Messages

---June 15 update---

Lots has happened in the last month! First off is the release of Prodigal 0, and tangential minigame to the main game of Prodigal! If you wanna check out the what I've been working on for so many months, now you can get a sneak peek! And as an added bonus, those of you who play Prodigal 0 will understand several points of the main game better!

So go download today! Which brings forth another point, Prodigal now has a website! Thank you so much to [lgm] for taking the time to not only host my game(s), but whipping up a nice little website for them as well! Surf on over to

http://prodigal.lilgryphmaster.com

And check it out, as well as d/ling Prodigal 0! Yeah!

The game is growing rapidly still. I'm most deficient in animation cells, so I've had to take a time out from doing the main game and start trying to catch up on animation.

the game now has 80 sounds, 26 music tracks, 130 rooms, and over 2600 frames of animation! Everything is starting to take shape beautifully!

When I began this game, it was specifically designed to be like the classic Sierra games, using 256 color graphics and such...however, today I decided I was doing it at the detrement of the game. there are alot of special effects I'd like to be able to do that simply aren't possible, or are at least 10 times more difficult, using 256 color graphics. So I began the process of converting the game over to high-color.

Several of the rooms that looked especially dithered were reinserted in high color, but for the most part, I will be keeping the 256 color rooms for consistencies sake. Then there is the fact that the game is already over 30 megabytes...converting EVERYTHING to high color would make it over 60.

The conversion helps the game's graphics in several other key areas as well. First, I can tint sprites to better match room colors. So if everything is lit by an oily yellow candle, I can reflect that on the characters. Second, this game uses tons of light and shadow to create its otherworldly environments. (See Prodigal 0 for an example of this.) With 256 colors, the game was always struggling to find an appropriate color for the light level. Now that I'm in high color, everything stays smooth and consistent. Nice!

Next up: tons and tons more spritework!

Hmm...no, it's not a bug, but if the consenses is that people would rather have it cycle through the icons, I will change that for the main game. Any other opinions?

Hey everyone! I'm pleased to announce the release of Prodigal 0! This is not a demo, but a TANGENTIAL story relating to Prodigal! In addition, those of you who've played this will know more about the story of Prodigal than those who don't!

This is a great way to see what the world of Prodigal has in store for you, without having to spoil any of the game's cool surprises! As such, it is a short game, 5-10 minutes of play...but it'll give you a great example of what the game will be like when it releases later this year!

Head over to
http://prodigal.lilgryphmaster.com/index.htm

And click on Download today!

lol! It'll be in another day or two, don't worry. :b

Yeah, lgm is helping me. Thank you so much for the assistance, everyone who offered it!

Trisk

I'm starting to get close to a release of my game, Prodigal. As such, I'm beginning to ponder several problems, one of which I have no solution for. First, how do I get my game noticed by the general AGS game playing community? Having never released something before, I have very little street cred in the AGS world...something which I can understand. These forums are FILLED with people who haven't ever made an AGS game...as, apparently, is the #AGS irc channel. 

So my solution to this was to make a second game, a short game called Prodigal 0, who's story ties INTO my main game, Prodigal, but is ultimately tangential to the actual storyline. That means it isn't a demo, it is its own creation. But it will fill in a couple of blanks when you play Prodigal, because you'll go "hey, that event happened in Prodigal 0!"

Great so far! So I build the minigame...3 screens, 1 puzzle, and a taste of what's in store for Prodigal...and then I hit my second, larger, problem.

I have no webspace, and 0 knowledge of how to build one. I know there is a list of free servers over in the "games in production" forum, but most of them are pretty poor, and again, I have no knowledge of how to utilize them...and I don't know anyone who does. What can I do? Well...I can turn to the AGS community and see if someone would be willing to put my game up in their webspace. WAIT! I have no street cred! Nobody who can do that will help me! ARGH! I'm caught in a loop!

So I'm kind of stuck, here. I can't get credibility without releasing something, and I can't get help releasing something because I have no credibility! Help!

So I guess what I'm asking, therefore, is how do I get out of this circle? Is there some kind AGS soul who will trust the new guy enough to play through my alpha and see if they are willing to help me host this game? If nothing else, you'll get to try a new AGS game before it comes out...and you might even enjoy doing it, too!

Otherwise, how am I ever going to get people to believe that I'm not just another guy who has a great idea and does nothing with it?

Thank you for listening to my rant-o'-frustration-and-plea-for-help,
Trisk

Hey everyone, I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to whip up a couple of GUIs for my game, Prodigal. Check it out in the AGS games in production forum! I basically need a save and a load GUI created, and possibly an options window with speed and volume controls. I have all the graphics already done, so it would basically be just the coding.

I tried to make 'em myself, but I keep getting weird bugs, and the more I tried to fix them, the more messed up they got...

If you would be willing to help, could you email me at:

real_trisk@yahoo.com

Thanks a million!
Trisk

---May 15th update---

Whew...haven't updated for a while...but that isn't because work has slowed any on the game. The entire middle portion of the game is finished now! Everything is starting to take shape beautifully. The game now has over 1600 frames of animation, over 60 sound effects, and 21 music tracks. I'm also over 100 rooms! Woohoo!

Bex has joined the team! She's helping with animation cells and some monster designs. The animation help is much appreciated! This project has expanded far beyond what I'd originally intended, and trying to do everything myself was beginning to get overwhelming...I'm going to have my hands full just rendering all the 3D locations for the final part of the game.

Edgar and I are working on the "revelations" cutscene number 1, where alot of the back story (at least, the back story that will actually be visible in this game) will be revealed. He's doing a fantastic job! He's really helping the far-reaching story of this game come to life! Peter Thomas is also working on spooky music for this part of the game, based on a concept midi file I sent him.

So what's next? Lots'n lots of complicated 3D rendering. Making the last part of the game rendered in the Doom 3 engine will make it look fantastic, but as anyone who's rendered graphics in Qradiant can tell you, Doom 3 is a complex, somewhat clunky engine to render in. All complex geometry must be rendered in patch meshes instead of brushes...very different from SeriousEd. Still, patch meshes look great once you're done, so onward I will go!

Finally, after alot of deliberation, I've officially named the game! As I stated before, Realm of Darkness was NEVER meant to be the final name of this game. I needed some kind of working title, and looking up at my games shelf, the first one my eyes rested on was "Realms of the Haunting", so I just whipped up a quick name based on that. So what have I decided on? It is called "Prodigal"! A name that fits the game in more ways than one, and will hopefully be memorable at the same time!

So there! I'll update as I get more into the 3D renders of the final moments of the game.

Trisk

I've decided on "Prodigal" for my name. Short and descriptive of the plot, I think it'll stick in your head. Thanks all!

(And yes, "Prey" is back in developement from 3D Realms and Human Head. Uses a heavily modified Doom3 engine. Expose was in the most recent US PC Gamer magazine. Looks VERY cool...)

I did try moving that line into room 159 too...still the same thing happens. I don't have any StartCutscene() / EndCutscene() calls, because the player chooses if they want to watch the cutscene or not before it starts.

Here's a thought...could this line of code only work for Display messages in SCRIPTS? The textboxes I've got are non-scripted boxes...

Trisk

edit: Nope. Tried it and it STILL lets me skip even a fully scripted display message.

I just have an object, with the mouse locked to the use icon. When the user clicks on the "Yes" hotspot, it simply sends the game into the first intro screen. Here's the code. It's so simple, I don't know what could possibly be wrong with it...

ObjectOff(2);       //These turn off the different clickable options.
Wait(5);
ObjectOff(1);
Wait(5);
ObjectOff(0);
Wait(5);
SetGUIClickable(ICONBAR, 1);
SetGUIClickable(INVENTORY, 1);       //These turn back on the GUI.
HideMouseCursor();        //Hides mouse cursor
DisableInterface();        //Does nothing usefull, but left in anyway.
SetSkipSpeech(2);        //Makes it so the speech lines aren't skipable.
game.skip_display = 2;       //Doesn't seem to work.
NewRoom(159);       //loads the first room of the intro movie.

Yeah, that is exactly what I'm looking for, Ashen!  Unfortunantly, it doesn't work.

I put in
game.skip_display = 2;

but it still lets the player skip...am I using it wrong? I just put it in the cutscene instruction code after the player clicks on "Yes" to watch the cutscene...

Trisk

I'm confused again.Ã,  : I think this must again be easy but I don't get what I'm doing wrong. For my intro cutscene, I don't want the player to be able to click through the text. I've got alot of sound, music, and animation timed to the time it takes text to dissappear on its own.

the first thing I tried was passing a DisableInterface() and EnableInterface()Ã,  in the script. Didn't work. I could still click through every bit of text. Is this a bug? It seems from the help file like this command SHOULD be the one to use...but it doesn't do anything.

Then I found the SetSkipSpeech(2) option, which works great for the speech text, but I can still click through the naration text boxes.

I suppose I can live with just using SetSkipSpeech, because most stuff is timed to speech, but I'd sure like to just cleanly disable the interface... I've looked over the BFAQ and help files, as well as searching the forums, but I haven't had any luck...

Any ideas would be really appreciated!
Trisk

Hmm...well, those are interesting thoughts, all.

Peter Thomas, these titles actually DO all fit the plot in one way or another...I AM actually trying to go for a title that makes no sense until you've finished the game, and then it suddenly is clear and obvious. I can see your point that they are too pretentious though...

Snarky, I agree that "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is one of the coolest names for a game EVER. I REALLY would love to dream up a name that cool...but it is really harder than you'd think. I want the title to fit the game's plot, and not just be out of left field.

Andail, I agree that Poe has great names for his stuff, and a flair for the macabre...but I don't want to rip off one of his names, especially since the game really isn't anything like his works. Again, these titles all *DO* fit the plot in one way or another, just as "The Pit and the Pendulum" fits that short story. All these names are brainstormed based on the plot at hand, even if it sounds as though I just plucked them out of the air.

Yickle, yeah that is a great article. He makes some EXTREMELY valid points about what not to do...but that doesn't help a whole lot with what TO do. You can only go so far with the English language before you've used up all the single word names available.

Plus, finding a title that conveys unease and tension in one word is pretty darn hard. I notice that 3D Realm's names ALL violate Millars rules pretty heavily. "Rise of the Triad: Dark Wars"? or how about "Duke Nukem Forever"? or even "Terminal Velocity"? And what does "Max Payne" tell me, the gamer, about the game? All horrible names by his own standards. About the only one that fits his descriptions is their newly announced "Prey". Good name, instantly intriguing.

Sigh...overall, I do see an overall problem with all these names. I'll go back to the drawing board and see if I can somehow dream up something shorter. Unfortunantly, it will be at the expense of descriptiveness, as these titles all heavily forshadow different story elements. :/

Any other comments, guys? Please give 'em! This is an interesting conversation.

Oooo...how about "Prodigal", guys? Would that be an interesting title that is more memorable? I just thought of that...

Hey guys, we've been brainstorming on a list of apt names for our game, which was up until now called "Realm of Darkness." It is time it got its final moniker.

All of these fit in one way or another to the plot. So what grabs you the most? When considering, note that this is a horror/thriller style game...so I want a name that sounds both highly intriguing and a little macabre. Feel free to suggest something along these lines if you think it sounds cool...

So what name grabs you the best?

Realm of Darkness (The old working title.)
Dominion of Obscurity
Dominion of Shadows
Circle of Darkness
Ring of Darkness
Ring of Shadows
Ring of Obscurity
Cycle of Darkness
The Last Stand of Darkness
The Cycle Remaining
The Cycle Lingering
Bastion of Sanity
Darkness Unending
Chains of Darkness
Liberation from Darkness
Chains and Liberation
The Chains of Liberation
The Agony of Liberation
The Symptom of Agony

Let me know what you all think! I'll really appreciate it!

laters,
Trisk

Read the entire thread before you make off-hand, insulting comments please, Abisso. Some people already made this comment, and I responded to it.

I don't know how to break this to you, strazer...but you are THE MAN!!!

Thanks so much! It works like a charm! Three cheers!

OK, I put that into the global script, like so:

---------------------------------
function on_event(int event, int data) {
Ã,  //...

Ã,  if (event == LOSE_INVENTORY) { // if player just lost an inv item

Ã,  Ã,  if ((IsGUIOn(INVENTORY)) && (GetCursorMode() == MODE_WALK)) // if the inv GUI is displayed and mouse has changed to walk mode (lost active inv item)
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  SetCursorMode(MODE_USE); // set mouse to use mode
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  SetMouseCursor(6);  //set mouse icon to pointer
Ã,  }

Ã,  //...
}

--------------------------------
If I combine, everything works beautifully. However, If I use an item on another item that DOESN'T get removed from the inventory - e.g. using a roll of tape on a piece of glass tapes one end of the glass so you can hold it without cutting yourself, but it doesn't use up the whole tape roll - the icon STILL turns into an arrow, but ACTS as if it is still the roll of tape. So I still have to click on the arrow to turn the icon back into MODE_USE.

I'm really confused by why it would do that...the criteria of the "if" statement look valid...

-confused,
Trisk

I'm sorry if this is repeating something there is already a solution for, but I've looked everywhere in the BFAQ and in the AGS help file, as well as searching in the forums, but I can't find a solution to this madeningly simple problem.

I'm using the custom inventory GUI, and I haven't really made any modifications to it yet. At several points in my game, I have the player combining several items to create a different item. I use a simple script to do this. At the end of the script, I use an AddInventory command and two LoseInventory commands. Viola, items combined.

The problem is, when I LoseInventory the item that WAS the mouse cursor, the cursor changes to the WALK icon, and you can't interact with the inventory any more until you click on the arrow button. There has to be a way to stop AGS from doing this? Why would it ever change to walk in the inventory?

I suppose in the script I could just manually return the mouse cursor to an arrow, but I'd have to add that code into EVERY combination script, which seems really inefficient to me...

Any help would be awesome!
Trisk

---April 20th update---

Work continues at a brisk pace! The middle portion on the game is quickly taking shape. This means adding TONS of dialog trees. The middle portion of the story has all the character interactions in it, which means lots and lots of coding.

I've also spent the last week going back to the first part and adding all the incidental animations and ambient sound I've been meaning to add. Bugs flitting around lights, shadows moving in doorways, fire crackling in the fireplace...

All of which brings the current sprite tally up to 1383! And there is still so much to do.

Edgar Rocha signed on to draw some character closups for the game! Thank you so much Edgar! He submitted the first two to me, and they look absolutely fantastic! He captured the classic Sierra style of character art PERFECTLY! They look much better than I ever could have hoped to achieve, and will lend vast amounts of glitter to the game! Thanks so much, Edgar!

I also finally went out and bought myself some decent sound recording equipment, and have spent the last several weeks driving and walking all around the area recording sounds to go in the game. You get some pretty weird looks from people when you are standing in the middle of a swamp with your arm outstretched holding a microphone, believe me. :b

Originally, I had mock-up sounds inserted from Serious Sam, but I'm very proud of my new stuff. Not only does it fit the locations better, but now I can say I've made 100% of the sound in the game myself...well, almost. 95%, at least.

Finally, I decided the look of the game is solid enough in my mind to start working on my GUI art. It will remain close to the AGS original in functionality, as I am making a Sierra-style game, but the graphics will be all my own. I'm still going back and forth in my mind about if I should use a Sierra-style options menu, or if I should leave it the more simple AGS bar. There is something to be said for simplicity...Anyway, I'll have a screenshot ready for next week's update...

Laters,
Trisk