Messages

Thanks, ProgZ, glad you like the texture work. The sun is something I have thought about and dismissed, simply for the reason that putting completely accurate lighting in would probably take me twice as long. I honestly don't feel that the gameplay time would warrant spending this long on the backgrounds. Hopefully people will find the story engaging - I am fairly satisfied that it will suit a short game nicely.

I agree about Darth's clouds - they are fantastic. With regards to the gui, I'll have to check out the new Sam & Max eps - I have a demo somewhere so I'll have to see how they did it.

What if I just used a plain white outline like in the example? I'm enjoying experimenting with all these things - and amazed by how much I've learnt this week.



I have loads of stuff to do - I want to repair my currently awful walkcycles, fix some character poses, redo hotspots, Darth's clouds.... Let's just say expect to see more from me soon, asking for more help or advice .

Cheers!

Darth - Thankyou for your further edits. I would just like to point out that my head hit the desk because I realise I am going to have to go back and do the clouds in the new style you showed. That's awesome! I was worried my clouds were overly DOTT and the game would look bland because of it. Sigh. Thankyou, sir.

About the GUI - the white outline really does look very nice! I think I'd like to give this a shot too. You are correct about the gui popping up by the way.

The whole idea of the GUI was that the slider moved the inventory, but as soon as I drew it I realised I wouldn't need it because there were more slots that the player would get items. It would be a nice thing to try in a game, but I am probably the worst scripter that has ever lived, so that'd probably be a job to give to someone else . I had fun with the concept of it though .

I also wish to get some comments on the tower after Andail's texture comment. I pixelled in some detail on it - does it look good, and does it match the style?



Cheers, again.

(You're probably sick of seeing the same backgrounds over again but if I show you anymore you won't see any new ones when you play the game!)

Thanks Snarky,

In that case I'll probably skip the antialiasing on the "island" - I see the effect you're talking about, and it should look fine without.

I'm also interested to hear your thoughts on the funcionality of the GUI I have in mind...

Cheers

ProgZmax - Thankyou for the advice. I'm not sure where to go from here - I think what I might do is add the verbcoin in how it is and see how it works while playing. If I find the options in the middle to be annoying or silly I'll adjust it to go up to the top with the inventory. I have to say, this has been (for me) one of the most educational threads I've started in the critic's lounge... you guys have been great.

Darth - Last night I did up some clouds for the backgrounds, adding 2 new colours to the palette, but I was not happy with them at all. The style, the colour, the shape, the position - it all felt wrong, and I was a bit disappointed with them. Needless to say this morning when I checked this thread and saw your example my jaw dropped - *that* is the style it needs, I thought straight away - those clouds are 100 times better than my feeble effort last night!

I've grabbed your two colours to replace mine, gone crazy on your style clouds, taken the outline away from the sun and also removed the outline from the distant island to give a better sense of distance.



I have to say how much happier I am with this version - I did hope to release this game on Sunday, and with all the changes and work left to do I may not get this done - who cares? An extra few days for a more polished product is, I feel, worth it.

Thankyou all very much for your time so far, and if you have more comments please don't hesitate to add them - I appreciate them all so much!

A few years ago, when I was in high school, some people came to my school with something similar in nature to this.

I watched my friend try it. He played pong. It looked like fun.

I am less skeptical and more interested. Innovative peripherals have been often terrible in the past, but I believe the concepts were ahead of their time in terms of the technology around to realise these concepts.

Also, good point about it expand options for wheelchair bound people. Could be very useful, providing it is safe.

GAH!

Now MashPotato on graphics as well!? 

This game excites me more and more.

Glad I could give you some ideas.

3 little edits .

You, sir, are truly awesome. My most sincere thanks for this - I am so pleased! I have not tried it yet (Seeing as I'm doing a rework of my inventory gui) but I shall and I am certain it will work!

Thankyou, thankyou!

Snarky - Glad you like the art style/setting. I'd be lying if I said I didn't draw some inspiration from Dresden Codak when drawing this sort of thing. If you haven't already, I suggest reading through the archives - it has an art style I absolutely adore.

GUI functionality is not something I've dwelled too long upon. I've never done a verbcoin - I just drew these up following the original AGS template style.

ProgZ - I plan to get some clouds in there. However, I think this is going to mean I have to add another colour to my palette. Not sure exactly which colour, but I shall have a play around with it and you'll hopefully see results very soon.

I like the idea of a verbcoin - I am thinking something along the lines of Reactor 09 with a few changes. I put the options in the middle of the verbcoin, and think perhaps a top down menu for the inventory? I'd like to really have it so there is no "Walk To" cursor... or have that as the standard, and then a verbcoin when I right click - this is also how I'd use inventory items.



Is putting the options in the middle of the coin a silly idea? Is an inventory at the top a silly idea? Is my verbcoin too big, too small or the wrong style art wise? Can you understand the icons instantly? Being my first one, I'm not overly sure about any of these things, so I'd love your thoughts.

Thanks!

Ben

EDIT: Added inventory window just for comparison's sake. I won't need the arrows at this size, because the player won't have that many items at one time, so I have replaced them with little screws.

Thanks Ivy!

I've got most of the graphics done now - the game should be ready early next week .

(Depending on how I go with some of these scripting roadblocks )

Oh, and glad you like the tree background. I spent a fair while reshading the damn thing - since when was drawing big trees a good idea?

Looks very interesting Stu, and yeah, reminds me a bit of The Dig.

Obviously you need some foreground objects here, but be careful of ruining the mood you've got going by adding wildly differing shades, I'd say. Purple is a good colour for a sort of otherworldly look - I can imagine this in a cutscene, perhaps with a plane flying or something?

You could also put a small desert style village closer towards the mountains...

Nice work.

I know the issue you are discussing.

A while ago, I contacted Paolo and said "Hey, you do scripting, I do graphics, let's make a game"

Things went well for a month or so, insert family crisis on my behalf, and I completely lost motivation to work on the game. I realised this after a while - perhaps two months? - and then decided to wipe the slate clean and start again.

Paolo and I then made a game in three weeks.

I think the big key here is that projects tend to get stale after the initial excitement stage. You've been porducing the same style of graphics for a month and it just drags your inspiration levels down.

Maybe it was silly of me to scrap the work that Paolo and I had done, but I think if I had tried to make myself persevere with the project, it would have been a year or two to make a game that didn't justify the development time.

Recently I've found that I've been experiencing a similar lack of motivation with our current project, so I've taken the plunge and tried to build a small game in just a week. Little projects like these help boost my motivation no end, so after trying this I will hopefully know whether my theory is successful or not.

Good luck finding yourself an artist, by the way.

yOuR gRaPHiCs lOoK vERy nIce.

pLEaSe tRAnSlAte iNTo eNGliSh.

sOrRY daRTh fOR mY sIlLY wRiTInG.

Greetings all.

I believe this is the first time I have posted in here, so I hope my post is clear and follows the rules.

My problem is as follows: I have two images for each inventory item. One is the item graphic itself, with a shadow beneath it, and one is the cursor, with no shadow but a little arrow pointer. What I would like to do is set up the inventory so that when I select an inventory item, instead of making my cursor look like that item, it replaces it with the secondary image which is missing the shadow but has a little pointer.

I did a search of the forum and found some script here which I believed I would be able to implement, but unfortunately I have more inventory items than the game will allow me cursors.

I am thinking that perhaps I could create a number of views and have these replace the cursor somehow?

I am using editor version 2.70 at the moment - I checked the AGS 3.0 update list to see whether the cursors limit has been removed and I could not see it. Hoping to stick with the 2.70 editor until I get this game finished, because I am slow enough at using it as it is.

Is there something I've missed here? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I have rambled .

Uhfgood: Thankyou, sir .

Evil: Thankyou for the comments - I hadn't noticed the square inside the sun! Must be blind...

Andail: I've tried to add some more little details, but I don't want to spend too much time on any of the backgrounds - this is meant to be a quick little diversion, not a month long project. Textures are, as ever, completely beyond me at this point, but hopefully I've helped to fill the backgrounds up a bit with some simple touches as you suggested. Your advice is, as usual, very helpful.




ProgZmax: Yes, I suck at the whole "cartoony body" thing . Yes, I tried to go further with these little graphics, but it seems I have trouble seeing outside the square. I am sure I'll get it with time. Thankyou for your nice edit of the trooper's pose and shading - some very interesting changes you've made. Hopefully I can get a grip on the whole proper pose this and also perhaps banish my pillow shading once and for all?

I'm really rather excited about this little project - I've been feeling a bit in the doldrums with regards to game design lately, and this quick little project is really getting me re-inspired. Paolo - if you're reading this, sorry about my quick digression into cartoon land, but I will be back on task for the next big one and more motivated as a result of this little endeavour.

Thankyou all very much - your comments not only help me improve but also keep me inspired, and I couldn't ask for anything more from anyone.

EDIT:

Update with guis. Do these look functional enough to yourselves?

Woooohooooo!

Great work Dave!

Uhfgood - of course your opinion matters. I think the point here is that I am new to using limited palettes, and therefore I may have chosen some weirdo colours. I'll stick with this one for now, but hopefully I'll get better in future and you won't have to look at teletubby colours.



(Ps - I don't have nostalgias about green and purple games either )

I had a go at reworking the anti aliasing on this one using the Gas13 tutorial tips... hopefully it is much improved. I have many others to attend to now - if you see anything you think should change, please tell me.



Cheers.

Again.

Oooh, thanks for the tutorial link, JB.

It seems I still have very, very much to learn.

Thanks for the comments .

The characters do have posture issues of course - I plan on looking at them once I've got the backgrounds done. I hopefully should be able to sort them out without a problem.

With regards to making a backdrop... I would love to do it, but feel I couldn't show depth very well without expanding the palette, and I don't particularly want to do that. I guess I'll give it a shot - I just hope I can make the things in the distance look far enough away.

Cheers!

EDIT: Okay dokay - I've had a shot at putting a bit of a backdrop on this one, without expanding the colours. I'd love to know your thoughts and suggestions.



Also... could someone perhaps give me an example of how to do AA? I seem to be either using too much or too little.

Cheers!