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Actually, you've just described non-linear gameplay, which is generally considered a good thing.

But, but, but... I like linear adventure games--with maybe a little non-linear-ness to it.

Just as long as the linearity is not as crazy as Merry Christmas Alfred Robbins (sorry HillyBilly) .  That game also suffers from a hotspot indicator.  Like clicking a hair piece from a characters hair.  How are you supposed to know that without an indicator?  Even with an indicator, people would still miss it.  Characters are usually a whole interact-able piece.

Some people think a hotspot indicator gives away the puzzle, but if pixel hunting is the puzzle, I'm not interested.  If a hotspot indicator gives away the puzzle, it's probably not a good puzzle in the first place.

edit: Seriously though, if you toss me into an adventure game world that's fully explorable like a GTA map, I'd go insane.  I like small sections in games.  Where you can't get to the next few rooms without solving a puzzle.
I tried playing A Second Face once, and I gave up shortly after the (really long and kinda dull) intro.  There was too much to explore.  And nothing of importance in any of the first rooms I had explored.
If there isn't a Character or Object in that room that I can talk to or pick up or some kind of switch/puzzle, to progress in the game, then that room really shouldn't be there.  IMO.

Good work on the module Duals.

I noticed one thing though.  Instead of adding gamewidth to the fog character that jumps to the other side of the screen, you should check the character's sprite width and left character's X, and add that to the right's X.
Just in case anyone wants to add longer fog sprites, or even shorter.  Dummy proof .

I also don't think you really need to do the speed for each layer of fog, which is quite daunting.  One master speed should do it (heck, the master speed could even determine direction, -1 would be left, +1 right, and 0 stop).  1 being slow, and higher being faster.  Then you set the wind speed for each layer of fog in the module to a slow speed, then multiply by the masterspeed like:
movex[0]=0.16*inttofloat(masterSpeed); //character 1+2 (1st Blanket)
movex[1]=0.08*inttofloat(masterSpeed); //character 3+4 (2nd)
movex[2]=0.04*inttofloat(masterSpeed); //character 5+6 (3rd)
movex[3]=0.02*inttofloat(masterSpeed); //character 7+8 (4th)
movex[4]=0.01*inttofloat(masterSpeed); //character 9+10 (5th)

And I figure using an Int would be less complicated, and I can't see someone wanting a masterSpeed of 1.5.
If it still doesn't work for them, they can go into the script and change it manually.

Also you forgot the direction!!

Anyway those were just my thoughts--take 'em if you want.  I totally didn't expect you to want my files or script, I just wanted to make the AGS demo so you could understand what I meant.  But this works too.  

Ryan "Rambo" Timothy.

I should change my forum name.

Lmao Bicilotti!  He said he just finished Densming's video tutorials--not a course in physics programming.  Lol

lol yes you're right that my off the top of the ol' noggin puzzles were a little convoluted.  But it's all on the game.  The game I was describing from my head, was actually just that.  Get the time machine running.  Once you get it running you're whisked away into time, game over.

Adventure games don't always have to be about what's on the other side of the street, it's about crossing the street.

But yes, the puzzles were a little random but nothing that didn't make sense.  
It's also all in the dialog: "Oh, the motor is broken, I must find a replacement"
Rather than: "It's broken",  that doesn't tell me anything.  Do I even need to fix it?  What's wrong with it?  etc

You have to basically push the player in the right direction, without actually telling them what to do.

But you can't give the player tons of obstacles at once.  It should be like opening a door within a door within a door.
Not multiple doors, that lead to more doors.  That's just plain confusing.


For example, Ben's Featherweight game.  When you walk past the 2nd sentry the player pretty much tells you "I guess I should have distracted him first".  If that dialog wasn't there, you'd be confused with what you had to do, which is: distract him.

You pretty much just do what Eggie said.  The player knows the goal, but the path isn't going to be what you'd expect.

Lets say you have a time machine in the basement.  Before you can use it you must turn on the power.
Turning on the power you notice it doesn't work.
Something must have happened to the power connections to the machine.
There is a metal panel that covers the power connections.
You have to rummage through things to find a screwdriver/knife/penny etc (it's better if it's not the obvious, which in this case would be the screwdriver)
You open the panel to discover a mouse has made a nest in there and chewed through the cable.
The mouse is vicious and won't leave the nest--and bites your hand every time you try.
You take the vacuum from the shelf, but the motor is broken.
You replace the motor with one from a robotic arm--or something as crazy.
Then suck up the mouse with the vacuum cleaner (it of course lives and you can see it in the clear vacuum dust container, still angry--you don't want to murder a mouse )
You fix the cable connection by wrapping a sheet of metal around it--one you found in the room somewhere.
Then you turn on the power and the time machine works!


It's actually pretty easy to think of puzzles.  Just try to think of things to prevent the player from doing what they know they must do.

[fog(]

Oh yeah sure, I left them the way they were so you could walk behind the individual depths of fog.  But whatever works for you.


And sure, whip up a fog module if you want to.  Just make it so people can set the height of the horizon so then the fog's y will be calculated accordingly.

Kinda like:
fog(int horizon, int speed, int direction, int characterStartNum);

The characterStartNum would be like: character# 1 to 10.  You'd also have to toss in a Loop frame count just to make sure they have the right amount of Fog sprites in the Loop.

And Direction, anything below zero would be left, anything above zero would be right, and zero would be static.

I can't think of anything else at the moment.  
Glad it works for you.

I hope that with such a large background you won't have such small characters.  It's a big ratio.  I usually draw my characters at 1/3 of the screen height.

Also I'm not a big fan of the generic photoshop craquelure texture.  I much prefer the hand drawn cracks you have around the door and pillars.

Oh.  So that won't be his standing still pose?  It would seem a little odd to go from relaxed stance, to a stiff and straight back and arms.  To bent arm grabbing something.  To stiff back and arms.  Back to the relaxed stance.

I'm confused.

edit: basically what I'm saying is: You shouldn't use this characters pose *ever* unless you actually want him to look like he's standing like a soldier or robot.

Where is that Trihan and his stickman comics?

I can see it too.. and his pose looks pretty stiff.

I started playing Left 4 Dead about a week ago, and I've noticed one thing. Not many people are good team players.  You always have the guys that are too slow and stay behind, or the two guys who run ahead while I save the poor bastard's ass who decided to pick daisies in the rear.

Also when the Tank comes around knocking people on their asses.  People usually stand still or dance around like fools, but almost always in arms reach of the Tank.  I actually just finished a game of L4D and finally I had a good team mate.  The Tank was chasing him around, I said on the mic "you run, I flank".  The guy ran in reverse while emptying his shotgun into the Tank while I did the same from the side and rear while following it.  It died quickly.

You also get those people who are completely oblivious to what is happening right next to them.  I've had tons of Hunters pounce on me while the teammates end up distracted or run away (which is usually why I play with the mic now since they sometimes never seem to notice).

I actually enjoy playing versus better.  It's much more of a challenge because you don't have just AI attacking you, it's also humans.  And I'm pretty good with the Hunter and Boomer.

With the hunter you try to pounce on the ones who have strayed away from the group, or while they are all under attack or have been vomited on by the Boomer (cause they won't see the attack silhouette on their teammates while the bile is on them).

And with the Boomer, I try to vomit on them whenever they first enter an area that has tons of zombies standing around or when someone has strayed from the group.  Also if I'm waiting for my bile meter to recharge, I sometimes just jump in front of their weapons fire to blow up all over them.


Anyway, not to sound like I believe I am this amazing player, but I notice that almost all the times that I die, the team never makes it to the safe zone.  I'm always protecting teammates, keeping an eye on them, healing them, picking them up, giving them pills.  It's a really easy game to play just as long as you remember to watch your teammates All the time.


Oh, and does Xbox360 connect to people using Steam? 
If anyone from the AGS forums wants to add me, my 360 nick is: Unknown Quest

What kinds of source codes are you looking for exactly?  I could give you dozens of source codes on how to do everything But what you would actually need or find useful.

The beginners tech thread is riddled with tons of basic questions and codes.  Basic stuff like how to use a key on a door, etc etc.  When I started, the search function was my dearest friend (just as long as the thread title was named properly and descriptive).  You can find almost anything.

http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/other/agsf/fog_dualnames_files.zip

There you go Johnny-Joe.  I took the liberty to send you the 320x240 size sprites as well.  Also tossed in parts of the script in case you wanted/needed it.  If your game is 320x240 you'll have to divide all the x and y coords in half.  And if the depth of your background is different than the one I had in my demo, you'll have to change the 3 fog layers manually (1 and 2 are both at the bottom edge of the screen).

You'll have to create 10 characters (it's best if their numbers were all in numerical order 1-10 or 16-25, etc etc--that way you can use a while statement).

Also you'll have to flip every other image in AGS manually so the fog layers can seamlessly connect to each other.  I tossed in a pic that explains it (a picture is worth a thousand words).

Have fun--don't get into too much trouble!  

Oh and if ya let me see what it looks like if you get it going, I'd be happy .

edit: I guess I forgot to mention that this fog will only really work on backgrounds that you can see the horizon (or back wall, level) from left to right.  Otherwise it would look pretty wonky.  The speed was also amped up quite a bit just to show that they were all moving.  But speed could work for an evil monster lair like you have shown--but I'd test to see what it looks like at a slower speed first.

Actually before I send the files over, which do you like better?

http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/other/agsf/fog_dualnames_scroll.zip

This one moves with wind, and the more distant they are the slower they move.

Edit: Oops. for testing I had TAB remove the blanket layer of fog (which doesn't move now, since all the rest do), forgot to change it back to toggle the background.

Edit2: Actually I decided I kinda liked the blanket over top everything and moving as well (cause you see it on the character).  So I added it back. 
On this file: http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/other/agsf/fog_dualnames_scroll2.zip

Tell me which one you like the most and I'll send it on over.

Thanks guys.

[..] but I'm not sure the main colors are so good.  Yellowish-creme to bronze?

Progz, are you talking about the light orange link colors you see here: http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/index.html ?  Or at least to me it looks orange.

I guess I could change the link colors to a blue or something, perhaps I'll experiment once the site is totally complete.  I've always had a thing for orange ever since I played the first Half-life.  Not sure why. 

Sorry for the delay there, buddy.  I spent an hour longer than I intended making this, since I didn't know you were going for the 'ground' fog.  And I had fun playing around with Photoshop's gradients and whatnot to make it look as close to real as I could be arsed to do for this demonstration.

http://www.bryvis.com/entertainment/other/agsf/fog_dualnames.zip

There are 4 characters for the background fog, and 2 characters for the scrolling fog.  If you really wanted to (which I was almost tempted to do) was to make the individual 4 character fog's scroll as well at different speeds (by adding another 4 characters).  It would have been pretty interesting.

My computer obviously stays at around 40fps.  Shouldn't drop too much on the lower end computers, I think.

Edit: Oh I completely forgot.  Press TAB to view it with a black screen.

Oh, I see.. you're going for the 'ground' fog.  Like you see a fog machine make for those creepy movies.  I don't know if my gradient fog will be of any use to you if you want this type of fog.. I'll have to think about it first.

I finally had a chance to check out the castlevania intro (youtube wouldn't let me the last time I checked for some odd reason).  I personally don't like it.  It's way too fake looking.  Looks more like cartoon clouds than anything that resembles fog.

Like I said, I'd go with the gradient approach that I had shown earlier (I would just spend an extra few minutes on the gradient placement [Reed]  , like I said already).  You're right that the trunk should be of 'near' equal visibility as the top of the tree, but the only reason why it's heavier at the top is for the exact reason you've already pointed out, the top of the tree is further away than the base of the tree.  Also fog always appears more dense higher in the air, because: *ding* *ding* It's Further Away--and you're looking through more of it! 

But if you're so keen on making it animate, there is one suggestion I have for you.  I'd use the Filter>Clouds in Photoshop.  Probably with medium gray and black, then set the layer's blending mode to Multiply.  That way the black areas go transparent and the mid-point between black and white would go translucent.  Then you lower the opacity and have that as a blanket, possibly as a GUI or a character with high Z order, and have it move from left to right with another 'character' blanket to come into place when the first blanket is going off screen.

I think it would be the best and most realistic looking approach AND with the least amount of work.

Dual, if you're interested in a quick AGS mockup to see what I'm talking about, I could probably make one in like 20 or so minutes total.  Let me know.

And I made my website template into html/CSS form using notepad.
It's just another day in the big ol' meat grinder.  May as well do something you enjoy instead of pretending that this one day is different.