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That is great to hear! I will keep you posted on what is happening. New for february is that I am about to meet a publisher to discuss matters... exciting!

EDIT: Also, a look at current file sizes indicated that estimated size of the finished game will be around 200-250 Mb. Lots of detailed graphics, music and video footage!

I found some obscure code in the on_mouse routine, referring to GetGlobalInt(100). I do not know what it was doing there, but replacing the inte check with an actual check of the mouse button made the day.

Thank you everyone for your help!

I still get a Look cursor when the GUI closes. I have even tried this with the same result:

if (button == LEFTINV)   {
   if (GetCursorMode()==2)   {
      GUIOff(7);
      SetActiveInventory(game.inv_activated);
      SetCursorMode(MODE_USEINV);
   } else {
        RunInventoryInteraction(game.inv_activated, GetCursorMode());
   }

}

Seems the SetCursorMode(MODE_USEINV); is disregarded somehow.

EDIT: Solved the issue using incredibly bad coding. Even though it works, it does not please my sense of aesthethics.

if (button == LEFTINV)   {
   if (GetCursorMode()==2)   {
      GUIOff(7);
      SetActiveInventory(game.inv_activated);
      SetNextCursorMode();
      SetNextCursorMode();
      SetNextCursorMode();
   } else {
        RunInventoryInteraction(game.inv_activated, GetCursorMode());
   }

}

In the mean time i will try to think of alternatives as a backup. Maybe you can give me some thoughts on that aswell.
The game i'm working on doesn't have a visible main character. This is for practical reasons as i can't for the life of me get a decent drawing out of my hands. The environment will be in 3D and modeling a character as detailed as its surroundings is also beyond my capabillities (and, not showing the character untill well in the 2nd half of the game is an integral part of the plot!).
That is the reason why i thought of voice acting as a way to get the player to bond with the character. Whithout it it seems to me that you get such a lifeless feeling of just clicking around in a lifeless worlds where it doesn't matter how you feel as long as you get that puzzle solved. The only 'lifesign' you get from the character would be the responses displayed in a modified statusline. I hope you understand what i'm talking about.

So, how would you go about creating a 'liking' for the character without ever seeing him on screen (save for one reflection in the mirror)?

I am also working on a game with an invisible main character (first-person view) and have asked myself the same thing. My answer was to make the exploration of the main character part of the plot and to write dialogues in a manner that made the main character visible. For example: in a scene, the main character gets the question what was the most important part of his/her life and the player gets two possible replies:

"Most important? My job. I spent eight hours at the office every day."
"Most important? I don't know. Life didn't matter to me."

I am very much into voice acting, having worked for the radio theatre in Sweden for a couple of years. But those experiences also made me respect the medium. Voice acting is not easy, nor is directing voice actors. You have to have the right actors, the right script (or rewrite it as you work), the right equipment and knowledge how to use it. You also need to know when to implement the voice acting. As addressed above, too much voices in the wrong places become tedious in an interactive application. On the other hand, voice acting and sound responses make a game more accessible to people with impaired vision. But most important: when done right, voice acting is fantastic.

The game I am working on is a sequel to a live roleplay, where we recorded about an hour of voice acting which represented inner voices and thoughts that were played to players at specific dramatic points. That was a gigantic project in itself and I am still not happy with all of the results - despite my own experience, despite the fact that we used professional actors and professional equipment.

In this game, I do not want to gender the main character as I find it more interesting if both genders can identify with it. I am however, thinking of using voice acting in the game in a limited manner... what if the player found additional clues, information, fragments, etc. in the form of cassette tapes? That would be really cool and a homage to the prequel, which featured lots of eerie radio voices out there in the static ocean...

I have a suggestions: let's write some guidelines for making an AGS game portable (Win, DOS, Linux - heck, why not even work out how to run AGS DOS games on OS X with a DOS emulator?).

Come on, let's list do's and don'ts.

Right, I have tried this in on_mouse, before the if (IsGamePaused() == 1) (with strange results):

if (button == LEFTINV)   {
   if (GetCursorMode()==2)   {
            GUIOff(7);
            }
   RunInventoryInteraction(game.inv_activated, GetCursorMode());
         }

When using the Look command, it works as usual but when using Use, I get a Talk cursor. Adding SetMouseCursor(4); after GuiOff turns it into a Use cursor, not a Use Inv cursor as I was hoping for.

Nice concept! I really like it.

To be frank, I have had recurring dreams in desolate, ruined cities... I have actually used some of that material in my own game, The Zone. http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=15526.0

Hi again.

I am back from the Trans-Reality Game Laboratory for a brief visit in my home town, Stockholm. I just wanted to pop by and say something about the intro, which is about finished. There will be a 3 minute long introductions sequence with a dirty look in glorious tainted sepia. The music is finished along with most of the graphics, which combines still images with live footage. Can't wait to post a preview as soon as it is done.

Nice suggestion. However, this would require lots of changes in numerous room scripts using rep_exec, right?

I am working on a custom inventory and have run into some diffculties. I want the inventory to be modal (I have some timed events that I do not want to happen when the inventory is displayed as the player is occupied with that) and I want to have a lucas-arts descriptive tag line in that window.

Question one is: how do I prevent timed events from occuring while being able to update a tag line with repeatedly_execute?

I want the following commands to be available: Look, Select, Combine and Close. No problem with Look and Combine (Left click: Set cursor mode). However, when clicking the inventory after choosing Select, I want the game to close the inventory window and display a Use inv cursor with the clicked item. Problem is, when having a modal window, on_mouse is disabled and interface_click does not seem to recognise LEFTINV. I'm stuck.

Question two is: how do I do this without having a non-modal dialog with the game running in the background?

I agree with this suggestion. I am working on a first-person game where the main character's lines aren't displayed on screen after being clicked and have had some problems with the game engine automatically selecting a line that the player never sees.

If blank options are a workaround, that would be great!

That fixed it! Thank you. I thought the global script was globally accessible.

I have implemented the sgs_load(); function and call it from a GUI, where it functions without problems. However, when I call the function from a hotspot (in the main menu), I get a "Undefined token" error.

What could be wrong?

Found a neat thing called "Download Center Lite".

You can use the database link on your homepage as well, so instead of http://www.davelgil.com/ags/toak.zip just use http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=462 for the same effect (using this month's Pick of the Month as an example).

That is also nice, but I need this script for other downloads as well, such as music tracks.

The AGS homepage does that, doesn't it?
Just upload the game somewhere, enter it in the AGS games database and every download via the database link gets counted.

Nice. But I'd like to have it on my own web page as well.

I'd like to put my game on the web for downloading, but I'd like to have a script (PHP, preferably) that keeps track of how many times the game has been downloaded and display it. How do you do that?

Is there an effective method to proof-read all the text in a game?

I have decided to postpone the release of the Zone for a while. This is for a number of reasons. First and most important is that I have expanded the original storyline, which makes production take longer. Also, I have gotten a full-time job as a game designer at a research studio, as it happens. I will have to leave Stockholm for a month and work in the medival city of Visby at Gotland. During this period, I will probably have little time to work on my own projects. This does not mean that the project will be abandoned, just that I'll wait with a release until the stars are right.

Meanwhile, I'll give you some new goodies and news tidbits. I have introduced a new character: the psychogeographer. Those of you who know about the situationists will know what this guy is up to.

I have also decided that the ending of the game will something that you never have seen before in an adventure game. I am reluctant to reveal too many details that would spoil it, but I can say that there will be an 'out-of-game experience' that will take, you, the player on a trip that leaves the screen and is a true implementation of first-person gaming. The ending sequence will include a relatively unknown form of psychoactive sound programming to achieve this effect. I hope you will enjoy it.

Three new tracks have been released: Dreaming in colour (music for the Oneironaut plot), The Force majeure Theme (title music) and For Tzara (music for the ruin exploration sequence). Visit the game web site to download these tracks.

http://interactingarts.org/thezone/downloads.html

Indeed I am - it is a remix of 'Alina' by Arwo Pärt. You are the first person to recognise it, actually.