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Good to see you alive and kicking, fellow Japanite.  I'd take your cat, but I hate them.

Alright, you knuckleheads.  Let's keep the penis jokes to the gen gen.  Or if you really want to discuss your favorite toys, take it to PM.   

Now, let's see some more great entries!

(Also edited the first post to add a deadline)

Heh.  I'm not really interested in this kind of game.  Just wanted to make that link.  Good luck, though.

I'm a big Myst fan.  Loves me some Riven.  I love machine puzzles as long as there's a controlling logic behind them.  But there is definitely an art behind keeping them interesting.  I think Riven accomplished this very well.

A lot of machine puzzles boil down to trying something, then checking the results, adjusting accordingly, and trying again.  This can get very dull if there are too many puzzles like this.  I was so disappointed by Myst V which I recently played for the first time after finally getting a computer that could run it.  So many puzzles in that game required you to turn a series of levers, go somewhere else and see what they did, then go back and change some levers, go check again, repeat until you see the logic behind it, and complete the puzzle.  This became very boring, and the main challenge was that the only feedback you got for each attempt was in a place far away from the place you had to turn the switches.

I guess it's much easier to give examples of what not to do than what to do.

One thing I would suggest, though:  In the context of an adventure game, machine puzzles are a good place to include a second solution.  For example, try and figure out the proper combination of levers to power the elevator, or do a favor for the maintenance guy who has the operation manual containing the solution.  Rewire the biometric access panel to unlock the security door, or lift a fingerprint off a wineglass and press it against the thumb scanner.  That way, the logical minded machine puzzle fans have a puzzle, the inventory/dialogue puzzle fans have a puzzle, and the completists have two puzzles!

<pimp> I wrote about multiple solutions like this yesterday in the development diary for my next game. (somewhere near the middle) </pimp>

[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!

Sorry, my server has been a little flakey today.  I've got to have a word with my host.  Try again in an hour or so.  Or of course, someone can put up a quick mirror.

Has anyone noticed that virtually every girl in the world is terrified of fire.

I know, every time I lit one of my girlfriends on fire, they'd get really angry at me.  Girls are so weird.  AMIRIGHT?

Oh, I forgot all about this!  Hilarious entries all around!  Definitely one of the best Photoshop contests we've had in a long long while.  Well done SPC!  And thanks for the win.  I'll start a new one as soon as I can think of a good topic.  Hopefully we can keep up the momentum.

Thanks Lakerz!  Welcome to the Hall of Completion!  I'm glad you enjoyed working out the puzzle.

And yeah, wasn't that music great!

While this thread is up here, I'll take a quick moment to ask anyone who enjoyed the game to roll over to the Indie Game Showcase and vote for Linus.  About a month or so ago, this woman running the showcase emailed me and asked me to submit my game, so I did.  I noticed another one of my favorite AGS games, Gesundheit! is up there too!  Plus a lot of other fun games.  So, if you enjoyed Linus, do me a favor and vote!

I whipped out my phone (since I live in Japan) and read in your code.  A few characters came out as Japanese characters probably because the language of the message uses different codes for different accented characters, so you'll have to fill in the ?'s.

Code: ags

ahmet seni ?oook seviyorum iyiki arkada??z... :)

Hope that helps.

Edit:  I had to put it in code tags to supress the emoticon.

I must reciprocate!

What?  Couldn't think of a good anagram for "What Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed?" 

I heard they made a deluxe version.

(side note: metatarsal?   stale ram at?  real "at mast" :)

TheJBurger sent me a new version (1.03) that fixes a bug and speeds up the character.  The download has been replaced with the new version.

[s]

First off, I would encourage you not to hire some scripting wizards, but to keep it to a single scripting wizard.  AGS doesn't lend itself terribly well to having multiple programmers working simultaneously, though it can be done.  Even having different programmers scripting different parts of the game at different times can cause some problems unless some strict programming practices and version controls are implemented.

Once you have that person, a detailed design doc will be a necessity if you want the game to turn out just how you imagined it.  What Ivy and I did while I programmed Spooks for her (and what we are doing again on Nanobots) is precisely that.  She produced a detailed design doc with a description of all the interactions in each room (what items can be used where, what can be clicked on, what text displays when you examine a hotspot, and what animations will be provided) as well as a separate walkthrough document that listed every step necessary to complete the game including any restrictions on the order of actions.  I used the walkthrough document as kind of a check list of my progress, marking off each step as I completed it (occasionally skipping around, though mostly working from the start of the game to the finish) and giving her frequent compiled versions so she could make sure my work was matching her vision.  As I went, I often found that I needed things that I didn't have, so I'd ask her in the next update for text to fill an interaction, or some graphics or animations to fill some holes.  Rinse, wash, repeat, finish.

Since your team has several artists from which the programmer will need to collect assets, it would be nice for him if you could organize all the assets for him to make things easy on him.

Congrats, TheJBurger!  It's a fine game and I enjoyed beta-ing and am happy to host!

This is exactly how people should aim for their first game to come out.  Short, but with a high degree of polish, and trying out some complex scripting to add in some non-standard adventure gameplay.  Well done!  Looking forward to more from you!

Some more excellent stuff from Nik!  Looking forward to the demo.

looks great Candall!  Glad to see progress!

Yeah, but she's in jail, so that's just ridiculous.

I could post the same picture saying that if you look at the window just right you can see two people having sex.  And given the number of dirty minds, I think many would see it.

Dude!  I see it! They're totally doin' it!

Being a huge nerd, I went to a few Star Trek conventions back in my highschool days.  I met James Doohan (Scotty) before he died, he told some great stories to the crowd, John Delancy (Q) who was mostly boring, and George Takei (Sulu) who was extremely awesome and funny.  He has a great sense of humor about how his entire career revolves around traveling the country and telling the same old stories to fat people in Klingon uniforms.  These conventions were very fun and worth the costs of attendance.