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Musing about the potential issues of going commercial with games, and understanding my own limitations, I was wondering about the various ways of profiting from games. It is, currently, beyond me to set up a website with an e-shop capable of taking credit-card details and distributing copies of a game. I wouldn't expect nearly enough traffic for something like that, either. However, my line  of thinking was "donors who give more than £x will receive an extra bonus game". Both the optimist and the slacker within me believe that this is a straightforward enough system, e-mailing the game to those who've made such a donation. Although, that caused me to raise a couple of potential issues in my brain:

- does this count as a "sale" legally? That is, are there going to be complications over MP3 format and such that there would be if it were being sold through a website?

-does anyone else act like this already?

I'm sure Yahtzee did a similar thing with "director's cut" versions of his games, too.

Here's a link to the easier version - you only need six nodes for this one, for anyone having problems!

http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/technobabylon-part-iii-in-nuntius-veritas/files/technobabylon-3-1/download/4956/7543/

Welcome to AGS! It's always groovy to see new folk joining in. Drawing skills will certainly be very helpful with AGS, since so much else of it is extremely simple to grasp.

The manual for the editor (F1) has examples of script for each concept it explains, but personally I found it most useful hanging around on the beginner's coding forum around here, it got things explained to me until I can now make some fairly complicated things - built a turn-based strategy using AGS, after all.

Short games can be extraordinarily short - sometimes they don't even involve a character that moves, or just one room. By all means build a one-room game, people still appreciate them around here! And good luck, I look forward to seeing what you come out with.

Yeah, the aim was kind of cartoony, but I think perhaps I'm still stuck a bit too much on "realism". I need to study more reference material (i.e. play more Sam and Max)

So, the effect I'm trying to go for is a run-down, dirty, decrepid gas station in the middle of nowhere. I've been aiming for something rather more cartoony than I usually go for, though something about the colouring in the picture is bothering me, and I can't quite place it. I think some of the problems I get from colouring may be that I simply use "adjust brightness" when creating areas of higher lighting or shadow, and this may lead to the whole "dull" look that the colours have.



There's going to be an animating door where the big yellow gap is at the moment. Also, there are animated flies around the lamp. The J in the XJWJ sign above flickers, but I've as yet had difficulty in creating a good impression that the letters glow. All of the auras I do around them come out looking terrible - too opaque, too sudde, etc.

Ah, that seems to be making it work. Thanks a lot!

Ah, that's a good idea. I've rejigged the gazing function a bit...

Code: ags

function Nancy_Gaze() {
  
  if(player.Animating == false && IsNancyGazing==true){
   // Determine what direction Nancy is facing
  
   
   int FacingDir = player.Loop;
   int Neomousex = mouse.x + GetViewportX();

   if (FacingDir==0){
     if((Neomousex - player.x < 30) && (Neomousex - player.x > -30)){player.UnlockView();return;}
     if(Neomousex - player.x > 30){player.LockViewFrame(6, 0, 2);return;}
     if(Neomousex - player.x < -30){player.LockViewFrame(6, 0, 1);return;}
     
   }    
         
  }
 IsNancyGazing=true;
  
}

...and added a bit to the on_mouse_click section

Code: ags

function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) {

  
  // called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
  if (IsGamePaused() == 1) {
    // Game is paused, so do nothing (ie. don't allow mouse click)
  }
  else if (button == eMouseLeft) {
    
      if(IsNancyGazing==true){
    player.UnlockView();
    IsNancyGazing=false;
  }
    
    ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, mouse.Mode );
  }

She'll now quite happily walk in any direction, except down. Hm, perhaps I'm telling it to do this wrongly...

So, I've created a function designed to make the protagonist, Nancy, look around when she's standing still. So far, so good, she does look to the left when the cursor's on the left of the screen, and right when right, but now she refuses to walk anywhere when I click. I have a suspicion it's to do with the animating, but I'm not sure how I break her out of it to get her moving.

Code: ags

function Nancy_Gaze() {
  
  if(player.Animating == false){
   // Determine what direction Nancy is facing
   
   int FacingDir = player.Loop;
   int Neomousex = mouse.x + GetViewportX(); // Helps determine the real mouse.x in a scrolling room

   
   if (FacingDir==0){
     if((Neomousex - player.x < 30) && (Neomousex - player.x > -30)){player.UnlockView();return;} // Mouse too close to char
     if(Neomousex - player.x > 30){player.LockViewFrame(6, 0, 2);return;} // Look right
     if(Neomousex - player.x < -30){player.LockViewFrame(6, 0, 1);return;} // Look left
     
   }    
  }  
}

Thus far, I've only done it for when she's standing facing downwards, but I intend to get this issue sorted before I move on to the other directions.

Being the sort with an academic bearing, the combination of reductivist philosophies and adventure games has produced a notion in my head - that most (if not all) puzzles in adventures can be boiled down to several essential concepts.

For example -
- substitution: these puzzles require the use of an object in place of another, where their use might be unusual. Can't find  pen to write with? Use a stick. Don't have a fishing rod? Combine the car-aerial with the string.
- verbal: using conversation with characters to unlock progress.
- pixel hunt: false impression of challenge created by simply making objects hard to find.
- physical progress: puzzles requiring adaption of environmental or inventory items to enable progress to the next room. Door locked? Kick it, find the key, etc. Can't get up the cliff? Make the rope out of blankets, etc.
- external knowledge: where you need at least a degree of knowledge from the real world, or something you've learnt in game. What was that combination the monk told you? What temperature does the severed hand need to be for the machine to think it's real?

I think there are a few more categories that would cover most kinds of puzzle. Do you have any ideas what they may be? Or do you feel I'm being a bit *too* reductive?

Caine's quite right, the jiggle is supposed to be exaggerated rather than realistic (if I could do so without making it look outright wrong, she would frankly be better endowed). I'm going for "comic oversexualisation", so the waterballoon look is appropriate I think - many thanks for making it look a bit more effective! She's the PC, so the way her feet move is intended for making the animation work with the walking speed.

So, here's another redo, with Caine's physics additions, and making the hair a bit less stiff and rigid. Also accentuated the hips a bit.

Out of curiosity, what kind of length of games would you approve, as a minimum? Are we talking 5 Days a Stranger. or Fate of Atlantis?

This thread was pretty much dug up.

Well, while we're archaeologising, here's a walkcycle for her:



I've been trying to put more...bounce...than I usually have in animations, not sure it's worked in the hair, but the other more prurient bounces seem to work. :3

I would have to say "Superjail".



It's like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" meets "Prison Break".



And very funny.

Oooh, that's got me thinking...maybe I should draw up a more in-depth plan for something I've had in mind.

We still have our oldest computer at home, it's a Pentium with 2 GB of space, from before the days of 3DFX. I remember when I tried to install Deus Ex on it for a joke - it ran like a slideshow!

On Steam a moment ago, I saw the latest iteration of 2D Worms they've got on the go. I'm tempted of course, but that's not the point. The point is its size - apparently, it takes up about 2GB when installed. 2 gigabytes! Personally, I think that's rather obscene, for a game that doesn't look particularly far-advanced from Worms: Armageddon! How can it possibly take more space than Worms 3D and Worms Forts did?

At the risk of sounding elderly, I remember the days when the whole of Worms fit on two floppy disks, X-Wing came on three, and the size of most games could be measured in less than 10 megabytes. What on earth do they pad these games with to make them so huge these days?

/fogey

Here's me with one of my kids. And by "my" kids, I mean "the kids I make sure don't run away during the daytime".

*checks post date*

*recognizes it's Tuesday after the post*

*can't wait*

Yep, game itself is finished, now I just need to playtest the hell out of it.

Edit: Ah...looks like the game's files themselves are now having a problem. That might set me back a bit.

Maybe I should make a game of Sunshine, next?

If you mean "Sunshine", the movie, then you#ve GOT to let me be part of the project. :-)

Maybe detailing what happened to Icarus 1? Hmm...

*starts making notes*

Maybe I should make a game of Sunshine, next?

Come to think of it, that would be awfully like 7DAS.