Messages

2006-03-04: Once again it's time for my exams, so now I have had a few days to work on Woodlands.

No, but seriously I have been doing a lot on the game lately. I've drawn and programmed a huge amount of animations and puzzles, as well as written a new song and also completed a new background which I showcase below. It is the barn  in the junie village, and the creature you see is called a dow (for now at least).

Next I will try to finish up the last puzzles of day one, and then about half of the game is done. Well, graphically even more is finished, so I gather the game'll be more like 65 % done after day one.

And of course I'll try to read some laserphysics and c++ programming in between.


Here's the latest screenshot. What do y'all think?

kewl!

If you really want to be stringent, gravitation is an acceleration of 9.81-9.82 m/s^2 which means that if you want correct gravion in your game, you need to have a velocity (vertical at least) parameter that you change every second by this acceleration. Since AGS runs at 40 FPS (most often), you should probably set your gravitation constant to 9.82/40 = 0.2455. Assuming of course that one pixel equals one meter. In otherwords do a function like this:

Code: ags

float y_velocity = 0;  //velocity for cEgo
                                 //Might want to make an array of these if all
                                 //your characters need gravitation

function do_gravity() {
    float acc = -0.2455;
    y_velocity += acc;
    cEgo.y+=y_velocity;
}

Great character design! Love it!

I'll be longing for this one!

I hope for a summer release .

Maybe...

Could you please update the progress on your website? I would like to know the current progress so I know how much it is left.

I have updated the progress on the webpage. I noticed that some image links were broken. I'll fix that when I get home from school.

I'm so glad so many people are waiting for Woodlands. It makes me really want to finish it as soon as possible.

[So what is the status of the game right now? When will it be released?]

2006-02-12:

A long time has gone by since my last update. The reason has been two things. One, I haven't had much time over to write an update since school is more time-consuming than ever. Two, I don't want to tell you too much about what the game is about (it would spoil the surprises).  But now I feel that it is time to tell you all some of what I'm doing just to make sure you don't think I've died or worse; GIVEN UP!

The past months I've put a lot of time into putting things together into something playable. I had already made lots of backgrounds and characters but I had not made interactions or dialogs. But now I've done several dialogs, implemented two major puzzles (with several sub-puzzles).

These puzzles include quite a lot of animation so that is another field that I've put effort into. I've drawn about 70-100 frames of character animation these past months. And I can tell you, it's looking great! (I can't show it though since it would give away the solutions to the puzzles).

Besides that I've also made three new songs for different scenes, I've drawn two new backgrounds and made sketches of another six.

So what is the status of the game right now? When will it be released? The game is slowly coming together. I've planned it well, so much of the heavy graphics are already done. I'm almost completely done with about half of the game, and will be able reuse much graphics for the second half.

So when, then? Give us a date!
I dare not set a date, as yet. Mostly because it is still a lot to do, and I will begin work on my Master's thesis next month which may or may not shave even more time of my freetime. But as soon as I feel I'm ready to give an estimate I will let you know.

First:
A "this"-pointer would reference to an object of the struct. Since your function is static that function wouldn't be able to reference a particular object by "this".

Second:
To my knowledge it is (so far) not possible to create new objects of a struct in AGS. Therefore a non-static function in a struct would have no meaning since you won't be able to call it.

My recommendation is therefore that you have two global variables that you change instead from this static function.

And by the way, CJ: A new-command would have been tremendous! But probably hell for you since it would involve dynamic memory handling and all that crap.

I'm still amazed that he's announced there will be NINE Ben Jordan games. I mean, that's a BIG promise! Like a 3-5 year promise! What if he get's bored with Ben Jordan and wants to do something else?

[FRANK THE FARMHAND PART 2]

I'd like to nominate my game of 2005:
FRANK THE FARMHAND PART 2





Why?

Because it's big, beautiful and has some really cool puzzles!


Best Non-Player Character:
Clifford the Castaway: He's been stranded on an island for twenty years, alone. Then Frank comes along and screws up his brain by telling him the island is inhabited. So he looses his mind.

Best Puzzles
The puzzles are very well thought through, which makes them both challenging and gratifying. For example: "The fallen rocks and the bomb", "The keys in the well".

Best Animation
I put a lot of work into the cut scenes!

Best Music
Featuring original non-midi music to increase the immersion.

Best Game
Well, you can only hope!

Aaah! It's just wonderful!

Or you could supply a QuitGame() function with the module that will be run when the normal QuitGame() command is run, much like repeatedly_execute is. Then the module creator could delete all dynamic sprites and stuff in there and it will be run independently on how well the user reads the documentation.

Nice!!!

One thing I thought of is that the sky goes from black to grey at the horizon. Try using a gradient from black to darkblue instead. That usually gives more life to night scenes.

Edit: If you want these mountains to be really EVIL you might want a sky gradient from black to blood red instead!

Thanks people! 

Pablo:

It's unbelievable to me how some people can work so quickly on their games.

Fast? I haven't worked much at all the last months! But when I get the time I try to be effective with it.

ildu:

But, that waterfall mist is totally too bright, compact and unshaded.

If you could show me an example of how you'd want it to look, I might change it. The reason I made it the way it is now, was because I don't have much of an idea how to draw mist otherwise.

Thanks again, y'all!

Dude! You sure know how to draw people!! That character art is AMAZING!

Here's an update on the progress of Woodlands. Sorry for being quiet for so long!

2005-12-08:
Phew! A hard semester is almost over. I've been trying to get time to work on the game the last months, but it hasn't been easy! Still, I've  done quite a lot! 20 rooms are done which is almost all the forest scenes (four remaining). I've released a demo (which I believe you all tried out. If not then do so right NOW!) and finished some music and some of Tom's animations. Now I have to focus on my exams for a week and then it's christmas!! Which means time for Woodlands!!!!


Here's two new screenshots!

blime, i just realized you could press X in your game and talk to people and also enter indoors. lol. Brilliant i say, brilliant. I thought there was something missing since its a RPG

So what did you think was missing? The ability to press X? Or the ability to talk to people and go indoors?

please stop posting in all caps. you did so in your completed game thread as well, which, on the internet, constitutes as yelling, which doesn't make me want to do anything.

I know! I get a headache because of all this yelling!!

I'm glad you made a man IN pants and not without.

The shading is superb but his stance seem a bit weird; like he's dancing two-step or something!

Yes, finally!! Maybe we'll see the finished game before we die after all!

Are diagonal and vertical walkbehinds possible? Are they being trackered?

I can see the use of diagonal walkbehinds. But vertical!?