Messages

How about a compromise? (Gameplay screens with scanlines, and cut-scenes without?)

I really liked the hint system in the freeware game "Enclosure."

Basically, if you wandered around X number of rooms (there were a lot in that bunker) without making any progress or advancing the plot, a random, cryptic message would pop up, such as "The trees do not sing at first light." (bad example, don't kill me) At first, I didn't get it, but these were subtle hints to the puzzle I couldn't solve.

I liked it because the game tracked my progress so it didn't give a hint to me until it was necessary. Also, it prevented me from consulting a walkthrough when I was stuck, which I probably would've went back to needlessly. And the hints were vague, yet helpful enough for me to proceed and keep enjoying the game without wandering around for another 30 minutes.

Why not try something like this:

Scenario 1:
So the problem is that the player reaches object A first, when they need to use it up ahead on object B to win the game. Why not make so that object A is locked, and that you need object C to unlock it. However, you only get object C at the location of object B.
-->This allows the player to see that object A is an obstacle that needs a solution when they first approach it.
-->The player reaches object B and realizes that object A is needed to proceed.
-->The player spots object C and realizes that he or she can go back to object A and unlock it.
-->Player unlocks object A with object C then proceeds back to object B.
-->Player unlocks object B with object A.
--> WIN GAME

Unless I'm missing something, isn't this a valid solution?

The classic definition of freedom is that you are free to do whatever you want only if it does not impinge on others' freedom. (ie, violating their rights)

I don't know if that technically has anything to do with your question or not.

Here's the start of a RotN game I've been working on for four years. And by working on I mean virtually abandoned.
http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/games/IVSpy.zip
You may recognise some of the the Ags3d demo rooms.
I had the story half worked out, but lost motivation to continue.

I'm getting an error about zlib1.dll not being found whenever I try to open it. 

Also, here's some unfinished concept art for a space game that I abandoned a while back:

For detective games, look at the gameplay ideas proposed in Resonance, or Cayanne Pepper, or any game by Dave Gilbert.

Instead of standard Use Y on X puzzles, you can have short term memory (Resonance), dialog topics revolving around referencing characters (Cayanne Pepper), or a note system for critical information (Shivah, Blackwell Legacy).

This looks very interesting. I love the art direction as well. Good luck finishing!

This game is beautiful. I very much enjoyed it.

Er, it is a 8-9 pixel movement between the feet of every frame (discounting the recoil frame). The character sprite is 36 pixels wide, so the 9px gap between the feet is roughly divided evenly for the four frames to reach 36 px and then repeat itself for 8 frames total. The movement speed of 9 matches up the feet correctly while the character walks in-game, but I think this is creating the 9 pixel "jerk" every ensuing frame (I'm assuming the engine is relocating the sprite 9 pixels every frame). I guess I should've made the character walk in tinier bounds?

I was trying to set the delay of a specific frame in an animation on the fly during the game, but I found that the command ViewFrame.Speed is read-only.

Is there any way to get around this?

JBurger, do you mean how to get the feet so that they don't skid along the floor, or something else?

Yes, that's exactly it.

Not afaik; Movement Speed should be the exact amount of pixels between frames. Animation delay is the amount of game loops that passes between frames, so changing the number doesn't affect skidding.

Ahah. I did not know that. I set the movement speed to a value of 9 (it's a lot, I know) and it matches up with the walk cycle now, but it's really jerky and not fluid. I'm guessing the only way to remedy this is either decrease the animation speed (but then the char moves too fast) or make a smoother animation ( > 8 frames).

(Sorry, should've made my own thread.)

I've been wondering this myself in the case of walk cycles.

(Sorry for the slight derail) I can't figure out how to get a character's animation speed to match up with walk speed (I've fiddled with both values for an eternity), so I've tried tinkering with the frame delays and global delays. Nothing productive came out of it, however.

*New screenshot + bump in first post*

Something about the story goes here:


Project is still alive and well and rolling along. And thanks to everyone for the positive feedback so far!

Sorry if this is irrelevant now, but I was also getting this problem, and I thought I was just doing something stupid. I would use option-off-forever, but it would only function as option-off, and the dialog option would reappear for any option-on commands.

In the past, I've kind of broken it down to three categories for testers to comment on.

Technical Stuff:
- Bugs, Typos, Errors, Crashes, etc

Specific Stuff:
- Any pressing questions I have on the gameplay: these range from music, pacing, atmosphere, puzzle feedback, etc.

General Stuff:
- As you said, atmosphere, story, anything that the player wants to comment on. If they have complaints, suggestions, or feedback, anything is welcome.

Ever since I read a post-mortem on Portal, I've really been trying to integrate more vigorous play-testing into my future projects. In essence, you need to playtest your game over, and over, and over, to find out what doesn't work and how to fix it. If testers are having trouble remembering the story, or they always get stuck at a certain puzzle, or they're having trouble figuring out what their goals are, you need to go back and redesign those areas until you iron out all the bumps. Only when your playtesters can go through the game and receive the experience that you want, should it be considered complete.

One way to solve the crowbar/screwdriver problem (which I remember from somebody's article) is to replace items like crowbars and screwdrivers with other items that can accomplish the same task, yet serve a different purpose.

Do you happen to remember the name of that article?  I'd love to read it.

Sorry, I can't find it right now. I can't remember if somebody said it here on the AGS forums, or if it was an interview with Tim Schafer. Either way, this article by Yahtzee nearly says the same thing.

I made a quick edit of the current left figure, hope you don't mind:

Some preliminary ideas:
1) Outlines: unless you're really intent on keeping them, I suggest to remove the outlines, as I think it looks better without them.
2) Colors: For the shirt, I made the mid-shadow less-saturated (shadows tend to be less saturated than the non-shadows) and I tinted the darkest shade towards blue. For the pants, I did the same (mid-shadow, less saturated), but I also made the darkest shade much darker. I also put a shadow under the dude's head.
3) Posture: I "unglued" his arms from his torso which helps him give a more menacing look, in my opinion.

Other ideas:
Green) When he has the trench coat on, you could try adding an extra pixel or two on his shoulders to indicate the extra "toughness" layer (trench coat: stamina+1, toughness+3, Max HP increase: 15%).
Red) His back left shoulder (our right) I think is a little too high here. You could try lowering it.

As far as anatomy is concerned, you could look it up if you want to be more realistic, but if you don't, then that's A-Okay.
Also, for the shirt (but mostly pants), you could try looking up some references for wrinkles and shading. The pants are currently a little "pillow-shaded" so you could think about adding an overhead lightsource to put the lower sides of the leg in shadow.

Hope that helps!

One way to solve the crowbar/screwdriver problem (which I remember from somebody's article) is to replace items like crowbars and screwdrivers with other items that can accomplish the same task, yet serve a different purpose.

For example, in Grim Fandango (PUZZLE SOLUTION ALERT!), Manny has to swing over a pit by assembling a grappling hook. Instead of finding a normal "grappling hook" inventory item and tying it to the rope, you find a statue of a small potted plant. The potted plant has the same hook and shape, but you don't expect to use it on the rope because it already serves a different function. So, you tie it to the rope and swing across anyway. Cliche-inventory item removed-->Puzzle innovated-->Problem solved.

Another disadvantage of the score system is implying the game's end is near if the game shows the maximum score. For example, if you have 94 points in a game that has maximum score of 100, you start expecting the game to end soon.

Or the opposite happens. I seem to recall in Space Quest 3 towards the very end of the game I had something like 250/500 points, and by completing the last puzzles I had about an extra 200 points tacked on. It made the game's ending pop out of nowhere by surprise, which I guess was a good thing?

For score, I don't really mind it either way. Yes, it can feel like you've missed things after you've completed the game, but it can also be used as a player motivator after every puzzle. In Pleurghburg, it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside after taking a picture of a corpse thanks to hearing the "score added!" sound.

And I really have to second GarageGothic's suggestion. I love optional puzzles in adventure games, because it helps break up the linearity while not forcing you to complete them. The extra side-quests in Reactor 09 and Duty & Beyond made the game much more fun whenever you got stuck on the main quest. And if you didn't know how to solve the puzzles--no biggy, since you could just go back to the main storyline.

First room, I got stuck for an endless amount of time trying to figure out a puzzle when in reality I was struggling with the interface in confusion.

Again, I think this goes back to not spending a couple of minutes reading about how the interface works.

You're right, I should've read the the instructions at the beginning of the topic (I missed it the first time I downloaded), but the readme had too much information for me when it first came out, and I honestly avoid the readme in games unless its simple, self-contained, or I want to get more out of the game.

After finally solving the puzzle (and I still didn't understand the solution), I get to the next room with no goal of what to do, I walk into a puddle of goo by accident, and then the game kind of laughs at me because I died and had no save games.

You're told explicitly by Hissington what to do (specifically to 'Clean up that mess by the display', which is of course the puddle of goo.  I don't really understand how walking over a strange puddle of bubbling goo without even examining it is an indication that the game needs to be more user-friendly? 

Okay, I thought he was just saying "the room was messy, clean it up" which I interpreted as a generic task. As for user-friendliness, I'm saying I don't want to to be put at the mercy of "Space-Quest"-esque, unexpected deaths, especially when I've lost my habit of saving at every corner or turn.

Also, I don't mean to be rude but this isn't the Critics Lounge.

Just trying to offer some constructive feedback on the game. If that doesn't belong here, then I don't know where it does.