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Aww, thanks, Ilyich! I figured that since kitties are kind of "Played out" on the internet, that it wasn't so likely for a win, but I personally can't think of an animal more deserved of the 'cute' title. Many thanks to you, and a big shout out to everyone that participated in the contest - it's great to have so many people with so many interpretations of the theme.

Also in regards to Hudders' "Never be alone" IRB - this character needs his own game. Get on that. Please.

I'll work up a theme for the next contest ASAP and post up a new thread.

Thanks again!

Tifa x Mog

The concept's great, Studio3, but Tifa's a busty long-haired brunette - that looks more like Ashe from FFXII to me?

I've seen much worse poses in commercial projects, so I'm not extremely bothered by it, but you could probably get the character to look a little more natural and less "robotic" if you relaxed his pose a little. I can't see the legs, so it's hard to make a perfect judgment call, but for the arms, bringing them in a little closer to the body, even, would probably help. Perhaps posing him slightly more 'relaxedly' would help. Even then. Just as he is, I don't see a lot of problems.

By the time I realized that the kitty's fur pattern was much too complicated to read well as a low-res sprite, it was too late, but here we go anyway:





My kitten used to sleep like this, with her face buried straight down into her paws.
55x30, 10 Colors + transparency.

[Jin-Roh]

Anime, eh?

It's funny, really, I rarely watch anime at all anymore - I guess the problem that I have with it lately is that ever since the whole 'Moe' (Mo-ei) thing picked up over here and every single cartoon became about teenaged girls, I started to lose interest. Seriously, I haven't seen a new popular series over here that hasn't had a lolita-complexey heroine in years. Couldn't bring myself to watch the N of Suzumiya Haruhi stuff, Lucky Star and don't get me started on K-On!. Still, I'm kind of tied to the anime industry, so try to keep my finger on the pulse of what's big.

I'm a fan of what is now really something of a dying breed of anime: Cerebral stuff. Since nobody has mentioned yet, or if they have I missed it, I'd like to recommend Jin-Roh (Trailer's in Japanese, but I'm sure there's a subtitled or dubbed version if you look harder than I did). Beautiful piece of fatalist storytelling, and some great references to Little Red Riding-Hood, as well.

I also second the nomination of Death Note (Would've linked to the Andrew WK "Ready to Die" AMV, but spoilers). I've heard some very interesting conversation about good and evil come up from that comic/cartoon, and I guess in a way, it confirms my realization that I'm probably more on the evil side, as I was rooting for Light from beginning to end.

And even though it only covers the first few books, I also recommend Berserk. By far one of my favorite comic series, and a decent translation to the small screen. If you can find the comics, I would suggest sinking your teeth into them, but know it's a long walk - The most recent issue I have is number 35, and they're hefty volumes. Also, there's a new Berserk movie on the way as well.

Finally, there's Angel Densetsu. This one did have a short-lived cartoon adaptation, the comic is pure comedic gold. The story of a basically angelic young boy with a face of pure evil - The concept sounds odd, but it's a sublime comedy of errors type of story. Definitely worth a read, if you can get your hands on it.

So, I'm still alive anyway. Don't know about the rest of the world, but it's business as usual here in the Tokyo/Saitama area. Aside from the odd tongue-in-cheek remark "You've been sniffling all afternoon - allergies getting to you?" "Probably radiation", that sort of thing, it's being widely ignored. Now that the power levels are more stable, though companies by and large are attempting to conserve energy (Most escalators are off, fewer lights are turned on in stores and other major buildings, etc.), it's as though not much has changed at all.

We still get tremors somewhat regularly. A seven-something last night, but you just become kind of desensitized to it. I was honestly more concerned about the fight with a High Dragon I was in the middle of in Dragon Age II. Once I'd confirmed that nothing else breakable was in a position to fly off a shelf, I just sat right back down and rode it out.

Even in the less-affected metropolitan areas, water is still something of a hot item. Most convenience stores have a "One bottle per customer per day" policy, as many people are still a bit leery about drinking tap water, with some reports of traces of radioactive iodine found in the water system. Still, I shower pretty much daily, brush my teeth with it, even drink some, though my girlfriend has forbade me from it by and large. Raining today, which I walked through mostly without an umbrella on my way home from work (On a Saturday, FML - working off the days that I took off after the "event".).

But despite the fact that a huge natural disaster happened, and a lot of people died, and there have been some shitty consequences, life goes on as it tends to.

And Ouxxey - It's foo-koo-SHEE-ma. And the F is very light - almost an H sound: don't bite your lip to make the F, just blow through your lips. But I won't get into a Japanese lesson in this particular thread.

Boob-patched, yes, but also with the "Stand up and pee" functionality greatly reduced. He also introduced a bug that causes emotional instability once a month for a whole week at a time for a large portion of the product lifecycle. And Ponch, I'm sure if you search the internet enough, you should be able to find plenty of lesbian giant porn out there. It is the internet, after all.

In regards to using "furries" in your game - it's your game, so do whatever you want with it, just be aware of the fact that there is a large population out there that aren't going to play your game and/or will openly berate it because they don't like the "furry" concept due to a lot of negative stereotyping. As Scavenger said, if you want it to be more accepted, just don't be ham-fisted about it. Disney makes movies with anthropomorphized animals and objects all the time and it's not really fought against because that's just what they do.

Make a decision about the world that your game encompasses, set ground rules and stick to them. At the end of the day, though, you should be making the game that you want to make - not the game that you expect other people to want you to make (assuming that you're making it not specifically for profit).

Great awards ceremony this year, everyone! It was definitely worth staying up for.

And for everyone that was unable to attend for whatever reason, worry not! You'll be happy to know that you can experience all 1 hour 50 minutes of the 2010 AGS Awards show vicariously through the magic of time-o-matic video capture!

I will be looking into a method of compressing the 1.5 gigabytes that the file currently takes up, and once it is ready, I will be uploading it to this thread. Watch this space! And once again, congratulations to all the winners, nominees and everyone else who released a game in 2010. And especially large congratulations to Theo, who took home 80% or more of the trophies this year. Well done, everyone!

Just reconfirming my intent to be at the ceremony on the 5th (6th early morning for me), but I will not be able to help with the test on the 3rd, as it would be starting at 3:00am on Friday Morning, and I have work on Friday. If the rehearsal ceremony were 3 hours earlier I could pop in, but as-is, I'm a no-go.

Good luck with the test! Looking forward to the ceremony.

Probably be laggy as all hell, but I'm game for it. Count me in.

As a rule of thumb, unless your game is going to exclusively be in a very limited palette with backgrounds of all similar colors, it's best to create your sprites with a neutral background color. Most graphics programs start with backgrounds set to all-white or have the photoshop-style "Checkerboard" transparent textures. I find that a gray with hints of blue/red (Sort of a lavender color) can cover most natural background colors, as well as prep the sprites for indoor environments as well.

The issue is basically that if you're creating a sprite on a white background, it tends to trick your eye into thinking that the colors are darker than they actually are. Neutral backgrounds help to alleviate this optical illusion.

If your art program can handle layers (Which it hopefully should), you can also create a number of colors of varying brightness to test your base colors on.

I might miss this coz I'll be visiting chums in Tokyo, but who knows.  I might be stuck inside somewhere with nothing else to do at that time.

If it ends up being 9:00pm BMT, that should be somewhere around 6:00am Sunday Morning here in Tokyo. If you're conscious at that hour, it'll likely still be pretty damned cold outside (Snowing right now, not sure about 2 weeks from now), so curling up someplace warm and watching the awards doesn't seem like such a stretch.

Sunday afternoon (Evening here in JPN) would make it much easier for me to participate without falling asleep at my keyboard, but I can plan for either.

Still wondering what it said on that sign next to the lava pit. Thanks to my destroying creepers the old-fashioned "Lure and explode" way, we may never know, though. Even so, it was jolly-good fun to explore.

I love you, Dualnames.

As one of the more vocal evangelists of linear perspective in the critiques that I've offered in the Critic's lounge in the past, I would like to put forth a few comments on background design. Generally speaking, the largest representative sampling of backgrounds in this forum are made with the intent of using it in the traditional sense, in context of adventure games. To provide a large walkable area and space with props that are interactive and relatively believable in scale and shape with the character sprites.

If someone asked for critique on a background for an isometric game, or a top-down view, or a flat or even neo-cubist image, I would offer criticism and advice that are relevant to the style that they put forth. If the artist intends for an image to look off-kilter but vaguely follow the rules of linear perspective, I would take that into account. The point is just that a lot of the artists here are trying to develop a set of tools with which to work.

I deeply respect your point that people should be free to experiment - I love when people do - but I am also a large proponent of building a versatile toolkit and having the knowledge necessary to build an image in the manner which you prefer using the tried-and-true methods that artists of bygone days who are far greater than we. Do I think that people must adhere to the laws of linear perspective because I say so? Not in the slightest. But when someone shows me an image with grossly disproportionate furniture and asks me why it looks wrong, I will give them a lesson in how to achieve results using a simple and easy-to-apply method.

Now, I recognize that this conversation isn't about the art, so I apologize for my digression.

In regards to what I believe to be a misconception that everyone is just "remaking" old games, I would like to interject that although there have been some very well-done remakes, such as the King's Quest and Quest For Glory remakes, the largest portion of games here are original, even if using methods you may find antiquated.

Ultimately, this is a community of people drawn together by a love of games that offered a specific narrative interspersed with puzzles that need to be overcome in order to advance (and in the ideal case tied directly into) the narrative. We love telling stories, and often have a very specific story in our head, but don't wish to present it as a passive experience. By making it interactive but linear (or only partially branching), it allows us to weave a more specific path and experience for our players. It's interactive storytelling, and I think that the majority of the community are most interested in telling a story in this way, though a few of us are truly interested in innovating and playing with AGS in order to make new kinds of experiences.

Are you looking for changes to the standard methods of interaction, like Lucasarts did with Curse of Monkey Island's Verb Coin or Grim Fandango's ten-key setup? Or are you looking more for a break from narrative and looking for sandbox games made in the AGS engine? I'm a little foggy on exactly what you're looking for and would love some examples.

I have released two games using AGS, both of which are non-traditional in some ways, but still fit into the adventure game mold. I have toyed with simplifying methods of interaction by implementing a two-button, menu-free interface in one of my projects, as well as a dialogue-less narrative, but these are simply design decisions and do not change the fact that it is a linear narrative. Kuma Story (The game referenced above) is a very limited story about a bear making a present for his girlfriend then helping her bake a cake. It is task-based and lays out the tasks in such a manner that the player will naturally progress to the end of the narrative. Does this fit the mold of innovation that you are talking about?

I'd like to know more concisely what it is that you're proposing. Perhaps you could give an example of a game that you would like to make? Even better, you could make one yourself (Even a prototype)! I'm glad that you're opening this discussion, but it would be great if you could direct the flow a bit so we aren't all arguing different points.

Very well done, DuncanFx. The game doesn't feel at all like a first attempt, nor does it feel rushed like most MAGS projects. You obviously put a lot of work into it, and it's well-worth the time spent playing it.

As you have mentioned, it could use a little more variety in the interactions - because of a lack of response to clicks not related to the final game solution, I was able to complete all of the puzzles in only about 30 minutes. Adding superfluous text is very time-consuming, though, and I think that the polish that you have put into the game shows. If you really wish to add to the game as it is, feel free, but I think it's solid as-is, and I'd like to see what else you can come up with as you go forward. Keep that momentum going!

[Kuma Story]

Good evening, friends in the AGS community and long time, no see.

Many apologies for only returning to the community after a long hiatus once again for shameless self-promotion. I just wanted to put forth a few of my own pieces from the last year for your consideration, though I realize that most of you have likely already finished all of your nominations.

Allow me to reintroduce, for those who may have forgotten them,

Kuma Story

The 4th anniversary gift I created for my beloved, whom with I shared our 5th anniversary only just a week ago. So on the one-year anniversary of the creation of Kuma Story, I would like to offer it for consideration in the fields of animation and music (Only in the final version, where the beautiful piece by Stian Stark was replaced by my own heart-felt attempt at piano music).

Download Kuma Story here.

It's not likely the best game to have come out of the AGS community this year, but I am still very proud of it, and if nothing else hope that everyone enjoys playing it.
Also, please allow me to bring your attention to...

Red Flagg: Don't Call me Blue Redux

Mid-definition remake of the AGS Classic, now with 50% the rooms but 200% the interaction, and exponentially more frames of animation!
Can you save the day in this action-packed story depicting man's struggle against nature?
Another entry in the field of animation and background art.

Download Red Flagg: Don't Call me Blue REDUX here

Charles Manson was of particular interest, mostly for me because my parents have been to his cabin in the desert before, and he just had one hell of a presence. Aside from him, if literary characters are alright (as it hasn't been mentioned before), Dexter Morgan, the eponymous 'protagonist' of the Dexter series on Showtime is a good example.

I like the Dexter character because his character revolves around a twisted but very set-in-stone sense of personal rules and regulations. He is a monster and a sociopath, but he kills for the betterment of his little slice of the world.

Also, if you want to go even further out on to a limb, the character "Yagami Light", though taking a much more supernatural path on the serial killer thing, was interesting. I think I just like characters who do bad things for good reasons - road to hell paved with good intentions, and so on and so forth. A character who just kills for the sake of killing, or just because they can, risks becoming 2-dimensional and uninteresting.

And, of course, let's not forget Hannibal Lecter.

Sorry, I've been busy working on the game and not paying attention to the forums. Making steady progress, but not sure that I'll be ready in time for the deadline. We'll see what I can get accomplished during the last sprint this weekend. No promises. If I can't get it done in time, I'll be sure to at least finish it, though.