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Oh yes - and StrComp returns the number of mismatches between the strings, or the index of the first mismatch, or something like that. Anyway the point is that if the strings are identical, StrComp returns 0. So common syntax is 'if (StrComp (foo, "bar") == 0) { ... }'

The Boss Tentacle keeps zapping you with the Diminuator (tm). You have to convince him

Spoiler

to instead shoot Dr. Fred, since he hates him rather than all of humanity; since Fred wears one of those doctor's mirror thingies over his head, Purple zaps himself.

[close]

An alternate way of conversation is the mood way, mentioned earlier in this topic, from countdown.
I've always preferred LucasArts-styled conversations because you can see what your character says... in all of Quest for Glory, all you can get out of the hero is things like "you explain this" and "you apologize" etc.

AGI doesn't have areas at all, only trigger lines. What you perceive as areas in for instance KQ3 (the wizard's hallway comes to mind, and the pier) is in fact a clever manipulation of walkable/nonwalkable, and trigger lines. This is very much possible in AGS.

CJ has stated in the past that, due to the way regions are implemented, it is not feasible to implement region overlaps.

Try StrComp, or StrCaseComp.

Regardless of the GUI, I believe that keyboard shortcuts are absolutely necessary.

(plus they're easy to add for the programmer, hint hint. I have seen far too many AGS games that omit keyboard shortcuts)

Any lucasarts-like GUI becomes much easier to use if you can just press a key (say 'O' for open) then click, instead of moving the mouse back and forth.

The same goes for verbcoins, actually.

Consider - all Sierra and Lucas classics have keyboard shortcuts. They did do market research, and found it a good idea.

You can duplicate the box-in effect by using RawDraw functions to create black boxes on screen.

Actually Legend's parser is the same as Infocom's Z-machine. Only they've added more synonyms, which always helps. But all those Legend'isms such as 'Location: place (in the chest)' and the inability to use 'look thing' (you need to 'look at thing') are from Infocom.

Snarky -> it's not what you think. There isn't any actual relationship between these projects, save for the coincidence that I am involved in both of them. Actually I am one of the few people to be involved in both, despite both teams being 8+ people.

Sadly, I have to bring you the news that the game project known as King's Quest 2.5 has been abandoned.

This was not an easy discussion, but there are two important reasons. First, several important people who were with KQ2.5 from nearly the beginning, are no longer around to help us. And second, we have considered the possibility of getting a Cease and Desist notice from Vivendi, and decided we did not want to risk that.

But we must say that we've learned a lot from working on it, and we wish to thank you all for your support. But now it is time to turn off the lights and say goodbye to the land of Avali, vizier Aaiden and King Castor.

Yours,
Pieter Simoons, aka Radiant

Text adventures, or interactive fiction, are far from dead. There is a yearly contest for writing them, with a large participation. www.ifarchive.org

And yes, I love them. Especially infocommies. *frotzes self*

Little bug: GUIs are displayed under 'display' text, but over 'displayspeech' text.

I would suggest doing a Russian font in FontEdit, it's more convenient than using truetype.

Eggie -> well, you know that the other reindeer (dasher/dancer/blitzen/prancer/donner/vixen/comet/cupid)  always tease him and never let him join in any reindeer games (then again any reindeer named after a female fox or a cherub is likely to have issues). And Rudolph is the heroic one that goes down in history, just like Atilla the -er- never mind

I vote for Eggie. I think the descriptions are very nice.

Vel -> I second that. After all, just about every other category has five entries.

Good point. Maybe we could start nominating games (and related things). Does anybody have a list of what came out this year? LL2 and TBC remakes come to mind, as does No Action Jackson...

Are you calling the function Objec() ever? A more logical place to put this would either be in the enter_room script, or in repeatedly_execute.

Oh, it certainly won't hurt, but you are unlikely to get a reaction (I have had two of my games officially published, but I had to contact literally dozens of publishers with my offer before one even bothered to send me a response). So all I'm saying is that your efforts are probably better spent in another direction.

The last collective proposal I've heard of was requesting LucasArts to continue working on Sam & Max II. I don't believe they even got an answer.

Wait a sec... you ARE kidding about your job, I hope? You say you work 84 hours a week for a measly 700 euro per month, that amounts to you making two euros an hour. Minimum wages, anybody? A beggar makes more than that.

I suppose that some game companies would hire artists. However, given the market these days, they would probably have to be 3-d artists, and they would likely have to work in high resolutions. AGS games generally don't fall into these two categories. So I would suggest creating a portfolio (say, on Deviant or ElfWood) and using that to contact potential employers. I know in fact that several AGS-related artists have done so, and have become professional graphic designers.

I'm afraid that a major in Art is not necessarily going to land you a job anywhere. There are loads of would-be artists and few takers. Most of them simply aren't good enough (for instance, check fanfiction.net).

If you wanted a job in the game industry, I'd suggest you learn 3D-studio Max, Photoshop, Bryce and/or Poser, and create a couple of 3-d models for your portfolio. Or do a google to see which companies are hiring.

Unfortunately, yes.

While I applaud your optimism, please understand that large companies do not actually work that way. They will not hire an independent game author just because he created a game that was well-received by a fringe group. They also will not offer money for a game not created by them, nor advertise it.
The current industry wants 3-d, hi-res flashy games measuring at least a gigabyte in size. Besides, many of us have jobs and/or studies to take care of. And, given the recent news about forced burnout at Electronic Arts, it seems the gaming industry is not a very nice place to work at.

For the record, neither Sierra nor LucasArts are well-known for their interests in adventure games - at least not any more, for the last six years or so (Sierra is defunct / bought out, and all the adventure game people no longer work there; LucasArts is only working on Star Wars games, and recently cancelled their Sam n Max game).

Btw what you're saying about Scott Murphy isn't true. He used to work on the King's Quest series before he got into his own series. Sierra wasn't large in those days and didn't have conferences or coffee boys. In fact, Scott and Mark (Crowe) created a small demo in a couple of nights and showed it to Ken Williams afterwards - then he greenlighted it. The entire game design, and concept of the 'space game' is theirs.