Messages

I've been slowly working on it in my spare time. Here is what I have done so far.

image file hosting

Right there with you. I have been very back and forth on whether I ought to just try and throw something together real quick last minute and release it, or take my time and actually make something nice. I have done most of the coding but saved the art for last thinking I could just whip that out quickly, but that was a mistake  I don't think I want anybody to see my game yet.

Thank you, I will for sure do that!

So I've always really loved the aesthetic of textmode art, but every time I've tried to create something in it I've always failed. It's always so much harder than it looks.
I decided to try tackling the challenge one more time after I watched a tutorial on Youtube.



Obviously unfinished. I am trying to stick to one color per scene. You can also see the GUI in progress here.
I started off with a design for how I wanted the "warp worm" to look, with writhing tentacles and words scribbled across it for shading, but actually doing it in a way that makes everything fit together using only characters is another thing. I spent a long time constructing the lava, which is ok but the perspective looks a little wonky, and then I got burnt out by the time I finished the legs of the worm. It is so difficult shaping things using text. I spend a lot of time trying to get the details right but then I also think when it looks too polished it loses that text art feel. I'm not sure how to embrace this style. Running out of time for this project.
I'm using lvllvl.com for the art editor.
Anybody familiar with textmode art or have any tips?

I agree, but I admit I'm having trouble grasping the precise way to implement this pseudo-code. You have to remember I have very little experience with scripting, what I do know is basically from just dabbling with things and seeing how they work and reading what other people did here and there. So a lot of the time I read your suggestions and think, "That's genius, but I have no idea where to begin doing that myself". Then in the meantime I'll have cobbled together some other wacky way of doing it that's totally different from the idea I first began asking about.
I really appreciate your input but I'm afraid I'm going to need a walkthrough, especially when it comes to using strings and stuff, and where I'd begin using that method.

Yes, else if's don't work, but so far if's do. Not that that's the best solution either.
I'm not sure what you mean about using variables for this, can you give me an example?

Yep. It's really strange, it's not recognizing new lines as the beginning of a new word anymore, it's just inputting the entire text file as one big word. Not what I wanted. 
I think the program I used to format the text document is using line breaks instead of hard returns. This is so frustrating, I'm so close to figuring it out...
EDIT: Yes! I figured out how to get it to input them as different words. Now, let's see if that works...
running into some technical difficulties
Ok, there's still some limitation on how many words the parser can handle. After 12 or so, it does nothing. I'll have to tinker with it more

EDIT2: Ok, so if anybody wants to know how to add an entire book to the text parser for any reason, this is what you have to do.
1. Go to https://onlinetexttools.com/remove-duplicate-text-words and input the entire text document into the input. Push "Enter" in the Output Word Delimiter box. It takes a second so don't give up. Once it loads, save the file as a text document. This eliminates all the extra words in the book so you can fit the entries into the parser, and separates them into different words-once I did this, the entire Bible was composed of only 12,000 or so unique words, so easily fits into the 30,000 limit.
2. Use Khris's program here to add it to your game and overwrite your game file. https://khris.ddns.net/agsparser/
3. Now you should be able to use all the words from the book in whatever combination you like in your game, and add any synonyms for alternate spellings and such. Oh, but, so far as I can tell, you need to add "rol" at the end of each line, like this:

Code: ags

else if (Parser.Said("But his delight is in the law of the LORD and in his law doth he meditate day rol")) 

I'm not sure why. It just won't accept it unless you do. And, also, it appears that there is still a limit to how many words you can enter in-about 16 appears to be the max, but cutting the sentence short and adding "rol" at the end will make it so it still recognizes it, and as long as nobody knows that it's autocompleting the sentence for them after that, what does it matter? There doesn't seem to be, as far as I can tell, any way around this limit.

Anyway, THANKS @Khris! That saved me a lot of trouble.

Errr, one more thing: Now I have to do the scripting. I vaguely remember there being some feature in Excel to input a list into paragraphs, and since I haven't used Excel since highschool, I have no idea if I'm remembering that right or how to do it. You seem like somebody who codes a lot. Is there a feature out there to make it simpler to write lines of script that are almost all the same but just slightly different? If I could just find a way to make 31,000 copies of the code above and just change the text inside the quotations, that would be amazing. Surely there's a way?

I mean I'm trying to import it into Khris's program for the text parser... sorry for the lack of clarification.

It was the entire KJV in a text file, and I just used the import word list button on the website. It keeps giving me a "page not working" message.
I think I may have figured out a better way to do it, but I'm having trouble because the program isn't recognizing line breaks as a new word, for some reason...
@Khris is there another way to differentiate between words?

Sigh.
I finally figured out a way to format the text file quickly and easily, but I can't even try it out because the file is too large and it crashes your program when I try to import it...

These both look awesome, wish I had some more time to play them both!

Also, you say you're getting errors if you're parsing longer sentences. Can you give examples of what exactly is in your word list and relevant code?

I think it's due to the text not being inputted exactly as it appears in the parser. If I put the entire sentence into the list of words, but only type part of the sentence into the game parser, it crashes the game with an error message that says, "Such and such is not in the dictionary or is an ignored word". So for some reason that happens if a whole sentence is in the list of words, but only part of it is typed into the parser in-game.

That doesn't happen if I input everything into the word list three words at a time instead of putting entire sentences in. If I type in part of a sentence then, it just doesn't let me enter it, rather than crash the game.

This is how I'm structuring the text file that I put into the parser:

Code: ags

Psalm 1, Psalms 1

1, Blessed is the, man that walketh, not in the, counsel of the, ungodly nor standeth, in the way, of sinners nor, sitteth in, the seat, of the scornful 

2, But his delight, is in the, law of the, LORD and in, his law doth, he meditate day, and night 

3, And he shall, be like a, tree planted by, the rivers of, water that bringeth, forth his fruit, in his season, his leaf also, shall not wither, and whatsoever he, doeth shall prosper

4, The ungodly are, not so but, are like the, chaff which the, wind driveth away, wind drives away 

5, Therefore the ungodly, shall not stand, in the judgment, nor sinners in, the congregation of, the righteous 
 
6, For the LORD, knoweth the way, of the righteous, but the way, of the ungodly, shall perish, will perish

So each verse is numbered and considered one word with several synonyms.

In the global script:

Code: ags

else if (Parser.Said("Psalm 1:1")) 
	{ dPsalm1v1.Start();  virtue[29]++; vice[29]--; virtue[13]++; vice[13]--; virtue[20]++; vice[20]--; virtue[8]++; vice[8]--; virtue[5]++; vice[5]--; virtue[10]++; vice[10]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); }
		else if (Parser.Said("Blessed is the man that walketh not rol")) 
	{ dPsalm1v1.Start(); virtue[29]++; vice[29]--; virtue[13]++; vice[13]--; virtue[20]++; vice[20]--; virtue[8]++; vice[8]--; virtue[5]++; vice[5]--; virtue[10]++; vice[10]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); }
  else if (Parser.Said("Psalm 1:2")) 
	{ dPsalm1v2.Start(); virtue[22]++; vice[22]--; virtue[18]++; vice[18]--; virtue[13]++; vice[13]--; virtue[12]++; vice[12]--; virtue[8]++; vice[8]--; virtue[14]++; vice[14]--; virtue[26]++; vice[26]--; virtue[2]++; vice[2]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); } 
		else if (Parser.Said("But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate rol")) //write to this length
	{ dPsalm1v2.Start(); virtue[22]++; vice[22]--; virtue[18]++; vice[18]--; virtue[13]++; vice[13]--; virtue[12]++; vice[12]--; virtue[8]++; vice[8]--; virtue[14]++; vice[14]--; virtue[26]++; vice[26]--; virtue[2]++; vice[2]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); }
	else if (Parser.Said("Psalm 1:3")) 
	{ dPsalm1v3.Start(); virtue[17]++; vice[17]--; virtue[5]++; vice[5]--; virtue[2]++; vice[2]--; virtue[28]++; vice[28]--; virtue[29]++; vice[29]--; virtue[14]++; vice[14]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); } 
		else if (Parser.Said("And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water rol")) 
	{ dPsalm1v3.Start(); virtue[17]++; vice[17]--; virtue[5]++; vice[5]--; virtue[2]++; vice[2]--; virtue[28]++; vice[28]--; virtue[29]++; vice[29]--; virtue[14]++; vice[14]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); }
	else if (Parser.Said("Psalm 1:4"))
	{ dPsalm1v4.Start(); virtue[13]++; vice[13]--; virtue[5]++; vice[5]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); }
		else if (Parser.Said("the ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away")) 
	{ dPsalm1v4.Start(); virtue[13]++; vice[13]--; virtue[5]++; vice[5]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); }
		else if (Parser.Said("Psalm 1:5")) 
	{ dPsalm1v5.Start(); virtue[5]++; vice[5]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); }
		else if (Parser.Said("Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement nor sinners rol")) 
	{ dPsalm1v5.Start(); virtue[5]++; vice[5]--; GiveScore(1); txtParser.SetText(""); }
		//example

Etc.

As for the resolution thing, which version of AGS are you using, and what settings do you have in your configuration?
I tried to run a 640x400 game in a 1366x768 virtual machine and all of the fullscreen modes worked more or less. (Although this might be different on actual hardware).

I forget whether this happened on AGS 3 or AGS 2.7 the first time, I keep switching back and forth between them since I am simultaneously working on two different parts of my game. Now it's happening on AGS 2.7. But I guess it's not a big deal, it just seems to happen when I try running a backup file. I'm going to be making a new game file and combining the two parts I'm working on anyway, so I think that will fix it.

Finally, I would strongly recommend doing a small demo for people to playtest, of just this particular bit (with only a few verses) before you spend a whole lot of time copying the Bible into AGS: you might get feedback that makes you rethink/tweak the gameplay mechanic to something that needs to be implemented completely differently.

Yes, that's why I thought I'd try to make a smaller chapter for MAGS using just the Psalter. I'm not sure I'm going to meet the deadline at this rate, though, and certainly not going to win. 

Unfortunately it's not just this part that's a massive time sink, the entire thing is a very tedious process. I'm also adding audio to each verse, and I'm having to categorize every verse into 30 Virtues, number them accordingly, and then script each one, plus make dialog files for them all. I calculated yesterday and just implementing the verses alone is taking me like 3-4 hours a day to keep up with my goal of 10 chapters per day (in 15 days at that rate I'll be done with Psalms). Which is unfortunate because that leaves me with a lot less time to focus on the artwork and narrative, which will probably end up being subpar. And that's a shame because improving my art skills is how I justified spending all this time on this project, lol. It's just a good thing I have a lot of free time right now.

I was also thinking, on a sidenote, how cool it would be to make something like this, but with poetry. (Haha I'm already coming up with new ideas when I'm still swamped with what I've got.) And then I wondered how you'd implement that, and how you could make a way for the parser to detect if what you're saying rhymes with something else you've said. That might be too complicated to do in AGS though. That's where AI would really come in handy.

EDIT: Hmm. Now my game is crashing whenever I have a typo, no matter how long the word entries are. Now it's just saying "It appears the game engine has not shut down properly." =/ I wonder what's causing that.

EDIT2: Fixed it. AGS just seems to have a problem handling too many words when the entries are so long, so shortening the longer sentences and adding "rol" keeps it from crashing.

EDIT3: In case anybody in the future out there is googling this and wondering for their own game, because I know I have certainly benefitted from obscure questions asked on these forums,  I discovered part of the problem was also that even when you delete the "ignored" words the game will crash if you try to enter them in, UNLESS you add these ignored words into your text parser as normal words manually. So if that is what you have done, you need to create a new game and copy that list of ignored words that are in there by default over to your game and add them to the text parser as "normal".

This is one of these things that is very easy for a human but really convoluted and messy for a computer.

Yep. That's why I was inputting everything one by one and trying to think of alternative ways I might spell or word something, and putting synonyms in as I went. Comparing translations for instance. Really tedious, but for the most part I found ways to make it work pretty well, as far as it being able to detect what I was trying to say as long as I had most of it there. It's just so time consuming, though. But I suppose with your module that will save me some time.

The parser can handle, like, 3-4 words at a time in each entry it seems. Longer than that and I start to get error messages.

I think using b is better than a because of the ability to swap out the phrases for alternative ones. It's more flexible, so if people remember, like, part of the NIV version of one verse and part KJV, it's okay, it can mix and match as long as you add synonyms.

Of course it would be a lot easier to just throw everything in and then add some type of code that says, "when you see the word "humble" add to your Humility score", but that would also be a really cheap way of doing it because you're bound to miss so many things that don't have any "keywords" in it. Like the parable of the sinner and the Pharisee in the temple. The entire point of the story is to be humble, but it never says that directly because it's trying to paint a narrative.

At one point I already compiled all the verses that would be relevant to each category when I was making the card game version of my game, and tried to use Biblehub to find a list of all the relevant verses, but to this day I still stumble upon verses that I missed that are totally relevant. They just don't show up because there's no direct references to certain words.

If I really want to be thorough about this, I think I'll have to keep taking it one verse at a time and tweak it as I go. But if I want to be more efficient, I think I'll have to put some thought into it and play around some more. Maybe I can find a balance.

As for the resolution problem, my game is set to run at 640x400. Which worked fine at first, and I could run it in fullscreen mode. It seems like whenever this happens, it's usually when I try to run the game from a backup file.

1366x768 is my desktop resolution

BTW Thanks very much for the program Khris. It makes this task a lot easier. Now, if only I could find a way to add a comma every three words, this would be a piece of cake.

Wow, that is awesome. I'm glad I asked haha. 

My main combat mechanic is quoting lines of Scripture via the text parser from the Bible to exorcise demons. The Bible has 31,000 verses in it. I'm entering each verse as if it were one word.

Would that work for this?

As I'm writing this I'm also running into another problem.

I was testing it in windowed mode as I was working on it just for ease of use, but I just now tried to test it in full screen mode and it won't run. It tells me "Can not set video mode". What's causing this? This is the second time it's suddenly started doing this to me, and I can't figure it out. I keep trying different resolutions but it just won't run in full screen.

Edit:
Come to think of it, it would also really cut my workload if there was a way to just check for certain words in the input. So whenever somebody writes a line that contains a keyword, like "humility", it just automatically triggers the code for that keyword. What's a way to go about doing that? To first, compare what's been inputted to make sure it actually matches the verse and isn't just a bunch of made up stuff, and second, check to see what words are in it and depending on that, determine what to do.

So, here I am plugging away at entering long lines of text into my list of text parser words 3 words at a time, when it suddenly dawned on me: Since the AGS engine only allows for up to 30,000 words in the text parser, and I have over 31,000 individual lines of text that I will be eventually entering in, I will inevitably run out of space in the future before I finish completing the series of games I am working on.
Which really zukz.

So my question is two fold.
First, how do I find a way around this limit?

Second, is there a better way to do this? Like, could you in theory make a module for a way to just copy and paste words into the parser a page at a time, and it would just automatically add them all? Because that would save me, like, 80% of my time creating this game.

[James Williams]

Project:
MvM: The Gap Theory

Details:
This is my first game to be released on AGS An 8 bit Lovecraftian Steampunk adventure RPG set in the Hadean Eon of primordial times, it follows the story of a guardian angel who must help rid the world of time travelling demons who are trying to change the future and create an alternate reality by breeding Warp Worms to create wormholes and enslave mankind. It has religious overtones, so if that makes you uncomfortable, this might not be a good fit. However, if you are so inclined, I plan to include an option that lets you play for the dark side, if you wish
The story has some somewhat disturbing scenes of hell and torture, so if horror bothers you, you might not like to work on this one.

Positions Available:
I need voice actors for the following roles:
James Williams, a main character. Paleontologist of the excavation which discovers the ancient time travelling technology and is abducted by the demonic entities. A stoic and observant Indiana Jones type character, I envisioned for this one a low, male monotone voice similar to Charles Reed in Sinking City.

Penelope Brighton Role taken. Penny is an alternate main character. Head archaeologist of the excavation, she is a fiery, stubborn skeptic who gets pulled into the wormhole with James and stuck in the hell dimension. For this one I want a woman with an English accent, similar to Eevee in The Mummy.

St. Pete Pete is the Guardian Angel that helps guide the player along the tutorial and tells the story in the beginning of the game. He's not a main character, but he's got a good chunk of dialog and a lot of personality. This character was inspired by Whistler from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I was hoping for a similar accent and voice, though I've also considered tweaking him, possibly making him have sort of an Israeli accent. It is hard to find examples of the Whistler character since he only appears very briefly for two episodes, Becoming Part 1 and Part 2.

Lucifer/The Devil I want a sinister, low, generic narrator type voice for the devil. A good example of this is the narrator in The Cave.

Cupid I want somebody who can impersonate Wally from Monkey Island for this role as that is my inspiration for this character.

Generic Voice Acting I have several other characters that I need voice acting for, just regular people, angels, demons, etc. Anybody who is interested, let me know.


That's it for voice acting for now. I will add positions if they come up. Let me know if you are interested and include some examples of your work, and I can message you the script.

In addition to voice actors, it would help to have somebody who knows how to make some quality animations for cutscenes. I want to make pop art/graphic novel style animated cutscenes, as well as smaller animations like having vines growing around the borders of manuscripts and such. I do have some basic knowledge of animating things, but I could use somebody who's more proficient at making smoother animations than I am.

Other than voice actors and animators, I primarily would like to work on this on my own. However, recognizing that this may be a monumental task for a beginner, I am open to consider any other help anybody feels inclined to offer, and would be very appreciative of any such offers or advice. Since I am trying to improve my art and coding skills, I would like to do the majority of the work, but I do have a lot of artwork and programming to complete, so if you're interested in creating some 8 bit pixel art for fantasy creatures and such, let me know. I can give you something.

One thing that I am currently struggling with is thinking of ideas for puzzles that would be interesting. I want to make something original and not just another adventure game puzzle. I like the idea of incorporating the text parser, booby traps, codes, riddles, and other sorts of puzzles, all related to the seven deadly sins and temptations. For more information, send me a PM if you would like to contribute. I can give you more details of the storyline.

UPDATE:
I have had a new idea for the game, and now I am also asking for POETS who would like to write some lines of poetry to be used in the game. Again, the theme is the seven deadly sins. Thank you.

Deadline:
Ongoing, planning to expand the game and release several episodes.

Comments:
Interested parties can reply to this thread or contact me via PM.

@Babar lol wow, what are the odds of that? 
What program did you use for the color cycling art?

Awesome! Count me in. I've never entered a MAGS contest before-and I've never released a complete game, for that matter-but maybe this will challenge me to get something done.  I guess I'm 4 days late, better get to it. =P

@Scavenger wow, your work is awesome. Thank you for the tips and the inspiration  I'll be sure to check out your games. I am very psyched about the possibilities of using it to create day/night cycles, as well as seasons in my game. I want to see how far I can stretch the capabilities of this... Also @Scavenger what program do you use for making your sprites?

As far as all that technical stuff goes... it sounds rather overwhelming to me tbh haha. I don't know a lot about the hardware side of it. I am sure I will figure it out as I go, though. I guess one step at a time. I'm going to start simple and then work out any problems as they come. Thanks for the input, everyone

I've been literally kept up at night trying to figure out what type of style I want in my RPG. There were so many different styles that appealed to me that I didn't know where to begin.

Then I saw this.
http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/

Mark Ferrari did a lot of the art for LucasArts back when 8 bit games were made, and he used this technique called "color cycling". I've always loved that style of pixel art, but had no idea that this kind of thing was possible with it-the play of movement and light in these is just genius. Instead of using seperate frames for each animation, you just change the color palette so that the pixels change color and look like movement.

Now I'm certain I would like to focus on making this style of art.

There are other amazing things he did with it it, too, that he called "palette shifting", like using the same background to make several different scenes just by changing the palette-With one image, he could create a forest, a mountain range, a cloudscape, and a city, all with day and night cycles.

Spoiler: Longwinded philosophical rant

Spoiler

Older technologies, like typewriters, pixel art, pen and ink and stick and poke appeal to me more than the more "efficient" tools at our disposal.

And I think the reason that is is because, for a naturally more "impulsive" personality like myself, speed tends to get messy.

In contrast, these tools force me to slow down and really think about my every move.

Every dot becomes deliberate, a small detail making up a larger picture. Nothing is without purpose or meaning.

And that is what I am trying to capture in my work, whether it be writing, art, tattoos or games: I want to convey meaning and purpose behind every insignificant detail.

That's more than just an aesthetic, it's a philosophy, somewhat akin to what the Symbolist art movement believed, or Pavel Filonov with his analytical art method of working from the particular to the general, and what impressionism achieved with its simplicity portraying larger scenes, what pointillism does, and what Rasquachismo also seeks to do with its motto of "Do the most with the least" through recycling old trash into beauty-that nothing should be without meaning, purpose and deliberation, every dot matters. And now I finally understand why each of those art movements appealed to me, no matter how different their style, because they all have this in common.

And I like that as a founding principle not just of art but of my whole worldview. It's symbolic of a greater truth, I believe-that although we are all very small, we all matter on some grand scale, each dot taking part in the whole.

I love to be challenged as an artist, as a human being, and be resourceful with what little I have to work with. I find that motivates me more than when I have everything at my disposal and find that I am discontent with what I have because it will never be "enough". That's more defeating than any limitation placed upon me, because it dashes hope.

Hope is what drives us to create, to imagine something better and feel the joy in that anticipation. The idealism of Romanticism and Fantasy appealed to me because that kind of perfection is not real; it only exists in our imaginations. I think that's why the surrealism of artwork and the escapism of video games give us this sort of otherworldly feeling of peace, especially nostalgic ones that bring us back to our childhoods when we had the kind of unrelenting hope of a future wide ahead of us. No matter how boring or lame our childhoods might have been, they were rarely without hope, without dreams of something better.

//end of philosophical rant

[close]

What do you think about 8 bit pixel art?

Since my game is centered in the clouds and deals with supernatural entities, and currently I'm using the older version of AGS to create it, it's a natural fit to make extensive use of these color cycling techniques. I know it's not recommended to use 8 bit to make games because of the limitations and problems running them with newer computers, and I do like the idea of being able to implement more detailed fantasy art into the game (maybe when you look at a sprite, or when you are in dialog or battle mode), so I'm wondering whether I can/should do this in 32 bit somehow, or find some workaround way to implement certain scenes that are in true color.

Have you ever tried to make anything with color cycling before? Has anybody actually done something like this in AGS?

EDIT: Here's a video where he explains in detail how he achieves these effects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcJ1Jvtef0