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thanks for sharing

it IS still being developed, it's not released or available for sale

OK I have no idea what made me think it was. I saw some updates on Facebook and convinced myself that the game was released.

We don't have a release date set on GOG (or anywhere else for that matter),

I was initially reluctant to register to Steam just for that, but in the end I did it. That's how attractive the game is
I have a small tip though : when you go to your game's web page (not the steam pace, I mean your own page with your own domain name), there's no hint that the game has been released, and no link to Steam. It even says "the game IS BEING developed...", "it WILL feature...".
There should be a huge button in the middle that says "THE GAME HAS BEEN RELEASED, CLICK HERE TO BUY IT FROM STEAM" or something.

Ive put my .ags file in my 3.4.1.x game folder and it worked like a charm Even though the embedded game was originally made with 3.2.1 or something.

Something like this:

Code: ags

struct AllTexts {
  String text[500];
};
AllTexts allTexts;

void game_start() {

allTexts.text[0] = "This is one possible text.[It's cool.";
allTexts.text[1] = "This is another text.[Still very cool.";
// ...
allTexts.text[499] = "Last possible text.";


}

Now you have your generic texts initialized.

Code: ags

#define MAXLEVELS 100 // maximum number of levels, which is also the maximum number of log entries
struct LogStruct {
   String logEntriesTitles[MAXLEVELS];
   int logEntriesTexts[MAXLEVELS];
};
LogStruct log;
int currentLevel;

void generateNewLogEntry() {

   log.logEntriesTexts[currentLevel] = Random(499);
   log.logEntruesTitles[currentLevel] = String.Format("65.0.%d", currentLevel);
   currentLevel++;
}

void game_start() {
generateNewLogEntry();
}

Now you know how to generate s title for the current level and how to pick a text at random. When the game starts, it does it for current level (level 0).

Code: ags

// Code below is for a GUI containing two labels : LabelTitle and LabelText

void DisplayLog(int currentPage) {
  guiLog.Visible = true;
  LabelTitle.Text = log.logEntriesTitles[currentPage]
  LabelText.Text = allTexrs.text[log.logEntriesTexts[currentPage]];
}

Now you know how to display the title and text of any page, provided current page is between 0 and currentLevel..
Whenever the player reaches the next level, call generateNewLogEntry and then DuspkayLog(currentLevel);

The flaw in this Proof of concept is that Random can pick twice the same text, so you'll have to keep track of which numbers have already been picked for previous log entries.

UNAVOWED IS AN IGF NOMINEE!!†¬

†ªIt's nominated for “Excellence in Narrative” and got an honorable mention for the grand prize.

I've been dreaming of getting into the IGF since I started this silly company. It's taken 13 years and over a dozen games, but we got here.

Now I'm going to freak out for a bit.

Congrats

[GUI alpha rendering style]

PROBLEM SOLVED.

From the start I was focusing on "GUI alpha rendering style", but it was actually "Sprite alpha rendering style" that caused the issue.
I'm not sure if it was because of the background sprite I was using OR if it was because of the font I'm using, that contains semi-transparent pixels, causing the outline to go crazy when the blending failed (unfortunately it went so crazy that I failed to visually identify it as only the outline)

Anyways now that everything is set to "proper alpha blending", everything seems to work as expected.

Thanks!!!
This is the thing that took me the most time on the short game I'm making *sigh of relief*

  CustomDialogGui.DialogGuiOptions[eDialogGui_bg_img_transparency]   = -1;

OK. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. When importing the PNG, should I say "yes" to "use alpha?" and should I select "leave transparency as-is"?

So I'm not forgetting that I need to review the pull request, but in the meantime I'm having a weird issue. thanks to Khris it's been narrowed down to AGS apparently not being very good at having a sprite with alpha AND a transparency > 0 used as a GUI background.

I'm trying to set the custom dialogs GUI background to a black background with a slight transparency. Everything below failed :

- I tried with a fully black image (no alpha) and eDialogGui_bg_img_transparency set to 20, the background does not appear at all.
- I tried with a sprite imported from a PNG containing an all-black image with alpha (the black is 20% transparent) and  and eDialogGui_bg_img_transparency set to 0, now it's the font outline that goes cuckoo.
- I tried with the same semi-transparent PNG sprite and eDialogGui_bg_img_transparency set to -1. Now it's the transparency rendering that's all over the place (some pixels become fully transparent while some others are fully opaque).

What is the proper way?

Great job!

One thing: the "download AGS" button here used to be twice bigger? Now it's rather small (it has like zero padding) and has a light color, as if it was disabled.

I'd suggest make it wayyyy more visible.

[Thanks thanks thanks so much to people who tried to look into it.]

OK so the issue is resolved.

It was a real mess of confusing characters (because Character.Say works even if the character is not here), having the player character invisible, having custom code swapping characters (to be able to revert to previous character when chaging room) and more custom code changing the character's view automatically (to apply some sort of costume).

Long things short: I had no idead what character was where displayed with what view 

Thanks thanks thanks so much to people who tried to look into it.

Also, Khris, enjoy the sneak peek to this little game that should be released with two weeks

The loop confirms that the stubborn character isn't in the room.
Doesn't matter if the ChangeRoom line is commented out or not; for me the loop never shows the motherspritin' character misbehaving, because they aren't in the room to begin with.

OK but do you see the character dressed in city clothes appearing right in the middle of the room?
- If not, then I might have given bad directions to reproduce the issue.
- If yes, then I want this character to go away, no matter the reason. I don't understand why it appears there.

EDIT: I have indeed given you bad directions to reproduce the issue. I'll update with proper directions asap.

Spoiler

Xs are dead people /s are missing/escaped etc.

X next to a line of dialogue means that the line was spoken by the dead person.

[close]

Thanks!

Is SayAt a blocking command? could it be that the script is not proceeding to the change room until after the SayAt has completed?

Hmmm, could be. But even after the SayAt, the character stays. That motherspriter. OK Khris I'll zip it up and send you a PM. thanks a lot.

I just can't find it, it's driving me mad. May I send you guys a PM with the game sources?

To avoid confusion better test as:

Code: ags

if (character[i].Room == player.Room)

Haha you're too quick, I've edited my post instantly but you still picked it up.
In my description it's room 6, in real life it's room 13.

Anyways I think I've found the issue. In room 6 I have some code that forcefully swaps the player character in case I'm in debug mode and I arrived there with the wrong character. I suspect that this code is mlessed up and brings in the unwanted character at the same time.

I'll keep looking. thanks, gentlemen (and ladies who might have been silently reading).

I've double-checked, triple-checked both your suggestions.

When I press Ctrl+D it tells me that Player is in this room and I see that the view is the correct view cChar has another very recogniazable view).

In AfterFadeIn I executed this verification code :

Code: ags

function room_AfterFadeIn()
{
    cChar.SayAt(0, 10,  150,  "It's me");
    cChar.ChangeRoom(7, 160, 100); //send him away
    Wait(1);
    //cChar.Walk(200,  50, eNoBlock); //This makes the game crash with the message "this character is NOT in this room"
    cChar.SayAt(0, 10,  150,  "It's still me");
    
    for (int i=0; i<Game.CharacterCount; i++) {
        if (character[i].Room == player.Room) {
            Display("Character %s is in this room", character[i].Name); //cChar still gets listed here
        }
    }

Now the really, REALLy odd thing is that the commented line makes the engine tell you that cChar is not in this room.
HOWEVER the loop underneath DOES display cChar as being in this room, additionally to the player character.

I'm super duper confused.

Once again a dumb issue that will be fixed in two seconds by someone.

- I have a room (room 6)  that is NOT the starting room of character cChar
- cChar is NOt the player character
- At some point, I do "player.ChangeRoom(6)" in order to go to that room.
- Just to be sure, in Room_Load of room 6, I do "cChar.ChangeRoom(7); Wait(1);" to force-remove cChar.

...And yet after the fade-in, cChar is here in room 6, in all his glory.
I can't make the damned character f**k off.

what am I missing?

[thank you]

thank you to whoever upgraded the forums. It finally provides all the comfort that can be expected in 2018. Love it! Especially the "insert hyperlink" button that finally works when some text is already highlighted.

Is it still possible to run an AGS game from the current game? The 2nd game is compiled already.

More generally:

   
• are there any restrictions (run as admin, etc.) ?
• in which folder should the 2nd game be placed for best results?
• I have the sources of the 2nd game but it would be much MUCH simpler to just run it as is. If needed I can upgrade it to the current engine version.