Messages

Ohhhh this looks beautiful!

I hope the guy the the glasses and buck-teeth speaks with a saliva-spraying nerd voice:

Pleassspe bring on the Wayne'sssp World of AGSssp indie devsssp assp ssspoon as possspissple!!!

Are you a vegetarian?

Let me tell you about my vegetarian mother!

Just some thoughts but...

Is your name mentioned on screen in it as creator?

Are you only providing the compiled version and not the full "game"?

If so, shouldn't this be enough to prevent theft? I mean, if one of your "lovely colleagues" sells it to a test publisher and it shows up later with your name on it, wouldn't that kind of be a problem for them?

I'm not sure how easy it is to break into an AGS compiled version and change stuff like names etc. Someone a bit more knowledgeable about the AGS Engine would have to answer that one...

I've recently been fascinated by different character encodings, so I decided to make a Katakana font using JIS X 0201, since that's the only AGS-compatible encoding I can find for japanese text. I don't actually speak the language, but I did try to make them look as accurate as possible.



So, does this look readable? Any mangled kana?

You can get it here if you want to try it out.

Looks pretty good!

You have all the numerical characters up to Sen (1,000)...You have an empty space after that so why not add "Man" (10,000)? Then the font can be used up until "Oku" (100 Million) which is the next leap in numerical naming in Japanese...

You have the braces which are the equivalent of quotes, and the Japanese comma and period, and also the "Ten" or dot needed to print the ubiquitous "..." needed for Manga character's speech/though balloons.

You have the accents of " and the floating circle needed to change HA to BA or HA to PA etc.

You have all the miniature vowel (etc) Kana for the building of composites like "Byou" etc.

You have the small "TSU" needed for the double-consonant pronunciation of words like "Datte"...

You have the dash needed to elongate the pronunciation of the Kana before it.

For me all of the Kana are perfectly readable...The only one that looks a bit weird (to me) is HE...The one that looks like: ^

It's too squashed up in the horizontal but I don't think there is any way to get around this given the pixel limits.

It's also too high up compared to the rest of the characters (for me)...Maybe move it down a pixel or two?

I think it's a very usable Katakana font and really takes me back to my days of playing Japanese RPGs on consoles back in the 90's before they could handle the memory needed for full usage of Kanji.

Very nice job!   

Can Demos be nominated?

If so: I nominate "Tales"!

You can check out the promo HERE!

[BIG SPOILER ALERT!!!If you have not played the Demo yet then please do not open this reply!!!]

It is indeed a splendid demo.  Though I was disappointed that the library did not have any books on cuneiform writing for me to look at.   (I did wonder briefly if that was part of the puzzle, before the guard just told me everything.)

BIG SPOILER ALERT!!!

If you have not played the Demo yet then please do not open this reply!!!

Spoiler

Ah...Do remember please though Merlin's words that the library contains the very essence of the legends and myths of humankind... This is not just an ordinary library where you can look up factual information... It is a kind of physically-existing metaphor for the foundation of culture that all of civilization was built upon...

I see where you are coming from though...Usually when a library is present in a game the player has to look up clues and such in the books. Maybe it's a good idea to make it clearer that this is not that particular kind of library to save the player some frustration in trying...

[close]

Don't Push The Button.
Now a major feature film (planned).


Tim Curry will play the button.
Director, no idea. But maybe Michael Bay or the Shamilyan guy. Then one with the twist endings.
The twist, you ask? You DID solve the game, right?
The twist is that there is no explosion.

Or wait, maybe Rutger Hauer can play the button. Then Tim Curry would have to play the options menu but thats okay he is a talented actor.
Or, hey.
Hey.
Wait. Better.

Noomi Rapace plays the options menu, Tim Curry plays the Countdown, I just googled and found Rutger Hauer doesn't do acting anymore, so the button could maybe by played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who just picked up acting again.
Yes.

I'll be totally honest, personally I would prefer Vanessa Mae playing the button, Tim Curry as Vanessa Mae's stunt double, Noomi Rapace as the Countdown, Schwarzenegger as Rapace's stunt double (for the tricky split seconds), and Mimi Rogers as the options menu.

But we all know Schwarzenegger is a Large Ham and countdowns need to be played in a more subtle manner, so I'll just stop typing now.

Did Vanessa Mae ever act? Or was that Björk? How is it possible to confuse the two?
Probably the lack of sleep.

No, got it now, definitely Vanessa Mae. Björk is probably a hundred years old by now.
She COULD play the twist ending though, that's fair game.

If for some reason an animated monkey is required (I think selmiak hinted towards that in the secret level) I think this would be an awesome opportunity to make Zack Braff reprise his role from Oz The Great and Powerful. He's a surprisingly good monkey, though admittely he's just a scrub at it compared to more trained monkeys.

I think the movie will kick ass. Teaser Line: "You Didn't Push The Button, Now Don't Watch The Movie!"

I Didn't Read The Post

Bewdy bonza mate!!!

Jus' played the bleepin' thing and it surely brought a tear to this old fella's eye!

I'm as homesick right now as Rolf Harris in a Pommie lockup I am!!!

As luck would have it I'm headin' back to the land downunder to watch the lightnin' crack over cane-fields at the bloody end of the month!

Gonna stop at nothing to get meself that farkin' beer allowance!!!

[I want Bruce Campell to make a cameo]

On a further note, KING'S QUEST. Yes, it isn't an AGS game. But there has been a remake and that should count for something and I wanna see it. I have the popcorn right here. Sam Ramii can be director, I want Bruce Campell to make a cameo, there will be lots of modernized pop culture references, and it will be glorious.

Later someone will make a video game based on the movie based on the video game, and that one will have a tie-in novel.

Bruce Campbell MUST play the evil imprisoning sorcerer in the AGS KQ3 (I think it was KQ3)

[Commandment #27: Thou player character shalst cause items to disappear into and out of the completely separate dimension known as their inventory instantly and with no onscreen action or reaction of said player character, and with no logical consideration towards where said character could have possibly carried said items.]

Just wanted to add that some minor typos and glitches have been spotted post-release and have been fixed.

The download link in the first post is now to the most up-to-date version as of the time of this post.



**************************************************************************************************************

I will also take this chance to condemn AprilSkies before the entire community for breaking one of the sacred commandments of indie adventure game development:

Spoiler

Commandment #27: Thou player character shalst cause items to disappear into and out of the completely separate dimension known as their inventory instantly and with no onscreen action or reaction of said player character, and with no logical consideration towards where said character could have possibly carried said items.

The player character in your game is in direct violation of this commandment by actually reaching for, bending towards, and even squatting (squatting I tell yas!!!) to retrieve items and then...

AND THEN!!!

Finding a logical place on his person to store them away in!!!

AND THEN EVEN!!!

Retrieving said items from exactly the place he last stored them in!!!

AND THEN EVEN...EVEN...

Spoiler

In two particular cases of impossible-to-store-away-on-self items...

*DRAMATIC PAUSE*

The player character carries said items IN THEIR HAND before the player, and God, and everyone!!!

[close]

[close]

Due to this serious infraction against the sacred commandments of indie adventure game development you...

...AprilSkies...

...have been sentenced to no less than one year's hard labor working upon the completed version of the demo presented in this thread!

May God have mercy on your soul!

*RAPS GAVEL ON PODIUM*

Guys, this man is a tireless worker.

He just means I can never get to work because there are never any tires on my car. Pay no attention!!!

**Deletes the 10 or so earlier iterations from hard drive and downloads the final version**

**Runs off eagerly to play the game for the 17th time**

WOOOOOT!!!

Stone the crows mate! I reckon this is the most bloody fun-lookin' lark this side of the Black Stump!

Or at least this side of that bloody dog on that blinkin' tucker-box!

Gonna be downloadin' this one right smart!

Cheers!

Good news.
I listened to their music. They are very good!!!

Not to mention hot!

AAAaaaaRRRROOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Hahaha!!!

Had a great time with this one Miguel, mate!

Spoiler

Loved the campy voice acting and dialogue (intentional or not). The "katakana-style" pronunciation of English from the Japanese character was dead-on and had me in stitches!!! Make sure you keep all the funky dialogue in this one...It in NO WAY needs nor wants a proper 100% correct English translation! That would be like having Austin Powers say "Ohhh, mind your manners honey!" instead of "Ohhh, behave baby!"

[close]

Keep on doin' what you do best! And this is exactly that!

The voice acting was also really, really good...

Spoiler

I especially liked the moment the main dude admitted to his God that he was kinda afraid of him during the laptop scene...That was a brilliant piece of voice inflection and made me chuckle and cringe in fear at the same time...Lovely!!!

[close]

Absolutely wonderful game!

Deduction system was a breath of fresh air into the stuffy adventure game closet of "combine objects for no reason"...

Spoiler

I got so immersed in the story that the sight of pixelated blood and violence actually shocked and moved me...

I'm sure you know which scene I refer to.

When a story is so good that it can do that with just a few red pixels you know you have a winner on your hands!

[close]

Please bring on the next chapter in this dark tale of psychological scars as soon as possible!!!

I sense a new "Ben Jordan Series" in the brewing!

Do I detect voice actors from Heroine's Quest?

Specifically Lorna herself as the little street urchin thief and Herme?

If so...then no wonder she kept going all "Southern" during the outtakes in the special features

"All In The Game" as a Pixar film.

Thalia James (the vet CGMS agent) voiced by Siguorney Weaver.
The new recruit (forgot his name) voiced by: Jesse Eisenberg (dude from Zombieland and Social Network)

[if (player.ActiveInventory != null)]

if (player.ActiveInventory != null) player.ActiveInventory = null; // active item? drop it

Also, I'm still not entirely sure what this code does :/

It does what Khris said above, and here are the details of why:

if (player.ActiveInventory != null) : The symbol != means "not equal to" and "null" means "nothing" so this part says "If the player currently has an inventory item selected". Note the double negative of "not equal to nothing" becoming "equal to something" in actual meaning.

player.ActiveInventory = null; : In AGS code there is no "then" following the "if" statement but this part is the "then" result of the first test clause. So it means "then the currently selected inventory item becomes nothing."

So:

if (player.ActiveInventory != null) player.ActiveInventory = null;

MEANS:

"If the player currently has an inventory item selected then the currently selected inventory item becomes nothing."

or in even more straightforward language:

"If the player had something selected then now they don't."

Hope this helps you understand a bit more about coding.