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You'd think that would come up pretty high in a search for "version".

Here are some old versions http://aafiles.bicycle-for-slugs.org/ags/
I don't know if there's a more obvious place. I think there were links to old versions on the AGS Wiki too, but I can't find them.

Miami sounds cool, I may not be able to afford it but I'd try. I want to meet the Americans most of all.

France sounds unexciting but practical. Like probably most Europeans I've been there. I would prefer virtually anywhere else in Europe (besides previous AGS meet locations). On the other hand it's quite central and inoffensive. If you can find somewhere cheap to rent I'll almost certainly come. I would have thought French rentals anywhere nice in Summer are far from cheap, though?

Personally I was thinking further east in Europe this year... cheaper, just as pretty, probably new territory for more people... downsides: less big tourist attractions, less people that speak the local language.

If it's France, I'd vote for the Alps.

Personally I think attempting an isometric tile based tycoon game would be quite a bad idea. AGS provides practically no functionality for this sort of thing, since you'd have to code the tile mapping, rendering, character handling, clicking, scrolling, and all the game logic yourself. There'd be nothing to gain over coding it outside AGS, and plenty to lose because AGS's script language isn't designed to be a general purpose game programming solution.

The other kind of game, TIM type puzzles, would also be very difficult. Physics puzzling requires a lot of mathematical coding, which is quite difficult in any language, especially one not designed for it. You could simplify things a great deal and still make a similar sort of game I suppose. Overall it seems less problematic than the tycoon type game.

Either of these games would be made faster in Game Maker, or put together in a standalone scripting language.

Ah, ok, I wasn't aware that modifying files in place was impossible. Didn't mean to imply I didn't see the module's obvious uses.

I have never been fat but I used to weigh considerably more than I do now (which is about the same as you, but I'm 6 foot tall and male), then I got addicted to DDR. I'm not proud, but I did... if I can't quite beat a level on it I'm compelled to play until I do, so for anyone with the kind of personality for mastering games, but not for sticking to diets, I'd recommend that. I have never done anything as punishing as that was at times. I went a bit too far though, and ended up anorexically skinny, so I haven't done it for quite a while.

I'm having cravings for exercise now now... maybe I'll relapse :/

Yeah, and it seems very handy for that purpose, as I said. I don't know if anyone actually planned to use it for video or not. Ignore me if they didn't.

Well yeah, most people do it the renaming way, but those files will still play in video players even without renaming (at least some video players). I personally wouldn't go any further than that, but for those people that would make use of this module for corrupting purposes it could probably be done in a many times more efficient manner, AGS file functions allowing.

I only suggested it because 40kB/s decoding means that even a short cutscene could take an hour to decode.

Seems useful for save game data, but for the people that want it for hiding video is there no more efficient way of reversibly corrupting video? When it comes to data like that just screwing up a few headers should do nicely.

(BTW, your download php serves things as text/html. Made my browser confused.)

Can't give advice on flat rentals since I still live at home (pay some rent, but it's way cheaper). However, Stupot's suggestion could be an option, if it appeals to you. It's in these coming few months they're (secretly) desperate to give people places on unfilled courses, and you can get a university placement as long as you show some enthusiasm. You're over 21 so it's purely up to the course leader if they want to allow you a place. You wouldn't get loads of loan/grant money, but enough to pay the rent and get by, and the loan terms are pretty good. And of course it gives you more options in the future.

If you weren't planning on studying anymore that's probably not too enticing, though.

My favorite script language too! I'd encourage anyone to learn it, it's handy for embedding, web scripting, simple or prototype games, all sorts of stuff. And it's not horribly designed and messy like certain script languages.

I was going to recommend Dive into Python, same as tube, it's the best way to get into it if you can already code in another language (especially an OO one).

As for if it's easy... well considering it's a real language designed for real use, and primarily used by and aimed at experienced coders it's very simple to learn. It'll take longer to learn the ins and outs than when learning BASIC or PHP, simply because it supports more coding techniques and you can do more with it. But it's very clean, consistent and you should be able to write scripts very quickly.

Radiowaves, undisputably most terrorist groups have a real grievance behind them, and that's what gets some people involved in them, but that doesn't really address what Meowster was surprised by, that some well off, and presumably intelligent doctors could justify a suicide attack. That they could convince themselves it'd be worth the cost of many other people's lives, just to make a point. When it came to palestinian suicide bombers, you could look at them and say oh, young guys, unemployed, little prospects where they live, daily reminders of why their lives are so shitty, that's obviously fertile ground... similar in Chechnya, but not so much in these cases.

It's definitely surprising, but I also know religion is a powerful force. When you have such strong ties of belief between people they can encourage each other to do all kinds of stuff that they would never consider alone. I don't know about these specific people, but a lot of british radicals are into a kind of islamic theology that says western society is in general immoral, at war with muslims, and as participants in it, we're all enemies of islam, etc. They can find any necessary theological excuses to go and be a thug and feel like an important person, if that helps them justify it to themselves, but the main thing is they're true believers. They don't need a shitty life or a logical argument for what they're doing, it's about what everyone else in their group thinks.

Why do they get into the radical beliefs in the first place? Personally I think it's mostly for the sense of close community and purpose.

It's hard to have much confidence in the human mind when you realise that intelligent people can do stuff like this. People need to realise how fallible they are, and not take their own ideas so seriously.

Ugh, LimpingFish If it's so boring to you, don't bother with it, but I find it both interesting and useful. And yes, ideas from games academia have helped me improve game ideas.

You're not the kind of person I'd expect to barge in just to take a swipe at someone else's conversation. It's useless ego stroking bollocks you don't find useful, right, I think we've had that point covered enough now.

Juul's done some interesting stuff, and although that document isn't terribly important but there were a few interesting ideas to me. Sorry to disappoint the audience so much... I wasn't aware we were performing here.

Actually they would It's a very good place to start. Surely an adult who is thinking about art and reading the question knows they aren't asking what a picture physically is, but the idea of starting from that point is to get under some assumptions and try breaking things apart for study.

The question "What is a game?" is a very common one (In fact it's the title of a few of the lectures I had early on in Games Studies, and they were some of the most useful, imo). It does seem kind of stupid if you read it in a casual sense, but I don't think it's a bad question.

Discussing what a video game is alone isn't going to get anyone making a better one... sure... but it does tend to give you some ideas for how to approach and critique your own designs, at least it does help me.

I'm not sure what parts you consider wankery, but I'd rather a bit of wankery sometimes than people avoiding thinking.

Edit: On topic: when it comes to game definitions, I found this one interesting, by Jesper Juul - Looking for a Heart of Gameness because it doesn't explicitly require an adversary. It has 6 rules, but as far as I can tell, by his definition, a running race is a game, which is where it differs from my opinion. He's quite a respected guy though, so who cares what I think!

Yufster, I think if you studied what people have written about games you'd realise quite how important it can be to you, as a designer, to get even basic ideas clear in your head.  (I must admit, I found the diagrams comical though.)

While this particular question is very simple, and not too helpful on the face of it, it's usually intended to get you thinking about identifying aspects of games are fundementally important, and it's far, far from "academic wankery", for those that are interested in designing games with some idea of what they are doing.

It's quite naive, in my opinion, to assume that we all know what makes a game, that any detailed consideration is a waste of time, because it's so intuitive and simple. It's not. It's sad to me that games aren't yet respected as an area of study, even among people that respect games.  I'm pretty sure you wouldn't criticise an illustrator for trying to identify rules of image construction. But everyone knows what a drawing is, right? What a bunch of wankers! Artwork, music, writing, programming all have deep academic roots, to their benefit, and I think game design is complicated enough to deserve the same treatment.

I don't know if academia will ultimately be a large driving force towards better games, but you already see people applying ideas from it in real productions. For me, it would be nice if we can rely less on the intuition, iteration, and imitation formulas for game design, because it's clear to me there's a hell of a lot of ineffectual game design about.

I agree with Becky, the government isn't half as scary as they wish they were, although people should get onto them about privacy a bit more. It'd be worse if British people were more scared about bombings and stuff, hopefully they'll continue to not panic. Inner cities often do have a lot of CCTV coverage, public and private... that in itself doesn't bother me but there's no denying it's harder to remain anonymous these days.

I would imagine when it comes to raising a family, accomodation would be the main difficulty. If you don't have a real income then you're not going to be able to rent a house, let alone buy one. That won't change for quite some time, there just aren't enough houses.

Schools: I've lived in average to poor areas, and the schools were fine in my opinion. But do check out results and reputation if you're worried. Inner city schools have the worst reputations, so I'd definitely do that if I lived in London.

Yeah as Becky said, people don't tend to worry about bombings or whatever. I remember being in London on 7/7/2005, and people just got on with stuff as best they could with the transport disruption. I hope if there are more bombings, people can continue as they have. On the other hand, it's a bit weird seing armed police on the streets in London/airports, and there are more "don't leave baggage unattended" type warnings on the tube than before. Anywhere else there's no change.

If you can't work due to long term illness or injury you can get disability allowance, which is quite adequate but harder than it was to claim (still, I know people that are on it and really shouldn't be). There are greater employee protection laws throughout europe, so if you're sick for some time, you'll be able to work something out. If you're searching for work then you get jobseeker's allowance, which isn't a large amount of money, but you can get help with your housing costs as well.

The price for all that is higher taxes than the US, of course. Pretty much all of Europe works this way.

I think moving abroad without a good wage to go to is quite a brave thing to do... I personally wouldn't. A lot of the support you might be able to get as a British Citizen may not be available to you for some time. If you are determined to do it for cheap, I'd suggest anywhere except London. What are you studying? If you're finishing your studies soon, and it's something that's in demand here, you might be alright...

(Edit: I basically agree with ildu, that your definition is too broad.)

A never ending question in game studies... it's a difficult one because it's so clouded by semantics. In every day usage the word refers to so many different things that any definition can be argued with. I think you're right to ask what people think of as a game, rather than what IS a game. I wouldn't personally disagree with either of your conditions, but I would add more, because it's a very broad definition that includes a lot of things I don't consider games.

A lot of people would add another set to that venn diagram, the requirement that there should be a responsive adversary (be it algorithmic, or human). A crossword is both fun and challenging, but you don't "play" a crossword, you solve it, so most people differentiate between puzzles and games in their definitions. So the question is if you consider a crossword a game. I wouldn't.

Another popular and related one is the requirement for an uncertain outcomes. That's pretty much a given if you include the adversary one, because the things you do will be reacted to, presenting you with different paths. If the progression is always forward towards a defined goal state then many people wouldn't call it a game. Is sudoku a game? Not to me, but I think this condition is redundant.

Most people would require an agreed ruleset. Your day may have been fun and challenging, but there wasn't a well defined ruleset, or a win condition, or a scoring system. I find that requirement important.

Another set people like to differentiate is competition (like a 100m sprint). Sure, it has other players, and rules, it is often fun, and generally challenging, but because the players can't influence each other, most people don't consider them games. I think this one is covered in the reacting adversary condition.

So for me it comes down to: challenging, agreed ruleset, reactively adversarial, participated in for entertainment.

The last bit can go if we want to take an extremely broad view of games and say large components of our every day lives are in fact games, but that isn't what I personally think of when I think "game".


The interesting thing is when I look at certain things like linear, story based adventure games, even though I call them games (probably because they run on a computer, they come on cds like other computer games, I play them for fun, they look like games), they just don't fit. Something like Monkey Island is a lot more like Sudoku than Chess. It proceeds through a sequence of set puzzles, solved with logic, or luck, and very little in there is a response to my actions. Should I stop calling them games?

That said, there are some parts in "adventure games" which I would consider games, and most "computer games", in any genre, are a conglomeration of puzzles, games, narrative, social aspects, artworks... it's not necessarily a good approach to look at them and say that on the whole "this is a game" or "this isn't a game". They're variety shows, and one of the things they often employ is games.

I think it's a good idea if you're not sure about posing and stuff to draw less to start with. Slapping down blocks of shadow like a painter is ok if you have a great deal of confidence, but it's easy to miss the posing to start with. Reducing the number of lines... (excuse the photoshop lines, I don't have a fully working tablet atm)



it's easier to see how uncomfortable the leg pose is. I'd suggest revisiting that before going too far.
Also, I think the eyes in the second stage are quite hidden and poorly positioned compared to where I thought they were going, based on the first. The makeup kills the face a bit. If you want to practice, I'd say steer clear of things like that, don't let yourself hide anything.

I tried to change it a little to make it a more comfortable pose, but I can't find a similar one that works.

Although it was set up by the film industry long ago, the BBFC does have strong ties to the government, and its ratings are legally binding, unlike ratings systems in some other countries. It's not quite the same as direct government censorship, but it's very similar.

I don't see how it's double standards to say that two extremely different products appealing to very different human desires have different effects, Cobra... I can't quite understand how you can draw an equivalence between them to be honest. You seem desperate to associate a game you haven't played with the absolute worst elements of human society (murder, child abuse), in order to justify a general dislike of the concept of mainstream violent entertainment, and to back up your wanting to stop others from playing it. It's that kind of tactic that causes the media furore, but ultimately these games are not causing many problems, if any.

I don't want to come across as a free speech uber alles type person, btw, I'm not. People do have to make concessions unfortunately, we live together... but getting in fits about a basically harmless game has nothing to do with protecting society, if anything it's the opposite.

I agree with LF generally, and some elements of what ProgZ said. It's sad that Rockstar can, or think they can sell a game on the elements they put into Manhunt, but in my opinion it's laughable to lock it away entirely, in this case.