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Heh...yeah I guess I assumed screenshots were not needed if the demo was provided.  However, Alias has a point and I will post a few screenshots shortly.

SSH--the host I'm using wouldn't let me do ZIP files :-(.  Are you sure the links are broken?  I tested them myself and they worked fine...

Screenshots will be up later today.

--Mick

So now that I found a place to host this huge sucker, it's time to promote it...

A very small demo is now available, the link is at the end of this post after the game info--please give feedback, it is my main reason for posting this here!

"The Affair at Northbank" will be my first AGS game.  Since I never like to do anything halfway, I am making it as good as I possibly can.  As a result, when it is finished the final product will probably be between 150 and 200 meg (and I thought I was having trouble finding a host for the demo...)

GAMEPLAY: I wanted to combine the best of two types of interfaces I always see in adventure games--the "King's Quest" 3rd-person style and the "Myst" 1st-person style.  The Affair at Northbank (A/N for short) is set in first-person but has a verb-cursor interface like King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, etc.  The cursor bar is located at the bottom of the screen.  When you have the "Go" cursor selected, the game operates like Myst, Riven, etc. in that the cursor changes its appearance based on where it is on the screen (i.e. turn left arrow, go forward arrow, etc.)  I'm telling you this so you won't get confused :-).  The cursor bar is down at the bottom of the screen rather than the top like the old Sierra games--somehow the bottom just seemed to make more sense for a 1st-person adventure.

STORYLINE: The storyline is based entirely on an old book-and-paper Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure I used to play with friends as a kid.  That adventure, for those interested, is called "Wizard's Challenge" and I have no idea if it can still be purchased.  Set in a fantasy universe similar to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and other similar stories, A/N is the story of a town which was founded by a famous Guild of Wizards.  When the leader of the Guild was banished from its tower, the rest of the Guild slowly crumbled and is now nonexistant.  Years later, the town is being plagued by the appearances of a strange, ghostly figure promising immortality...and killing anyone who refuses the offer.  Your character is a young apprentice mage who came to Northbank searching for the Guild.  When you learn how it has been disbanded, you end up staying to solve the mystery of the "Ghost Prince", a story closely tied with the old Guild history...

FEATURES:
*800 x 600 resolution
*Pre-rendered 3D graphics
*A face-making system so you can customize what the main character looks like.
*An interface that combines the best of traditional 1st-person and 3r-person adventure games
*Random background music while navigating the town, and specific music for apropriate parts of the game
*A very limited "combat" system
*Extremely nonlinear play--nearly all problems can be solved in more than one way, and there are several different paths to the end.
*A skill system reminiscent of games like "Quest for Glory".  Most puzzles can be solved either by use of an advanced skill, a special item, a spell, etc. etc.

OK, so that was all the promo stuff :-).  All that I am currently making available right now is atiny portion of the game ENVIRONMENT.  Please note before you download this that this is really not a game or even a game demo--it is a demonstration of the graphics, interface, face-maker and music that will be employed in A/N.  As you move around the town, you will find that there are many places where it looks like you can go, but when you click there, nothing happens.  This is because I have only included four or five locations in Northbank, since this file was already getting pretty huge.

The Face Maker is still buggy--the robes won't change color for some reason, I'm still trying to figure that out, and you cannot enter your character's name yet.  Once you pass the FaceMaker you will enter the game environment.

I really really *really* want feedback!  My main reason for submitting this is that I want to know what you guys think of the music, the interface, the graphics, etc.  I want to know that the game environment is going to be a good one before I make the full game.  Please feel free to offer both compliments and criticism.

Downloading instructions: In order to download this, you will need to download each file separately.  Sorry, it's the only way I could get it to work.  Also, the host I'm using apparently will not take exe files so I had to rename them .ex1.  After you download the two .ex1 files, rename them with the .exe extension and they should work.  NOTE: You do not need the music.vox file to play the game of course, but I picked the music out carefully and I think the environment really suffers without it.

Northbank.ex1 (10 MB)
winsetup.ex1 (48 KB)
acsetup.cfg (nil)
music.vox (15 MB)

Clicking the above links SHOULD download the files, let me know if it fails.

Whew, that was a lot of typing.  Looking forward to your feedback.

--Mick

[Does anyone know where the heck I can upload this thing?]

Hey, so I'm not sure if I can ask this in this forum or not, but of the options available it seemed like the best one.

I've just barely begun an AGS game that I wanted to get some feedback on, but the thing is already 25 meg.  I've been looking for a place on the internet to upload it but everywhere I go, it will not allow me to upload files that are this large.  The .exe file is about 10 meg and the music.vox file is about 15 meg.  I can find plenty of free web hosting places that allow more than 25 meg max room, but I can't find anything where the individual files are allowed to be more than a meg or two apiece.

So, my question is: Does anyone know where the heck I can upload this thing?

The game itself, when finished, will be massive--probably between 150 and 200 meg.  This little thing right now is just sort of an example of the game environment--you can move around a few locations and hear the music samples that play, and that's it.  I just wanted to hear some input on what people thought of the graphics, music, and interface.

Thanks to anyone who can answer my question, and sorry if this thread is in the wrong place!  As soon as I can upload this thing I'll make it available here on these forums, along with a lot more info about the game.

--Mick

I am wondering--if I were to create a game with AGS and people downloaded it, is it possible to create a patch later to fix bugs or an expansion to add new rooms and puzzles?  Obviously I could release the game a second time with bugs fixed or expansions already added in, but then they would have to download the whole thing all over again.  What I'm looking for is a way for people to download JUST the updates and add them to the previously installed game.  Does anyone know if there is a way to do this?

I am wondering if there is a way in AGS to access an object in one room from a script in another room--i.e. a way to retrieve the values of the object's custom properties.  I see many uses for this ability but looking through the Help files cannot find a way to do it.  Can anyone tell me if this is possible?

Ah, excellent!  Thank you very much for your help!

I tried to make an if/then statement in a game where I wanted to see if a particular GlobalString held a particular value.  I know that it did hold this value because I entered it myself and even had the program display the GlobalString to test it.  My code was similar to:

string bufstring;
GetGlobalString(1, bufstring);
if (bufstring == "1") {
  // various commands
}

However, this if-then statement continued to return as false even though I had entered "1" in a TextBox, had the TextBox text stored to the GlobalString, and even had the game Display the contents of the GlobalString to test it (I got a "1" in the display box, so I know the storing worked).  I know that the value went correctly to bufstring too, because I had the program Display the bufstring.  Yet, the if statement continually returned as false (i.e. the commands within the statement did not happen) and I am trying to figure out why.

I already fixed this particular game by using StringToInt to convert to an integer and using the if-then on the integer instead, and that worked.  However, I am trying to figure out how to solve this problem for future projects where I will want to use an if-then on a string value that cannot be converted to an integer.

I hope that was easy to understand.  I have a difficult time describing these things sometimes.  Can anyone tell me what the problem was with my code?  I am thoroughly confused.

Thanks for the help guys, I will go apply this right away!

One thing I need to be able to do frequently in the game I am creating is turn off options for topics from OTHER topics.  i.e. the player picks a specific option in Topic 1, and that leads him to Topic 2.  In Topic 2 he picks another option, and this one (a) sends him back to Topic 1 and (b) turns off the option leading to Topic 2 so that it is no longer available.

Can anyone help me?  If you are still confused by what I mean, here's an example:

Jack can say "Hi", "Bye", or "Give me that money."  The last of these options results in the other person saying, "Why should I?", and Jack can then choose "Because I said so," or "Never mind, I don't want it."  Picking the first option results in Jack being given the money and takes him back to the first conversation menu, but now it only says "Hi" and "Bye", without the Money-demanding option.

Awesome game so far!  I am stuck and would love a copy of that walkthru, are you posting it anytime soon?

Thanks--it looks like it is working after all now!  I appreciate the help guys, and I'll be sure to post in these forums again if I bump into any more obstacles.

Ahhhhh!  Different sets of variables!  Thank you, that's the missing piece, and it never even occurred to me.  Attempting your solution now... hmmm, I am still having the same problem, the object is still not there.

I don't know anything about the scripting language--all I did was copy/paste your line and change the object # to 0, which is the number of the object in question.  Is there something else I need to do?  I tried adding "return", having programmed a bit in Java and C++ in my time, but that gave me an error.

Hey all!  Sorry if this question is posted elsewhere--I really did search and search first before posting here, and I did not see it anywhere.  I appreciate any help anyone can offer.

Obviously I am new to AGS.  To clarify the following problem, I have not used any script-coding in this game other than the dialog scripting.  Everything I did was through the graphic interface that comes with AGS.  My problem situation is that I want an object to become visible (and interact-able) in one room after the player says a certain thing in a conversation in a DIFFERENT room.  My method for doing this was (a) not have the "Initially visible" box checked for the object, (b) used "set-globalint 1 2" in the appropriate place in the dialog script, and (c) in the object's room, putting a "Conditional - Variable 1 = 2" thingy under "Player enters room (before fadeout)", and then "Switch object back on" as the child action for the conditional.  I hope all that made sense, it's hard for me to describe it all without visually demonstrating.

The object did start out invisible as planned, but the problem happened after having the other-room conversation and selecting the appropriate option.  At this point the object was supposed to become available in its room, but it did NOT.  I have checked and rechecked the obvious possible problems--set-globalint is definitely under the correct topic option, I definitely referred to Variable 1 as having a value of 2 in both cases, etc. etc.

Based on trial-and-error testing with the object, I think the problem lies in the dialog scripting or the variable itself somehow.

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong or offer possibilities?  Or if not, can anyone tell me an alternative way to accomplish what I'm trying to do here?

Thanks in advance to anyone who actually reads this whole thing and comments!