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Here's a good Idea. If you guys can help me find that closest RPG engine that can make RPGs based upon my given information then I promise to only use AGS to make adventure games.

Get into tabletop roleplaying. Get to know a roleplaying system, and the math will come to you and you'll be able to program it, since you'll be computing the math yourself with dice as a randomiser. That's the best advice I can give to someone who wants to make an RPG. If you don't know the math behind RPGs, you're not going to make one.

Other than that, OHRRPGCE is pretty good.

A Mode 7ish type effect to project sprites as backgrounds so they scroll correctly in perspective? I'd definitely use it.

Like Street Fighter 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qAPbXNq0dc

I think I've corrected some of of the physics but now there's this evil pop when her foot makes contact so darghfarghhfafaisurehateanimating.

This may just be my imagination and I may be totally wrong, but...
Her foot seems to raise a little bit the frame after the heel makes contact and the foot changes shape so that it's thinner, making it look like when her foot is on the ground, it jumps up back off of it instead of being solid against the earth. Did you animate her walking across the screen, or just walking in place, like she's being shown now?

I think just making the heel positions a little more consistent across the animation might do it the world of good. The popping in the leg is fine, so long as the foot is in the right position. The energy will seem to be going somewhere, instead of just glitching.

Pick up Dr. Jones' hand. You never know when a hand of a Level 9 Technician would be useful!

For my game, I got 16 for the femme fatale, 7 for Ollie (female protagonist) and...

-13 for Jakob. He don't have many things going for him, poor chap. In fact, most of the characters are pretty damn average. Wouldn't be much of an adventure game if they were the best battlers in the universe. If the characters could do things normally, they wouldn't be in a point and click, where you have to solve a number of puzzles just to do something mundane like climb over a fence.

I'd like to see how this "June" lady got 39, though. I thought most of the test questions were "Thing... without consequences". I've always seen that test as being a good benchmark for most characters.

This film just doesn't get any less hilarious.

I recommend it to anyone who has ever played a tambourine, and even those that haven't.

• What kind of DLC are you willing to pay for? Why?
  The kind that comes on a disk. Seriously. Or level editors, capability of editing the game data to make new things from it, or big expansion packs. This is because I don't need hats to enrich my game playing experience, I want customisability or more game to play. Giving me a weapon isn't giving me more game to play, so why should I pay for something that doesn't give me more game?
  
  For episodic games I'll wait until the entire game has come out on a physical copy before buying. Unless it's the shareware model (Free first episode, buy the rest as a package) it's not really worth the wait between episodes.
  
  
• Do you believe that DLC is a good/bad thing? Why?
  
  I've always believed DLC to be the devil, since it is by nature disposable. What happens ten, twenty, or a hundred years down the line to the content we've microtransacted? Do we get to keep the DLC, long after our consoles have turned to useless twisted piles of junk? Long after the content delivery servers have extinguished their LED glow and their data flow become a stagnant pool of decaying bits? Will we ever get to enjoy the game again at it's full glory and entirety?
  
  The loss of data is a tragedy, especially when you've bought it. But the transient, volatile nature of DLC kind of scares me. Can we really trust the publishers to protect our purchases? What with the track record with the games industry of leaving games to languish and rot two years after release, I doubt it.
  
  And "buying time" is something that can be so easily abused it's not funny. You can charge people real money for in game items and say "Oh, we're just saving you the time spent on grinding for it", when the grind is there because the developer put it there. It's like saying "You can have fun with this game, but to experience it all either wash 500 dishes, or pay us $5. You know which is best.". I like finding rare items - not in the "1/256 chance of dropping" sense, but secret rooms and dungeons which you can explore to get a leg up in the endgame. Charging people real money for in-game items shatters the sense of verisimilitude, since where are these characters getting these items? Reducing the thrill of neat stuff down to grind/buy is just bad game design. You see it a lot with Facebook games. There is a potential for fun in some of those games, but you either have to wait three million hours to regain your arbitrary fun tokens or buy them. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
  
  
• Do you agree/disagree with any of the above statements? Why?
  They make sense from a business standpoint.
  
  
• Do you think that the inclusion of exclusive DLC warrants Boycotting? Why?
  The inclusion of exclusive DLC holds no water in these enlightened times. The consoles are, in fact, almost completely identical in terms of capability, so it makes no sense to have one guy get better stuff than another guy, if each guy can only afford one console. This isn't 1994, where the PSX can have full motion video and the n64 gets other stuff to compensate because the latter console simply cannot play FMV. This is 2011, and every console is just about as capable as the other one.
  
  As for store-specific DLC, it's just a little bit cruel if one town doesn't have a particular deal on, and what if you want both DLCs? You miss out either way and feel bad. Not to mention different countries and stuff like that...
  
  It's a horrible move to pull on your player base. I'm not actually sure what the suggested action should be. Tell the people in charge "You're being a bit of an ass"? I don't know.

Here's a demo thing:
http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/tech/RayCastModule.zip

Oh man! I just booted this up, and it is the most awesome thing. How far are you going with this project? I was pumped for the previous raycasting plugin (until it turned into a true 3D one) but this is native and amazing. It could give us so much more variety with our games (a native Normality/Realms of the Haunting style game!) I'm mystified how you got it to run so fast.

I've been inspired to continue working on my game so I can release something on the 10th!

Here is a thing I have been working on:

Before, backgrounds looked like this:

After, they look like this:

(There'll be a black sillhouette foreground in-engine)

I'm really impressed by some of the stuff being submitted here!

The original size is "this divided by 3".

Unfortunately, computers can't handle 3x very well, since reversing 300% means resizing a picture by 33.33333%, effectively destroying it. Use only multiples of 2. It also wrecked your palette, since there's loads of noise now.

I think the main problem with this picture is it's pretty muddy. You need more contrast in places that are important, and less in places that noone will care about. Warm colours to bring out the foreground and places you can walk. Cool colours where you cannot.

When you get paid as an artist (not a designer), employers want to see what you're technically capable of, not what your imagination is like. Observation is the key to imagination, after all. No use employing someone who can draw awesome scenes of kangaroos breakdancing on the moon... if that's all you can do.

They want a baseline, and you've got to express your baseline competence. Showing life drawing is part of that.

(I know this is in the wrong forum, but I have the answer )
Well, I know for a fact you can make EGA Sierra graphics with SCI Companion:
http://www.mtnphil.com/Games/SCIComp.html
Like, actual SCI graphics, not an imitation.

I didn't want to make a new thread for this, and it seems a little far fetched, but this game has been on my mind for years and I don't know what it is.

It's an RPG, first person, it might have been raycast (I remember sprites walking around Wolfenstein fashion), and you could throw herbs at people if you equipped them in your weapon slot. There were guards walking around also, but if you hit them and they collided with you, you went to a new screen which said "You spend the night in a cold, dark prison cell."

I for the life of me cannot remember what this game was, and it's driving me crazy. I never personally played it, I just watched my cousin play - he quickly traded it in for Day of the Tentacle, I believe. It's not any of the Elder Scrolls games, not Realms of Arkania, not Amulets and Armor, and not Eye of the Beholder. I just can't figure out what it was.

Yeah, I'd say integrate 2.72 into ScummVM and let the 3.x branch alone. Of course it won't as easy as I wish it would be.
But if people really wish to create a multi-multi platform game, they could simply use that old editor.

I would also think this is a good idea. We have the 2.72 source, and it's not going to get worked on ever again. Porting 2.72 and below to ScummVM allows old games to be played again (How many times have we had trouble running the old DOS games?) while freeing the current engine from the backwards compatibility issues. Sure, some people's games might break (probably some games made between 3.0.0 and 3.2.1 and using the legacy code), but it's worth it for cleaner code and extensibility. AGS as it was fits the ScummVM bill perfectly. It's discontinued, the source is available, and it plays adventure games.

Maybe, sometime in the future, a long way off, new AGS might join ScummVM's engine ranks. But until then, being able to play the old games is enough, I think.

Would it be possible to do it the other way around, that we integrate the bits of the ScummVM engine that lets it run on so many platforms with AGS?

I think the reason why ScummVM is so portable is because it uses portable libraries and no OS specific code. There is no particular bit we can integrate into AGS, apart from maybe it's discipline, and there's no importable library for that

Has anyone here ever used the OHRPG program? It reminds me quite a lot of early AGS in some respects (only for copnsole-style RPGs, obviously) but my God, writing cutscenes is a nightmare; you have to create a new message box, select the option to edit it's text, type out what you want it to say, save it, leave the program, open up notepad and reference the number in your code. There's no way to re-order them so if you want to add an extra line you have to tack them on to the end of your giant list and, worst of all, if you make a spelling mistake in the middle of one the editor works in such a way that you have to delete half the message before you can get to your typo.

Oh man, I remember using that program. The only good thing about it, looking back, was the graphics handling system. Minipalettes and easy recolours, oh my god. It was bliss in regards to making the graphics.

Everything else, though...


Something that has kept me on AGS for ages is the help file. Every function, every command is documented in exhaustive detail - not just what parameters it takes and what it does, but examples of how to use each function with the correct syntax. Every other game creation program I've ever used has had an awful help system. Links to dead websites with dead links, no help at all, or when you press the help button, it takes you to a webpage and frankly, I hate that. Something as simple as having an easily searchable compiled help file really aids in the game creation process. That, and using a C++/C style scripting languages helps to ease people into real programming later.

Not to mention the autocomplete which reminds me what parameters I should be using, and the compiled sprite file (having it all in one program saves me having to hunt down folders to find assets), the excellent community support...

... the inbuilt customisable GUI editor, so you can make exactly the interface you desire. The ability to run at a very low profile resolution (320x200x256 natively! Oh my god!) where other engines want to bloat up your resolution to at least 640x480 and put it in a window and run at 32bit colour, allows you to tailor make your game to the amount of resources you want to use.

AGS at it's core is basically exactly what I want for games of it's ilk - an animation handler, an interaction handler, and a background handler. You can use the default functions and make an adventure game, or take control of it to however a degree you desire. It's my benchmark for other game engines.

If only there was an AGS-like system for tiled games! That would rock.

So, when constructing this house, why did the builders decide to make the doorframes straight downstairs but wonky upstairs? 

Cowboy builders.


Because I got inconsistent with how wonky I wanted the doorframes. 'sides which, the non-wonky doorframes are in the background. I might redraw them.

Yeah, Icey! Stick to making shallow imitations of 20-year old Lucasarts franchises, like the rest of us!
I know the first piece of advice anyone ever gives is that you should make the games you want to make, but screw that! You should only make games I want you to make!

I didn't know Catcher in the Rye was Lucasarts IP! The more you know~!

It was a plea to widen his reference pool. I don't personally mind if he makes a SE fangame, so long as it has substance, and a gripping story. So long as the characters are in character, and it has meaning beyond "This is cool and from a SE game, I will use it." like the arbitrary relationship with Tifa one of the characters has.

And I don't think it's possible to do when your reference pool is basically just Square Enix games. You need to understand the underlying metaphors and construction of the plot they had going on, why they chose certain designs and not others. And this requires more than just playing the game - it needs other literature, other experiences that you can pour back into your game creation. Otherwise it falls into the trap that most fanfiction does - you're writing about something you don't fully understand, and it comes across as shallow and meaningless. You can't engage with the characters because they're basically puppets with mad hair, you can't engage with the story since the story is written to imitate something the author doesn't fully fathom, and it ends up unsatisfying, like a paper cutout of a good meal.

I don't like shallow imitations of anything, be it Lucasarts games or Square Enix games. We definitely shouldn't try to wear those companies like Buffalo Bill wearing a woman's skin. It is not convincing, and nor is it comfortable to look at. Fangames, I think, are one of the hardest type of games ever to make successfully, even if they seem easy. You need to get the zeitgeist of the setting right, you need to write characters that aren't yours, you need to create a scenario that's believable within those character's worlds. You ever wonder why sequals suck more if they're made by other people? This is why.

In the end it's easier just to ignore it and get on with making something simpler. People will like it better, and people will also not complain about it not fitting the original.

Of course, we assimilate other ideas and craft them into something new - we steal and repurpose. That's what humans do! We have to steal from as many different sources as possible, craft them competently so that noone knows we're stealing. So that's why it's important to experience as much as you can, and in as many different media as possible, so that when you think up an idea, it's not just from one place. After all - we all hate to see something get ripped off. But if you have a thousand sources to draw from, and repurpose it and reshape it into something of your own creation, people will never know you stole from anywhere.

Yes, you can make the games you want to make. But right now, you're all drive and no knowledge. Gain some knowledge, and you'll be surprised with what you can do with it. No excuses, no compromise, just drive on through it all and gather as much as you can. Sure, at the end the product might be still a japanese style RPG. But it'll be YOUR rpg, not Square Enix's. You'll have the wisdom to know what mechanics to use, what story elements should pop up, what the character's reactions to situations should be. You'll have the world in the palm of your hand. You'll create something you can really be proud of, and it would be a wonder to play, and it might even move people to tears when you want them to.

But only if you work for it. If you don't, you'll still be making Pub Master Quest XIII: Legends Online Deluxe Extreme Turbo: Japanese Edition with Online Chat Features and DLC, and the result would be crude and shallow.

So work hard, read a lot, watch a lot of movies, and kill your darlings. Sometimes it's easier to start afresh with something simple, than try and tack on a million gimmicks to what you already have. Sometimes things are unsalvagable, but from their ashes something beautiful might arise, once you're free of it's influence.

In short:
A big reference pool is useful in the creation of genuine, enjoyable games - since you can take aspects from many different places, and people won't complain since you're not ripping off one, or two sources. An enjoyable game challenges people and brings something new to the table.

Widen that pool, and people will enjoy your games more, and they'll complain less. Anyone can learn new things.

Cloud is the one who I chose to build my protagonist's form around.

x3

You and several million other teenage boys. It's become a cliche at this point. No, worse than that: It's become a dead horse. Noone will take you seriously if you're just making Cloud expies. It's shallow and meaningless. You really need to widen your reference pool. Read some books! Watch some films! Do anything but play more Square Enix games. x3

We've all seen "Spikey hair and big sword" before. We are bored of it. We are 100% sure we don't want more of that.

An adventure game based on Catcher in the Rye, Citizen Kane, heck, even Twitch of the Death Nerve or The Fifth Element. Anything but more shallow imitations of Squeenix's endless fare and Nomura's fashion disasters.

Anyway. There are loads of games for AGS that COULD be ported successfully, and some that could be played right now, like Larry Vales, and Richard Longhurst and the Box that Ate Time.

Don't tell me you just wanted to play your own game on the Wii?

However do you have anything back your opinion up?

Ooh! Ooh! I do! Pick me!

Spoiler

He's a whiny little nobody from nowheresville, who in a moment of bravado and slavering idolatry of Sephiroth decided to go become a Soldier. He's not good enough, but tags along with Zack - who is a real Soldier. He is ashamed of himself and won't talk to Tifa, his childhood friend. He then screws up and throws Sephiroth into the lifestream (where he can become a god).  He is captured and experimented on, his mind utterly breaks and he's dragged away by Zack, a true Soldier who is a much better person than Cloud ever was, who dies defending them both. Cloud then goes and wearing the rusty, filthy Soldier uniform, appropriates Zack's life.

He then becomes a deluded terrorist who speaks nothing but lies, and makes himself believe his own lies, and proves to be an utterly ineffectual protagonist, having no will power and thinking he's a soulless clone, easily plied by the antagonists to do whatever they want. He only gets his act back together once Tifa bitchslaps him back into reality and sorts out all his problems by herself, by diving into the lifestream and dragging him kicking and screaming out of there. Cloud is basically a vegetable for some of the story.

Everything that makes Cloud cool he stole from Zack.

[close]

That's why he sucks. It's also why he was a compelling character. He's a deconstruction of a hero. Anyone who thinks Cloud is in any way cool has never actually played the game, or completely ignored half the story.


Anyway, on topic, even if we did port AGS to the Wii, plugins wouldn't work. So any game that uses a plugin (like the TCP-IP ones...) wouldn't work at all. Only ones that use the basic AGS functionality would be able to work.

Looks like a bad phishing website.

If I want to check Facebook, I'll check Facebook. If I want to check AGS, I'll check AGS.

I'm not putting my browser anywhere near that thing.

:|