Messages

So it can't be avoided?

Hi,

I've made a video in FLC format but when I use it in AGS there is some noise in the form of a few dots in the top of the screen.

When I play the animation in other programs the noise does not show. It's also visible when I use the quick import function in the Sprite Manager.

I used Animation Shop to make the FLC file.

Anyone else encountered this problem? And, more important, how do you solve it?

grtz,
Stefan

Thanks for the replies everybody! It's definitely improving. Tried to incorporate most suggestions:





I've made the body 1 pixel shorter, increased legs by 2 pixels.
Also added a belt (which makes the skirt look longer).

I forgot to mention she's not supposed to look like a supermodel.

- make the face look more feminine. (her nose is VERY big for a female)
[...]
- make the legs look like legs and like sticks which become smaller when they approach the feet.

Thanks for the remark about the nose. I knew there was something not right about the face but I just couldn't figure it out.

What do you mean with "make the legs look like legs and like sticks"?

The pics aren't showing up for me, for some reason. I went to http://www.freewebs.com/stefanzomers/ and the pics of Barbara don't show for me there either.

pslim: This might have something to do with Freewebs. Sometimes my avatar and banner don't load either

well, here's a character I drew. I'm quite proud she actually looks like a woman walking. Maybe I do have some drawing skillsÃ, 

This is a 17 year old girl, a supporting character in my upcoming game "The Cookie Quest" (laugh all you want, it's gonna be sweet!). She's called Barbara and the brother sister of that little guy I posted a while ago.



I'm having some difficulty getting the front view right. This is what I've come up with:


I.E.: these sprites are modified, the replies were for the previous version. See my post below.

grtz,
Stefan.

I've listened to the RPG music:
...
captivating. (or in Dutch: meeslepend)

Great piano stuff at the beginning.
The theme that starts at 0:36 - the piano notes sounds a little thin. I'd add more bass or double the notes to make them sound richer.

That interlude from 1:19 to 1:33 is very nice, and the slow bit after that... I've listened to it three times completely speechless.


Keep us informed when the RPG's ready, I'd love to play it!

grtz,
Stefan

Hm, my room looks like that and I'm a boy man.

Not being negative on your drawing skills, Seaduck (which are great) I don't think he'd put that plant there. It's covering a lot of that poster.

The stance look allright to me.

But I don't know about the face: the eyes seem very far apart and what are those white dots under her eyes?

The shadowing is incredible. Great flares!

thank you for the hints this is reallya good game with weird but good puzzles

It was inspired by Alice in Wonderland, so it should be weird ;)Ã,  Thanks for the praise.

Spoiler

Is that supposed to be the giant rock person who will grind my beans? How do I get to him? I can't click, walk, talk or use it.

[close]

Spoiler

the blue thing was supposed to be the lake

[close]

To answer your question, here are the locations you can visit from the map:

Spoiler

1. Left side of forest. You'll get to the gate.
2. Walk to the lake. You'll get to the lake (no way back to the map though)
3. The rocket. You'll get to the crash site.
4. Walk to the right side, to the desert. You'll get to the rocks.

[close]

Looking back, the locations to visit on the map should have been made visible by a circle around it or a name next to it. My apologies.

how do i get into the gate? I've got 65 points, talked to everyone. I have a pot full of watter, a fork and beans to the N power. I know from reading here that the wolf should be put to sleep but how do I do it?

Hint 1:

Spoiler

Look around the lake!

[close]

Hint 2:

Spoiler

there are two plants you need.

[close]

Hint 3:

Spoiler

try giving them both to the wulf.

[close]

Hint 4:

Spoiler

Hm. That didn't work, did it? Try the old spiked-tobacco-trick.

[close]

A real good funny game! Love it! But I was stuck quite some time.

Thanks! If this wasn't a MAGS game, I'd have more time to put some more story in it, making it clearer what you're supposed to do next.

One bug though. I picked up the button in the beginning and right clicked straight away - it disappeared, I had to start again. But otherwise... *COOL*

Hm, I can't reproduce this. So I can't fix it! Anyone else have this problem?

Grtz,
Stefan.

Maybe we're drifting off the main point, but I think it's still relevant. Forgive me the long posts.

What I disagree with, however, is that your opinion seems to be emotion-centric: the task of storyteller, in my own humble opinion, is not only to stir emotions,Ã,  but also to make his/hers audience think, to broaden its horizons, to show it possibilities it never thought existed.

Is my opinion emotion-centric? Maybe. But stirring emotions should never be the centre.
In that I agree with you totally.

I do think the best stories are driven by the emotions of the creator - he/she is angry about some development (Brave New World, 1984, The China Syndrome) and tries to convince others of his opinion through his art.
But this is not enough for a original story: you have to tell something that's not been told before. Any compassionate writer should not want to retell another story.

Ironic that originality didn't become important until Romanticism in the late 1800's, a genre which is also known for it's overemphasis on feelings. From Wikipedia: "It stressed strong emotion (...), legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority and overturned some previous social conventions."

You seem very focussed on Sci-Fi. Surely you don't think originality is confined to the sci-fi genre?

The importance of originality has decreased with the advent of postmodernity, but I think it's interesting to look at pre-modern (stay with me here) narratives.

Hm. Postmodernity is a very vague idea, but I don't think it's led to a decrease of originality. The combining and adjusting of genres opens a window of possibilities.
A novel like "Less Than Zero" by Brad Easton Ellis is not only important but also highly original in it's utter lack of morality.

Some time ago I read "Women who run with the wolves" by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It said on the back Oprah recommended this, so I'm guessing some of you already know this.
It's quite excellent in it's analysis of legends. Helped me a lot in writing better stories.

You can't remind me of Solaris - I take it you're talking to me - since I haven't read or seen Solaris. This also makes it hard to comment, but I'll do my best.

The main difference between Solaris and things like Star Wars is that Stanislaw Lem tells us something which makes us think about what he means, while George Lucas only wants to show us his cool special effects.


Interesting article about Tolkien. Don't agree completely, it does take imagination to create a world with new races and languages.


You say Lem 'proves' it is possible to imagine someting that transcends our ordinary experience.
In the same way Star Wars is based on western and samurai movies, you could say Solaris is based on the feeling of not really knowing people - including yourself. From what I've understood the story is about, alienation is the central theme. I know that feeling.
The movie "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" is also about that theme.

You could also argue Star Wars transcends our experience. I've never seen a light sabre.


Being original is indeed all about taking things apart and putting two parts together that no man has put together before (to stay in science fiction jargon).
But: when the player/reader/audience can't project their own emotions onto it, they will fail to understand it. In that aspect Solaris deals with the experience of alienation.


btw Your enthusiasm of Solaris makes me curious. I'll try to read it in the not-too-distant-future.

Grtz, Stefan.

I appreciate it when voters/gamers tell what they like and dislike. It helps people improve.
The cons you mentioned about my game will certainly be in the back of my head when making another game, Juul. And thanks for voting for me

I feel I have to apologise for not discussing the entries: I have some work to catch up after I've been busy last month making my entry, so I haven't been able up to play the other games.

About the system: Definitely don't show votes before the voting has closed.

a) Some people were "disappointed" about the number of voters. Seeing about 15-20 people taking part in the voting is actually a very good result but some expect (much) more. So there already were some strange postings about this...

b) If you submit a game (maybe for the first time ever) and see it left back with 0 or 1 vote only this might discourage you from creating more games. Of course this depends on the person: Some try to improve, others just give up. So I guess it's better just to say Game ABC made the race.

a) That's a surprisingly low figure. Then I'm in favour of showing percentages instead of absolute numbers.

b) I myself didn't make my entry to get votes or to win the competition and consider it a very childish approach to say: "Ooh, people didn't vote for me, now I won't make another game". But it depends on the person, most definitely.

Whether or not you should make the votes public? I'd say yes.

Grtz,
Stefan

When doing a horror story suspension of disbelief is very important. Using existing folklore IMHO could be much more exciting, especially when the player already knows this legend.
Recognition triggers an involvement which a new story cannot.

Whether or not this beast actually existed is besides the point.

Like the idea of doing isometric graphics, that's not often seen in adventure games. I can only recall Mystic Towers, but that's more arcade-like than adventure.

The red cup on your desk doesn't like isometric btw. The dithering on the couch is very good.

i know - the color of my sofa is terrible - but that's how it is in reality

If you would use it in a game I'd change the colour when you're not happy with it. Who cares about reality in a game?

I was reminded of the story of the beast of Gevaudan, maybe you can use it in your story, maybe not.

http://labete.7hunters.net/bete1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan

Good luck on your game,
Stefan

Reading that giant list of cliches immediatly makes me want to try and make a game with ALL these cliches in it. That would be original!

The sooner you abandone this idea you can be original, the better. This may seem harsh, but as Nicolas said: most (if not all; see Chomsky) of what we know comes from experience.
Making a game that's 100% original would mean it offers a totally different set of experiences, I doubt anyone would understand it.
I think The Box That Ate Time is an attempt at this.

I believe that if you want to tell a story that makes people feel it's original, you need to combine things in a new way.
For example: Loom has lots of cliches: hooded men, pseudo-medieval environment and magic. But the system of using magic by music is new.

As for my own games game, in Snake (my MAGS april entry) you have no hands at the beginning and have to find hands before you can pick stuff up. I haven't seen anything like it in another game (but it probably has; replies anyone?)

Grtz,
Stefan

Whoops! Sorry for not replying, I completely overlooked the hints section. But Mordalles has kindly awoken me from my temporary slumber.

My game does have a few hard puzzles, this is probably due to my twisted sense of imaginationÃ,  ;)Ã,  So a long post explaining some things seems to be in place.

The grinded beans puzzle is a bit cruel on all you pure adventure lovers, being all time-related and stuff, so I'll explain it:

Spoiler

After you talk to the rock giant, he lifts up his hammer. You have to select the beans VERY FAST and click on the shadow under the hammer.
When you talk to him again, you might notice some crumbs under his hammer when he picks it up.
To get them is tricky: You'll have to talk to the giant and click on the spot under his hammer just BEFORE he picks up his hammer, since the verb coin takes 30 seconds to appear (this is the really cruel bit).

[close]

Some background: The giant was meant to talk, but I ran out of time, so now he's only a grumpy staring statue. Will he return in another game to tell his story? Who knows...


Getting the superlemon:

Vague hint:

Spoiler

You'll have to distract both snakes, but can only place one bean...

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Better hint:

Spoiler

Glue some beans together.

[close]

Real spoiler:

Spoiler

When both snakes are checking out those beans, get the lemon. (you'll have to stand close)

[close]

Good luck! (hope my silence didn't influence the votingÃ,  )
Stefan

This was fun to play.
The joke at the end was great! That alone made it worthwhile to play.

One point though: the enemies on road all start at the same place. Maybe sometimes let them start on the upper side of the road? That'd would make it a bit harder.

good to see you finished it just in time!

Grtz,
Stefan

Hm. I won't give this away. There is a certain rock which will give you a clue. Anyway, he should give you a clue.

I'll give you a hint, since this a fairly illogical puzzle:

Spoiler

Talk to the wizard. He'll help you.

[close]

grtz,
Stefan