Messages

Is that "Open Water"?

I'm in the same boat as you.  My compiled folder is currently about 1GB and I've only just started importing my assets.  I don't think I've been very smart about sprite sizes and alpha channels so there is room for optimization.  But even optimized I'm sure it'll end up being a heavy game(and not an especially long one.)  I'm glad to hear that your compiled folder was reduced by so much when zipping.  Hopefully people won't be discouraged from downloading.

Lovely game.  I appreciated the pathos you generated for the Skeksis.  Nicely foreshadows the film.

I liked it but I had a little trouble with the geography.  I watched it 3 times and couldn't tell where the girl was with respect to the dragon.

Yes, I've just tested and confirmed that the stutter occurs at the point that the character stops moving before the coded loop completes the cycle. 

I'm not sure if there would be any impact but although the character will be an NPC in game I've been making the character playbable for testing the animation.

I have an NPC that is essentially a ball with a bouncing walk-cycle.  I figured there were two ways I could animate it: include the bounce in the walk cycle sprites or create the bounce by coding the characters z coordinate.  I tried the first approach with frame 0 and 47 being the character on the ground and frame 24 being the peak of its bounce.  But I run into a problem when the character stops moving and the animation goes to frame 0 of the walk-cycle regardless of what frame it was at when the character stopped. I tried the code below to complete the remaining frames in the cycle to bring it to the ground after it stops moving but even with this there is a momentary stutter of frame 0 displaying.

Code: ags

function repeatedly_execute() {


    if(cRover.Moving==true){
        RoverLastFrame=cRover.Frame;//global variable
        RoverWasWalking=true;//global variable
    }else if(RoverWasWalking==true){//Rover just finished walking
        if((RoverLastFrame>0)&&(RoverLastFrame<24)){// Rover is still ascending
          cRover.Frame=RoverLastFrame-1;
          RoverLastFrame=cRover.Frame;
        }else if((RoverLastFrame>=24)&&(RoverLastFrame<46)){// Rover has already begun his descent
          cRover.Frame=RoverLastFrame+1;
          RoverLastFrame=cRover.Frame;
        }else{
          RoverWasWalking=false;
        }           
    }
}

Anyone have any ideas to resolve this?

...while the community has seen a decline in the daily, casual activity, we create games like never before.

That's been my observation as well since coming back.  People are doing instead of talking about doing and that's great.  But I do miss the volume of activity on the forums where I could visit the forums a few times throughout the day and expect to see lots of new posts and interesting threads each time.

I'm really happy that people recognize it and are enthusiastic about a game version.  I'm making the game to be self contained so that one need not have seen the series to follow the game... But hopefully anyone who enjoyed the game would be turned on to the series.

And yes, Snarky, the boat is supposed to be built into the shore so I'm glad that came across.

There will be penny-farthings, and mini-mokes, and Alouette 2s... and all of the other iconic staples of the series. 

I was hesitant about going to New Orleans during the heat of August but if this is the year that Mills is returning to Mittens I think I should make my return also.

So here is an edit... well basically a new render from a different angle that hopefully is a better composition with more clear pathways.  The buildings still require bit of work at the modelling level to add more windows and give a hint of an interior. I experimented with render without any linework whatsoever but I think I prefer some edge indication at a reduced opacity. I'm happier with the trees and grass but am struggling a bit with the edge of the water on the beach. Not finished but as far as I'm going to get with it this weekend.

WRK, thank you for your detailed reply.  Despite not having seen the entire composition when you wrote it, much of it is still apt.  You're correct that the model was built before the framing was chosen.  The contraint of having a constant layout appealed to me but it was a bit of a double edged sword when it came time for camera placement.  I feel the horizon line is too high and the stairs down to the boat are unclear as a path.  I agree the image is not conveying much of a story or mood...  I think that will be more clear in game with characters and objects present.

Snarky, I definitely agree with you on the grass and concrete... and overall uniformness of surfaces.  I'm not sure about the resolution.  As soon as I viewed this thread on my work computer I started to have doubts.  I think at least for the purposes of posting updates I'll do some reduction.

how did you draw the 3d terrain in the first pic as all i have ever done in sketchup is geometric shapes....?

Sketchup does have the ability to pull terrain from satellite information.  Even if you're modelling a fictional location, you may be able to find a good surrogate for your desired terrain.

...
But in my opinion you should find a way to make the paint over less shy:...
You need to find your own style, even if it means losing details or taking bold decisions.

Point taken.  I`ll spend some more time with these and repost some updates.

I hadn't heard of Kerkythea before so thanks for the recommendation, Eric.  Although I like Sketchup's feature for lighting exteriors with the sun, I wasn't sure how to create lighting for the interiors and this ought to help. 

The aerial view is just an overview of the unfinished Sketchup model and isn't intended as in-game background so I'd made no effort to clean up the heavy lines.  The second two images are closer to what I have in mind for outlines.

Cat, I think I had a hard time balancing the AGS hobby with the rest of life.   I never lost interest exactly but I started spending less and less time working on my game and visiting these boards until I finally felt that that part of my life had passed.  And that made me sad.  I still have a tremendous amount of fondness for this hobby and its community so now I'm trying to rebalance my life so that it can be a part of it.

I've been modeling my game setting in Sketchup and I really like the sense of geography it instills and the flexibility it provides for tweaking compositions.






I'm trying to do some work in Paint Shop after rendering to combine photographed elements and to soften some of the textures.  Does this style work?  Any suggestions or paintovers are welcome.


Here is an example of an interior as well:

My friend and co-worker, Pedro, hasn’t had a haircut in several years so his hair is 20+ inches long.  Our company is now into its annual fundraising drive for the United Way charity and Pedro has decided to use his long hair as an event for getting donations.

A site- wide email was sent out this afternoon saying that for every $1000 donated, Pedro would cut 1 inch of his hair.  I expected the donations to be cumulative, a $100 here a $100 there, that could add up with enough participation (there’s probably a thousand or so employees on site who received  the email challenge). 

Within 10 minutes, one of the business units’ Vice President (Joy) replied to the challenge saying she would put down the first $1000 for an inch.  As a VP she earns probably somewhere between $200-300K a year, so of course she can afford to do this but personally I find it to be a bit tacky.  There’s a lot of yes-men within our corporate culture that try to impress VPs by jumping on the bandwagon, so it is smart for her to take advantage of that and be the first to donate to get the ball rolling.  But I think she set the bar too high, so that nobody but the most senior people can afford to participate.   Sure enough, the next 4 replies were all matching $1000 bids from other business unit VPs. 

During all this, my girlfriend (Sepideh, who also works for the company) and I are exchanging an email commentary on Joy’s grandstanding. I tell Sepideh that I think it would be funny for me to reply to this chain of VP emails with a pledge of $63 for a 1/16” of Pedro’s hair.  I think this is funny but Sepideh thinks it’s absolutely hilarious and that I should actually do this. 

So I type it up and hit “reply all” to this site-wide email and am feeling pretty good about it… feeling that most people are going to get it.  But hold up, I’m not a VP.  My email privileges do not grant me permission to send an email to the site-wide distribution list.  I need to have an admin assistant send the reply out on my behalf.

So Sepideh and I are both kind of disappointed about this but she wants to stay the course.  In a way, it has the potential to enhance the joke because VPs routinely have Admin Assistants send out emails on their behalf that they could just send out themselves.  So we decide we better send our request to Bonnie, the only admin assistant with a brain in her head.  So I send out a request for Bonnie to reply to the email on my behalf with :  “Put me down for  1/16”; I ought to be good for $63.”  Sepideh and I are both thinking: “Bonnie’s cool.  She gets this.”  Shortly after I receive a reply from Bonnie saying that she’s added my contribution to the pledge form. 

That was it.  No mass email.  No high fives from co-workers.  No awareness generated in the VPs for the gulf between their salaries and mine.  At the end of this event when all of the VPs have donated their $1000, Pedro will have to cut 7 and 1/16” of his hair and it will still be over 13” long.  Hopefully, that’s short enough that he’ll stop soliciting  Sepideh to braid it for him.

?

If you're looking for those lesser known gems the one that most readily comes to mind is:  The Hill.  As it was described to me: "the best Sean Connery film you've never heard of."

My understanding of "Don't ask; Don't tell." is that gays are not allowed in the US military but they will not be actively sought out. 

It isn't a terribly progressive policy to begin with since even under it gays must keep their orientation a secret.  I don't see the big difference between this and "We'll ask; you lie."  I guess it depends on how much resources the military wants to devote to flushing out closeted soldiers...

I do think the only people at risk by having openly gay soldiers in the military are the gay soliders from homophobia in the barracks, etc. 

Yeah, I'll also have most of the 31st to kill while waiting for Snarky to arrive.  I'll come get you and we can go see or do something for the day.