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Happened in 1066.... in Hastings... and it was a battle. I wont post further as this isn't really knowledge but is all I recall

Glad to see that, despite your new and hectic life, progress is still being made; it makes me feel more motivated to work on my own projects. I'll finish a game one of these days

Keep up the good work everyone, I'll look forward to the release... whenever it may be.

Magintz

I looked for me and National Express will probably be around £30 and take me 9 hours or the train £50 but only take me 5. If there are a few people around London who could get together and hire a car perhaps we could either save us some money or time and if not we'd have the convenience of an AGS wagon for the week. I don't currently drive, but am planning to be on the road by the summer so I might be able to drive, but it's still a ways away yet so if any other near Londoners want to look into it, it might be a plan.

Maggi

I disagree, despite the obviously poor screen resolution it worked perfectly on point and click ports with ScummVM and I managed to enjoy my way through BASS and FOTAQ recently. I love playing on my DS while at home and on the move and the touch screen interface is probably the best way to handle a P&C adventure game out of the handheld market. The only thing the PSP has going for it is the screen and I'd rather be able to play a game than just look at pretty colours or play EA Quest.

An AGS port to the DS might not be practical because of the resolution but the touch screen is just screaming for adventure games IMO much the same way you feel about the Wiimote, but I'm personally not a fan of the Wii.

But how are the rest of the puzzles? Are they like the originals? If they are, how do they suppose the casual audience with deal with this abrupt change from casual puzzles to hardcore puzzles?

Well the interface definitely is helpful to the casual gamer, less hotspots and the hotspots are all clearly visible on screen just by moving the stylus around (they animate when the stylus gets close) and with the context sensitive menu the puzzles never get that difficult (although I have done them all before).

I'd much rather see a DS port.

Even from the wii version?

That sucks.

Well I've only played the DS version. Yea kinda a big disappointment, but the new puzzles and story make up for it a little, but as ProgZ says it is geared more towards a casual gaming market. I'll not complain too much as any DS point and click adventure is okay in my books. Let's hope we do see a return in them and perhaps accept that the genre has changed.

The one downside is they've compleley cut voice acting from it

You can't have a smooth scrolling inventory. You have to work around it by having a smooth scrolling image of the inventory. Obviously the inventory will be changing every time a player takes or loses an item so to keep it up to date you take a screenshot, within the game using an AGS function (read the manual). This screenshot can then be edited and modified so it is just a screenshot covering the inventory window which you should now be able to make scroll smoothly using DynamicSprite (again, best place for this is to check the manual).

Umm, Revolution made the game. I didn't think they went bust although I believe the game is published by Ubisoft and I'll assume they're the big fish with the wads of cash that got this made.

Count me in

There's a blatant cognitive bias at work here, too, and that's this: The adventure gamer takes everything. The adventure gamer has learned, over the years, that inventory items are ALMOST ALWAYS either necessary or rewarding in some way. Therefore, he has adopted a behavioural policy of taking everything he can possibly acquire. A designer can pretty much assume that, just by leaving something on the floor or on a shelf, the player will take it.

As an adventure gamer I'd normally agree with this and from most standpoints I don't think otherwise about it; I've been brain-washed through many years of adventure gaming that if it isn't nailed down it will fit in my inventory and be invaluable for rescuing a maiden from a zombie/demon/ghost pirate or similar.  I've spoken with Dave Gilbert many times about adventure games, especially working for a casual gaming market and one of the things he's iterated many times to me is that a casual adventure gamer might not be an adventure gamer. They don't see a beer mat as a possible solve to an unknown puzzle ten rooms away they see it as a beer mat that the character would have no use in picking up, ever.  I have to say that I personally would avoid any assumption that the gamer will pick anything up and definitely avoid any "I have a feeling I'm not done yet" scenarios unless of course it's a Star Wars game when a disturbance in the force could block your escape.

Good ways around this situation have already been mentioned. Make the player get the item unintentionally through an intentional puzzle. Recently I had this same issue where a player needed a leaflet with an address on it. This address and leaflet were pointless at the stage in the game where it was available and logical to be so I needed the player to get it there and then. Luckily it was at the beginning of the game and so I incorporated a map into the back of the leaflet, without it the player had no clue where they were going around the town until they picked up the item.

The best ways I can think of to solve this problem:
- Re purpose an item. Have the item valuable at the time of leaving the room and re purpose it later on when it is needed.
- Give the item as a reward. Before you leave the room an NPC will thank you for your questing services and hand you something that could be of use later.
- Package deal. You get one you get the other. If you pick up a key you might also get a keyring e.g. Sam and Max - You get the toilet key from the petrol station and it has a nail file on the end.
- Have an NPC friend not done with the room. Either they will be looking at something and haven't finished doing whatever they're doing until coincidentally you've finished.
- Make it indisputable that the item is imperative to the player vacating the room. "I can't leave the room until I've gathered enough evidence for  my case" or "I still haven't found what I'm looking for". In most cases this won't work but it could.
- Make it a challenge to get the item. There's a pair of glasses that's rigged to a trap that if I take the glasses it will explode and take my face off. A challenge like this feeds the adventure gamers mind, they have no need for the item but there's a puzzle to get the item so it must be of noteworthy importance. This is a bit of a bait and tackle measure and can again lead to it being ignored.

If you really have no other use for any of the above you could also try making the item glimmer or attract the user in some way. When the user walks by perhaps they say "I wonder what that is". Forcing the player to inspect it and hopefully claim it as their own.

On a side note you can also use this with a formatted String if you later wish to have the status line be updated with a context sensitive action such as this:

Code: ags

if (mouse.Mode == 4 && (GetLocationType(mouse.x,  mouse.y) == eLocationHotspot)
  label.Text = String.Format("Use %s with @OVERHOTSPOT@", player.ActiveInventory.Name);
else if(mouse.Mode == 4 && GetLocationType(mouse.x,  mouse.y) == eLocationNothing)
  label.Text = "";

This is just checking to see whether the user is holding an inventory item (mouse.Mode == 4) and if the cursor is over a hotspot (eLocationHotspot). GetLocationType can be an object or a character as well and for these you could also set these for "Give item to character". The else if statement just clears the label if the mouse isn't over anything.

While I'm at it I'll let you know that String.Format let's you mix variables in with a string. The %s is used as a substitute for a string and %d can be used for digits etc... It will substitute the %s with items listed after commas. String.Format("%s %s %s", "one", "two", "three") will print "one two three".

I doubt it will help but thought it might be an interesting thing to post if you should need to do anything further with @overhotspot@ or other over hotspot commands which would need a manual script. Got nothing else to do this evening so I'm sure it might help someone eventually

I've been playing this a little today (only about half an hour) and can say I'm really enjoying it. The first part of the story is a completely new story about Nico trying to piece together the clues in a murder.

My biggest thing to say about this is the interface, which is fantastic and, in my opinion, is so well suited to the DS and an adventure game. You drag your cursor around the screen using the DS stylus, as you get closer to an interactable item or character a small friendly flashing circle appears to let you know when you're getting close to something. Moving the stylus over this circle it will get brighter and display context sensitive actions for the object much like a verb coin; such as look, pick-up or interact with.

Dialogue uses a similar system to the PC version with images of people and objects displayed on screen to ask about.

All in all I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far

So if people want to add or edit this will they have to apply for planning permission from the RoN boards here

Not sure if it will work but have you made sure that if you're using a custom inventory GUI that you've enabled the option ot handle inventory clicks in script rather than default, and that inventory clicks are processed within the global scripts on_mouse_click section such as:

Code: ags

function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) // called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
{
if(button == eMouseLeftInv) // Left mouse button clicked within inventory
    {
      // Do something
    }
}

I'm a bit rushed for time so can't explain much more but hope this helps.

I like to bake cookies and such.

Here's a link to my rum spiced pirate gingerbread men I made:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=16004.msg474978#msg474978



:9

I've got ScummVM on my DS and have recently played through Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen both worked extremely well on the DS and were great fun to play when out and about.  As for Broken Sword, I hope this is a sign of more good things to come.

Playing the English version now. Translation isn't perfect but is readable and the game is still enjoyable with several humourous moments.

My only qualm is with the interface but then again I've never been a fan of the LEC GUI so much unnecessary mouse movements back and forth for each action but at least you got rid of some pointless verbs. Would be nice perhaps if rightclick were to default to look at or some context-sensitive action.

But nonetheless good game, I'm enjoying it so far.

For those of you who weren't aware Broken Sword 1 (Shadow of the Templars) is coming to the Nintendo DS and Wii this Friday. The announcement was made just before Christmas and is now the release date is finally upon us. For those of you who are interested here is the official press release snippet

"SAN FRANCISCO - DECEMBER 18, 2008 - Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced a publishing agreement to release the special edition of Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars on Wiiâ,,¢ and Nintendo DSâ,,¢ systems.

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut is scheduled for release on Wii and Nintendo DS in March 2009. "

Link to full article here

So I know what I'll be getting on Friday, 20th March! My DS is feeling very lonely since I completed Chrono Trigger and as it's a director's cut it features new story elements, settings and puzzles.

Edit: All you people who live in the states will have to wait for next Tuesday for this (24th March).