Messages

BTW, is that -your- hand?

Hell no!  That hand comes to you courtesy of a google image search.   Again, I'm a big sissy.  Too many legs freaks me out.  I did see one Mukade, but it was outside while I was walking to the grocery store.  Thankfully, my apartment is also quite bug free.

No, no LiveJournal.  I got bored of blogging about my adventures in Japan a long time ago.

priceless

Kinoko-

Seen a mukade yet?

I am a complete and total arachnophobic sissy.  If I see a small one, I have to kill it.  If I see a big one, I have to run away screaming.

Living on a sub-tropical islands presents a large number of times when I need to walk down a narrow jungle path with high trees on both sides.  In the mountains surrounding my town, these paths are littered with giant freaking spiders.  They keep their webs up high above these paths, but at 6'4" (188ish centimeters) I tower above all the other people who walk along these paths and I'm terrified that if I'm not careful (though I'm usually ducking in fear behind my very short wife) I'm going to get one of these ominous fist-sized beasts in my hair.

Oh I hate how they just sit there... watching me... as I cower in fear under them...

I think you should consider the booming casual games market.  There's lots of money to be made, even in *shudder* shareware.

I'm not sure if you've heard of the new game developer's magazine The Escapist, but there is a really interesting article in the latest issue that makes me want to make a go at being a small games maker.

I'll post the article here and anyone who is interested in working together to test the waters here... let's start talking.

CASUAL FORTUNES: GETTING RICH SLOWLY WITH CASUAL GAMES

Living in Japan, I see videogame ads on TV all the time.  Sony has been promoting the PSP heavily here.  Every morning, while watching the morning news and getting dressed for work, I see a PSP ad.  I've seen like five or six different variations of PSP ads.  All of them show someone going "Whoah, look at me, I'm watching KUNG FU HUSTLE on my PSP!!!" (only in Japanese, obviously), or "Holy crap, I just downloaded the latest ORANGE RANGE MUSIC VIDEO (super popular J-Pop group) onto my PSP!!!", or "Dude, I totally can listen to MP3s on my PSP!!!"  But none, and I mean absolutely none, mention that the thing plays games. 

It's just a demonstration of the selling points of the system.  It's a media handheld, not a gaming system.  But, if I want a portable movie player, I can get a decent handheld DVD player for a lot cheaper that doesn't rely on a poorly-supported media format like UMD.  I already have an iPod that does the MP3 job a lot better than the PSP does.  And only one or two of the few games (49 to be exact, only 8 of which are not ports or continuations of an existing franchise)  that have been released to this day for the PSP appeal to me.

Europe has the advantage over the rest of us.  You can look at the reports and realize that the PSP is probably not worth running out and buying.  At least not yet.  Not until the systems game library has some time to really flesh out.

Until then, the only thing that really interests me about the PSP is that there's the possibility for some homebrew applications and games.  But since Sony is aggressively shutting that down...

I haven't had time to finish the game yet, but I loved the concept and innovation behind this title.  I had been watching it since it first appeared in the In Production thread.  So here's a mirror for the game, incase you have any more server trouble.  Let me know if you don't think you'll need it:

[edit]NOT NECESSARY'D!!![/edit]

Good work!

Besides, I really can't see how eyeshadow (to pick an example), should have any effect on sex appeal. What, do people have eyeshadow fetishes?

Eyeshadow is of paramount importance!

Have you ever woken up in the morning next to that woman you met at the club the night before only to roll over and feast your horrified eyes on what she looks like when her makeup is off?  Happened to me just the other day:

Thanks for the comments and vote, Mozesh!  Be sure to tune in next week for Anna 2: Anna's Revenge!

Very cute, as usual SSH.  I'm sure your family loves these!

Some very funny stuff in there as well.  Like the robot assassin's disguise...

Have something against the Princess' mother do we? 

Nice job!

I don't know what you're talking about.  I went to junior high school with a detective.  He wasn't very popular.  People were always stealing his magnifying glass and his Sherlock Holmes hat and every time he offered to solve someone's mysteries he just got beaten up.

I see.  Thanks for sticking up for little Anna.  Did you also have a conversation about how poor Scotch's personal hygiene is?  Because I hear things...

Actually I would love to hear Scotch's thoughts on the game, but I never really got much feedback other than the few comments on the OROW2 thread.

Good luck!  Sorry I couldn't give you a magic solve-all-your-problems answer!

I'm still not 100% sure what you want to do.  I'm assuming that you want the player to move the character around point-and-click-adventure-style in AGS and then, at certain points in the game, switch to flash for a mini-game or something, and upon finishing it, switch back to AGS?

You're going to have a lot of trouble doing that.  Unless I'm mistaken, AGS can't launch an external program other than another AGS game, nor can Flash launch an external program unless a number of rules are followed.  These rules are built in for security purposes.

You can check out this thread for more info on this.  It may also be able to help you accomplish what you're getting at.

In Anna, the game and the manual don't have any relationship to each other except for six text files each containing the information for two variables.  These text files are only written by AGS and read by Flash.  It's a very simple way of making the two work together.  Your idea seems to be a lot more difficult to pull off.

Anna was talked about at Mittens?  :o  At least it's talked about somewhere.  I thought my thread was going to disappear from the front page without any replies 

Yeah, the updated release from a few days ago uses a flash manual (and a flash-based launch .exe).  The manual simply reads the value of some variables that the game outputs into text files.  This allows the manual to know the approximate point in the game that the player is stuck at and can provide the appropriate hint.  It also unlocks a few other hidden bits.

Laserguy,  I'm not sure what you meant by "combined games from AGS to flash."  I know Action Script pretty well as do some others around here, so if you explain better what exactly you want to do, I'm sure we can help you out.

[xii games]

The game communicates with the manual? That's an awesome idea!
Looks like it took you almost as long to make the manual as the game...

It did indeed take me more days to make, but seeing as how I just stole all the graphics for the manual from the game, the manual required a lot fewer man-hours.  I was just unable to devote as much of my time to Anna over the last few weeks as I was during the competition week.

Speaking of the manual, if anyone is curious about it, but doesn't want to actually download the game, the manual can be viewed online from the xii games website.

Direct link to the manual

Of course you wont be able to view any of the unlockable items.  You have to progress into the game for that.

Also I should mention that I stole a few quotes from Helm, bush_monkey, and [...] from the One Room One Week Competition 2 thread for use on my website.  Hope you guys don't mind!

So you can't snort like a pig?

Were you born that way? Or did you have it lasered off to keep you from snoring?

Actually, I can still snort like a pig.  However, I used to be able to do a great Chewbacca impersonation, but now it just sounds like that angry bum who lives down the street.

And yes, I had it lasered off (quite a strange experience, breathing your own burning flesh...) but not because of snoring.  I had woken up unable to breath and been rushed to the emergency room three times during high school  because the thing had swollen up to the size of my thumb and lodged itself in my throat (gross, huh?) and none of the doctors I went to had any idea why it was doing that.  Finally, one doctor said, "Y'know... you can just have that thing cut off..."

I have no uvula.

Seriously.

[Play it again... for the first time!]

====
anna
====

=======
summary
=======

This is a polished up version one of the OROW Competition 2 joint winners, Anna.

The game is presented in pseudo-3D with a keyboard interface.

This updated version contains a number of updates including sound and music as well as a new and novel Flash manual that actually communicates with the AGS game in order to unlock story background and hints as you play the game.  For example, if you find yourself stuck in the game, before consulting a walkthrough or the forum, open up the manual.  It will check to see how far into the game you've progressed and unlock the appropriate hint for you.  There are also several other hidden tidbits that will unlock as you play.

Play it again... for the first time!

====
links
====

The xii games Website.

The AGS Game Page.

Direct Download Link.

====
story
====

Welcome to Outpost Station.  A deep-space lookout intended to serve as an early warning system in case of attack by "the enemy."  You are Hero, a clear-room technician charged with the maintenance of all the station's systems including Anna, the intelligent computer system that runs the station.

The day starts as routinely as any other, but ends with Homeworld's very survival in jeopardy.

==============
version information
==============

This game was originally made for the One Room One Week Competition.  The OROW Competition release version 0.9 was released  July 16, 2005.

This is version 1.0.  The following changes were implemented:

-Added sound and music
-Complete face-lift for the main menu
-Added new load GUI to main menu
-Added custom save/load GUIs to in-game menu
-Added credits
-Slight changes to dialogue text
-Speech is now ALL skippable
-New Flash Manual

=========
links (again)
=========

The xii games Website.

The AGS Game Page.

Direct Download Link.

I need a couple beta testers to try out the final version of Anna, winner of the One Room One Week Contest.  I've changed and added several things and need a few extra set of eyes to make sure everything is working correctly.  Additionally, I'd like the testers to double check my spelling and grammar, so I'd prefer native-English speakers.

If you can help me out, PM me.