Messages

For a long time I didn't know what RON was either

Here's the FAQ page on the RON website, the forums are also available from there: http://ron.the-underdogs.info/about.html

Thanks, all!  Hehe, the Telestar song has always made me think of cheesy pageants and gameshows.  Finally here came a chance to make that vision come to fruition!   To actually answer the question, I have a Ventures Greatest Hits CD

Some gamers want to live vicariously stealing cars and committing crimes, I just enjoy sabotaging and injuring beautiful people... and what the hell is wrong with that?

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

MashPotato deserves a higher profile too, in my opinion, if for no other reason than that awesome bumble bee avatar of hers.

Aww... and can I just say that I've always loved that dancing cow avatar (and bizarrely, was actually going to comment on it the other day, but I thought it wouldn't have been interesting, helpful, or funny enough to meet the posting criteria here )

Back on topic... I know I'm forgetting loads of games that deserve some extra lovin', but off the top of my head one of the AGS games I've laughed at the most that is rarely mentioned is Chicken vs Road by Strange Visitor

Thank you for the kind words!
Hehe, and yeah, I thought the art would make it pretty apparent who made it

You go, girl!   Congratulations!

Thanks for playing, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it!

[Beauties and Beasts]

Beauties and Beasts

You must win a beauty pageant at ANY COST... this may get a little ugly.

DOWNLOAD: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1046

An entry for the 2008 OROW competition .  This version is exactly as it was for the competition (warts and all) except that credits have been added.  I hope you enjoy!

Art, Story, Scripting - MashPotato
Testing - CaptainBinky & Nickenstien
Music - ripped from The Ventures (Telestar) & DeVotchKa (Reprise)
Special Thanks - Buloght & Lemmy101
AGS Engine - Chris Jones

Always the bridesmaid and never the bride--oh alas!   Thanks for the mention Scotch!  I'm glad people enjoyed playing the game, I had fun making it

A hearty congrats to all the winners (I can't completely remember, but I think that's the way my voting went too ) and it was great to see so many entries.  My personal faves were How Many (which made me laugh), Cheerful Science (very cute), and Chatroom (which actually overcame my usual aversion to text parsers ), but I think all the entries merit a huzzah, so...

HUZZAH!

Yep, lots of good entries!  3 more to finish, then comes the hard task of voting

It's a very crisp, clean look; I like it   If you plan on using this style for your game I don't think there's a need to go to a higher resolution.
However, the perspective looks a bit odd as the horizon as depicted by the converging lines of the cabin doesn't match the horizon of the lake, which makes the lake appear to be on a higher plane than the cabin (with the assumption that the cabin is level).

A nice game; like others have said, a very good atmosphere and it looks spiffy That said, I'm stuck near the end

Spoiler

I've gotten the red and green beads, but don't know what to do with the crowbar to get the last one

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I found the graphics a tad dark, but my monitor is kind of old and I've had that problem before.

One suggestion I have is that the narrator not refer to the player (eg. "I don't know what you want me to do").  Since the story seems to be a very personal one to the narrator, I think it kind of breaks the fourth wall to have the player reminded that they're directing another person, not doing things themselves.

Congratulations on the imminent release of your first game!

[Think Outside the Boxland]

Edit: thanks Alarconte, I've finished it now

Think Outside the Boxland

Spoiler

No clue.

[close]

Spoiler

the only thing i have figured out is that you can see a button behind the red boxes if you go onto the the leftmost side of the blue path.

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Chatroom

Spoiler

I seem to be going in circles... i know he's into molecular science after being rejected from art school, his family's dead, he wants friends/pets, and he accused me of being a bot.  Any small hints for the direction I should go?

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Now, the main difference between the two was that the cheap ones were signed copies (of... 200, or 100, or even 20), while the expensive ones were... originals. I found that rather interesting and... a bit of cheating really.

For me art, by default, has the uniquenes embedded on it. Even if you photograph a painting, the art remains with the painting and not the photograph. If you get the artist to create a number of copies are you not bypassing this very idea?

I personally don't see how this is cheating, as having an original and a print are clearly different things   When you get a print you're getting the end product, while an original has the process and the product (well, not exactly, but I think you know what I mean).  The original still has higher value because, like you mentioned, it's the only one of its kind and copies will never capture all the textures/brushstrokes/etc, as well as the personal touch of the artist.  I don't think having copies dilute the original, because it's not the same product as the original. 

What "art" means would be different to everyone, but in my view there's no backstabbing involved in making copies   To me, art is meant to be shared.  I don't mean that art has to be in the public taste or gain wide audiences for it to be considered art, but rather that if art is meant to broaden people's views, give different experiences--wouldn't you want that to be shared?   If a painting loses value simply because there's a lower-quality print out floating around somewhere, you have to consider whether you're really buying that art because of its artistic value, or simply because you want something that no one else can have.  Buying art for both reasons is fine; buying just for the second reason is kinda lame

The Music for Supermarket example is interesting.  While it strikes me as a neat idea, it also strikes me as a bit elitist if that was applied universally.  If all art must exist only as unique originals, then who would be able to afford it?  Only those with considerable amounts of money.  This is kind of a separate issue, but it leads back to my previous point about art being shared.

Ah, I love that style of art too   Downloading!

I lived in Toronto while in University, and still work there (commuting from uptown), so I can give some general impressions although I'll say I don't know Toronto as well as others who have lived there do

My first thoughts (I might think of more later):
1) In general it's a nice-sized city; it's big enough to have all the services you would need, while perhaps not as intimidating as larger cities .  There's usually stuff to do if you like going to festivals and things like that, and it's fairly easy to get around the downtown core by a combination of foot, subway, and streetcar.  While there is crime, I've never really felt scared walking around by myself (except one time during a snowstorm when it was 2 in the morning, but I'd feel a bit unsafe everywhere in that case ).  The city's very multicultural, so there's pretty much any kind of food in the world you would want to eat

2) Getting a place in the downtown core of Toronto can be pricey (though probably not as expensive as LA), especially if you're looking to own.  Transport to the downtown core might be an issue if you move to areas above Toronto, and if you live in the suburbs you'll definitely need to have a car to get around.

3) There's a joke "Q: How do you get a Canadian to say they're sorry?  A: step on their foot" (I've done it myself! ).  While I wouldn't say the average Torontonian is overly outwardly friendly (eg. spontaneously saying hello to strangers they meet on the street), I think most people would help you out if you were looking for directions, say, and people are generally polite   Like any city, there are nice people and ones not so nice--it's difficult to characterize a city

4) I don't know anything about the movie scene in Toronto myself, though I have read newspaper articles that American film companies might reduce their business in Canada somewhat due to the strength of the Canadian dollar relative to the American dollar--I'm not sure if that actually happened or not.  I haven't seen enough small Canadian movies to form a good characterization of them, but my out-of-the-air-impression is that many deal with multicultural issues

5) hard to say... I do feel that Canada is more left-leaning than the US, and things like universal healthcare do make me feel that I would rather be in Canada than the US, but it depends on your point of view.  Canada is not without its problems, they're just not the same ones as the ones in the US

Hope that helps a bit, good luck making your decision

Bad limerick


There once was a scholar named Tybal,
Who drank wine while 'scribing the Bible;
Had too many a glass,
Got drunk off his ass...
Ended up sued by God for libel.


EDIT: not an entry, btw--wee bit below 500 words

Very nice upgrades overall; thanks to all involved

Thanks Victor As it currently stands I also liked the old buildings better, but I plan on sharpening up the foreground so they won't seem so out of place later on (hopefully!)

They are supposed to be... I was just wondering what they were doing to make them appear that way... as apposed to just making them darker as they go further back...

Wikipedia article on atmospheric perspective that might be useful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_perspective