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For compatability reasons, I have decided to use FLIC files for animations and videos. However, they inflate the EXE file size very much and it makes me nervous because I figure it could cause memory problems if it's too large (please correct me if I'm wrong). Is a 80 meg exe a problem? And is there a way to be able to play flic files without having to bundle them into the exe? Or can I use another video format and still be compatible with Linux and DOS?

Thanks for the input. However, the workaround would cause very much work for this minor problem, so I guess I'll just have to wait for a possible AGS update with this feature.

Is it possible to have background animations running while having the player choose between dialog options?

Right on! Thank you. And sorry for posting in the wrong forum.

I have two questions:

1. Does anyone know a good installation program? I would like to distribute the game as a single compressed file, that can be uninstalled using the Control panel. I'd prefer a gratis tool.

2. Is there an efficient way to distribute patches for the game without having to redistribute the full game again. I am thinking along the lines of a utility that compares old files vs. new files and makes a record of changes, then you allow the utility to change the installed game files. Or do every file of the distribution (game.001, game.002 ...) change if I make a minor bug fix?

Another idea is to make another file that stores this information, when saving a game, such as a small .txt file.

Looks very nice!  :o

EDIT: As a treat, I'll give the team a recursive Hasselhoff:

I'd recommend XVid instead of DivX, because it is open source. (Also, you don't have to distribute spyware with your game.)

I actually use FLC for all video sequences in my game (so far: 6), since the colour depth has less importance in moving pictures than in still images. It depends, of course on how the pictures look. A setting sun wouldn't do good in 256 colours.

I suggest a game option, "Compress compiled data" to reduce the size of compiled games. They get very large quickly in high-resolution projects... You could compress the distibution, of course, but it does not solve the problem of the big executable.

Perhaps compression could be optional, as a game setting when compiling.

I am not counting on making ends meet in this case. I usually work in the art field, where payment is scarce at best and consider this project to be just the same. I am hoping that the game will get interest because it is very different from games I have seen so far.

The gameplay is not about solving problems in order to progress in the story; rather there is just progression and exploration of the story. This will probably not appeal to hardcore adventure game fans that like "use ball on duck" storytelling, but rather to people who like dreamy and gloomy science-fiction in the tradition of Tarkovskij, Strugastskij and Lem.

This sort of thing can never compete with big commercial projects, but on the other hand: big commercial projects can never compete with the Zone either.

Looks interesting!

I agree. The computer aesthetic of simulating reality is one possible mode of computer games, but certainly not the only one or a better one. It all depends on what you are trying to do.

I find the notion of the 'dead' spot a bit self-contradictive, since the passage of time or feeling of space it provides could be very much a living part of the story at hand.

Some sort of miracle has happened: a publisher is actually interested in releasing my game. However, I am curious to know... has any other AGS games been published or commercially distributed? I know Dave Gilbert has mentioned a (completed) remake of the excellent game Bestowers of Eternity.

(I do not know if "commercial" is the right term for it in my case really, since the hourly wage in this business equals something like â,¬1 an hour. Ah, well. It was fun.)

Not to mention the indispensible tool SubEthaEdit.

Had a meeting yesterday with a publisher and it seems we have a deal. There are still some details to work out. If everything works according to plan, there will be a release in late September.

I am kind of astonished by this, really. Seems like there is a market for esoteric interactive stories after all. Wow.

EDIT: I lost a tape with footage for the intro and will have to redo some stuff. Not a disaster, but still annoying... I would be nice to be able to make a trailer out of it.

The Domino's office midi on here might help you

http://www.ninth-world.com/midis.php

Oh, please write some original music. Or at least sample some jazz from the thirties that have lost its copyright. I can't stand those midi-saxophones!

Since I am a kid of the post-modern hip-hop generation, I have no problem with sampling - as long as it is done right. You have to make something entirely new out of the old. For example, when I make music I often sample without permission. But I sample discreetly, like stealing a drum hit or one second of violin beauty. Then I start to work on the material and make something new out of it.

I remember one occasion when a friend listened to a track that I'd made and commented that it was cheap of me to rip an entire bass loop and use it. Then I told him that I had indeed sampled, but the original sample was a drum loop. This was turned beyond recognition into something new.

Sampling is not the same thing as ripping - that is stealing something and claiming it to be your own. That's my five cents.

Whoa! Really nice, smooth graphics. Looks interesting!

I really like the concept of a non-visual game, though I think you should work a bit on the graphics. Perhaps increase the resolution a bit (I have heard that SVGA compatability is pretty common nowadays). It will none the less be exciting to see what you will make of this. The concept reminds me of a game called Terraformers, which is a 3D game developed for people with visual disabilities. (The only game that I have played that featured the "Turn graphics off" option.)