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Hey but... I know Storybeasts! Why haven't I liked their Facebook page yet?!

Thanks a lot for pointing it out I didn't know they shared my post and that's great!

Here's the new (HUGE) post for Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space, the unofficial sequel finally released in English by Artificial Hair Bros.

Thanks a lot for the feedback I began to integrate my charts with the puzzle definitions as GinnyFromThePast suggested!

Sorry if this is a cheap answer

Just off the top of my head, I think that it may be using the great Tween Module which works fine also on GUIs, as far as I can remember and tell from the documentation.

I don't remember right now if the Inventory GUI it's just "sliding out" or "unraveling" like a carpet.

In the first case, this should be the reference code that should be implemented whenever you want it to happen:

Code: ags

GUI.TweenPosition(float timing, int toX, int toY, optional TweenEasingType, optional TweenStyle, optional startDelay, optional timingType)

In the latter, I think that the GUI may have a "tiled background" so that it doesn't "break" when tweening is applied to increase its width.

Code: ags

GUI.TweenSize(float timing, int toWidth, int toHeight, optional TweenEasingType, optional TweenStyle, optional startDelay, optional timingType)

The module lets you change sizes and position of every element in the GUI - Label, Button, TextBox, ListBox, Slider and InvWindow - so probably it's just a matter of prototyping until you get what you're looking for. Nothing that's necessarily hard to do.

[some]

Awesome! I did something similar for MI2 here (with some analysis.)

It's great! I recall reading it some time ago, finding it really interesting because it shows up how MI2 had some puzzles "parallel" to others, giving the player the chance to pursue different things in whatever order and at the preferred pace. Something really valuable in a long game, I think.

I'm working on one for Day of the Tentacle too.

That's amazing, actually I'm really curious about it. I was thinking to make one for Maniac Mansion, at some stage. A game that, IIRC, was designed before the "invention" of the Puzzle Dependency Charts, therefore with a huge chance of having a quite messy structure.

I'm really interested in seeing how a less "open" environment (like MM and, to a lesser extent, DOTT had) could have room for improvement and to what extent.

It's really interesting how much puzzle dependency charts have been talked about lately, and how rarely they were before.

I agree! And thanks to Ron Gilbert (again) for that, I suppose.

I have to say that after I started to do this on a somewhat regular and public basis, I'm developing some sort of "addiction" to these charts. Right now I can't even think not to use them whenever I try to design a set of puzzles for something I want to work on :laugh:

Truth is that I just think of them being extremely helpful when it comes to design, also narratively speaking. Or, at least, I hope so!

[just a little]

I always go back to an old article on this topic: http://junk.dk/puzzle/

Ah yes! That article is amazing!
I found myself looking at it many times as well (last time not even so long ago).

Another thing you might find useful, as an exercise, is to write how you experienced a game or a story, as close to the experience as you can (maybe pause in the middle to write). Write about what you felt, where you were frustrated, how you perceived things.

I should indeed focus more on this aspect! I think I did it just a little with Broken Age which had a mood (and a way to convey it) quite different from Dead Synchronicity, but still: you're right I'm still trying to sort out the best "recipe" for this kind of articles.

perhaps it would be better to see titles+snippets, and then I could open each post separately.

Oh yes, I had thought the same at some stage but I still haven't got the time to get around to it!

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

[such]

Thanks everybody I really appreciate your feedback!

@Vince:
Writing down the puzzle chart for Broken Age was really a great experience! It made me find out what I think is the whole concept behind the puzzle structure and, therefore, made me twice as aware about how difficult may be to design a game with such idea of balance in mind.

Out of curiosity and will to become better at adventure game design (and, why not, maybe game design in general), I've started a little experiment in which I try to deconstruct the adventure games I play by writing down Puzzle Dependency Charts (as described by Ron Gilbert) and sharing my thoughts here and there.

I thought it could be interesting for you folks out here to see Hope you'll enjoy!

I'll keep a list here, that I'll update whenever I'll post a new one!

#1 - Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today
#2 - Broken Age
#3 - Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space
#4 - Technobabylon


To anybody who may be asking: to develop these charts I'm using yEd which is free (also for commercial use).

[always]

It is! Well spotted!

I have to say: I discovered this game only in the past few years. To me it seems like one of those underrated gems that nobody ever mentions. IMHO it had lots of interesting features, for the time, but sure was tough as hell...

Here's a smooth longplay, anyway.

Also I always forget its right name, so putting it here now I'm pretty sure I won't forget it again

Nope, this one has a third person view. 2D sprites over a 3Dish environment.

Next hint will be another screenshot

Great game, but no (Of course it's knight-related)

I will supply some hints! I don't want to ruin this thread on my first ride! (Actually how does it work? When is time to stop and give out the solution? )

It is a C64 game, and that's probably obvious.

The screen I posted is a "loading screen" between levels and rumor has it that, at the time, it was kinda unusual to see such loading screens between levels because they were animated. Today we would call them "preloader screens", probably.

Nope, I'm afraid!

Yay!
You're right, anyway. I have just vague memories of the game itself, but not the characters or the game's art style.

I think I did never join this, by the way. How obscure can it get?

Will this do?
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/tCqN2TL.gif[/imgzoom]

Oh wait... But it's... Bonanza Bros.!

I've just read this post on Thimbleweed Park's blog and found it very interesting.

TL;DR - Just like the old LucasFilm times, Ron Gilbert is implementing an "autoplay mode" where the game plays itself. At the time he and Aric Wilmunder made that to help themselves while showcasing, but turned out to be also a valuable testing tool.

I genuinely never thought about such thing for showcasing (which probably may even look odd if not scripted properly) and sure enough I also never imagined it applied to adventure games testing.

Did any of you ever try such thing with AGS, especially those of you who worked on large projects?

If you're interested, I would gladly share the design document with you guys, and you could give me some feedback on the ideas?

I don't think I can help you a lot, but I would love to see your design document

Personally I don't have experience in board game design, but in the last few years I have seen and played different board games that interested me and, also, it seems that some videogames include interesting mechanics coming from them, so I grew more curious about their design!

[did]

Now I feel kinda stupid, actually .
I did create a 320x200 black image but probably forgot to import it as a background for the room in the first place.

I tried it again and it worked perfectly at 320x200.
Thanks a million for your help

[twice]

Interesting. It looks OK in theory... Might be that 320x200 somehow uses a subsection of a 320x240 canvas, and for some reason the bottom, not the top part. If I were you, I would test by rawdrawing a line from 0,0 to 320,200 (or rather, 319,199) and see how it appears.

You've probably nailed it! This is from 0,0 to 319,199.

The other thing I would address in this code is the DrawingSurface* in the struct and in the PlanetForming() function. There's absolutely no reason for that to be part of the PlanetStruct, or for you to grab and release GetDrawingSurfaceForBackground() twice for each planet. It's always going to be the same! Just grab it once before you enter the loop and release it afterwards, and don't store it as part of your data at all.

For this other matter I was actually trying to test if I was in any way able to create "hotspots" off of the drawing surfaces (so that each planet would have had their own "personal" one), because later on I would have liked to create larger "planets" with rectangles rather then pixels... But that just shows how naive I am

[kinda]

I was trying to create a "space map" with randomly placed planets (as pixels, not as sprites) on it.

My goal is to make the mouse show which planet is the player looking at when moving onto it. It kinda works, but for some reason the pixel on the screen and the stored coordinates don't match.
The problem seems to occur only on the Y axis, anyway, which appears to be exactly +40 pixels from the actual pixel drawn onto the screen.



This is the whole code I've written.
I don't know if it's an useful information but I'm using AGS 3.3.3 and a 320x200 resolution.

Galaxy Map Header

Code: ags

//GalaxyMap.ash

struct PlanetStruct {
    int coord[2]; //for storing X and Y coordinates
    DrawingSurface* s;
};

import PlanetStruct Planet[5];

Galaxy Map Script

Code: ags

//GalaxyMap.asc

PlanetStruct Planet[5];

function repeatedly_execute_always()
{
    // This is the script that shows both the current mouse.x and mouse.y
    // AND a Display text when hitting a planet's coordinates

    String x = String.Format("%d, %d", mouse.x,  mouse.y);
    player.SayBackground(x);
    if (player.Room == 1) {
        int n = 0;
	while (n < 5) {
            if (mouse.x == Planet[n].coord[0] && mouse.y == Planet[n].coord[1]) Display("Planet: %d", n);
            n++;
	}
    }
}

export Planet;

Room Script

Code: ags

//room1.asc

// Creates a given amount of planets, randomly placed over the screen
// Stores their X and Y coordinates and displays them next to them
function PlanetForming(int totalPlanet)
{
    int n = 0;
    while (n < totalPlanet) {
	Planet[n].s = Room.GetDrawingSurfaceForBackground();
        // Probably ultra-spaghetti. I was trying to keep the pixels a little far from the corners of the screen.
	int rX = Random(Room.Width-10)+10;
	int rY = Random(Room.Height-10)+10; // Same as above
	
	Planet[n].s.DrawingColor = 15;
	Planet[n].s.DrawPixel(rX, rY);
	Planet[n].s.Release();
	
	Planet[n].coord[0] = rX; // Store the X coordinate of the drawn pixel
	Planet[n].coord[1] = rY; // Store the Y coordinate of the drawn pixel

        // Next to each planet, write it's current x and y coordrinates
	String st = String.Format("%d, %d", rX, rY);
	DrawingSurface* t = Room.GetDrawingSurfaceForBackground();
	t.DrawingColor = 15;
	t.DrawStringWrapped(rX, rY, 25, eFontfntTiny, eAlignCentre, st);
	t.Release();
	n++;
    }	
}

function room_Load()
{
    PlanetForming(5);
}

With no clue whatsoever, I've also tried using the UseHighResCoordinates, but without luck.

Thanks in advance, even more if the matter is easy to solve and I'm just bad at this

I'll just leave this here.

Amazing show, presentation, people and games!