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[around]

I've recently decided to finally create a webcomic page and I spent all of last night going from:

- What the fuck is a PHP and an SQL? A program?? A language?? An animal??? WHY CAN'T SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME?!?

to a much more composed:

- I have created a MySQL on my host, uploaded a pre-written PHP script and created a more-or-less functional webcomic.


So, now my goal is to modify the Comic Shout template to my suitings.

What I'm hoping is that I can basically create a HTML page (I'm comfortable with HTML) around the PHP code... but I've been trying and I really can't figure out whether I should be modifying index.php or the template's index.php os the css or... what!

So I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction. I'm using Dreamweaver 8 and I just cannot figure out how to get started. The Comic Shout forums aren't terribly populated and I can't find any "How to"s that really help me.

[OH MY GOD!]

OH MY GOD!

I've been waiting to be allowed to tell you guys about this - there's a new and very awesome website called Eegra and here are some reasons you should be clicking on that link:





or Sonic the Hedgehog doing a dance!

or the Booth Babe Gallery!





Thank me later! It's okay.

Last week, I copied the contents of a an old CD simply titled 'Caribbean' to my computer and was listening to it today while I studied. It's like hippie rainforest music but Caribbean-esque so it's like a very subtle Monkey Island soundtrack in parts.

Anyway, track 10 is really bothering me. I KNOW this melody and I can't for the life of me remember what it is. I have no titles on these tracks and I couldn't find the CD on Amazon.com to check.

I just had a "brain wave" a minute ago and thought, "It's Erana's Peace from QFG1!" but of course it wasn't, just similar.

Can anyone help me out?

http://kinokofry.com/misc/track10.mp3

I apolagise in advance for the whales. It's the most hippy-ish song on the CD.

[mine]

This year, Patrick and myself did the 24 Hour Comic Challenge.

Did anyone else do it? Where's your comic?



It hardly matters anyway because this is mine!

http://chickennation.com/misc_crap/becca24hr/

Please comment here or on my LJ here to make me feel like a movie star: http://kinokofry.livejournal.com

The cover was done outside of the 24 Hours but since it's the 25th page, it's all good.


Patrick Alexander's comic, "Mr Fuzzywhee" can be thoroughly enjoyed here: http://community.livejournal.com/chickennation/24316.html

I want an Xbox360. Right now. It bothers me that I could be playing Ninja Gaiden and N3 and Bioshock and other great games right now... and yet I'm not.

I could go straight out right now and buy one but... I hesitate. The technical problems that original releases of the 360 have are my primary concern.

I live in Japan and Microsoft is very unpopular here. How can I trust that an Xbox 360 I pick up in a store here won't be an older model?

So, is there a way for me to know by looking at the box whether I'm getting a decent model?

Any tips? I'll order one online if I must.

[ME]

Who went to TGS this year?

Anyone?

On the very secret and exclusive press days?

Hmm?


Hmm. Only ME, then.

I went with pet monkey, Patrick Alexander (some of you may know him as the creator of Raymondo Person and Chu-chi, others may remember the time he insulted their grandmothers and broke beer bottles over their cats' heads), who was there on official MYSTERY PROJECT business (it's extremely interesting, and you'll all have to wait another week before you know what I'm talking about).

We sat in the very exclusive Namco Bandai booth which was cordoned off because we were special and everyone else might have infected us with their Normal. I got to see some interesting trailers for some games I cared about, and others that I wouldn't piss on had they suddenly been engulfed in flames. I met a VERY nice man who worked there and he told me secrets.

Mysterious secret secrets about the industry.

We checked out some of the other company booths but mostly they were crap. I did play the Ninja Gaiden DS demo and received an EXCLUSIVE UNIQUE poster for my trouble.

However, for the most part, it was tedious commercial crap that you will hear about a thousand times from the hundreds of biased game news media that spent their time frantically covering it. We spent our time checking out the student games for the most part, and that was really interesting. I wish I could show you guys some of the games... well, perhaps I can later as we got CDs containing many of them. Anyway, this is for the future. Calm down. Go have a beer. Relax.

For now, here are some photos.













There, wasn't that fun?

Emily Enough is being featured on TIGSource - neato! Well done.

How many other AGS games have been reviewed there? I remember Linus Bruckman but I don't personally know of many others apart from that.

http://tigsource.com/articles/2007/08/31/emily-enough-imprisoned

[The Desolate Room]

Since I've been starting too many threads lately, let me combine two things into one amazing thread!

Firstly, everyone should play this game - The Desolate Room: http://tigsource.com/articles/2007/08/24/the-desolate-room

Secondly, this looks amazing: http://www.insanelytwistedshadowplanet.com/

Uh... don't you think? I think so! Do you think so too? I think so.

(I uh, I know many of you read TIGSource, but for those who don't, these are two things I want to share)

Any speakers of dutch that can give me the gist of this?

http://www.bright.nl/bosjes-en-bergen-windmolens-sieren-landschap

I am -fascinated- with this:

Isotown!

http://www.isotown.net/index.php

It's awesome.

A webcomic, basically watching a town grow and grow. I highly recommend you go and read it from the beginning.

I'm interested in having a discussion with both music and mostly programmer types about making a rhythm game with AGS (or any other software if it comes down to it).

This is not some secret project or anything, but I've been thinking of doing a rhythm game for awhile and I had a good, long think about it today. This is my thinking summed up:

As far as just a basic engine goes, let's imagine just a background with some kind of interactive music staff across it, with birds (representing the notes) flying across the screen. Different keys represent the 5 notes and when the notes hit a certain line in the middle of the screen, the player must hit the appropriate key.

Simple, simple, simple.

So, as far as the engine goes, we need those notes to match up with a music track being played, otherwise it's not much of a rhythm game. This is the tricky part and the bit where I need to get a little dialogue going.

In my imagination, ideally, I see it working like this.

You have a musical program with which you create a simple track of music, comprised of, for simplicity's sake, 5 notes. This software has the ability to produce a text document representing your music with, you know, letters and numbers and such which correspond to the notes and timing.

Then, you write your game engine to be able to read and intepret these text files and have the game mechanics correspond.

That's my imagination. That's the way I see it happening, but I don't have the knowledge of programming nor audio software to know if this can be done.

Is this possible OR is there another way? I'm really interested in YOUR thoughts on this.

Okay.

Song from perhaps 2000-2002-ish, I think. It was hip hop or some such. Black guys singing. I have a feeling the chorus was referencing hammering or jigsaws or wrenches... some kind of tool or tool like action. Maybe.

The filmclip was set in a bar and then, I think, on a street at night. There were female dancers doin' their thangs and DEFINITELY there was a wooden puppet doll like sorta singing these one liners.

Does -anyone- know the song I mean? It's driving me nuts.

P.S. Oh, and it definitely featured some sortof honky tonk saloon-esque piano

[laughable]

Angus and Robertson is one of the big leading book store chains in Australia. I'd say that for at least a time, they were the biggest but that may just have been my own perception. I used to shop there a lot as a kid and since then, they've been going downhill. Their stores are irritating and poorly stocked. Prices high.

Now this.

In short, A&R has sent a letter to many small publishers invoicing them for between $2,500 to $100,000 just to maintain a business relationship, stating these publishers' books are not bringing in an acceptable level of profit.

Of course, many people are very pissed off.

I for one can scarcely imagine a worse decision for A&R to make. It's laughable.

One such publisher, Tower records, has written a letter of reply that is just stunningly beautiful to read. It is, as someone commented, practically a literary work in itself.

I encourage you all to read it here, even if you don't have much of an interest in the story: http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/archives/undercover/014948.html

Here's some of it:


I have to say that my initial response on reading your letter as to how you propose to "manage" your business in the future was one of voluble hilarity, I literally burst out laughing aloud. My second response was to note the unmitigated arrogance of your communication, I could not actually believe I was reading an official letter from Angus & Robertson on an Angus & Robertson letterhead.

My reply to you will perforce be a lengthy one. I hope you will take the trouble to read it, you may learn something. Then again, when I look at the level of real response we have had from Angus & Robertson over the past six or so years, I somehow doubt it.

The first thing I would say to you is that arrogance of the kind penned by you in your letter of 30 July is an unenviable trait in any officer of any company, no matter how important that individual thinks himself or his company, no matter how dominant that company may be in its market sector. Business has a strange habit of moving in cycles: today's villain may be tomorrow's hero. It is quite possible to part from a business relationship in a pleasant way leaving the door open for future engagement. Sadly, in this case, you have slammed and bolted it.

More to the point, however, we have watched our business with Angus & Robertson dwindle year upon year since 2000. We had to wear the cost of sub-economic ordering from you through ownership changes, SAP installation, new management, and stock overhang. In summary our business with you has dropped from over $1.2 million at the end of 2000 to less than $600,000 in 2007.

You would be quite correct to question whether our offering to the market had changed in any way. The answer can be derived from the fact that during the same period our business with Dymocks, Book City, QBD and Borders continued to grow in double digits, our business with your own franchise stores has grown healthily, and our overall business during the same period has grown by more than 50%.


Go on. Read the rest. You'll enjoy it.

I'm using an old piece of public domain music in a game and I need to get some rather nasty pops and clicks out of it.

The song is "Nashville Nightingale" by the Charleston 7, and I can only point you here: http://www.archive.org/details/Charleston7 because my FTP isn't working.

I'd really appreciate if any of you could help out.

I posted about this at the end of last year and largopredator helped me with the problem, but I've recently started looking at my music again and I'd like to see if I can get it improved even more.

Here's the old thread with largo's version: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=29467.0

Sory, I couldn't resist copying the style of subject.

Yesterday, I went out and bought a second hand mandolin. I don't play any instrument, and I got up that morning thinking I would go out and get a ukulele. When I got to the place, they didn't have any ukuleles, only 2 mandolins. Oh dear, such a pity (insane sarcasm there!).

So I got one and played with it a bit and tried for hours to tune it (there are great videos on youtube) and took the strings off and cleaned it and restrung it (expertly done, I might add) and tuned it again. Then I learned a couple of chords which I will practise until I can do them in my sleep.

One problem - I'm left handed. It didn't occur to me until I was about to restring the first E-string that I couldn't restring the mandolin to be left handed thanks to the extra frets. I did a little reading about it, some people say it makes almost no difference to the sound so you might as well do it anyway but I chose to restring it right-handed again and thought I would try and learn it that way.

It's a round backed mandolin, btw ^_^ Cheap but pretty.

But, I don't know. Any mandolin players out there? Any LEFT handed mandolin players with any further advice or suggestion?

Hey, how're you guys doing?

I haven't been here for a really long time apart from the very occasional glance through.  I'm not even sure how long it's been. I suddenly got the urge to see what was going on and I found a bunch of mail from people asking how I was and I thought that was rather nice so I just wanted to say that I appreciate it.

For anyone who's interested, I've been spending my time designing a couple of commercial games. I got a job with Konami as a translator and ended up having some higher ups discover my great game ideas and... well, one thing led to another and now I head a small team of designers.

Oh, wait, where am I? Sorry, I fell asleep... must have been dreaming.

Weird.

Anyhow, I got a job at a great company (small, very casual and awesome English school) last year and have been working there, living in Shizuoka with my roommate and good friend, and have had many adventures and good times. Been trying to study, do a lot of art and work on game ideas in the meantime.

I'm still working on the same game idea I probably was when I left here and it's what I intend to do for most of today. I'd like to get it finished and out of the way to do some more things.

Recently my dear friends in Australia sent me copies of Curse of Monkey Island (which seems to have a fucking bug in the menu system and won't let me play the game), Full Throttle (which I played for the first time ever the other day), and Grim Fandango (replacement copy for the one of mine this guy lost). I guess playing FT might have put AGS in my mind a bit more so, well, I hope you're all doing well and being productive and creative and PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF IMAGINATION AND INNOVATION, MY REVOLUTIONARY COMRADES!

Also, my cat, Sophie, went missing (we assume dead) about 3 months ago, but 2 days ago, I found and rescued a little 3 week old ginger kitten which I'm nursing back to health now. He's the most adorable and well behaved thing on the planet, so uh, if anyone knows someone in Japan that needs some kitten lovin', please let them know 'cause I need to find a home for him.

Anyway, I'm gonna go look around a little and see what you poor, sad losers have been doing with your copious amounts of unemployment time besides eating pringles and making crossover Lucasarts remakes with Buffy cameos.

*love cuddles*

I was reminded tonight, thinking about exactly what it is that I often like in games, of three computer games from my childhood.

I played zillions of games during my childhood as I had a very early start on the whole business, but these three were very different because I played them when I was in grade 1 or possibly 2, so were talking 1989-ish here.

I have very distinct memories of these games because they ENTRANCED me so. I can picture their visual style and many things about them, but I have no idea of specifics that would actually help me search for them. I was about 6 years old, so I have no idea what the system was, except that it was a "computer", and they may well have simply been games that circulated on the educational scene.

1. This game was probably the most basic, visually. I think it had a plain black background with simple coloured paths and whatnot drawn on each screen. You were a zoo keeper or something, in a zoo, and you had to feed the animals. I think maybe time was involved somewhere, like feeding the right animal at the right hour, but I dunno. Great game, but the least favourite of the three I'm talking about here.

2. This game was set in a mouse's house - an English cottage style white 2 storey house if memory serves tea. You had to go from room to room, or possibly out the back into the garden, to find this mouse. I think you basically clicked on various objects until you found him. The rooms were cluttered and there were seemingly endless places to look. I have a very strong feeling the title was, "---'s House", --- being the mouse's name, which could very well have been something cliched like Morton or something.

3. You had to look for a little girl who was playing hide and seek with you. From memory, all outside scenes where you would say be looking down a country oad with a barn and trees on the side of the road. I think you were given clues about where she was hiding perhaps, and again just clicked on places until you found here.

These last two in particular gave me WONDERFUL memories and had an amazingly mysterious feel to them for a 6 year old.

If anyone can shed any light on these games for me, it'd be much appreciated.

Probably not the right forum, but I can't see anywhere else to put this.

Just wondering if anyone can help me get the pops out of this track of music. I tried with Goldwave, forgetting that I actually have no idea how to use the program. Any genius sound engineers know enough to cover these pops and clicks up enough that they're barely noticable?

The song is "Nashville Nightingale" by the Charleston 7, a public domain track that I'll be using in a game.

Here: Download

I'm choosing some music for my new game, and I have three tracks that I pulled from archive.org which I'm interested to find translations for. Unfortunately, I don't have the lyrics for you, all I can do is upload them. The first two, as far as I can tell, are French, and the third is German.

If anyone with a lot of spare time could translate these, even very roughly for me, I'd really appreciate it. If not, no biggie but it would be nice to know what they say before I make some decision to include them in my game.

Seigfried Gautier - Jim
Seigfried Gautier - Anniversaire
...someone or other - Der Funkdoc

EDIT: Links fixed, thanks Matt

Is it already possible to do this? If not, I think it'd be useful.

My game will have a control panel for the music where you can increase or decrease the music volume from between -3 to 5 (the game error message told me -3 to 5, but the manual says -3 to 3 ... which is it? I must admit, I don't hear a difference between 3, 4 and 5 but can someone confirm this for me?)

I intend to also have a "Music On/Off" button which will allow you to, obviously, stop or restart the music.

It's not a big deal at all, but it seems to me that it would feel more natural if you could actually go one value lower than -3 when lowering the volume to actually mute the music. I can't just use StopMusic because when you increase the value again, the music will have started again from the beginning.

Although there's almost certainly a work-around for this, I think it'd be a good idea to simply have avalue of -4 for mute, if it's possible.