Messages

I thought the object of this particular forum was to be helpful.  Perhaps I'm mistaken.  Anyway, bigcitynerd, I do agree.  Paint sucks.  It's too limited in scope and is too much of a hassle when trying to make subtle detail.  There are alternatives, however.  You could go to a computer show, e-bay or the like and buy a cheapy OEM version of some mainstream software.  Or, you can check around for decent freeware/shareware alternatives.  Paint Shop Pro is quite good and is available as a time-limited demo (unless they've changed that recently).  I've heard GIMP is also excellent and there are others out there if you check around.   The best advice I can give is to post a pic or two done with paint or whatever you manage to find, and someone here might be able to offer some helpful pointers.  

That box under the tower just needs some surfaces hidden.  I assume it's supposed to be "carved" from the wall but the whole scene is at an angle yet all inner surfaces of the box are shown.  

There are a few perspective issues but nothing that couldn't be added or changed as this seems to be a general sketch.  

I do like the style and even in the line-drawing you can sense a bit of atmosphere.  She's got a good eye for detail - I especially like the building to the left and the barrels.  The pic just needs a little more filling in and some minor corrections and it would make a great basis for a background.

As far as fantasy clichés go, I can't name too many movies I've seen in the fantasy genre.  The last 3 were Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, LOTR-The Two Towers & Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell.  

I'll just stick to literature.  I think most points I would make have been made, but I'll echo them.  Why must we always have elves and dwarves, orcs and trolls, wizards and warriors?  If we do feel the need to include them, what stops an author from making them his own?  Why must they always have the same characteristics.  You can read novels by 10 different authors and if they happen to mention elves, you can pretty much assume they'll be very similar in physical and social characteristics.  

I normally prefer to read fantasy that escapes the status quo at least to some extent.  Piers Anthony - uses clichés like mad but uses a fantasy (or sci-fi) world to explore moral and social difficulties.  Harlan Ellison - Writes Sci-Fi but has dabbled in Fantasy.  Not much he's written can be accused of entering a cliché status.  I loved Tolkien's work because his generation of character types was so in-depth and unique (at the time) that you could at least feel that the different species had a right to be part of the story and not just fodder for a thrown-together plot-line.  

Since this is AGS, I  would encourage any that are creating a fantasy-oriented game to try and expand their characters, screw with the plot-lines and devote at least as much time to originality as the art and scripting.  

I like everyone in the community.. at least since a certain kid left.  That includes Melia.  She's got a certain quirky style that I enjoy.  Her ability to screw with some people's minds is entertaining.  However, I do agree that she can have a tendency to take things a bit too far.  To set the record straight, however, she did finally admit (to some degree) that she was kidding.  She was, in a sense, being self-deprecating.

It's an okay idea, but I think it would be best implemented via the whiteboard or via transfers on #AGS.  You'd run into too many problems with two people working on the same arm before noticing someone else did that.  Also.. you know the crowd you're working with here..  how many seconds do you estimate would pass before the character obtained a penis (or two, or three?)

What she said was figuratively walking the line between the facetious and blatantly sarcastic.   To put it simply, she was joking.  Now if her style of humor wasn't to your taste ...  to each his/her own.

Where the Wild Things Are.   No justification necessary for this one.

Farlander ...  you mean to say that you never understood that she was toying with you?  She was trying to screw with you and cause offense.  She seemed to have succeeded.  I understand that the language barrier makes subtleties like this difficult to understand, so don't feel too bad.  

and those of us running 98se still are ambivalent. :

Santa Stuck in a Chimney (Disgustingly Jpeg'd by MSpaint)



NOW I remember why I don't use MS-Paint.  

Up Next: A Person being attacked by something they're meant to be consuming (Food, Beverage, etc.)

Her head is friggin' huge in the sketch.  Of course, some people make that their style but from the look of your post topic's pics, you've got a much more realistic look going now.  Wonderful stuff, that "quick sketch" as you called it is probably the epitome of what I would ever hope to achieve.  Excellent work.  On second thought, the head's not so large... it's just that the proportion makes it more similar to a child's head than an adult or near-adult person.

I had this message appear for me some time ago.  It was somewhere around a year and a half.  From what you're describing, it sounds identical.  I think it's just a prank done by obnoxious kids.  I haven't gone to jail yet (and probably had a significant amount of not-so-legal software on my PC) so I wouldn't worry too much about it.  Since then, I've been scared into purchasing all software I use (just in case any of you are evil government-type people).  

I was gonna mention the minus thing.  

Personally, the way I would've gone about doing the end would be to create discs and bevel them.  Much of the surrounding metallic area is often rather flat.  Or ...  I would create a disc or two for the base of where it forms the top of the batter to enable me to do the "groove" towards the rom.  Then, I would create a cylinder for the "probe" end of the battery, leaving it a small distance from the rest and then chamfer it to a central circle to give it a more realistic look.  Overall, quite good really, and a very excellent first attempt.  I suppose I should get off my ass and show you what I mean but a battery fails to capture my interest enough..  sorry.

I've never entered one of these debates for the above-mentioned reasons.  However, here's something I've thought about a bit and will throw out there for the hell of it.

To Christians in general.  The bible says that to God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.  It's obviously not being precise but demonstrating that time has different meanings to God.  The bible itself has several instances where it mentions a day and means a period of time and where it mentions an hour and refers to a year.  Therefore, who is to say that evolution doesn't exist and that God didn't create it?  Perhaps when the bible mentions that X was created on the first "day" it actually means in the first 1M years.  Maybe by the time man came into the picture (6th day, yes? I'm fuzzy on this, it's been awhile since I picked up the bible) it actually meant in the 6-billionth year or something to that effect?

Evidence of evolution is all around us.  Because evolution is considered a dirty word to some people of religious persuasions, I will remind you that evolution is merely a term for adaptation over long periods of time.  If you don't believe that people and animals adapt over time then you've obviously only seen people with similar facial features and skin color to yourselves.  Our fossil records prove it, common sense verifies it AND it can be accepted without conflicting with matters of faith.  Now the Big Bang theory, that's another discussion (but can also be adapted to fit many religions).  

Feel free to blatantly ignore my intrusion or flame me at will.  Keep in mind that I'm not invested enough in this theory to do the research and much of what I said was a generalization meant to get a point across.  If you would like to bash my theory of Creative Adaptation without taking the above into consideration, proceed at your own risk (risk of exposing yourself for a fool, that is).  If you have intelligent refutation, I'm all ears.

Personally, I would love to see a few more convincing female characters.  However, there have been very few that have been convincing in any way.  Merely because a person is female doesn't necessarily mean that they'll react with cowardice or confusion in any given situation.  

In The Longest Journey, for example, I thought April Ryan was a nicely done character but lacked realism in the following way:

Poor voice acting - Not necessarily acting ability in this case as much as inappropriate responses.  She was overly emotional when the situation didn't call for it and was overly hostile at the slightest provocation.  If she'd been drawn up as an unstable person with a severe personality quirk then it might've made more sense.  (On an unrelated note - I love the Flipster (Not related to Flippy_D whom I despise whenever I remember to  )).

On yet another note, I think Evenwolf and Darth should probably debate one another in IM's or IRC.  If it's relevant - fine.  As soon as you guys notice it's gone off topic and becomes a personal (rather than group) discussion, you ought to stop or continue via IMs.  There's really no need for the rest of us to deal with potential hostility.  

Even if you can't draw, that's no reason to feel you have to go with a game idea that will let you rip graphics from a show.  It will be immensely difficult to do any kind of graphic-ripping from the TV show and have it look decent in a game.  I agree that i'd rather play a game with crappy graphics and a good plot line than play one the other way around.  

As an experiment to break into the game, why not just try doing the Pirates of.....  for the first couple episodes of the series?  Just make the puzzles the recruiting of other characters and discovery/acquisition of items needed to start this quest.  If it turns out okay, then think about making it an introductory section to the rest.  BTW, if you're a friend of Snake's I think he could do graphics passible enough to do a game with if he's willing.

Of course most adventure games don't really have the feeling of "being there" or have situations relative to the average person's life.  I don't think they have the RPG potential to pretend (however mildly) that the character on-screen is you.  Am I wrong?  When playing an adventure game, I see it as more of a challenge to help the little guy/girl figure out their situation.  It's not until you get into FPS/RPG/Simulations that enough interactivity and realism comes into play enabling you to mentally jump into a character's shoes.  

I don't think you should pick a character based on what people what to associate with but rather one that fits the situation.  Sometimes it's the generic hero that fits best.  Or as in Leisure Suit Larry, could we really imagine someone other than Larry in that role?  If he were suave and sophisticated, the game could be awfully dull.  

Relating to some above comments:  It's a bit harsh to put down a thread in the general forum that is at least adventure game related.  Hell, 90% of the threads here deal with stuff having nothing to do with the reason we're all here.  However, I would recommend being more specific in your posts, Jet.  People are less likely to think the thread's a waste of space if you give a little more info.  Is your game full of adventure and life-threatening situations?  Is it more of a socially-oriented game?  With more detail, you might actually get recommendations that mean something.   Also, try searching for a topic to see if it's been started before.  I know I've participated in this sort of thread at least twice before.

I like the hate mail from Bianca where she claims that a Pap Smear is "a test where your boobs are mushed (for lack of better word) in between two panes of glass to look for tumours and the like."    

And, as far as Ninja sites go, this one rocks:
http://www.ninjaburger.com

Since I can't get a picture of me being emo, I made a Five Minute Flash Movie of it.

A bit of confusion..  step # 3 (?) is "Pants"  Do you not normally wear them?  I highly recommend it (despite what BOYD says)

This is almost humorous.  

Ever wish you could just hi-lite text and then make a copy of it?  Ever wish you could then plaster that text into almost any document?  Ever want to say the same few words over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again?  Well, now you can!  Download the Snip & Glue text-tool software now!