Messages

Nice edits, this is looking really good. I think the chief complaint people have with the stream is the short section of it near the camera that runs vertically down the canvas and doesn't change width very much. It looks passable to me. I think the idea is clear enough but the perspective might throw some people.

Yeah, most of the designers I've heard of started as coders and/or writers.
There are certainly famous counterexamples: Shigeru Miyamoto was originally an artist, Tim Willits of Id Software started as a level designer, and American McGee started as a level designer.

I would definately accept a coder, or even artist (not usually the musician though somehow... It seems weird, and musicians are freaks  ), to be designers.

I wouldn't naturally think a musician would make a good designer... but maybe I'm just prejudiced. But if I think about it, I don't see why someone like you or Mods wouldn't know enough about other aspects of development to make a good game designer.

...the larger part of industry would rather people that can create the same game as last time, with some minor changes, than someone that can construct a balanced and compelling game from nothing....
The iterative methods have certainly led us to some nice playable games, of course, I just think less bone headed brute force tactics will end up making better games.

I second that! We need more designers who are willing to create rather than immitate. At the very least we need people who reevaluate and freely modify the existing formulas. Cheers to people like you who are willing to put some real thought into design.

I hope I'm not too late to contribute to the edit you're working on.

Great picture, you obviously have a lot of talent and you put a lot of love into your art. As for better matching the Fate of Atlantis style, here are a few observations. The original backgrounds are very high contrast, colors tend to be saturated, and edges have sharp antialiasing. There is a fair amount of dithering in the game, but it's usually used as a way to transition from one solid color to another. It doesn't seem to be dithering for dithering's sake, it's just a way to draw colors outside of the palette.

Don't overdo the AA on small objects like the piece of paper, it makes them look glowing weirdly.

If you want to keep the antialiasing but make the object crisper here are a few tricks:
(1) If you have a straight line, you can choose to not antialias it. the top and bottom of the paper could lose the partially transparent strip of pixels.
(2) When drawing objects with corners, make the corners more opaque to sharpen them up, less opaque to make them soft or rounded.

You might not want it this sharp, this is just an example.

That second version looks heaps better than the first. He has some character to him, and the nice simple style is very consistent.

I find his posture a little too stiff. I'd bend his knees slightly and add some curvature to his back. There's an illustration and some text about curvature here. I hope it's useful.

Other than the pose, I don't have any complaints at all. I really like the shape of the shield, by the way.

That's a tricky idea to communicate- but it really does convey the idea of a cliff edge high above the ocean.

theRedPress's suggestions are good. I especially like the idea of stones or boulders. I'm not sure if it would fit the style (how much detail are you going for?) but it might be effective to add some texture to the ground- bare patches, grass texture, variations in the type of plant covering the ground, small weeds, etc.. This could quickly turn into a obsessively detailed background, and I'm not sure if you want to go that direction.

Nice job overall, I get a nice sense of the ground rolling gently and the height of the cliff. The foreground objects are a nice touch.

It's sad when one person, no matter how distressed, puts their own feelings before everyone else's and does something like this. My sympathies go out to everyone affected by events like this, from massacres to sex crimes to domestic violence.

I grew up in a highly populated urban area in the U.S.A.. The middle school I went to had random metal detector sweeps and a day care center for those 13 and 14 year olds with children of their own. School shootings, rapes, etc. are all part of the landscape where I live. While they are lamentable, I find I take events like this very much for granted. It's valuable to me to see the more objective reactions of people who live outside this mindset.

I see gun control as an issue, and I feel tighter limits or a general ban would help a bit. Another more difficult issue is how to remedy the culture of apathy and disconnectedness that is so common in this country's large cities.

The profit motive of the game industry is unfortunate. It has all kinds of inhibiting effects on creative developers.

That said, I feel people shouldn't let it get them down. There are certain realities to working in the industry. And they do need to be taken into account if people want to move up in the heirarchy and gain creative freedom. But the daily grind isn't what it's about. I feel that an artist should answer to (and I risk sounding cheesy) a higher calling. Make the best art you can, enable yourself to create your own projects if you're not finding any that appeal to you. And help others to do so in the process. Remember that it's all about making good games, and don't get lost in the industry quagmire.

Umm, I think I'll take my cheerleader outfit off now before I risk ridicule. But I really would like to encourage aspiring developers here (writers, visual artists, programmers, designers, everyone) to avoid thinking like a victim and make art happen. You don't see Meowster giving up, do you? You don't think Chris Jones made AGS because it had commercial potential, right? You can do it, people, get out there and Make Cool Stuff.

Heh, I'm getting all worked up about this.
[/soapbox]

Thank for all the constructive comments.

That's quite a wide range of games you've got there.

Prince of Persia - 1989
Another World - 1991
Doom - 1993
Fallout - 1997
Planescape Torment - 1999

What exactly are you aiming for?

Also, you will most likely end with 2 computers, because I think the specs to run the Sierra games and Planescape: Torment as authentic as possible are mutually exclusive as anything faster than the recommanded specs with the Sierra games will give you timer related problems.

Regarding the broad range of system requirements:
Good point. Aiming to run games like The Neverhood, Planescape: Torment and Fallout is likely throw a wrench in efforts to run older games perfectly. Speedup issues in older games are a concern, so we will probably just scrap the idea of running newer games. So let's arbitrarily draw the cutoff line around 1993 or 1994.

People here have recommended both AdLib and Soundblaster sound cards. I believe Another World has enhanced sound with AdLib hardware. Are there any other titles that will work better with a card from one vendor or the other? I know very little about old sound cards, I grew up with a Mac and only recently began using a PC. I'm particularly interested good support for sound in SCUMM titles.

up untill a year ago i still had an old 386 with 4mb ram

Neat. Did you ever run into speedup issues with older games?

What program are you using?

I like the pixel-pushed structure along the horizon. Nice shapes and detail! The rocky area along the left side of the horizon is also nicely drawn. The green area along the left is nice too, but the extremely hard edges where it meets the water and rocks are a bit artificial looking.

I'm with Nikolas in thinking the shape of the river on the right is a bit misleading. It widens too slowly to match the perspective of the land, which gives the impression that it is falling downward instead of coming toward the camera.

About the sky- I like the clouds and colors you chose. It does sort of look like a flat wall rather than the sky though. I think part of this is because the shading under the clouds makes it look like they are casting shadows onto the sky. The lighter soft bands that run across parts of the sky add to this impression- they look like lighting on an undulating surface.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the orangey worm-shaped things on the ground in the foreground. I can't read them. Are they cracks with lava showing through them? Are they little worm-like creatures? Either way they could be made less ambiguous with some lighting.

Nice mood- it looks very mysterious, moderately dangerous, and it really invites exploration. It makes me want to go see what the building and the 'plant dropping' are like up close.

OK, throw out ideas about parallel video cards, multi-core processors, and four gigabytes of RAM. We're talking history museum technology here.

Due to limited DOS support and hardware compatibility issues, A friend and I have been kicking around the idea of making a computer specifically for playing old PC games. Here are a few games we plan to target: Another World, Flashback, various Sierra and Lucasarts adventures, Prince of Persia.

More recent possible games: Doom, Fallout, Planescape: Torment.

I know a bit about current hardware, but my knowledge of older vintages is lacking. What kind of setup would you recommend? We want to prioritize older titles, and wouldn't want to use newer hardware for more recent games at the expense of the classics. How old should we go?
OS- Windows 95?
Processor?
Sound card?
Monitor?

P.S.- Why not just use emulation? We have and love DOSBox and ScummVM, but we're looking for a less clunky, more 'authentic' experience.

I and a few of my closest friends are hoping to create games professionally some day. It's nice to read about the experiences of another person with the same aspirations. So you started out as a tester? One friend of mine did testing for a while, and ended up with an RSI! Your story reminded me of him, but without the unhappy ending.

You have a tenacious streak that will get you places. Best of luck getting a design position! If it doesn't happen now, it will some day soon.

I've used The GIMP for years and it's really very nearly on par with Adobe's offerings. It can seem intimidating, but just ignore all the complicated features at first. You can basically just use it like MSPaint until you get the hang of things like layers and filters. You can grab a copy here, it's a relatively small download:
gimp.org

P.S.- Hurrah to theRedPress for promoting The GIMP.

The sloping island works nicely, good idea. I like the lines of the piece much more now.

The lighting and texture work are, a little flat, though. It could look nice to tone down the contrast of the moon some, and use more varied stone textures.

Another thing that might help is a faint second light source with a bluish tint, for the light coming from the sky. The sky light can be pretty omnidirectional, and would benefit from really soft shadows, or an effect like area lighting or radiosity.

A little thickness added to the bridge planks would be nice, they seem almost two dimensional. Just draw the side of each plank along the bottom edge where it faces the camera.

Is the water on the right side higher up and is it falling into the pool on the left? There is what looks like a little patch of white water where the waterfall ends, but the waterfall itself is invisible.

It seems like both grass colors look fine, but perhaps not in the same picture. The lighter chartreuse colored grass has a nice texture, but it might look even nicer if you brighten up the shadows a bit. The hard black shadows in the grass seem a little too harsh. Perhaps a dark green with a hint of blue would be a good shadow color.

Nice composition. The camera angle is highish, but that's not necessarily bad. If your characters are all drawn from 45 degrees upward, the background will fit them nicely.

There is a way to register right clicks over GUIs, but I don't remember it off hand.

I might be wrong, but I think you need to check "handle inventory clicks in script". Then in the on_mouse_click section, add a section for right clicks over the inventory

Code: ags

// left click, right click, etc....
if (mode == eMouseRightInv) {
     // script here
}

I never would have guessed to try that workaround. Here's the updated script.

Code: ags

		if ((goal_list[n].goal_name != null) && (goal_list[n].goal_name == new_goal)) {
			already_added = true;
		}
		n ++;

The script is up and running now, with no errors in sight. Thanks to all.

No, the so-called "lazy evaluation" was implemented in AGS v2.71.

Is combining if statements using && or || considered bad practice? I don't know much about scripting, but it seems to be tidier and more readable in cases like this where there's only a single check. If, on the other hand we were doing something like

Code: ags

		if ((boolean 1 == true) {
			if (boolean 2 == true) {
				do stuff
			}
			else if (boolean 2 == false) {
				do other stuff
			}
		}

I could see using the longer form being more sensible.

Did you ever play Uru? That sketch reminds me of the room containing the evil pressure plate puzzle.

I like the texture of the drawing. Is any of that going to make it into the final version? If I could change one thing, it would be to make the overall shape of the room less boxy. Hmm, let me try to find you a good reference image...

I don't know what your goal is- if you want to make the room seem like it's partially natural and partially artificially carved it's probably fine as it is. Neat work, I love caves!

Thank you all for your continued support. I hate to post again so soon after my last query, but I ran into a problem I'm stumped by. The basic idea behind this script is to give the player a concise list of current objectives, such as "Find the four map pieces" or "Catch a golden butterfly". There will be other script elsewhere that sets updates the GUI; the following is just sets up an array for storing the goals.

These variables are declared in the global script.

Code: ags

struct goal {
  String goal_name;
  String goal_note;
  int goal_status; // 0 = not on list, 1 = incomplete, 2 = complete
};
goal goal_list[20]; // array of current goals

These functions are also in the global script. The script compiles without errors. But when the function is called in-engine I get a "null pointer referenced" error that points to the indicated line.

Code: ags

// Goal List
function add_goal(String new_goal) { // add a goal to the list
	player.Say("Right, we're calling the add_goal function now.");
	// add the goal name to the goal list
	int n = 0;
	bool already_added = false;
	while (n < 20) { // make sure it isn't already added
		if (new_goal == goal_list[n].goal_name) { //   <------------------------ NULL POINTER ERROR here
			already_added = true;
			player.Say("The goal '%s' is in slot %d, so we don't need to add it a second time.", new_goal, n);
		}
		n ++;
	}
	// The script after this line seems to work as desired, you can probably ignore it.
	if (already_added == false) {
		n = 0;
		bool exit = false;
		while (exit == false) { // find a free slot
			if (goal_list[n].goal_name == null) { // if the slot is empty
				player.Say("We're setting putting the goal '%s' in slot %d", new_goal, n);
				exit = true; // we found a free slot, so we can stop hunting
				goal_list[n].goal_name = new_goal;
				// add appropriate dialog, etc.
				if (new_goal == "valve") {
					goal_list[n].goal_note = "Find a handle for the broken valve.";
				}
				else { // if the name isn't recognized
					player.Say("add_goal isn't finding a match for that goal.");
				} // goal specific tasks
			} // empty slot check
			n ++;
		}
	}
}

If the while loop containing the offending line is commented out, everything runs without an error. The purpose of the line is to check if a string in the array is equal to the variable new_goal. It's part of a loop that exists to prevent listing the same goal twice. Perhaps there's another way to write the line?

In searching for a solution, the function String.CompareTo came up. It seemed useful at first, but it seems it needs a constant string instead of a variable. Is there a way to use this?

Sinsin- I'm in a similar position to yours, and you have my sympathy. Scripting is difficult for me. That said, using the forums here and the tutorials in the manual I hacked together a custom GUI for the project I'm working on. Don't give up, it's doable! I also seem to recall that Ali, who recently released Nellie Cootalot, began the project with limited knowledge of scripting.

I'd recommend starting small, though. If scripting in general is hard, an entire GUI might be a bit intimidating. Why not start with the tutorials in the manual, and ask questions here if you get stuck? Make a few room scripts, do some cut scenes, then once you've got past successes to build on begin your GUI.

Good luck with your project!

I'm impressed by the drawing skill, and the lighting is well done. You're a really talented artist! The premise sounds entertaining enough, and I could see it generating all kinds of interesting plot twists.

Some minor criticisms:
I'm personally not very fond of the colors, but that's subjective. I think I'd like it more if it were a little more artsy and had less of a traditional "clean" web comic look. I'm missing things like colored outlines and more dynamic composition. Again, this is pretty subjective.

But I don't mean to sound negative, I'm just trying to offer useful feedback. I'd like to stress again that the style you have is very professional, and really leaves very little to be desired. Good luck with the project!