Messages

You're most welcome, I'm glad I could help

I guess AGS textboxes are using their own custom on_key_press event, it seems logical because you'd have to print the letters inside the box and filter them by yourself otherwise. What's strange is that it will disable all other on_key_press hooks. I wonder if we can get access to this hidden textbox "keyboard hook" function, maybe in later versions of the Editor, anyways I wish you luck on your project.

Ahhh cookiiie! *crunch* 

Edit: Ah well, it could be optimised if you used a global INT called OldLength, change YourTextBox to the ScriptName property of the textbox and then:

Code: ags

function repeatedly_execute()
{

  if(YourGui.Visible == true && YourTextBox.Text.Length != OldLength)
  {
   PlaySound(2);
   OldLength = YourTextBox.Text.Length;
  }

}

Since comparing long strings in the repeatedly execute might waste some resources for no purpose. (edited the syntax)

Alright I just realised what was wrong and found a workaround:

1- Create a Global String called OldText.

2- Add this in the GlobalScript (just replace YourGui with the gui name, textbox_id with the ID property of the textbox, and the sound number) :

Code: ags

function repeatedly_execute()
{

  if(YourGui.Visible == true && YourGui.Controls[textbox_id].AsTextBox.Text != OldText)
  {
   PlaySound(2);
   OldText = YourGui.Controls[textbox_id].AsTextBox.Text;
  }

}

This is like a OnTextBoxChange custom event.
I give you a cookie if it doesn't work this time

Last advice if I can be useful for once

Create a new script, you'll get two files, copy the following code to the .asc file:

Code: ags

function on_key_press(int keycode)
{

 if( Gui1.Visible == true )
 {
  PlaySound(1);
 }

}

Just replace Gui1 with the real name of your gui and please tell me if it works, because it does with me.

Strange, I can get a GUI with a textbox, type some text into it and when I press the "a" key it prints "a" in the textbox and plays a sound (same goes for every letter with the example code I tried). A basic example I just made could confirm this. Unless I misread something :p

on_key_press will be called whenever a key is pressed so you could just use this:

Code: ags

function on_key_press()
{

 if( MyTextBoxGUI.Visible == true )
 {
   PlaySound(2);
 }

}
 

I think if you put it outside of the IsGamePaused() check it *should* work. You could check if the gui is visible and if the focus is on the textbox but I don't know the function, I can edit later if you need. Would that solve the problem?

Edit: I checked and as long as you didn't use "Pause game when shown" option in the Gui properties it should be ok.

Well I had to think for a moment before posting for I sense some tension in this thread but I think it deserves to be mentioned. Sorry I know this is childish, but I can't help thinking of this when I read the title:

Spoiler

ALA-NOVE / ANA...

[close]

  :

I'm not saying it doesn't sound cool or doesn't fit (oops one more :p), but I think it could be annoying to have people make bad jokes about the title. It made me smile thinking it was some funny game but when I looked at the backgrounds and story I realized maybe it was more serious than that.

The art looks fine to me, deserted and disturbing places could set up a great heavy atmosphere. The way you presented the whole game description and story adds a lot of depth and help people seeing it as a game screen. But if you just posted the photos without any description I would have liked them a lot but wouldn't know that they were meant for a game.

I can't see any "obvious" hotspot or special point of intrest present in the screenshots (speaking game-wise of course) apart from the surgery tables one I like a lot. Imho, and in their current state, the backgrounds are more artistic shots than game backgrounds, but there should be no problem I guess as long as you don't make the game look like simple thumbnail

My apologies for the jokes. Now you can flame me..

Well I don't really want it too look like a balanced sword, more something heavy and impressive. Or a long thin katana like these: Pic1 Pic2

To me the most important is wether or not it looks cool, everyone in the game will use realistic weapons, the heros will use special ones. I could be wrong but I think it adds a lot to the character's personality to have a unique weapon or fighting style but i'll still consider any crit so the question would be is that looking good, if so is that telling you something about his personality or current state? If you think it's just for the show and is pretty useless then i'll have no choice ^^

Edit: anian, I know what you mean and I'm going to change this even if I liked it :p Maybe if I used white/light grey on the sword it wouldn't look like there's a scabbard heh.
Edit2: He will have the sword sticked on his back or maybe he will hold it in his hand while moving, not sure about it yet.

Ahh! Fallout, you said the holy word! This is isometric (pseudo 3d) view, these are my favorites aside from final fantasy

Well to me it doesn't look strange it's just bothering me a lil bit. Like I said it shrinks the foreground and it feels like the perspective is somehow inverted: The background is bigger than the foreground.

Nice screenshot, I wonder why you're not going for the isometric view with interiors as well.

Are you going for a GTA like game? I see the beretta has 8 bullets, recent berettas can have up to 15 without an upgrade, just so we get to kill more evilpeople

Edit: Anian's idea about walls or roofs disappearing when needed could be achieved by drawing the parts that will disappear as objects in the room and then set their transparency when the player stands on hotspots you define, for example.

I see what you mean with the perspective and how it makes it easier but you *may* be wrong about this, it kinda shrinks the foreground. Once you have a vanishing point, you can still draw the sofa and worry about perspective later, adjusting angles according to the VPoint.

You seem to know about layers, be it gimp or photoshop you could draw a whole layer with the perspective lines and vanishing points and switch it on off to see if you got off perspective somewhere in the process. As long as you haven't added too much details it shouldn't be that hard to correct these, I guess...

Again it's easy for me to criticize when I can't even produce something looking right, but I think the sofa looks too edgy like you said because of its shading, straight lines, if you could just round it up a bit it would add a nice effect.

Wow I'm talking a lot :p Even if I don't like the slogan because it makes me think of some propaganda and mind control society like in Korea for example, I do feel this kind of intriguing atmosphere and this is actually nice in a game if this is what you wanted of course :p Edit: I guess Dystopian is the opposite of Utopian and would explain the slogan.

Well maybe I'm the only one but the left wall is bothering me somehow... I think thats the cause of the perspective problem.
Parallel lines won't work for a real depth effect, maybe the strange perspective was intended but I thought i'd give my point of view.

Sorry for the rushed edit it's just to illustrate what I'm saying:



You added some nice details and the wall/floor texture looks really good, keep that level of detail on the other furnitures like the sofa for example? It looks a bit too square and flat but this is not a major issue

Regards

I just edited the pose right after your post.

About the sword... I thought it was rather short, but I'm really fond of long blades and such so I may have overdone it, my preferences should not have priority over the player's opinion so if people think it's already long enough, that's fair.

I may find a way to separate the hair from the shirt but every attempt at changing the colours kinda ruined it...

And once again X-Heiko, if you need help with coding it will be a pleasure to give you some tips.

Hi,

The first thing that caught my attention is the rain layer, rain effects can be added later with the AGS editor and I think it doesn't look so good compared to the background quality. Could you show a version without it?

I know you can't really talk about perspective issues unless you trace the vanishing lines but nothing seems wrong about it at first glance.

Other than that, a few details like a door, signs, trash etc would be a nice addition and you could make the player focus on one particular point. For example with a gloomy colapsing sign above the door and a trash can, drunk guy, just a thought.

The guy seems a bit tall compared to what I think is a door on the left.
I already like it, especially if this is one of your first experiments but you asked for hard crits

Edit: Maybe you could add some depth using darker or brighter colours in the foregroung/background, but the reflection of lights on the road is really neat.

I think nobody mentioned this, but it could be intresting to place the tower a bit more on the left, and have the door face right to have a larger walkable area in front of it because there isn't much space to play arround. Would be neat if you're going to use it in a game.

I like the cartoony feel and the twisted tower style, made me think of that old cartoon The Sword in the Stone

Hehe you're right about high-side thong thing, I didn't know what it meant because i'm not english but then I realised what you were talking about and this is definately looking sexier than I thought.

I also like the edit on arms because mines are looking a bit stiff and not so natural. You mentioned the variation in characters and the details you added will help getting more varied poses for sure. Just wanted to say she's supposed to be sexy enough but not like she's about to hook up someone , no offense of course because she looks great But she's more of a sexy/shy girl yet cold hearted sorceress when things gets serious.

I know you can't guess from her look especially when I draw her in this outfit, but your edit is definatly helpful anyways

I'm sure I'll come up with an even more intresting sprite thanks to your help, I have to say it's driving me crazy too, from the very begining :p I will edit this as soon as I have a quick update to show.

Btw, X-Heiko mailed me some useful edits about more realistic gun poses and he has a good grasp on this, even if I'm no expert it just makes sense, will come in handy for male poses and action scenes. I just don't want to shamelessly rip it saying it's mine but i'll work on this as well, thanks

Update: After catching a headache trying to mess with the bikini girl sprite, I decided to take a break and have a try at a more evil version of the main character, it was fun:



I'm aware of the coulour problem, the hair blends with the shirt but it still looked good to me, well almost.
If you happen to see this and have anything to say about it I'll be happy to hear it!

[X-Heiko]

X-Heiko: The shirt is supposed to be camo but you're totally right about shading, I know I have a lot to learn, btw, thanks for your mails and the useful edits as usual, i'll focus on this from now on! The woman just uses softer colors, less contrast, it was just a try to see what would look best.

zabnat: I'm glad you like them, thanks!  About the weapon pose, the woman is supposed to be a lethal assassin or at least a good agent so she's supposed to know how to use them with ease. I'll work on that because I don't want her to look like a weapon noob

yarooze: I like the unrealistic way people shoot big calibers one handed without any recoil as long as it looks cool like in your example pic. And yeah the woman wears a kind of mix between skirt and pants like those chinese outfits I must have seen somewhere, same here, I don't really know what she's wearing but I like it :p


I know I can get more details with an improved shading so this will be the next step.
Hopefully they will gain more style, and this is mostly thanks to all the comments!

Regards

thanks I will use 4 frames for the firing animations and the one you saw is like the 2nd or when you just want to keep the target under control and not threaten him with a more agressive pose.

Here's another version, any comment on clothes and shading are welcome, thanks!

Heh thanks yarooze, i'm glad a pixel-girl expert likes them

About the left sprite, i see you added one more pixel to the leg's width and that's exactly what I tried when X-Heiko mentioned the lack of details for the leg muscles but then i thought it looked too large compared to the torso.

It doesn't look bad, but she would be more "plump" i think it's the word, and would lose that anorexic sexyness i liked about it. ( i know it's just a personal opinion) but i could really use this example for other charcaters, it would contribute to get more varied styles.

I worked on a few other characters, maybe i can get your opinions on them, the man will be one of the playable chars.

Quick update:


I know about the tags but I hate the blurry resize effect (maybe due to firefox) and the server host  is mine so a few png won't hurt

Don't forget these are Maniac-Mansion-characters, so don't change the shape of body.

I just realised I somehow hurt your maniac-mansion fan feelings playing with the sprite, but what's with this angry comment? You don't give any crit yet you are giving orders on how we should deal with it, it makes me think you actually are the author of the thread.

You could say you don't want to bother changing the shapes to avoid re drawing all the animations, that I could understand, but as a fan I would like the graphics to look better than the original if possible so I'd be opened to any suggestions. I'm not saying mines are good, just my two cents

Well... tried to make him look older but I rather sucked the life (and intelligence) outta him and now he's about to speak his last words, all he would need now is a cane or a coffin... forgive me Rubacant  The bent pose and face details are the points i wanted to highlight.

Hello,

I'm no expert but i thought maybe you'd like some ideas, it seems a bit heavy and long, it could be reduced perhaps and linked to the hair at ear level and not the neck, here's an example edit of what i mean, sorry if i played with the shapes but he looked stiff somehow:



Is there a reason for the blue skin? Anyways i like the detailed face and look

Edit: i looked up your posts and i've seen the backgrounds and screenies you posted so i have my answer about the blue skins. Nice backgrounds btw.

Regards