Messages

I'm playing around with the Random() function and in a lot of cases, it'd be  much easier for me if there were a minimum parameter as well as a maximum parameter. I'm not sure why there isn't already, is there an obvious work around? Or is it just much more difficult to build into the function? Just wondered

I have plenty of samples of game music I'm after, but how can I use that to make my own?

Rather than use plain old hum-drum MIDI, I wanted to create the music for my SNES-style RPG with the original SNES sounds. I was wondering if it would be possible to get some program that simulates the same "instruments" game makers back in the day (specifically, the SNES day o_o) had to work with. This is a little out of my league, all this music bahjumboozle... so if I'm way off on the way it works, don't hurt me! Playing SNES games for so long, you get to know all the individual sounds that crop up over and over rather well, and I'd really like to be able to use them to create my own game music.

[specific]

I'd like in my TypeLine function for a specific key (X - 88) to have to be pushed before the overlay is removed, as opposed to any keypress at all doing it.

At the moment, the code is like:

Code: ags

function TypeLine (int message, int vspacing, int xpos, int font, int colour, int width, int delay, int wait) {
string line;
GetMessageText(message, line);

SetTextWindowGUI(1);
//declare local vars
Ã,  int length=0;
Ã,  int i = 0;
Ã,  string displayedline;
Ã,  int textid = 0;
//initialise vars , overdoing it a bit ;-)
Ã,  length = 0;Ã,  
Ã,  i=0; 
Ã,  StrCopy(displayedline,"");
Ã,  textid = CreateTextOverlay(xpos,100,400,font,colour,displayedline);

Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  //get string length, to know how long the loop must run
Ã,  length=StrLen(line); //set string length
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, //start loop
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, SetGlobalInt(0,1);
while((i<length) && (1||(WaitKey(delay)==0))) {
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, // pick character at position "i"and stick it at the end of string "displayed line"
Ã,  Ã,  StrFormat(displayedline, "%s%c", displayedline, StrGetCharAt(line,i));
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, //set textoverlay as displayedline
Ã,  Ã,  SetTextOverlay(textid,xpos,vspacing,width,font,colour,displayedline); 

Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, // if a space is added to the string do not play a sound, else play a 'tick'
Ã,  Ã,  if (StrGetCharAt(line,i) == ' '){
Ã,  Ã, }
Ã,  Ã, else{
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  PlaySound(1);
Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, //increase the loop counter
Ã,  Ã,  i++;Ã,  
[b]Ã,  Ã, if (i==length) if (wait>0) WaitKey(wait);
Ã,  Ã, else if (wait == -1) while (WaitKey(100) == 0) { }[/b]
Ã,  Ã, }
 RemoveOverlay(textid);
 SetGlobalInt(0,0);
 Wait(5);
}

Can I incorporate a (IsKeyPressed(88) ==1) line into it or something?

(downloading sample later)

Ooh, nice cover art... who did it? That font looks so familiar...

Ooh, another dark type story. I can't wait. Well, I can, I'll wait patiently

The BG art does look good, I love the style with thick, dark outlines and you have a good sense of perspective if the first pic is anything to go by. If you're not already planning on doing so, I'd suggest trying to make most, if not all of your backgrounds like that.

Only crit - I'd make the text on the page thinner (not as thick as the outlines on objects) to make it more like it's actually been written, and maybe a little neater.

Yes, I have two places in my heart for both Sierra and Lucasarts Plus, a few other equal sized chambers for various other kinds og games. Then, I have all these other chambers for other hobbies, and verious people I love, and things I like about the world... This heart of mine is just ENORMOUS, I tell ya. I flatten cities just by facing different directions.

It's an absolutely fantastic concept. Not entirely original, but I just love your "doll" design. Honestly, if I saw that on the cover of a game in a store, I'd buy it in a second.  Am I right in thinking the game itself is called, "Doll"? Even better, if so.

Er, I have to agree with Petteri, that introductory paragraph is VERY hard to read. The story is great, but it needs even more work to make it um.... not annoying to read. You need to break your sentences up more.

I also agree that it's best to do as much work as you can before posting about your game. Try to complete individual rooms before posting shots of them, and don't give away too much info about the game, because it'll be more fun for people to play then

Don't give up though! I love the idea... try to put as much work into making this a good quality game as you can!

Most of those backgrounds are hand-painted and then scanned onto a computer and touched-up. It's really artistic ability that makes them more than anything.

Thanks, I understand now. Works great ^_^

Awesome stuff! ^_^

Rave, I LOVE you. ^_^

(...WUSS!)

^_^

I haven't played the game so I can't comment on whether I think it's good or bad, but I gather the general concensus is that it's an alright game but nothing revolutionary.

I had to totally agree with CM on the point of people constantly doing things like this. When I was a kid, I saw a couple of gothic type versions of Alice in Wonderland and thought, "Ah yeah, cool". To this day, I've probably come across hundreds of stories/ short films/ artworks / etc that parody the original story putting a "dark" twist on it, and I'm just so utterly sick of it by now It's one of those things people think "Wow! I'm being sooooo original" with, and it just makes me groan and roll my eyes. If someone just wants to do something artsy with it, fair enough, but I just can't stand people thinking they're doing something original.

Also, like has been said, the original books weren't that weird (in a "dark" sense), and they were BORING. I remember reading them for the first time and just being so utterly disappointed. All the shows and movies I'd seen led me to believe that the books must be fantastical, well-written journeys... they were just so average. I give the guy kudos for the ideas in it, but the writing and execution just bores me to tears. (Unlike the Oz books, which are freaking unbelievably wonderful! ^_^).

I still want to have a go at the game at some point, but I'd just love to see someone do a nice, relatively innocent version of the books for a change, instead of being so "OMG im so dark & goth!!1" about it.

You know, it doesn't really matter which team wins or loses, as long as we all agree that Fittler and Gould are annoying bastards.

That will solve the problem of the character moving when the GUI is up, (thanks!) what what about all the other hundreds of things that could be happening at any time in the game? I understand that this is stopping the character I control, but there will be character/enemies moving about by themselves and at various times attacking me. Will these things be stopped as well with the popup modal etc? Also, what if say, an enemy character is in the middle of a particular animation leading to an attack. Will this freeze the movement, or just stop him from continuing after it's done?

(Sorry to sound pushy I don't have any of these characters or systems made up yet so I can't test them myself and I'm just not entirely sure how this works yet).

[if (IsGamePaused() == 1) keycode=0;]

Hmm, well my whole game is based on key presses (mouse isn't used at all).

I need keypresses to be available normally and while the GUI is up (even if it's only the certain keys needed to navigate the GUI at that time).

Basically, I want the game in the background to effectively freeze when the GUI is up. Not just stop responding to things, I'd like it to freeze on whatever it's currently doing (even if it's in the middle of an animation or something). As far as I understand it, this is currently what PauseGame() does normally. I just need control over the GUI while this is happening.

I'm writing this thinking about how impossible I'm sure it is... but I wanted to ask just in case there was something I couldn't think of (which is also very likely).

EDIT: In normal gameplay, the arrow keys held down move the character. They also move from option to option in the GUI. As it was, if I opened the GUI, the arrow keys would move them both (you'd see the character walking around underneath the GUI as you choose various options - which is not what I want). Also, I couldn't use other keypresses (X, Z, etc) to choose options in the GUI. It seems only the arrow keys worked.

I changed the GUI to popup modal, and commented out the if (IsGamePaused() == 1) keycode=0;  line.

Now, the character doesn't move when I navigate around the GUI, and the X and Z keys etc. work fine, but the game still isn't -paused- as such beneath the GUI. The character doesn't walk, but he does face different directions when I use the arrow keys.

I'll post the section of global script this relates to:

Code: ags

#sectionstart on_key_press  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function on_key_press(int keycode) // called when a key is pressed. keycode holds the key's ASCII code
  {
//  if (IsGamePaused()==1) keycode=0; // game paused, so don't react to keypresses
  if (keycode==17) QuitGame(1); // Ctrl-Q
//  if (keycode==363) SaveGameDialog(); // F5
//  if (keycode==365) RestoreGameDialog(); // F7
  if (keycode==367) RestartGame(); // F9
  if (keycode==434) SaveScreenShot("scrnshot.pcx");  // F12
//  if (keycode==9) show_inventory_window(); // Tab, show inventory
  if (keycode==19) Debug(0,0); // Ctrl-S, give all inventory
  if (keycode==22) Debug(1,0); // Ctrl-V, version
  if (keycode==1) Debug(2,0); // Ctrl-A, show walkable areas
  if (keycode==24) Debug(3,0); // Ctrl-X, teleport to room
  
//////////////////////////////GUI STUFF////////////////////////////////////

if ((IsGUIOn(2)==0) && (keycode==83)) {
//PauseGame();
  GUIOn(2);
  ListBoxSetSelected(2,0,0);
}
else if ((IsGUIOn(2)==1) && (keycode==83) && (IsGUIOn(3)==0) && (IsGUIOn(4)==0) && (IsGUIOn(5)==0) && (IsGUIOn(6)==0)) {
  GUIOff(2);
//UnPauseGame();
}

///////declaring buffer
string buffer;
ListBoxGetItemText (2,0,ListBoxGetSelected(2,0),buffer);
///////

if ((IsGUIOn(2)==1) && (IsGUIOn(3)==0) && (IsGUIOn(4)==0) && (IsGUIOn(5)==0) && (IsGUIOn(6)==0) && ((IsKeyPressed(380)==1) || (IsKeyPressed(50)==1)))  {
  if (StrComp("ITEMS",buffer)==0) {
    ListBoxSetSelected (2, 0, 1);
    }
  else if (StrComp("MAGIC",buffer)==0) {
    ListBoxSetSelected (2, 0, 2);
    }
  else if (StrComp("STATS",buffer)==0) {
    ListBoxSetSelected (2, 0, 3);
    }
  else if (StrComp("EQUIP",buffer)==0) {
    ListBoxSetSelected (2, 0, 0);
    }
}

else if ((IsGUIOn(2)==1) && (IsGUIOn(3)==0) && (IsGUIOn(4)==0) && (IsGUIOn(5)==0) && (IsGUIOn(6)==0) && ((IsKeyPressed(372)==1) || (IsKeyPressed(56)==1)))  {
  if (StrComp("ITEMS",buffer)==0) {
    ListBoxSetSelected (2, 0, 3);
    }
  else if (StrComp("MAGIC",buffer)==0) {
    ListBoxSetSelected (2, 0, 0);
    }
  else if (StrComp("STATS",buffer)==0) {
    ListBoxSetSelected (2, 0, 1);
    }
  else if (StrComp("EQUIP",buffer)==0) {
    ListBoxSetSelected (2, 0, 2);
    }
}

if ((IsGUIOn(2)==1) && (StrComp("ITEMS",buffer)==0) && (keycode==88)) {
  GUIOn(3);
}

else if ((IsGUIOn(2)==1) && (StrComp("MAGIC",buffer)==0) && (keycode==88)) {
  GUIOn(4);
}

else if ((IsGUIOn(2)==1) && (StrComp("STATS",buffer)==0) && (keycode==88)) {
  GUIOn(5);
}

else if ((IsGUIOn(2)==1) && (StrComp("EQUIP",buffer)==0) && (keycode==88)) {
  GUIOn(6);
}

if ((IsGUIOn(3)==1) && (keycode==90)) {
  GUIOff(3);

}
if ((IsGUIOn(4)==1) && (keycode==90)) {
  GUIOff(4);

}
if ((IsGUIOn(5)==1) && (keycode==90)) {
  GUIOff(5);

}
if ((IsGUIOn(6)==1) && (keycode==90)) {
  GUIOff(6);

}

The first game was in NSW, I was in NSW, NSW won
2nd game was in QLD, I was in QLD, QLD won
Decider was in NSW, I was in NSW, NSW won

Aww, you were here for the second game? Should've told me, I would've looked out for you in the crowd and waved my Maroon-ey awesomeness at you! ^_^

I would have liked to see Fitler go out a loser (and coach Gould), but I'm still glad the Blues won.

Yeah, he's such a freaking dick. See how he milked that one try he got? (Because it was just so amazing, I've never seen such a difficult try in all my life... grabbing the ball and running uncontested less than 20m). I didn't mind losing that game so much, but I just groooaned when he got that because I knew it was gonna make his freaking comeback seem worth it to him, and we were gonna be seeing it on the news over and over. I feel bad for the rest of the Blues team because that one stupid try will be the one people refer to when talking about the win. It's like he's riding on everyone else's coat tails...

By the way, what was up with all those cuts on Gould's face? Looked like a bad shaving mishap.

Anyway, congrats NSW We'll see you all again next year, and get our shield back, bwahahaha!

Clowns >_< They scare me. Every since some big, hairy foreign guy in slimey make-up came up to me at a circus when I was a little kid... *shiver*

"If you should die before you wake..."

I'd like to be able to have a GUI you can turn on at almost any point in the game, and when this GUI is on, everything going on in the background pauses. If I use PauseGame() with the opening and closing of the GUI, it works fine except I can't use keypresses to navigate around and use the GUI. Is there any way around this?