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Theres a road sign near where I live that simply says "Blind People". I never quite took them up on their offer.

They did yell at you, Dual

AGS contains the codec or whatever to play ogg files within it, so people playing your games will be able to hear ogg music reguardless of whether they have anything on their computer that could play them instead. Same with mp3, midi and flic video. AFAIK the only things you need to be worried about are video files; because of the huge amount of codecs you need to make sure you encode any video files you include with your game using a codec that most people have or can get hold of easily.

For the record I use ogg files and do my recording/converting in Audacity (though I'm sure there's some right-click type programs out there that can convert faster - PowerAmp or something?). There's also a download on the ogg vorbis site that lets you play ogg files in Windows Media player, which I have to admit I still use.

Ah, that would be the one

Excited but also a little concerned. The first one wasn't perfect but still managed to be a fantastic experience and is one of very few games that I've 100%ed (at least twice). If the sequel can keep the charm and gameplay of the first one while expanding on the story and universe it's going to be a great game. Can't say I like Pey'j's new voice though...

The command you want is PlayMusic(1); not PlayMP3File. From the manual:

PlayMP3File

Since normally MP3 files are built into the MUSIC.VOX file, there may be occasions where you want one MP3 (for example, the intro music) to be distributed with your main game rather than the music pack. So, this function allows you to play any named MP3 or OGG file. However, you will have to bundle the file separately in your game distribution (it is not automatically compiled into the EXE)

PlayMusic(1) will play the first file it finds in the music folder called music1.ogg, music1.mp3, music1.mid, music1.mod or music1.xm, and when your game is compiled the contents of the music folder will be bundled into music.vox ready to be distributed with your game.

Also, and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I think a file called music1.whatever will be played automatically when your game starts, so if you don't want that you should call it music2.mp3 instead.

If you know, or can find someone who knows, how to program in Flash it might be worth looking at Armour Games http://armorgames.com/page/sponsorship. I know artists like the Super Flash Brothers have started making lots of games under their sponsorship, and the deal seems quite good. You could also try going for prizes at sites like Newgrounds. It'd be a good way of building up a portfolio and getting some cash at the same time. Other than that I'd suggest contacting graphic design agencies, finding out how people there started off and possibly if they could offer you any freelance work.

Bananas In Pyjamas

There was a game? :o

It was... alright. I've finished it (as well as 2 and 3) and although there were several bits I enjoyed it never quite managed to pull me in. The animations are fantastic but they can also get very annoying, like when you're trying to use an item on something on the other side of the screen and George walks all the way over (with his 20-odd frame walkcycle), turns slowly around then shrugs with another however many frames. Great animation, but I'd rather not have to go through 30 seconds of it just to be told I can't use an item there. The puzzles are a little imbalanced; they're mostly pretty easy (though unfortunately a lot of 'talk to everyone about all the topics and items'), but there are one or two tough ones. The story's reasonably well written if you pay attention to it.

I think largopredator's right in that its a game you should play when you're in the right mood, but its also a game that focuses more on dialogue and story than puzzle solving. Its probably worth sticking with it, but maybe not if you have something better to play. Oh, and make sure you save fairly regularly, because there are a couple of places you can get killed.

I don't really play horror games, but there have been a few moments in other genres.

First time I opened the knight's tomb in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and you got a 256 colour skeleton accompanied by a loud musical sting. Always used to turn the volume down at that point when I played through it again. I also got rather worried playing Myst for the first time, like when you find one of the brother's torture chambers with skulls hidden in chests, or wandering around the tree-top houses on another island. Say what you will about Myst, but the atmosphere was very good. The original Men in Black game as well, what with crazy doctors jumping out of the shadows and zombie dogs running around in the second mission. I think I also stopped playing Half Life a couple of times when it was getting late.

Much more recently than all those I started playing The Dark Eye (game based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe), and decided I wouldn't play it late at night . Again fantastic atmosphere.

I reckon the scariest thing I've played on my own so far was the demo to Penumbra Overture. Played that in the dark with the volume up and it was great, though the scary part was that I knew if something attacked me I wouldn't have a chance because I couldn't get to grips with the stupid controls

(I also have to admit that The Curse of Monkey Island made me turn the volume down because I got scared... it was late, I was young and it was the bit where you're going through the Goodsoup family crypt, and somebody starts laughing evilly. Turned the sound back on again when I realised it was Murry though )

Nice reviews Leon, (still) nice blog SSH. You've been added to my Google Reader, because I really need more internet-based distractions in my day

Last night I dreamed that I was watching a stop-motion film in which a small mouse climbed inside a cat and took up residence behind its eyes. The eyes were kind of windows into a room in the cat's head, and the mouse had a chair, wallpaper, carpets, a picture and even fairy lights. The cat got so upset that the mouse wouldn't leave, that it tried to do the same to a dog, but it was too big.

I usually reckon you can track your dreams back to things you've been doing or thinking about, but I'm at a loss for this one.

Played the demo, and it wasn't that great in my opinion. As Ben says the writing was a bit forced and the whole setup seemed rather like a fan game to me; a commercial fan game but still a fan game.

My main issue was the puzzles. You tended to be presented with an obstacle and could immediately get past it by finding an item on one of the few screens around. Once you solved a puzzle you moved on, so there was no backtracking and almost level-like very linear gameplay.

Still, that was the demo which only covered the first few acts, so it might not be a fair representation of the rest of the game. I don't want to put you off, the game got on my bad side early on when the supposedly British colonialists were pronouncing route "rowt", so I guess I'm biased It's probably worth it if you can get the game for a good price, but if you can face a 640MB download I'd give the demo a try first.

Its been a several days since anyone replied to this, so apologies for the thread digging. However, on the off-chance that you haven't already solved it and I can be of some help...

You could find out which way the character is facing using character.Loop, then instead of using Region.GetAtRoomXY(player.x, player.y), calculate a new x and y coordinate for the region detection using player.x + characterwidth and player.y + characterheight, where characterwidth and characterheight are either hardcoded values or something calculated from, e.g. Character.BlockingHeight and Character.BlockingWidth. That way if for example the character is moving to the right the region detection takes place a few pixels to the right of their current coordinate.

Code: ags

if (character.Loop==2){
  Region.GetAtRoomXY(player.x + player.BlockingWidth/2, player.y);
}else{
  //etc
}

Obviously its not going to be perfect, especially if you don't use diagonal walking loops, but it shouldn't be any worse than the current method.

[Edit:]

According to the BBC Britain's Ministry of Defence has started releasing its reports on UFOs, and will do so in chronological order over the next 4 years (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7398784.stm).

They're supposedly free to download for the first month, but there's no link. Anyway, thought that might be of interest...

Edit: Here's the link http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

I understand about being spontaneous, and that definitely works, but what about those guys who have to churn out a comic every week (or everyday) that has to be funny? What about the writer who has promised that every other line of dialogue in the game is going to be hilarious- and then delivers?

Are you saying I should write out a short story first, and then run through it again adding 'comedy' on the second pass? That seems a little artificial, no?

I reckon in those kind of things the background should always come first. Develop your characters and their world, creating different flaws, outlooks etc etc for each of them. It's then much easier to come up with a situation tailored for your characters to react to in a humorous way. Garfield is an overweight and incredibly lazy cat who would love to spend his days eating, sleeping and watching TV. When he accidentally gets himself locked out of the house we're set up for a joke about him "not recognising the neighbourhood" when he's at the bottom of his own garden. Charlie Brown is a born loser who never wins anything. He finally gets a bowling score of 100 which earns him a trophy, but when he shows it to Lucy she points out that they've spelt his name "Broun". Those jokes wouldn't be funny if we didn't know the characters, and they're all about taking established characters out of their usual situations to see how they react.

So, if you have a character who's a severe caffeine addict, dump them on a desert island with no coffee. Spend time dragging them around looking for alternatives. When they've finally got over their cravings, let them stumble upon a Starbucks and go mental. Expand on the concept by showing other character's reactions; panel 1 - girl reading book, 'RRRRRRR' noise coming from off scene. Panel 2 - coffee addict 'vibrating' his way across the panel, girl looks up. Panel 3 - girl looks back down at her book with apparently no surprise or interest.

Don't underestimate visual gags as well, especially in games where the player has been looking at the same walkcycles and talking animations for the last x hours of gameplay. Take the Monkey Island II example - how funny would the dog joke have been if Guybrush just reaches out a hand and the dog disappears? The fact that we see him stuff a large bloodhound down his trousers makes the gag. When Bernard emerges from the Chrono-John in Day of the Tentacle, he doesn't just open the door, he climbs out of the toilet. Comics and games are primarily about the artwork - the audience doesn't want to read text about how a character is 'unhappy' with the turn of events, they want to see the character with an over-the-top expression of absolute disgust.

I read some very interesting things in one of Scott Adam's Dilbert books once about writing humour. I don't have it to hand, and I can't quite remember which book it was (possibly 'The Joy of Work'?), but fortunately Adams has written a blog entry in a similar vein... http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/writing-funny.html
His essentials of humour are especially interesting, though I'd add 'stupid' to that list, and could be a useful guideline for coming up with characters. Something he also said in the book was the thought process for coming up with good jokes. Basically you have to try and train yourself to come up with ideas constantly, and analyse them instantly. If it doesn't make you laugh don't spend time trying to make it funny, just move on.

Sorry, rambled a bit there. In response to your question I'd suggest coming up with a story/background/concept that has the potential for a lot of humour (e.g. the world 1000 years in the future, centring around an intergalactic delivery firm), then develop characters that will be able to interact with it and each other in a funny way (e.g. a stupid, laid-back pizza delivery boy from the 20th century, an nosy alien woman with one eye, a bureaucratic Jamaican ex Olympic Limbo hurdler...) then come up with the situations for them to react to (delivering to a planet of human hating robots).

Hopefully something in that lot might help you.

[Children of Men]

I agree with lots already mentioned (Memento, Pan's Labyrinth, Amélie, Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys...).
A few to add...
Children of Men - really interesting look at a world descending into chaos. Has some great single-take scenes in it.
City of God - gang life in the favelas of Brazil, based on a true story.
Sin City - brilliant visuals and gritty storyline. Rather gory, but if you can stomach that its definitely worth watching.
Airplane - well, you did say "extremely funny" movies...
A Chinese Martials Arts Film Of Some Description - like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, something along those lines.
The Matrix - If you haven't watched it, you'd better have the mother of all excuses.
The Shawshank Redemption - Cinematic masterpiece
Se7en - Another great Fincher
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Classic, yet rather different western. And it has that ending.

I'm going to stop now.

Not sure if anyone's seen this before, but I just came across it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww&e
Just watch it skidding on the ice at 0:35 and again at 1:24. SkyNet is closer than you think.

I second Beyond Good and Evil. Here's a nine-and-a-half minute Youtube link, but if anyone's interested they should download the demo. It's got a lot of things going for it but the interactive sections really make it.

Empire Earth II is nice and epic. Good tone setter.

Oh yeah, and I know the Sam and Max intro pretty much word for word (here, if anyone needs a link). That's pretty funny.

Theme Hospital anyone?

...only to realise there are no real answers

I wish I could turn invisible