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You mean I can vote there? Wow!

What about demakes?

Oh, I loved the Tigsource Demake competition, and it made a few great hits like Eversion and LGIU. I think an AGS Demake Comp would be hilarious.

I vote for anything with multiple playable characters. The character switch function is way underused in adventure games.

now that my meds kicked in, i am a little calmer but still can't understand why would anyone want to filter Me Go Store out of the games list

Yeah, I'm rather surprised to hear that. It was funny, got positive reactions all through the forum, spawned several sequels, and most AGS'ers have at least heard of it. And then it gets ranked as a waste of time, and hidden by default so people won't bother downloading it. That's pretty harsh.

[idea]

I've always liked the idea of parsers but never the implementation.

I can recommend several games by Infocom, as well as by Legend Entertainment. They're one of the few companies that actually developed a good text parser. Sierra's parser can only rarely handle more complex input than "<verb> <noun>", whereas Infocom can deal with "eat all fruits except the strawberry, then put it in the large box".

I think some people are approaching it from the wrong angle.

If game X is a great game, and it uses interface Y, it does not follow that Y is therefore a great interface.

For example, Monkey Island II is widely recognized as one of the best adventure games of its age. If you ask why people love it, they will likely point out the humor, the dialog, the detailed graphics, the puzzles, or the plot twists. What they will likely not point out is the interface. It's certainly not bad, but it's really not great either. Indeed, this ties in with Vince's point that several verbs on the LucasGUI are redundant. It seems to me that MI2 would be just as great a game if it had used a Sierra interface, or a two-button one.

Overall, yes, a bad GUI may ruin a game; but the difference between an average GUI and a great one don't seem to factor much into overall enjoyment. And this means that using a Sierra or Lucas GUI to invoke feelings of nostalgia is a valid design choice, even if neither GUI is all that great technically speaking.

And since opinions on what makes "a bad GUI" differ, giving the player options is good: that includes such things as keyboard shortcuts and right-clicking to switch cursors. There's really no excuse for omitting those.

That was funny! Especially the W

2. The interface introduced in 7 Days a Skeptic (and maybe in some other games which I simply don't remember) where you click on the object and a verbs GUI opens, which also contains your inventory. In fact, I believe that is the best multiverb solution I ever saw.

That sounds like the classic Delphine GUI.

I find it important for quick gameplay that commands are available with a minimum of mouse clicks, and have keyboard shortcuts. This rules out most verbcoins: a click-hold-drag action should be unnecessary. The LucasArts GUI actually has lots of keyboard shortcuts, and lets you pick common actions by right-clicking; these features tend to be absent in many indie games using a similar GUI.

I think simplicity is best: the one-click interface used in Warthogs, Quest for Yrolg and Root Of All Evil reflects that.

Basically, consider the Sierra interface. Then consider that there are basically three kinds of things on the screen: floor, hotspots, and characters. The "walk" cursor only applies to the former, the "speak" cursor only to the latter. That means you're down to one or two cursor modes without even trying. Additional actions can always be taken from "use item on".

Sounds like a hardware problem. Try getting a new keyboard, it's not like they're expensive or anything.

http://crystalshard.net

Thanks!

Dunno if this is part of it, but it seems the TSL guys want to buy the Kings Quest IP outright.

Yeah, that's not gonna fly. Activision is unlikely to want to sell it, like ever, and even if they did, TSL cannot anywhere near afford it. Good luck though.

Excellent backgrounds, and nice character art. The music is good but that's still Tschaikovsky I'm hearing

I like the dialogue by the scientist; I was less impressed by all the "voiceover" exposition at the beginning, and would opine that this is better represented as dialogue as well. As I recall, LOOM has zero exposition that isn't dialogue.

The idea for the interface is nice, but I found it hard to stay on the line with the cursor; perhaps it is a bit too sensitive?

Overall, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this.

Love the hat!

I find it easier to write code that does work than to read code that doesn't .

My next game will be named "The"

Pf. Haf of d intrnet spels dis wai alredi.

So yeah. Does that mean one screen? Or one AGS room which can be several screens? Or one in-world room which can be several AGS rooms? Or whichever interpretation you want?

For instance, I believe most of Nanobots takes place in one in-world room. Likewise, most of META (specifically, all of Awesmoe Quest) is one AGS crm file. Does that qualify?

I've got some source code tidbits here.

McDonalds would like a word with you.
So would Microsoft.

McDonalds: I often eat at McDonalds.  If I am ever displeased with the product or price I can easily take my patronage elsewhere.   The same cannot be said for universal health care.

MicroSoft:  I have taken my patronage else where.  I now use Linux for everything except AGS which I run from Linux in a virtual XP window (details here)

You're missing the point. It's not about whether you personally buy McDonalds or Microsoft products, or whether you have the choice to do so.

The point is that the biggest, most well-known, and most successful companies are precisely the ones with the biggest profit margins, and the ones known to act highly unethically whenever they can get away with it, and precisely not the ones that offer the best products. This directly disproves your points about the free marketplace.