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[The Murran Chronicles: Episode 3 - Lifedrinker of Landsdowne]

The Murran Chronicles: Episode 3 - Lifedrinker of Landsdowne

UPDATE Sept 10, 2011

The game's final Beta version is out, and the fixes are now at a very slow trickle.  The game will be released in early October, 2011. 

Three years of development, and the game is finally about ready.

To keep myself sane, I decided to do a new Promotional video for the game.  The demo features finished graphics, GUIs, animations and some of the features like the map/travel system.

http://www.billandnicole.net/games/ep3/murran3.wmv

Thanks!



Plot/Storyline
-------------------
Shortly after your adventure with the mystery in Montana, you are given a case involving mysterious deaths in Landsdowne, Massachusetts. The bodies of two men in their early twenties have been found recently, and according to local authorities both dead men looked to be in their seventies when their bodies were found. There is no explanation as both men were thought to be healthy, and in the prime of their lives. Add to this the odd reports of a pack of strange animals roaming the town at night, and you have your work cut out for you. Is there some sort of vampire creature on the loose as some of the town rumors suggest? What is behind the rumors of odd goat-like creatures that have been seen after nightfall? Are the two related? You are thrown into the midst of an age long battle between good and evil as you investigate the case of the Life Drinker of Landsdowne.
 
About The Game
------------------------
Life Drinker of Landsdowne is in 640x480 resolution, running in Hi-Color mode.   This game will be almost twice as long as the second game, and will have much more content, many more characters: some with dynamic locations, and 3 different endings depending on the paths and choices you make as the player.  

This third game in the series will be the first to not feature the police cruiser as your primary mode of transportation.  Dust off those walking shoes, there is much to see in the town of Landsdowne.

This game will also feature something new to the Murran Chronicles: day and night cycles.  Explore the town during the day, and return to places as night for a whole new look at them.  



Beta Tester Info
-------------------------
The game has been in production since April of 2009, and has many hours of blood, sweat and tears put into it.  Total gameplay time from start to finish for me is just over 6 hours, and I know exactly what to do to progress since I wrote it.  I would guess that the average player would have 8-10 hours of gametime (hopefully).


BETA IS CLOSED


Some screenshots:









These last 2 screenshots feature the old GUI and cursors which have been updated:






(Typo in this screenshot has been fixed.)


Thanks!

-Bill

Moderators, please delete this..  Turns out I am using AGS 2.72 and have a limit on the label length in my GUIs

-Bill

I have a text box which is pulling globalstrings into it in my Notebook GUI.  

The person clicks the topic on the listbox on the left, and the globalstring with sometimes many lines of data populates the textbox on the right of the GUI.  This text is read-only, so it can never change.

Problem : I can't do a linefeed.  Any way I can do this?  I need to word wrap apparently, but can find no way to do it.

Thanks,

Bill

Let me preface this by saying I am still using AGS 2.72 at the moment, but as soon as the game is done, I'll be upgrading.

That said, I am having a problem in a GUI with a text box.  I have a "notebook" type GUI that is used to put notes in so the player can review any info learned in the game.

There is a listbox with topics, and once clicked, it populates the textbox on the GUI with the details of the item.  It all works great, however someone can simply click in the textbox and delete and enter new info.  And the info saves automatically since when you exit and go back in, the info is there.

Is there a way to lock the GUI's textbox and make it read-only?

Thanks,

Bill

Hello everyone,

I ran into a bit of a problem I am hoping to get some help with. 

In one of the rooms I have a door (hotspot) set into the back wall.  Directly in front of this door (perspective wise) is a glass window.  The glass has transparency effects, so it makes the toons behind it look like they're behind glass.  I like the effect

Anyway, the glass takes up the entire area in front of the door, and when I try to use the door, it doesn't work.  It is because the window is blocking it.

So I wrote some quick code to allow me to use / look at / etc the door so long as the mouse.x and mouse.y coordinates are withing the confines of the door behind the glass when the mouse is clicked.  This works great.  The problem is that because the glass object has no name, nothing appears on the taskbar when it is moused-over.  All other objects/hotspots in the room do.

Does anyone know of a command I can use to make "Door" appear on the mouseover section if the mouse coords are within a certain range?  I assume the repeatedly execute portion is where I want it, I just don't know what to use.

The other option I guess is to make another door object, transparent, and put it in front of the glass... 

I am using AGS 2.72 by the way.  Never upgraded, but will when this game is done.  It's been 2+ years in the making

Thanks,

Bill

Hello everyone,

I am hard at work on Murran Chronicles 3, and am scripting a puzzle in a cave-maze (cliche, I know).  The path of how to get through the maze is something you are able to find during the game, so it isn't a random blind maze type thing.  Although, if you miss it, there are no death-areas, so you can just roam around forever without any penalty in the game.

With that in mind, there is a puzzle to open a door which is blocking your path in the maze.  The way I am currently looking at it is that the player goes into the puzzle, and if they solve it, the door opens.  If they get it wrong, the puzzle teleports them to a random room in the maze.  Kind of a penalty..  The key to the puzzle is another thing that you are supposed to have gotten (or rather seen somewhere if you're observant), and the puzzle even has word clues on the puzzle itself on a plaque above it.  I am hoping it isn't too difficult.

Anyway, my point being, if you were playing the game, and you had to solve a puzzle, but if you got it wrong it teleports you to some random room in a cave and you had to roam around to find your way back, would it frustrate you?  Would it frustrate you enough not to finish the game?  Keep in mind, the puzzle is logical, and any of the rooms are within 4-5 of the puzzle room.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Bill

The 3rd game in the Murran Chronicles series has to do with Gaelic folklore, as well as some aspects of the culture.  In particular, one of the main characters in the game (a shop-owner) is a woman of Gaelic heritage, and I want her to be as authentic as possible.  In creating this game I have done a lot of research into Gaelic folklore, mythology and culture, but I would really love to be able to have someone with a background (or who has extensive knowledge) to speak with.  I want to make sure I get this character, and her souvenir shop authentic in-game.  I don't want to get the character and the store done and then end up insulting an entire culture/heritage due to misinformation or my misunderstanding of things I've read on-line. 

If anyone is interested in helping me with this, I would really appreciate you letting me know.  I will be glad to give you credit in the game as "Gaelic Culture Expert", "Gaelic Consultant"  or "Lead Gaelic Person" or however you'd like it listed.

Thanks!

Bill

I am stuck on the Order of Things puzzle..  I was thinking it meant to walk to the rooms in order they are "laid out" or something, so I went from room to room using the buildings in the background and their relative position as a marker, but that didnt seem to work..

Help?

Thanks,

Bill

I work in IT, and as such we all consider ourselves pros when it comes to computer related stuff.  I got an idea from a friend and I just pulled it on one of my coworkers and the results are so INCREDIBLY funny I had to share:

1) I took a screenshot of his background on his computer, with all icons and everything.
2) I made that image the background on his computer.
3) I moved all his icons to a temporary folder on his computer so they are hidden.
4) I allowed the hilarity to ensue!

Hhaaha, he ended up cursing a few times, he rebooted his machine about 5 times and ran a bunch of virus and malware diagnostics on it, and was generally getting frustrated beyond all measure.  I finally told him and the entire office had a laugh.

If you have someone you can do this to, I HIGHLY recommend it.  It is a lot of fun.

-Bill

I need to do "If x==1 OR X==3" then do something, but I can't find out what the script equivalent to OR is...  I know AND is && but the manual and the forums don't return anything useful when you do a search for "OR"  because it is a term in and of itself

Help!

Thanks,

Bill

I am doing a script for a portion of my new game which requires for an object to pick up speed as it goes...

For instance, character[9] is falling from above, gathering speed as he goes.  When the up-arrow is pressed, the character flaps its wings causing the speed to slow some.  If the up-arrow is pressed enough times he will actually rise back up a short distance and then begin descending again.

The problem is that in order to adjust the speed of the character, I need to stop movement, change speed, and re-start movement.  It looks choppy.

Again, it works fine, has the effect I want, it is just choppy and stuttery, sometimes the speed increases too quickly because the motion isn't fluid and smooth.

Here is the snippet of code I am using, and I would appreciate help (I am using 2.72):

Code: ags

// room script file
int speed=2;  // Speed increment variable
int cspeed=1;  // Scripting variable for changing the player's speed
int up=1; // If up is 1, the falling commences.  If it is not 1, it stops.


#sectionstart room_a  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function room_a() {

  // script for Room: Repeatedly execute
mouse.Mode = eModePointer;  

lblvelocity.Text = String.Format("%d", cspeed);   // This puts a realtime falling-speed readout on my GUI so I can troubleshoot

while ((IsKeyPressed(372)==0) && up==1) {    // No Up Arrow Keypressed and moving character
	if (speed<30){
  		  speed++;
		  cspeed=speed/2;
		  character[9].StopMoving();
		  character[9].SetWalkSpeed(cspeed,cspeed);
		  character[9].Animate(0, 3, eRepeat, eNoBlock, eForwards);     // So the falling animation continues through the stop/start of the code
		  character[9].Walk(character[9].x, 186, eNoBlock, eAnywhere);
			}
	Wait(1);

	if (character[9].y>180){  // The ground
	if (cspeed>7){
		up=22;
		Display("Too fast");
		character[9].x=160;
		character[9].y = 10;
		up=1;
			}
	if (cspeed<8) {
		up=22;
		Display("Landed Safely");
		character[9].x=160;
		character[9].y = 10;
		up=1;
			}
	}
}




if (IsKeyPressed(372)){    //  Action for flapping of wings


	if (speed<4){
	  up=22;   // Stop falling animation
	  character[9].Walk(character[9].x, character[9].y-15, eBlock, eAnywhere);  // Fly up a few pixels
	  speed=10;  //  Reset to default beginning fall-speed
	  up=1;   // Restart falling script
		}

	if (speed>3){
	speed=speed-3;   // Slow falling speed
	}
	
	if (character[9].y>180){
		if (cspeed>7){
			up=22;
			Display("Too fast");
			character[9].x=160;
			 character[9].y = 10;
		 	up=1;
			}
		if (cspeed<8) {
			up=22;
			Display("Landed Safely");
			character[9].x=160;
			character[9].y = 10;
			up=1;	
			}
}
}
}

Thanks,

Bill

I ask because I use and make all my games with 2.72.  I like the GUI, functionality and stuff better than the newer versions.  Maybe I will get around to learning the new system eventually, but for now, I like my old-school version

-Bill

I am working on one of the backgrounds for Murran 3 and ran into a bit of a snag...

I realized after I began that I have absolutely no experience (and idea) how to do a large-ish body of water (I use paint.net).


**EDIT**

After the comments below I went back and filled in the background with the items needed for perspective.  This is my initial draft, and lots of finishing will go in, but you can see the shapes, shading and grass layout along with the shore of the pond.

I tried the idea of a water texture with the gradient blue over it, but it didn't look right.  I dislike the solid blue, but don't really know what to do..  Maybe a blue gradient with it faded out and the "bottom" of the pond beneath it?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.




Thanks in advance,

Bill

Something has been running through my head all day and I figured I would ask since there is a good mixture of different nationalities on here..

My wife and I are Americans, we live right near Washington DC, so we have normal run-of-the-mill (IE: non-southern) American speech patterns.  We watch a lot of BBC America and had this discussion the other night with some of our friends who agree:

Most Americans find British accents to be suave, even sexy sounding.  I find females with a British accent to be more sexy than if they spoke with an American accent, as do some of my friends.  My wife feels the same way about males with British accents (I need to be careful not to introduce her to any), as do some of her girlfriends.

Scottish, Irish, Welsh (very hard to understand) and other UK accents are similarly rated, but not as high as British (primarily the London, Liverpool and even Cambridge dialects, not so much the Cockney and others).

I was wondering if those in the UK have the same feelings about American accents, speech patterns, or whatever you'd like to call it?

Thanks!

Bill

Ok, so I spent about 3 days so far working on one of the backgrounds for Murran Episode 3, and I just went to open it, and it looks like the file is corrupt.

I use Paint.net for it, and all other files open fine, but it looks like this one is bad.  Does anyone know of any tricks to repair, or even open it fullscreen so I can grab a screenshot and go from there?

I REALLY don't want to have to begin all over again...

Thanks,

Bill

Hello everyone,

My prize for the May MAGS competition was a CD that Klaus sent me containing every game entered into the MAGS competition for the 5 years he hosted it.

I took the CD and put it on my webserver so that anyone who wants it can download it to enjoy.  There are some nice ones in there.

The zipfile is about 723 Megs in size, so it's large.. 

I will be uploading individual games this weekend so that they can be downloaded if someone doesn't want to get all of them.  I will update this post then.

In the meantime, the games are at :

www.billandnicole.net/games/mags/CompleteMags.zip

Enjoy!!


Thanks,

Bill

For Murran Chronicles #3 there is a store that the player will need to frequent in order to speak with a person of great importance.  It is a Gaelic shop selling gifts, novelties, etc...

I wanted to name this store something along the lines of Gaelic R Us, which is in reference to the toy store Toys R Us.  Before I did this, I wanted to make sure the reference wouldn't be lost on all non-American players of the game..  I know the toy store chain is nation-wide here in the states, but I don't know about outside our little country here.

So my question to all non-US residents is: Do you have Toys R Us in your countries?  If not, have you heard of it before, and would you get a reference like the one above?

Thanks in advance.

-Bill

Ok, so..  While I would LOVE to believe that lots and lots of people are downloading my entry to the May 2009 MAGS competition, I am having a little trouble believing that quite so many are..

I have checked here frequently awaiting the results of the competition, and noticed that the game got 202 downloads in the 2 first two days, putting it as #4 on the most downloaded list for last week.

I have watched over the past 2 or 3 days as the thing skyrockets.  It has well over 500 downloads now, and climbing at a pretty good rate.  The other competition entry has about 142 downloads.  I would imagine people would download both entries to play them for judging..  

I didn't know who to ask about this, but I was curious if something odd could be happening, or if someone is falsifying the download counter for some reason..  The bandwidth/traffic on my server is up significantly, but I don't understand how this game could have more downloads in like 4 days than both my Murran Chronicle games combined over the past 6 months...  


**EDIT**  Now, one hour since the initial post, it is just shy of 600 downloads...

Thanks,

Bill

Mr. Danger's Contest

This is an entry to the May, 2009 MAGS competition.  I took some time off from working on Murran Chronicles #3 to do this light hearted investigative drama/sci-fi/comedy mixture, and really enjoyed it.

STORY :


You are James McManus, a loner.  You receive an invitation from a mysterious Mr. Danger to come and compete in a competition against other 'special people' to inherit his millions of dollars.  Not one to pass up that much money, you head to his secluded mansion.  Once there, things quickly turn deadly, and you must not only be the winner of the competition, but you must also try to figure out who is killing the competition before they do away with you.


INFO:

Mr. Danger's Contest is in 640x400 resolution (natively 320x200, but my fonts look better in the larger resolution).

And yes, all those awesome sound effects and all the music were all made by me and my trusty PC microphone


CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

 

SCREENSHOTS:

Hi everyone,

I am now on my 3rd outdoor background ever, and believe I am starting to get the feel for it.  I wanted some C&C if possible since something on this scene just isn't meshing..

I am not terribly happy with the tree on the right side of the screen, and I am a bit unhappy with how my grass came out. 

The hotel in the background is just the hotel the player is staying in.  This is the screen between the hotel and the warehouse.  As such, I can remove the hotel, as I am afraid it is cluttering the scene (without the hotel, it looks a bit bare).. 

Also, clouds...  Should I put some in?  If so, what is the best method?  Solid white, then blend it out around the edges to make it look a little fluffier?



Thanks,

Bill