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Hey, that sounds totally fair to me.  Wouldn't want to rush my programmer into death by GlobalInts.  Thanks for giving us a shot at finishing, and you'll definitely see our game in the completed game thread before long.  Congrats, bluber, when I have a wink of spare time I'll have to play your game.

Sorry guys.  I'll have to forfeit this one.  We've got a few hours to go on our game yet.

Congratulations to the winner, who deserves it doubly because of his patience!

I hope to see you all in the completed games thread not too long from now!

Cheers,

~The Ivy

I second that motion.

Edit: Thanks for all the time you've given us to date...trust me, we're scrambling to get this done.  I've already done one all-nighter and that won't stop me from doing another.  I think my poor programmer is planning something similar.

Who'd have thought AGS could be hazardous to your health?

Okay, okay, I've got good news and bad news.Ã, 

Bad news first: the game's not done.Ã,  I've got to go to work for 6 hours, and in that time my diligent and steadfast programmer, Setsuna, will be working on the technical parts of the game.Ã, 

The good news is that the graphics are done (though not entirely imported), the MIDIs are done, the puzzles are done, the scripting is progressing amazingly, and the dialogs are written on scraps of paper all over my desk.Ã,  All that remains is scooping them into one big happy file and distributing it.

I won't ask you to hold the contest open any longer.Ã,  It wouldn't exactly be fair to the other people (person?) entering this contest.Ã,  I had lots of fun making the game, and it'll still be a great product.Ã,  However, I do think that the entire game could be wrapped up in a matter of hours.Ã,  I'm 90% sure I could have it by tomorrow morning.Ã,  Ã, 

Powers of fate, what sayest thou? 

Hopefully, if the stars are aligned correctly, Spooks will be done in the next four hours.  Please hold the voting open until then!

Thanks

~The Ivy~

[Edit 2/7/06]

Edit 2/7/06: Many thanks to those of you who replied quickly about the beta testing.Ã,  I've now got my crack team assembled to whip this game into playing shape.Ã,  If everything goes according to plan, everything should be wrapped up within the next five days or so.Ã,  Soon, folks! :)Ã, 

Old stuff: Okay loyal Spooks fans, I've got some good news for you!

After some pretty big setbacks, I'm happy to report that I'm now putting the final touches on this game.Ã,  I might have abandoned the whole thing after my hard drive crashed, but the enthusiasm and support I saw in these forums made me want to keep going.Ã,  Hey, you guys saved "Spooks" before you ever played the game.Ã, 

I re-did a lot of the old graphics to make the game work better, and I've lengthened the game from "MAGS" to medium-length.Ã,  The whole adventure should now take you several hours to complete, as you explore rooms from the Land of the Dead to places even more bizarre.Ã, 

"Okay, Ms. The Ivy, I think I remember this game, but what's it about again?"

Glad you asked.

You play as Mortia, a little ghoul girl with a wicked sense of humour.Ã,  While spending the day at the "Carnage-Val," an amusement park in the Land of the Dead, she wins a live goldfish in a game of darts.Ã,  At any normal carnival,Ã,  this would be no big deal.Ã,  However, this is the Land of the Dead, where there hasn't been a living creature since, well, an eternity.

Mortia has no idea what the word "alive" means.Ã,  However, she learns that if she doesn't find her goldfish a safe place to be "alive," and soon, it will die.Ã,  Apparently, this is rather unpleasant.Ã, 

So, she names her new pet "Spooks" and sets out to explore the rest of the fairgrounds for a way to save him.Ã,  She must gather clues from the many weird and wild characters she meets, even if this means heckling a cyclops, taking advice from a fallen angel, or bargaining with a 3-headed invisible monster.

Can she put it all together and discover a way to someplace "alive?"Ã,  Sounds like one Spooky adventure.

The game features 6 original (and catchy!) MIDI tracks by The Scorposer, with scripting provided by the marvellous Vince Twelve.

Spooky screenies!





obligatory w00t: w00t!

~The Ivy~

I really like it.  His expression is priceless, and I really like the hairdo.  As a side not, I think a walkcycle done in the "Egyptian" style would be the coolest thing ever.

I'm not sure if this is just your style, but the colours are very flat.  Even one darker tone for all the colours would add a lot of depth, IMO.  Also, you may want to keep the features lined up in the front and side views.  One thing I noticed right away is that the skirt thing is shorter in the left picture.

Good start, looking forward to seeing more in your style. 

Hey, looks great to me Setsuna!  I bequeath to you the title of temporary background champion, and hope you choose a more popular topic. 

NBC is now saying there are at least 33 deaths, and more than 300 injured.  My heart goes out to everyone in London.  I'm scared to think of what this means for the future, at least in terms of the security measures we'll see.  I live in the US now, and they're saying they've raised the terror alert for all major transportation systems in the country.  This wasn't in response to any particular threat, but "because if it happened there, it could happen here."  I'm not afraid, I just think that's a terrible reason. 

I was living here when 9/11 happened, and I remember when they created "homeland security," and the colour-coded alert system, and all these other measures that were supposed to protect us.  Now we have two increasingly costly wars to boot, no exit strategy, and probably no great blows struck against terrorism despite it all.  Somehow, the only feeling I have is sadness.

This is an excellent topic.  I'll try to come up with something, even better if it's before the deadline  .

Hey, glad you like it, Lionheart.  I use Microsoft Paint for everything.  The eyedropper tool is my best friend.

The text is really crisp and defined, while the terrain seems a bit blurry.  I think you should either hand-draw the place names or sharpen up the other lines.  Also, consider making them follow the curve of the fabric.
Good luck!

Hey, glad you liked the tutorial!

Here's what I did to your poor, unsuspecting sprite:



Big things:

• Raised the shoulders
• Lengthened the legs
• Made a couple shades of every colour, on the right side for reference
• Made the boots bigger
• Added that rouguish eyebrow (though I see Progz had the same idea

Good start, I'd like to see what you come up with next.

There was a readme? I got it all out of the manual....

Well, yes, but I only had a burned copy of the game, and the person who gave it to me neglected to mention there was such a thing.     All attempts to buy "The Guidebook to the Green Isles" online failed piteously.

I alternate between Ontario, Canada and Illinois, U.S.A.  One of them is where I go to school, and one is where my family lives (and so do I, in the summer).

Ha ha, I'm sure it's just an expression.   
Thanks, Andail.

I loved the secret lab puzzle in "Ripley's Believe it or Not."  You had to use the same set of inventory items to solve three totally different puzzles.  You were trapped once you got into the room and it was unbelievably frustrating, but once it all came together you realize how ingenious the whole thing was.  You use the periodic table twice in that puzzle, and never for its intended purpose.

The least enjoyable puzzle I can think of were the cliffs of logic in KQ6.  I managed to get past the first one, which was a word game, and thought myself pretty clever.  Then I discover the cliffs go higher, and the next puzzle consists of 26 arbitrary symbols, of which you must press 4 in the right order.  Finishing that game was put on hold for 8 YEARS before I figured out the "Guide to the Green Isles" could be found in the README.

But really, the rest of the game was worth it. 

Wow, this is exciting!   I may just go mad with power.  Incidentally, I've thought of something kind of different for the blitz...

["Miniatures."]

Cheers, everyone!

The subject of this Background Blitz is "Miniatures."Ã,  The only rule is that the background's features must be made of everyday objects, as seen by someone very small...let's say, 6 inches/30 cm tall.Ã,  Imagine a dollhouse room where a thimble becomes a vase, a teacup becomes a bathtub, a handkerchief becomes a hammock, etc.

No restrictions on size or resolution, but let's say that at least 3 items in the room must be normal-things-turned-miniature.
The room doesn't necessarily have to be indoors, either.

Good luck!

Edit:Ã,  Darn, and here I thought I was being so original.Ã,  :PÃ,  Okay, let's make this a little different.Ã,  Instead of making a minature room, try making a giant's room.Ã,  My mind keeps going to Bugs Bunny cartoons, where the giant would use a pine tree as a toothbrush or something like that.Ã,  Hopefully this topic hasn't been done too...



Okay that was just fun to draw 

Thanks again for the suggestions, everyone!  I've put together a little tutorial on how I did this sprite, and you can read it here.  I hope it's useful, wise, pithy, and life-changing.