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Hello!

Sorry for the silence, here's something new! I posted this on Facebook a while ago, so some might have seen it already. So it's not that new after all, now that I think about it. 



Can you guess where Walter is? This mystery location is a big one, consisting from several other rooms.  It's also the last missing piece of the game, and it's slowly coming together now!

I made a mistake, it should be other way around:

Ok, much better now, I think I got it working! For some reson the Y value in the rep-exec-always made the screen jump up. I modified that bit and everything seems to work now:

Code: ags

if(scale) {
    int x = (Room.Width - Game.Camera.Width) / 2;
    int y = Game.Camera.Y;
    Game.Camera.SetAt(x, y);
  }

Also, not sure what are you intending this for, but you are calling TweenY with -100, yet the camera cannot go off the room bounds so that won't work.

Yes, that was my mistake, I have the camera actions like this now:

Code: ags

 scale =true;
  Game.Camera.TweenY(2.0, Game.Camera.Y -100, eEaseInOutSineTween, eNoBlockTween);
  Game.Camera.TweenSize(2.0, 160, 90, eEaseInOutSineTween, eBlockTween);
  Game.Camera.TweenSize(2.0, 320, 180, eEaseInOutSineTween, eNoBlockTween);
  Game.Camera.TweenY(2.0, Game.Camera.Y +100, eEaseInOutSineTween, eBlockTween);
  scale =false;

So the camera goes up 100 pixels, and starts to zoom in, then it zooms out and goes down 100 pixels. And the view is nicely centered now. I still have to check if the smooth scroll parallax effect works, if I turn it back on. If it doesn't, I'll have to move my parallax objects manually, but it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks CW! 

Alright, if you want to hardcode everything and use the simpliest possible code, then perhaps this

Thanks again! I tried this, but for some reason, I can't seem to get it working.

I have this code when I activate the cutscene:

Code: ags

 bool scale;

  scale =true;
  Game.Camera.TweenY(1.0, 100, eEaseInOutSineTween, eBlockTween);
  Game.Camera.TweenSize(2.0, 160, 90, eEaseInOutSineTween, eBlockTween);
  Game.Camera.TweenSize(2.0, 320, 180, eEaseInOutSineTween, eBlockTween);
  Game.Camera.TweenY(1.0, -100, eEaseInOutSineTween, eBlockTween);
  scale =false;

And this in rep-exec-always:

Code: ags

if(scale) {
    int x = (Game.Camera.Width - Room.Width) / 2;
    int y = (Game.Camera.Height - Room.Height) / 2;
    Game.Camera.SetAt(x, y);
  }

When I do the action, the screen jumps instantly higher, and the scaling still happens at the corner... Maybe I'm missing something, I haven't done any camera setup. Also I'm using the v3.5.0, December 2019 version of AGS (I'm hesitant to upgrade when the game is so near the end).

A while ago I was writing a code for zooming Room Editor into the mouse cursor position. It aligns the zoom to the arbitrary point on screen. This is C#, but the math should be the same, so it's a matter of rewriting into AGS script:

Hey thanks CW! That's a lot of code. In my game I'm using zoom only in this one particular scene (it's a cutscene, so it's quite simple to control). I'm a bit hesitant to start working with your code, I guess I'm looking for a quick and dirty fix that would center the zoom effect. Is there any other way that to achieve that? Moving the camera while zooming didn't seem to work for some reason.

Hi, I think I need help with the camera zooming. So I want the camera to rise up and then do a simple zoom in the middle of the screen, then return back to its original location.  My room is 320 x 320, and the game is 320 x 180.

Here's the simplified version of what I did:

Code: ags

Game.Camera.TweenY(1.0, 100, eEaseInOutSineTween, eBlockTween);
Game.Camera.TweenSize(1.0, 160, 90, eEaseInOutSineTween, eNoBlockTween);

It works otherwise but the zooming (Game.Camera.TweenSize) is anchored to the upper right corner. So the zooming doesn't happen at the center of the screen where I would like it to happen. I tried to move the camera at the same time to counter the position change, but it didn't seem to work. What would be the correct way to zoom, so that it's centered? I am using Smooth Scroll module, but it should be disabled for this room.

Actually, social media is irrelevant to sales. Unlike popular belief. You can check a study that concludes to that since last year. SM helps create a sense of community which supports your things, but in terms of it revolving into sales it's not.

Interesting view! The line between promoting a game and doing social media seems fuzzy, but there's still a difference, I think. This could be a good topic on its own.

Oh, you're thinking about releasing it with a publisher? That would be amazing indeed! Best of luck with that and let us know how it goes

Yes, I think that could be a viable option, I could concentrate on the things I like, instead of running a business. I'll definetely let you which route I'll take and how it goes! 

This looks absolutely magnificent!! Love the atmosphere and character design!! Really excited for this, great work mate!

Thanks, great to hear that! 

I just joined Twitter last night for Kola Queen and almost immediately got a much greater than expected reception.  I did share probably the coolest piece of art that I have ready to go, though.  I think Laura Hunt's advice is very good.  Just engage with people with the vibe you want and they'll do the same for you. 

Ok, good to know!

Like anything else, it's probably better to do five minutes a day on Twitter (or whatever) than four hours all at once at the last minute.

True! I misspoke earlier about finishing the game first, I meant that I need to focus on this last "scenario" I'm working on, and finish it first, before I do anything else. Still lots to tinker with after that!

Is it a commercial game? Because if it is, you can't afford to be "not great at social media"

Yep, that's the plan. And yes, social media is of course very important if I want people to find my game. If I throw stuff to the internet, without having an existing fan base, no one will ever find it. If I should get the perfect publisher, that would make the marketing easier on my part.

The best way to promote stuff, in my opinion, is to get other people to say good things about it. Preferably people who have a large audience. But I will definetely consider joining Twitter, when the time comes. Currently I've used all of my brain capacity to finish the game, and I don't want to disturb that process!

IOAWN4T has over 15k, it was crazy seeing the number go up and up and up and wondering when it would stop!

Wow! I played IOAWN4T (catchy abbreviation!) and really liked it. It's amazing how many sprites have been crammed into a relatively short game. I guess the amazing visuals require a lot of material!

Really happy to know that the finish line is getting closer This is literally the only Lovecraft-based/inspired game that has caught my interest in a very, very long time and I'm dying to get my hands on it.

Very nice to hear that!  Currently working on the last missing "scenario", after that some polishing, gameplay balancing, bug fixing and sound work.

Wouldn't twitter be a better option? I thought Facebook was pretty much dead, and twitter is where it's "at" for indie game development right now (well, TikTok too, but that one's for the younger 'uns mostly ).

Probably! I'm not great at social media, and actually just recently signed up to Facebook to do a bit of promoting, I didn't even have a personal account before that. So at this rate I'll probably join Twitter when it's starting to die down.

That's amazing!  I just passed the 1,000 mark so imagining ten times that number is astonishing to me as I can't imagine what that feels like since a thousand was a lot of work!  Really looking forward to this.

It sure is a very nice looking number in the editor! But I've been working on the game from 2016, so it all just slowly adds up. Also some special effects use a lot of frames, so it's not all character animation. Keep at it!

Yo this looks awesome!

Thanks! 

Also, there's now 10.000 sprites in the game! 

This looks really amazing, can't wait to try it. Any tentative release date/window?

Hey thanks, nice to hear that! I'm hoping that the game could be released at the end of the year, but I can't say nothing concrete yet. Of course, when I can, I will let everybody know it! 

Sweet! Nice trailer 

Thanks! There will be a longer trailer at some point, this is just to get the wheels slowly rolling.

That's some of the scariest music I've heard! 

Yes, Troy Sterling Nies who is composing the music is a star! He is a frequent collaborator with the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society and composed the music for "Call of Cthulhu" and "The Whisperer in Darkness" feature films for example. I'm really lucky to have him onboard!

Dreams in the Witch House has now a Teaser Trailer!

https://youtu.be/Z889XCE-Zq0

And a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thewitchhousegame

Go and like, follow, comment, subscribe, donate, worship etc!

With the latest news that development is going to speed up - good luck on the final hurdles. I've been following this game for a while now, super excited about this one!! Best of luck!

Thanks! Yep, now I've been able to work on the game full-time. Currently I'm doing a bit of promotion (finally), I hope you will see the results soon!

Or something like this? (Another short film by an AGSer)

Yes, nordic noir is the thing now, that video encapsulates it pretty well! And Alasdair's videos are great!

Subscribed (Philosophy of Horror)

Nice movie, and the budget seemed to be quite decent too!

Thanks! I think the budget is pretty average for a government funded short film here in Finland. But most of the funded films are human dramas that happen in a kitchen. Also Finland is a quite expensive country. So to create this illusion of the arctic, and all the effects with the same amount of money was a bit challenging. But it was a lot of fun to figure it all out!

Oh wow! I was assuming that the footage of the icebreaker from the outside was stock footage and that the scenes on-deck were filmed on a docked ferry or something with green-screens hung down  to composite the ocean in later. And that the interior rooms were just redressed office rooms pr something.

Did you actually go out on the boat while it was breaking through those ice-floes?

Actually the ship was in the harbour, and it was mid summer when we shot it. 
Some external drone shots were taken later on the winter. So the same ship is actually doing its job and breaking the ice. But there's a few stock footage shots also.

As for my own preferences, I think my biggest gripe with the movie is that it reveals a bit too much too early, and seems a bit too eager to get to use all that fancy CGI and show it off. Lovecraft was always keen to hide the horrors and mysteries, so the movie showing as much as it does so early on kind of dampened the mood for me, but I feel the urge to show off the fancy CGI was in part a proof of technical ability for the team, a way to show off what they can pull off, and thus understandable.

One problem that we had was that we were making a short film that had the story of a feature film! So we really had to trim it to the bones. In feature format we could have spent some more time building the tension etc. By the way, there's no 3D computer stuff in the film at all. Majority of the effects are practical effects and miniatures that have been composited on the screen.

I had a bunch of friends from the US, Canada and other countries who are Lovecraft fans, and they all really loved the movie back when I shared it with them upon first release. Tons of really positive feedback, so I think you folks nailed it pretty darn well!

Thanks for spreading the word, and nice to hear they liked the movie!

I think the movie works better for non-finnish people. The pronunciation may irritate Finns, and we also may be quite critical to our own works. Only when something is confirmed "good" abroad first, we accept it! 

Hyvää työtä, ja eikun uutta putkeen! 

Jee, kiitti! Jos saisi tuon pelin nyt ensin valmiiksi!