Messages

- I liked how one of the first puzzles in the game is time-related. This is something many games overlook completely, and you deserve to be commended on noticing this.

You made good points Wham, but I'm curious about this one.  Are you saying that a time based puzzle in the beginning of a game is a good idea?  Or that it makes it more realistic since the ship is actually making it to the destination, instead of how most games you could sit there for a week and nothing would happen?

I agree if this was done well, it would have been a better intro.  But him not knowing that his ship is traveling to a trap (other than the few words that show up before the game starts), as a player you really don't know that you're on a time limit.  When I started the game for the second time to take those screenshots, I went to the bathroom first and when I came back I was already dead.  So without any interactions, the time limit starts immediately.

And another thing that makes the time limit worse, is the messenger.  He doesn't grab it when he starts off in the room, but (I actually checked this) all you have to do is cross into the next room, and come back to the start room and the phone is beeping.  Without any interactions between going back and forth.

We're trying to perfect the most obvious issues that the initial design template had... but you're right, will the site ever get updated? lol

To tell you the truth Ascovel, any Cosmos Quest part looks much much better than Frantic Franko. Stop using words like "ugly"!

Stan, that's only because you are brain washed by resolution being the best part of a game rather than art and style (I've read your previous threads).

I've personally never worked or been in cubicle hell, but from what I've seen in movies and tv shows, they are pieced together quite well.
Cubicles

Well since everyone seems so interested in this barrel (which wasn't my intention, he just keeps sticking up for it like it had a purpose or seemed logical).

http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/other/agsf/cq3_screen1.png
This is where you land your ship.  Don't try cleaning your screen, the little spec in the background is actually the player ego .  The left side of this screen takes you to this next background.

http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/other/agsf/cq3_screen2.png
This background is mainly just showing what the panel and I had meant by the exit hotspots being so tiny and hit and miss since there is no indication that a hotspot should be there.  They aren't the 'exact' size, but very close.  Then two backgrounds from the one of these hotspots takes you to the next background.

http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/other/agsf/cq3_screen3.png
This is the hidden finger print scanner which to me looks like a badly textured rock with something odd happening to the lighting.  I never would have noticed it until after playing for several days or accidentally moving my mouse over it.  It opens the door in the cliff face two backgrounds from this one.

Oh and CQ3 isn't commercial anymore, so you guys have zero excuses now!! haHa!

["... area is inhabited"]

abstauber what Ryan is saying is not true! No one said that area is "unpopulated". What the game is saying is "... area is inhabited" which is opposite to what Ryan is saying. And he made 2 long posts about that!

Oh, well if that's what it read, I apologize.  I must have remembered it differently.
It's still odd, none the less.  Without the barrel, the game wouldn't have been affected.  Having it doesn't add anything to the game but confusion.

With your 3D animating skills and backgrounds (with better textures), were combined with a good storyline, dialog and puzzles, I believe you could make a pretty good and entertaining game.

If AGS panel review was similar like the above this discussion would never happen.

I said 'were'.  If your animating skills 'were' combined with a good story, dialog, puzzles, and better background textures, I believe you could make a decent game.  CQ3 is obviously lacking in those areas.

Maybe my standards are just too high.

From the sounds of it, I think they are.

You should be dating the girls that have drool dripping from their chin, while they're patting their chest and trying to eat their ear. 

Try setting it to your display refresh rate or half that.

Curious, isn't syncing the game speed to the monitor only really possible with an old CRT monitor? (like I said, curious.  I really have no idea)


For example, my lcd screen is 60hz, and I've had my game run at 100fps (just to play around ) and I haven't notice a difference between 100 or even 20.

Barrels are few meters from the entrance of the bunker, and the crates are inside the bunker. I don't see nothing unusual. I wonder why are you so mean to this game?

50-100 Meters isn't a 'few'.

Anyway, there a few reasons why I was putting up a big stink about the lonely barrel and individual pill in your inventory.

The only purpose this barrel had, was as a table to hold the crowbar.  Interactions didn't matter.  Looking at it was confusing since he says that the place is unpopulated but a barrel in the middle of no where would suggest otherwise.
Basically the only true purpose this barrel had, was to waste your time by having you click on it and being confused as to why it was there.

The crowbar wasn't useful until you entered the bunker, but even then.. the crowbar was used to pry open something that is locked.
It's like having an adventure game about unscrewing things with..... a screw driver!   There is no challenge, and you know what you need to do before the player finishes his "it's locked" sentence.

Which the Pill also falls under this mundane task.  Right when the game first started up and I checked my inventory, I saw a pill and the dialog is "it's for your oil allergies".  From that very sentence it was as if I had ESP and I had predicted that I would encounter oil.
And seeing only one pill just makes things appear even more convenient because he only encounters oil once, and also much less realistic


It's not a puzzle if it's mundane.  And that's why I had such issues with it.


The other puzzle I had completely forgotten to mention was the Panel and guard moment.  You're standing behind barrels, and you can't move or leave that spot or the guard will see you.  You have to pick up the mineral ore that is sitting conveniently in front of you, and for some reason throw it at the electronic panel.  Which blows up sparking and smoking.

I can understand if throwing the mineral ore at the panel would distract the guard, and I could sneak by him.  But it doesn't.  He walks over to the panel.  Looks at the damage, then suddenly leaves as if he remembered that he left his tuna casserole burning in the oven.

If you were in that situation in real life, you wouldn't be throwing anything at an electronic panel.  Because the moment you did that, you'd know the guard would be on the lookout.  He wouldn't run off to play hopscotch with the neighbor's kids.

I understand that your intentions were to have it seem like the guard is going to tell someone that the electronic panel is broken, but it's just not logical.


Sorry, I don't mean to be dissecting every pixel of your game, but I really want to help you.  With your 3D animating skills and backgrounds (with better textures), were combined with a good storyline, dialog and puzzles, I believe you could make a pretty good and entertaining game.

So when is the next OROW (wags tail)? 
Everyone loves a good OROW competition.

The last one was June, 2008.

Since the bed and floor are at a different height, viewing it from this angle the light source wouldn't be in a straight line.

Something like this:

Just imagine growing up with that last name. 

I guess I'll just HAVE to try fiddling the rooms around until I can somehow make it seem logical that there are never doors on BOTH sides of a corridor, though the notion strikes me as unrealistic and silly. =(

I totally agree.  But I like to imagine a background to look and act more like a stage in a theater.  Anything on the 'wall' between the stage and audience isn't important to the viewer, unless it is only foreground elements to help fill up the background and give depth perhaps.

Doors in the foreground have been done before, but most of them I've seen are just cutouts in the blackness like you have, without the door being visible.  I'm personally not a big fan of either.

Does anybody have that image with all the little characters?

The entire 1st page of this thread is covered with all Loominous' character ideas in the header designs and one by Progz.
There are actually some I had completely forgotten about too.

Btw: I have trouble to draw circular objects. Any tips?

Here's a good visual demonstration:

(Another image found with Google)

Edit: If you don't make the X match up in the center like that, you'll have an Oval shape instead.

It's definitely a catchy title.
Perhaps having the whole plate and center the same color would look better, instead of the center being black.  It looks more like an 'O' or Zero rather than a plate.

I also disagree with Atelier.  I don't think a company logo Must have a relation to your company, just as long as it's not as odd as a Cow for a logo and the business is a Bank.  Basically the more professional a business, the less whacky the logo can be.  But for an entertainment logo, I think almost anything can work.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't make a hallway with doors on both sides.

But, if I for some reason needed doors on both sides, it would look something like this: Google image
But I would never do more than 1 maybe 2, hallways in this style in a game otherwise it would become very repetitive (and I wouldn't have that long of a hallway or use scaling because once the character walked a little past the first door on the left and right, it would cut to the next scene).


If I were to do a straight on view like you have, I would probably just put windows in the foreground with narrow support beams so they wouldn't hide the player character (that's assuming this is a space ship).  Then perhaps some hallway scenes with pipes running down the one side of the hallway in the foreground, but never enough to be distracting.

But I would probably never have doors that lead to a room in the foreground.  I feel it could possibly break immersion, or people could easily miss them if it's not done right.  Look at The Vacuum or 6 Days a Sacrifice, I never once thought it was stupid that they didn't have doors in the foreground.  It definitely makes things easier to understand and remember.


But for ideas on how to draw doors like that... hmm I'm not sure.  I'd probably do the transparent gradient (where you can see through more of the door near the top, and less at the bottom--but I would also draw walls, because doors would look odd standing there without walls).

I imagine it might be possible with a plugin (maybe).

I like where you tossed the team names drop down.  I guess it seems fitting since after all it is a part of game description, in a way.
It would be really cool if CJ could make it expand And collapse, instead of it being only one way.  But I've never done anything like that on a website so I'm really not certain how hard it is to create.

I tried just now to see what it looks like with the screenshot on the right instead of the left, and I totally see why you have it on the left instead. lol  The larger white box around it really doesn't work well on the right.

If the "You haven't rated this game" warning can't work for some odd reason, I may cry. (joking)    In all seriousness though, it's definitely a feature I would find very convenient to have.

Anyway, looks good.

I won't help you correct your backgrounds because you'll never learn for yourself on how to follow perspective (like I've mentioned before though, it doesn't have to be exact. As long as it's close enough without looking wonky no one will care)  You just need the basic understanding first before you can break the rules.

But I'll help you Google it.
Click here: http://tinyurl.com/yb95gyr
All the one point perspective tutorials you'll ever need to understand the principals of a vanishing point.