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[- Update 31st of July 2016 -]

*-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*

- Update 31st of July 2016 -

Just wanted to post a final update in the thread now that I remembered...

He Watches as it was originally designed is no more, as folks might have guessed from the fact that the thread has been dead for ages. Due to some technical fuckery I managed to wipe most of the game's data AND the backups in one fell swoop a couple of years ago and never recovered the energy to rebuild the game. What art assets I still have (some 550+ images including character sprites, backgrounds, UI elements and other visual effects) I might reuse as part of a smaller game project some day. In all honesty I feel that the game as I envisioned it was far too big and complex to be a one-man project, so despite my enthusiasm and early progress it was doomed to fail one way or another.

Thank you to everyone for supporting and showing so much enthusiasm towards the game!
I hope to release something else worth your interest in the future.

-Tomi "WHAM" Kähkönen

Spoiler

He Watches is going through some changes, and I thought I could list them here, both to explain why the game isn't out yet and what my plans are for the game.

Firstly, He Watches is going through a fairly major overhaul all around. While I do not have the resources, or even intend to, re-draw all of the game's graphics, most of the backgrounds, as well as almost all GUI elements are going through a slight re-design in order to better incorporate some enhancements. To ensure this goes off withthout a hitch, I have started the project over, with mostly all-new AGS scripts, with only a few old elements brought over from the demo build. These enhancements are all aimed at ensuring the game has as high a quality as considering with available resources.

I am also looking into raising 2000 - 3000 � of money in order to fund voice actors, original music, sound effect equipment, some external art for the game, paid testers etc.

So why am I putting all this money and effort into the project?

Here in Finland, I am currently looking into starting up a small one-man company called WHAMGAMES during the coming few months, with funding mostly secured by the fact that my employment has been continued permanently and I am getting a small pay raise. This, in addition to some possible external funding, are going to allow He Watches to be my first commercial release, with an planned price range of 10 - 15 � (intended price subject to change in order to reflect overall quality and resources spent on the project).

"Well damn", some of you might say, "I wanted to play this game but I don't want to pay!". Well, as the game began it's lifecycle as a freeware game, I can see where you are coming from. This is why I am planning to release a non-commercial freeware version of the game as well. This version will not have most of the resources I will have to pay for myself, that is, some audio, music, and almost certainly voice acting will be missing from the game. The paid version will also come with some extra material, such as a separete digitally released soundtrack, concept art and more. Thus even those who do not wish to spend their hard-earned money on He Watches will be able to play and enjoy the game, while those who wish to get more quality and wish to offer support for this and possibly my future commercial projects can do so with a reasonable price. The early demo I released last year has received plenty of insightful feedback and has allowed me to make improvements to many aspects of the game, which I hope will make the game even more enjoyable than the early 2011 demo could convey.

With these changes in mind, the game is inevitably delayed once more, as I do not wish to release a half-hearted game as a commercial release. I am currently working on a more accurate timetable and future version plan, on which I will base the future of this project. Once it has been constructed I will release it here and I hope it will answer many potential questions.

If you have any questions about the game or it's developement (or anything else for that matter), just ask away and I will answer either in this thread or via PM or e-mail.

However this turns out, I already feel I need to thank you all for supporting me in learning how to develop my games (I am looking especially at you, Khris!) and for all the moral support and feedback I have received. I could never have hoped to have the skills needed build a commercial-quality game without you guys!

- Tomi K�hk�nen aka. WHAM

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- 26.01.2012 -

I've done my first interview as an "indie game developer", thanks to CaptainD!
LINK: http://www.pcgamereviewsandnews.com/2012/01/captaind-interviews-wham-currently.html

---------------------------

The demo has been released, download link below:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?category=&action=detail&id=1477

---------------------------

WHAMGAMES 2011 presents

The year is 2008 and the player takes on the role of Sarah MacDonald, a young woman born in London, now living with her parents in the Scottish countryside, working hard to finish her education. Almost a week ago, Sarah's boyfriend; Oliver, went missing without a word. Knowing the young man's interest in going on long trips in abandoned places without warning, nobody worries at first. However, a week without a word is a long time and Sarah finally begins to worry.

Maybe Oliver is just fine and is out documenting some abandoned building, as such is his hobby, or perhaps there is something far more sinister at work. Can you see through the deceit and find the truth?

An optimistic idea of a release date is December 2011!
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! No... 

FEATURES

• Manage your fears, stay away from the dark
  
• Interact with your environment as well as other characters
  
• Solve puzzles and find clues to uncover a hidden truth
  
• Enjoy a haunting classical ghost story with a twist
  

STATISTICS

• Character graphics done: 1,1 / 5
  
• Room graphics done: 30 / 60
  
• Story script and documents written: 70+ pages
  
• Lines of script written: Lots and lots
  
• Cutscenes done: 10%
  
• Project activity level: In full swing
  
• Nervous breakdowns so far: 1,5
  

---------------------------

Since a lot of people have been showing so much interest in this project, I thought I could reach out to the community for some collaboration.
Here is a background with a bunch of empty picture frames:

If YOU want to have a shot at getting a little bit of yourself into He Wathches, fill up one or more of the picture frames with your own artwork following the guidelines given below and send your donation to wham@whamgames.com via e-mail.

Guidelines:
- Picture should not look too out of place in a 1920's or 1930's setting
- I might slightly modify some pictures to maintain certain themes and ideas in the game
- Picture frames can be extended vertically if you wish, but please take dimensions of the room into account
- Some material might not be used in the game or in this specific room in the game, so don't get upset if your painting is not show in-game

[close]

This may not be the best place for this, if you agree, I apologize. Otherwise:

I'm thinking of jumping ship, or at least puttin one foor out of the AGS ship to test the waters. I feel like I should try some other tool than AGS to create a simple game engine of my own, and create some kind of adventure game based on that.

I've been pondering about Java as the basis to use, since I have some slight experience of it from my education years, but the internet has mostly mean things to say about Java as a platform for anything.

Any suggestions? Experiences? What would be a good platform / language to start learning nowadays?

Hopefully people don't mind this, but I just had to write this thing down.
This little essay is my way of sharing my deepest feelings on the subject at hand here.

Spoiler

YYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

In your face Sweden!

Who's the puny little baby now, huh!?

YOU ARE!

YOU ARE!

Wooooooooooo!!!

*throws up the horns, moshes*

[close]

That is all

This sprite was seen in the Dark Mansion thread, but I wanted to give it a new thread (I hope people don't mind my 'spamming').
I'd like some second opinions before I start animating her.

Desingning an interior for a new game project.

I think I need to clarify a little bit on what I am doing here:
The room background itself is drawn fully lit. After that I use one or more mostly black sprites to cover it up and to simulate the changes in lighting, I increase or decrease the transparency of these sprites. In addition, they usually have a few shapes built into them, to accomodate a light source etc.

1. A room in the dark
2. A room as lightling flashes outside
3. A room lit by a candle


I'd like some critics for:
The room overall (it is a small joining corridor between an entrance hall and a dining room)
The lighting (does it look ok?)
Anything else, really. Opinions are always welcome!

[http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1426]

Download from this link:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1426
Don't forget to give deedback! good or bad, it's always welcome!

Of the Essence
Can you escape impending doom? Run! Run for your life!





For the record: I won't be expanding this game any further than it is on release. The reason for this is, that this game was more of a proof of concept game, a way for me to show myself that I can do keyboard controls, rolling gameplay etc. I also had to cut a lot of corners to make this game work before deadline, so my original plan to make it sort of modular and easy to add more levels got lost there. A lot of people have asked me to expand and add better controls, but I'm afraid I will have to disappoint them here.

What I will do is take the skills and tricks I've learned here and put them to good use in my future projects, hopefully allowing me to make even better games.

If I am not mistaken, this might also be the first AGS game to feature achievements! Correct me if I am mistaken!  


I was mistaken

A new piece of graphics, this time it's a talk view.
I won't animate it, but I'd like some opinions on it.



I guess it's no secret that it's for my MAGS project. Seeing that deadline is 6 days away and I'm only starting work on the talk views, I might be a bit late.  

The below script SHOULD: move bullets (characters 1-10) that are NOT in reserve (ie. have a Y coordinate that is NOT -1) down by 8 pixels and then processclick on the bottom-mid pixel of the bullet, and then move up, clicking total of 8 pixels. After this, if the same coordinates that were clicked return the target name as "PLAYER" the bullet is sent to reserve.

What happens: The bullets are ALWAYS successfully sent to reserve after impact, but the processclick only seems to hit the player character occasionally, even though they SHOULD to my understanding be processing the same coordinate.

EDIT: forgot to mention, this function is run in global repeatedly execute.

Sorry for the messy code below, I hope someone can make sense out of it.

Code: ags

function enemybullets() { // A general check to see if any enemy bullets have hit the player
  while (MG2whiler <= 9) {
    if (character[MG2whiler+1].y != -1) { // IF the bullet is NOT in reserve
      character[MG2whiler+1].y = character[MG2whiler+1].y + 8; // Move bullet down by 8px
        int taa = 0; // Reset taa
        while (taa < 7) { // This while loop runs for 8 cycles
          // Process a click on the bottom-mid pixel of the bullet character. If click hits player, player takes damage. Bullets are not clickable.
          ProcessClick((character[MG2whiler+1].x + 1 - GetViewportX()), (character[MG2whiler+1].y - GetViewportY() - taa), eModeInteract);
          if (Game.GetLocationName(character[MG2whiler+1].x -GetViewportX(), character[MG2whiler+1].y -GetViewportY() - taa) == "PLAYER") {
            // If the character hit was the player, reset bullet position to reserve
            character[MG2whiler+1].ChangeRoom(player.Room, -1, -1);
          }
          taa++;
        }
  }
    // IF the bullet has left the screen, reset it
    if (character[MG2whiler+1].y >= 410) {
      character[MG2whiler+1].ChangeRoom(player.Room, -1, -1);
    }
    MG2whiler++;
  }
  MG2whiler = 0;
}

Does anybody here play ye good olde Combat Mission 2 anymore?
I would be willing to reinstall my old Windows XP just to get to play this classic again.

Also: If we can find more than two or three players, we could have a small tournamen or something!

I'm trying to get a fairly simple graphical style down for the upcoming MAGS.
Any opinions? Ideas? If someone has any ideas on how to improve the craters, I would be giddy with joy!

Helloes!

I'm thinking of workig a side project with a friend and make a couple of quick sprites. We're aiming pretty close to the style of old Final Fantasy games. Any ideas on improvement. Myself, I am not entirely happy with the side view at the moment...

I have a struct that contains a bunch of stats for NPC characters in my game. I need to be able to track a bunch of stats (like health, ammunition etc) for each and every NPC and there can be several hundreds of these generic NPC's.

However, as I try to declare

Code: ags

function game_start() 
{
  NPChar NPC[500];
}

BOOM! I get an error:

An internal error has occurred. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, post the details on the AGS Technical Forum.
(ACI version 3.12.1074)

Error: Error running function 'game_start':
Error: stack overflow, attempted grow to 14404 bytes


As far as I can understand, there is some kind of limit to how many variables can be declared in a single function (search revealed a similiar issue from 2004). Any ideas as to how I can work around this? I was going to have a while loop run after this to fill in all the variables contained in this struct using some basic values as well as some random values.

Is there a way to do this (I haven't been able to get this kind of behavior with the move command, so I thought I'd ask):

Code: ags

//PSEUDOCODE
String hupu;
int tupu = 0;

while (tupu < 500 && hupu != "taa") {
  // move an object toward another object's coordinates by ONE PIXEL
  if (GetLocationName(object.x, object.y) == "target") {
    hupu = "poo";
  }
  wait(1);
}

A very small down walkcycle for a top-down 15x15 tile based game I'm starting work on.

With helmet (2x original size)


Wothout helmet (2x original size)


Tear me a new one, people!

I'm planning on making some of those highly popular newfangled "Let's Play" videos on youtube.
The idea is to play a game, record it and comment it while I play. I already tried once on Ultima IX for the PC (http://www.youtube.com/user/whamtheman#g/c/5CF5058A90C49591), but my PC disagreed and promptly disassembled itself into its base components, and corrupted my save files in the process.

Now I am planning to try with a more reliable setup, ie. console games. Namely the PS1 and PS2, and perhaps GameCube.

What I need: suggestions on good games to play!

Must be single player, can be any genre, as long as it isn't too boring to watch (ie. no formula 1 games or the like, it gets dull after a while)
Preferrably some fairly short games to start off with, so no Final Fantasy games, thank you. =)

Speak up and be heard! Whoever has the best idea that I use to make a video gets mentioned in the video and thus earns unlimited internet fame!

Here is what I have made so far.

Code: ags

// GlobalScript.ash

  struct Firearm {
    String name;
    String description;
    int graphic;
    // Lots of other variables be labeled here
  }

// There are also structs that generate similiar melee weapons and special weapons in separate struct arrays

Code: ags

// GlobalScript.asc

// Create firearms
  Firearm firearms[10];

// called when the game starts, before the first room is loaded
function game_start() 
{
  // .32 REVOLVER
  firearms[0].name = ".32 Revolver";
  firearms[0].description = "A small .32 revolver, the standard firearm of the 1920's";
  firearms[0].graphic = 56; // The sprite that contains the graphic for this item
}

What I need to do: A character has a string variable "righthand", that contains the name of the weapon the character has in his/her right hand. If the variable "righthand" contains the value ".32 Revolver", the game should search through all the weapons in the game, and when it finds the matching name, it needs to be able to save the firearms[ # ] number to a variable and use that to draw the other variables stored in that struct into GUI labels and button graphics.

Any suggestions on how to best do this?

Sorry for posting trash, but I needed to get this out of my system:

YEEEEEAAAAAHHHH! I LOVE AGS!!!
I just figured out, after hours of ALMOST clicking "post" on the beginners technical questions section on three separately written posts, how structs and arrays of structs work!

My god! This is better than sex!

I think I need some tissues or something, here...

[HOLY CRAP I WON THE MAGS! I can't believe it! Thank you to all who voted for LaSol and thank you for playing!]

EDIT: HOLY CRAP I WON THE MAGS! I can't believe it! Thank you to all who voted for LaSol and thank you for playing!

EDIT: HOLY CRAP! I got pick of the month! This is the  best day of my life!

EDIT: HOLY CRAP! Special edition released, check Mirror 1 from the games page!

After almost 3 years of silence, WHAMGAMES is back with a short game that is participating in MAGS / February / 2011!

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1404

The game features all-new graphics, full voice acting, original music, a wide range of sound effects and a novel gameplay mechanic that is quite likely to up your heartbeat by a notch as time runs out and you curse your inability to swim...

In addition, the game was translated to a total of five different languages (English, Finnish, German, Dutch and Italian)!
Thanks to Leon, Neon and Paolo for the translations! You guys worked wonders on such short notice!

Story in short:
"Stan Winston, a janitor working on a luxurious man-made island resort, the LaSol, is about to have his life turned upside down, quite literally..."

Also: Be sure to check out my competitor; Pinback and his awesome game: "BEACON"
LINK: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1403

Also:
http://www.switched.com/2011/03/31/submerged-lasol-avoid-the-rising-tide/
and
http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1287

Ok, I'm sure this has been asked before, but I was unsure if I should bring up a zombie thread, so I'm taking the risk and staring a new one.

I'm making a small game for the on-going MAGS and I came across an oddity.

> My game files, when compiled, are almost 160 MB!!!
The reason seems to be the sprite file, although the images themselves (all .png files, most with alpha channel) are less than 6 MB before they are imported into AGS.

When I use winrar to pack the game, the whole thing becomes less than 1MB (that's right, from 160MB to 1MB).

Is this normal and is there anything I could/should do to reduce file size?

Here's a little bit of code:

Code: ags

function room_RepExec()
{
if (integerthatgoesupeverytenseconds >= 1 && cEgo.Moving == true && oWheetWhoot.Visible == false) {
    oWheetWhoot.Visible = true; 
    oWheetWhoot.Y = 169; // cEgo walks on Y 199
    oWheetWhoot.X = cEgo.x - 13; // Makes oWheetwhoot float over cEgo sprite
} else {
    oWheetWhoot.Visible = false;
}
}
// oWheetWhoot is animated all the time (eRepeat) 

I tried removing the checks for cEgo.Moving and oWheetWhoot visibility, and when cEgo remains in place, oWheetWhoot is shown correctly. BUT: when cEgo walks left or right, the object seems to flicker.

Any ideas on the cause? Ways this could be improved?