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[sign up now by declaring your intentions in this thread. Also include your email]

It's been a while since we've done this, so I asked for permission to start one and got the go ahead.

For those who don't know what it is, a chain story is started by one person who passes it on to another person, who passes it on to another, etcetera.  Each person writes a certain number of words and hopefully we end up with something that makes sense!

I'm planning on changing the format a bit to make sure we don't waste too much time waiting for someone who has vanished or something.  I also plan to have multiple shorter (fewer people on each story) stories going on at once so each participant will contribute to multiple stories, so it's not just you writing once and then waiting a couple weeks before you can see what it turned into.

I'll announce the exact rules when we're ready to get started based on how many people sign up, which is what this thread is for.

So sign up now by declaring your intentions in this thread.  Also include your email (or PM me your email if you want it private) so the story can be sent to the right place.  I'll leave this up for a week or so (depending on how fast people sign up) to make sure everyone who wants to participate has a chance to see it.  Don't sign up if you're going to go on vacation or be all busy next week or something.

The order you sign up in has nothing to do with the order you write in, so sign up now!

And if you have an idea for the theme (we did murder mystery and... whatever the theme was last time... social satire?) post that too!

I'm an American who recently moved back to America after four plus years of living in Japan.  When I left America, I was a young single twenty-something recent-college-grad who was healthy and didn't bother with buying health insurance because I rarely got sick and didn't see the need to spend as much money as it would cost.  When I returned to America, I was a married nearly-thirty father (and now father of two).  So, clearly, it was time to invest in some healthcare.  In Japan, I didn't have to worry about it.  In America it became a huge issue.

In America, it is impossible to have civil discourse with people of opposing views on healthcare because it is such a heated issue.  Part of the blame lies on the media which fires up controversy for ratings and money, and as a result, fires up tempers and divides the country on issues such as this that are about coming together, not being torn apart.  For example, when one politician suggests changing healthcare in our country to be more like another country, another politician will throw about a bunch of loaded terms ("Socialism!") and recite talking points dealing with one or two healthcare horror stories originating in that other country.  (Completely ignoring the thousands of horror stories we have here every year.)

Recently, I watched a PBS documentary about health care in a few countries around the world.  You can watch the whole thing here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02p101&continuous=1

I found that it was a particularly even handed examination of what was wrong and right with the health systems in these five countries.  And even though each of these systems had some negative points, I couldn't help but feel that they were still doing things way better than America.  Particularly telling was the way that the interviewer got laughed at in every country where he asked the question "How many people go bankrupt every year due to medical costs?" 

I wanted more, though.  I would really love to learn about even more countries' health care and here about the pros and cons.

I won't go deeper into my personal views about the American healthcare system, or how it has caused me great distress in the 11 months that I've been back in the States.  But I really want to hear some real, unfiltered descriptions about the pros and cons of the health care systems of different countries around the world.  And since this is such an amazing, friendly, international forum, I thought it would be a great place for a nice discussion on the various types of healthcare around the world.

What I'm hoping for is to hear a general idea of how healthcare works in your country, if there are any particularly good/bad points about it, how much you pay for it (whether through taxes or otherwise), how you would rate it against any experience you might have had living in another country, any personal happy/horror stories you might have, or whatever other comments you might have on the subject.

[Zen Ghostbusters Twelve]

I'm a daddy some more.  Emi Robocop Twelve is now a big sister.  Here's my new son, Zen Ghostbusters Twelve.





(forgive the crappy picture quality.  I just snapped these on my phone.  Haven't had time to import the pics off my real camera. I'll post more later.)

A lot easier this go around.  About half the time as the first.  I'm still exhausted though.  Going to try and sleep now.


Update 5/1/09:

We're home now.  Here's a couple more pics:


A few seconds old.


Sleeping.  One of the three things he's good at so far.


With his big sister Emi and his aunt Hannah


The whole Twelve family.

I just upgraded a project to the new release to take advantage of the new Character.Move but it didn't work out how I hoped it would.

I'm trying to make two characters move across the screen at the exact same speed but not necessarily in the same direction, but one has to "Move," and one has to "Walk."  But when I do this, the one that is "Moving" zips across the screen way faster than the other even though their speeds are the same.  I believe this has to do with MovementLinkedToAnimation=true on the character that is "Walking."  I tried adjusting the speed down for the "Moving" character, but to make them move at the same speed, the speed needs to be somewhere between -1 and -2 which I can't do.

Before I start ripping out code to change to my work around, is there a way to make the "Move" command move like a "Walk" command?  That is, can a speed=4 "Moving" character move at the same speed as a speed=4 "Walking" character that also has MovementLinkedToAnimation=true?

And before these workarounds are suggested:

-They're moving in different, determined at runtime, directions, so just having one "walk" and then tie the "moving" one's x and y coordinates to the "walking" character won't work.  But it is important that they move at the same speed.

-The "Moving" character must be "Moving" because there are other frames in the view, but the frame and loop shown on the character are changed depending on other factors besides walking animations.  Because of the different way this character is using frames and loops, just creating a view with one frame would mean that I would have to create hundreds of different views, which I'd like to avoid.

-Using LockFrameView stops the character from moving.  I thought that just using LockFrameView and then doing walk would work, but apparently that also locks them in place as far as the "Walk" and "Move" commands are concerned.

My current work around plan:

-I'm planning on changing how the "Moving" object is handled and instead of having one view that has all the appropriate frames and changing between them manually, I'll have one view that has one frame and then change the graphic of that frame in code to the appropriate graphic.   Then I can just have the "Moving" object "Walk" with only one frame in the animation. It's a little more cumbersome, since I'll have to keep track of all the sprite slots, and I'll have to change a lot of code that I've already put in.  So I wanted to post this question first.

[Note:]

Note: Based on some of the feedback here, I made a small addendum to the final version of part one on my blog.  For the rest of the articles in this series, I'm going to post them here first and then modify them based on the discussion before posting the final versions to my blog.

Previous parts:

• Part One: Cursor Confusion

Part Two: The Sierra Operating System

In this edition of "Why Your Game is Broken," I'm going to pick on something near and dear to many adventure fans' hearts: the Sierra and Lucas Arts interfaces.  These two interfaces, Sierra much more than Lucas Arts, are used in an overwhelming majority of the games that come out of this community. This is largely because the Sierra interface is used in the default template provided with AGS.

Unfortunately, partially due to the inherent flaws of these interfaces, and partially due to the developers' sloppy use of them, nearly every one of these games are broken.

The Sierra Operating System

Imagine you're using a computer.  Shouldn't be too hard.  Now imagine it's a completely different operating system â€" a new one you've never used before.  There are four items on the desktop: a folder, a video file, an mp3, and a word document.  There's also a little image of a man in the bottom corner.

Let's open the folder.  Move the cursor (with its well defined hotspot) to point at the folder and double click.  Nothing happened… Oh wait, the little guy is walking up there.  That's strange.  Try the movie.  Same thing.  The little guy just walked over there.

Obviously something about this new OS works different from the ones you're used to.  You'll have to learn how to use it.  Oh look, pointing at the top of the screen reveals some buttons, let's see…

"Browse," "Watch," "Listen," "Read"?  Oh my god… I know what this is…  It's the dreaded Sierra Operating System!!! Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun!

In this nightmare OS, you have to change your cursor mode depending on the type of file you want to interact with.  Instead of simply double clicking on any type of file to open it, you now have to change your cursor to the appropriate mode depending on the filetype you want to open.  Want to watch that video?  Mouse to the top of the screen, click the "Watch" button, and notice your mouse turns into an eyeball.  Now go and click on the video.  Want to open the word document next?  First mouse up to the top of the screen again and click the "Read" button.  Alternatively, right-click to cycle through all the modes until the cursor turns into a pair of glasses.  Oops!  Clicked past it?  That's alright, just keep right-clicking, it'll come up eventually.

Sound horrible?

Well it is!  But probably not for the reason you're thinking.  The Sierra interface, and for the same reasons, the Lucas Arts interface would make terrible computer operating systems.  After posting the first "Why Your Game is Broken" article in the AGS forums, a number of people mentioned how generally annoying the whole Sierra system is.  I've also seen a few other threads and discussions about the problems with the Sierra and Lucas Arts interfaces, but none of them have gotten to the real heart of why these interfaces are broken.  But before I get to the real issue, let's talk about the most obvious problem with these two interfaces.

The obvious problem: they're annoying!

The Sierra and Lucas Arts interfaces are annoying.  Anyone who can manage to take off their nostalgia-tinted glasses should be able to see that these interfaces are irritating.  Sierra has you mousing up to the top of the screen, selecting a mouse mode, then mousing back down to the object you want to use that mouse mode on and clicking a second time.  Arguably more annoying, the Lucas Arts interface has you mousing down to the bottom of the screen and choosing from a list of around 8 (the number changes depending on game) verbs and then mousing back up. 

We may be used to mousing away from the action to select menu items in any software, or to select tools in graphics programs like Photoshop, but when I'm trying to identify with a character and lose myself in a story, making me fight with the interface is going to take me right out of the game.

The standard Sierra implementation also allows you to right-click to cycle through the modes, but as illustrated in the Sierra OS hypothetical above, this often leads you to miss the mode you were looking for and have to click through a second time.

One recent game, Ben There, Dan That, gets rid of the buttons at the top of the screen and relies solely on right-clicking to change the cursor mode.  I've seen other games do this as well, but it always results in a frustration.  I hope from the few comments in the game's thread about this issue, that they've realized their error and will remedy it in their next game.

It could be argued that a well-implemented verb-coin GUI, which lists your available interactions when you click on an object, is a far more elegant solution than the Sierra and Lucas Arts interfaces since it doesn't require your mouse to go flying all over the screen when you want to try multiple interactions on an item.  However, the Sierra interface tops the verb-coin interface in one area: mode permanence.  If I click "Use" on one item and it doesn't work, I can quickly go and try "Use" on another object without changing modes.  With the verb-coin, you need to select "Use" with a second click each time you want to try an object.  Lucas Arts interfaces sometimes lack this mode permanence as well, which is another mark against it in my book.

An interface with mode permanence â€" left-click on anything to use the previously selected mode, right-click on an object to bring up a verb-coin and change the mode that you want to use on the object â€" might be a better solution. This would require fewer clicks than an interface without mode permanence (verb-coin), and require less mouse movement than an interface with fixed mode buttons (Sierra/Lucas Arts).  I haven't tried this out, nor do I know of a game right now that uses it, but it might be a workable interface.  Just throwing that out there.

Another way people can improve the Sierra/Lucas Arts interfaces' annoyance issues, also mentioned in the forum thread responding to the first article in this series, is to add keyboard shortcuts.  These can be useful to players who don't mind playing with one hand on the keyboard rather than relaxing and using just the mouse (no jokes here as to what your other hand may be up to).  However, this fix still has problems.  There are no "Use" "Walk" "Examine" "Inventory" or "Talk" buttons on my keyboard last time I checked, so the developer will have to decide which buttons would be the most intuitive.  Do you use (U)se or (I)nteract?  (L)ook or (E)xamine?  Giving the player more options like also using the 1, 2, 3… keys to represent the verbs can help, but regardless, until the shortcut keys become ingrained into the player's brain so that he can hit the right one without thinking, they're still acting as a barrier to immersion.

I have yet to play a game with either the Lucas Arts or Sierra standard interface that I didn't feel was annoying.  I don't like having to fight with the interface, and I don't like having these things get in the way of my immersion in the game.   I think that some games manage to be great despite using these interfaces, but I almost universally think that these games could have been more enjoyable with a better designed interface.

However, I still think that the whole "annoying" thing is a minor issue with these interfaces when compared to the second issue which is my real sticking point.

The real problem: They're completely superfluous

I'll admit that much of that last section dwelled on opinion and personal preference.  Some people may, for some reason, love either of these interfaces despite (or because of?) these issues.  However, what I'm going to discuss next is not opinion.  It's the hard truth.  If your game is using one of these interfaces, I can almost guarantee that your game is broken.  It's broken because your interface is completely superfluous.

What do I mean superfluous? 

One of the defenses that I always hear for using the Sierra or Lucas Arts multiple-verb interface over, say, the simple left-click to interact/walk, right-click to examine interface is that having multiple verbs gives the player more control over the player's actions.  Let's see how this argument holds up.

I'm playing a game with the Sierra interface.  I have four verbs, Walk, Look, Use, and Talk.  My character is in a room.  There's an elevator with a button and a man standing in the corner.  We know "Walk" doesn't do much.  It's usually only useful for helping us see the other end of a long scrolling room or for moving through an exit into the next room.  "Look" doesn't usually play into puzzles unless you need to examine something closely before you can do something with it.  It's usually only used for helping the player understand his surroundings and adding to immersion.  So the only real verbs that we have for gameplay are "Use" and "Talk."

Let's try "Use" on the man standing near to the elevator.

"I'm not touching him!  That would be sexual harassment!" quips my quirky character.

Oh, right.  I'm supposed to use "Talk" on him.

Let's try "Talk" on the button next to the elevator.

"I don't think buttons are very good conversationalists."

Thanks, quirky character!  I've now learned some valuable information.  I suppose I should try to "Use" the button instead.

With very little exception, every single game that I have ever played using this interface has used the "Talk" on people or other characters and "Use" on everything else.   Let's show that in a handy Venn diagram:

If the set of things that I need to use "Talk to" on is completely separate from the things that I need to use "Use" on, and trying to use the other verb just results in a useless "I can't do that" comment, your game is broken.  There's no puzzle in it.  No thinking required.  Person equals talk, thing equals use.  That's it.  It doesn't make me feel more "in control" of my character.  If anything, I feel less in control, since my character systematically refuses all my commands that don't fall in line with the above diagram.

If you're going to make two separate verbs, there had better be a reason for them.  That is, the set of things that I can use one verb on had damn well better overlap the set of things that I can use the other on otherwise there's no reason to ask me, the player, to specify which verb I want to use.

Think back to that Operating System example at the start of this article.  Remember how terrible it sounded?  Each file had only one obvious use, but I still had to change the cursor mode to tell the computer how to use each file.  Your game works this same way as this system.  It's pointless.

If, on the other hand, you design your game with the peculiarities of the interface in mind, the Venn diagram would look more like this:

Considerable overlap means that there is good reason for me to have different cursor modes.  Imagine if that Sierra Operating System had only one file on the desktop called "Resonance data" and using the "Watch" mode on it would open up the movie files contained therein.  Using the "Read" mode would open up any design documents, or maybe code.  "Listen" would play any mp3s contained within the data.  Now, this OS has good reason to have these cursor modes.  (It's still annoying… but at least it's justified.)

Games using the Sierra interface that fit the second Venn diagram are not broken.  At least not for the reasons I'm discussing now.

However, 90% of the games that I've tried that use the Sierra interface (and that's a conservative estimate) more closely resembles the first Venn diagram than the second.  And if the sets are distinct, then there is absolutely no reason for you to inconvenience me with the previously discussed annoyances.  Combine the separate verbs into one cursor and be done with it.  This has two big benefits.  One, I don't need to right click through an extra cursor mode, and two, you don't have to write so many "I'm not gonna do that, ha ha" messages.

One game that I worked on, Spooks, fits into this 90%.  I can only remember one time in the game  where you have to use the hand cursor on a character, and that was before you realized he was a character.  After that, you must always use talk on him.  Every other object/character fits into the two distinct "Use" and "Talk to" groups.  I didn't realize it back then, but I do now: Spooks is broken.

Let's see if the Lucas Arts interface does any better:

Nope.  Pretty much all the items are distinct in most games.  Small objects can be picked up.  Big objects can be used.  Characters can be spoken to.  Things with hinges can be opened and closed, and things that are movable can be pushed and pulled.  There may be some overlap here and there (a mechanism that you can use and also push aside to reveal the plug behind it), but for the most part it's all completely superfluous.  Even though the open/close and push/pull circles overlap, you can usually only use one at any given time on an object, for example, open on a closed door, close on an open one.

Again, this doesn't require any real thought by the player.  It doesn't give me more control.  It just makes my character refuse my commands more often.  All you're doing is adding this overcomplicated barrier between me and the game, and if I have to struggle with this slow and unnecessary process just to give commands to my character, I'm not getting immersed, I'm being cut off.

This is just the Sierra Operating System with even more verbs.

So, combine the superfluous verbs into one cursor mode.  Let the computer figure out what I'm trying to do.  It'll usually be right.  If I clicked on a closed door, quite likely I was trying to open it.  If I clicked on a crowbar lying on the ground, yeah, I was probably trying to pick it up.  Clicked on Jerry the bellhop?  Fair chance I was trying to talk to him.  The system works and it works without wedging an interface between me and the character I'm trying to connect with.

As such, I am a strong advocate of the two button system.  A left click interacts with whatever I clicked on in whatever way is likely my intention.  If I click where there is nothing to interact with, that's a walk command.  A right click examines whatever I click on.  This system doesn't require taking my mouse away from the action, it doesn't put a GUI between me and the story, it has mode permanence, and it doesn't require any keyboard shortcuts or other tweaks to make it bearable.  Moreover it is fast and easy for me to communicate my intentions to my on-screen character.

If I were to convert your game over to this simple system, I would have eliminated pretty much every issue we discussed in the section about the annoyances of the Sierra and Lucas Arts interfaces AND if your game matched that first Venn diagram (and seriously at least 90% of them do) I would have managed to do it without sacrificing any of the gameplay or puzzles that you had in your game.

I could do this because your game was broken.

Choosing an appropriate interface

You chose to use the Sierra interface in your game, either because you like that interface or because it came prepackaged with AGS and was the easiest option.  Or maybe you managed to tack on the Lucas Arts interface because you're aiming for the nostalgic value of those old classics.  However, an interface should be tailored to the game, not chosen because of nostalgia value or ease of implementation.  I really like Photoshop's interface, but I wouldn't want to slap it on Firefox, that just wouldn't work.  I really like cover flow in iTunes because it's fun to flip my albums using it.  However, I think it makes a shitty file browser in OSX Leopard.

Your game is broken because you chose an interface for reasons other than how it would lend itself to the gameplay that you designed.

Before you choose an interface for your game, you need to know if it's going to be appropriate for your game.  I think a lot of us amateurs just pick up AGS and go, "Yay, I can make games.  Ok, let's see, default template… It has an inventory!  I'm going to have my character pick stuff up!"  I mean, working within your limitations is an important skill for an amateur game developer, but don't impose limitations on your work that aren't there.  Inventories are fine, but you don't have to use one.  Lots of great AGS games don't have inventory items.  Likewise, you don't have to have multiple verbs just because they're there. 

You don't have to use the interface that comes with AGS.  You don't even have to use an interface that you've seen on any game before.  Figure out the kind of game you want to make, and then figure out the best way that you can let the player interface with it.  Nanobots, for example, has a very unique gameplay style and an interface that, I hope, lends itself to that gameplay.  Anna also has a very non-standard interface that I think works really well for that type of game.

Before making your game, take a long look at your design, be it on paper or in your head.  What is the best way for the player to play this game without even realizing that he's communicating with the character through an interface?  That's the interface you should be using.  If it isn't, your game is broken.

I just had a moment in code where it would have been nice to be able to change the musicOnLoad value, but it's readonly and so I had to do a little work around.  Not difficult, but would me convenient.  Unless there's a way to do this that I'm overlooking.

[Click here to get the demo, watch the trailer, and buy the game!]

Resonance is released!

Click here to get the demo, watch the trailer, and buy the game!

xii games presents

[/center]

A particle physicist's mysterious and spectacular death sparks a race to find his hidden vault and claim his terrifying new discovery. The player will take control of four characters whose lives become entangled in the search for the scientist's vault. They will have to learn to trust each other and work together to overcome the obstacles in their way and to keep this new and powerful technology out of the hands of a dangerous organization.

Screenshots: (click for full size)

 

 

 

 

Features:

• Four playable swappable characters
  
• A twisting, riveting storyline
  
• Unique long-term and short-term memory systems
  
• Cheat death by rewinding time
  
• A unique and intuitive interface
  
• All the love and care you've come to expect from an independent adventure developer
  

Team members:

• Janet Gilbert - Programming
  
• Shane Stevens - Characters and animation
  
• Nauris Krause - Backgrounds
  
• Nikolas Sideris - Music and Sound
  
• Vince Twelve - Design, programming, story, writing
  

Cost:

$9.99


Release:

June 19th on WadjetEyeGames.com, GoG.com, and Steam


And more!

Compared to Linus Bruckman, which I kept totally secret right up to release, I'm being very forthcoming with information about this game and its development. (I'm remaining tight-lipped on the story and puzzles though.) So, if you're interested in following the game's production, keep checking in at the xii games blog for more production diaries and information.  And don't be stingy with the comments!

Thanks to my shoe-string budget, all the members of the team deserve some extra payment in the form of recognition for their hard work.  So if you see something you like, be sure to let us know!  I hope you like what you see!

Follow development

On Facebook
On Twitter

[Gender-benders]

Gonna try and fool around with the rules to find the best way to run this interesting new activity.  I decided to try to finish the whole shebang up in a week and in only one round.  We'll see how that goes.  Also, I'm going to add a theme:

Gender-benders

For this round, you must write a story told from the point of view of someone of the opposite gender, or at least with someone of the opposite gender as the main character.  So boys, your main character has to be a girl.  Girls, you've got the guys.  Let's see who can best get into the mind of someone of the other sex.

Rules:

-An entry may be of no more than 55 words.  Since a title can help convey the story, if your story has a title, it counts towards those 55 words.

-Each person can enter only one story.

-Voting will start in five days (120 hours) from this post, which should be plenty of time. 

-Voting will last for 48 hours.  Each voter will name his/her top 3 entries along with a short reason why.  (No need to rank your votes)

-The top vote getter at the end of the voting period will be declared champion and may start the next round (and screw with the rules as they see fit!).

It's been a long time since I've done one of these fellas, but GarageGothic encouraged me to make a new entry in the Twelve Interviews series.  He even suggested the topic and interviewee!  So GG, this one goes out to you.

Pieter Simoons (a.k.a. "Radiant") is the proprietor of Crystal Shard Games.  In the past two years he has released several innovative and fun adventure games such as META and Warthogs.  More recently, he accomplished the thing that hundreds of doe-eyed amateur adventure gamers attempt and fail to do: He released a huge, epic, and high quality adventure game.  During the creation of A Tale of Two Kingdoms, Pieter led a team of dozens of people on a quest that took over two years to complete.  This installment of Twelve Interviews focuses on the difficult task of leading a team through the development of an amateur adventure game.

You can read the interview on my blog, and if you have any questions for Radiant, I'm sure he'd be happy to answer them right here in this thread.  Leave a comment here or there if you enjoy these things!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW

PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS HERE

Maybe it's my lack of sleep, but in my head this was easy...

I have a batch of code that I want to run ONLY while the game is in the middle of some blocking function (walking, animating, wait();, etc).  My original plan was to stick this code in the repeatedly_execute_always:

if(mouse.Mode==eModeWait){
  //execute this batch of code
}

But it doesn't do anything when the game is blocking.  So, I change eModeWait to eModeWalkTo, and it works perfectly as long as the cursor mode is walk to, even if the cursor is set to walk to and then a blocking cutcene starts (thus changing the cursor to the wait cursor's graphic), and even when I change back and forth between modes in the middle of a blocking function.  It seems to work with every mode except wait, the one mode I want it to work with...

Does a blocking function not actually change the cursor to the wait mode?  It seems like it only changes the mouse's graphic.

So, my next thought was to run the script based on the cursor's graphic, but there's no mouse.graphic or some such variable (correct me if I'm wrong).

But this may all be pointless if there's a better way to run a block of script only when the game is blocking.  Help?

[AGS IMITATORS AND COMPETITORS]

Sorry for the delay!  Now have at you!  But first, the rules:



What is the Photoshop Phortnight?

See this link:
http://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop/

And for other examples, see here:
http://www.worth1000.com/

The two above websites should give a fair idea of what is involved. Also you can check out the earlier Photoshop Phortnights in this forum.

Note: Photoshopping isn't drawing a completely new image -- It's editing images to create a new image, such as editing one image or combining several images.

Also, you don't have to specifically use Photoshop -- Paint Shop Pro, Gimp or any other ~equally good programs can be used.



This weeks (weak) topic:  AGS IMITATORS AND COMPETITORS

The year is 2020.  After Chris finally decided to turn the software commercial and/or follow through with any of the previous April Fools threats jokes, things really took off.  AGS is now one of the best selling software suites on the planet.  And along with all that success come the standard group of imitators and competitors.

I want you to create the box art, a screen shot, or an advertisement for one of AGS's new rivals.  How do they rip off AGS?  How do they utterly fail at doing so?  And how do they use crazy marketing lingo to cover up their shortcomings?  These are some of the questions that might help you in your quest to win this round of Phantastic Photoshopery so that you can come up with a better theme for the next round.   

Make with the photoshopping!

[Brain Benders]

1up just put up an article called 101 Free Games - The Best Games That Money Can't Buy which is notable not only for the many awesome free games it links to, but also because it includes many AGS games.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on your server) they put all the games on FileFront rather than linking them to the creator's website.

I'll list the AGS games that they mentioned so that you don't have to close a giant HALO flash ad that covers the page everytime you try to change pages.   

Here they are with the categories they listed them in: (I hope I didn't miss any in there)

Brain Benders

-What Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed

Can the name of this game be any longer? This crazy-good adventure game is just plain crazy. The top half of the screen follows a samurai in feudal Japan; a spacey comedy graphic adventure unfolds in the bottom. Your brain will hurt, so factor in the cost of aspirin.

Adventurer's Island

-Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator

College grad Ben Jordan turns to the paranormal to earn a buck in this Sierra-style graphic adventure. His first mission: discover the secret of the Skunk-Ape, a Bigfoot that got its name "because of its horrible smell, described as a mixture of moldy cheese, rotten eggs, and dung." Yum.

-Chicken vs. Road

Clucksworth is finally ready to see the world. The only thing in his way: the road. This goofy but short graphic adventure will make you laugh -- and probably hum "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" for days.

-Heartland Deluxe

Good writing plus some hand-drawn illustrations equals a great adventure game. If only it weren't so damn short.

-No-Action Jackson

No-Action Jackson instantly recalls Day of the Tentacle, and its hero is someone we can actually relate to: a meek kid who still lives with mom and dreams of reliving his days as a feared dungeon master.

Tributes and Remakes

-King's Quest III

The latest Sierra fan tribute: A 256-color remake of Roberta Williams' King's Quest III: To Heir is Human. The story centers on a medieval slave named Gwydion who frantically seeks to escape the evil wizard who lords over him. This new version implements a point-and-click interface identical to Sierra's later graphic adventures, as well as full voice acting and some quirky new bits of humor. And if you missed 'em, check out the KQ1 and KQ2 remakes at www.agdinteractive.com.

-Maniac Mansion Deluxe

Remember the salad days of PC gaming, when there were graphic adventures as far as the eye could see, and LucasArts actually did something besides churn out Star Wars stuff? A group of devoted fans remembers, too, and have remade one of the greatest (and funniest) games ever made.

Is there a way to simulate more than 16 Walkable areas?

Here's the problem: I have a bunch of objects that can be moved around to several (36 to be precise) non-overlapping areas in the room by the player. 

The player character can also walk among each of these objects, so I wanted to make the character walk around rather than through each of these objects.  I figured I could make the objects into solid characters so that AGS would automatically remove a small portion of walkable area at the base of each making the character walk around them.  This works fine for some objects.  However, a few objects are oddly shaped.  One, for example, is long and thin and laying at an angle in relation to the camera which messes up the walk behind.  Another object is propped up on a tripod.  The character can walk underneath the back leg in a way that he shouldn't.

So: I figured I could fix this by making an adequately large circle-shaped walkable area at each of the places where an object could be moved.  Then, I could turn on and off that walkable area as needed to keep the character from walking underneath the object.  A simple solution that would have the intended effect.  However, with 36 possible object locations and 16 maximum walkable areas I'm at a loss for what to do.

I tried making the walkable areas in groups and turning them on and off while the character is walking, so that the correct ones would turn on if the character came near, but the walking path is generated at the moment you click so the character can walk right into a walkable area that was turned off just after clicking and get himself stuck.

To complicate things: The game has multiple playable characters who may be moving simultaneously...  :

Any ideas?

[He never talks to me anymore. He never talks to anyone anymore. His eyes are always closed.I wonder what he sees...]

He never talks to me anymore.  He never talks to anyone anymore. 

His eyes are always closed.

I wonder what he sees...



linus.rar (42.6 MB) or linus.zip (71.4 MB)

Features

   
• Unique dual story gameplay
• Multiple Endings
• English and Japanese Language
• Loads of graphical effects
• A dynamic music system and amazing soundtrack
• An exciting and bizarre story
• Another exciting and bizarre story
• A cool interactive manual
• Add your name to the online Hall of Completion
• Gods, aliens, samurai, and Charlton Heston

Screenshots

Interactive Manual

The game's interactive online manual can be accessed

here.[/list]

Hall of Completions

After completing the game, you will be given a code to add your name to the online Hall of Completion!

The Hall of Completion can be accessed from

the game's webpage.[/list]

Soundtrack

Download the game's fantastic soundtrack by

Nikolas Sideris[/list]

linus_soundtrack.zip (6.8 MB)

Credits

   

Vince Twelve - Design, Writing, Art, Programming
   Kumiko Twelve - Japanese Translations, Support, Love
   Nikolas Sideris - Music, Sound
   Erin "The Ivy" Robinson - Xarnax and Xarnax Dialogue
   Greg Schlaepfer - Bass, Guitar, and Percussion Samples
   Chris Jones - Adventure Game Studio

Beta Testers:

Steve McCrea
Mordalles
Erin "The Ivy" Robinson
Greg Schlaepfer
Luke "Erenan" Simpson
Dr. Zaiss

[/list]

Technical Recommendations

This game uses a lot of animations and transparencies on the screen at once, and since the engine lacks real hardware acceleration, the game will get bogged down on slower computers.  On a slow computer (say, less than 1.5GHz) animations will slow down and the sound will often skip.

I've included an option in the game's option menu that turns off some of the uneccessary effects which can help performance.  If this doesn't resolve the problem, I'm sorry.  But remember: it's just a freeware game!

linus.rar (42.6 MB) or linus.zip (71.4 MB)

Google just released the beta version of writely.com which is basically a word processor that you use online in your webbrowser.  As I see it, the advantage of this is that it is a easy to use collaboration tool and would be a great way to coordinate the efforts of a team making a game.

Multiple people (apparently up to 50) can modify the same document at the same time in real-time.  I haven't done this, but apparently it handles conflicts such as two persons modifying the same part at the same time.

Bottom line: it looks like a simple way of sharing and collaborating on a game document.  A team could share the design document, work on dialogue, share code snippets, and even add image files.  Fast and simple.

So... yeah.  Just in case it helps anyone.  I'm planning on using it at least.

I just watched this amazing new animated series from the Sci-Fi Channel. (I know the terms "amazing" and "Sci-Fi Channel" don't go together very often.)

From the Sci-Fi site:

In this hilarious send-up of Lovecraftian horror and steampunk adventure, President Abraham Lincoln's top spy is a bodyless head known only as Screw-On Head.

When arch-fiend Emperor Zombie steals an artifact that will enable him to threaten all life on Earth, the task of stopping him is assigned to Screw-on Head. Fortunately, Screw-On Head is not alone on this perilous quest. He is aided by his multitalented manservant, Mr. Groin, and by his talking canine cohort, Mr. Dog.

Can this unorthodox trio stop Emperor Zombie in time? Does Screw-On Head have a body awesome enough to stop the horrors that have been unleashed? Where can we get a talking dog?

All these questions (O.K., maybe not that last one) will be answered when you watch the thrilling tale of The Amazing Screw-On Head!

You can watch it online here before it airs:

http://www.scifi.com/amazingscrewonhead/

Seriously, It's awesome.

[xii games]

After a long hiatus, the Twelve Interviews series has been born anew!  The third and latest interview is a chat with Francisco "Grundislav" Gonzalez about creating an episodic game series.

You can find the interview on the new xii games website.  (Direct link)  Both of the previous interviews have been spruced up and posted on the site too.

So take a moment and read the interview.  If you have any questions for Grundislav, I'm sure he wouldn't mind you posting them here for him to catagorically ignore.


Previous Twelve Interviews:

Twelve Interviews #1: Rebecca "Kinoko" Clements

Twelve Interviews #2: Jozef Purdez

Back in college I would stay up all night playing video games with my room mates.  A fairly common thing.  We would fuel our gameplaying with Mountain Dew.  Also a fairly common thing.  A lot of Mountain Dew.  So much Dew, that one day, we decided to start building a wall out of our empties.  A wall of Dew.  A Mountain o' Dew, if you will.

By the time we were finished, it comprised of almost three thousand cans.  We took lots of pictures, but they were all lost when one of my old hard drives went kaput.

But just today, my friend posted on his blog some pics that another of my friends managed to dig up from somewhere.

Behold, the wall!  Note that it's two cans thick. (Neither of these people are me)


The view from my bedroom:


The view from my room mate's bedroom:


The view from our games area:


After these pics were taken, we added in a shelf that protruded out from the wall and could actually support books.  Eventually, the wall was declared finished, and we started a pillar in the other corner of the room.  Then on move-out day, we all sat in front of the wall and pulled it down on top of our heads and jumped around on the cans.  It was really loud.

I've since kicked my caffeine addiction (though I still enjoy the occasional Dew).

I hope you enjoyed it!

Dark Crystal was one of my fondest childhood memories.  Normally, when I hear they're bringing my childhood memories back from the grave and fucking around with them, I get nervous or angry. (He-Man, I'm looking at you...)  So, when I first heard a year or so back that they were making a Dark Crystal 2, I got real nervous.  But it really looks like they're doing it up right!

They've signed Genndy Tartakovsky to direct the thing.  The guy behind Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars.  That makes me very excited.  And of course Froud will stay on board as the character designer.  Plus, they're keepin' it real by using puppets for the characters.  I'm very excited.  How about you?

And check out this plot snippet:

Set hundreds of years after the first pic, sequel follows a mysterious girl made of fire who steals a shard of the crystal in hopes of reigniting the dying sun.

How can that not be awesome?

Here's the news report.  Sorry, you have to watch a short ad to get to it... stupid.

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=upsell_article&articleID=VR1117937178&cs=1

[Emi Robocop Twelve]

On December 3rd, 2005 at about 10:00 AM Tokyo Standard Time, I became a Daddy.

My wife, who I thought was just getting fat, was actually pregnant!!!  Imagine my surprise!  I had to apologize for a lot of comments I had made to her.  "What did you eat, a watermelon?!?!?"  Boy is my face red!

Anyways, it was a long process.  Her water broke at 11:30 PM, which is the optimal time for your water to break to ensure that you get the minimum amount of sleep for the maximum amount of time.  The birth was a relatively painless process.  I didn't feel a thing.  It was just a bit annoying that my wife kept screaming!  For the entire ten hours!!!!  I mean, come on!  It can't be that bad!

Just to humor me, my wife Kumi pretended like she was a character in a movie when the birthing mother grabs the dad and screams, "I hate you!  You did this to me!!!!"  She's so funny!  Though she's taking the joke a bit to far now by not talking to me for two days...

After we started talking again, we agreed that I could choose the middle name, so I present to you:

Emi Robocop Twelve




I quickly set up this little photo album, so you can check out the pictures as I put them up:

http://omahatookinawa.com/emi