Messages

It does look better, but the water depth is too regular. It doesn't always slope back up nicely towards the land, something there is just a sheer drop from a cliff.

I don't know what you can do to improve it, but it looks very realistic !

There are too many moutainous regions, though. So maybe try to have less of those.

Things do not automatically fall into public domain after a while. If somebody buys the rights, then it is copyrighted again.
For this specific animated film I do not know, but I would wager that the character of Popeye is still copyrighted.

If the animated is public domain and not the characters, it would still be hard to claim you can use the backgrounds as you wish, as the copyright holders may make the point that they're both indistinguishable from each other.

But a lawyer would certainly provide better answers.

I have no such artistic talent, but I've always wondered why did this forums' smileys were severed heads resting in pools of their own blood.
Judging by all the winking, smiling and eye-rolling, though, they don't seem much fazed by it.

That or they're wearing bright red turtlenecks. Either way it's disgusting.

I'm not a 3D (or 2D) artist, and my music talents are way too limited to be of any use, but I may be willing to translate the game into French, depending on the amount of words. Do you already know how long it's going to  be ?

To me what has worked the best is one of the old Tex Murphy games. You'd go around talking to people, noting things down to make connections and then you'd go and ask somebody else about something you had noted.
That way it was really all about your reasoning power and it felt quite rewarding when you finally got something right and could confront somebody with solid evidence.

So giving the player thr opportunity to input any text seems to me like a good idea. To test that you could always play some text adventures (or interactive fiction, as some call it), which are all about that. Make it Good is very good, for example.

Well that would be nice indeed.

And "fun toys are fun".

I've just finished the game as well, and indeed it is very good.
I do have two minor gripes, though. It feels a bit too whiny at times ('ooh I'm a poor little vampire, the world's nasty, boohoo', etc.), and also the game's rhythm is a bit off. When you get the CS arrested and you say so long to, Mulkin, it feels like the end, but it's far from it. So that's a bit weird.

Apart from that, brilliant.

My Demons Shadow

[Created by David Rankins -Developed by Studio3] Leon and his brother were very close as kids. One day Leons brother was jumped by some gang members over so money he owed. With no one else to turn to he pleeded to the Shogin Crystal for the Strength and abilities to take on the gang. So over raged by his defeat, he seeked out the core base of the gang and tried to take them all on with his new powers. But he was still to weak and he failed yet again however this would be the last time he ever walked the grounds of this world. Leon in seek of revenge for the lost of his brother confronted the Shogin Crystal just as his brother did. However he was rejected as he possesed a growing connection to Darkness. Leon soon came to beleive that the gods and Shogin crystal was a bunch of Bullshit. A few days later Leon's Anger grew so much tha the sky be came red and time it self stopped. Before him rose a Colossus Demon like figure! It raised it's gaint hand and drp[ed it on Leon thus sucking him into the Void.Trapped there, Alone, Begging to be freed from this dark place as he would do anything. Soon a firey light glissend before him and out of it came Chaos(Devil). He offered Leon freedom and the power to get the revenge he trully desired. So Leon accepted his offer and down into the underworld they went. The Warrior of eternal Darkness shall desend down seeking the ever lasting Divine powers of Chaos. He bears the berdon of the Dark Rulers plea in order to release thye brother for the enternal Slumber. Chaos to Leon -Leon must use the power of Chaos and kill anyone who stands in his way and release their souls into the pits of hell were they belong. As this is the only way to pay of his debt to Chaos and save his brother for the everlast sleep. Later in the game you meet a man named Tetsuga.

Hi. I don't know you, I don't know your reputation, I haven't played any of your games or anything. But I do have something to say about this because you actually seem to be genuinely proud of this drivel.

The worst book I've ever read and that still to this day I hate with a passion (Black Dogs by Ian McEwan) was much, much better than this, for the simple fact that it made sense. This is just a bunch of stupid, unoriginal, confuse and badly put-together ideas that you've jotted down in two minutes.
Nobody, alive or dead, in all the history of literature, including the grandest of masters, from Plato to Hugo and Orwell, could ever write anything good in two minutes. When you write a story in two minutes, only one thing can happen : it'll be incredibly weak.

Before deciding to show your work to the world, a story needs to be clearly laid out in your head, you need to sort out all the characters, their psyches, their motivations, you need all the locations and events clearly set up, and you need to tie all this together into a coherent and engaging story.
That is one of the hardest things to do in the world. To be any good at it takes a LOT of reading, writing, patience and hard work. There very clearly isn't any of that in what you've written here.

My only piece of advice to you would be for you to read more. If you love stories, and before writing any, you need to read good stories. Only after that will you be able to see all the common traps everybody falls in when they attempt to write, and just how bad and foolish you really were.

Your profile tells me you're seventeen. That makes sense. Your lack of experience makes you think that you, and only you, can be amazing without even trying. I know, it happened to me as well.
But that is a delusion. Nobody ever became a guitar hero just by grabbing the nearest guitar and strumming the strings randomly. Nobody ever became a brilliant author just because they picked up their pen and wrote the first thing that entered their minds.
Jimi Hendrix, Django Reinhardt and Ovid are all geniuses, but that it because they worked and worked for hours and hours, imbibing the culture of their relative environments and honing their skills by unceasing trial and error.

We all have this fantasy that if we just decided to do something seriously, like writing or playing an instrument, we'd be brilliant at it. But if you actually try you soon discover that there is a whole realm of things you had no idea existed and that it is all much more complicated and arduous than you initially thought.

Sorry if this seems a bit harsh, but I thought you needed to be told the truth. What you also need is to read, read, and read some more. And I'm talking about classics, not fanfiction.

I remember the one from Sam & Max Hit The Road. Actually it took me a long, long time to understand that it was a "thing" getting squeezed by a hand when hovering above a hotspot.
So I guess you'd definitely want a simple one that's identifiable at first sight. But you probably already knew that.

What about using labels "walk" "use" "talk" as cursors ? They may seem ugly at first but by playing you very soon abstract them into what they stand for, which is what always ends up happening with any good cursor.

[Translation - English to French]

I wanted to update my ancient post, this gives me the opportunity to do so.

Translation - English to French

I am a freelance translator, and when work is slow (which is uncomfortably often if you ask me) I want to practice and hone my skills. And what better way to do it than with an AGS translation ?
I am a native French speaker and I've already translated two AGS games, both Maniac Mansion Mania episodes (9 and 53).
I can also translate from French to English and proofread your work.
For more information, here is my ProZ.com profile : http://www.proz.com/translator/1309349
Send me a PM if you're interested.

Play-testing

Not exactly as enjoyable as translation, but play-testing can be interesting.
Again, drop me a line if you need this.

Proofreading

If you need your game proofread, in French or in English, tell me what it's about and I may be able to do it.

Hello everybody,

I've always loved and played adventure games, and games in general, and thus would like to help whoever needs it. Although I can't code or draw, what I can do is translate from English to French and vice versa.

My native tongue is French but I'm quite proficient in Shakespeare's tongue and what's more, I'm currently studying English at the university, in order to become a professional translator/interpreter.

So if you want your English game masterfully translated in French or your French game translated (just as masterfully) in English , send me a PM or email me at iamalegend[the sign that looks like a circled a]hotmail.com.