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I disagree with this sentiment.
I wouldn't care if the president has a religious belief, because it's his personal thing. Many people need religion as a spiritual guide in their life, that's okay.

But it becomes a problem if the president justifies his actions through his religion. Like Bush does.

And this is why Obama should be president, because he agrees with these points:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvKX16Eygs0

I know Obama is a secularist, 100%. Which is exactly what America needs, I president with a view on religion that concurs with their constitution. No one should care about anything else with regards to his religion.

P.S. Have you seen Obama smile? ( ) McCain smirks.

The only time a candidate will ever have 'more experience' than the other, is when a President runs for his/her second term.

No matter who the president is he's still a politician

What I'd like to see change is the removal of bi-partisanship

OK, just highlighted those two comments.

1. If you want a country to improve, you have to get involved in politics - you can't just discount it. Unfortunately, politicians will always get flack for their job title. Just watch them and listen to them and make your mind up, instead of discounting everyone pointlessly with "well, all of them are dirty politicians".

2. Only having two parties has already dissolved democracy, not having any room for stark disagreement between those two would only dissolve it further.

But did not the democrats always lead pre-elections and then lose? At least the last 2 times.

I looked at the polls from across the whole of the Bush-Kerry election, and Bush was ahead for the whole of the last third of the race. McCain's situation isn't even remotely comparable, though I'm sure you weren't meaning to compare it exactly.

McCain really can't come back. The only possibility for McCain is a pretty horrific October surprise that knocks Obama (although I reckon such a thing would knock McCain more), coupled with the polls being massively inaccurate or a poor turnout (both unlikely).

Basically, the only question is whether this will be an Obama landslide.

Well, judging by the last one, it could go the whole year round...

[1. Beneath a Steel Sky]

1. Beneath a Steel Sky, though it's now freeware.
Loved the characters, the music, the atmosphere. The story was great and well executed, as well as witty. Also, though many people don't rave about the graphics, I loved them! They captured the setting perfectly, and the animation was amazing - typical Revolution.

2. Monkey Island 1
3. Broken Sword - amazing graphics (though oddly inconsistent at times), with trademark Revolution animation. And a great adventure game story.

I would put some of those trademark white lines across it to illustrate that it is reflecting. At the moment it just looks like you can see straight through it to behind...

Also, are you going to add some sections to the windows? I'm not sure windows that big would be one single pane...

Why is there no light coming from the very top window? Looks like you've forgotten it?

Very impressive though!

Not really, although this is tried, tested and sound advice.

The game isn't massively long, there are two large open areas, the rest is short sequences and dialogue cutscenes. I'm not sure if there would be anyway to split it up, besides ending the first half at the end of the first large area. And I'm a good way from that yet...

I'm really grateful for the encouragement in terms of the graphics. I am aware they are fairly good, and certainly not bad, but I am unhappy with some design choices. For example, the game is in 640x400 resolution. This increases the workload for the graphics, and has made the characters harder to draw and animate... I also went for a black outline approach, which may look quite nice, but again makes the characters a pain.

Hi all,

I have been working on and off for the last few years on an adventure game I could call my own. I have spent many nights and lots of paper noting down the main premise of the story, the game world, some characters, etc... I have drawn some backgrounds, and completed the first bit of the game in full in AGS. Minus one walkcycle, and some other animations and interactions.

Unfortunately, it has come to the time now when all I want to do is write the story and script the game. I would love to draw the backgrounds and sprites too, but time has got the better of me (well, I'll confess it is motivation rather than time). I also don't have the skill to draw the backgrounds how I would like them - all too often I am resorting to downloading reference images of the internet and tracing them, before modding the features and adding stuff. OK, so I am exaggerating a little; the backgrounds are basically mine, but I'm not a fan of my own work, and I've made some unwise design decisions that I can only fix by starting again.

The game is a sci-fi adventure, of a serious tone. It explores the idea of scientific advancement, the extension of human life and it's social implications, and legacy. Another complication has risen from this however, in that the story has become increasingly more focused and sophisticated since I started - meaning the game I've started in AGS is growing further away from the vision I am forging on paper.

Anyway, I am posting here for two reasons: I want to share my game with the community, but without declaring it "in production" as, although it is, I'm not sure how this development will proceed. Two, rather shamelessly, I'm asking for help. If anyone is interested in helping me save the project I can send you the game so far - and when it is finished - the story in full.

Here are some screenies!

Full Size Here


P.S. A lot of my characters look like Guybrush or some BASS characters, which illustrates my sprite-ing ability...

I was impressed with what you had last time, and by what you wanted to improve on so I'll check it out... Downloading now!

Well that certainly needed saying, abstauber. The quiz really is intimidating. Especially if you are sent pms anyway...

That said, not entirely sure why the post exists. I browse the Beginner's Technical Questions thread quite a lot and I've pretty much never seen a thread like the one described. I've seen plenty that have been answered [many times] previously, but that's par for the course of any online help, surely?

^ I think this is exactly the issue. This thread (and other similar comments) is basically paranoia of something that barely exists.

Maybe I live in alternate dimension, but I haven't had experience of this enough to annoy me. I see the odd dumb thread around, but really not that many. Certainly not enough to make this much fuss. I'd say 99% of the forum is sensible, interesting conversation and advice. And I see far more of this kind of thing than I see "HOW DO I MAEK CHAR GO ONE RM TO OTHER!11" threads...

zombiecow's comment was a frustrated retort to a frankly petty post, that was wildly off topic and should have been moderated.

On topic:
I would be a character with 100 snakes for his hair, 8 robot legs and a holographic heart. I walk around the game smashing everything, in gloriously animated and completely individually scripted destruction sequences. The snakes all talk when I talk, and the holographic heart beats with a highly realistic animation. The robots legs help me to walk along a bit like Doc Oc does in Spiderman 2, when he only uses his tentacles.

Thought I'd keep the workload small for you. I know how much you love animation, Dan!

[FUCK RIGHT OFF!!!1111]

I'm sorry I have to say this, but:

Do you know what this thread says to new-comers, or anyone scouting for a friendly, helpful community? It says: FUCK RIGHT OFF!!!1111 (and do it yourself, n00b!)

And yes, it is in bold. It is in caps. It even has 1s on the end.

It really is a shame this thread exists, and any other thread with a similar theme. There are some really lovely people on this forum; they are helpful, friendly and genuinely want to help. This thread completely misrepresents these lovely people, by making the whole community look arrogant, insensitive and unwelcoming.

And on the subject of not looking at the help file. Don't try and tell me the first thing you opened in the AGS folder, was "ags-help". I mean, when I get some new, exciting software to play with all I want to do is experiment.

Although you are correct that help contains most fixes, lets be honest: surely it takes just as long to post a link to the solution and sticky it, as it does to have an immature rant? A rant that will only put people off and prevent the expansion of a mostly amazing community. And a pretty amazing piece of free software.

I'm not hoping to cause any trouble, I just felt this needed saying. So far my experience of this community has been great!

You should perhaps add some little bushes od at least some up- and downstrokes to make it look more like grass.

Yeah, add another layer to the grass with this one and it'll look great. What you have there at the moment would make a really good 'base' for the grass...

Looking brilliant, by the way!

No one has given a fully correct answer to the "Why is the sky blue?" question yet. So this may be a good read: here. It explains it fully.

This is wildly off topic.

On the subject of using a filter, it is probably not a good idea. You need to be able to colour it completely separately. Night scenes generally need far less colours (which a filter won't do, it will just create lots of shades), and exaggerated contrast. Me thinks, anyway!

Have you thought about trying a lower resolution, as this is easier, generally quicker in terms of production. Also, there is all that blank space, so you clearly don't need this high a resolution...



Tried to sort perspective issues out too. Not sure how I did with it...

I don't like putting ceilings in fairly large rooms like this, but I left it in for you.

Glad to see this is moving on nicely! I like the clean, simple style you have established. More people (I, for one) should aim for that.

Good luck at uni, I go on Saturday!