Messages

Well, AGS has built-in scaling for walkable areas (and regions too? I don't remember) so you can just say "scale my object to 20% at the top of the walkable area and 100% at the bottom", and then characters that walk on that area get scaled depending on how far up the area they are.

If this isn't what you need, and you simply mean how do you scale a 3D object to the right size depending on the distance away, the maths is very simple:

scaled size = object size / distance

where "distance" is how far back the object is along a line pointing into the screen at right angles to it.

Be careful you don't divide by zero, because this won't work. It's probably better to use a revised form of this equation instead:

scaled size = object size / (distance + 1)

where distance = 0 when the object is as close as it can be, at which point it will be drawn full size. If you don't want it full size at this point, you can multiply by a scale factor (experiment until you get the value that works best for you - the number must be greater than 0; less than 1 will make your object smaller; greater than 1 will make it bigger):

scaled size = scale factor * object size / (distance + 1)

I hope that helps.

"It's your job to entertain them. Show them talking, drinking, flirting, dancing. Anything two professionals might do at a semi-formal social function."

I don't remember the last semi-formal social function I went to where professionals exploded and vaporised each other

Anyway, I'm not submitting an entry, so I'll just keep quiet.

According to my ultra-scientific research:

AGS: 981 games
Wintermute: 27 games
ScummVM: 8 games
AGAST (couldn't find a list of these online): ?

We rest our case 

In terms of God, the world is all a horrible joke and we're the punch line. This is because God in only thing that has the final word, if the word is horrifying.

However, the world, and the universe, can be manipulated. Ever heard of Group Theory? Ever heard of the Hundredth Monkey Effect?

[snip]

I hope that all made sense.

Well, not really. Group theory is a mathematical theory (useful for talking about how to solve a Rubik's cube, among other things, but nothing to do with manipulating the universe) and the hundredth monkey effect does not exist, according to the Wikipedia article. So I'm afraid I don't see how they are at all relevant to the point you were making.

Life is empty and meaningless - just ask an existentialist. But the good thing, as Darth Mandarb says, is that this means you can just go ahead and enjoy it.

Personally, I'm looking forward to January 2013. Maybe some esoteric nuts will finally come to their senses... and if not, at least I get to make fun of them (even more than usually).

They won't take any notice, unfortunately... these people don't experience cognitive dissonance. When they're proved wrong, they'll just say, "Oh did we say 2012? We really meant to say 2102," or "We all held hands and prayed really hard and everything turned out OK, which just goes to show we're right."

OK, I'm all out of Margin and the above suggestions don't work for me:

Spoiler

If I go into the factory, I get thrown out because I don't have a work permit. I don't know how to get one.

[close]

Spoiler

I haven't found a way of spiking the fortune-teller's drink yet... neither the chopped fish or the herb did anything when I tried to put them into the goblet.

[close]

Spoiler

I can't go to Undertown yet.

[close]

Spoiler

I can't find anyone at the harbour.

[close]

But all of the above are probably because I haven't got that far with the game yet:

Spoiler

I've got the knife from the cook; bought a fish, some kra, a statue and some Goozon; talked to the doctor, innkeeper and all of the market traders; spent the rest of my money on the fortune-teller; and filled the glass with water from outside the temple. I also have a pen and an empty bucket.

[close]

Any suggestions for what I could try doing next? Thanks!

Thanks, that explains everything. So in v2.72, is it possible to build separate a VOX file for sound effects so that I don't have to include the sounds with the game?

Ugh, I'm sure this must have been covered somewhere before but I'm not finding it in the manual or in older messages, so apologies in advance if I have overlooked the appropriate thread.

I am using v2.71 (yep, still - it's a game that's been in development for a while). I have a number of .ogg files (called SOUNDx.ogg, where x is 1, 2, etc) for my sound effects. If I include these in the Compiled folder, then I hear them when I play the game. If I put them in the Music folder (Music and Compiled are in the same folder), I get nothing. If I run Rebuild VOX files, no VOX files are generated, no matter whether the sound files are at the time in Compiled, Music or the directory above (the game folder containing the .dta and .crm files). I don't want to have to release the sound files with the game, so where should they be in order for the VOX file to be built?

Thanks for any help.

I think you've got a little too much shading in his left eye. It makes it look as if it is further back in his head than it should be. Compare the photo and you'll see the shading here is not as dark as yours and the shaded area is not as wide.

The metre is a little bit out. I'll show you what I mean by marking the stressed syllables with stars and the unstressed ones with dashes:

He'd finished my game while I slept overnight
- * - - * - - * - - *

And I whispered his name then I screamed my delight
- - * - - * - - * - - *

The storyline laid out for all folks to see
- * - - * - - * - - *

The game itself played out and beautifully
- * - - * - - * - - *

The graphics were great and my heart it did sing
- * - - * - - * - - *

How could he create such a wonderful thing?
- * - - * - - * - - *

The soundtrack was magic with many-layered graces
- * - - * - - * - - - * -

The dialogue tragic in all the right places.
- * - - * - - * - - * -

Were you going for anapestic tetrameter (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapestic_tetrameter) - four lots of "- - *" per line? You're pretty close, but there is the odd syllable too few or too many in some lines in this verse, and the final line of the poem has way too many syllables. You could lose a syllable in the penultimate line of this verse by writing "The soundtrack was magic with many-layer'd graces". But kudos to you for actually working on the metre - far too many people think that all you have to do is make the ends of the lines rhyme and you've got a poem. Not true...

By the way, neither "beautifully" nor "bluosity" rhyme with "see". For words to rhyme, they have be pronounced the same from the stressed syllable to the end of the word. So "dutifully" rhymes with "beautifully" ("-utifully" matches), and "monstrosity" with "bluosity" ("-osity" matches), but "see" rhymes with neither.

One other thing to watch for (already mentioned) - my English teacher always used to say "don't sacrifice the meaning for the rhyme". In other words, don't just put a word in because it rhymes but wrecks the feeling of the poem. I think you've done fine here except for the weak rhymes I've mentioned.

EDIT: I now have a background artist (yay!).

I am still looking for someone who is good at character art. My game contains around a dozen characters, all human, all in everyday clothing. The game is at 640 x 480 resolution and the characters will need to be drawn fairly large (maybe 250-300 pixels high) so that they don't have to be scaled up in close-up views.

The game uses portrait-style speech, so ideally you would be good at drawing faces too. There won't be any lip synch but a variety of expressions will be needed for most characters.

If you are also good at animations, that will be a bonus as some of the characters will be animated in certain cutscenes.

Please PM me if interested.

Thanks!

I just realised I have 666 messages, how ominous.

Nothing wrong with that... see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/616_(number)

I've just nominated the games I'd like to see getting awards, and I'll second what others have already said - the new nomination system is beautifully simple to use. Well done!

I have a little collection of Leper jokes.
Here are three of my favourites:

[snip]

...and one for his knob...

Q. Why did the Leper fail his driving test?
A. Because he left his foot on the accelorator.

Oh, when you said "one for his knob" I thought the last joke was going to be about a leper who loses his... ahem. But that would probably be a sex joke, wouldn't it?

How can I put this delicately... look at his crotch. It looks like he's naked from the waist down or his trousers are transparent. Unless that's the look you are going for, I think you need to make some changes here.

Didn't we have limericks in the haiku thread for a while?

Anyway, I think others should be able to join in!

Bad rhyming: it may make you cringe
or make your eyebrows combust and singe
But you just have to take it
That I have to fake it
To make anything rhyme with orange

It can be done...

There once was a chap known as Gorringe
Who climbed to the top of Mount Blorenge.
The view from the peak
Was something unique:
A sunset all red, pink and orange.

Ta-da!

(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(word)#Rhyme)

Personally, I like the shading. My suggestion would be to make the features larger and bolder, maybe by doing something as simple as drawing the black parts two pixels thick.

[...] I second an easier translation method

Thirded.

I would also like to see repeated strings in translation files. At the moment, each string can only be translated in one way, but in most of the translations into English I have done for other people, I run into strings that show up more than once in the game and mean different things in different contexts. For example, in Righteous City II, the Italian word "vaso" meant "plant pot" in one place but "vase" in another - the same word in Italian is used for each, but English uses different words. Similarly, in DoVaDuLa'S BuRn, the phrase "Ciao Jack" means "Hi Jack" in one place and "Bye Jack" in another.

So it would be nice if multiple instances of strings could be supported somehow. The current workaround is to ask the game creator to change one of the strings in the game to something else, so that two different strings are generated in the translation file and can then be translated in two different ways.

It would also help when the translation file is translated without playing the game, as then the translator would be able to see straight away which strings appear more than once and find out from the game creator whether the translations need to be the same or different.

Ideally, strings with the same translation would be mergeable so that the user doesn't have to translate "Yes" or "Hello" or "That didn't work" dozens of times

Very nice, very nice. Well done.

I found an insignificant little bug:

Spoiler

If you talk to Chiefman Chief Man after finding the three pages and reconstructing the book, you still have the option of telling him that the pages of the book are missing.

[close]

But that was no big deal.

The graphics and animations are brilliant! Great job.

This Game will be flawless if more colors are used (greyscale images look dull and lifeless).

I'm recreating the living room from This Game, so that it will be 3-dimensional lol:

No, no, no, no, no! This completely changes the character of the game. The existing graphics might look dull and lifeless, but they are perfect for the game, in my opinion. All that colour and texture would be a distraction.

Well I entered *all* my sites and stuff... and... and... it's a bit emberassing.

We think http://www.ghostglimpse.blogspot.com/ is written by a woman (68%).
We think http://www.freewebs.com/daemons-in-the-attic/ is written by a woman (65%).
We have strong indicators that http://blghost.deviantart.com/ is written by a woman (99%).

BUT!

We think http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?action=post;msg=475574;topic=36252.0;sesc=b0b12b799d5792d9d18f9b4867128f28 is written by a man (83%).

I think I'll go and buy a beer and some porn now, just to make sure.

And just in case you are still gender-confused:

We think http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?action=profile;u=929 is written by a man (87%).

Phew!