't matter to me.  Just telling you how much we hate some of your decisions about is enough for me. 

So Of course, if you really want to know who I am, well, you might be able to work it out from my letter.  Or Might.  I told you I don't plan to make it easy for you, or and I don't really care what you plan to do.  I'm not going afraid of you.  The rest of the crew may be, but that's not my problem.

-SK

"Who's SK?" James wondered.

"No idea."  The letter was handwritten, which was a rarity in itself in their day and age, but he supposed whoever did it hadn't wanted to risk being seen at one of the terminals.  Cy cast his mind back to that day two years ago, when they'd found themselves alone on the Nemesis.  "Who else was in the running for navigator?"

"That Neptunian in engineering, Ken'ichi Sawada.  And you as good as said he'd replace Paige as navigator if anything happened to her, since his father was a navigator as well.  Selena Mount â€" well, sort of.  She just wanted a position of authority.  She seemed happy enough to be made head of security instead.  Amalla Firenze.  Harriet Phillips.  Oh, and Samara King from Team Diamond; she was another favorite.  Her father worked on the bridge crew of one of the big liners, that's why I remember her."

Cy's interest perked a little.  "Navigation?"

"Radio comms.  She was pretty disappointed to learn that job was already taken."

"Where is she now?"

James tapped at his console, then shrugged.  "No idea.  The last time she clocked on was the day before the murder.  There's been no trace of her since then."

Cy took a deep breath, held it until spots started to flash in front of his eyes, then let it out very slowly and returned his attention to the note.  There was something there...something he was missing.  Something that would give him the key to the whole thing.  He knew it.

He just didn't know what it was yet.

I'm not sure if I did this right, since it's the first time I've entered a contest here. The main currency I use has quite a few different coins and banknotes, so I picked one of each. I hope that's alright



The kre is the main currency. This is the standard 1-kre coin, but there are also 5 and 10-kres coins available, along with smaller denominations such as the dem (half a kre) roon (quarter of a kre) mon (one eighth of a kre) and snik (one sixteenth of a kre).



This is the highest denomination: 500 kres, which would buy you a decent quality bicycle.  The civilization which came up with the design insisted that art was valuable and banknotes were also valuable, so the two should naturally go together.  There are also 25, 50 and 100 kres banknotes, each with their own distinct pictures.  It was felt that printing the denominations on the pictures would spoil them, and so they're printed on the back in block letters instead

Even with 2.72, DisplaySpeech is obsolete, it should be Character.Say.

I know; it's just that I learned in 2.6, I did a lot of programming and scripting in 2.6 (only upgraded because most of the templates from Maniac Mansion Mania are for 2.72) and so I still use a lot of 2.6 commands Works great so far

Regarding your question, you can use background speech:

Code: ags

  cNpc1.LockView(cNpc1.SpeechView);
  cNpc1.Animate(cNpc1.Loop, 4, eRepeat, eNoBlock);
  cNpc1.SayBackground("WE KNOW!");
  //... same for 2 & 3
  cNpc4.Say("WE KNOW!");            // normal speech so the game is paused for the duration
  cNpc1.UnlockView();
  // ... same for 2 & 3

I tried that but it didn't quite work.  The characters animated fine, but the words only appeared above cNpc4's head (Say seems to negate any kind of background speech).

EDIT: Fixed it!  The script worked fine once I changed cNpc4 to speaking in the background though; I stuck in a Wait command at the end, set up a graphical variable and put a new Run Script command under it to continue the dialog.  Thanks for your help (and I learned something new about LockView too; I didn't know you could set it to a default Speech View.  Makes life much easier!)

I was just wondering, can you run a DisplaySpeech command for two or more characters at once, so it looks like they're talking in unison?

The situation is this: at one point the player will wake up with screaming nightmares and go around each of their friend's houses in turn, looking for a place to sleep (long story; makes sense if you play the game).

Later they'll be talking to four of those friends and will say something like, "I've been having a little trouble sleeping lately," at which point all their friends will say in chorus, "WE KNOW!"

At least...they will if I can find out how to script it

I can get around it with objects and animations (put object that looks like all characters on top, make characters unclickable, animate object with speech, turn object off, make characters clickable again) but it seems a very complicated way of doing things.  I can't use just one object and no characters, since the player needs to speak to each character in turn.  

I'd be grateful for any help/thoughts on the subject.  I'm using AGS version 2.72

http://aafiles.bicycle-for-slugs.org/ags/

and I too prefer 2.62.

Thanks so much; you're a lifesaver!  Also, I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes 2.62

If you thing you might have to ask for scripting help on the forums, I'd really recommend upgrading to 3.0. Personally I barely remember anymore how the non-object-oriented code worked. If you're continuing work on an existing game, turning off "Enforce new style strings" and "Enforce object-based scripting" could help you keep your legacy code.

I do have the 3.0 installation files and if I get time I'll give it a try.  I'll remember what you said about continuing on an existing project; thanks

My scripting's not too bad, although right now I'm about to start work on an educational game for children with learning disabilities, so it won't need to be anything fancy...more along the lines of 'the big red key opens the big red door'

After some years away from game design, I'm trying to get back into it again.  Although I admire the work that goes into upgrading the versions (3.0 looks particularly impressive!) I'm really much happier and more comfortable with good ol' 2.62.  I tried 2.72 only to find that most of the functions I was used to using had become obsolete.

Does anyone know if I can get 2.62 anywhere, and if so where?  Thanks