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I think the problem with your idea, Mr. Suit, is that, like a lot of the ideas in this thread, it's a subset of an existing competition.  What I mean is, you could win either the Sprite Jam or the Background Blitz and then declare "Draw your favorite [insert item here]" as the topic.  The new competitions that get started are usually wildly different from other competitions out there (but still somehow connected to the skills used for the development of adventure games) or are twists on older competitions that are attempts at reviving dead competitions.  (Like the writing competition was recently revived as a ministory competition, and has now morphed into the chain story.)

Too many same-same competitions end up decreasing the participation across the board, which is why the mods don't approve many new comps.

Haha, SSH
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=27489.msg440266#msg440266

Congrats alkis.  I'm looking forward to trying it out.

GG is right.  I made a room with 38 walkable areas using various checks of the player's coordinates.  It's an annoying work around, but it works well. 

The problem is if you need to have certain walkable areas disabled at various times depending on the player's actions, which is the issue I ran into.  If this is the case, having two walkable areas the same color can screw things up greatly since if you turn one of them off, you also turn the other off.  I wound up using a work around that checked for this, and when the player walked from one side of the room to the other, the script would stop him, reset the walkable areas for that side of the room, then start him walking again.  It sometimes had some unintended effects on the pathfinding, and made a small stutter in the animation when the player crossed that invisible line, but it worked well.

If every story is a cliché, then we just have to change the meaning of cliché.

I think we should change it to chocolate pudding.  Because everyone likes chocolate pudding.  Then we could say, "Num num, Imunna eatchoo cliché!"

Welcome to the AGSers with daughter's club!  Don't listen to anyone telling you they're difficult.  You just keep 'em in your pocket.  Give 'em an m&m every once and a while.

Congratulations, she's beautiful!

Did you try switching between Direct 3D 9 and Direct Draw 5 in the setup?  Because my MacBook's integrated Intel graphics chip apparently doesn't support D3D9 at AGS resolutions and I get a similar error.  But running in DirectDraw works fine.  My MBP's NVidia video card doesn't have this problem.

... wow.  I've wasted so much of my life.    Thanks naltimari!

Oh yeah.  This thread makes a great case for the Mac users being the smug ones.  :

I own a MacBook Pro and a MacBook, both of which I use every day.  They both also run Windows.  My primary take-to-work computer, the MacBook, runs Windows probably 90% of the time.  Our home computer, the MBP runs OSX probably 90% of the time.  So, as someone straddling the fence, I'm going to make a long post with my observations on the debate.

Here's how I see it: OSX has fewer programs, obviously, and with more choices on Windows, you often have the upper hand.  So you can not do everything on OSX that you can on Windows.  However, as far as average daily use goes (surfing the net, using email, watching movies) the mac is a lot easier for the computer layman to use safely. 

Thanks to Windows being the prevalent technology, Mac users have very close to zero viruses and malware targetting their systems.  So, when my wife is using the OSX at home, I don't have to worry about our computer being turned into a adware colony while I'm off at work.  (Her previous computer, an NEC Windows XP laptop was utterly unusable after less than 2 years of use.  I wiped it and it now runs the GIMPS all day.)  My wife loves it and has figured out on her own how to do things that she used to ask me how to do once a week on Windows.  You can call OSX "computers for dummies," but think of how many times you've had to clean adware off your mom's computer, or reinstall Windows on your Grandmas machine because she somehow managed to delete half of the system files.

I, however, am an advanced computer user, and want to do things like work on my AGS game and use many Windows-only programs out there that do not have appropriate replacements for OSX.  So, I run Windows on my MB pretty much all the time.  The MacBook makes a great Windows machine.  Apart from the fact that it's much prettier than most other manufacturer's laptops, it's also a very sturdy machine.  And Apple does have great customer service and warranty service, which some companies do not (obviously experiences vary, though).   Apple's computers also run Windows faster than many comparable rigs.  (I've seen the MacBook Pro called the best Vista laptop on the market)  So, on a hardware level, they're expensive, yes, but I consider them worth it.  If you don't that's fine.  The added benefit of being able to boot up into OSX to use my favorite video editing suite, easily transfer files between my computers (seriously, macs do this so much easier than windows), and other nice features is a great bonus.

Yes, Apple users have a stereotypical aloof image, and Apple's own smug-ass advertising certainly doesn't help.  But I honestly don't know anyone who fits that image.  I know they exist.  I can't imagine sitting outside an Apple store all night to get the first new iPod design on launch day, but some one does it.  However, those people seem to me to be the exception rather than the rule among Mac users.  Now look at the comments in this thread and tell me that those same attitudes don't run both ways and that the pot hasn't just called the kettle black. 

People on both sides of the aisle who fight about which OS is better and insult the other side are kind of missing the point.  Both platforms have benefits and both have down sides.  Mac is better for some people's usage, and Windows is better for others.  The beautiful thing is that you can use both on the same computer if you'd like.

It sometimes seems that the reason people get so vocally defensive of their own platform is because they need to make themselves feel better about their decision.  Declaring your platform the best and only choice only makes your penis look smaller.

I had to make my own dialog engine because of this... well, actually there are a couple of other issues, like the user does not have access to his inventory during a dialog, because every GUI is 'disabled'.

Me too!  I like my custom dialog system because I can use normal scripting for advanced things and not have to resort to run-script X.


My (completely unrelated) suggestion (I haven't tried 3.01 yet, so forgive me if any of this is already addressed):

I have lots of animations and I get really tired of
-click "new frame"
-double click blank frame
-click on sprite window
-use scroll wheel to scroll down
-double click appropriate sprite
-repeat

For one, I think that when you double click a blank frame to open the sprite window, I shouldn't have to click on it to scroll it.  Two, I think that the last frame used should be centered in the window instead of placed on the bottom or the previous scroll position should be retained.

[Next useless paragraph removed, because as nat points out.  I'm dumb!]

I quite like starting story brainstorming with a cliché and seeing how unique and original I can make it by adding my own story elements.  It's a good creativity exercise.

And here's another cliché constantly used on these forums: Make the game that you want to play.  If it doesn't interest you, it won't interest anyone else either.  Basically, if you like the story, then go with it!

I love all the anti-Mac sentiment being hurled at all of the highly-vocal, voracious, and apparently invisible Apple zealots in this thread.  Poor poor straw man.

Very cool looking!  Really looking forward to trying this out.  Nice work guys!

Thanks for the answer.  Good luck Alkis!

I certainly respect your decision, but if you wouldn't mind, as a person who is also planning on releasing a commercial AGS game, I'd be interested in hearing why you decided this.  Ignore or take it to PM if that's better for you...

No downloadable option?  Is this because of the size?  Because there are some great ways to distribute large files commercially.  I'd imagine that you'd lose quite a bit of potential business by not offering a digital option.

Indeed.  The sprite depth of my Sprite 0 is 8 bit.  That's likely the issue.  It just through me for a loop because it worked fine before the jump to 3.0

What the bloody hell are you talking about?

I was talking about this PM.  Or maybe I'm misinterpreting what you said.  Direct quote from you:

(Edited out story spoilers!  Thanks Babar and Andail!)

The point of the activity is to rely on others.  You can't be the totally narcissistic writer that you've already talked about in this thread.  You have to follow other's leads and then relinquish control to someone else.

Seriously, what the hell? I haven't a clue where you're coming up with this crap. You automatically assume that because I'm not you, I'm some kind of intellectually inferior, borderline mentally handicapped dick-waggler?

Whoa there nelly.  ("Stallion," "high-horse," "nelly," get it?  ) Sorry you took that so seriously.  It wasn't just written to you.  The "you" was kind of the royal "you" but my comment was brought on from your post.  I wasn't calling you narcissistic, I was suggesting that we need to avoid the narcissism that you were discussing with others earlier in the thread since this is an activity where we have to work together.  That's what makes it a useful and fun excercise.

Sorry if I ruffled your feathers.  I guess I forgot that you're not one of the rough-and-tumble bunch I'm used to. 

Apologies to all.  Last post until the story is released!  Looking forward to it.

Edit: I just had a thought.  Who's going to make the adventure game version of this story?  It's sure to be a front runner for the P3N1S award.

_{Edit by Andail: Removed story spoilers. Although hidden, we're not supposed to disclose story elements.}

I played with my solution a bit.  Basically all I had to do was change the line CursorBlip.BackgroundGraphic=0; in game_start() to gCursorBlip.Visible=false; and everything works.

Full (probably unnecessary) explanation:

In the GUI editor I had the background graphic is set to 125 which is one of the alpha-channeled frames used in the animation.  Sprite slot 0 is a single transparent pixel (not alpha-channel) that I use occasionally to make things invisible rather than using the .visible property.  This is just a preference that I have sometimes when I'm using some function to come up with a frame number to set something to.  I'll just pass 0 to make it invisible.

In 2.72 I used this line twice: gCursorBlip.BackgroundGraphic=0;

Once in the game_start() function to make the GUI invisible on startup and once in the repeatedly_execute_always() function to make it invisible at the end of the animation.  The only other times that I do anything to gCursorBlip are when I set certain alpha-transparent frames to the background graphic and different x and y values in the rep_ex_always().

In 3.0 this shows all of the partially transparent pixels as a non-transparent white blob.  Changing the line gCursorBlip.BackgroundGraphic=0; to gCursorBlip.Visible=false; in the game_start() function (but leaving it as it was in rep_ex_always) fixes the problem.

So it seems that setting the GUI to frame 0 (a single, transparent, no-alpha-channel pixel) in the game_start() function somehow renders the GUI unable to display alpha transparency for the rest of the game.  Does that make sense?

Yeah, FSi's POV switch was very awkward changing from 1st person to 1st person.  I don't think you'll find another book that does this.  At least not without it being a major element, like each chapter being from a different point of view.  Doing the same scene and writing it from 3rd person ("He pulled the meat truck into his driveway and thought to himself...") would have cleared everything up.  As it is written, it is quite confusing, so I can forgive Emerald's misunderstanding in that respect.  However...

It's hard to fully interpret the narrative direction people are taking in just 200 words. I'd be surprised if anyone manages to pick up on all the intentions of the previous posters...

I can't believe that the guy who admitted to me in a PM that he didn't even read all of the 800 words that preceded his bit is suggesting more words.  How can you pick up on the intentions of previous writers if you don't even read the thing?!

I vote next time we listen to that ridiculously foresightful stallion Emerald and raise the word count so each writer doesn't have to rely on each other so much to follow their intentions...

The point of the activity is to rely on others.  You can't be the totally narcissistic writer that you've already talked about in this thread.  You have to follow other's leads and then relinquish control to someone else.  If you want to write a story where you're in control, write a story.  This is a group activity.  More words to write just means more words for other people to take it in directions that don't match the direction that you want to take it in and then you'd still be grumpy.  Go with the flow.  And make sure to READ THE WHOLE THING before you slap on your bit.

And back on topic, I can't wait to see where this thing ends up!  Hurry up people! 

It's sad that the Pakistani government would use something as silly as objecting to a cartoon as a cover story for what is obviously another dictatorial move to hinder the flow of information.  The Military Junta already controls the major pakistani media outlets and wishes to control the internet as well.  This has way more to do with the current allegations of vote rigging and less to do with some cartoon.