Topics

This is a title screen I drew for my game.  I'm working on a second one that looks different, instead of the newspaper, it's a group of zombies, and they're "reaching for you"... I'll post that when I get some time.

Until then, what do you think of this one?  I figured using the newspaper would be a good idea, because that's where I got the title from.  In zombie flicks you commonly see a newspaper like this (the scene in Day of the Dead where it shows the newspaper blowing down the street, also at the end of Resident Evil).  So I figured the whole newspaper theme would be a good idea.

I'm basically looking for general ideas on what I could do to make it look more eyecatching, and maybe what I could do to fill in the the "void" that takes up a large portion of the screen below the title, and next to the options.

I've got a job interview today.

For some odd reason, I was prematurely cut off from my unemployment compensation last week.  So I had to start looking for a job even harder.

So, I turned in an application, and I got a call the same day to set up an interview.  My interview is today at 6:00 pm, right after I'm done with school.

So, just wish me luck... something tells me I'm going to need it.  I really need to find a new job, quickly.

There are no jobs out here in the butthole of the earth...  the gas stations only hire women (they'll hire a man every once in a while to keep the Better Business Bureau off their backs).  I'm not qualified to get a job at the plywood factory or Marion Body Works because the only jobs they have open there are welders and forklift operators.  The grocery stores won't hire me because they say (even without my piercings) that I'm "scary looking".    I can't even get a job at Hot Topic!  Now THAT is some shitty shit!  (for those of you who don't know, Hot Topic is a kind of a goth/punk clothing store; they sell body jewelry, clothes, spiked bracelets and everything else associated with that kind of stuff)  Just for the record, I don't go into a job interview looking like something out of the movie, Dracula.

I was lucky enough to get an interview at a local video store.  I get along well with the owner, and I think that's why I got the interview.  But... I had an interview there once before, and even though I felt I was well-qualified for the job, and the interview went well, I didn't get the job.  It stupified me... the interview went more like a training session... he showed me behind the counter, the back room, he explained how things work around there, the rules, etc.  I thought I had the job in the bag, but to no avail, I got a letter 3 weeks later saying that they filled the position.

So anyway, just wish me luck.  I've got to go shower, shave, and find some nice clothes to wear.

~Sully

[Error (line 72) undefined token 'GUIon']

I'm trying to make a yes/no prompt when you try to pick up and item (and will also use it for pivotal moments in my game).

Here's the script:

Code: ags

function hotspot1_a() {
  // script for hotspot1: Interact hotspot
if (character[GetPlayerCharacter()].inv[1]>0){
}
else {
  SetButtonPic(4,2,1,3);
  SetLabelText(4,3,"Will you take your car keys?");
*GUIon(4);
  if (interface_click (4,0)){
    AddInventory(1);
    GUIoff (4);
    DisplayMessage("You got your car keys.");
  }
if (character[GetPlayerCharacter()].inv[2]>0{
}
else {
  SetButtonPic(4,2,1,2);
  SetLabelText(4,3,"Will you take your lighter?");
  GUIon(4);
  if (interface_click (4,0)){
    AddInventory(2);
    GUIoff (4);
    DisplayMessage("You got your lighter.");
  }
if (character[GetPlayerCharacter()].inv[1]==1) && (character[GetPlayerCharacter()].inv[1]==1){
  DisplayMessage ("It doesn't look like there's anything else I need in my car.");  
}

When I run test the game, I get this error message:
Error (line 72) undefined token 'GUIon'
What does it mean "undefined"?  Does it not say "GUIon (4)"?

If I'm mistaken, what does "undefined token" mean?

What did I do wrong in this script?

Also, just to save myself the hassle... did I do this right?
SetLabelText(4,3,"Will you take your lighter?");

Thanks in advance.
~Sully

Olleh!

(I hope this is the right forum to post this in...)

I downloaded SCI studio, so I could make a special set of fonts for my game I'm working on, but every time I download the program and run it, it's always corrupt.  So I can't really use it to make my fonts, right?

I was wondering if anyone out there who has SCI Studio would be willing to make the fonts for me?  I'm not being lazy, I just can't get the program to work.

This is the url to the bitmap: http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/bodyart/Sprites/deadfont.bmp

As you can see, one is a normal font, and the other is outlined.  Also, there are no lower case letters.

Anyway, if someone would help me out, or tell me another alternative, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

EDIT:  WTH?  I didn't post the picture, I only posted the link to it...

Is there a function that will enable me, after I open my inventory window and select an item, to use the selected item on a GUI?

I've looked through the manual, and the Tech Archive, I can't seem to find anything that might help me.

Thanks in advance.
~Sully

Olleh!

I've been working hard this last while on a game that I haven't talked about much at all.  I figger it's time to tell y'all about what I'm doing.

My first official AGS game is called "The Dead Walk!"

The story:  "One day, the deceased decide to get up and eat the living.  You play as James.  James has left his home to go to the city in hopes that his family will still be alive there.  So James hops in his car, and heads towards the city.  His car runs out of gas on a lonely country backroad.  Now James has to find some gasoline, to refuel his car.  While searching for petrol in a nearby farmhouse, he must fend off the undead until he finds some gas or is rescued."

I know it's not much of a story, but it's good for a start.  I'm not planning this to be a big zombie epic, I figure it'll end up being about a medium length game.  It's just kind of an homage, to show off my love for zombies and gaming.

Here's some screenshots for you:




As you can see, the graphics are very amateur... I'll do a little tweaking here and there until I'm satisfied with them.  Also, the overall game design is pretty unoriginal... it is somewhat of a Resident Evil clone.  I guess I'm not too concerned about that, though.  What really matters to me, is that it will be fun to play when it's finished.

I originally wasn't going to tell anyone anything about this until it was finished, kinda surprise y'all with it.  But, I figure, why not?  I suppose I could use some support.

I've had at least one person ask if they could help with this, (sorry Fizz) I'm anticipating that there might be others... aside from critique in the critic's lounge, and a little scripting help, I'm want to do this all on my own.  Just because.

I'm guessing that this game should only take me a few months to complete, as long as I don't hit any snags along the way.  Once I get all the scripting out of the way, the remaining artwork, sound, etc. won't be a problem. (as far as scripting, I'm kinda learning as I go)  The game is still in the early stages, though.  So, I guess anything I write here is subject to possible change.

Umm... let's see if I forgot anything... oh, even though the game is very unoriginal, I'm still drawing all my graphics from scratch.  Up in the screenshot you see my custom inventory menu...?  That health indicator is animated and actually works! (heh, sorry, I'm just kinda proud of that one...)

I currently have about five rooms done, and one or two that I'm experimenting with.  According to my plans, there should be about 20 rooms.  There is also at least one other character in the game, a female by the name of Kristin.  I haven't finished her artwork though.

I suppose I might try to squeeze in some time to fix up my site all nice and pretty for this.

Hmm... Am I forgetting anything...?  Do any of y'all have any questions that you'd like me to answer?  Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?

Other than that, I think I'm done here, for now.  Cheer me on, won't ya?

Sup?

I'm having a problem drawing in perspective in mspaint.  I was trying to draw these stairs, but they came out... well... not right.



Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?  Or, could anybody give me some tips as to what I could do different?  I used to be so good at this...

My Google and Yahoo searches have turned up nothing for what I'm looking for...

I'm looking for a downloading tool that will keep a record of the position a download is in when I log off the internet, and when I log back on, the download will pick up right where it left off...

I had a pop-up blocker that I heard about on Tech TV that had one of these on it... but it wasn't blocking any pop-ups, so I deleted it... and now I can't even remember what it was called...

Anyway, can anyone tell me about any tools like this (that are worth checking out)?

1. Can someone tell me if it's possible to add the value of two variables together within the script?

2. I see there are variables, such as @GIx@, and the @SCORE@ variables that can be put into messages and will display your current score, or whatever, but are there such variables that you can use to plug a character's name, or an inventory item's name into a message.

3. One last thing, I declare my globalints/variables in the script header, correct?

I've made my own custom inventory GUI, it's very similar to the default one that comes with AGS (a background, an inventory window, a look button, an interact button, an OK button, and an up and down button).  I've assigned all the buttons, and made sure their functions were properly in place, but my only problem is, when I test the game, and I click on the GUI to bring up the inventory window, and I still get the default inventory window, instead of my custom window... I even deleted the one that came in AGS...

So, how do I make it so that my custom window will come up, instead of AGS's default inventory window?

I'm having a few problems with my computer, I was wondering if someone could give me some advice.

I love computers and I love programming, but I'm still, after all these years, not the most computer savvy person in the world.  I mean, I'm not stupid, I know these problems mean something's wrong, but I just don't know what...

1.  This happened today:
I have dial-up.  When close all of my browsers, the computer asks me if I want to disconnect.  I click "yes" and it's supposed to disconnect the computer from the internet.  But today, instead of disconnecting, it stayed connected, and all of the sudden browsers started popping open all over the screen... before I knew it, I had more than 100 browsers open on the screen... I couldn't do anything else because it was just like one browser after another.  (we'll see if that happens again after I'm done on here right now...)

2.  A peculiar thing that happened a while ago...
I had MSWorks open, and I was typing a story.  I highlighted my story to change the font, but as I was looking for the font I wanted, my house phone rang... suddenly, my highlighted text disappeared, and in it's place was "RING".  I was like, "What the...".  So the phone rang again and another "RING" popped up on the screen.  By the time the phone stopped ringing, the screen read "RINGRINGRINGRING".  I was totally dumbfounded.  So I picked up the house phone, and I called my home number... sure enough it happened again... the phone rang four times, and the screen now read "RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING".

Does anyone know why my computer is doing these things?  And, does anyone know what I can do about them?

On my computer, I have Norton Virus Scan.  It's registered and everything, so we get virus updates via the internet.  My mom thinks they both might be the effect of a virus, trojan, or a wyrm.  But wouldn't our virus scanner detect them?

Another thing, slightly different:  I have problems with my computer freezing, etc.  My cousin and my aunt tell me that Windows 98 is known for being full of bugs.  I don't know if there's any truth in that, but I have Windows 98 on my computer, and it seems like the only likely explaination for all these little problems I have that don't seem to have any cause. (like freezing up when it sits idle for a while).

I guess maybe it's time I invested in Windows XP and downloaded ZoneAlarm.

I was wondering, would it be possible... if I wanted to interact with a character... I select my interaction mode, and I click on one part of the character (his arm)and make one thing happen, but if I click on another part of the character (say his leg), something different would happen.

Is this at all possible?  Is there anyway I could possibly set hotspots on characters (without them being a part of an actual background?)  Or is there a possibility that I make some thing happen by clicking on "this group of pixels" as opposed to "that group of pixels" on a character's sprite?

...or am I just walking around with my head in the clouds?

If such a thing exists... how would I go about doing this... where would I start?

I'm sorry... I'm clueless....

I'm sure this is an easy one to tackle, and I'm sure I've passed over the solution in the book many times... but...

How do I display a global message as speech?

I set the resolution for my game at 320x240.  I also converted it to 16-bit color, so I could upload high color backgrounds and be able to use them.  The only problem I'm having is:
- I drew the background in 320x240
- When I upload the background, it comes up as 640x480.

I also imported a character I was using for another game, just to test it out... the character I uploaded appears too small when I test the game.  Same thing with Roger.  I realize I can only upscale the character to 200%, but it's still not big enough.

Anyone know what I can do?  Did I do something wrong?

EDIT:
I think I know what I did wrong... I drew one of those "panoramic" backgrounds (so that it kinda scrolls as you walk)... so the background is drawn for 320x240 resolution, but the background itself is drawn at 640x240 pixels.

So... any suggestions as to what I can do to keep my background, withouth having to redraw everything?

RE-EDIT:
This is the image I'm using for the background.

...as you can see it is 640x240 pixels.  I tried drawing the character sprites double size, and they came out the right size when I tested the game, but blocky.  I guess I can do a little tweaking in the drawing of the character sprites.  But I'd still like to get some feedback on how to get around my original problem.

This is a little background I'm working on.

It's supposed to be one of those backwood roads out in the middle of nowhere...  I'm trying to make it look like it's at dusk, just before the sun goes down (I'm making one for at night too)... and I'm going to try to add some trees in the back behind the grass....  

I don't know... any suggestions?  How to make the grass look better?  Anything at all?  I guess I'm pretty happy with the way that it looks, it doesn't need to be a masterpiece, but I'd like some ideas on things I COULD do to improve it...

Come on, Colossal... you're excellent with art... you know you want to comment...

EDIT:
I guess I should mention, that I didn't draw the car all by my lonesome... I kinda cheated on that one... I just took a picture of my old Grand Am and traced over it 'cuz I can't draw cars for $hit.

Is there any way to switch the main character to a second character, or to be able to select a main character at the beginning of your game?

Or would it just be easier to have one main character, and if I wanted to make another main character just select a different view?  I know it's just easier to select a different view if the main character changes clothes or puts on a costume for example, but I'm talking about two totally different main characters.

If you still have no clue what I'm talking about, here's an example:
In Resident Evil 2, your main character is, say, Claire.  During part of the game later on, the little girl Sherrie has to run and do a task for Claire, at that point you take control of Sherrie until the task is completed.

I 'm kinda stuck... I have these items in my inventory, and I'm not sure what to do next:
-umbrella
-twig
-cord (from the tv)

Is there a walkthrough for this game?

This is a little story I wrote, it's nothing special.  But I think it's a good story.

Anyone have any suggestions?  Grammar, things I could add/change to make the story better?  I kinda slopped the ending together because I was eager to post it online and show it off to see what people thought about it.

http://pub51.ezboard.com/fedenstudiosdiscussionboardsfrm3.showMessage?topicID=1055.topic

By the way, what ever happened to that one post that you reply to, and you list all of the things you're good at (when it comes to making games).  If say, you needed someone to do music, you just look for a person that does music, and ask them to do your music for you.... does anyone know what I'm talking about?

When you set the scaling for a walkable area, what is the highest percent of scaling you can use?

The reason why I ask, is because my scaling won't go past 200%, and I need to scale my sprite to 300% or else I have to redraw the background. (and I don't wanna do that because I worked really hard on putting a lot of detail into it...)

I can't stand their website service anymore.  I'm going to make myself a new site, but first I need a few suggestions.

Can anyone tell me a good place to build a personal website that doesn't cost anything, has decent features, and doesn't suck in general?

Please don't name Angelfire, I already know they suck too.

Thanx,
Sully