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Here's mine. It's not my normal style, I was mostly just experimenting with all the tools in photoshop. I was going for a dark, foggy, spooky look. I think its a bit pants though.Ã,  :

I've actually been thinking how to apply the concept of alternate puzzle solutions that cropped up in a discussion a while ago. I thought a practical way of implementing it could be through dialog puzzles.

Say you're particularly mean to a character, and then find out later you need their help. Because you were mean, you have to do a quest to 'appease' them and get them to help you. Or alternatively if you're nice to a mean character, they think you're a wimp and you have to find something to bribe/intimidate them with. I think it would give the characters more depth, and stop the 'just click everything' approach. However I do like the idea of letting them 'cool off', so its not too hard for beginners.

Don't be offended, but I found the tutorial terribly confusing. A lot of stuff about perspective and vanishing points, I've worked out myself simply from looking around me, and reading some threads in the critics forums. With your tutorial, I didn't really understand what the overhead view was meant to be illustrating. Perhaps a little more elaboration might help?

I got a digital camera.  Spent the day running round taking photos of random things, especially the snow we got! I had a great day, having a snowball fight with my dad (definitely came off worse!), pulling crackers, stuffing my face, and just generally enjoying spending time with my family. To be perfectly honest, I would have been just as happy with a cheap selection box. Though the origami set I got was cool!

Or if you watch Futurama: 'Santa Claus is mowing you down!'


We were at the neighbours for some mulled wine, this evening. And just after we got back in the house (just after midnight, GMT), it started snowing! Wooooo! Pity, we were gonna sue the weatherman for breach of promise (though I think that was the mulled wine talking!)

Anyhoo, Merry Christmas all!

I think what you're looking for is the Broken Sword (1&2) GUI. It was right click to examine, and left click to walk/interact. The cursor changed to reflect what action would be performed on the object when you clicked on it. So, if you could pick up the item, the cursor would change to a hand picking up. The inventory was a thin bar on the top of the screen. Its most definitely one of the most unobtrusive GUIs I've ever come across. However it also made the game quite easy - something to bear in mind when designing a GUI. If it's too simple, the game may not provide a challenge to the player.

First thing, scanners are 'cheap as chips' these days, so you can get one for a bargain. And as for usefulness- I have to do a lot of reading for my uni course, and it saves me soooo much money on photocopying having a scanner. I get my books out overnight from the short loans library, and scan them into my computer, and print them out if I need to. Plus I like to scan in sketches of backgrounds and things to use as a framework for the finished artwork. Trust me, a scanner is worth the money.

I think its supposed to be a reply to a topic from a while ago, about how much blood to put in the person's cutscene: Click here

Happy birthday!

or depending how much drink you had - happy barfday? 

Do we win the dance portion if we do the truffle shuffle? 

Nobody tries to rename Divali as "November Light Festival", so why the onslaught against Christmas?

Perhaps it's a conspiracy by greetings card companies?Ã, 


On the issue at hand, I was watching a documentary on multi-culturalism a long time ago and it took an interesting stance. It seemed to protray it somewhat like positive discrimination. We're trying so hard to be tolerant and encourage cultural diversity, when we're really just ending up segregating ourselves.

My own views, well I'm not entirely sure of them at the moment. This thread has made me think a lot. I would really like to think that everyone can just get along, but thats rather naive of me.Ã,  :

I think the general consensus is to concentrate first on the story - even just getting a vague outline. Decide on how the story will start and how it will end, and then refine the bits in between. Other than that, the best strategy is just to do what you feel like at the time. If you feel like working on your artwork, do so. If you feel like writing some dialogue, do that. I mean, for most people, this is a hobbie - you're meant to enjoy it! So, approach it that way!

Psst, Pelican, don't tell anybody but criminals have rights too.

I'm not saying that criminals don't have rights. I'm just saying that some of the situations occurring are rather ridiculous. For instance a criminal attacks a police officer, and is injured while being subdued. Then tries to sue for the injuries occurred. Thats just daft. It really depends on the situation - if the criminal is a real threat (and how can you know if they're really going to use that weapon?), and how much force is necessary to subdue them with the minimum of casualties all round. Anyway I think Darth's made most of my points for me.

You might try to look at it from the angle that we've become very much a 'sue everybody' society. I mean how many advertisements do you see about making claims? A lot more than there used to be, methinks. I think it might make an interesting sideline to Darth's comment about a criminal suing the police officer. I mean, a few decades ago, it wouldn't even occurred to someone, never mind have the possibility of winning. Why bother committing conventional crimes when you can just sue everybody, eh?  :

The windows look a little funny - like they're stuck on. The shadows should be on the opposite sides to show them to be set in to the wall.

Sometimes, the problem is even identifying the puzzle! I mean, the first time I played Riven, there was so much to explore and look at that I didn't know what was relevant. When I did finally get a walkthrough, I did actually go, 'Ah, I see how it works now!'. The solution hadn't occurred to me, but I could see how it was solved. On the other hand, there are some games where I still cannot work out how they were solved even with the walkthrough. I guess you just have to hope that the author has been consistent with their puzzles, so if you can solve one, the others should work somewhat the same. Like Discworld 1&2 - the puzzles solutions tended to be a bit barmy, but they were all like that, so you knew you had to 'think outside the box'. And of course, there's always the good old, 'click everything on everything else until you get it.' 

Think of Zork Grand Inquisitor. There was one spell which was only used once, but didn't detract from the game. It was just like: 'Ah! So that's what its for!' I think the number of verbs is only really an issue if the GUI is permanently onscreen. Most of the time I do prefer fewer verbs, because some games just stump me, and it gives less possibilities to try. But sometimes its nice to have more verbs to play with - particularly if there are interesting and amusing responses to the actions, or just amusing actions themselves.

Happy Birthday!

Spoiler

How could you get the bees to go away? They seem very agitated. Maybe if you calmed them down? How might you do that?

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See below about the extra scene:

Spoiler

In easy or standard mode, when Cobb wanted to see under your hood, it cuts to the baddie, and he mutters something about not being able to think with all that screaming. In expert mode, we see Cobb lift the hood, showing a flashing green light which sucks him inside. Its kinda freaky.

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