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Hi all,

I'm weighing the best method of implementing a scene with many characters and was wondering what the veterans would recommend in order to minimize pain and performance degradation.



Many of the characters pictured in this particular scene will not be interactable initially, so I think it's ok to have a lot of them not be AGS character entities.  I would however like them to have some basic animation such as fidgeting, blinking, tapping a foot, just showing that they are indeed alive (relatively speaking) and not completely static in the background.

I'm thinking:

1.) Have an animated background loop?  One issue I guess is the resolution of the game is 1366x768 so this could bloat the install file.

2.) Have them as objects playing an animation loop?

3.) Make each one a character playing an animation loop?

4.) ?

If anyone has a suggestion how this might be handled best, let me know.  I've never done anything on AGS that pushes the limits of the engine so might be good to know where things might start overheating before I break it.

Thanks

What I want here is to make the robot's tentacles appear as though they consist of a piezoelectric polymer (or some sort of artificial muscle failing that).  The  bot I'm thinking was originally intended as some sort of all-terrain disaster-response bot, so if anyone can think of pseudo-engineering components or design ideas to augment this dude with it would be much appreciated.

Kind of open-ended here but basically I've blown a lobe-gasket running on creative fumes and want the guy a bit more believable, interesting, or both if the two aren't diametrically opposed.



EDIT: Sorry forgot pic.

So my project Neofeud has a couple rooms and probably 10-20 minutes of gameplay depending on how completist you are about reading/detectiving the scenes, and how awake you are when you fire the game up. 

I intend to make this eventually a full-length (4-8 hours?) commercial adventure, but I was wondering at what point might it be advisable to put out a demo version of the game, to whet appetites, get feedback on the direction of the game, etc??  As I understand it, Technobabylon had a few free demo versions out there year(s) in advance of the commercial release, correct?

At the moment we don't have any voice overs, although voice acting is in the gameplan for the commercial version.  Other than that, the artwork (background portraits items anims) is either done or nearing done.

A penny for your opinions on the timing, completeness, etc. of putting out a demo version of an AGS game?  Or perhaps that isn't advisable at all?

Thanks.

I have some GUIs that are pretty specific minigames in certain rooms, and so they don't seem to belong in the Global script.  Is there a way to store GUI-related variables inside a room rather than the global script? 

Thanks

So I need many copies of a certain object, in this case a screw, which the player will use.  Is there a way to instance an object multiple times so that all the properties (image, description, etc) of each instance are identical?  If that's not possible, is there a way to copy an object?

Thanks

I have a GUI at the top of the screen similar to the default AGS GUI  whose visibility is set to, "When mouse moves to top of the screen."

I want to have this GUI visible temporarily during an intro portion of the game while I'm explaining what the GUI buttons do. 

I tried setting the GUI's "Visible" parameter to true but it seems to stay invisible.  I tried setting the mouse cursor to the top of the screen, but the mouse.x and mouse.y are read-only, it says.

Is there a way to force this GUI to show for a bit?

Thanks

Is there a way to just have an object frozen in the background (for example a distant mountain)?  Basically, I want the object to never move in the player's screen, even when the rest of the room scrolls left and right.  I saw the parallax module but I was wondering if there was some simpler way to keep an object frozen in place. 

Thanks

Is there a way to have a very long string broken up into multiple lines, in the code?  So that you can read it without having to scroll horizontally in the editor?

I found one thread on this topic but there wasn't a yes or no on this question, as I could gather.

Thanks

I was trying to figure out how / if it is possible to widescreen in AGS and I can't seem to find how to implement it if it exists.

I'm playing Gemini Rue at the moment and that's obviously got widescreen, but I was wondering if there is a simple way to set that in the latest version of AGS?

One other note: my present resolution is 1024x768

Thanks

Sorry for the cryptic title.  Basically, I've got a 2030 vacation spot, and I want to rub it in hard that this is really 2030 and not just a Waikiki postcard with an oversize novelty postage stamp of a snowglobed city from Astounding Science Fiction. 

I'm thinking some kind of flying car scudding in the background, but I was looking for something a bit more cliche (joking).

Thanks in advance!

(Note: this is a work-in-progress.  Don't worry about missing bits / weird mismatched colors at this point.)



A little more info:

Potential location name, "Murdock Beach".  Taking name suggestions too if interested.

This is going to be a photograph that a character in Neofeud picks up and gets wistful over. Bench will have the guy, with his kid hanging off his neck, arm around wife. Vacay Kodak moment, memories of greener pastures. A pathos-building tangent. It's supposed to be the feels, and illustrates the Fall.

I.E.:

“The ex, and the kid. This was ages ago, before I got kicked off the force.”

“(Pause)” head falls.

“Burnt a lot of bridges, didn't you, Mr. Carbon. You can't go home again.”

Hi guys,

I am currently working on an AGS project (Neofeud)which I intend to become commercial when completed.  Unfortunately I don't have much experience in the way of business/contract/copyright, as I've never taken a game commercial*.  I'm presently looking to recruit members for my team, and am just wondering if anyone has some advice on what I should/should not do at this point.  I'd be especially curious to hear from AGS creators who've gone commercial with a title.

Thanks very much!

(*I do have one other relatively serious project, Terminus Machina, which garnered some 'donations', but was free to download).

Hi, I'm making a hotspot hover label using the method in this thread http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50872.0
The issue is I can't seem to set the font type to show up as an outlined font correctly.  I have 'speechoutline' right now and the inside of the outline is transparent, where it should be white.  Any way to make the inside of the black outline white? 

I have a normally invisible GUI object with a label inside that is set to visible when the mouse goes over a hotspot.

EDIT: sorry guys I think I figured this out.  Ok to delete this.

[Project:]

Project:
Neofeud - A hi-res, classic-style, post-cyberpunk adventure.









Details:
2033 - We create AI.  Sentient robots arrived, but not as our Terminator overlords or our Singularity saviors -- conscious machines are humanity's unwanted bastard children.  A few are geniuses who design flying cars, beat cancer, invent teleportation, but millions of defective prototypes roll out of factories -- mentally challenged, motivationally-challenged, criminally-inclined.  Legally conscious, but unhirable, these "Defectives" are shuffled through public housing and welfare assistance, straining the already overburdened back of the meager social safety net.  The robots who don't end up in prison are dumped, as a last resort, into a massive landfill known as "The Pile".

Karl Carbon is an ex-cop, dishonorably discharged from Coastlandia PD for disobeying an order to shoot an unarmed sentient humanoid.  Karl is reduced to a social worker for gangbanging foster-kid robots and deadbeat half-wolf parents. Till one day a case goes horrible sideways and and Karl is drawn into a sordid conspiracy that could threaten the strained fabric of Human-Robot civilization -- or save it

Positions Available:
I've been designing games for some time bu I'm somewhat 'green' with AGS and could use some help with programming and AGS-specific design.  I'm looking for a programmer-type with some AGS experience to help streamline the process of implementing Neofeud in AGS.  Specific title / credit is negotiable. 

Deadline:
I'm hoping to have this game finished in about 6 months or sooner.  (October 2015)

Comments:
Interested parties can reply to this thread or contact me via PM.

So I'm trying to have a character be sitting at a desk.  The problem is, the room has character scales set to 120 (slightly larger than normal) and I can't figure out where the character will exactly be when he is sitting when I'm setting the room up.  The problem is the scale moves the character, and also I can't figure out how to set the character's animation state to "sitting" in the room editing view.  Right now I'm doing trial-and-error, just running the game, seeing where the character is, then adjusting a bit, running the game again... But there must be another faster way right?  Any help appreciated! 

I'm not sure when it happened but it seems my GUI Icon Bar (The walk, take, speak, look, etc.. buttons) at the top has gotten messed up, like the sprites are all garbled and a weird pink color.  Only thing I can think of is I recently changed to 32 bit true color and I tried changing from LucasArts speech style to Sierra.  Any idea what might've happened?

(Also had trouble screenshotting, when I try to paste the capture into Paint I just get a black box.)

What's the best way to go about adding objects that cast shadows?  I have a monitor that sits on a desk for example, casting a to the side.  The shadow is painted in Photoshop with brush opacity set around 30-50 percent.  The file I saved as a PNG.  When I add it to the game, the shadow areas are just black.

Is there a way to have part of the object semi-opaque?

So, a bit torn between potential char visuals.  Basically this is the "asshole boss, but redeemable" type character.  The sniveling police commissioner, who rides the main char's butt all day.  I need to pick one of these two portraits and throw the other one in the idea compost bin, for now.  What you all think?





Here's some flash-fiction backstory stuff.  Apologies if it's a bit unintelligible, it's sci-fi setting with lots of coinage and crap explained in-game.

"Norton Shuffler.  Sentient Services program director.  Middle management type.  Professional administrivia pusher.  Doesn't particularly like Carbon cause of the bad media karma a high profile pariah like the ex-cop brings.  Likes his 100k/year salary, last-year-model Prius-analog, and goal in life is keeping status quo.  Which makes sense, cause he's got that non-micro-home mortgage to float, flying car insurance ain't cheap, and oldest son just came out as "trans-species" as well as transgender, and that ungulate genesplice op ain't cheap, never mind Ivy League college tuition. 

Comes home at 2 AM after sating his sexbot addiction at a cyberbrothel, tells wife he had a ton of paperwork to shuffle.  Still makes it to his youngest kids]'s VR robotics competitions, his gay-transexual-chimera son's rainbow parades, and daughter's ballet recitals, though.  Kind of a dick, but not straight-up Evil."

I'm working on an adventure game right now, writing script, and I'm at that point of having to make a decision about whether and how much swearing to include...

The themes and content of my game are somewhat stark, dystopic future-noir that partly place in a Section 8 Public Housing ghetto made out of a landfill, filled with angry poor people, drug dealers, gangs, etc..  I'm worried about the game ringing hollow and unbelievable without cursing, but also don't want to "scare off" those who are offended by swearing.  I know it would be unbelievable to me since I was a social worker and know the underpriveleged don't say, "Oh darn," when they get into a fight with an ex or get served an evic notice.

I'm thinking I have a few options...

1.) Just go full rated-R, keep the swearing, offend some people, but make it a bit more believable.

2.) Bleep out the swearing... that could be annoying?

3.) Work the "evolution of language" angle since it's Sci Fi, and insert "future slang" curse words.  Like "Frak" in Battlestar Galactica, "Shtako" in Defiance, or Chinese profanity in Firefly.

4.) Rewrite the story to be PG-13 or PG.  Might make the game fall flat pulling some of the punches.


Kind of at a mid-game crisis right now.  I'm aiming for the indie, adventure-gaming crowd, and I'd like to reach a good size audience.

What do you guys think personally, and in terms of the entire gaming community?

Is there an easy way to have a character move to an exact location during a cutscene without having to input an X-Y coordinate guess in the script, try it out, then adjust through trial and error? 

[Synopsis]

[embed=1020,630]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQAMJgs5euA[/embed]

Get Neofeud here:



If you have any issues with figuring out how to buy the game, or with playing the game, please let me know.  If you're interested in buying the game directly from me or with cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, please contact me and we'll sort out a deal

Synopsis

2033 - We create AI. Sentient robots arrive, but not as our Terminator overlords or our Singularity saviors -- conscious machines are humanity's unwanted bastard children. A few are geniuses who design flying cars, beat cancer, invent teleportation, but millions of defective prototypes roll out of factories -- mentally challenged, motivationally-challenged, criminally-inclined. Legally conscious, but unhirable, these "Defectives" are shuffled through public housing and welfare assistance, straining the already overburdened back of the meager social safety net. The robots who don't end up in prison are dumped, as a last resort, into a massive landfill known as "The Pile".

Humans engage in perfection of their species -- or at least the powerful and well-connected -- genetically engineering children with human and animal DNA. The failed eugenics experiment "Frankenpeople" are discarded into "The Pile" as well. The new dynasties, 'Neofeudal Lords', live in towering neon glass castles, shuttle around in pristine nanotech-enabled pods, minds and bodies full of cyberware, spending most of their time taking selfies and "optimizing their monetization schemes". A race of supermen concerned only with their own status, their prestige, their success. Where machines have become all too flawed and human, people have become flawless, perfect, cold machines.

Karl Carbon is an ex-cop, dishonorably discharged from Coastlandia PD for disobeying an order to shoot an unarmed sentient humanoid. Karl is exiled to "The Pile" as a lowly social worker. There he counsels gangbanging foster-kid robots and confiscates chimera-children from deadbeat half-wolf parents. Till one day a case goes horribly sideways and Karl is drawn into a sordid conspiracy that could threaten the strained fabric of Human-Robot-Hybrid civilization -- or save it.

FEATURE TIME
- Tricky yet satisfying, point-n-click detective work, interspersed with action shootouts.
- Handpainted, uber-gritty, noir futureland. Makes Mad Max and Rick Deckard crap their pants.  1366x768 resolution for MASSIVE, fully realized backgrounds.
- Endless bombardment of witty one-liners from a veteran hardboiled cyberpunk writer.
- An original world and story that will (hopefully) make you question some of your core beliefs. Or at least my sanity.

Silver Spook Games

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[embed=1020,630]http://youtu.be/wVxUMWqIGIg[/embed]