Messages

Hahah. It was a fun video to make. I'm actually really new to editing videos and such (as I'm sure was obvious) but it was a good time in the making. Even if it's not something that fetches a lot of views, I think it's good to get these games out there. I'll be sure to add their links to the description, too. I'll definitely have to do more of those with higher quality and a bit more of a personal commentary, maybe a play through rather than a few words.

Jim Reed: Are you sure that the darker shade is supposed to be more saturated? That sounds wrong according to my gut, eye and what I've read on other forums.

Hue shifting simply also mimics reality; sunlight is pretty much white with a bit of yellow, so stuff exposed to sunlight is a bit warmer/more yellow.

Domithan:
So these backgrounds are going to end up as being 200x160 with a big black border?

Essentially, yes.

I actually finally got off my butt and did a let's play/review that includes this and another AGS game, "The Wife Who Wasn't There" if you'd like to see it. It's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f773c6NE0D8

(I apologize for my long intro. )

You've all given great input once again, thank you. I'm still playing with them. As far as y lighting effects (or lack thereof) I'm honestly not quite sure how to go about it. At the moment I'm using a combo of MSpaint and Gimp. The gimp effects seem too harsh and overbearing on such small resolutions, and in paint, I'm really having issues making subtle lighting effects. I mean, see those crappy gradients I made? bleh.

Alrighty, gave it some attention. I have to say that unfortunately I'm very confused. It's hard to get a sense of direction when you're dropped into a living room without being given any introduction or instruction on what you should be doing. It's an interesting way to start a game in some cases, but here, I'm literally stuck already. I grabbed the gun, but now I'm just chilling in the first room. Other than that, you should work out transparency in your sprite's backgrounds, it feels weird to see everything in a strange box.

But in any case, I really do want to play some more, it looks interesting enough.

Oooh. Checking this out, I'll comment later too.

While I'm here I actually have a very strange question. Ultimate Game Solutions is giving my site more traffic than AGS. Not complaining, it's actually kind of cool. But why is that? I've visited the site and I can't seem to find anything on why this could be. It's not like it's featured or anything.

Oh and another one: When I import character images into AGS for sprites, how do make sure the white background that I drew them on doesn't appear in the game? I once downloaded some characters in a package just to see what they looked like and they were on pink backgrounds?

Well, when you go to import a sprite, you should see a little box asking you to choose a transparency color, usually by choosing a pixel in one of the four corners of the image file. For example, if you draw on a white background and you want white to be the transparent and unseen color, if white is the color of the pixel in the upper right corner, choose upper right corner from the drop down menu.

Quite alright! Just playing.

*Plays first movement of Moonlight Sonata in a corner with a single tear rolling down his face.*

Thank you very much all!

Colin- Thanks for the tip on sizing, I wasn't aware of that. I know the res isn't actually supported, I should have explained in greater detail. I'm basically going to bump it up to 320x200 and leave the rest with a black border.

Monsieur- Yes, these are the backgrounds in their entirety.

Anian- Woah, thanks!

In the first picture, I was kind of trying to imply that that's one of those swinging door type things, do you think it would look better if I put some more obvious hinges on it or something? Looking at it again, it would be really hard to just guess that it's supposed to be a swinging door.

I might play with the perspective a bit in the first one as well.

I like your idea about the coffee maker or beer taps, or both.

I think what you're seeing in that last picture is my attempt to make it look as if light is shining in the room from the window.



In any case, thanks a lot all of you, I'll try to get some edits up later today based on these tips.

So I've been extraordinarily busy with school and whatnot (bagged myself a 3.73 overall GPA so far, woot!) but I've decided I really, really miss making AGS games, even if it's not my greatest talent. I'm working on something that will require MUCH simpler graphics, takes place entirely in first person (I hate animation with a burning passion) and uses an even smaller resolution than what I've been working with.


Here are several backgrounds I've drawn up so far, all scaled up 3x.









I'm actually pretty happy with them all, but I want to keep improving. I guess what I'm asking for are some pointers, little things that I can add or tweak that go a long way with my style. I've already learned so much from asking for help here in the CL, such as the glass effect, the washed colors, perspective, and how I draw my windows. I'm excited to take it a step further, especially when you consider what this style evolved from!

EDIT: Just realized I uploaded a few with artifacts. Derp. Sorry about that, just ignore them I suppose.

Well, any particular games? Feel free to use any of mine, all the links work.

Hm. I scanned, nothing.

Thanks for the tips, I guess it might have just been a temporary disconnection.

So here's what happened. I started up my PC which I run windows 7 on. I bought windows 7 fair and square. I have the physical box and everything to prove it. After about 5-6 months of using it, my PC just started up claiming that this copy of windows is not genuine. After a while, it seemed to go away after I clicked "ok" on a few bits of text I didn't read. I ran slui.exe, it said that the genuine check was successful...

so what the hell happened there?

Sorry I never posted my %'s.
100% and 90%.

Yep. Still says I'm a libertarian that leans slightly to the right.

[can't just]

This is more of an observation than a question, but feel free to discuss.
I've noticed how where British speakers of English say something like:

'you can't just come waltzing in here without knocking'

an American would say:

'you just can't come waltzing in here without knocking'... which to my British ears makes little sense.

Actually, I'm an American and the second one sounds a bit off to me as well.

M$Pain, while as its name implies, it fails in many way, it is VERY easy to pick up and is quick for simple tasks, so I use it all the time. In particular, drawing rough outlines for pixel graphics with it is much faster than any thing else. I agree that something more advanced should be learnt, just that Pain is still useful in many cases.

Oh, I wouldn't disagree at all. But when it comes time to use shading effects, coloring, etc, it really helps to have something that can get the job done a bit easier.

Giving jobs to people is ok, a few things that are wrong are:
- often children work
- often working conditions are not appropriate
- they pay change to the workers -> small price of manufacturing -> they pay a marketing firm, a celebrity for promotion etc.

If the only social responsibility is profit, then why not blow up a competitor's factory, why not have slaves instead of workers...

Well, at the very least, because they adhere to the laws of the land. It may be legal to pay next to nothing, but it isn't legal to hold slaves or commit arson, and if they did, they would get into legal trouble...therefore bad for the company as a whole, etc etc.

EDIT:
Also I think an update is in order.