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Occasionally, I get a message when compiling -

Unable to register for Vista Game Explorer: Unable to load the custom icon: EndUpdateResource failed

It has absolutely no impact on the game's compilation, but it has started to get rather annoying. Is there something I can do/shouldn't be doing to stop it happening?

What happened to the Lid-Dem hype? I was quite surprised when I  learned they lost seats compared to previous election.

It confused me too, but at least the Greens got a seat! It's a start.

Plus, if the Libdems can get any clout as part of a coalition, then it's a little step closer to proportional representation.

There's a pretty good reference on google:


You've probably seen it anyway, just in case you didn't.

This is one of the ones I was kind of trying to take inspiration from (hence the non-vertical interrupts), though that may not be the best way to go. I'm sure they don't actually use lowercase on this kind of stencil, but if the lowercase really doesn't work with this, I may either scrap it entirely, or try to find a different marital-looking font to use that doesn't preclude correct style of writing. After all, I have no intention to seem ALL SHOUTY ALL THE TIME.

So, while trying to make a balance between "military stencil" (like the kind they have for "M*A*S*H" for example) and legible, this is the result I've ended up with. To me though, it seems that in a way it just looks like a normal font that's broken in places. Any sage pointers towads making it look more like it's supposed to, or better yet someone more expert on fonts than me?

When finishing my last one (1st Drop - go on, you know you want to play it again) I found that just when I thought I'd finished the "hard" stuff (art, scripting, etc) the things that took most of the time was the testing and refining - and ultimately, this was what drove me mad enough to say "nuts to this, I'm just going to release it".

I suppose in a sense, I've had a lot more practice at drawing rooms/characters/objects/GUIs for games that never saw completion, but testing is a whole other kettle of fish when only two instances have come anywhere near it. Less opportunity to improve at it.

Since I assume that everyone else on the forum is better than me at everything ever when it comes to making things in AGS, I was curious - how long does it usually take you to make things for games?

In my case, I tend to measure things by evenings (roughly three hours), since they're the free time I get from teaching small people. So...

Non-walking character - an evening
A fully-animated four-direction-walking character - about three evenings
A  room- one or two evenings
Objects - half an hour to an hour
A game - the last two that I've finished were, start to end, two months. On the other hand, I've so many games that will never see completion, might as well average it out to "infinity"

How about yourselves, then? Am I rushing things, or about on average?

They're all pretty interesting, though I think the answer to 1. with respect to at least Somalia is pretty obvious (poverty/lack of jobs, no functioning government, history of armed conflict - so access to weapons and people who know how and are willing to use them, nearby shipping lanes transporting vast wealth...), and I wouldn't start from the assumption that other states are powerless to prevent it.

Well, it's not so much an assumption that states are powerless - they keep putting more and more naval forces into the region, but to limited success. They haven't been pursuing a particularly effective course of action, and there seems a need for further study into what makes piracy bloom in Somalia, and alternative courses of action to "throw ships at it".

While I certainly feel I've been able to make some improvement since the far-gone days of MS Painting terrible abominations, there are still a few things I haven't quite been able to master at low resolution. I think the biggest thing I want to fix on this guy is the face, but everything I do seems to make too big a change, what with only a limited number of pixels available.



What can the experts on C&C suggest, then?

As part of my long term plans (conquer world, enslave humanity, buy milk, etc), once I'm done with my stint of teaching in Korea I intend to return to the UK to continue my academic endeavours. Basically, I intend to put off joining the real world as long as possible.

I'm going to continue in the field of Politics as I've done before, since I aim to get started on working towards my PhD. The brilliant thing about politics is that it can cover so many different areas, but I wanted to choose an area to research that'd be not only interesting to myself, but one that I hope would be enlightening/appealling for other people to gain the results of once I'm done. So, I've narrowed it to three main areas I'm keen on looking at...

1) Modern piracy; its causes, and the lack of power other states have to prevent it

2) Total war; whether conflicts such as World War 2 are even possible in the modern context, and the most likely places for them to occur today

3) The growing trend towards federalism; why bodies like the EU, NAFTA, AU, Arab League etc are springing up, the powers that people are comfortable with them possessing, and the likelihood that international politics are likely to be conducted in such a context in the future as a norm.


So, you, as a normal person - which of the three would interest you the most?

Libdems in the UK aren't the same idea as in the USA. In fact, the notions of "Political Liberal" in the USA and UK are different, the former based on more classical notions of liberalism espoused by Locke and Hobbes. It's liberalism of "less powerful government", rather than the american liberalism of "socially liberal policy".

Anyhow enough of that boring bit. I'm voting yellow, partly because I want to help effect a significant change in the political landscape, partly because they're the ones with their heads the least in their arses about data and internet policy, and partly because I'm a big big fan of proportional representation.

Incidentally, in about five years, I intend to run for parliament in my area. Anyone in North Dorset and Poole, I'm your future MP! (he wishes)

I can see the "pot bellied", but I'd probably make his arms a bit thicker to add to the "muscular" thing.

I think I'd make his clipboard a little larger/more obvious too!

Actuall those who don't know:

Broken sword creator is making 4 free game of Dr Who (PC and Mac)

Although, those games arent made with AGS, it worth to keep on eye on!

http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/612658/1.html?PHPSESSID=d56d16591e1d5168f00e7293ed16d665

Hopefully this will new ags games!

Hellz yeah,  I just saw the advert they had on after...erm...I doubtless legally somehow acquired the episode from here in Korea. Anyhow, it *does* look awesome, and I'm kind of glad it's got Smith in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvx0_TsGEKA

Yes indeed, it's sort of a Worms effect that I'm going for. So, it looks like the sprite is the way to go, then! So, to make sure I understand - is there a way of making two separate layers of dynamicsprites within the room, or is it a case of a normal sprite for the indestructible back bit, and a dynamic one for the destroyable? Or have I just completely misunderstood?

Ah, super, I can work with that instead. Now, I just have to get the hang of the drawingsurface!

From an audience standpoint, I think a lot of the kind of people into adventure games have "the Doctor" in their heads as one of the older ones. After all, he'll always be John Pertwee to me. Conversely, maybe drag non-adventure folk in using newer doctors like Tennant and co?

No idea if this is even something vaguely feasible within AGS, but I thought I might as well ask.

Anyhow, I was wondering if it was possible to change what parts of the room had what hotspot in them, during the game itself? As in, at a point in a script, the game checks x,y coords, and if there's hotspot at this coordinate, to change it to hotspot 0? And from there, I can make use of maths to govern what shapes to change the hotspots by.

The idea is for creating deforming terrain, using circles for the "explosion" to take a chunk out of the hotspot. Is this feasible? Is there another better route you might suggest? Or is this a situation where ambition has overstepped physical capability?

Well, I can see where you're going with the pencil drawing, but I suggest a couple of things...

1) Widening the path so that it's at least the same width as the door - how often have you seen a path so much smaller, or that was lop-sided in terms of which side of the door it went towards?

2) Something to give the house more of an impression of depth. At the moment, it could be a cardboard cut out placed on a lawn - maybe make part of the side wall protrude over the fence on the left?

Right, I've a flight to catch. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, I shan't have crashed somewhere in Eurasia!

Ah, in that case you can mention how Estonia won its freedom from those darned commies in 1991 - that ought to go down better.

I was always thoroughly dependent on the webs as well, and while the whole country isn't exactly blanketed in wifi signal, they have it in a lot of branches of McDonalds now. Just pick up a box of McNuggets to stare at for an hour or so, and you can use their connection. These days too, nearly all motels have internet of some description, as do rest-stops on roads. Sometimes, I'd just wander around neighbouroods with my PSP until I found an unsecured internet connection, those are common too.

Sounds like the reverse of part of a trip I did in my gap year a while ago.

Best advice from personal experience - if you find yourself being arrested, pretend you don't speak English. That way, they give up pretty quickly. That, or demand to speak to the embassy.

And in the states in between "Civilsation" and "Florida", if you talk to any of the locals, you're going to find a whole lot of "Hey, y'all got a' ak-sent! Where're y'all fraam?" Surprisingly enough, few people outside of the UK have heard of Bournemouth, so just pick a big, landmarkish city, and say near there. My response was always "near London" - any other answer will make them furrow their brows in confusion.

Downright friendly in most parts though, just don't eat the grits.