Messages

"Traditionally"? I don't think there is any such thing

In my experience:
* Most people are poor beta testers. A poor beta tester will cost you effort and will not give much of a good result; poor beta testers are a net negative to your project, as well as a time sink.
* Some people are enthousiastic about playing your game (earlier than the rest of the world). These fall in the category above.
* If people PM their "wish to test", you must therefore judge their "ability to test".
* You don't need a lot of testers. You should test a bit yourself, and having one or two testers aside from you is sufficient (in comparison, most of the beta testing for ATOTK was done by two people)
* Communication is fine by e-mail back and forth. Alternatively, you can make a private thread for these people.
* Pick at least a month, two if it's a big game.
* Update frequently, so that people don't repeatedly fall into the same bugs, and can verify that things are fixed (and no new things are broken).
* Put a decent debug mode in your game. The standard "teleport + stuff pockets" is nice, add whatever else you can code for it.
* It is a good idea to not tell the testers the solutions (to puzzles) beforehand. That way, you can find out which ones are too easy or too hard.
* Golden rule: PAY ATTENTION to everything they say! I know way too many authors who get defensive towards bug reports, and discount them because "it was not intended that way". This is a POOR excuse, and will reduce the end quality of your game.

RADIANT YOU SPOILSPORT!

Arrr, matey! If ye were trrrruly into this capsy locky day, ye would have capitalized yar signaturrrre!

caps lock day - 650 hits
talk like a pirate day - one million hits

guess which one people actually celebrate...

ramen!

If they're just disabled, they still show, but it won't do any good because they won't be used.

If they're turned off, it could leave a gap in the GUI.

Is there a best option?

I suppose the best option would be to include two versions of the GUI (easy - export the single GUI to a file, then import it again, and you'll have two). Delete the gamma slider from one, and rearrange the controls to degapify.

While you're editing this anyway (apologies for my hobby horse) could you add rudimentary keyboard control? Something like the below would, I think, be useful to beginners.

Code: ags

int pdir;
function moveplayer (int dx, int dy) {
  if ((dx == 0 && dy == 0) || (pdir == dx + 3 * dy && character[EGO].walking)) {
    pdir = 0;
    StopMoving (EGO);
  } else {
    pdir = dx + 3 * dy;
    MoveCharacterStraight (EGO, character[EGO].x + 500 * dx, character[EGO].y + 500 * dy);
  }
}

function on_key_press (int keycode) {
  if (IsGamePaused ()) return;
  if (keycode == 371) moveplayer  (-1, -1);
  if (keycode == 372) moveplayer  ( 0, -1);
  if (keycode == 373) moveplayer  ( 1, -1);
  if (keycode == 375) moveplayer  (-1,  0);
  if (keycode == 376) moveplayer  ( 0,  0);
  if (keycode == 377) moveplayer  ( 1,  0);
  if (keycode == 379) moveplayer  (-1,  1);
  if (keycode == 380) moveplayer  ( 0,  1);
  if (keycode == 381) moveplayer  ( 1,  1);

  if (keycode == 'W') interface_click (COMMANDBAR, 0);
  if (keycode == 'L') interface_click (COMMANDBAR, 1);
  if (keycode == 'U') interface_click (COMMANDBAR, 2);
  if (keycode == 'T') interface_click (COMMANDBAR, 3);
  if (keycode == 'I') interface_click (COMMANDBAR, 4);
}

Real Men Use Notepad.

So does this have keyboard support?

There seems to be some inconsistency with the name of the country. I've seen both Theylinn and Theylann. Which one is correct?

Both are correct - Theylann is the adjective form.

If you don't like it, there's other DOS emulators out there, such as BOCHS.

I believe one of them is somewhat overcomplicated, yes.

I'd like to make a game that would have the worst ever graphics, the worst ever controls, many bugs, glitches and CTDs, and also it would have THE BEST STORY EVER!!!

You mean this?

Ben Jordan and the Deathly Hallows, obviously.

1 is easy.

Read the manual on File.Open, File.Read, File.Write, and File.Close. Experiment.

You'll need an array of sorts:

Code: ags

int score[5];
string name[5];

function WriteScores () {
  int i;
  File *f = File.Open ("scores.dat");
  if (f) {
    while (i < 5) {
       f.WriteInt (score[i]);
       f.WriteString (name[i]);
       i++;
    }
    f.Close ();
  }
}

Sorting is easiest done like this:

Code: ags

function SortScore () {
  int i, j;
  while (i < 5) {
    j = i + 1;
    while (j < 5) {
      if (score[i] < score[j]) {
        int q = score[i];
        score[i] = score[j];
        score[j] = q;
        // swap strings likewise
      }
      j++;
    }
    i++;
  }
}

3 is done by comparing the current score to score[4].

Unbelievable.
Surely a judge would just throw this out of court since there's zero evidence of wrongdoing?

That's how the American legal system works - you can tie your commercial opponents up in lengthy procedures. Witness the SCO v. Linux suit a year ago, they didn't have a case either.

And the weird thing is: it works perfectly fine as long as there are Wait(1);s in the code.

That's not weird, that's the way it's designed

If 150000 script commands pass in a single game cycle, the engine aborts. Wait means to delay until the next game cycle.

Yes.

There's this variable called game.is_cutscene_playing (or something like that) which indicates whether or not you're actually in a cutscene.

Alternatively, use global variables:
at the start of your cutscene, go SetGlobalInt (1, 1);
in the new room, check if (GetGlobalInt (1) == 1) then continue.
And at the end of the cutscene, SetGlobalInt (1, 0).

Rich, there wasn't any (feasible) way to do everything using script only.

What "using script only" actually meant was that the only action you'll ever select in the interaction editor is "RunScript".

I beg to differ.

In fact none of my games use the interaction editor at all, not even for RunScript. Instead, the global script figures out what to do exactly, and uses CallRoomScript as necessary for hotspots etc.

Yes.

I'm aware that music isn't software, but they are also guardians of many kinds of free licenses.

Perhaps you should contact the FSF. They have lawyers and funds for this kind of thing.

I disagree. TV doesn't make anyone more or less stupid. If anything, it offers new creative ways to express stupidity.

TV couldn't make people less stupid, but TV could make people less proud of being stupid. That is the problem. If people realize that being stupid isn't cool, they can do other things to make themselves less stupid. As it is, we're just creating a mediocracy.

Tell me what you would consider reasonable,

Who, me? Sorry, already got a host.

Apparently Milonakis is really witty & funny and shares the views of most American kids.

I know we can't blame TV for such things as high-school shootouts.

However, we can blame TV for aiming for the lowest common denominator, rather than attempting to at least educate children. Telling people "hey, it's okay to be stupid" leads to a nation of stupid people.