Messages

With regard to locking controls, how do people think they should behave when part of a group?

If one member of a group is locked should the whole group be locked while that locked control is part of it?

No, I don't think that would be useful. The group should move normally with the exception of the locked controls (as I'm guessing that the locked control was selected by accident and thus should be treated as if it wasn't selected at all).

Also would people find the ability to group controls together permanently useful? So that when you select one member of a group the whole group is selected.

Yes, I would find that feature to be very useful.

Another related feature I would find useful (if you're up to it, no pressure), is to be able to have a rectangular selection that would select all the controls inside it (like in visual studio designer).

Works fine for me, also on an XP.
I tested all the features and it works very well.

I tried to do some QA, the only bug I found was this:

If you lock a control, select it in a group and do an alignment or distribution, the control will move...

Oh noes, you got me all wrong!
Isn't the whole point in OSD is bad game design?
Well, that makes it a good game design.
My game is on the way, and if you thought you've seen some bad/good game design, then prepare to get your funky socks knocked off, since this will have some of the worst/best game design eva!

Awesomeness all around!
I really loved the walkcycle for LPR, you definitely nailed the character (if you know what I mean)!
I see that you liked it too, seeing that every puzzle required walking to the other side of the street   

Well, it was a fun experience while it lasted, and I like it when people experiment.
However, I gave up after I moved the colors around in the room for a few minutes and nothing happened, I got 4 colors and didn't understand how, and as there were no clues I got annoyed and stopped. Maybe you  should have a timer in thouse puzzles and give clues if you see that the player is stuck...

We had a similar problem at work.
A memberwise clone would work in most cases, but if one of GUIControl's children has non-value members, then they will not be cloned.

I would write:

Code: ags

public object Clone()
{
    Object clone = this.MemberwiseClone();
    NonValueClone(clone);
    return clone;
}

//Override this method to add specific non value members to the clone
protected virtual void NonValueClone(Object clone)
{}

And then go over all of the children, and if one of them has a non value member, override the method:

Code: ags

class MyGui : GuiControl
{
   private MySpecialData _mySpecialData;

   override void NonValueClone(object clone)
   {
        //Calling base, since maybe in the future GuiControl will have non value members of 
        //its own
        base.NonValueClone(clone);

        //Unfortunately, I didn't see a way to avoid casting here
        MyGui myClone = clone as MyGui;

        if (myClone != null)
        {
            myClone._mySpecialData = _mySpecialData.Clone();
        }
   }
}

Maybe even NonValueClone should be made abstract, so that every new control that's added will force the developer to think about the non value clone, and possibly avoid future bugs...

That's great new CJ, thank you 

One question though:
Don't you want to set up some source control ASAP (where only you have permissions to rebase to the main trunk, and everybody else can create their branches and play around with it)?
If you don't, and different people start posting here some cool changes you want to integrate, then at least from my experience merging it together manually will be a time consuming job, maybe even more time consuming than coding...

Some great great stuff there (and Calin, you're a machine!)

I haven't looked at the source code yet, so I don't know what's doable, but here are the things I intend to tackle (some are easier than others):

* Context menu for the loops in the view editor, with: copy, cut, paste, flip all, create from folder.
* Docking abilities to the forms (visual studio style) and being able to have more than one form open at a time.
* Enhancing the text editor with: Find all references, find/replace all in all projects/open documents.
* Having writable custom properties (not too optimistic about that one, though)
* Be able to name (x,y) locations in the room editor and use them in-game.

Perhaps the particle engine module could be of assistance to you.
Look at the demo, one of the samples is of particles surrounding the mouse, and I think you would be able to tweak it (with some trial and error) to do what you want.

This was definitely a cool game, great atmosphere, graphics and animations, and of course the cyberspace was awesome, supplied you with some nifty ideas for the puzzles.
The story shows promise and the world also seems interesting.
Some issues I did have (all of them I believe are related to the lack of testing):

Spoiler

- It seems you have a tendency to guess the order in which the user does stuff, which is not necessarily true. For instance, I looked at the drawers from right to left, and not from left to right, so the comments made less sense. Also, I first try to 'use' the disaster area before looking at it, and again the comments made less sense.
- There is something weird with the food machine (and I downloaded the version today). It wasn't at all clear about putting the metal objects in there, partly because it said the same thing whether you put it or not, also because sometimes it let you put the plastic plate, sometimes it didn't, sometimes it said it didn't allow you to put it in there although if you press the button it put the tray out anyway. It's hard to explain because I played with it a lot, but I'm pretty sure there's a bug in there...
- After I got the virus from the mail and put it in the memory card, I could go and read the mail again and the virus would appear again.
- Some missing interactions (using inventory on the grate & door).
- Sound effects would have added a lot IMO.

[close]

Overall great job, I'm also one of those looking forward to the next one.

Mccarthy Chronicles.

None of those sound like Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.

Actually, if I remeber correctly, Callahan did have a big puzzle based on creating a chocolate bar, and was divided into mini games happening in different places, so it could be referencing it, obviously with a lot of mistakes.
Don't forget that kids tend to experience games differently, where their imagination does a lot of the work for them...

It's sounds to me like the reasonable tradeoff, and if you do indeed open source the editor, I probably will attempt to dedicate some time and support further development of it.

Congrats Joel!

And as for the "to show votes or not to show votes" issue, I'm for showing the votes. I feel that knowing is better than not knowing (even if I received 0 votes).
In fact, it will even give me more motivation to enter the competition.

Ooh, I get really good vibes from these screenshots (maybe with the one exception of that sheltering under the Cafe & Restaurant which looks out of perspective to me).

Also, appropriate violence is always a good thing!

Oh, of course, I forgot hint 5  

Spoiler

The sock is in the hall (the room next to the lab), in Silly's room (the second from the left), just open the door to see it.

[close]

[Ceremony]

Ceremony

Last year's ceremony was held on IRC. In 2007 and 2008 SSH made a downloadable game ceremony. I'm calling for a plain vote here: state which one you prefer in this thread, I will organize things accordingly.

How about combining the two?
If we can use Dualnames game with a full blown server, and create a room especially for the comp with a podium & stage and everybody would be able to login, I think that could be awesome!

I liked Frodo's hint system, so I'll follow down the same route:

Hint1

Spoiler

Who convinced Eve to eat the apple in the bible?

[close]

Hint2

Spoiler

It was the snake. So Silly needs to disguise himself as a snake.

[close]

Hint3

Spoiler

Putting a sock on Silly's hand will kinda look like a snake, maybe that will help...

[close]

Hint4

Spoiler

Hmmm, they are still not convinced because the sock doesn't have a face on it...
Magic markers for the rescue!

[close]

And also you should have written if (var1 == 0) and not if (var1 = 0).

The new audio system is really cool!
However, I didn't find any way to export the audio files.
Is there such a way?
As a workaround I copied the files directly from the AudioCache folder, but I don't think that I can rely on that...