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I was wondering if someone could help me. I know that there are a multitude of GUI tutes out there, but at present all of the links to them on the main page are dead, as are any links I found searching for "GUI tutorial" in the forums. Does anyone have a working link explaining how to make and program a custom GUI, or is there anyone who can take a second to explain it? Thanks

Also, while I'm still right here and since the above will probably be a simple answer (probably just a working link) let me ask one more question. Also, this is probably going to be a dumb question, but since I'm on my work computer right now and don't have AGS in front of me, I can't finagle and find out on my own right now: Is there a way to have your character or other characters go off screen? For example, if I wanted him to walk off the left edge of the screen and then come back in, for a cutscene, or if I wanted him to walk off the bottom of the screen but still have his shoulders and head poking up...

[example of your work, storyline/synopsis of the game]

Skip this post, unless you are interested in a really cool game idea by yours truly. Don't listen to Kinoko either (sorry, K, just kidding) ... Go down to my heavily edited second post to see where this is going...
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Now, listen, dammit.... This is straight from M0ds' mouth:

I am implementing a brand new rule. ONLY post a topic asking for team members for a game if you include one or more of the following; screenshots, example of your work, storyline/synopsis of the game, music etc.

Example of my work: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22452.0
Ã,  Ã, ESPER: Town on the Edge of Darkness.

If anyone wants to work on the ESPER series with me, that would be cool. I have a couple of stories lined up and a background artist. BUT that's not what I'm posting here for.

SYNOPSIS:
I am looking for a crew to help me out with an in-between game, not part of my ESPER horror series. The idea is this:

ROBBIE-29

Ã,  Ã, Robbie-29 tells the tale of a little service droid that wakes up one day with a glitch in his programming. He is normally just a janitor on board the freighter U.I.S. Maelstrom, but today he realizes he is something more.
Ã,  Ã, As he comes online, his diagnostics tell him that there is something wrong with him, so he goes to see the chief engineer. Unable to vocalize his problems, she sends him to run some errands, one of which includes cleaning up a mess caused by a strange interstellar traveller the Maelstrom picked up at Thoth station three weeks ago.
Ã,  Ã, When he arrives, he finds a strange biomass that he stores in his cleaning units. Upon discovering it there, the chief engineer sends him to the ship's library to research it. In the meantime, a strange area of darkness is approaching the ship. When ROB-29 comes out of the library, he finds the entire crew has been completely wiped out and there is no trace of the strange "guest." Thus begins Robbie's quest to find out what wiped out the crew of the Maelstrom, including the Chief Engineer, who was the only person who ever showed him any compassion.
Ã,  Ã, The quest takes Robbie to space stations, distant planets, and to the end of the universe, where a dark secret eons dormant is awakening.

Ã,  Ã, I have the entire story plotted out, and maps drawn of the entire game. All the puzzles are in place, but if anyone has any ideas for more, that would be great.
Ã,  Ã, I also have five backgrounds made that I will post tomorrow if anyone shows interest today. However, I am not toally pleased with them. If any background artists would like to join up and give new life to Robbie's world, or at least give better life to my backgrounds by doing paintovers, that would also be welcome. There are three decks on the ship, each with 4 locations. There are three planets, each with 5 or less, and a space station with 4 locations. Thus, there are roughly 36 total locations. After the crew gets wiped out, there might need to be some revisions to some of the rooms on the ship.
Ã,  Ã, I will of course need some music and SFX. What is needed will be open to interpretation by whatever musician would like to join, as long as it is a serious attempt.
Ã,  Ã, I am also looking for someone to make a GUI that would reflect the main character being a small robot without the capability of speech or manual interaction, but who can gain upgrades.
Ã,  Ã, The biggest thing I'm looking for is character artists and animators. I could conceivably do everything else, but I'm lousy at this. I was relatively pleased with Town on the Edge of Darkness, but I think the character art and animation left MUCH to be desired. I have concept art for Robbie, the Chief Engineer, and the ship's security guards, and have a good visualization of what the other characters will look like.

Ã,  Ã, If anyone is interested, please let me know either here or by PM, and I will (tomorrow, as I don't have my laptop with me tonight) send you the full story and the current backgrounds and concept art. I am VERY serious about this project, but my inability to do themed art has been hindering me. Help a brother out

I'm looking at trying to make a new style for my backgrounds in my upcoming horror/mystery game. Some of you might remember ESPER: Town on the Edge of Darkness, which I released about two months ago. I liked it, and it seems a few other people did, too, but I was really not pleased with the graphics. Thus, I have come up with a new style to do my backgrounds in. I was wondering what you guys thought.

First, a 3D render using Caligari Truespace 3.2:



Next, I put a Sharpen filter on it and add black outlines and other details, such as the light (I know the light might not look too good, but I wanted to make that where you find a body)



This is the thread where I posted the character I'm going to be using for these backgrounds.
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22877.0

Hey, I have a problem. My character (check out critic's lounge) is not importing into AGS. It is a 100x150 jpg saved at 32 bit w/alpha and 24 bit. For some reason, on initial attempts to get him imported, nothing shows up. Don't ask me what made me think to do this, but I went into Paint and grabbed the bottom right hand corner and shrunk it, up a couple pixels and left a couple pixels. That makes him import correctly (it has nothing to do with the color of the bottom left pixel: I have transparency set for the top left pixel)... The problem there is that now there are white lines on the edges, and if I don't do it perfectly the animation jumps all over the place.

So my question, I guess, is this:

WTF?

[How To Get Published!]

I was thinking we could start a post for people who know how to do certain things that aren't common knowledge that could be helpful to other people in the community. I want to start with something I know from the long and winding road I had to tread. This is something you can find if you search the internet enough, and all the info I know about it I got from doing just that, but it was a long and bothersome road that could have been detoured if someone had been there to help me get started.

How To Get Published![/u]
Ã,  Someone (name withheld to protect the innocent ) asked me via PM a little while ago what I did to get a published book, and I figured, since this community was full of artists, musicians, and writers, I could share what I told him with everyone.

Getting Started
Ã,  Ã, Obviously, you can't get published unless you have a COMPLETED manuscript. Most publishers and/or agents will only ask you for three chapters to start out with, but if you don't have the entire manuscript ready before sending it to them, they will not be interested. If they say "We like this! Send the whole thing!" and you don't HAVE the whole thing, they will instantly lose interest and probably chuck it. Time waits for no man. Publishers and agent, doubly so.
Ã,  Ã, The next thing you will want to do actually takes place WHILE WRITING THE MANUSCRIPT! You will want to make sure that you do not send publishers or agents a manuscript that is heavily laden with spelling errors, syntax and grammatical mistakes, etc. The best way to do this is not to use spellcheck, since spellcheck is not a reader. Once you have written a chapter or section of the book, READ IT ALOUD to yourself. If you run across something that doesn't sound like something you might say while talking, chances are it isn't something a publisher (or reader, for that matter) is going to want to see in writing. Check all mistakes as you go, and give it to someone who you trust to check as well. This does NOT mean your mom or your closest friends. They will probably, despite repeated pleas to them NOT to be, be very nice to you. Your family is most likely just very proud of you and the fact that you are trying to write. You need to find someone who is objective. Give it to your ninth grade bully and see what he thinks...
Ã,  Ã, Also, you have to remember that, when writing a book for mainstream publication, you are not TELLING a story, you are SELLING a story. I couldn't stress this enough to the guy who PMed me. You could have the best story in the world, but publishers won't care if it isn't MARKETABLE. It has to be something that an agent wil look at and, rather than say "This is a very beautiful story, well written with precise images and flowing prose," say "This story will make me a million dollars!!!"
Ã,  Ã, In order to have a saleable story, you must keep the reader involved. If the reader picks it up and reads two pages in and is not interested, he will put it down and never pick it up again. A publisher and an agent knows this, and will do the same thing. Thus, the story must be filled with HOOKS! You need to do something within the first couple pages that grabs the reader's attention and makes them want to keep going. This might not be, for instance, writing the book form of INDEPENDANCE DAY only moving the scene where the aliens blow up the white house to the first page. Rather, just drop little tidbits that make the reader see that something interesting is brewing, and make them want to find out exactly what that is. Once a publisher sees that, they know that readers will see it too and the book will be considered much more marketable.
Ã,  Ã, Where Do I Go From Here?
Ã,  Ã, Obviously, the next thing you need to do is sell the book.
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Most people try to send their work directly to publishers, but most mainstream publishers do not accept UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS. This means, if they did not ASK you for it, then they do not want it. Most will either go to the "slush pile" or be thrown directly into a wastepaper basket.
Ã,  Ã, The best thing to do is either to get an agent or send out query letters. I will cover both, since most agents also do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Ã,  Ã, Agents
Ã,  Ã, There is a plus and a negative side to working with agents. First, agents know their market and who they can sell your book to. They will take 15-20% commission from you, but chances are they will also get you better deals from the publisher which will nullify that percentage. Agents, btw, will NEVER ask for reading fees. A good agent makes all their money from selling your book, and the only thing they might ask you for is some money to help make copies and pay for postage, which most will refund you after the book is sold. If an agent asks for a reading fee, he is most likely a SCHUYSTER who is trying to ROB you.
Ã,  Ã, The best way to get an agent is to look at what type of book you are writing, and then go here: http://www.writers.net/agents.php
Ã,  Ã, Click "BY TOPIC" and then select the topic that most closely matches the genre of your manuscript. If you are not in America (as most of you are not) click BY LOCATION, and select your country. However, many agents are willing to work overseas, with a slightly higher commission. All the best agents and publishing houses are in New York.
Ã,  Ã, Make sure they have a website, and visit it. You will most likely see a page that says "SUBMISSIONS" or "SUBMISSION GUIDELINES." Go there and find out how they would like to receive your manuscript.
Ã,  Ã, Submissions
Ã,  Ã, Everyone likes receiving their manuscripts differently, but there are some key factors that are pretty common.
Ã,  Ã, 1) Single sided on 8 1\2 x 11" 20lb bond paper (that is American standard... I'm not sure what that translates into in metric, or what foreign agencies would be looking for).
Ã,  Ã, 2) Double spaced. ALWAYS double spaced, with one inch margins all around. Publishers and agents like to scribble notes.
Ã,  Ã, 3) 10-12 point Courier New font. This is because A) it is neat and easy on the eyes, and B) it helps them with word count. Publishers aren't interested in how many words Microsoft Office says there are, they want to know how much space it will take up in a trade paperback format. You can figure out the word count by making all your font 10 point Courier New and then multiplying 250 words per page.
Ã,  Ã, 4) Title pages should start halfway down the page and include the title of your manuscript, the word count, your name, and all your contact information, centered on the page.
Ã,  Ã, 5) Typesetters have a hard time finding italics. Instead of using them, underline passages that should be italicized.
Ã,  Ã, 6) For a header on every page, right justify a key word from the title, your name, and the page number all in caps.
Ã,  Ã, 7) Never use justified text. ALWAYS (except in the title) use ragged right edge (left justified) text. Remember how we talked about word count? That is based on all letters and spacing being the same size. When you justify the text, it changes all that.

Ã,  Ã, Once you are sure you are ready, and have closely followed all my advice thus far, go ahead... but not until you have done EVERYTHING correctly so far.

Query Letters
Ã,  Ã, The most integral part of the Submission package is the query letter. Sometimes it is ALL you send, until the agent or publisher asks for more. Until then, you have only the Query Letter to get their attention. Make it good.

Ã,  Ã,  Sample query Letter With Added Notes:

Ã,  Ã, Dear _____________
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  ***it is very important you do not make it seem to be a form letter. Find out who the director of your type of story is at the agency or publishing house you send to, and address it directly to that person***
Ã,  Ã, I am writing to query for my manuscript, DARK HEARTS, a supernatural romantic mystery novel in roughly 80,500 words. ***always put something like this as the first or the first couple of lines***
It is the story of Molly Watts, a young, innocent girl who has never really experienced life. One day, in an airport surrounded completely by a world she has never seen, one man shows her kindness, and she instantly falls for him. Taking her home to protect her from her overprotective brother, he soon realizes he might have similar feelings. However, he keeps strange hours and stranger company, and has a locked room in his house which she is not permitted to see. One day stumbling upon the room unlocked, she finds evidence to link her odd beau to a series of ritual kidnappings and murders. The story concludes as Ian rushes to save her from the REAL murderer, battling time and cultists as he tries to win her back from the jaws of certain sacrifice... at the hands of her own brother.
Ã,  Ã, ***This is going to be something slightly akin to what you might read on the dust cover of a novel, but a little more revealing. Try to resist the urge to say things like "Will he reach her in time?" or "But who is the mysterious man that is really responsible???" It makes the agent/publisher remember you are trying to sell them something, and they don't much care for that***
Ã,  Ã, This novel is coming out in a day when the supernatural, paranormal, and occult is at an all-time interest level with readers old and young alike. With books such as (insert similar books) and movies and television shows such as (insert similar blah blah), DARK HEARTS is a new and welcome take on what is already a booming market. ***here, you get to sell it, by using comparative marketing. If your book "has no equal," they will probably think that is because no one else is interested enough in it. NEVER sell it by saying how good it is or what kind of reviews people who have read it already have given it***
Ã,  Ã, I am the self-published author of two books, Books 1 and 2 of the Days of Old quadrilogy, as well as the author of multiple published poetry and short stories. My articles on the supernatural and the occult appear frequently on www.theespers.org. I feel that I am the perfect author for this book as I have been involved in paranormal investigation for at least 10 years. I hold a Bachelor's of Theology and Comparative Religions from Atlantic Seminary. ***here, you sell yourself***
Ã,  Ã, Thank you for your consideration. I hope to hear from you soon, and also that if my work is accepted it will be the beginning of a long and prosperous journey together. ***ALWAYS thank them for their consideration, or they won't consider you much longer***
Ã,  Ã, Sincerely,
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, YOUR NAME GOES HERE.... Only, don't use my manuscript. get your own, dammit...

The Rest of the Package
Ã,  Ã, SYNOPSIS: Some agents or publishers might ask for a chapter-by-chapter breakdown. Give them one, but try not to make it any longer then two or three pages.
Ã,  Ã, SASE: A Self-Adressed Stamped Envelope. They get a million letters like yours every week, and try to be courteous enough to respond to all of them. It would cost them a FORTUNE to pay postage on all the acceptance/rejection letters they send.
Ã,  Ã, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Just a short paragraph, write this in third person and try to make it sound like what is on the dustcover of most novels. Because hey, one day it might be.
Ã,  Ã, This might not all be required. Like I said, check the submission guidelines of the publisher.
Ã,  Ã, 
Ã,  Ã, THREE SAMPLE CHAPTERS OR FULL MANUSCRIPT: Don't send this unless they ask for it. It costs alot to you and them, and there is no guarantee they want it. Always make sure they do, and if not, just send the query letter. Alot of people wil lsay NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS, which means "Don't send this out to a million agents and editors at once," but that is not a concern. Go ahead, and if you hear back from two (a VERY rare honor) just tell one you are no longer interested. That saves them trouble, so they rarely mind. If they do, find out where they live and set their damn house on fire.

Ã,  Ã, WAIT
Ã,  Ã, The last step. Make sure you send out a bunch of submission packages, and realize it can take anywhere from one week (for e-queries) to eight months or so to get a reply. Most will reply, but be warned: Most will reply in the negative. It is a daunting thing to become an author. Only 17 new authors get published each year in the United States, and only 900 authors in the US actually live on what they make.
Ã,  Ã, Rejections will come, and will come in abundance. Wait it out. If you are truly sure that you have something, run with it. Don't let failure turn you off to the idea of having your manuscript published. Steven King received 60 rejections for Carrie, and wallpapered one wall of his study with all the rejection slips he got. Same goes for Clive Cussler, who wrote SAHARA. Be patient.

Ã,  Ã, For You impatient Bastards out there...
Ã,  Ã, www.publishamerica.com

Ã,  Ã, These guys suck. Everyone hates them. My first two books were published by them. Thank God I was able to break out of their evil vicegrip and get a mainstream publisher for Dark Hearts. However, if you don't care about sales and just want to see your book in print, go with them. They're free, unlike most subsidy publishers. They will publish anything. You will just never sell what they publish unless you do it yourself. Don't be taken in by all the testimonials and stuff on their site... NO bookstore will sign you up for a book signing unless oyu live in a little tiny town where everyone knows each other, or unless oyu are on VERY good terms (ie having sex with) the manager.
__________________________________________________

Well, I hope that was helpful for anyone interested. And please, if anyone else knows how to do anything interesting, such as sign a record deal or get a job with Marvel comics or something, please feel free to add!!! And if anyone DOES decide they want to be an author, feel free to PM me for help. I'm always willing, since I wish someone had been willing to help me out when I first started.

There's something wrong, besides the fact that he's not bouncing (I can't make him do that... Whenever I do, it seems really broken and crappy) Sorry, but I'm not all techno-geeked up. I can't give you a higher res pic of the walkcycle. Every time I try, I just wind up ruining it (I have to increase the size of every frame independently, and since I can't do that perfectly it jumps all over the place)... I hope this is cool. It's the first piece of art I've tried putting in the critics lounge...

I'll try to get back with a side view tomorrow. I really suck at up cycles, though...

For those of you who played the first ESPER game, is this an improvement? He looks better, I think, but is he usable or should I just stick with the old one? Also, I would really prefer all the clothes that are on him that are grey were black, I just have no idea how to do that without making it look... umm... bad.... I thought about using the old "blue highlights like in Superman's hair" technique, but that made it look like he was wearing really loose spandex.Ã,  Ã, :o





Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, 

PS: I suck at this. Could one of the mods please edit this post so it doesn't look like it was sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkelseizure?

THAT'S RIGHT!!! I have invented a NEW TYPE OF GAME!!!!

Actually, as Solomon says, "There's nothing new under the sun..." There have been other games like it, I guess... In the eighties there was some game called "Who shot the President" or something where you had to find out who really killed Kennedy, and they offered a million dollar prize to the first person who won the game and told them about it... And I guess online puzzle games like NotPr0n and frve-whatever are kind of similar too... Oh well, here goes:

The idea is simple, yet, I believe, quite cool. I am going to make another ESPER game (remember Town on the Edge of Darkness?) where you play a paranormal/occult investigator. I very well may even throw in kind of a character creation system where you can make your own investigator, even though you would probably still only get the one character appearance.... Anyway... here's the catch...

The game would come with a zipped folder. In that folder would be more zipped folders, each of them password encrypted. As you go through the game and uncover evidence, you would get the password to open the folders in question to retrieve the evidence. You may then have to finagle around with it, such as clear or brighten a photo in photoshop or slow down or reverse an audio file, in order to get the evidence you need. You might also get internet shortcuts that will take you to websites you can use to help solve the puzzle, and my own site, www.theespers.org, which has a wealth of information on the paranormal, supernatural, and occult, will have sections devoted to use in the game.

Ã,  Ã, For example: You come across some weird writing in the game at the scene of a murder. You take a photograph of it, and when you do, the game tells you to OPEN EVIDENCE1.ZIP WIH THE PASSWORD/USERNAME ENOCHIAN:TRANSYUGGOTHIAN. You open it to find the photograph, but it is very dark. You then put it into Photoshop (or GIMP, since it's free), to lighten it up, and see some additional letters you would not have seen before. Inside the folder is also a link to the page on www.theespers.org where you can search for the page on occult scriptology. Going there, you find out the script is druidic Ogham and can transliterate it into what the message really means.

Ã,  Ã, So then, I guess my idea is this: rather than having an adventure game with puzzles that don't seem to make any sense (take pink hairbrush and tie rope to it, then swing it from the balcony in order to attract the Flamboyantly Gay Pigeon that will give you the key you need to progress) the game is based on your own intelligence and ability to do research and uncover puzzles.

What do you guys think, and is there anybody with enough faith in this idea to help me out???Ã,  Have you ever seen a game like this, and if so, what did they do that I can avoid? What would you do to make it better, or would you even bother making such a crappy-sounding game in the first place? Let me know.

Hi all.
Ã,  This isn't really a technical question, per se, but I was just wondering: how do you guys do animations? Especially walkcycles (and no one link me to any one of the multitudinous other threads or tutes out there, this is a different question)...
Ã,  In ESPER: Town on the Edge of Darkness, I used Flash MX, but the person whose copy I used has just moved away and I no longer have access to it. Even though he was probably using a pirated copy, I don't want to do that (even though, technically, by using his, if it really was pirated, which it might not have been since his brother was a graphic artist, I WAS), so I guess I'm Flash-less... In Flash, you can use onion skins to compare your frames, and you can set keyframes and actually watch the animtion being displayed, and you can export as a sequential BMP or JPG...
Ã,  Ã, I have DogWaffle, GIMP, and an older version of Photoshop that came with my tablet. I have no idea how to make animations, least of all walkcycles, with them. What do you guys do? Which program do you use? How do you test them out? How do you compare your present cel to past cels so you know how your character should be moving in this frame?
Ã,  Ã, I tried drawing a stationary character and then erasing parts of him and moving them a little bit, but that is really coming out lousy, and it doesn't give you a good frame of reference when drawing over an empty space as to where everything was in the last frame in the place you just erased. Oh, how I long for onion skins in some other program...

Ã,  Ã, Then, I tried making a simple stick figure and then drawing the character in over it. That worked well, and the stick figure was kickass, but then I couldn't get the character to look exactly the same in every frame. From some of the other games I'v eseen, especially Apprentice, BJ, and some of the walkcycles in the Critic's Lounge, you guys can get some really smooth, nice animations....

Ã,  Ã, So please... What's the secret?

Hey.
  I noticed not everything in here was VISUAL art... There is some music, and the guy with the Maniac Mansion script, and a few people with game ideas. As anyone who played my game The Town on the Edge of Darkness knows, it's based on a short story I wrote of the same name (it comes packaged with later editions of the game file). That is, in turn, based on a novel I wrote about the ESPER society (Extraordinary Supernatural Phenomena Explored and Revealed). I have tried to get the book published. I AM a published author (if you don't believe me, go to Amazon.com and look up either Callan Souza or The Days of Old...), but for some reason publishers don't want ESPER, even though they accepted my lame fantasy story. NO ONE ELSE seems to want ESPER, either, which is a bummer since, IMHO, it is a hundred times better than my already published work, and would be much better received, especially since it is supernatural in nature and alot of todays' media entertainment is supernatural, paranormal, or occultic in nature (ie. the Ring, the Grudge, the Exorcist prequel, the Exorcism of Emily Rose, Dark Water, the Skeleton Key, Darkness... more horror movies are being made today than ever before, and they're SMART horror, not hack 'n' slashers like in the days of yore)...
   I think some of the major downfalls of the ESPER story are that it is written in first person perspective (I have actually come upon publishers and agents that would not accept any work if it were first person), and that it is action and visually oriented, which is difficult in a book. It is almost completely impossible to show someone being afflicted in such ways as hearing voices and seeing strange phenomena without it being in first person or having compelling audio and visuals to go along with it.
   So then, I came up with this idea... I would like to make a movie treatment, and possibly a script. I think ESPER would be much better accepted on film or television. You can get the story The Town on the Edge of Darkness from the current game download, and if you ask I will email you the full length ESPER novel, but here is where the "Critiquing" part of the critics lounge comes in...
   This is the story I would like to have scripted and made into an "introductory" movie to get the ESPER series off to a start. It is sort of a prequel, taking place before the events in the game or the novel, and is kind of unrelated.
 
   ---A sweet, beautiful young girl falls completely and madly in love with a dark, stolid man named Ian in an airport terminal. Understanding him to be more than the almost-frightening facade he puts up, she cannot help but see the selfless, gentlemanly individual she somehow knows he is. She falls so much for him, in fact, that she leaves her flight altogether and decides she wants to be with him. All seems well, for a while, until she sees he has some strange companions, and when she stumbles accidentally into his locked study, filled with books on the occult and newspaper clippings from a rash of ritual child abductions and slayings, the way she feels and the way things seem to be collide brutally in her mind. It is not until she finds out that he's one of the GOOD guys, and he met her while looking into the strange habits of her own brother, that she comes to trust him again; but how can one ever trust ANYTHING in this new world, unlike the one she had crafted for herself in her mind all these years, where horrible things like this can take place?

  Do you guys think this is a good enough story to start out the series with? Of course, if ESPER ever becomes popular, then, like Steven King as portrayed in Family Guy, I could write stories about haunted lampshades and have them be popular, but I seem to really like this particular story and wouldn't give up on it anyway.

And, if anyone is interested, would anyone want to work together with me writing my drafts into a workable script?

ONGOING COMIC COMPETITION

Welcome to the ONGOING COMIC COMPETITION, where multiple artists will advance a comic book story one frame at a time. The rules are as follows:

RULES SO FAR:

Ã,  Ã, ---No going non-sequitur (off topic) unless it progresses the story in a logical manner.
Ã,  Ã, ---Make your work exist in a 640 X 480 frame. If you need to show action, you can use multiple frames, but they all must fit within a 640X480 space.
Ã,  Ã, ---If you want the next frame, post a space holding message. Once the frame has been drawn, edit the post to reflect the newly drawn frame. After twelve hours have passed with the person who claimed the space not posting anything, someone else can take the post.
Ã,  Ã, ---In a fourteen-point Comic Sans font in the bottom left hand corner of the frame, insert a sequential frame number (the first being 1).
Ã,  Ã, ---To keep with ease of reading, uniformity, and legibility, use Comic Sans font at any legible point size that befits your frame. For "Bangs" and "Booms" and such things, feel free to draw it yourself, but only if style calls for it (that type of thing wouldn't be found in, for example, a survival horror type of comic, but would abound in a superhero story).
Ã,  Ã, ---You must wait at least 5 frames before posting a new frame, to ensure that everyone gets a chance to participate.
Ã,  Ã, ---The story will be indefinite. This does not mean that certain storylines will not end, but the main story should be kept going.
Ã,  Ã, ---Stay uniform. As nice as nonconformity is, it makes it difficult for readers to enjoy our work. If in one scene the main character is wearing a red shirt, do not change him into a blue shirt randomly in the middle of that scene in which said clothing change would be completely illogical. While we all may have different art styles, it does not mean that just because it is part of our "style" we should feel free to give the main character spiky anime hair and an eyepatch when he has never had these in prior frames...
Ã,  Ã, ---Have fun!!!

The selected topic is going to be simple: ___<insert random number here>___ guys are on a trip around the world. The purpose of this trip, and even the world in question, is entirely up to the authors and artists who contribute. If the opening scene turns out to be in a medieval world, it very concievably could turn out just to be part of a movie the characters are making to finance their trip, or they could be travelling through time as well! Anything goes, as long as you stay in the boundaries of the rules. If at one point in time you want to have everything that has happened so far be a dream, go for it, as long as you can do so and still have everything that has happened up to that point be pertinent.

The first place is being held for Eggie, but he was volunteered, so if he doesn't post within twelve hours, anyone can feel free to take the first frame. Just follow the placeholding rules mentioned above!

Who's on board as of now: Esper, Tuomas, Eggie, Pablo, Zor, Mozesh, Gilbot, Guybrush Peepwood, YakSpit, and maybe ScummBuddy (he never actually SAID if he was on or not, just gave a foundational idea...). Anyone else is free to join in as long as they follow the rules posted.

Hey, I think ESPER, the game, might greatly profit from a more atmospheric sort of dialog, a-la QFG4, but the manual is not very clear on how it works. Any help would be appreciated.

Dammit!!! I'm sorry guys, I posted this in the competitions forum without reading the rules... Even though they are posted largely directly there in front of your face when you try to start a new thread... Anyway, here's my idea, which then hopefully can be used to replace the ugly eyesore that I made in the stupid comp forum... How about an ongoing comic (as the name implies)... We used to do this in college when we had a boring professor as an alternative to sleeping.... One person will make a frame or a series of connected frames, and the next person will continue the story... We would just need to figure out what type of a comic it would be... comedy, adventure, superhero, an AGS fanfic (Larry Vales and Ben Jordan face off against Emily Enough and her minion, Earwig, as they try to take over RoN) Tell me what you think... And sorry for posting in the competition section prematurely...

I just got a brand new graphics tablet! I hated having to draw using just a mouse, and the graphics in my first game suffered tremendously beause of it. Here is the complete works of my first 24 hours with my new delicious wonderbaby...


A guy. You know, I hate it when some kid likes anime too much and always tries to copy it, and sucks...Ã,  Unfortunately, I used to be that kid, and now that I'm older I CANNOT draw right anymore... Just goes to show you: kids, don't get too wrapped up in anime... It can control your life... right down to your ability to decently draw people...


A beautiful maiden loking off into the sea, done in (fake) charcoals. I hate drawing with real charcoals, so ths is just the thing I need to get started in some artsiness...


And now, to offset the beautiful maiden, the horribly waterlogged and badly decomposed Queen of Hate, Samara (Sadako) herself! TV effects made using Project Dogwaffle...


I don't know what this is, but you can see my predilection of using anime where it is not needed....


Yet ANOTHER overly anime'd guy. Do you notice how all my guys are looking off into the sky? Why is that? Does it mean anything? Is there a psychologist in the house?


My old pal, Cthulhu. Did you know tht Cthulhu really IS a real thing? Lovecraft didn't make him up. Ktulu was a god worshipped both by the ancient Sumerians and was known to the greeks as the Kraken. He even appears in the Bible, where he is mistranslated from the aramaic as "virgin..."
EDIT: What the hell? I misquoted the couplet! Dammit!!!

And finally...


...Don't ask. and yes, I even felt the need to tell you in what medium I drew this down at the bottom right...

These were going to be the backgrounds for ESPER: The Town on the Edge of Darkess, but I determined that since I couldn't makea decent 3d character that using the 3D backgrounds with a 2D character would look kinda crappy. Made them with the free version of Caligari Truespace:


The cabin of the boat. Note the strange portholes. Originally I had made them with a square brush, but they didn't seem to show up, so I used a round one and they did. Unfortunately, in the final render they showed up... Better late than never...


The church, from the door looking in. I was originally going to make this a first person game, so I started you off far away and then you walked to...


here. I LOVE this one in comparison to the one I actually used in the game, save for that door, which looks totally out of place.


Then you turn around and face the door, which AGAIN for some reason shows that doors don't like being rendered in 3D scenes.


Right up on the door now, going back outside.

And finally, what was going to be the title screen. Notice the church on the desk.. That is the model I made to use as the outside of the church, but I never rendered it as such.

NOTE: On the books are the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, a picture of the All-Seeing eye astride the unfinished temple made by my pal Ravean, and the book that is standing up behind the others has YHWH written in Hebrew letters... supposedly, this is the most holy name of God, and I thought it would be in place in a game about an anti-occult team of investigators.

I had a problem in my last game that made it so I had to make an entire room dedicated specifically to text during fadeouts... I wanted to try to make a fadeout, show text, and then fade back in, but as soon as the text was displayed, the background instantly came back up! What is the reason for that?

Come one, come all, to Noman Island, also known as the Town on the Edge of Darkness...

In ESPER: The Town on the Edge of darkness, you play as Ian McDermott, head investigator of the ESPER society, a group dedicated to the exploration and revelation of paranormal and occult activity. You have been called to the prison cell of one Mr. Frederick Stiles, who has been imprisoned for murdering a young girl. Stiles is your CLIENT, however, and he claims that the girl was already dead at the time he killed her! Investigate Noman Island, where perpetual night overshadows some strange and dangerous events, and see if you can help bring peace to a man who has visited...
Ã,  Ã, THE TOWN ON THE EDGE OF DARKNESS

The new link is http://files.filefront.com/ESPER1zip/;4085708;;/fileinfo.html



The game features eight different endings, but only two of them are desirable. The game isn't that hard, though, and features only puzzles that make good logical sense. If the various endings elude you, just remember what your mission is and try to look and and interat with everything. Even if you don't always find something worth finding, sometimes Ian's sardonic answers can be worth the trouble!

The older, large version with animation but no bugfixes is here: http://files.filefront.com/ESPERzip/;4082693;;/fileinfo.html

Please excuse me as I have never posted here before, and this is my first game.

Hey everyone! I'd like to tell you all about my new game,
ESPER: The Town on the Edge of Darkness!

STORY:
Ã,  Ã, You are Ian McDermott, head of the paranormal/occult investigation unit of ESPER: the society for Extraordinary Supernatural Phenomena Explored and Revealed. You have been called to the prison cell of one Mr. Frederick Stiles, one of the wealthy elite of Newport, RI. To christen his new yacht, Mr. Stiles sailed around an island that had been declared a No-Man's Land by the United States govornment, only after dark he found the island to be fully populated. Stopping there to investigate, Mr. Stiles met a woman who wanted to go with him back to Newport, but the further away they got, the sicker she became until she was something completely other than human. With no choice but to save his own life, Mr. Stiles beat her to death and was found by the Coast Guard in shock above her broken body. You have been called to find out exactly what is going on on Noman Island, and to clear Mr. Stiles of his crime. After all, you can't kill someone who's...
Ã,  Ã, ...already dead...

SCREENIES:



Sorry about the splash screen, but I thought it was necessary to show you the "mood" of the game...




Frederick Stiles telling Ian his horrible story.




Ian gets off his boat to investigate an island that shouldn't be there in the first place... Sorry about the gratuitous lens flare. I originally meant to put in a shine for the moon, but GIMP automatically added the flare and I din't notice until I'd already fully scripted the room. There is another one like it, but only one otherÃ, 

PROGRESS:

Story: 100%
Scripting: 50%
Graphics: 99%
Sound/Music: 0%
In-Game movies: 25%

Despite the 226% remaining, I should be finished in about a week or two. The game comes complete with the original story I wrote last year that the game is loosely based on. (Loosely means don't go looking to the story for clues!!!)

If this game is well received, it may become the first in a series...

8/30/05

A WEEK IN ADVANCE OF SCHEDULING, ESPER IS READY! I have run through the game from start to finish, and the only thing I did not check extensively was the eight different endings. As far as I know, four of them were working differently, but since the ending you get is based on certain actions you took during the game, it would have taken a millenia to check all eight. Both of the positive endings are working properly, though. the file size is a little big (65 MB) due to the AVI movies I used in it, but hopefully it's worth the download. If it is well received, then it will be the first in a series.

Where can I find more tutorials for AGS, especially for scripting? It looks like most of the ones listed on the AGS page are on dead servers, and the introductory ones that ARE on valid servers are only basic tutes. I'm interested in more on variables and data storing functions. And (sorry if this is already a thread, but I figured while I had the floor...) is there a NOT function anywhere? For example, you can have a conditional that says "If the player is currently in possession of the Coconut of Quendor then do this..." but is there a way to say "If he hasn't yet picked up the coconut, do this...?" Game Maker makes it easy, even if you are just point-and-click creating.... Next to the IF...THEN it has a little clickable box that says "NOT!" in five mile high letters of fire. Thanks in advance for any assistance rendered....