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Heh! I know man...

Im giving myself a long time to do this game because (after reading many many posts from people who are currently working on their own), its seems its the only way to go. Plus, many people have seemed to abandon games half-way through, probably under-estimating the effort and time creating a good game requires.

Ive actually pitched the idea about a year ago to the game company I work at (when we still had Vivendi as one of our publishers), but I got no news from anyone...so I let it go and decided just to do something myself, for fun.

I will try to contact Jim Walls actually...I dont know how, but I'll find a way. The worst case scenario, in my opinion, is I just wont use his characters/locations/background story from Police Quest 1 + 2 + 3...and get my own protagonist. Thats not a bad thing, just I wanted to capture the feel of the "Lytton Universe" once again, know what I mean? I guess thats not too bad an option, and the more I think about it, the better it seems. Perhaps I could mention "Sonny Bonds" as a long-lost cousin or something,

Ok, I think I understand a bit more. Im just wondering if those old sierra-game authors are really that "contactable"...I mean if I sent them a letter (if I can actually find out where they live first!)...will they respond, read it...care?

I dont plan on selling the game I would make, however I guess I kind of was thinking of adding a "donate" option for those who were interested, IF they wanted to...

I wonder how an optional "donate" feature would effect the legality of it all.

I guess then another option would be for me to change all the names and places, change the title...but keep the same "flavor"...I mean, if it were a police quest type game (which it most probably will be), if I called it Cop Quest, I wouldnt see how that could raise any flags (not saying Im going to name it that, just using that as an example). The idea of a police officer as the main character cant be copyrighted by Sierra, right?

If I include somewhere "based on the ideas of" or "inspired by" or "any events or similiarities are pure coincidences", would that offer some level of "protection"?

Anyways, I know these things can be tricky, the safest bet is to make 100% original content...its just that sometimes you get inspired by others people's work and its often difficult to remove those influences.

I guess the most important part of this question is...since sierra, vivendi no longer exists, who can sue for a sierra-based adventure game?

Did the Activision/Blizzard merger retain rights on the sierra quests line?

Sierra no longer exists...I believe they were bought by Vivendi (I think), and now Vivendi has been bought out by Activision (or merged together).

Can we still make games with their titles, such as King's Quest, etc...? I know there are remakes out there, but what does one have to do/not do so that a user-made game doesnt get pulled..."cease and desist", etc...or get sued by a company?

If all sprites, backgrounds, animation, etc...are originals, but we use the same "series" title, and use the same characters + locations + storyline...is that "ok"?

This is really great...thanks a lot for your work, its really cool!

I was thinking of this as Sonny's off-duty pic...some stubble and leather jacket...think he looks too bad-ass? I think its just right, in my opinion. Also, I updated Sonny's hair according to ProgZmax's suggestion. I desaturated the eyes a teeny bit aswell.

ProgZmax: Wow, so much better! You are right, I thought he looked a little too "hippy" aswell...I will take your image and get that fixed! Thanks, very helpful!

Hey Xenogia : I can show you some tips if you'd like...once I finally get a hang of AGS, my goal is to help out the community with what I know!

I havent had the time to test lips, hair, eyes, etc...but here is a brief look at what I have so far for the icon bar. The Sonny sprite is pretty much how I pictured him (in patrol uniform).

100% height is 240 pixels, so at 480x640, Im assuming this is OK...(?) In the pic below, you can see at 50%, Sonny will take up 1/4 of the screen.

I decided to make the portrait image around 80-90% of the screen when a character talks...that way lots of facial expressions can be used with detail...do you think this is a bad move, or a good one?

Are these good sizes, and perhaps some feedback on what you think of  the icon bar?

Its still a W.I.P so dont be shy to bash away


GarageGothic: haha, in that pic sonny looks really...uhh...I make-ah dah-pizza doh-ah, mama-mia....

Alright, Ill keep it simple and just make the full sprites!

By the way, what is considered a "big" exe file...and what would be "light"?

As in, what number would your game .exe have to be (approx) so that you can start saying "holy crap Im insane..."

I just want to make sure I dont go overboard with graphics + scripts, etc...and end up with an exe way too huge.

Hey Trent,

Ok, I'll definatly check that out, I have some knowledge of mel scripting (Maya script), so I think I might be able to get into it!

As  for the module, I tried it out and it works great! The only thing is, I cant seem to be able to place exactly where I want the text options to start. There is alignLeft, alignRight, and alignCenter (which works great), but if we want more control on where (in x position) the text options start...what then?

If its a feature not yet implemented, I'll ask the guy who wrote it, Im guessing its not too hard to add?

Ok, Ive checked the tutorials and searched similar questions in the beginner's forums. I didnt see exactly what I was looking for in the manual either. If its there, I seriously apologize in advance.

Ok, here goes:

Right now I have a custom GUI for displaying the dialog options. Its a text window GUI, with 8 images for the creation of the border. I put in B.S text for now, to test. It works, the only thing is I cant seem to be able to hard-set the general width of the dialog box. It seems to take the longest text option, and resizes itself to fit all options. It seems to be defaulted in the middle of the screen, like this image below:



What I would rather is that the options of text are diplayed, centered, within my own GUI that is 62 x 640, and placed at the bottom.

I can do this IF I choose to create a "new GUI" (not a text window), but then, however, the text options get placed in the lower-left hand corner of the window, and cant be centered.

Ive checked in here for some suitable answers without any luck.

So basically what Im asking is: How can I get the dialog options to fit centered into my text window, hard-fixing the height and width so its always the same height+width no matter what is in it, and displaying that gui at the bottom of the screen.

Of course Id implement a scroll feature inside the gui so that options that are hidden below can be accessed.

Thanks!

Wow Im such a newbie...DOH

I checked again, and I guess Im just WAY too tired...I was missing the last loop so I guess it could figure out what to use (upper-left loop).

Sorry bout that...thanks GG!

Problem: solved.

Heh.

Hi,

I have a character that has the 8 angles of movement...front, back, left, right, 3/4 up and left, 3/4 down and left, 3/4 up and right, 3/4 down and right.

The problem is when I test it out, it seems it doesnt know which loop to show...I click somewhere on the screen and the characters moves there, but uses a wrong loop.

In the preview, all the animations are ok. They have 11 frames per animation loop. In the character, diagonal loops are actived.

Is there something I did wrong/missing, etc...?

This is the first time I tried out diagonal movement. The basic 4 views works just fine.

Thanks for your help in advance!

(ps: I can send the character export if needed).

Hey, thanks for you comments people!

GarageGothic: Ok, Ill try some different lip versions and some eye colors desaturated to test out. Its funny you mentionned the glasses, I might have a scene or two with them...

Darth Mandarb: Aww man, I hate those buzcuts, lol! Ok, Ill see what can be done for that (butI'm not sure Ill stick with the crew cut!)...NO MUSTACHE, hehe!! perhaps a soul patch when hes undercover...ahem.

Hudders: Ok, I removed the name on the bottom, you're right, its redundant...GONE!

Dualnames: Thanks, I always thought the portrait pic from PQ3 of Sonny resembled Val a little bit...

Val Kilmer look-a-like, no? --->

Oh yeah...for sure!

Ive decided to let go a bit of the PQ4 style, and paint over my images to give it a more artistic look instead of too "photo-ish".

Here is my interpretation of what Sonny Bonds would look like.

I did a montage with Val Kilmer's features + tom cruise + matt damon...

What do you think, is it too much like Val, still? I dont want people to go "yah, thats WAY too much like Kilmer..."

Also, do you think I should put the character's name on the bottom like that or not?

Ok, thanks, Ill give that a shot!

I guess you're right though, it wont increase memory that much...so perhaps its just simpler to make the whole image...is that what most people do for blinking in the talk view (sierra-style)?

I was wondering if there is an "offset" function for placing sprites.

As an example, here is what I would want to do: (Temporary Rip from PQ3, Sonny Bonds)

I got the blinking view to work, but right now I have to use a blinking Sonny portrait with the animated part (mouth) transparent (pink color)...this is a waste of memory...I would much prefer using only the closed eyes as a sprite instead...and indicate with numerical values where I want this sprite to superimpose onto the underlying layers of Sonny's animated talk view.

Does this make any sense?

Here are 2 pics:
1st pic to show what I have now (which is a waste)
2nd pick is what I would rather use as the blinking view that would be super-imposed over the talking animation.



If there is this feature, it means I wont have to use same-size sprites for every animation when only small parts of an image are actually moving...therefore saving image space (and time).

Does something like this exist?

Thanks!

Hey thanks Xenogia...I got myself a copy of virtual dub...checkin it out now!

By the way, I noticed you're making a game on the Jonestown Conspiracy...man I'm pretty "obsessed" with that event, the death tape is pretty eerie...will it be in the game?

I love your graphics, if ever I have some technical questions, do you think I could ask some stuff?

Im pretty much the type of guy who will try everything out himself before "bugging" someone with questions, so dont worry, it will only be for something Im really stumped on!

Thanks! Its 320 x 200 right now, like the PQ4 resolution (I think). I'll try to get some more done in higher resolutions, to test out and see what you think.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!