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Nah I was just making sure, you see, we used to post them as text files in the writing contest, as they're easier to download and read, rather than filling a whole page with long posts. Of course with 350~ words that's not an issue. That, and the text looks nicer in a text editor than on a forum page.

Of course it looks better with some make-up. That's why it says:
"- Post your entries (or link to your entry) in this thread."
But people seem to prefer just posting it here.


@DarkMaster:  Your story is original and engaging, but it's about 200 words too long, which is just too much. You'll have to shorten it if you want to be included in the voting.

in room_Load or room_AfterFadeIn, put:

Code: ags

  SetTimer(1, 400);

40 is one second, so 400 will be about 10 seconds.
in the repeatedly execute of that room, put:

Code: ags

if (IsTimerExpired(1) == 1) {
  character.Say("Please click on the start-button. It's getting boring now.");
}

SetTimer works for me.

I might just take advantage of everyone's ideas and submit my own the last day.

Or you could just ask a dozen friends to vote for you.
The idea of this competition is to practise your writing skills. I'm naively assuming it will work this way, since there is no real profit to gain from winning.

If it doesn't work, we can always have a system where it's not public before the deadline, but I'm not distrusting this forum's users beforehand. And even if you steal someones brilliant idea, you still have to write it. Just like you would still have to draw a picture in one of the drawing comps.

Well yeah, who needs actors.

Seriously though, this is a delayed april fool's right?

[FORTNIGHTLY WRITING COMPETITION]

It's the first, the one, the only: FORTNIGHTLY WRITING COMPETITION (drumroll)

RULES:

- Write a story of around 200-350 words on the subject of The Beach
- Entries must be in before 24 May
- Post your entries (or link to your entry) in this thread
- Voting will take place on 24-25 May
- The winner sets the subject for the next competition and starts the next competition
- Top three entries will get a title (the writers equivalent of a trophy)

Happy writing!


VOTING'S ON:

Everyone gets two votes. Explain why you liked those entries.
Giving comments on other entries is encouraged
Voting end monday morning


The top three entrants will be awarded the
“Order of the Big Blue Pencil” 

The first runner up will in addition receive the title
“Hero of the Big Blue Pencil”


and the winner will be awarded the title
“Champion of the Big Blue Pencil”


Oh, and btw: there are small, insignificant trophies which come with these grand, prestigious titles:
      

I don't think Saddam viewed himself as being evil. Same goes for Hitler. I'm theoretically pro-globalisation but there's loads of things that can go wrong. Not that it will be an evil planetery government, just that it will be severely crippled like the EU.

Some European people have the impression that the USA presidents are just the face and the front of some powerful groups. The general idea is that there is no difference between candidate A or B.

Well, that's what I said the last time. But I think the agenda for the american government would have been very different had Gore been elected president. (For the record, I'm European.)

I never bought any music online, because I want something tangible. (I do buy rare stuff at online stores though.)

I'm still waiting for some kind of system where you pay for the royalties and get a license to get it in other media at cost price. Why should I buy the CD if I already have it in vinyl? I consider it legal to download an album for free which I have on vinyl - I ripped all my CD's as well.

Well, there is such a thing as the comic process. As you probably know, humor is a very delicate thing; it can go wrong in so many ways.
Most humor arises from playing with expectancy: Man walks into a bar with a pig, the barman asks: did you win him at a fair? The pig says: Yes.  You'd expect the man to answer, therefore funny.
The fact that you probably didn't laugh now, is because the joke is old. In fact, it's so old it has a beard a muslim fundamentalist would be jealous of.

I remember a situation in Monkey Island 2 where you have to use a dog to get a piece of the map. I tried for hours to find something to get the dog to follow me or something, until I accidentally 'picked up the dog' and put it in my pocket. This made me laugh, since I didn't expect the dog to be an inventory item.

Or take for instance the classic Monty Python sketch "The Ministry of Silly Walks". What they did is take a normal situation - man tries to get subsidy - and combine that with the silly idea of him getting subsidy for the way he walks (and him needing money to further develop his funny walk).

What I'm saying is, you can just sit and write a comic scene by thinking of odd combinations:
- someone tries to lose money but keeps getting it returned by honest finders;
- a mugger gets beaten up by an old man;
- an accountant tries to become a lion tamer;
- a zombie tries to be a hero / just a normal person.

One thing you have to watch for is old jokes. While characters reading the script to the show they're in was mildly funny in the 60's, it wasn't anymore in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
Also, the old man that's as strong as a bodybuilder has also been used many times.


There is the difference between a. funny situations and b. normal situations with jokes thrown in, like you said. My opinion is that the beginning of DiscWorld is funny, because you're told to fight a dragon that doesn't exist. This is a parody of the fantasy genre.
And it's a good parody, because it doesn't just copy something and make you smile because you recognize it (like in the Family Guy Blue Harvest episode) but because it uses the conventions of the genre and offers a different take on it.


While there is no substitute for inspiration and being 'naturally funny', you can write some funny stuff without actually being funny (Ricky Gervaise for instance isn't naturally funny, but he writes very funny stuff).
Also, what I think is funny might not even make you smile. It's very personal and dependent on where I expect a story to develop into.
I believe the difference between 'naturally funny' people and 'not funny' people is that naturally funny people are quicker in recognizing funny situations, those odd combinations that make us think: "Ha! That's another way of looking at it."


Wow, my post suddenly turned into an essay. Thank you, dear readers, for bearing with me until the end.
Hope this helps, Babar.

[This forum has a search fuction!]

This forum has a search fuction!
It's helped me solve lots of (scripting) problems I had.

I can download B-1 as well, and I'm not registered on Mediafire (never will be either).
To satisfy your curiosities almost, here's A-2 minus Andails ending, but with an exciting cliffhanger.

So, what's up with this?

Why aren't the other last people in the branch uploading their stories? Will we have a competition writing the last bit of branch B-1?

Any idea why that happened?

This error message pops up when you manually deleted the function room_Load from the roomscript of room 2.
You could have done this earlier, since the error message doesn't show up until you go to room 2 in the game.

Couldn't you adjust the character.AnimationSpeed?

And you might want to use 

Code: ags

if (player.Room==cBoy.Room)

instead of GlobalInt 11.

I'm not  sure, but I think the second block won't ever get run because the timer is placed in an off state after you check it.
If I'm right this should fix it:

Code: ags

if (IsTimerExpired (1) == 1 && GetGlobalInt(11)==1) {
  if (GetGlobalInt(16)==0) {
     cBoy.LockView(19);
     cBoy.Animate(0, 1, eOnce, eBlock, eForwards);
     cBoy.Animate(3, 4, eOnce, eNoBlock, eForwards);
    SetTimer (1, GetGameSpeed()*15);
  }
  else {
     cBoy.LockView(26);
     cBoy.Animate(5 , 1, eOnce, eBlock, eForwards);
     cBoy.Say("y hallo thar");
    SetTimer (1, GetGameSpeed()*15);
  }
}

If you need someone to bounce you're ideas off, I'm willing to help writing / designing puzzles.

Expanding on InCreator's ideas, what about a rich adventurer (think Steve Fossett), who takes his spoiled good-for-nothing daughter (think Paris Hilton) along on a journey and they get stranded on a small island and the father is badly wounded.

They know they will be found but it could be a day or a week, so in the mean time the spoiled daughter has to - make a fire, - collect things from the ship that have washed ashore (I can see a puzzle here with something vital just out of reach) - get food / get a coconut down from a high palm tree, but she can't climb - make a small shelter.
You can use the father character to tell you how to do things, but since he weak, you'll have to make sense of what he's saying. This seems like a nice dramatic relationship, with the daughter scared and unsure and the father being sure they'll be rescued, but badly hurt.
There could be a tearjerky cutscene when night falls, the father sleeping and the daughter talking to herself about how scared she is they won't find them on such a small island.

As a closer, in the morning there's a plane flying and the last puzzle is to attract attention (the plane turns around as soon as your attentiongrabber is done).

A thought about the background: The scene could be a wide piece of beach, possibly looping.

It is the function ags calls on to change room as far as i know, the change room function first calls on room save and then room load fro a different room. this is how i always understood it maybe I'm wrong.
either way no in my room two script there is only two function change room and interact with something in the corner

SSH didn't ask what it was (I think he knows ) but whether it was in the room script. And you're not 100% correct, room_Load gets called after your player has changed room, but before the background is loaded.
I think your problem will be solved by double-clicking on room_Load in the properties tab. It will create the function and take you to the room script.

The problem is that in your room script, the program is looking for

Code: ags

function room_Load () {
  //Enter code here
} 

and it isn't there. You could also add this to the room script manually, that will also fix it.

While tesseract is a kick-ass word, it's a 4D cube, so it doesn't make sense to me.

What about something like: AdventureCube, AdventureDepth or AdventureSpace.

(Novel factory, that immediately reminds me of Philip Parker.  If you're wondering what's so special about him, check out how many books he's written.

and, some more information on this literary giant: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6237305.html)

Help Me!!! I am totally Dumb...

You're not the only dumb person in this thread.

But since I'm too nice for my own good, here's a link: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=29766.0

Oh yeah: MashPotato rocks!

Totally. But who would read such aimless writing?