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Nice Gord! I knew I wasn't the only one to think of doing it!

Anyway, I had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off from work. I had already written the story (it comes with the ESPER package, if you care to read it) and when I got AGS, I decided that would be a good one to make into a game. I spent about an hour reworking the story to make it more adventure-game suitable (in the original there was a large cast of main characters). Then, I made it room by room: I would draw the room, import it into AGS, and make all the initial interactions. This took the remainder of the next two days.

On day three, I finished a couple rooms and then set to work programming the story into the game. Starting with the first room, I put in all the puzzles and cutscenes that move the story alng. This took about three quarters of a day, and that night I found webhosting and uploaded it.

I wouldn't suggest this method. I wanted to make a game, not a piece of art. The backgrounds are really crappy (can anyone say "lens flare!") and some animations are only two frames long (see the goosestepping sherrif... However, I worked my way around this one by explaining that he was a zombie and thus was supposed to walk funny ) If you want to make a game that you can be proud of (not that I'm not proud of ESPER, but it could have been quite a bit better), take your time and don't rush it. It took me four days to complete my OROW entry Heart of Abraxas, and two weeks to make Alpha-X: Project SMASH.

However, I really want to make a nice game now. I've spent two weeks just programming the GUI for Alpha X's sequel.

I downloaded AGS on August 28, 2005. My first finished game, Town on the Edge of Darkness, was published on August 31. 2005.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=610&BX=7s3li552qco8o&b=3&s=0v

Hey Squinks! Good to see you. Check your PM's.

Rharpe... I hate you for putting this bug in my ear about the book. If you mention something about it to someone, I'll back you up.

Although I have not played any of those games (I think my ignorance is showing through very badly...) I looked them up, and they look absolutely gorgeous. I didn't even know graphics like that were possible!

Are you being sarcastic, or did they remake those games and I didn't hear about it? If so, link me up, because those were some of my favorite games... But they were on Nintendo, Commodore 64, Apple IIe and Amiga, so... I can't possibly imagine them having good graphics!

Now I'm sure I'd like to Beta test!

Wow. I haven't read all the way through this thread, so I'm probably saying what everyone else has said before me, but this looks absolutely fantastic. I have this thing about not downloading demos... I don't want to ruin the game experience (I learned my lesson with BJ4), but I went to YouTube and watched the trailer. Not only does this just look brilliant, with a fantastic atmosphere, but it just looks like it's going to be plain fun. Also, I thought you'd be glad to know you've been an influence on my own game in production: I don't know how you do your graphics, but they look hand-drawn, and I've decided to forget using my mouse... it's hand-drawn and scanned-in from now on for me.

Once again, lovely, lovely game. Eagerly awaiting.

Aha. I understand now. I really, REALLY liked my old ones, but I'll make a new one like Twirlly did. This spot reserved...

EDIT: Here it is...

WAIT A MINUTE!

You said "DESIGN FROM SCRATCH!!!"

Crap! I just Photoshopped two from the actual major arcana...

But... isn't this a photoshop contest? Where you have to EDIT already existing pictures???

Well, seeing as how most of my games have been made in one week... Unfortunately, nobody knows what AGS is...

Okay, rharpe, I don't know if that was a joke or not, but now that I think about it... if Chris would let us package AGS with a big tutorial book..... Nah, it would never happen.

I think the word you're looking for is "platelets."

I don't give blood. Ever. I tried once, but my friend Seth, who went ahead of me, turned green, threw up everywhere, and passed out for ten minutes. Upon waking, he headbutted a nurse in the face and jumped off the gurney, cowering in a corner and screaming for 5 minutes until they calmed him down and he remembered where he was.

However, from standing in line, I at least got to partake in some free pizza, and even after I got out of line I sat down and finished watching "the Great Escape," which they had playing for the people in line

There is minor nudity on some of the cards... Is it acceptable to play off of that, or would you prefer to keep it G-rated?

One of two things come to mind...

"It's just a flesh wound!" or "Ben Jordan, Paranormal OH MY GOD!!!!"

This is a really, really cool sprite. I don't know what you're planning, but this sprite makes me want to see a whole lot more of it. I'd love to see the animation on this one. I can't really be too critical of this one, because in the cartoony style it's in it's nearly flawless, at least as far as Simons' repaint  (now that the face is more visible).

Nice job. Please, show more. As far as I'm concerned, this sprite is the best advertisement you can get for your game

That would be it. It's a bit overpriced for a 126-page book, but that's what you get for going through a less-than-reputable publisher

I'm not sure where they can be bought together. I've seen some cheaper ones going on EBay... As far as I know, Amazon, Books a Million, and Barnes and Nobles should have them, although people have been telling me that amazon stopped selling the sequel.

Here it is, in case you can't find it: http://www.booksamillion.com/ncom/books?pid=1413761062&ad=FGLBKS

EDIT: By the way, here's a review of the Days of Old, book 1, from the guys over at G-POP.NET.

http://www.g-pop.net/DaysofOld.htm

here's a little rework using all the ideas up till this point.



I'm not sure what graphics gale can do, but for stars, I highly suggest using Project Dogwaffle. It's free, and not too big to download. I made the stars in my image by just running the brush over the screen until it filled up nicely.

EDIT: I remade it, that's obviously not a paintover, so I'm not necessarily saying "Make the red planet bigger!" I was just showing you how you could make the stars and the nebulae and the solar winds if you were using dogwaffle.

EDIT AGAIN: I was a little hasty to post that last time... I forgot to shade the planets. Here's the reworked rework...

The addition of the blues and greens are good... try some very pale reds, too. Also, what program are you doing this in, just to give us an idea of what capabilities you have.

The planet loks like a giant ball of water. Even if it really is, you would probably still see the trenches and such under the surface (check a topographical map of the sea with google image search to see what I'm talking about). If the water is turbulent, you would instead see the waves. Also, with that much water on the planet there would be definite precipitation, in the form of clouds, depending on the atmosphere (is it, as Star Trek would say, an "M" class habitable planet?) If it is, for example, a desert planet with blue sands, there would be sand dunes. If it is supposed to be a giant, smooth ball of blue steel, you're good. 

Also, you don't see it on regular photographs of planets, but a lot of  science fiction shows and movies add atmosphere by making a faint light-blue glow around the planet. That would certainly liven things up a bit.

And lose the two really, really bright stars. They're just cluttering the screen up.

one would think....

It was really a spiffy setup, though. The guy used it to run a screen-printing business. My first PC (before that I had a Commodore 64), which I got in 1996, couldn't run the original version of Caligari Truespace, but that guy had and screwed around with some 3D program with which he could rock out stuff I still can't do with v. 6.6 on my compy today. I never remember it locking up or slowing down, as mine is wont to do when performing even the simplest of tasks.

I'm also of the understanding that Macs are just about entirely virusproof. This may be hype, but like I said: Mac users hate every PC in my house, and I've got a couple higher end models.

next: you've heard of necromancers, but have you ever heard of an AFROMANCER???

You know, you can do animated backgrounds with AGS. I haven't tried it yet, although I'm planning on having every background somehow animated in my next game, so I don't know if it sucks resources or what (although I'm sure that it does)... but I think, just purely IMHO, that it would be neat to do some kind of starfield simulator with this.

What's wrong with Mac, Nik? In fact, I've seriously been considering "switching sides." Everyone I know uses a Mac, and every time I let them on my computer it seems as though they want to hurl it through a wall. Plus, I'm informed that Mac has a decent, free windows emulator that takes up nearly no system resources so you can continue to use all your favorite non-Mac software.

Not to mention the fact that, when I was around 12 years old, I knew a man who had a mac as powerful as my computer is right now...

Not at first, but if it sells enough I'll probably get some worldwide rights goin' on! I'm not sure how it works, but I think my agent takes a bigger cut of the royalties if it's published abroad...  Dirty stinkin' Norweigians!!!!!!!

Even if I don't go worldwide, which my first book probably will not, you can still order it off Amazon.com, barnes and nobles, etc.. I know my first two books (that no one knows about because I went with a crappy company without a marketing department) sell more copies in Germany than they do in America, so hey: anything's possible