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So...here I am...my project of 11 months, my baby, Prodigal, has been released. I've completed the course, I've run the race. The game is out. It is pretty much bug free...(knock on wood.) I've announced it, and all is grand and stuff...

For the last 11 months I've been waiting for this day, and yet now that it is here, I'm realizing something else: for 11 months I've lived, walked, talked, ate and slept AGS. It was what I did to the exclusion of all my other hobbies. And now it is over...and I don't know what to do with myself!!! ARGH!!!

So now I've got to try and remember my old hobbies. Things like:

1.) Closing my eyes and running full tilt until I smash headlong into something.

2.) Stab needles through those little meaty webs inbetween your fingers.

3.) Sharpening ALL pencils in the house, even the mechanical ones.

4.) Trying hard to remember how to eat. (Where does the food go again?)

5.) Sitting. Alone. In a chair. Alone. Bored. Crying. Alone.

6.) Learning how to live without "Mystery Science Theater 3000" playing CONSTANTLY in the DVD player. Seriously, every time I worked on Prodigal, MST3K was there.

7.) Doing laundry. (So THAT'S where that Gouda smell was coming from!)

8.) Stumbling clumsily into the light of the so called "Real World" and trying to shield my pasty, AGS coding skin from its horribly positive effects. Bonus points if women DON'T run screaming at the sight of me!

9.) Standing dully under a stream of pee-warm while rubbing sticks of scented fat and lye over myself in a strange pagan ritual called "showering."

10.) Underpants: your friend.

Even with all these ideas, I'll probably end up like all the other out of work AGS coders: a homeless bum lying in the gutter with a broken mouse clutched in one hand, and an empty bottle wrapped in brown paper clutched lovingly in the other...dreaming up sequel ideas.

Trisk

prodigal.lilgryphmaster.com

(Got any ideas to add to my list?)

Barbarian. Read the manual! :b there is a way to make him walk faster, but you'll have to go read it to find out. ;b

As for his facial features, I designed the sprites to look as close as I possibly could get them to Sierra style sprites. All my warm fuzzies of adventure gaming come from the old Sierra games, not the Lucasarts games. That's why they look that way.

Specifically, I used the general character design style of "Quest for Glory 1: So You Want to be a Hero" and "Space Quest IV" as my inspiration for character design. The character details come from the frequent character closups, as was always the case with the old Sierra games.

Finally, as for the inventory...sigh, yes, I am aware of this problem. My GUI design had this one flaw. I tried about 1000 different designs for the inventory GUI graphics, and this one was the most visible, aside from black, which I didn't like because it wasn't thematically correct. I tried to make MOST of the inventory items visible on it...I think once you get used to it you won't have any problems. Least wise, my Beta testers seemed to be OK with it...

Prodigal is finally out! Get your horror/thriller fix today! Turn down the lights, crank up the volume, and download from the AGS webpage in the "Full length games" section,Ã,  This link right here.

Filled with FMV, a sterio .mp3 soundtrack of spooky music and sound, character art by the soon-to-be-legendary Edgar Rocha, an epic story spanning centuries, and 3D rendered art by yours truly, Prodigal is a game like no other!

If you enjoy it, spread the word!

And let me know what you think!

real_trisk[at]yahoo[dot]com

Trisk

---11/09/05 Update---

Prodigal version 1.0 is released! Sorry it was a day late...totally my fault. For some reason I couldn't get the file to upload to the webmaster. My computer kept bombing out halfway through the upload. By the time I finally got it to him, there wasn't much left of Tuesday. But it's here now! Go download it now! Turn down the lights, crank up the sound! It's time to enter the world of Prodigal!

prodigal.lilgryphmaster.com

If you like it, spread the word! And drop me an email! Now I gotta go figure out what I need to do to get it converted over to a completed game in the AGS webpage...will the moderators lock this thread, so I need to start a new one over in the completed games forum, or will they move this one over? Time to go check it out.

yours,
Trisk

---Monday 11/07/05 Update---

Its 12:10 in the morning where I am, and I'm so tired I can hardly type. But I am VERY proud to announce that at long last Prodigal is locked down at version 1.0!!!

The Beta has been loooong and frustrating, but the game is finally complete, and I am reasonably certain it is bug free. I've cleared it with lilgryphmaster, and we are gonna post it on Tuesday!

Turn off the lights, put on a pair of headphones, and get ready to enter the horror world of Prodigal!

Oh, and lemme know what you think!

prodigal.lilgryphmaster.com

Trisk

Well, you always have the option of deleting it. :b

The reason I decided to do that is because of my experiences playing games like Pleurghburg. I ended up searching the internet for a LONG time to find a walkthrough of the game. Some of the more esoteric AGS games can be monsterously hard to find walkthroughs for...so I wanted to make sure mine wasn't that way.

I want you to enjoy the story, not get stuck and give up and go do something else...

Laters,
Trisk

OK, I don't know how to do the hidden text trick, so I'll just write the answer to the problem with Prodigal 0 here. Use the BOOK on the portal. Instant tinder!

As to what the heck is going on...Prodigal will explain what is happening in Prodigal 0. Prodigal 0 is just a taste of what is to come in the main game! I made it confusing on purpose. :b The main game won't be like that at all.

I'm wrapping up Beta testing. I'm pretty sure we're bug free at this point. (Knock on wood) I need to do a final pass through the text to remove any speelling heirrors, but other than that, we are on track for release next week!

Spread the word!
Trisk

BTW, I'm including a full walkthrough along with the game when you download it. No more getting stuck and having to hunt around online for answers! Hopefully you all will like this...? :b

Hmmm...sounds like the general concensus is that RARs are OK to use? Nobody said if they'd ever uploaded a file as a RAR and had problems with people not knowing what to do with it...?

lol cowards? What do you mean?

Hey everyone, can I get your opinion? I'm near release for my game, and Steve Mccrea just pointed out that rar files are quite a bit smaller than zip files. I've always known this, but I've always avoided rar figuring that alot of people don't have the ability to uncompress it.

Am I wrong to think that? Have any of you ever released a rar file, and if so, did alot of people not know what to do with it?


for example:
I just compressed all the Prodigal game data, minus the music.vox file, and with Kzip I got a 42 meg file...but compressing the same files with Winrar yielded a much smaller 31 meg file! This would save alot for the people who are still on a modem! (like me)

---October 25 Update---

Prodigal is in the final phase of testing! With any luck, we'll have version 1.0 in the next couple of weeks! A few scraps to clean up, and then add the names of those who helped beta test (and remove the names of those who were no help whatsoever.)

When I hit release, I'll be announcing it from the mountain tops! It looks like the final build will clock in at just over 50mb. I'm sorry to those of you who have modems (I have one too, so I feel your pain.)

This game features a ton of digital sound, music, and FMV. I've done everything I can to compress it as much as is possible, using Kzip to shave off another 2 megs over what any other compression program can do. When you see and hear the world, I think you'll think it is worth it.

Expect the final release announcement soon, both here and anywhere else I can find to put it up!

Trisk

Anybody out there willing to beta test Prodigal? Send me an email! I need beta testers who are willing to work through the game and COMMUNICATE!! The only thing holding this game from release is lack of testing!

email me at:

real_trisk(at)yahoo(dot)com

get your name in the credits!

-Trisk

Ahha. Now we get to the heart of your comments on my game. I would point out that my game style and art is COMPLETELY different from this. Just because 3D didn't work for you doesn't mean that it can't work for anybody.

Have you actually played Prodigal 0, Esper? ANYONE who has played the game has no problem with the sprites. That includes my Beta team. I'm removing those %#@$ pictures from the post to stop this really pointless arguement. As I said before, it is those pictures that look weird, not the game. Go read Peter Thomas' post on this thread. He has played the game, he can back me up. (And thank YOU for backing me up too, Ozzie!)

As for the renders, yes, that is Serious Engine. I can hardly wait for Serious Engine 2 to come out in October. Then I'll REALLY be able to do good stuff! WHEE!!! The end of the game was rendered in Doom 3, due to its superior ability to render animated lighting. I don't think I have any shots of that up here, though. There is at least one on the website.

Iv4n, the release date is "When it's done". I'm still estimating a fall release of the game, and I don't see any reason currently why that won't happen. There are some things in the wings though... ...look here or on the webpage for more updates if anything should happen.

prodigal.lilgryphmaster.com

laters,
Trisk

Gahhhhh...I don't even want to admit what it was I was doing, it's so dumb. After I complete a whole game, I'm supposed to know how to use AGS, aren't I? :/

When I converted the game over to 16bit color, I forgot to reimport that string of sprites in high color, so when the game got to using them, it aparently can't tint 8bit color sprites. Dumb, dumb dumb. Sigh...

Thanks though, Strazer!

---September 09 Update---

Prodigal has hit the Alpha stage of developement! The entire game is complete from beginning to end! Version .1 has been posted to a secret web page for the beta testers to begin working on it!

So far, only two of my beta testers have completed the game, but they both really enjoyed it.

I've since fixed over 20 bugs and issues, and have added several spooky elements to the game, as well as beginning to rework several of the early cutscenes to make them higher quality. I want to make the game so polished it shines!

The game is standing now at

4300 sprites
Around 180 rooms
Over 100 sounds
Over 30 music tracks

The compile is now over 100 megabytes! Thank goodness for .zip compression!

If you think you might be interested in Beta testing Prodigal, AND have previous experience beta testing games, send me an email at

real_trisk at yahoo dot com

be sure to include what project you did Beta work on!

laters,
Trisk

I have a room where I want to tint Ego. However, he is animated, so I do a lockview and then run an animation cycle. He remains tinted while on his normal view, but when the lockview is called, he is suddenly full bright and untinted. I have tested with a reduced light level, and the same thing happens.

I even tried changing his main view instead of doing the lockview, but as soon as his animation starts, the same thing happens.

Is this a bug in AGS, I'm guessing, so there is nothing I can do about it?

Trisk

Hey guys! This is pretty much a stock GUI I found on a tutorial webpage somewhere, but it doesn't work at all. The game just crashes when you try to save...stating problems in the code lines...then "Error: DeleteSprite" or something of that nature. The problem is, it doesn't display it all the time, sometimes it works...And if you try to save over a game you already made, it will act like it worked, but won't save at all! It also won't display the confirmation GUI...guh, this tutorial is so bad it makes my head hurt...and it was the better one I could find...

If there is a better tutorial out there for making your own save/load GUIs, could anyone turn me on to it? I got this one off of

http://www.twin-design.com/agsezine/9/tutorial.cfm

So without further ado, here is the code:

Code: ags

function sgs_getslots() {

  int i = 1; //Loop counter starts at 1

  while (i <= 6) {

    if (GetSaveSlotDescription(i, sgs_struct[i].t)) { //Slot exists

      sgs_struct[i].spr=LoadSaveSlotScreenshot(i, SGS_WIDTH,  SGS_HEIGHT);

    }

    else { //There is no saved game for this slot

      StrCopy(sgs_struct[i].t, ""); //Blank description

      sgs_struct[i].spr=SGS_EMPTY_SPRITE;

    }

    

    SetLabelText(SAVELOAD, 6+i, sgs_struct[i].t); //Set GUI label to description

    SetLabelColor(SAVELOAD, 6+i, SGS_LABEL_COLOR); //Set GUI label color

    SetButtonPic(SAVELOAD, i, 1, sgs_struct[i].spr); //Set button to have screenshot pic

    i=i+1; //next slot

  }

  //Get current game ss, too

  Wait(1); //make sure the screen is updated

  SaveGameSlot(100, "temp"); //Save current game in temp slot

  sgs_struct[0].spr=LoadSaveSlotScreenshot(100, SGS_WIDTH,  SGS_HEIGHT); //load up screenshot

  DeleteSaveSlot(100); //Delete tomporary slot

}

 

function sgs_close() { //This cleans out sprite cache and eliminates memory leaks

  int i=0;

  GUIOff(SAVELOAD);

  SetDefaultCursor(); //restores cursor back to how it was

  while (i <= 6) {

    if (sgs_struct[i].spr != SGS_EMPTY_SPRITE) {

      DeleteSprite(sgs_struct[i].spr);

    }

    i=i+1;

  }

  sgs_saveload=0;

}

 

 

function sgs_do_save() {

  sgs_close(); // Close the GUI

  Wait(1); //Make sure the screen is updated without the GUI

  SaveGameSlot(sgs_selected_slot, sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t);

}

 

 

function sgs_check_do_save() {

  if (sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].spr != SGS_EMPTY_SPRITE) { //already a game there

    sgs_saveload=3; //Record that we are in the "confirm" state

    CentreGUI(CONFIRM);

    GUIOn(CONFIRM);

  }

  else {

    sgs_do_save();

  }

}

 

function sgs_save() {

  SetLabelText(SAVELOAD, 0, "Save Game");

  sgs_saveload = 1; //changing this int to 1 means save game.

  sgs_selected_slot = -1; //Make the currently selected slot "none."

  sgs_getslots(); //call another function to get screenshots loaded

  CentreGUI(SAVELOAD);

  GUIOn(SAVELOAD);

  SetMouseCursor(6); //Use the pointer cursor

}

 

function sgs_load() {

  SetLabelText(SAVELOAD, 0, "Load Game");

  

  sgs_saveload = 2; //changing the int to 2 means load game.

  sgs_selected_slot = -1; //Make the currently selected slot "none."

  sgs_getslots(); //call another function to get screenshots loaded

  CentreGUI(SAVELOAD);

  GUIOn(SAVELOAD);

  SetMouseCursor(6); //pointer cursor

}

 

function sgs_interface_click (int button) {

  int labl; //loop variable

  

  if (sgs_saveload == 3) { //CONFIRM dialog

    GUIOff(CONFIRM); //turn off GUI either way

    sgs_saveload=2; //Back to save state

    if (button == 1) { //OK

      sgs_do_save();

    } //else Cancel, so do nothing

  }

  else { //SAVELOAD dialog

    if ((button == 14) || ((button == 13) && (sgs_selected_slot < 0))) { //Cancel or OK with nothing selected

      sgs_close();

    }

    

    else if (button == 13) { //OK

      if (sgs_saveload == 1) {//SAVE the game

        sgs_check_do_save();

      }

      else { //LOAD

        sgs_close();

        RestoreGameSlot(sgs_selected_slot);

      }

    }

    else if ((button <= 6) && ((sgs_saveload == 1) || (sgs_struct[button].spr != SGS_EMPTY_SPRITE))) {

      if (sgs_saveload == 1) { //SAVE

        if (sgs_selected_slot > 0) { //If a different slot was already selected

          SetButtonPic(SAVELOAD, sgs_selected_slot, 1, sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].spr); //Set the old slot back to its saved picture

          if (GetSaveSlotDescription(sgs_selected_slot, sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t) == 0) { //Get the old slot description back, too.

            StrCopy(sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t, ""); //If there is no description, use and empty string

          }

          SetLabelText(SAVELOAD, 6+sgs_selected_slot, sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t); //Set the GUI label to the old description

        }

        SetButtonPic(SAVELOAD, button, 1, sgs_struct[0].spr); //change selected button to have current game screenshot

      }

      

      sgs_selected_slot = button;

      WaitMouseKey(20); //check for double-click

      if (IsButtonDown(LEFT)) { //Double-click

        if (sgs_saveload == 1) { //Save

          sgs_check_do_save(); //causes a save immediately

        }

        else {

          sgs_close();

          RestoreGameSlot(sgs_selected_slot);

        }

      }

      

      //We now highlight the selected slot by setting it's corresponding label color

      

      labl = 1;

      while (labl <= 6) {

        SetLabelColor(SAVELOAD, 6+labl, SGS_LABEL_COLOR); //whatever I said it was

        labl=labl+1;

      }

      SetLabelColor(SAVELOAD, 6+button, SGS_SELECT_COLOR); //again, whatever I said it was

    }

  }

}

 

 

 

 

function sgs_on_key_press(int keycode) {

  int len;

  if ((sgs_saveload == 1) && (sgs_selected_slot > 0)) {

    //only run this code on condition:

    //a) doing a SAVE (sgs_saveload == 1)

    //b) a save slot IS selected (sgs_selected_slot > 0)

    len = StrLen(sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t); // Get the current length of the slot description

    

    if ((keycode == 8) && (len>0)) { //Delete key pressed and there is something to delete

      StrSetCharAt(sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t, len-1, 0); //Erase current character

    }

    if (keycode == 13) { //ENTER is pressed

      sgs_check_do_save();

    }

    if ((keycode >= ' ') && (keycode < 127) && (len < 18)) { //Normal character

    //add this character on end of string:

      StrFormat(sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t, "%s%c", sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t, keycode);

      sgs_flash=0; // This will force an update of the label

    }

  }

}

 

function sgs_repeatedly_execute() {

  string sgs_desc;

  //Save dialog typing flashing cursor

  if ((sgs_saveload == 1) && (sgs_selected_slot > 0)) {

    if (sgs_flash == 0) { //When flash count is zero, display text with cursor

      StrCopy(sgs_desc, sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t); //Copy actual text

      StrCat(sgs_desc, "*"); //and add "*" for cursor

      sgs_flash = 20; //set flash countdown

      SetLabelText(SAVELOAD, 6+sgs_selected_slot, sgs_desc);

    }

    else {

      sgs_flash = sgs_flash - 1; //decrease count

    }

    if (sgs_flash == 10) { //When flash count is ten, display text without cursor

      SetLabelText(SAVELOAD, 6+sgs_selected_slot, sgs_struct[sgs_selected_slot].t);

    }

  }

}

Any thoughts?

Edit by strazer: [ code ]yfied.

---July 25 Update---

After slowdown for a few weeks due to RL conflicts, Prodigal has resumed production! We are entering the home stretch to an alpha build! With only one area left to render in the game, things are coming together! I also took a time out and went back and inserted all the cutscenes that I hadn't done yet, and added some game logic to places that didn't have it yet.

So what is left? Well, I need to render the final room, then put it into the game, add all the sprites for it (with the help of the incredibly tallented Edgar), render the end cutscene, and put in the credits! Not much left at all!

The game now stands at:

Over 3100 sprites
Around 150 rooms
Around 100 sounds
27 Music tracks

The compile is over 60 megabytes of gaming goodness! Yeeha!

I probably won't update again till we hit alpha...which shouldn't be longer than a couple of weeks!

Would any of you ladies out there be willing to do a couple of voice samples for me? I need a high pitch, terrified sounding voice, and just a couple of sounds...should be easy to do in 10-15 minutes.

If you are interested, email me check out the Prodigal website at

http://prodigal.lilgryphmaster.com/

and then email me at:

real_trisk@yahoo.com

or PM me. I'll send you a quick in-game demo loop of what I need.

Thanks a ton!
Trisk