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Instead of passing a set of world coordinates, try using the current coordinates of the walking character.

So instead of:

player.Walk(160, 160, eBlock);

try:

player.Walk(cWalkingDude.x+80, cWalkingDude.y, eBlock);

+80 will put the player 80 pixels to the right of WalkingDude.

Looks good. For some reason I got a very Deus Ex-y vibe off those backgrounds

Does this happen once or every time you try to import the module? I've had an error like this on occasion, but aside from giving me a small heart-attack, it was always a one-time thing and a reboot of AGS made everything go back to normal.

@Eggie - you can download a fairly stable release of AGS 3.2.1 with widescreen support from here. It's the latest Skygoblin build, and inside the /bin/ folder you should find what you are looking for. I tried it myself yesterday and so far zero problems with my new 1280x720 game.

I thought you might Dave.

And I agree completely with pmartin, the article feels a lot like 'look at you munchkins, doing it all wrong' instead of 'you know, if you did this this and this, your games might actually not suck'. It would be good as an opening chapter for a thesis, but as a standalone article I'm not really sure what the takeaway is. 'Be more creative', yeah okay, I already knew that.

As a designer I love putting in multiple paths and time limits and hidden things, but like anian said, as a player I know I'd hate them. I've been playing the hell out of Deus Ex Human Revolution, and after cleaning out every desk and reading every email in the Picus newsroom I realized that, while I had harvested about 2000 credits, I just spent 20 minutes rifling through drawers like a petty criminal while lives were at stake. But at the same time I cannot force myself to just run past them, because I would constantly feel like I'd be missing out on something. Funny enough I never had that problem when I played Deus Ex 1 as a kid.

[EDIT] Ruh-roh, more fuel for the fire - "adventure games deserve to die", says whatgamesare.com: http://bit.ly/npbcKu

AFAIK there's no way to simulate a click on a dialog option.

Perhaps not if you use the built-in dialogue editor, but I recently built a completely custom dialogue system, and while I have not implemented keyboard shortcuts for the actual options yet, I don't think it would be all that difficult. I already have a functioning system where I can sift through the options with the arrow keys and pressing space activates the highlighted option. From there I imagine it wouldn't be a stretch to bind a specific button to a specific key, like your up-down-O-P idea.

function room_Load()
{
    BeginShowModalDialog();
    gStatusline.Visible = false;
    gTitle.Visible = true;   
    PlayBGM(aTitle);
    SetRestartPoint();
}

When restarting now, this should take you back to the point right after the menu has been loaded.

For reasons outside my knowledge the Restart function skips any room_load, _firstload or _beforefadein code, so when setting up a restart point it is best to do it at the exact moment the player gains control and any scripted events have finished unfolding. Otherwise upon a restart it will simply not run these codes, such as in your case loading the menu. So load the menu FIRST, then set the restart point.

You're talking about Broken Sword 2.5 by Mindfactory. In that case I would defer you to this walkthrough.

I think each area has its own merits. I play loads of mainstream games too and I enjoy most of them because I don't expect too much out of it. I spent a long time recently only playing innovative indie games and deep RPGs and adventure games, so when I fired up FEAR 2 after that it felt so good to just run and gun for a bit. Don't think, just have fun. I like to balance my videogame experiences that way.

In the write function you don't actually write anything to the file. It should be this:

Code: ags

File *k = File.Open("NewGame.dat",eFileWrite);
  if (btn == 1) startingChapter = 1;
  else if (btn == 2)startingChapter = 2;
  else if (btn == 3)startingChapter = 3;
  k.WriteInt(startingChapter);
k.Close();
RestartGame();

So let me get this straight, the player starts in room A, and character 2 starts in room B, but when the player goes to room B, character 2 is not there? Strange. Did you check that his coordinates are inside the viewport and that each character has been assigned a view? What happens if they both start in the same room?
And on a side note, why would you downgrade from 3.2.1 to 2.7.2?

This was a big issue when Gemini Rue came out also, and it seems to plague a number of games created with an AGS version prior to 3+, possibly because they run in DirectDraw5 instead of Direct3D 9. There was a thread about it on the Wadjet Eye forums, maybe that can help you. What worked for me was switching my desktop resolution to 16bit or, by a fluke of science, dragging the game window down until it overlapped with the Aero taskbar.

[edit] The game works fine for me on this machine btw (win7 x64), although I suspect it will not on my own machine, which has two videocards with Optimus, a notorious source of woes. AGS games refuse to run on the high-powered Nvidia card, only on the built-in Intel, which causes a lot of these black/frozen screen problems.

Like I already said on Youtube, really great stuff. It's fascinating to get some insights into the minds of casual adventure gamers. And it's funny how much thought processes I recognize from the time I was involved in making a casual adventure game for a museum.
It started out more on the hardcore side of the spectrum, but after testing we went more and more in your direction, adding a notebook with hints and very BIG and CLEAR goal popups. One thing we avoided entirely from the start was dialogues of any sort. There were cutscenes, but nothing interactive in the talking department, and by the looks of it that saved us a lot of headaches

Please continue!

This seems to be a problem when the background of the GUI itself is also transparent in some way. Unfortunately there is as of yet no fix for it I am told.

PMed you.

It's funny that you ask because only recently I built this very same system as an experiment. You can see it in action in my game 15 Minutes.

I'm not sure how good your scripting is, but if you say you cannot do much beyond the basics yet I would strongly recommend not trying to build a similar system by yourself.
For the timer and the auto-selection to work you will have to completely abandon the built-in dialogue system and write your own, something that takes a lot of advanced coding. I have been using AGS for over 5 years now and it was a hefty brain-twister for me already.
That being said, the system I made is pretty modular and can easily be ported to another game, so if you really want a dialogue system with a timer I could certainly help you set it up.

Exactly. I was thinking about making the GUI expand dynamically based on which column you are in, maybe collapsing some of the columns once you select an option. Then the GUI would only be about this big when you reach the third column. There certainly are options.

Thanks guys, glad you liked it
After the system itself was finished, I built each prototype in something like a day (not including testing & bugfixing), so not a lot of thought went into them. I would've liked to add more things, such as selecting from several theories when discussing the evidence with your partner and a lot more Response-based options, but I didn't want to spend too much time messing around with them as the focus is on the system, not the (mini)games.
There's probably a better way to present the options too as this takes up quite a bit of space, but it's the first iteration of this system, and it is far from perfect. I'll keep working on it, and maybe use it in a game here or there to see how it performs. I have to say I had a lot of fun doing the detective prototype, so I'm not excluding the possibility that I'll turn it into a full game someday

If anyone's interested I'd be cool with releasing it as a module so you can test-drive it yourself. It's almost completely modular so it should fit into most games relatively easy if you know what you're doing.

[Download here]

Hey guys,

For the past few months I've been working on my game college graduation project, where I attempted at doing something new with adventure game dialogue systems. Most of the dialogue systems we see are variations of the default list of inquiries, but in real life conversations are not just about badgering people with questions and then taking off, they are about interacting, getting to know eachother. We are so used to asking we often forget about responding.

So for my graduation project I asked myself: How can we give players a system for more natural and direct control of game conversations?

To figure that out I dove into the field of linguistics to discover what the characteristics of a typical conversation are, and which elements thereof are suitable for adaption into videogames. ConFlo is the result.

Aside from constructing responses more naturally, ConFlo attempts to better integrate the dialogue system with the regular gameplay experience. At any time during the game you can access it from the top-right corner of the screen. From there you can adress any character currently in the room with you. You can ask them questions, respond to things they say and tell them things. You can even ask yourself what it is you should be doing right now, as a sort of hint system. It also integrates the inventory so you can show other characters the items you've collected.



The system is far from done but I think it's pretty interesting already, and I'd love to hear your opinion on it.
Therefore I created two prototypes for you to test drive the system. They do not optimally utilize every aspect of the system yet, as new technology rarely does, but they should give you a pretty good idea of the idea behind it.

In the first prototype you will have to help John score a date with the cute girl at the bus stop. Asking questions alone will not get you there, you will also have to respond to really get her attention. (for those that have played 15 Minutes, just ignore the fact you play as Jake Brewer, I needed a character with a walkcycle so I used him )

The second prototype puts you in the shoes of a noir detective, tasked with solving a murder. You'll have to collect clues and interrogate suspects to figure out who the killer is. The GUI in this prototype features several tweaks over the one in v1.

Download here and let me know what you think!