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Messages - straydogstrut

#121
A nice list of inspiring media, thanks for sharing ;D  I see a lot of my favourites here, except horror films as i'm a big feardie! :'(

I would've commented on your blog but for some reason Blogger seems determined to get me to make a new blog when signing in with my Google account (I closed my Blogger blog when I moved to Wordpress) and there wasn't a name/url option..

I've *shock* *horror* not found time to seriously play any of the BakeSale games yet but will be sure to return with feedback for you when I do. Entrapment was a big highlight of AdventureX for me :)
#122
Nice resources folks, thanks!

I've been working with one's we used at uni (which seem to borrow elements from some of these) but it felt a bit 'by the numbers' and stale so i've been looking for inspiration on this kind of thing.

I really like the Grim Fandango one for puzzles and the walkthrough style of the Al Lowe ones, particularly Torin's Passage. I do prefer more visual indicators though and I find some of them a bit wordy - I like to see an overview of who appears where/what items are found in which areas rather than long columns of text - so i'm complementing these with flowcharts, mindmaps and story/inventory matrices.

Good stuff!
#123
'TurboTabby' haha ;D

Wow, I didn't expect a trophy, I really enjoyed just taking part!

Congrats to everyone involved, they were really good entries :)
#124
Wow, this looks fantastic!

I'll admit, I glanced at this when it first came up in Recent Posts the other day and didn't really get it, but looking at your screenshots now I can immediately understand this. I haven't worked on much so I haven't had to cope with lots of dialogue like other people around here, but I can really see the benefit of a tool like this. I know I would definitely use it. What a wonderful piece of work, thank you :)
#125
Critics' Lounge / Re: New GrimQuest website
Mon 19/03/2012 07:24:52
Good morning, looking really good I have to say! I really like your colour choices and the site behaves a lot better on my iPod Touch ;)

Only thing I would point out is that the links open in new windows taking me away from the main site. I would suggest having them open in the same window and keeping a consistent navigation so that I can move to other parts of the site. You don't want to give people any reason to leave your site. If you want the images to pop up like that there are lightbox plugins you can get to do that.

I'm not sure how this would work with the new layout, but I haven't had my coffee yet so i'm still half asleep :-\
#126
Critics' Lounge / Re: New GrimQuest website
Sat 17/03/2012 23:34:24
Quote from: GrimReapYou on Sat 17/03/2012 17:24:45
Let me know what you think now, It's updated.

A big improvement i'd say, well done! :)

I'm personally not a fan of those slideshow thingamyjigs but don't let me discourage you - go with it, it looks pretty neat. The only thing I do notice is the last tab, community, doesn't obscure the previous image like the others do. Only the tab slides over and then the background pops into view, if that makes sense? I don't know if you can do anything about that though.

I'd definitely agree with what Eric and Ghost have suggested. Definitely have a brainstorm and a scribble about the direction you want to take the site in, and give some info about the original game.

Looking good, keep it up!
#127
Critics' Lounge / Re: New GrimQuest website
Sat 17/03/2012 15:49:36
Hi,

Just a few thoughts..

The GrimQuest page

1) I find the GrimQuest page itself very harsh on the eyes. I'm not sure if you've changed it as this is the first time i've looked at it but the colours really clash. I appreciate that you're trying to keep a similar palette to the game (I think) but I would suggest making it more subtle. There are tools and sites to help you come up with matching colours schemes, Adobe Kuler is one of them.

2) The background graphic doesn't look great when it's tiled like that. It makes the text very difficult to read. Perhaps try making it more subtle or dropping it in favour of a solid colour with a little bit of texture.

3) The navigation menu does it's job but could be made a lot prettier. If you sort out the colour scheme this will help and I would suggest giving the links different colours than the blue default for links that it has right now. Remember to give it colours for normal, hover and visited.

3) It's minor, but I would change the page title so that the tab shows something like 'GrimQuest remake' rather than GQ.zip

4) I would suggest centering your images or getting them to sit side by side. At the moment they're all over the place (but see my other suggestion below)

5) I don't think you're using the space very well at the moment. The images are good but I have to scroll to see all of them and one of the download links is right down at the bottom of the page. If you want to make this page and the other sites more unified, I would suggest going the more common approach of having a horizontal navigation that had links for:


  • Home (or similar) - the main page of the site that tells you what it's all about. What you have right now, but a bit cleaner with less scrolling. There's no link to this at the moment so when I visit any of the other pages i'm sent to another site with no way to get back except by hitting the back button. Having a unified navigation across all pages (which the exception of the forums naturally) would make me feel like i'm on the same domain and I can easily get back to the main page.

  • Features - here you could single out those features that make this remake fantastic. You're already doing that with the subtitles under the images but they don't really stand out at the moment. This would be the page for that.

  • Blog - the current blog but with a similar scheme to the main page so it feels like you're on the same site, or at least the same domain. This could even be the main page of the site, and probably should so people get the latest updates. Home could be called About instead.

  • Forums - again, in the main navigation and prominently displayed. The style of GamersPlanet is completely different, but people will expect this as most forum software has its own stlying (our own AGS site doesn't look exactly the same as the forums here for example)

  • Live Chat

  • Download - this can either be in the menu or a big lovely button somewhere on the page. Just make it obvious and make me feel 'I need to click that!' ;)

The blog

1) Your stylesheet seems to be missing so I can't see what you've gone for. It seems to be looking for /themes/black-glass/style.css on your local machine rather than the server.

2) Excuse my ignorance but I know nothing about GamersPlanet. I'm assuming it's one of your sites? I only mention it because the branding on the blog is GamersPlanet, whereas the GrimsQuest page is all about that. I would suggest deciding what the blog is for - is it about the game itself as I was expecting or about GamersPlanet? - and keep consistent branding. By all means, incorporate the GamersPlanet branding into the GrimsQuest site if you want to make it clear that the remake falls under that brand.

3) You can set up wordpress so that the homepage is gamersplanet.tk (or grimsquest.tk) even if the wordpress files are stored at http://gamersplanet.tk/gamepress/wordpress/ which will make your urls look a lot nicer. If this is all falling under the same branding I would expect to see pages like gamersplanet.tk/grimsquest and gamersplanet.tk/forums. You could keep the grimsquest domain name but have it redirect to your grimsquest site at gamersplanet.tk/grimsquest or vice-versa.

These are just my thoughts, but i'm no web-kung-fu-expert. It's up to you to decide what to do with your site. It's good that you're using Wordpress though as you have a lot of room for customisation.
#128
A very well thought-out, sensible plan in my humble opinion. This is an overview and there will be lots of nitty gritty details to consider, but I think the future of AGS is in safe hands if an approach like this can be taken.

I don't fall into the developer camp. I'm just one of those pesky community users that expects the world (and 'runs AGS on a separate partition' until the day it gets ported to Mac ;) ) That said, I hope all the community-involvement you've suggested does happen because that's definitely an area i'd want to be involved in: submitting bug reports, voting on features, proof reading the wiki etc. I use other forums for things like web and iOS development and there's big community involvement with documentation, bug reporting, tutorials, plugins etc. I know we have much of that but a cohesive plan for the new site can only be a good thing in my opinion.

Thank you for writing this document Wyz
#129
Silly me, I had plans for lots of lovely sprites but alas my weary hands could only craft one of them. I should point out that I don't who the character in the avatar is so I made this up ;D

#130
The Rumpus Room / Re: Icey games' thread
Tue 13/03/2012 17:47:16
Really good sketches Icey, I hope those details do make it into the game. I especially like Jacob with his [what looks like] dreadlocks. I hope to see a colour version :)
#131
The Rumpus Room / Re: ❄ICEYGAMES Thread❄
Mon 12/03/2012 23:45:15
What LimpingFish said. Please calm down everyone. I get that there has been some hostility over Icey's suggestion of selling the game and whatnot but that seems to have been laid to rest now. Everyone, Icey included, needs to take a breather and cut out the vitriol. This constant back and forth isn't helping anyone. I hate seeing that all these threads seem to go the same way :(

On topic - I think, I guess this isn't a GiP thread or a Critics Lounge thread but not sure if conversation will remain here? - the game is looking good in the videos Icey. There were quite a few grammar/spelling mistakes in the dialogue but nothing that beta testing later won't fix. I'd be happy to do some proof reading for you. The special effects look really good. I'm not big on rpgs so I don't know how much of what we can see is standard of rpgs or just Final Fantasy but it's looking good in my opinion.

I hope you follow previous advice and continue with this with your own characters as a proof of concept released within the AGS community.
#132
AGS Games in Production / Re: Shadow Kingdom
Sun 11/03/2012 23:25:40
Wonderful looking game, loved the demo :)

Re the shadows: Without getting too off topic, i'd like to draw attention to the rotting corpse of one of Monkey's old answers here. That was about making a blacklight effect showing an alternate background through a shape such as the light from a lantern. With only a minor tweak to his brain dump, it works flawlessly for me - he is that good ;)

I wonder if something similar could be adapted to display a character like your shadow instead? This is beyond me though and you'd be best to start a new topic in Beginner's Technical Questions about this..

Back on topic: Give me a shout if you need any help with proof reading your English translations. Not that I can read Spanish very well, as I only know a little, but if I get the gist of it I could try to help you with the English equivalent.

Looking forward to seeing where you go with this.
#133
I'm in favour of the Broken Sword approach myself with the 'one-click does everything in context' approach so i'm pleased to see you mentioned it. I love those animated cursors :) You could also right-click to do a Look At command and have George comment on things if I recall correctly. I like the simple 1-2 cursor system rather than having to cycle through numerous cursors.

Quote from: Narushima on Sat 10/03/2012 20:11:35
What about using labels "walk" "use" "talk" as cursors ? They may seem ugly at first but by playing you very soon abstract them into what they stand for, which is what always ends up happening with any good cursor.

I think this is a bad idea in terms of usability. The benefit of an icon is you can come up with a universally recognisable symbol - hence the eye, mouth, footprint and hand we've all see before - which is more accessible to people whose first language is different from the game author's, deaf gamers etc. Okay, given that they would mostly be one-word verbs, that's not such an obstacle, I admit, but then you'd also have to consider how that verb might change depending on the situation, and also translations for other languages. Not saying words shouldn't be used at all, but I think visual metaphors bring much more life to the game. It's much more tactile.

In terms of designing a cursor, i'd definitely make it suit the rest of the style of the game. I think this can only enhance the experience. The Broken Sword cursors aren't a great example of this, admittedly, although the hand cursors remind me of those old-fashioned entrance signs you see in bars. They do use a lot of hand cursors, but the animations really help to differentiate them. I think Syberia used a similar context sensitive system. Its cursors weren't very detailed but they were in a sort of cog style which suited the clockwork theme of the game.
#134
Quote from: WHAM on Fri 09/03/2012 12:43:55
Mumbling...
So if all three players are trapped in separate rooms, which have an array of controls for each, some of which control a larger contraption, the repairing of which is the primary goal of the game, while others have specific functions inside different rooms or even across all rooms, so that players could help or accidentally hinder and harm one another. Players could communicate via a single text-based chat console located in each room, as well as sound ques that are audible to all rooms, so that if player A causes player B to come into danger, player B can send out a game-wide distress signal to get attention of other players...

Hmmmmm...

+1 Get to work! :D

On a serious note, that's the sort of approach that comes to my mind when people mention multiplayer adventures. I like the 'actions in your room affecting your teammates' idea. There could be a lot of [sadistic] fun with that.

If the player characters were together on screen, the dynamic would be different. I think there could be some interesting two-player puzzles if it was well thought-out. Maybe each character has a different range of skills (physical, powers etc) like PuzzleBots - PuzzleBots MP ;) Or it could just be contraptions that need to be worked together - Oddworld style. You'd also have to consider what happens when one player wants to leave the room. This could be very interesting if they were allowed to do so at will: the players could go off exploring on their own - maybe they each have their own path with puzzles - and return to a hub or hub points where the story naturally leads them to cross paths. Inventory items could be share, either all the time, or only when they meet up. Perhaps that in itself could be a puzzle: how to share inventory items when they're seperated by [that thing that seperates them]

I'd like to see a multiplayer adventure game, it could be very interesting, but I think the potentially large scope involved is the main factor keeping such projects from getting off the ground. I like that adventure games are already social, it's very easy for people watching over your shoulder to get involved and offer suggestions, but how well that would translate to playing together i'm not sure. What happens when you have no-one to play with? :'(
#135
The Rumpus Room / Re: The bump topic!
Wed 07/03/2012 21:18:47
Quote from: Tabata on Wed 07/03/2012 20:17:00
                               
This thread makes me really nostalgic because
(I confess) back in the days of "Lady Bump" I did the bump, too.

Haha, fantastic! ;D My parents always dance the bump to Nutbush City Limits by Ike and Tina Turner, and they're way better than those two in your video, trust me ;)
#136
@Monsieur OUXX

Bizarre! I use Chrome myself but I fiddled around with Firefox 3.6 on my Mac and I didn't see this behaviour. A quick Google has suggested it could be due to:


Sorry I can't be more help.
#137
Welcome folks, look forward to seeing your wonderful creations :)
#138
Quote from: Ponch on Sun 04/03/2012 17:32:28
Dave and WHAM (and Dualnames) hogged all the blow. It was terrible! Like the last days of Rome or something. That's why we forgot to take down the website and the bake sale went on for a couple of days too many.

And in all the tussle, the server got knocked over, which is why the forums were down for a few days.

It's all coming to light now..what a sorry lot you are! I expect to see a full exposé covering all the seedy details in AGS Today ;)
#139
EDIT: Ryan's last post has explained it the same as me and much more concisely..oh well!

Goodness this thread has gotten even more out of control since I started replying, and here I was hoping to calm things down :(

Grim, Khris is trying to help you.

His code does the same as your code in fewer lines. However, I realise that you cannot at the moment see that. Please just say so and ask for further clarification politely instead of making insults at everyone else's intelligence. I'm sorry but if you behave like that, you can only expect negativity in return.

If Khris was wrong i'm sure he would say so, however in this case he isn't. This is not a competition. It is not about who is cleverer than who. You asked for help and Khris gave it. The least you could do is entertain the idea that he might be right, even if you do not believe so.

Quote from: GrimReapYou on Thu 01/03/2012 19:07:00
Yea, i know it subtracts a random +1 but as khris stated
Every line does the same exact thing which it doesn't.
and being that its random it could be +1 +4 +3 +2
in that order still giving it a random effect.

It seems you do see the pattern in your code by what you've said there but for clarity i'll continue with another iteration of the explanation:

In pseudocode your code does the following:
Set dmg to a random number from 0 up to and including 5

If dmg is zero take away one from monsterz
Otherwise, if dmg is one take away two from monsterz
Otherwise, if dmg istwo take away three from monsterz
Otherwise, if dmg is three take away four from monsterz
Otherwise, if dmg is four take away five from monsterz
Otherwise, if dmg is five take away size from monsterz

Khris' code is saying:
Set dmg to a random number from 0 up to and including 5

take away dmg plus 1 from monsterz

So where dmg is zero we can see that this will minus 1 from monsterz: the value of dmg (0) plus 1
If dmg is one, it will minus 2 from monsterz: the value of dmg (1) plus 1
If dmg is two it will minus 3 from monterz: the value of dmg (2) plus 1
and so on..

Does that make sense? Do you see that that is producing the same result as your code.

Realise that no-one is saying dmg is the same as monsterz but that the number you want to subtract is always one more than the value of dmg. The order makes no difference. That is the pattern that Khris' code reproduces. If this wasn't the case, if the value subtracted wasn't constantly one more than the value of dmg, then yes, this particular solution wouldn't fit.

Regarding the presentation of your code. No-one is telling you to code a certain way, only suggesting that taking care to format your code on the forum will make it easier for others to read and help you. You might find it easy to find the right } by skimming down the left hand side but not everyone does which is why, for example, indentation helps. Since you stated you don't want to conform to everyone else's approach, why should you expect them to conform to yours? Learn to consider your audience.

Before this thread gets any more out of control I would just ask you to be polite and respectful to your fellow AGSers. You may not agree with them, you don't even have to listen to their advice - by all means, do your own thing - but please show consideration for them as human beings. You wouldn't start insulting someone who gave you directions to the Post Office just because it was different to what you expected, so why behave like that here? People are willing to help you if you give them the chance.

I hope that the above explanation has made things clearer. If you don't follow, please let me know. It's up to you which method you as both produce the same result. You do not have to implement the newer code, but you were looking for more efficient ways to deal with random numbers which is what the above achieves.
#140
Last day of the bundle methinks..i've grabbed mine*

Weeeeeee! :D




*Obviously all images remain copyright of their respective owners, i'm just sharing the Bake Sale love ;) No cows were harmed in the making of this product..
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