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Actually, I don't want a typed description, the description will be default depending on where the player saves. Anyway, I have the saving part of this down. The only part that's a problem is finding out if there are saved files already er... in existance.

I didn't explain it very well to begin with, so sorry for that. I was really hoping nobody had replied to this because 5 minutes after I turned the net off, I realised my thinking was flawed For some reason, I was thinking that once text had been set in the game, it would stay like that next time by default. Blame hours and hours of scripting beforehand frying my brain.

So, I guess my new concern is whether I can see if a saved file exists, and if it's possible to read certain variables from them. If it's possible, I'd like to have a couple of variables like time elapsed and level (save game specific stuff, anyway) displayed at the start of the game.

EDIT: Actually, I was thinking, if that sort of thing is too difficult...

Would it be possible to, at the time of saving a game, write the variables I want displayed to a seperate file that's pulled up every time this save game dialogue is pulled up? I'm sorry if the answer to this is obvious from the manual, but all the File functions are very new to me.

I need to set 4 labels in a GUI to read "EMPTY" the very first time the game is run, and then differ every other time depending on what the player has saved (that part I can figure out on my own).

The way I figured I'd do this (since I couldn't just SetLabelText to "EMPTY" in game start, as it would do that every time) is by inputting some misc text like "Nothing" into the GUI labels in the GUI editor, and in game_start (I tried a lot of things before I got to this code):

Code: ags

SetLabelText (11, 4, saveslota);
StrCopy (placename, "EMPTY");

if (StrComp ("Nothing", saveslota)==0) {
StrFormat (saveslota, "%s", placename);
}

(I'm using StrFormat instead of directly putting "EMPTY" in with StrCopy because it's convenient for me in the future.)

Of course this doesn't work because saveslota hasn't been given a string yet, which I didn't think about at first. Is there some way to read whatever text is directly typed into the GUI labels' properties window?

The only other way I can think of is to make the label a list box instead, and then use a code like:

Code: ags

ListBoxGetItemText (11, 26, 1, saveslota);

StrCopy (placename, "EMPTY");

if (StrComp ("Nothing", saveslota)==0) {
StrFormat (saveslota, "%s", placename);
}

Which then leaves me with the problem of inputting text into the listbox for the first time the game is executed only.

Anyone? ^_^; I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Most likely, there already is in filmclips... in the music itself, I don't think so. People might mention products in music but they probably don't get paid for it.

Well, I was debating whether or not to do this when the game isn't close to being completed yet, but there is enough of it done to promise results so I figured, why not? It'd be nice to get some feedback.

-TITLE-

-INFO-
The game is called "Gift of Aldora" and is an RPG based mainly on the Enix style of SNES RPGs (free roaming, not tile-based, and not turn-based combat) but also including basic ideas taken from all my favourite RPGs and, of course, many of my own.

-STORY-
You play Kin, a guy living in the peaceful town of Boronia when one day you are approached by a girl named Kaya. She is a messenger sent by the controllers of Fate to find you. She tells you that the Master of Fate has dissapeared and as a result, the world is fading. It won't be long before everything is lost and the world ceases to exist. You are told that it is up to you to find him again before all is lost. What has happened to the master of Fate? What does destiny have in store for you? You and a companion must travel the world and find out.

-MORE INFO-
The battle system is live (as said before, not turn-based) and similar to the Secret of Mana/Terranigma style games. There will be (hopefully) a nice mix of role playing and combat. It will be completely keyboard controlled, and although the story is linear, there will be a reasonable amount of "extra" things to do and ways to change the story. The story will already deviate in certain ways depending on which companion you choose.

-SCREENSHOTS-

-SAMPLE MUSIC-
I'm not a musical person in the least, but I wanted everything in the game to be my own, so I've made 90% of the tracks myself. (Modgeulator did the theme music for me, which is -gorgeous- because he's a genius!)
http://kinoko.futariba.com/misc/home.mp3
http://kinoko.futariba.com/misc/icecave.mp3
http://kinoko.futariba.com/misc/porttown.mp3

I chose to upload these because they've already been posted in the critics forum, so it's not like they're a secret.

-WEBPAGE-
http://kinoko.futariba.com/games/gift/

-PROGRESS-
At this stage, it's probably about 25% completed, but it's hard to say.

-RELEASE DATE-
By end-2006 would be nice.

-DEMO-
Coming in the next few days!

I keeeeel you if you don't finish this game. It's looks so good @_@

Holy hell,  those graphics are amazing. Like said before, it really does look like an old Sierra game! Sounds like a fantastic game, I hope it turns out to be as good on the whole as it looks here.

What do you expect.. Alot of movies do product placement. It's how studios make money ._.

Sure it is. Along with the huge bitching profit they make from cinema goers in the first place, and then all of the various movie/merchandise related sales after that.

LGM, are you defending them? I hate the argument, "That's the way it is". It's not necessary and it cheapens movies, so I think people have every right to be disgusted/annoyed/confused by it, whether it's a product they like or not. If that wasn't what you meant, then fine... I'm just getting a heads up on the argument. ^_^

I think the only kind of movie it works well in is a movie like Evolution, where they're making fun of the whole product placement thing.

My foreround colour is red (because I'd like red text), my background colour is 0. So that can't be it, unless you were implying that there simply -being- a foreground colour is the problem...

He makes a good point ^_^ I was literally sitting there at the start of the movie with my mouth open, shocked at how utterly blatant the advertising was. It made me want to find Converse and force them to advertise latest release movies on their shoes.

I don't know... again, that's kind of messy. I really just need the ability to make a text window transparent. For now, I'll change the text style in game but I think I'll hang out for a future version of AGS with something a little more workable.

As I understand it, repeatedly_execute_always can't take blocking functions, and I need to use some AnimateCharacters in there...

Thanks for the code suggestion Steve. I'm gonna give the CCS plugin a go first, but if not, I'll try your code.

EDIT: CCS works fine, I'll be using that ^_^ Thanks though.

Thanks CJ. If I could make a suggestion (I'll assume for now that you said, 'Yes')...

Could you possibly increase the max. character limit? Even though it IS quite high right now, I'm almost definitely going to exceed it, even being conservative. Maybe to 250? Even 200 would be great...

Also... would an increase in total views be okay? ^_^

Thanks...

EDIT: One more thing relating to this topic -> http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=15382.0

I'm not sure whether there's a possible solution to this problem, but off hand, would it be possible to make a text window transparent (without the "black square"?

I have a character that I'd like to have move in the background (so, non-blocking) on a certain path, repeatedly, doing a little animation every now and again. I've written this is a function, but when I place the function in the room under "Repeatedly execute", the game kind of jumps a bit, and the character basically freezes in it's first movement. I put the function in the "After fade in" section of the room script, with a script to tell it that if the function is not currently happening, to happen. I'm not sure if I've done this right or not, but that basically does the same thing (character just freezes).

This is the function:

Code: ags

function BlueButterfly () {
Ã,  MoveCharacter (BLUEBUTT, 380, 166);
Ã,  MoveCharacterPath (BLUEBUTT, 360, 186);
Ã,  MoveCharacterPath (BLUEBUTT, 325, 155);
Ã,  SetCharacterView (BLUEBUTT, 16);
Ã,  AnimateCharacter (BLUEBUTT, 0, 1, 0);
Ã,  ReleaseCharacterView (BLUEBUTT);
Ã,  MoveCharacter (BLUEBUTT, 334, 149);
Ã,  MoveCharacterPath (BLUEBUTT, 343, 184);
Ã,  SetCharacterView (BLUEBUTT, 16);
Ã,  AnimateCharacter (BLUEBUTT, 0, 1, 0);
Ã,  ReleaseCharacterView (BLUEBUTT);
Ã,  }

...and here's the code in the room script:

Code: ags

BlueButterfly ();

if (BlueButterfly()==(0)) {
Ã,  BlueButterfly ();
Ã,  }

Any ideas?

I'd make it even longer than that because 3 young children off the coast of Australia recently swam 3kms twice within a few days in order to save their lives after a boat sinking.  Mind you, that wasn't the Bermuda Triangle... but still, food for thought. I guiess it depends on exactly how he ends up crossing the distance between the islands in the end.

On the -N-Gage- of all abominations... *puke*

Thanks guys. Well, I feel pretty good about the ice cave music ^_^ I changed the main "pipey" instrument in the port town music (at the start) to a milder instrument and it does sound much better now. The town will be busy and that's the image I was going for so... well, I'll see how it goes once it's playable and I can really get a feel for how it works. I've done a few more songs now and I think they're coming out okay. As much as I'd like opinions on them, I think I'll leave the rest to the imagination until the game comes out

Thanks again!

LT- Will be posting a "Games in Production" post about this shortly... once I get a title screen finalised, I guess.

Thanks for that. I'll give it a go and see how it works out. It's not my er... ideal way of doing this though, it's rather messy changing the text style mid-game SO often (and this will be often). I'd still really prefer just a way to make the background transparent...

Man, what a game. I'm not finished yet but I had other plans to work on my own game today that just got shattered once I started playing this. Yahtzee has a real knack for 'on-the-edge' atmosphere, and the game is extremely professional, just like '5 Days'. I have to say, I don't find the safety procedure with the clip annoying at all, but I guess that's because it's nowhere near as bad as the mundane things I've had to do in other games.

I'm so jealous at this guy's writing >_< It's just good, simple game storyline that keeps you wanting to play throughout the whole game.

Hmm, that's not what I was thinking of, then. Looks cool though. Plus, that description mentioned one of my all-time favourite old games ever - International Karate!!! ^_^

EDIT: Found it! It was "Frankie Goes to Hollywood"... man. I hope that game's really as good as I remember.

To the both of you: More info, please ^_^ You need to tell me just -what- you've done, instead of saying "everything". Have you both read the walkthrough? Have you both got the latest version, v.1.4? (check the readme file).