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Looks good, here are a few crits:

* The ground looks *very* hot, so I would expect a lot of steam where it meets the water.

* Also, think about how heat distorts or ripplesÃ, perspective in the desert, maybe you could use a similar effect.Ã, 

* The rock in the foreground needs better texturing.

*The edges of the pillars and tower look too sharp - give them some bevel - bump mapping can only take you so far. Right now, the erosion on the pillars seems strangely selective, not affecting their outlines at all, only their surfaces.

*How about giving the floating spheres a halo of sorts, or something to make them more magical looking?

*Perhaps give the sky another color?

* It's not good that the POV leaves you speculating whether you're in the water or standing on molten rock

That said, I think it's an interesting picture that raises some questions and makes we want to explore. More details would help, though. Also, the text effect is very good imo.

If there's a wind world or dimension you could build a puzzle around the sound of the wind sweeping through a canyon or a building or a wind-organ of some type - maybe the pitch of the wind changes when the player opens or closes doors and he will have to play a certain tune in order to achieve something  - like alarming or waking up inhabitants of the dimension that he can't otherwise communicate with.

What's interesting is actually what happened just *before* fire was invented...



After? Well, Adam had mankind's first after-sex-cigarette... as if one drag hadn't been enough.Ã, 

Next: Proof of God's divine reasoning

Couldn't we suggest to PEGI and ESRB that they both include a new Blue Cup Rating Icon meaning "This is an AGS game. Anything can and probably will happen"Ã, 

You say the better graphics made it obvious we need better AI, does that mean when graphics were crappy you ignored the lack of good AI?

Yes, the closer the games get to the graphical qualities of movies, the more human-like behaviour and interaction we expect from the npcs/actors. It's really disappointing when a photorealistic game character cycles through auto-replies and suddenly seems more fake than if it had been a crappily animated 3-color sprite.

The big differences are that current day graphics are impossible to beat (technologically, not artistically) from your garage studio - big studios just hire more people -Ã,  and that there are more games published every year than earlier on, and a still smaller percentage of those claim a still larger percentage of the profit. So yes, offbeat projects that can really compete are increasingly rare.

Besides, we were all excited by the tech advances in graphics untill around 1996, but in my opinion other areas are seriously lacking behind graphics now. The more photo-realistic graphics become, the more obvious the need of more sophisticated AI and player interaction - games today are like watching badly directed movies with near-retarded or zombie actors (at least outside of the cutscenes). Maybe that's what is meant by graphics taking focus from gameplay and other important factorsÃ, 

WOW! It's been ages since I checked the Technical Archive threads, but still unbelievable that the 3d-plugin evolved this rapidly. Awesome work!

I'll have to completely rethink my year-old game project now... 

Good job! I like the overall shape of the new version

May I suggest that peep holes be made visible on the other doors as well?

I think you're right that advertising and marketing is almost as important as the actual quality of the games - actually this is probably the case with most products and commodities today. Most developers are taking only small steps, providing 90% recognition and 10% innovation or unique sales points with every new game published. Anything else is considered too risky. In a way this is a self-perpetuating process, since in order to get into the business these days, you must prove that you absolutely love the current state of computer games and are willing to mindlessly mimic their style or humbly elaborate on it. And while doing it, you must convince everyody that you're actually being highly innovative and introducing the next big thing. But you're also right that trends do shift occassionally, so that suddenly everybody is mimicking a new style or genre, like 3d, FPS or physics-based gameplay. It's kind of ridiculous witnessing the whole industry turning around and chasing the latest buzz-words like that, but I guess it's commercial reality. Still, whatever the technology or state of the media, it can be used skillfully or less so. And still, even in the industry, miracles occasionally happen. What matters is what people really get from your game, and luckily all people aren't as stupid as some people in the industry portray them or would like them to be. Not in my experience, at least.

"Where's Waldo" was actually pitched first time around as "Hide from Waldo!"Ã,  Never got past the editor's desk, and only this sketch escaped the shredder. It's a first page. Wally is on a rampage, destroying all the children's hiding places for the rest of the book.



not an entryÃ, Ã,  :

Code: ags

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...yep, who would have thought.

next: a cigar store indian's wooden feather headdress

Looks really cool. So are all connections handled externally, or how can this thing work?Ã, 

I think you could make the light not so bright where it's just illuminating the air, and a bit brighter where it reflects from the surfaces it meets.

Also, where the two cones overlap, light would be twice as bright, except on both sides of the door, that are in semi-shadow since only illuminated by one light-source. 

Good luck tracing the cones' intersection with floor and wall ;-)

Book IV, 44. Everything which happens is as familiar and well known as the rose in spring and the fruit in summer; for such is disease, and death, and calumny, and treachery, and whatever else delights fools or vexes them.

Ã, 
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I watched an interview with a guy who had been in the Foreign Legion, who had chosen to retire at one point, because he felt almost addicted to killling. As a professional soldier his whole life was centred on killing the enemy, and if too much time went by with no killing, he would get depressed, restless and unsatisfied. Without saying so directly, he made it pretty clear that this was a normal phenomenon among his friends of arms, and that it sometimes resulted in unneccessary bloodshed. At the time of the interview he had a regular office job, btw. I think that's pretty scary, and without making guesses about the mental health of people joining the Foreign Legion, I think it's a recognizable psycho-mechanism on a smaller scale - like we can suddenly smile after we really insulted somebody who's been bugging us, or laugh when we "know for fact that we've done something wrong", maybe because it releases us from the ever-present "suspicion that we've done something wrong". Exploring this idea of inflicting pain being joyous would be interesting to see, especially in a game.

Building on the suggestions so far, I think the story would benefit from the child having to actually see the pain inflicted and people getting hurt in order to get something from it - maybe an almost infant who can only be brought to giggle when somebody is hurt badly. This could be discovered by accident, like already suggested. And his single father desperately going along with it out of sick love for his child, the atrocities being his only moment of emotional contact with his child. He lost his wife and is lonely, so contact with his child is really important to him, and as if the child knows and is taking advantage of it,Ã,  the father is driven to still messier acts of violence and murder in order to maintain contact.Ã, 
When, at the scene of one of their crimes, they are almost caught hands on by the female detective who is on their case, the father fakes innocence and gratitude towards her, and they get involved. Perhaps he's a bit wimpy/awkward and seems harmless, and she believes he's a nice guy trying to help in the investigation, so she eventually falls in love with him, partlyÃ,  because of the enormous fatherly affection he shows his strange child. Of course he's also falling in love with the woman detective, who seems like a way out of his depraved state, as the one person who could finally heal his wounds that he still has from losing his wife - there's just this barrier between them because he must hide the atrocities he performs and delude her investigation. Meanwhile, the child should become harder and harder to satisfy, almost like it suffers from the growing love between his father and the woman. The tension would build up, the crimes get worse and the web of lies more thinly stretched. And finally the father will have to sacrifice either child or woman, or himself.

Well, that's the most hitchcocky I could come up with on the fly. Hope it gives you some ideas.Ã, 

*Certain people* are stupid. Ignore them.

Yep, I agree. Unless they're *really* bugging you, that is But still, if they can't even tell you directly what their problem is, just ignore them.

Personally I have no problem with the pick of the month feature, and I admire the moderation around here. I think it's only fair that the people who contribute most to the forums and community have a way of bringing attention to the games they like. Of course there could be a monthly poll for the best game of the month, but with all the competitions, awards, and the download statistics for each game, I'd say everybody already has ample chance to shine.

Hey Alynn, nice drop down menus. It seems they still work in Mozilla Firefox, although they still look a little different from on the error free pages. IE messes them up completely, they no longer drop down.

If you haven't found a solution yet, you might want to check some other free scripts for drop down menues:  Drop down menus

Does gameplay & story give up graphics in the long run? I mean are games that have bad graphics but good gameplay and story considered worse than games with excellent graphics andd bad everything else? Why? I would like two answers to this question (Why? is considered part of the question)

The verge towards realism in computer graphics has been dominant for a long time, because there was technological drive and competition to achieve it, but I think that since realism is becoming still easier to attain, we'll begin to see more different artistically developed styles, especially as we get more tools like zbrush or character studio that make computer graphics creation intuitive for the arts person. So with stranger aeons even the public opinion on "great art" may develop and diversify slightly.

I don't think there's any easy answer to your question, but if your game has great graphics, people will give you the benefit of doubt with regards to gameplay and story-telling (which is good from a publisher's point of view, since more people will buy the game and try it out, even if they find out later that it sucks because of bad story or gameplay). If your game has bad graphics, less people will pick it from the shelf, but those that do will then be the more surprised if it has great story and/or gameplay. Actually, we've had great games much longer than we've had great graphics. But people expect the most from the media, so I guess it makes sense that most game rating systems make an average on all game aspects, graphics/gameplay/audio etc.

Promotional art is very important for publishing. For example, artists were hiredÃ,  to work exclusively on promo material for the hitman games - for the full duration of the game production phase. Shows how important graphics are from a marketing point of view.

I don't think any element can be fully neglected in game development if the game has to beat the competition commercially. It needs to be outstandig in every way. But progress can be made in the individual disciplines (graphics, gameplay, story etc.) in smaller indie productions that have the limited goal of showing off just one new concept or feature.

If I'm the first to answer this question, my next question(s) will be: Are games parasitic? Can they be beneficial parasites, or is it just in their interest to keep us (the hosts) alive for as long as possible while feeding on us?

If Jesus returned, he'd be institutionalized before he could even think of forming a band...

Oh no! I just missed the voting! By 3 hours!

Well, would have voted for Steve anyway, so happy win!