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why do major companies still do surveys?

Because they are interested in what people think, because these people are their potential customers, and they wish to sell more of their product or service than they currently do, because this is seen as an important measure of success 

And yes, I learn a lot with every project I work on.

An interesting point you make there, Igor.

We can buy classic games for PC, big budget high profile releases, for something stupid like $1 each nowadays, and their technology is far more advanced still than anything we'd be able to do with AGS, and they might have 15-20 hours of gameplay.

However, I'll still pay $10-$20 for an indie game sometimes, even if I flinch at a $20 price tag on a Playstation 3 game and think "I'll wait until that's cheaper..."

It's kinda hard to judge the value of games, really.

- Firstly, memorable moments. I want a puzzle, scene, animation or dialogue exchange that will stick in my mind and others' minds that I can discuss with them, be inspired by and fondly recall years later. Secondly, I don't want an interface or controls that frustrates me when playing. You might have the best gameplay ideas ever, but if I am so distracted by having to cycle through 9 cursors or don't have a hotspot indicator to find them, or your character walks really slowly, I'm not going to be patient enough to see them through. Last, I'd go with building your scenes to catch my attention, with graphics that fit the mood (not necessarily the best graphics ever, as long as they're consistent), responses to looking and using that fit the character I am meant to be playing and that sort of thing.

- Daring to do something different to the norm, or doing something I've seen before particularly well. Uniqueness and superb quality are the two things I find most inspiring.

- If it's hard to play, if I can tell someone hasn't really put much effort in, if the characters aren't interesting or speak too much, if you make me work on each puzzle for 15 minutes without any story progression after solving it...

- Other. I prefer LucasArts to Sierra, but I think an interface should be designed to fit your specific game idea, not done that way because ____ did it that way 20 years ago.

- Doesn't matter. As long as controls are intuitive, either is good.

- Anything else? Yeah. My opinions on what makes games good change all the time, so in 3 months I'll completely disagree with everything I just wrote  Also, why are you so interested in people's answers? Indie game design (particularly freeware) is a very personal thing, you're not trying to appeal to a certain market in order to make money. What allows us to be so creative in indie games is that we don't need to care what other people think of what we make, as long as we're satisfying our creative desires. And, no matter how against the grain of what I like something can be, if it's done *well*, I'll still play the hell out of it, and afterwards go back and question my philosophies, because if I enjoy something that I didn't think I would, I've clearly found that there's more to good game design than I initially though 

I've been watching this on your website for a while now, and it's cool to see some more screenshots!

Good luck with the progress on this, I looked forward to seeing more

*stabs Dualnames with a poison icecream*

Is your own medicine as delicious now that you have tasted it as you claimed it was when you prescribed it!? IS IT!? 



Back on topic, holy crap, what an awesome idea WhatTheFont is. Thanks for sharing!

I spammed Calin with screenshots of your game.

It was... exhilarating...

Haha awww, Arjon!

Hope you enjoy your time as a cyborg and get all fixed up soon.  

To clear up any confusion, that little excerpt is clearly your best writing to date.

To keep my thread on topic, I have used the dialogue system and it is pretty cool.

That is good, because my brother is Greg! The Stop Sign!!

Lovely backgrounds Hayley (especially the lamp post ^_^)

I look forward to this and how it will be better than the first part and everything.

If you were thinking about buying this but haven't, it is now available from GOG.com as well, for an even lower price (although it doesn't seem to come with a downloadable soundtrack like the dotemu version does)

Hey, it's indie gaming. We like saving money!

Thanks for pointing it out, Selmiak did email me yesterday and mention it, and it's cool to see the game (and his translation!) still being played!

Cool to see another 2 AGS games up there as well 

None of the sprites are reused from anything Dual

Maybe I'm just consistent  

Thanks for the nice comments, all!

Have you tried something like cInvisibleMan.Clickable = false; and then setting it to true when you are ready to have him appear?

The other alternative is to simply move the character into another room until you are ready to have them appear, although I assume you have some reason for having the characters invisible rather than located elsewhere.

*whoosh* 

With regards to resolution, there are a bunch of different resolutions that AGS supports. Choose one that suits you, I guess. If you're going for iPhone or the like, keep in mind that AGS doesn't support always native resolution (iPhone is, for example, 320x480, which is certainly not supported by AGS, although I think the iPad is 1024x768 which is more promising).

As far as I know, the closest that anyone has gotten to AGS applications running on the iPhone is with XAGE and an iPhone emulator. If you're intent on making apps for mobile devices, AGS probably isn't your best bet at the moment, I'd say.

I did mention puzzle bots!  8)

But yes, I've also heard that getting a game on Steam can be a pretty tedious process.

If I remember correctly, both PuzzleBots and Time Gentlemen Please are both sold on Steam, both being AGS games.

I also seem to recall Dave Gilbert and Grim getting their applications to have the Blackwell games and Downfall respectively declined by Steam, but I very much doubt that has anything to do with the engine, my guess would be it had something to do with content.

There is a section in the manual regarding making commercial games, and the things you should know with regards to licensing, but this isn't directly Steam related.

So, yes, AGS games can be and are being sold on Steam - although they're sometimes a bit picky about who they accept, so this is another reason more people aren't doing so.

Edit: Also, I think Ben There, Dan That! is on Steam as a freebie, if I remember rightly. I don't actually use Steam, but I am quite sure this is the case (feel free to correct me if I am wrong here)

How strange.

The only time I've had problems with this is when exporting multiple sprites out of AGS into a file - exporting multiple files with alpha channels at once makes them full of artifacts.

I use version 3.1.2 as well (haven't learned to use the new audio system ), so it's strange that you'd get this problem.

Also, I never crop sprites in-editor. Perhaps that has something to do with it?

And when you import an alpha channeled sprite make sure the transparency/whatever setting is on Leave-As-Is.

Hmm, I have never had to do this. As long as the top-left (or whatever) corner is free, usually they import fine for me.

On an interesting note, you can "Quick import sprites" by right clicking in the sprite folders, and although it doesn't prompt you to keep alpha channels like it does when you go to import a single sprite, it should automatically do it for you (although I think this usually goes on your last settings). This way you can import loads of alpha channeled sprites at once. Hoorah!