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Apparently they're working on a third one as we speak. Can't wait for the release!

Edit after reading the link in the message below:

I see. So all these racist jokes were prompted by Tuomas's earlier messages then.

I'm only three years old but the only kind of games I like are the original classics by LucasArts and Sierra. All my friends are like "play GTA" or "play Halo" and I'm all like "NO WAY!!!!" I only play classic point and click adventure games and they must be in 2d. Todays games smell. My opinion on this topic is very important.

Weren't graphical adventure games pretty much all about graphics, story and a big showy experience rather than traditional ideas about "gameplay" in the first place? That's why I liked them...

Them: So what kind of music do you like?
Me: Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Christian Death.
Them: Oh right, thank god you're not some Megadeth loving goth type. I hate those goth peoples.
Me: I concur.

How would you feel if a guy 1.94m started yelling at you, much louder than you ever can, and start calling you names (and your family and your religion and whatever on the process, cause frankly when I'm pissed I'm pissed all the way), and even start beating you up?

I think I'd tell him I was a woman. A butch one with a male figure and facial hair. Just please don't beat me up thanks.

My problem was that I couldn't figure out how to create the DirectMusic interface within the AGS DirectSound object, so I had two seperate things trying to access the soundcard. The way sound works in Win95/98 this causes problems. It really just means you can't use AGS sound output and DirectMusic together if you want compatibility with older versions of Windows. I wouldn't really consider myself a programmer so you may have found a better way to implement your plugin.


I wonder if it would be possible to get at the interactive functions of DirectMusic without using DMP? By this I mean by writing a plug that can load MIDI files and DLS sample banks and modify the playback with commands (for example: muting/unmuting channels, playing transitions, playing a second MIDI in sync with the first, etc.) I think DirectMusic offers many possibilities for playing back MIDI files that don't need the use of DMP. Working this way could free everyone from DMP however the programming required looks a bit too advanced for me to pull off.

So does aMuse work by loading a DirectMusic Producer project and calling routines? (That's all I've tried.) Or have you found another way of working with the system? I like working with DMP but I find it a bit buggy and tricky to get it to do what I want sometimes.

As far as compatibility with AGS, the main problems I had were with using DirectMusic (by creating a new DirectSound interface) alongside the audio output of AGS in Windows 95/98/ME systems.

Is it an updated Windows version of the game on the disc?

If it's the first thing you've done on PC I'd say that's pretty impressive, I honestly thought you had done music that way before and had some amount of past experience. Would you really expect someone to write a great song the first time they pick up a guitar? Of course not. I think there's heaps of potential here it's just that you've tried to do something ridiculously ambitious and it doesn't quite come together.

I seriously am stunned if this is your first work you've created with a sequencer like Fruity Loops and I'm not just trying to be polite or anything when I say that.

I'll throw in my own opinion if no one minds. Considering I hardly ever write much music myself, and what I do write is admittedly pretty bad you can take it for what it's worth...Ã, 

OK, I don't think this is completely terrible and without any redeeming qualities as some have said. But I don't really like it much either.

I think the whole angst thing, of trying to dress up your personal neuroses like they're interesting, was done to death throughout the nineties. And it was a pretty dodgy idea to begin with that rarely sounds convincing. I think Trent Reznor could make it sound good, though just as often it fell flat and some of his lyrics just sound silly to me. You say you don't listen to Nine Inch Nails but I think you've mentioned Cex once or twice. He made a record a couple years ago in this sort of mould so maybe that's where the influence is from? "Maryland Mansions."

It sounds likes this music may have been cathartic to make but where does it leave the listener? I don't find anything here I can really connect with and it isn't extreme or original enough to stand as a unique work of art. NIN and Cex manage to draw us in and entertain us. After listening to this I only feel like I've sat through someone else's therapy session.

I'd really like to hear you try something similar to what you've got here, but starting over with some new themes and reconsidering your intentions artistically. It could still be "dark," I'm just saying try moving beyond this personal angst stuff. I really feel it's a bad idea and it's very hard to get it right.


I hope you take this post in the spirit of constructive criticism in which it was intended.

As a kid I always thought of them as a sort of guarantee more than a warning. Like if nothing else you could at least rest assured the record would have a few naughty words on it.  :

Maybe a better question is: do you really want to buy into Tipper Gore's whole stupid moral panic mess by using one of these stickers and thereby endorsing the whole thing (read some of the links on the page you posted)? If you want to put it on your CD as bit of a joke that would be something else. That's just my two cents.

Yes ...uhhh... I think it was my 666th DVD that I burned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast_(numerology)]

Scholars who believe that the Book of Revelation refers to historical people and events argue that the number represents Nero. The value of “Neron Caesar”, written as , “Nrwn Qsr”, using Hebrew letters with numerical values under the form of numerology called Gematria, is:


Some early texts of the Book of Revelation give the number as 616 instead of 666, which would represent the alternative Hebrew spelling, “Nrw Qsr”, based on the Latin form “Nero Caesar”:

Ok and now the really shocking, really bizarre thing:
Yesterday, on 6/6/06 I went through my harddrive and I burned many, many DVDs with a program called "Nero." Coincidence? I think not.
:o

The main appeal of "adventure games" for me has always been the sense of exploring more than puzzle solving.
I really like the whole idea of adventure games without puzzles. Or at least without any complex puzzles that are in the way of the main story arc. To make it a "game," to get that feeling of immersion, I would work towards making the world as interactive as possible and placing many non-essential but interesting diversions along the way. Deep conversation trees, lots of things to look at, mini-games, possible minor variations in the plot - these are the things that make a game feel alive for me. These help make it feel like I'm having an impact and that I am playing a game instead of clicking through a story.

I don't know if anyone has ever suggested this elsewhere but I really like the idea of making all the puzzle-solving non-essential. Placing them all into many short side quests that reward the player with extra bits of insight into the story, or lead to an alternate way of progressing. I feel this approach would create a more addictive game.

In a traditional adventure the player goes along solving puzzles and taking in the main story until they hit a brick wall with a hard puzzle that must be solved to continue. At this point the only thing they can do is try every possible action they can dream up that they hope might be the correct thing to do. Of course this is pretty frustrating and often leads them to quit the game or look at a walkthru. It breaks up the story unnaturally and pushes the gamer away.

Instead of placing the puzzles along the main story arc like road blocks what if they were moved into little side quest diversions along the way that are intended to distract the player? So that instead of forcing the player to solve the puzzles to see the rest of the story the player is being enticed towards them and working on them of their own volition? This would make it possible for any player to get through the game at their own pace. Any player would be able to get through the entirety of the main story arc unhindered while their natural curiosity is being called to by the allure of the side quests. It's basic psychology: everybody finds things much more addictive when they choose to do them rather than have them forced upon them.


Sorry if this deviated too far from the main topic…

I'd like to help with beta testing or any other sort of assistance I can offer with "aMuse." I'd also be interested in doing any work/help with Direct Music Producer that might be needed, I have based some small projects around it in the past and know my way around the software.

Also, is aMuse at all based around the rough DirectMusic plug-in I released a while ago? Did you find a way to use DirectMusic and the AGS DirectX sound engine simultaneously?

I found it slightly too limiting for my needs, but if you're after "easy-to-use" I really like Tracktion.

So just because it doesn't fit within your conformist ideas of what a "game" is meant to be that means it must be crap? Perhaps the video game artist was seeking a new way to express him or herself?
Initially this would appear to be a parody of virtual pet software. While a regular, commercial virtual pet "game" would try to delude the player into feeling like they were interacting with a real live creature, here the artist strips away all the tricks and leaves just the stark, pre-programmed reality. Where it might take hours, even days, before most virtual pet software begins to feel artificial here the redundancy is obvious straight away.
Do you feel disappointed? Frustrated? Perhaps that is exactly how you should feel when confronted with a work such as this and the issues it raises.

It gets really good after you get past that first room.

It all boils down to this: at some point in the next year or so I'm going to go into a games store and ask the clerk "can I have a wee?" When I bought my GameCube the total bonehead at the store actually asked if I realised this was a bit of a kiddie console, I can hardly imagine what the reaction will be like next time around.  :


As for the name "growing on you".... OK, I realise there are weird names, even ugly names that grow on you through positive association. But can anyone name any successful products that sound like a term for bodily functions? Or anything similarly bad?