Topics

"Where is X?" threads must be a massive ego boost for X. Somebody better make a thread for me if/when I go AWOL.

He wrote this a week ago and hasn't posted since. I'm worried about him. Moreover, I am eagerly awaiting the theme of this month's MAGS. Come back Atelier. We love you xxx

If you follow these things at all (or if you've seen my Facebook wall) you'll know things have been stirring in the Fox camp for a few months now. And today they finally made it official.

Mulder and Scully are coming back!

It'll be a special 6 episode event series, which is absolutely fine with me. There has never been a better time to bring back the show. People are paranoid about the government again, the show has been all over Netflix garnering a new generation of fans, Kumail Nanjiani's XFilesFiles podcast has been uber-popular (and is brilliant if you haven't given it a listen yet).  People have been begging for a new movie ever since the last one flopped in 2008. This isn't a movie, this is better.

I'm absolutely over the moon about this news. How do you you guys feel?

Spoiler

I am stuck at Lord Busby's House. The only hotspots are bushes (nothing) and the door; he isn't home and no other location I need to go back to. Inventory or other available info doesn't seem to help.

[close]

Spoiler

I'm stuck here, too. Although I can visit one other location: Mitre Square. I'm guessing there's something I can do with the drain, but can't work out what.

[close]

[Best Character]

Hello fellow pens men and women.

This fortnight we take a break from zombies and ghouls, and turn our attentions to monsters of a different kind. Prisoners. Okay not all prisoners are monsters, and some are even innocent but that's beside the point.
For this contest the only rule is to set your story in some kind of prison. Any kind will do but preferably it will be populated with enough people to create some kind of drama. It can be anything from a state penitentiary to a local nick to a basement full of slaves. I'm not fussy.

There was a great turnout last week so I'm sure you've all got another story in there locked up awaiting release. So get away from your cells, break out your writing tools, head to the chair... by your computer desk, don't be nobody's bitch and get writing.

Here are the voting categories (sorry I forgot to include them):

Best Character: Most unique, captivating, believable
Best Plot: Best pacing, most coherent, best overall story arc
Best Atmosphere: Strongest most consistent overall feeling
Best Setting: Best and most memorable use of time and place
Best Word Choice/Style Most unique and interesting narrative "voice"

Deadline is the 9th of December at MIDDAY GMT

Best of luck folks.

What are your thoughts on character portraits for when a character is speaking?
A lot of the better games do have them (they seem to be a staple of Wadjet Eye games) and they certainly are a sign that a little bit of extra time and effort has gone into the production values. But do they necessarily help to make a game better?

The reason I ask is that I personally don't really feel like I need them all that much. It's not that I dislike them, and often the artwork that goes into them is gorgeous, but they don't really add anything to my enjoyment of the game.  It seems like a lot of effort for not a lot of return. What you do get, I guess, is the characters facial expression, which can't always be conveyed in a normal character sprite, especially in low res. I suppose that was the main reason for their existence in the first place.

IIRC some of the portraits in Ben Jordan games even included lip-synced animation, which must have been a mammoth task. It looked pretty effective, but I wonder if the results are worth the extra effort.

What games have you played and/or made that have (or haven't) included character portraits. What are some examples of it having been done well/poorly, and do you think they are worth the extra time (and in some cases, money)?

It's been a while since we had a push for game ratings. There's the discussion in a recent thread about the panel ratings, but player ratings are just as, if not more, important, and we all neglect them. So let's get dishing out those orange cups.

This time I propose a period of 7-10 days to complete these steps:

1) rate and comment on at least one game that you have already played but have not yet rated.
2) select at least one game from this list of games that have yet to be rated. Play it, rate it and comment.
3) select at least one game from this list of games that have been rated fewer than five times. Play it, rate it and comment.
4) select one game by 'lucky dip'. Whichever game comes up first, play it, rate it and comment.
5) post in this thread which games you have rated. Raise awareness of some overlooked gems you find.

This is just a guideline. No one will judge you for missing out on a step, especially if you are busy making a game, but if everyone rated at least one or two games we would make a good dent in those lists.

So how about it?
Get playing and rating

[Hen Man: Origins]

Hen Man: Origins

This is the story of Ash - a normal guy, a house-sitter. Find out how, in his own words, he became Hen Man, the most rubbish superhero in town. It is an underwhelming tale of pity for this guy, but does he even realise?



This short game was made for MAGS (August), using hand-painted watercolour graphics, lovingly photographed in bad light.

Download Hen Man: Origins here

All artwork, design, writing was done by me.
All coding was done by me, except the awesome Tween Module by Edmundito.
All but one of the sounds come from freesound.org (my one being the best... you'll know it near the end)

Thanks for playing.

Feedback and advice is always welcome.

Don't panic, it's not for me. It's for my sister. She is carrying a little squirm that may or may not be male and she is struggling to think of potential boys names. Let's try to help her.

So far I have suggested:
Rainman
Hoggle
Heisenberg
Krychek
Diesel
Hannibal
Shredder
Elmo
Bowser
Pugwall
The White Ranger
Wesker
Sting
And Shortstop (I actually meant Shortround, but both are equally valid suggestions I think)

Can you help out with some more suggestions?
Thanks.

[AGS World Cup Prediction League 2014]

AGS World Cup Prediction League 2014

View Spreadsheet and League Table


Welcome to the first (I think) AGS World Cup prediction League.

World Cup fever is nearly upon us, and suddenly we're all armchair experts.
Well why don't you put your proverbial money where your proverbial mouth is and become the proverbial World Cup Prediction Champion 2014

The way it will work is simply this: you predict the scores and earn points.  The person with the most points at the end of the tournament wins the League.

There are some rules, however.  Please read them carefully:
(in spoiler tags to save space)

Spoiler

Rules

(1) I will start taking predictions for the 48 group stage games from the moment I post the thread in AGS and will continue to accept predictions for group stage games until after all teams have played two games (namely, June 22 is your last chance to submit predictions for group stage games).

(2) The League will be closed to new participants on June 22. This is to allow for late comers, though obviously you may not submit predictions for games that have already been played, but it is still worth joining even if you join late, because points in later rounds are worth more.

(3a) Scoring will work like this for each game:

If you predict the correct RESULT you score one point*
If you predict the correct SCORE you score three points**
if you FAIL to make a correct prediction you score nil points
If you FAIL to submit a prediction for a game before the game's kick-off time, you will LOSE one point***

*RESULT here means correctly predicting the winning team or correctly predicting a tie/draw.
**SCORE here means correctly predicting the actual scoreline.
***You will not be penalised for the games you missed if you joined late, but once you join you will be expected to submit a prediction for all future games, and will be deducted one point for each game you fail to make a prediction for.

(3b)During the knockout stages all points are DOUBLED (so two points for correct RESULT and six points for correct SCORE). For the FINAL all points will be TRIPLED (three for RESULT and nine for SCORE).  I hope this will add some excitement.

(3c) The winner will be the person who has the most points after the final game of the World Cup is played on July 13th 2014.
(i) If in the event of a tie after all games have been played, the number of overall correct scores predicted will decided the winner.
(ii) If there is still a tie, the number of overall correct results predicted will determine the winner.
(iii) If, there is still a tie, the participant with the fewest deductions will be the winner.
(iv) If there is still a tie, then the participant who joined first will be the winner (namely, the person who submitted their predictions to me earliest).  And if, for some rason that STILL doesn't determine a winner then they will be crowned joint champions (no, not champions of pot smoking).

(4a) How you submit your predictions is up to you, you can do all 48 group stage games now, before the tournament starts, or you can do them in drips and drabs.  Though, the more you do in one batch the easier the data will be for me to manage. Ideally, you'll submit a nice full list of 48 predictions before the tournament even starts, though this is not a rule.

(4b) Please bear in mind that each prediction must be submitted before the relevant game kicks off, so it is probably wise to get them done early.  And please remember rule (2).

(5) The latter knockout stages are, for obvious reasons, closed to predictions during the majority of the group stage.  However, you may start submitting predictions for the outcomes of knockout stage games from the moment the fixture is decided up until the game's kick-off time. I will prompt for relevant predictions when the time comes.

(6) A submission is considered 'submitted' if it has been posted in the AGS thread OR PM'ed to me.  The former will be better if you want to share your predictions with other people, although they will all be visible on the Spreadsheet for anyone to see.  To reiterate, The AGS thread and AGS Private Message are the only two ways to submit predictions.  Predictions received by any other means will not count.

(7) Once you have submitted a prediction for a game, it cannot be changed (unless you can convince me there is an extremely good reason for doing so).

(8a) When submitting predctions please use the following format:

Date     k/oTime   TeamA * v * TeamB

swapping the dashes (*) for the number of goals you think each team will score. For example:

Jun 15   2300    England 3 - 1 Italy
Jun 16   0200    Ivory Coast 5 - 2 Japan

(8b) Please use the template provided in Spoiler Tags in the first post of the thread. It will help you make your predictions more quickly and easily and it will help me to see them and manage them more efficiently.  If possible please refrain from using BOLD tags for anything other than the predictions themselves.

(9) Only results after normal time count (90 mins + time added on).  Goals scored during extra time or penalties will not be included. So, if you predicted a 1-1 draw and the game goes on to extra tme and finishes 2-1, you will still win the points provided the score at the regular full-time whistle was 1-1.

[close]

I will be maintaining the spreadsheet and league table on a publicly viewable document. I will also keep the league table in this first post as updated as possible, though I won't always be able to update things straight away. But rest assured, if you submitted a valid prediction before its deadline, it will count, even if you can't see it reflected in the spreadsheet yet. It just means I'm probably asleep or at work.  I'm in the Japanese time-zone through this, so please bear with me.



Please use the template below for posting your predictions:

Spoiler

Fill in the predicted scores and copy/paste, keeping the [b][/b]tags intact.

(Times are in BST)

Runner-up game
[b]Jul-12        2100 Brazil - vs - Netherlands[/b]

Final
[b]Jul-13        2000 Germany - vs - Argentina[/b]

[close]

Here is a link to the Spreadsheet and League Table

So. Who's in?

-Stu

Japan has beckoned me once again. I've been lucky enough to travel and to study in my favourite country already, and now I'm going there to work, teaching English, and maybe finally kickstart some semblance of a career before I get too old.

Are there any other Japan-based AGSers here?  SpacePirateCaine, are you still there?  And Mandle?  Maybe we could organise a little Jittens

I'll likely be keeping a new blog. I haven't had a chance to set one up yet, but watch this space

I made a little module that lets anyone add their own Easter egg or cheat for when a player enters the Konami code.

DOWNLOAD HERE

No special extras other than the fact that you can modify it slightly depending whether you want the code to be followed by the enter key or not.

There's nothing needed to be done, just import the scripts and insert your Easter egg.

It's pretty basic stuff, and in fact I just did a forum search and saw that it has already been done in the forums (much more elegantly), but I couldn't exactly copy them, so I've kept my version as it is. It does the job well, and it might save someone 5 minutes of work

[Download Here!]

Here's a little something I just cobbled together.

Noughts & Crosses (or Tic Tac Toe, if you prefer).


It's a 2-player game, so if you have some company, fancy a game of Noughts and Crosses and don't want to waste pen and paper, then you've come to the right place.

Download Here!

I'm a bit stuck.  Any small hints to help me on my way?

Spoiler

So, I've woken Ken up but he won't talk to me, and I still don't know how to get the drain cover in the bathroom up.  I've got the wig, sunglasses, shoe, glue and teddy bear.  Jacques isn't being any more help.

[close]

Cheers

Brussels sprouts are evil. I know this. I've known this for many years.
We eat them every year for Christmas and every year they make me fart so badly that I can't sleep. In fact, I have been known to wake myself up farting in the night after a portion of sprouts.
This Christmas, I decided to cut down on the them, not just for my own good, but for the good of those around me.
But, I actually didn't fart that much, so today for boxing day lunch (which was basically just Christmas dinner again) I decided to go for some more sprouts.  And now I haven't stopped farting for the past 10 hours and they keep on coming.
I probably won't sleep tonight, but I should probably unplug my computer soon in case a spark causes my room to explode.

I'm a bit stuck.

Spoiler

I really don't know what to do with the switch puzzle in behind the dumpster I've tried every possible combination of switches and nothing seems to be happening.

[close]

Also, while I'm here...

Spoiler

In the toy shop, I still haven't worked out what to do with the helicopter or how to get the badge off the hat.

[close]

Any chance of some subtle clues?

Well it's finally here!

Who has got it already?  I got my backers code but the thing is still downloading due to my rubbish internet, so I probably won't be able to play any of it tonight.  Has anyone had a chance to play some of it yet? Thoughts? (no spoilers)

Also, who else watched the live launch stream with Charles and co.? It was really good fun (despite starting nearly two hours late, due to technical launch issues).  You can watch it here: http://www.twitch.tv/revolutionadventure

[two]

I've just made a tile puzzle game.
It's basically exactly the same as the coffin puzzle from 7th Guest, but better, because it was done in AGS... by me

http://stupot.agser.me/games/TilePuzzle.zip



Now with shiny new "retro" website:
http://stupot.agser.me/games/TilePuzzle.html
Not a style sheet in sight

==========================

Update - Now with two exciting and death-defying game modes:


==========================

Update - Added sound effects and a few finishing touches. Let me know what you think :-)

So, apparently Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road is doing a remake of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers to mark the game's 20th anniversary.

http://www.gabrielknight20th.com/

Does this scene look familiar to you?

Why didn't I think of this first?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24424943

[Rules:]

How about this?

Rules:

• Sometime this week you must go to the AGS games database and click on the 'Lucky Dip' link.
• Whichever game it lands on you MUST play. Unless:
• You judge it not to qualify as being a 'game'
• The game is commercial, and you don't want to buy it
• You have already played the game
• When you have finished playing the game, you must:
• Write a post in this thread saying which game you played and what you thought of it (or bang out a full review if you have time)
• Leave a comment on the game's page
• Leave a player rating on the game's page

Feel free to do this more than once
Happy Lucky Dipping

=====================================

I got Eric the Anteater.
Will add my thoughts in due course :-)