Messages

Believe it or not, there's something slightly bugging me about her stance in this pic:

We're looking at her from slightly above (which is a great angle with cleavage like this )  but which seems unusual to me. I'd rather have seen her from the front.
(It's only a minor point, but since this is the critics lounge I thought it worth mentioning.)

Other than that: stunningly beautiful.

Took a bit longer than expected, but I updated the images in the first post.

- Added PgDn & PgUp to be used alongside - and + to accomodate Laptop users
- Added mousewheel to scroll through verbs
- Added Tab button description (since there'll be more than one playable character in my game, it seemed like a good button to use)

So, anyone got any beef with it now?

Oh, he got high allright:



(might I add that Photoshop Phriday is the greatest competition ever?!)

Custom text windows and a gui for dialog options are two different things.

You can just set the position of the GUI by selecting that GUI and setting the top and left values (in the events tab). Try setting those both to 0, the GUI should then be in the top left.

Thanks for the positive comments guys. "Overwhelming at first, but liking at after a while." Just what I was hoping for!

Oh, wait! I noticed a problem with the keyboard. The F1...F12 keys are inconsistent. For example, there are only two keys between F1 and F5 when there should be three.

I left them out because the F1...F12 keys are wider than the keys with only one character on them. It looks better when they're left out, trust me

Also, you really should accommodate those with laptops whose keyboard designs are compacted tightly and the Num Pad is basically all but nonexistent. Perhaps use PageUp and PageDown for game speed instead, etc.

Not owning a laptop, I didn't realise. Thanks, I'll add those and update later this day.

A fast edit of how I think the perspective on the service elevator approximately should be:


Other than that the cupboards above the kitchen are way too repititive, but GarageGothic already said that (while I got ready to post  );

Definitely Zelda II, the last castle.

You start up the game.
First you have to travel across the entire map, and then through that very difficult swamp where every time your jump isn't spot on, you die. And you only have three lives.

Then you arrive at the castle with all your experiences in defeating enemies, and suddenly they changed it: your shield is now useless and enemies jump at you, rapidly-firing. And they have more hit points, and those jumping ones are impossible to hit.
Add to that the castle is a maze where everything looks the same.

So after a few dead-ends you run out of lives and have to start again.

I never finished it on the NES, but when I discovered about emulators, I downloaded it and made it through, saving all the time.

Man, what a disappointing ending after waiting 14 years.

Right on both the things you said, GG!

I think Andorxor's entry  is

Spoiler

The Magic Flute by Mozart.

[close]

Great subject! I know I won't be able to resist entering this.

Congrats Olaf!

Thanks everyone for the entries, special mention to TwinMoons tale (which I loved) for its tension and pacing.

Thanks! Might have been a little bit subtle, but at least some peope got it

Buy this album:http://www.amazon.com/Tonights-Night-Neil-Young/dp/B000002KCC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1221172348&sr=8-1

Make that not a recommendation but an order 

Thanks for the comments guys.

I updated the image in the first post: made the line to the inventory shorter, made the blue lines a little bit more purple so the don't curse that much with the brown, (and removed the tab key which for some unexplained reason was there.)

Ideally the purpose of each key press will be explained when it is required. I understand what everything does, but it's a lot to keep in my head, I need to know what it does in-game and why I'll need to do it. So a tutorial or interactive "how-to play" would be helpful, unless, of course, as the game progresses I will be told to do something and it will be explained how to do it at the first encounter... which is how most modern games do it.

As I'm making a graphical adventure, I won't be doing it like those modern games
Seriously: It's not an RTS, so you can press those keys in-game and see what they do. This help screen is intended as a reminder so you won't have to remember all those keys.
I did intend to do a one-room tutorial at the beginning of my game to explain the basics to people who've never played adventure games (as if they'd start with mine ) so I'll take your comments into account.

Hey y'all. I've been working on a help screen to go with my game.
I was going for a loose & chaotic look. But is it funny chaotic or confusingly chaotic?



If you click the button in the top-right you'll get the next screen:



The coloured lines are meant to resemble a marker pen.
I've been told my choice of colours is generally bad, so if you could tell me what you think about them, it'd be real helpful.
(Also, any criticism about my custom-coloured LucasArts style GUI is also welcome.)

My first vote goes to Olaf for originality and humor.
My second to R4L because of the gritty honesty in his story.

Add this to the room script of every room you don't want the coin to appear:

Code: ags

function on_mouse_click (MouseButton button) {
  ClaimEvent();
}

[Slight warning: scary stuff & bad language inside.]

I don't like for it to come down to just the two.

And here's another one!
It's a simple generic horror story, enjoy. (I went a little overboard, 1321 words.)

Slight warning: scary stuff & bad language inside.


DARK NIGHT

Jam got up from behind her hiding place, carefully, and peered through the window. Christ, it was pitch-black. If this hospital was downtown, there would be some light from the nightlife, but here there wasn’t even a porch light left on.
She felt with her arm where the bed was and lowered herself gently behind it, so as to not make any sound. The blood on her arm had dried up, but her heart was still pounding like an alarm, pointing him the way to her fragile body.
She listened. Some night-bird outside made a noise. And there was some soft gray noise - trees shaking in the wind? Or breathing noises? Oh my god, she thought. Unconsciously she pressed her hands against her chest to dampen the beats of her heart. She imagined hearing some distant noise, a floor below.
After sitting there for a while, rationality returned to her. If I can't see anything, then he can't see me either, she thought. Hesitantly, she stood up, listening to register any irregular sound. Feeling her way, she walked alongside the bed. She heard her footsteps, so she bent down to take off her shoes.
Her head bumped into something. She felt around, it was a cold, iron plate. There was a needle on it, and Jam decided to take it with her, as a substitute weapon. God, I hope I'll never need to use this, she thought.
She opened the door to the room, careful not to make any noise. The door creaked slightly. She imagened the killer standing on the other side of the wall. She froze. Her imagination was so vivid, it was almost real. The hallway was empty, but she could only see one side.
She stood there for one, unending moment.

Then she peeked out into the hallway. No one.

She started walking through the long hallways of the hospital. There were no lights, but she could see a little, mostly shapes.
With her left hand tightly clutched around the needle, she felt her way forward with her other hand.
Jam's thoughts went back to 15 years ago, when she was here to have her broken arm examined. It was a place of healing then. Now it was a place of violence. Damn, she didn't know anything about the person she was up against. Except that he killed a lot of people in this hospital. And that she hit him on the head after he cut her arm open. He had a balaclava on and his eyes showed no emotion when he cut her.
She tried to remember the layout of the hospital. She was walking towards the stairwell. There was this small office at the end of the hallway. Maybe the phone still worked. Electricity and phones are different cables, right?
In the dim light, she thought this was the stairwell before her. Her hand found a door handle and she opened the door. She tried the light switch, but nothing happened.
This certainly smelled like a stuffy small office, it must be it. The desk wasn't hard to find and after wiping her hand over it, she found a telephone. She held her breath and picked up the horn.
There was a tone! Relieved and excited she quickly dialed an emergency line.
The other side picked up. Jam froze. She was certain there was someone standing in the doorway. "What service do you require?" a voice on the telephone said.
Slowly, she put down the phone. Very careful not to make any noise, she stepped towards the wall. There was someone! She heard a foot turning on the floor.
The operator said something again. Jam heard someone stepping into the door. He must've heard the voice on the phone. Sweating, she sneaked sideways so she got more behind the door. There was some air moving. He must be right in front of her! Then she heard the soft steps near the desk. And the sound of the phone being picked up.
With courage out of nowhere she leapt forwards and threw her arm around a neck - with her other hand she tried to thrust the needle into it, but caught an shoulder. She pushed it a little.
The man screamed and cursed: "Goddamn!"
Jam fell off him onto the floor, out of breath.
"Ollie?" she said.

The man groaned. "Jam? Is that you?" he said baffled.
"What are you doing here?" the girl said, utterly surprised.
"Could you help me get this needle out of my arm, if you're not too busy?" he barked.
Jam got up. "Where is it?"
"Here."
Ollie found her hand and guided it to the needle.
"I'll pull it out in one go, ok?"
"Yeah."
"Here goes."
Ollie winced when she pulled it out.
"I don't think you hit anything, it's not bleeding," he said.
"Well, at least you've had your shots."
She could feel his look. "Ok, bad joke, I know."
Ollie pulled something out of his pocket. Suddenly there was light.
"Hey, don't shine directly in my face."
"God, what happened to your arm?" the boy said.
"There's someone in this hospital, some psycho," she said. "He did it."
"Yeah, I know," Ollie said and pointed the flashlight to his head. There was a big bump there. "Just managed to get away myself."
"We-we have to call the police," Jam said.
Ollie looked surprised. "Oh right. The phones work. But we better watch out, maybe someone heard our little fight."
It dawned upon Jam just now. "Fuck, yeah."
"Why don't I," said Ollie, "call the police and you keep an eye on the hallway."
"Okay." Jam moved towards the door. She heard Ollie dialing. The hallway was quiet. She heard Ollie's voice whispering into the phone and noticed she didn't feel any fear anymore. Or was that the adrenaline still screwing with her judgment?
Ollie walked up behind her. "Ok, they're coming."
"Good."
Suddenly Jam started shivering. "C-Could you..."
"What?" he whispered.
"eh... hold me?"
He said nothing, he just did it. It felt good, the warmth of another person against her. She put her head against his shoulder.

"Hey," she said.
"Hm?"
"Do you have a weapon?"
"Um, yes," Ollie stuttered. "A knife. Why do you ask?"
"I don't want to spend another moment in this place. There must be some emergency exit downstairs."
"You want to risk it?"
"Hell yeah," she said. "How did you get that bump on your head? Did the killer hit you or something?"
"Yeah...well no. He hit me with something. A boot I think."
"A boot?"

"Yeah. I'll go ahead," he said. Ollie went to the stairs. They had to be quiet, the large stairs were really echoey. Jam followed closely behind him. She felt the banister and followed it until it stopped. Odd, she didn't know where Ollie was. She put her hands in front of her mouth and whispered.
"Hey! Where are you?"
She felt naked, standing in a wide area in the dark.
"Here," he said.
"Where the hell were you?" Jam said angrily.
"Went to check the hallway. I heard nothing there."
"Let's just get out of here, ok?" Jam said.
And they walked down the stairs. Right across there was the faint light of an exit sign.
"Look!" Jam said.
"Wait," Ollie said. They stood at the last step of the stairs.

"There no one here," Jam said. She walked to the emergency exit and pulled the handle. It opened with a giant bang. "What was that?" she asked. Turning around, she saw Ollie in the faint light, his knife glistened.
"It sounded like a door being broken open," he said.
"Is it the cops?"
"Don't know," Ollie said.
Jam walked outside. The cool air... she saw the flickering of lights.
"We're saved," she said and turned around. Ollie stood there with his knife. He dropped it. "It's over," he said.

I only played a non-talkie version of MI2, but maybe this'll help:

If you put those 6 images in a view, you can assign a sound to each frame (in 3.0+ you can click on the frame and go to the events tab, in 2.x click on SOUND: 0 under the frame).

Sorry, reading again I obviously misunderstood you.

Ah... thanks!
I suspected it had something to do with that, must've clicked one time too few

About the cardinal sins you're able to confess to in the confession stand, can anyone tell me how to unlock pride?

I was wondering about that too.

I've managed to get all the points, "unlock" lust, it's just that small pride thing. It's so annoying!

Anyone?

Try googling for "sprites monkey island" and other game names. It's surprising how much you can find this way sometimes.

And if you don't know these nifty devices, they might help you:
SCI viewer and Scumm Revisited. They're for opening the resource files of Sierra and Lucasarts games, so you can examine them from the inside