Messages

If you ultimate goal is to make money from the game, why don't you make available a free demo but they'll need to buy the game to play the full version? On the other hand, if your goal is to get as many people to play your game as possible, then offer a full free version.  To entice the fans to purchase the game, offer tons of goodies that are only available in the "commercial" version.  I suppose you could also ask for donations.

Sorry to hear that you're having difficulties with chemistry.  Like other said, you should focus on and understand the basic concepts first.  Maybe you're just freaking out because of all the terms and definitions.  Unfortunately, intro chem does require quite a bit of memorization, but it's like any subject--you need to learn the terms and definitions first before you can start learning about the hows and whys.  I find that science is poorly taught because people think that learning equals to rout memorization.  They fail to understand the significance and the concepts behind the subject.  Definitely find a tutor and ask lots of questions either during class or after class.  A good teacher should be able to explain concepts in different ways so everyone in the class can understand.  Also, maybe you can ask for examples of chemistry in real life application or some sort of demo. 

I too am a visual person.  When I started freshman chemistry, I was a bit confused about the new concepts, but I found that I ended up learning a lot more when I was in the chemistry lab actually working with my heads.  By the time I got into organic chem, the concepts became easier to understand, and lab classes really helped solidifying the concepts I learned in lecture.  It was quite cool when we had to make dilantin, an anti-seizure drug.  I also still remember the day when organic chemistry and biochemistry finally met when we learned about DNA.  It's quite neat that in orgo class I learned one way of sequencing DNA and in biochem class I learned another way of sequencing DNA.

alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, single bond, double bond, triple bond, saturated bonds, poly-unsaturated, bonds mono-saturated bonds, etc. These are all very basic organic chemistry terms that's found in the first month of college level organic chem class.  You do need to memorize these terms because this is very basic stuff.  If you're able to give a definition in your own words without looking back at your book, then you'll know these terms. I can tell you that alkanes are saturated hydrocarbons because they do not contain any bonds that's not single bond.  Hydrocarbons are simply compounds consisted of hydrogens and carbons.  I have not studied organic chem in 12 years, yet I can still fill in all the "chinese" in your examples.  Actually, I think these chemistry terms look more Greek to me.  XD  Then again, I do know Chinese.  Hehe.

You said that you need more visual examples to understand organic chem. Good news is that you can get 3-D models and you can physically build each of these compounds to understand what these various bonds/compounds are.  You'll see on the model that the ball for carbon has four slots while ball for hydrogen only has one slot and so on.  From this, you can tell that hydrogen can only make one bond because it only has one electron, but carbon has many possibilities because it has four available electrons in its outer electron shell for bonding.

C4H9Li + H2O → C4H10 + LiOH

That's a stoichiometry equation.  You just need to balance all the equation so both sides have equal numbers of each element.

Anyway, good luck with chemistry!! Don't give up on it and do find some help.

I agree with auriond that judging from the survey questions that you're looking to make something reaching the largest number of audience.  If you make a good game, people will play regardless of genre.  You should make a game that YOU want to play instead of what you think others might want to play.  This way you're not setting yourself up for a big disappointment if in the end the game isn't a blockbuster.  I didn't bother to fill out the survey because I like mysteries in general, and what I answer will not be useful for you in anyway.

I found hotel dusk VERY boring ... but I really dug it's intent!  It just didn't deliver for me.

But yeah, that's what I was getting at!  There's so many "things" that you can do with the DS that it would really push the adventure game to a new level.

Yeah, I noticed that Hotel Dusk isn't a game for everyone and I can understand why you thought it was boring, considering it required a lot more reading than the average adventure games.  I do think that it needed to be less linear and have more puzzles.  Still, it's better than nothing, and I wonder if there were more adventure games/interactive novels published for the Japanese that we'll never get a chance to see State-side.

Hypothetically, if you took the time to figure out how to produce your game so that it could be played on the DS, and could design your programming around the two screens, who's to say it would even be worth it? Designing games is incredibly complex. Even something as revolutionary as the Wii hasn't been utilized to its full potential. Being able to walk from one screen to another won't impress the DS owner. You've got to find a way to use the features in a way that Adventure games have an advantage, something other games on the DS don't.

And who would play your game? Not many people own a DS. And if I owned a DS, I probably won't feel inclined to play your game other than that there is a connection to the boards.

And like MessaBlue said, by the time you're done making your game, people will be like "What the hell is a DS? I've got Wii 2.0" or something.

Actually, DS is a very popular system (around 54 million units in about three years) and I can't imagine it going out of fashion in the next few years.  Heck, there are people who still play Gameboy Advance even though DS has been out for a few years now so it's not like people will forget or stop plaing older systems immediately when new systems come out. 

I do agree that it would take a lot of time and resource to develop tools to make DS adventure games and to make games in general.  I don't knows if that time spent is worth it, but look at how popular AGS is and how grateful people are to be able to develop their own games using AGS.  I don't know about you, but I always thought that the point of making a game or writing a story or comic is to entertaining yourself--a labor of love and creating something that you personally would enjoy.  Finding audience for your game is totally a bonus.  Even though I haven't started creating a game, I have done other creative projects, and in the end the sense of accomplishment is the best feeling even if no one sees my projects. 

Also, is it really necessary to make games for the latest hardware/software?  Why do many people today make adventure games at fairly low resolution even though today's pc is so much more powerful than pc of 80s, 90s?   My husband spent two years modded Rome: Total War into Lord of the Rings: Total War because he always wanted to play large battles in the LOTR universe.  Even though Medieval 2: Total War came out sometimes during the period he was modding the game, he still continued and finished his mod on R:TW for several reasons.  A lot of people download and play his mod even though it's not for M2:TW because people recognize the quality of the mod.

Anyway, yes, I agree with you that I would love to see people come up with creative use of the NDS controls with adventure games, but even if it's point and click, I would still play it if it looks fun and interesting (just look at how popular Phoenix Wright series is). 

Oh man, I would love to see more NDS adventure games in general.  Hotel Dusk, which is part adventure game, part interactive novel, worked really well in NDS, and some of the puzzles using the NDS features were quite clever.  The system is actually great for that kind of game.  I can imagine the top screen would be used as an inventory or as map while the bottom screen would be where the main action takes place.  I can see using stylus to literally write notes in the DS and stuff.  I actually wouldn't worry about the resolution of the screens because many of the DS games look fantastic partially because the game developers know how to push the limits of the hardware and they also use clever art direction/style.

The plant on the left doesn't look like a plant to me.  You need to give it more definition, more shape, more contrast.  Right now, it looks like a blob with lines drawn all over it.  I suggest look at bushes and potted plants and do some sketches based on your observations.  The plant on the right looks definitely more plant-like.  I don't know if it's intentional or not, but the plant looks flat at the moment because the way you're arranging the leaves. 

I know this is probably a work in progress so maybe you already considered some of the points I made so please don't feel offended by my critique.  The background looks pretty nice so far.  I rather like the complementary colors you used, but the objects look flat.  I see you're trying to make the pot a bit more rounded, but the other objects in the room (like the grey basket? and the brown counter) have no volume.  The flatness of the furniture is even more apparent when you compare them to the door and windows, which have highlights and shading.

If you really want to try hand drawn style, you should actually draw on paper and scan it.  I know that I'm more comfortable doing base or lineart on paper first before coloring and editing in the computer; maybe it's the same for you.  With that said, to me that picture doesn't look like hand drawn or even sketchy.  It looks sloppy.  One reason is because you keep going over the same lines over and over when real artist can do sketches without resorting to that.  If you want a more sketchy style, focus giving more strength and expression.  If you're uncomfortable about drawing things perfectly in one go (something that most people can't do, including me), draw the shape very lightly first before proceed any further.  This way you can make corrections quite easily before you're totally set on the final product.  This technique also works in the computer.  You can use lighter color lines or use different layers for "sketch" and "finished lineart."

It's looking quite lovely so far, and I do get a beach apartment vibe from the pic.  My only critiques are rather minor and you can choose to ignore it.  Hehe.  First, even taken into consideration of perspective, the closet isn't divided evenly.  I think if you move the center vertical line by one or two pixels, the two halves of the closet will look more even.  Second, the sofa and the end tables look rather small to me.  Since those items closer to the audience, they should be a bit bigger.

Other than that, good job so far and I look forward to seeing the final result. 

Hello! I'm Cyen.  I grew up playing a lot of adventure games and to this day I'm still a fan though I'm a bit sad adventure games aren't as popular back in the 80s and 90s.  I first heard about AGS through a friend who wanted me to play the remake of King's Quest games, but the thought of being able to create one's own game intrigued me even more. 

I'm actually a biologist and dabbled in a bit in archaeology, but my true love is drawing.  I've been drawing longer than playing adventure games, and for the past 6-7 years I've been drawing comics for fun. I think working on an adventure game is the next natural step for me because making games and doing comics are about creating fun and interesting stories.  I started drawing comics because I wanted to write a story that I want to read, and the reason for making a game is the same--I want to play a game that I would enjoy.  My goal this year is to learn to use AGS, and the test would be to build a one room "game."  I have not decided what I'll do after that, but I won't promise to make a complete game because I know how much work it is and I don't want to disappoint me or my friends.

My name is Dimitri, i'm 20, i'm from Greece and i currently study Architecture in a small city called Volos.

Oh, I visited Volos years ago when I worked as an archaeologist in Central Greece.  My friends and I were in the Volos area to check out two very famous Neolithic sites, Sesklo and Dimini.  Good times.

I really like the cartoony style of this character, especially the way you did the face.  I could actually imagine you giving this little guy a variety of expressions.  I also like the shading on the shirt.  I do agree with MesaBlue that it's a little plain.  I think the reason the shirt is too blank.  Maybe adding some sort of design or logo would make it less plain?  Also, this is probably a personal preference more than anything, but I would like to see a bit more contrast to show shading.