Messages

The talks are finally online! I updated the first post on the thread with the links. Please do hit that like button on YouTube! Note that some of the audio is not great, and I've notified the staff to see if they can improve it.

Comments about my talk: There was so much to cover about the history of AGS! It was challenging, and I tried to cover as much as possible! (There is so much time to put these presentations together...)

[What's Narrascope?]

Hello, I just wanted to quickly announce that there are a few talks related to AGS at Narrascope.

What's Narrascope?
Narrascope is a small North American conference for interactive narrative, adventure games, and interactive fiction, similar to LudoNarraCon. It started in 2019, and this year is being held in Pittsburgh, USA, and online.

https://narrascope.org/

Do I need to attend in person? Can I watch online?

Not at all. In fact, most of the conference attendees will be online. Register on their website (https://narrascope.org/) and watch the conference now or on different streaming channels. Online registration is free, but donations are welcome. The last day to Register is June 8.

What talks are related to AGS?

I will be giving an ambitious talk about the history of AGS! I can't include everything but will try to highlight as many of the milestones and games as I can.

The Little Engine That Could: The History of the Adventure Game Studio Engine, Games, and Community

Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is one of the most popular point-and-click adventure game engines. Originally released to the public in 1997, it has a long history of updates, community, creators, and games. The engine has democratized the creation of adventure games. But nobody outside the community knows its history. How many of these games were not merely created by individuals working solo, but by a community who helped each other along the way?

Edit: Recording of the talk:

Jess Haskins (co-writer for Rosewater, AGS game fan, but not a forum member) will discuss worldbuilding in Rosewater.

How the West Was Many: Crafting a Culturally Diverse Western Adventure with Rosewater

At Narrascope and AdventureX, I've spoken about the importance of creating with cultural awareness, and why small teams and solo indies shouldn't be afraid of going "out of bounds" to write outside their own personal backgrounds. In this talk I will discuss how our team of two put this theory into practice in making our forthcoming point-and-click adventure. Rosewater is set in an alternate-history world inspired by the American Old West, but aiming to thoughtfully depict a diverse range of people and experiences often left out of traditional Westerns. I'll talk about what approaches worked, what didn't, the gap between theory and practice — and how we can do better next time.

Update: Recording of the talk (Warning: There may be a minor spoiler about Rosewater...)

As Jess mentioned, this is the followup to a previous talk:

Grundislav will talk about Rosewater's voice overs.

Going Union: How A Basement Indie Hired AAA Talent (And How You Can, Too!)

Plenty of narrative games feature voice acting. Smaller and indie teams tend to cast non-union actors. While this is a perfectly acceptable approach, the quality and professionalism that union actors offer is undeniable. In this talk, I want to dispel the assumption that working with union actors is prohibitively expensive, as well as clear up some common misconceptions.

Update: Recording of the talk:

@eri0o I tested the build and the panels you mentioned are looking good!

Looks great! I did not know about opengameart.

Hey folks, I just found out that Simple / Philip J. Reed passed away less than a year ago on August 10, 2022, at the age of 41, in Colorado. Sadly, it was suicide. He was interred across New York City in his hometown in New Jersey. I couldn't find a post in the forum about this, so I thought I'd share.

Philip was the creator of the Larry Vales series. Larry Vales, along with Yahtzee's Rob Blanc series, were some of the first games that showcased what could be built with AGS, and which attracted members to our community. The last we heard of him was around 2009 when he was working on a Larry Vales remake (forum post.)

After his time as an AGS developer, Philip became a fairly known author, blogger, and pop culture writer. He was known for his reviews of episodes of the TV show ALF and a book about Resident Evil.

Obituary:
https://www.sbmortuary.com/obituary/Philip-Reed

His Blog Archive (Content Warning: the last post was a suicide note):
https://noiselesschatterarchive.blogspot.com

Here's Philip talking about Resident Evil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9LJ7LXQnW4

Articles remembering him:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/08/in-memory-of-philip-j-reed-writer-and-nintendo-life-contributor
https://bossfightbooks.com/blogs/news/remembering-friend-and-author-philip-j-reed
https://meblogwritegood.com/2022/08/18/rip-philip-j-reed-and-a-me-blog-write-good-announcement/
https://www.ganymede.tv/2022/08/philip-j-reed-rip/

Borrowed from one of the articles above:
"Philip used to fundraise for The Trevor Project, a charity providing mental health resources and free crisis prevention for LGBTQ youth. If you'd like to make a donation in his name, you can do so here."

 

Edit2: wait a minute, now I see you mentioned you have scaling set to 200%, so possibly this is something I can set here to see what happens. I know in theory moving to NET 4.8 gives access to a different windows forms that could possibly improve this situation but maybe it's something better in ags4.

To clarify, I have to set it to 200% because the whole desktop would be too small to read. When I change it to 100%, the editor looks fine (same as 3.6.0) so it may be that the scaling setting is not compatible with the current forms.

You can test it out by going to the Windows screen/display settings and changing the scale.

Could you demonstrate how the previous version looks on the same monitor?
Also, which OS do you run this on?

Sure, it looks like it always does but pixelated compared to the rest of the os:
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Ap-i3SuJykLihiyT3svQiDjWaPNo?e=7ESpxl

My specs are:
Windows 10 Home 21H2
Resolution: 2880x1800
Scale: 200%

As mentioned on Discord, I'm excited about this release!

I tested the editor on my high DPI display, and many panels must be fixed. I also wonder if Editor plugins would also be affected.

I made a video showing the glitches: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Ap-i3SuJykLihinGCZ0jdiCcj6E_?e=eBEiVC

Edit: I just tested the Speech Center editor plugin, and there are problems: https://1drv.ms/i/s!Ap-i3SuJykLihituN9TEAgr3nvmj?e=XQgu9p

@RootBound

OK, new problem. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong in my scripting. Goal is to be able to pseudo change speed of tweens (including stopping and resuming) by doing the following:

1. getting the current fraction of tween's duration remaining through customtween.GetTweenProgress() and the current value through customtween.value.

2. stop the tween

3. start a new tween with the value and duration modified based on what was previously elapsed.

This is, however, not working. I have a label displaying the value of customtween.GetTweenProgress(which, if I understand correctly, is supposed to return a float value between 0 and 1), but instead the returned value almost instantaneously climbs to a 10-digit whole integer, and if the tween is paused and unpaused value returns to 0 (integer, not float) and stays there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

First, you can use the tween-provided function SecondsToLoops(1.0) to convert seconds to game loops instead of using GetGameSpeed() / 40. There's also a tween-provided function called SetTimerWithSeconds where youc can provide the number of seconds directly.

The problem I see in your code is that you're calling Update() only when the timer is expired:

Code: ags

  if (IsTimerExpired(1))  {
    SetTimer(1, GetGameSpeed()/40);
    if (IncreaseScaling.IsPlaying())  {
      IncreaseScaling.Update();
    }
    cTree.Scaling = IncreaseScaling.Value;
  }

Update needs to be called always because it only moves the tween one step on every loop. What I would recommend is do all your logic at the top of the function and then update the tween:

Code: ags

function repeatedly_execute_always() {
  if (IncreaseScaling.IsPlaying())  {
    IncreaseScaling.Update();
  }
  // Update object logic
  // Reset tween logic
}

Congratulations on the release. This is a huge milestone!

2.3.0 is out!

[About]

About

The AGS Tween Module allows you to programmatically interpolate many of the AGS properties (objects, characters, regions, viewport, audio, GUI, GUI controls, etc.) over time in amazing ways. The term tween comes from the computer animation term inbetweening.



Don't depend on using while loops everywhere in your code to move something:

Code: ags

while (gIconbar.Y > -gIconbar.Height) {
  gIconbar.Y = gIconbar.Y - 1;
  Wait(1);
}

With the Tween module, can do graceful things like this:

Code: ags

gIconbar.TweenY(0.5, -gIconbar.Height, eEaseInBackTween);

Notable games using the tween module include Guard Duty, Lamplight City, Unavowed, Future Flashback, and Rosewater.

What are you waiting for? Start using the Tween module today!

---
What's new in 2.3.0?

TL;DR: This is a great new release that supports the new features in AGS 3.6.0, adds support for Point object tweens, and the long overdue support for Overlay X and Y. This module is compatible with AGS 3.5 or above.


Added Overlay TweenX, TweenY, TweenPosition
3.5.0: Added Point TweenX, TweenY, TweenPosition
3.6.0: Added Character TweenAnimationVolume
3.6.0: Character.TweenScaling is no longer limited by a range of 5-200. Now supports 1-32767
3.6.0: Added GUIControl TweenTransparency
3.6.0: Added Object TweenScaling
3.6.0: Added Overlay Width, Height, Size, and Transparency
Internal: Updated how managed tweens are created to support Point and Overlay tweens
Added function documentation where extra properties such as ManualScaling, Visible are also updated

---

Download from:
https://github.com/edmundito/ags-tween/releases/tag/v2.3.0

Documentation:
https://edmundito.gitbook.io/ags-tween/

Financial Support:
Happy to take tips or donations through my Ko-fi site: https://ko-fi.com/edmundito

Chat in the AGS Discord server:
https://discord.gg/vmuCyWX

Issues and feature planning:
https://github.com/edmundito/ags-tween/issues

I just released 2.2.2! It's just a few small bug fixes that were present in 2.2.0. Thanks to AlanDrake for fixing some of these issues.
https://github.com/edmundito/ags-tween/releases/tag/v2.2.2

I'm always open for suggestions on what the next version should have. Some of these ideas have been posted in github issues:
https://github.com/edmundito/ags-tween/issues

Is this a general thread about improving the syntax in AGS 4 or specifically about changing struct to class? I got a huge list of things I'd like to see improved.

Should I start a new thread or reply here?

 

Super sad news. I lost a family member to cancer as well and I know how tough it is. When I was more regular in the forum, I found ProgZMax to be one of the most inspiring artists and with his work on the Wadjet Eye Games I think of him as one of the contributors to the success of AGS as an indie gamedev tool. RIP.

Back in 2005, I very briefly worked with him for sprites for a game that was never made, I wanted to share his work from back then as a little memory:

I finished the game! Worth playing all the way through. Thanks for keeping it updated, the Esc main menu is a nice addition.

Another bug I noticed:

Spoiler

When I use the stick with the scissors it says "%s on a stick?" instead of putting the name of the object in %s

[close]

I'm really enjoying it so far but I'm stuck!

Spoiler

- I got my haircut
- I got taller
- Now I need the suit

I got a sticky hose, a pair of scissors, and horseshoes. What am I missing?

[close]

[Latest Version is 2.3.0 - See the Tween 2.3.0 thread for more details!]

Latest Version is 2.3.0 - See the Tween 2.3.0 thread for more details!

About

The AGS Tween Module allows you to programmatically interpolate many of the AGS properties (objects, characters, regions, viewport, audio, gui, gui controls, etc.) over time in amazing ways. The term tween comes from the computer animation term inbetweening.




Ten years ago you probably depended on ugly while loops everywhere in your code to move something:

Code: ags

while (gIconbar.Y > -gIconbar.Height) {
  gIconbar.Y = gIconbar.Y - 1;
  Wait(1);
}

Today, with the Tween module, can do graceful things like this:

Code: ags

gIconbar.TweenY(0.5, -gIconbar.Height, eEaseInBackTween);

Notable games using the tween module include: Guard Duty, Lamplight City, Unavowed, Future Flashback, and Rosewater.

What are you waiting for? Start using the Tween module today!

---
What's new in 2.2.2?
Bug fixes. More info here: https://github.com/edmundito/ags-tween/releases/tag/v2.2.2

What's new in 2.2.0?

First, a brand new format for the documentation: https://edmundito.gitbook.io/ags-tween/

TL;DR: This is a great new release that supports all new features all the way AGS 3.5.0 beta 5. Additionally, it fixes a few bugs and removes compatibility with older AGS versions prior to 3.4.0.

Fixed Region StopTweenTint result parameter (was not used)
Fixed Region tween tint saturation to 1-100 and luminance clamping to 0-100
Fixed exception when using Button.TweenTextColorRed
Removed compatibility with any version below 3.4.0
Replaced internal #ifver checks to check based on SCRIPT_API_v* to improve compatibility
Replaced Region.TweenTintEx with additional luminance parameter in Region.TweenTint
Removed TweenSystemGamma and StopTweenSystemGamma in favor of using existing System.TweenGamma and System.StopTweenGamma
Removed TweenSystemVolume and StopTweenSystemVolume in favor of using exiting System.TweenVolume and System.StopTweenVolume
Added TweenTextColorRGB for Button, Label, and TextBox
3.4.1: Added Character TweenTint (+ Red/Green/Blue), TweenTintSaturation, TweenTintLuminance
3.4.1: Added Object TweenTint, TweenTintRed, TweenTintGreen, TweenTintBlue, TweenTintSaturation, TweenTintLuminance
3.5.0: Removed limitations of GUI tweens to screen width and height
3.5.0: Replaced old Viewport tweens with Camera TweenX, TweenY, TweenWidth, TweenHeight, TweenPosition, TweenSize
3.5.0: Added new Viewport object tweens TweenX, TweenY, TweenWidth, TweenHeight, TweenPosition
3.5.0: Updated Tween1Compatiblity module to support legacy Viewport tweens (via Camera)
3.5.0: Added Tween2Compatiblity module to support legacy Viewport tweens (via Camera)
3.5.0: Added GUI TweenBackgroundColor (+ Red/Green/Blue/RGB) and TweenBorderColor (+ Red/Green/Blue/RGB)
3.5.0: Added ListBox TweenSelectedBackColor (+ Red/Green/Blue/RGB), TweenSelectedTextColor (+ Red/Green/Blue/RGB), TweenTextColor (+ Red/Green/Blue/RGB)

---

Download from:
https://github.com/edmundito/ags-tween/releases/tag/v2.2.2

Documentation:
https://edmundito.gitbook.io/ags-tween/

Chat in the AGS Discord server:
https://discord.gg/vmuCyWX

Issues and feature planning:
https://github.com/edmundito/ags-tween/issues

10 years of Special Thanks to:

Crimson Wizard for continuing to support AGS and adding new features like Camera that inspired this version of the module
eri0o for worshiping this module and using it to its fullest potential
MattFrith for supporting the Discord channel in what became the AGS Discord server
Tzachs for expanding the original module to support most of the properties in AGS
Grundislav for the Ben Jordan games that inspired the creation of the original module
Dualnames for promoting and creating very inspiring work with the module since the very beginning
Blackthorne who made so many great games with this module and his overall encouragement motivated me to create Tween 2
jwalts37 who I met in person at GDC 2014 and told me how much he liked the module
Vince Twelve who wished he had this module in Resonance and for showing me some advanced code that was the inspiration for Tween 2's startDelay
Calin Leafshade for giving me more insight into scripting best practices, and everyone in the forum for reporting problems and making games with this
Dave Gilbert for praising the tween module every time I see him in person
TheJBurger who I kept exchanging emails about the module during the development of Gemini Rue
ThreeOhFour who early in the first of tween module suggested a feature that would later become custom tweens
Pumaman for reasons

I was able to make a build with 3.4.1 but it was not easy and not perfect. It seems that the game runs for now, we are testing to see where it breaks.

I've detail the current instructions here, you will need to be familiar with Xcode, Make, etc. Please follow them step by step:

https://gist.github.com/edmundito/4cc578f6eee51db7d20882cfa222b015

In summary:
- The OSX project is outdated with ags 3.4.1 but may work with ~3.4.0.13
- Some hacking needs to be done to make it work
- Allegro needs to be repatched properly to support ags 3.4.1

I recommend trying with v.3.4.0.13 or a later master hash 911fa50e7d19ea03629523bac952af5dc1b18453, I had luck making a build with around the part of the code last year. If you can get it to work then I would try v.3.4.0.16 which is the latest tag.

Hello, I'm trying to make a build with the Mac port again and I forgot all the steps. I ran into an issue with patching allegro:

cd OSX/buildlibs
make

I get the error:
"patch: **** malformed patch at line 1874: diff --git a/src/ios/idrivers.c b/src/ios/idrivers.c"

When I look in OSX/buildlibs/build/allegro-4.4.2/src, there is no "ios" directory. I also looked at the allegro source and the tag "4.4.2" and there was no "ios" directory.

I see a comment from Nick in the Makefile:
"# - to update patch: git diff 4.4.2..osx-update > ../ags/OSX/patches/allegro-4.4.2.patch"

Is there a step I am missing?