Messages

Personally I prefer Inno Setup. On the face of it its a bit more complicated than the ClickTeam one, but not too bad if you use the wizard. And its completely free so it doesn't have the unregistered message at the end. They're both good programs though.

Un-plugged
I have no mouse and I must scream
Ilegal exception on line 42
Natural interface
Clicker
Control me!
256 colour blind

Essentially what we are looking at is it can definitely be done, but more detailed/customisable you want it to be, the more complicated the programming becomes

Ah well, that doesn't sound too bad then. I was probably never going to get around to installing Linux anyway.

An alternative way of doing it: Monkey Island used separate rooms for close-ups of its characters. You could make a new room with a picture of your character's head as the background, then characters/objects for their eyes, mouth etc, and animate them individually. Depends on how much of the face you want to animate, though if you have different features animating individually you can do more expressions with less actual frames.

Oh my god, that stock cube idea is hilarious! How well did it work?

Not well at all unfortunately. We ran the shower briefly afterwards to test it and I think it all came out straight away. Then when my housemate came home he couldn't get the shower to work - I've still no idea how that happened - and when he found out what we'd done he stole our shower head in revenge.

Great ideas, unfortunately I didn't get chance to do anything before he arrived. Still my other housemate is off in a couple of weeks and he's getting really paranoid because of all this room hijacking talk. Of course last semester we unscrewed his shower head (he has his own bathroom) and put a stock cube in there...

How about this for an idea then...
Go into your bathroom and hold a camcorder in one of the celling corners looking directly at the toilet. Record a couple of minutes then put the recording on tape or DVD. Now when you have friends over and one of them goes off to the toilet, get out the tape and play it so that when they come back they find you watching what is apparently a security camera recording of the bathroom they just visited.

Any more of your personal stories/ideas?

[Edit:]

Right, this is an entry

Through the still and starry night
Across the lake so placid
Glides Colonel William T. Dwight
With his glass of magic acid

         

42 colours, 100x100 for the background

Apparently 'magic' acid has the formula FSO3HSbF5. So there you go.

Edit: Oh, and I used 4, 5, 6, 10 and 13

Not an entry

     

@Pablo: He's probably going to turn up with his parents too... that would be hilarious. Though of course I don't happen to have a load of pictures of naked men lying around. Of course.

@Akatosh: Laughed out loud (really) at that

@InCreator: I'd love to try that one out, though I'm not sure I could carry it out that well while holding a video camera...

How about this idea: Hide a bunch of post-it notes all over his room with strange codes and symbols on. Number each one 1/16, 2/16 etc. But only hide 15 of them

Paolo, vauge hint:

Spoiler

"Cherry bomb"

[close]

and another

Spoiler

Where might you find a fuse?

[close]

Also

I don't seem to be able to do anything yet with

Spoiler

the rotten stone in the graveyard or the egg outside the tavern.

[close]

Spoiler

That's because you can't

[close]

One of my housemates is coming back this evening and I'm trying to think of something creative to do to his room before he gets here. Unfortunately I share bathrooms and the like with him so I can't resort to clingfilm and toilet seats, and something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmJoyuUJj2Q would probably lose me my house deposit.

Any ideas?

You forgot to mention the free pink poster AGS comes with

Can i make it go from random items

I'm guessing for an RPG you wouldn't want to just add any item in the game, so you'd want to set up a list of possible items and pick one depending on the random number. So something like:

Code: ags

int giveItem;

giveItem=Random(2);
if (giveItem==0){
  player.AddInventory(iApple);
}else if (giveItem==1){
  player.AddInventory(iElixir);
}else{
  player.AddInventory(iRustyBlade);
}

If that's what you meant by the question...

[Bump]

Bump

One MAGS duly out the way and I'm starting to think about this project again. I haven't corrected any of the later suggestions yet (colour count, eye colour, baggy 'pants' etc) but I had a go at a side view anyway.


I'm not at all happy with the face and the arm looks a bit stuck on... at some point I'll knock the colour count down and see if that solves that problem...

Anyway, critics lounge do your worst! Suggestions, paintovers, any other faults you want to pick with it...?

Here's a comparison of the three so far...

You've got the top half of the body following something like an isometric look, and the right foot with some form of perspective. The two don't fit together. Just as a quick paintover:

This robot is drawn continuing the more isometric look you've got going, with the right leg and foot following the same angle into the page that the left ones do


This version has more of a perspective on it using a vanishing point somewhere above and directly behind the robot. The problem with using something like this with objects made up of blocks is that if he moves around a screen at some points he's going to look strange compared to the perspective of the background

Possibly?

[1) Because we are in control of the game reality, shouldn't we explore something outside of our own experiences?]

My script's got a few spelling mistakes...

Is life scripted or lived? Is a script provided and we live it or do we make a new reality?

I'd go for it being a basic script but very open for interpretation. Society dictates that you're supposed to be born, grow up, go to school, get some qualifications, get a job, get married, have kids, retire and finally die, but there's nothing stopping you putting your own spin on that, and doing something really radical with your life is always a possibility (though will probably come up with more opposition). So yeah, I'd say we were in control of the vast majority of our lives (save for those runaway trucks or piano lifting cranes).

As to how this relates to adventure games, this is how I interpret your questions:

1) Because we are in control of the game reality, shouldn't we explore something outside of our own experiences?
Well, just because we can create a fantastical new reality doesn't necessarily mean we should. I think it boils down to why the game is being made. If its a form of escapism, a way to tell a larger than life story, symbolism, an exercise in creativity or just the opportunity for someone else to explore a world you have made or are interested in, then yes, making a game that's "out of the ordinary" would be a good, or the only, way of achieving that.

But if you're making a game to make a serious point, a commentary on a social situation, or even about yourself to tell your stories, a "normal" setting would be a less confusing way of getting your message across.

2) Should adventure games be pushing the bar? Should they constantly be looking for new features?
I'd say this depends on audience, and again a little about why you're making the game. If you're making a game for this community I don't think there's anything wrong with a bit of nostalgic gameplay. Most of us mourn the death of the adventure game genre (although it does twitch now and then), and the opportunity to play games that are just like those we were brought up on is a welcome idea to quite a lot of the people here. Some people are perfectly happy with the same old cut-down-LucasArts-GUI, comedic script, moody detective guy, wisecracking sidekick etc. etc. and for some game makers this is a level they are happy to achieve. However, if you were to do something different, I think it would be well received by the community, and even if it didn't come out quite right, you'd still get respect for trying.

If we're talking a wider audience then the best option is reinvention. Classic adventure games don't sell well anymore, so the way to create a marketable game seems to be doing something different (lots of choice and quick time events in Fahrenheit, episodic releases in Sam and Max, use of 3D acceleration and high res graphics, adding fighting or platforming...). As for provocative? I think that's an aspect of a certain kind of game. I don't think its necessary in every game.

Personally I like creating my own realities for games, stories and so on, and I always try to be different. Pushing the bar isn't something I do frequently, especially in game making, because the tools I use are geared towards specific types of games and it's helpful to work within those bounds. It is something I respect though.

Essay over.

I think the character's great. Whether or not you go with ProgZmax's invisible arms and legs is up to you, but I do think the feet go a little far backwards, and maybe even forwards. The vertical distance between his body and feet just seems a little small for the horizontal distance the feet cover. Then again the physics of limbless walking is up for interpretation...

Another thing is the shading on the body, which seems out of sync with the hands. As it is he seems to be twisting his torso backwards as his hand comes forwards, or there's at least a delayed reaction like the movement of his hands is twisting his body. I think there should be the most dark shading when the hand in the foreground is furthest forward, to give the impression that the shoulder in the foreground is also furthest forward.

Other than that I don't have any complaints and I love the style

I can't see anything jarringly wrong from just scrolling the screen up and down, but its hard to tell until someone animates it.

As a side note if you feel the background needs it, or you want to anyway, you could enhance the idea that the perspective has changed by adding one or two people (obviously viewed from underneath) on a walkway, to help the player see the rest of the background from that angle.