Messages

Fans of the classics should know that Golden Axe is temporarily available for free on Steam.

Well, the main question is whether this paid developer is to improve the current engine based on the bug backlog (because a lot of the commonly requested features are already in the latest beta, or are quick wins when there is more developer capacity), or adapt another engine that's in active development (e.g. ScummVM, because they share a lot of features that we need), or write an independent new engine from scratch (at the risk of splitting the community in half). Last time we checked, there was absolutely no consensus on this question, and I do think it would help to have one to answer questions of what we're fundraising for.

Hey y'all! I was thinking about something. In my game I'm working on, there are turnbased battles like the older final fantasy games. I know it is easy to criticise yourself but my main concern is that people will find the battles boring after a while

It strikes me that pretty much all successful RPGs have mechanics that allow battles to stay interesting. What you need is engaging tactics.

I give the film a solid "MEH".

I found Rey to be a great character, but Finn is rather unbelievable, and Kylo is so utterly ridiculous that he feels like Dark Helmet. BB8 is cute but effectively a direct copy of R2D2. Basically, Leia and especially Han Solo steal the show and overshadow everything the new triad does. The film is enjoyable and has some solid action scenes, but in terms of plot it's going absolutely nowhere.

Then the prequels, which everyone is supposed to hate. Not me. I enjoyed them at the time and the Phantom Menace Pod racing scene is one of my most memorable cinema experiences... Sorry. And is Jar Jar Binks really that bad?

Ah, the internet is too good at dissecting movies these days. That said, I think their biggest failing is that the second film focuses way too much time on the (poorly written and acted) romance subplot instead of on the main conflict between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett. While I understand that many people are bothered by "child appeal" characters like Kid Anakin and Jarjar, those don't particularly bother me.

CW, you've always set very high standards for yourself. That is an admirable trait, if frustrating for yourself.

Bear in mind that even though you're not always meeting your own standards, you're still doing an excellent job in the eyes of the community.

Sierra traditionally used "restore", whereas Lucasarts traditionally used "load". I'm pretty sure they're synonyms.

Personally I prefer "load" since this allows you to use the keyboard shortcut L for that, and R for restart.

It wouldn't be a problem as such, but on the whole as Cassie mentioned "Walk" is basically null anyway, so it's more a case of whether you can actually use any interaction other than Talk with the characters you meet.  If that isn't important, I can't really think of an advantage for having a 4-verb system apart from maybe adding more of an old school feel.

True. A downside of the Sierra interface is that, in most games using it, the number of things that you can both Use and Talk To is zero. Well, of course they give a witty response for trying, but it's very rare that a game requires you to click the hand on a character, or click the mouth on anything that's not a character. This also applies to verbcoins, as most verbcoins mimic the Sierra verbs.

(also, when a player clicks the hand on a character, it can be unclear whether he wants to shake hands, grab the guy's hat, or punch him in the face )

The advantage of the LucasArts nine-verb system (and the older versions with twelve and fifteen) is that occasionally a puzzle is solved by uncommon verb/noun combinations, like opening a radio to get the batteries out, or by pushing a character away. The downside of nine-verb is that it takes up a lot of screen space, and that easily 90% of verb-object interactions are handled by a default response ("I cannot pick that up", "Nice <noun>", "It doesn't seem to open", etc).

[explain its interface]

Snark, my point is that a game should explain its interface instead of just "safely assuming" that everybody will already know it. It is not a given that all your players will be Sierra fans, or even that they will be computer savvy.

It may be worth considering that a two-click interface isn't going to work on Apple or tablet devices.

Macs have supported two-button mouses for decades, there's a simple touchpad gesture for right-click (two-finger tap), and if it comes down to it you can use ctrl-click (which on the Mac is equivalent to right-click). There's no reason it won't work as well or better than on Windows machines.

Don't assume your players know that. That was the point, after all.

It may be worth considering that a two-click interface isn't going to work on Apple or tablet devices.

Also, bear in mind that quite a lot of two-click games forget to inform the player that the right mouse button actually does something (meaning they may get stuck because they don't know how the interface works).

And by Grabthar's hammer, let's not forget Galaxy Quest!

Regarding Blossom,

Spoiler

Use the cold iron charm on Ruadh to prove he's faerie-kin, then you can go tell Blossom about that.

[close]

Regarding the sorcerer's tower?

Spoiler

There's also the brain-in-a-jar laying outside; but otherwise that's it. Smashing the crystal ball stops Taranis from harassing you with long-distance curses.

[close]

What are everybody's New Years Resolutions?

320x200 of course!

Gelukkig nieuwjaar, beste wensen!

Are you sure this property is not changed somewhere else?

After more searching it turns yout you're hitting the nail on the head. Sorry

Nope, that doesn't work. Doing SetNormalFont(14) still has the dialog options rendered in the default font 1.

Thanks CW!

I'm using the option "use GUI for dialog options"; so whenever the player has to choose a dialog option, a text window pops up.

How do I set the font for this window, at runtime? It doesn't appear to correspond to Game.Speechfont or Game.Normalfont, and the textbox itself doesn't have a font control.

I just noticed that game properties has settings for "GUI alpha rendering style" and "Sprite alpha rendering style". I can't find them in the manual. Can someone tell me what this is for please?

My free time is pretty much depleted though