Messages

P.S. I have my own question I'd like to ask.  

When editing GUIs you can add a GUI label and replace the name with @SCORE@ to display the score, but what about OTHER VARIABLES?  How can I display a variable OTHER THAN the game's default score in a gui label?

In the repeatedly execute function, put:

Code: ags

myLabel.Text = String.Format("%d", myScore);

While general_knox method will work as expected, it can be problematic since it will prevent other stuff from happening while the mouse button is pressed (animations etc).
In order to solve that, we need to remove the "while" from the repeatedly_execute, so that only one check will run for each game loop.

Something like this (didn't test it, though):

Code: ags

int iLMclick; //put that at the top of your global script

        //Put this in your rep_exec:
         overGuiControl = GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y);
         if (mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseLeft) && overGuiControl == yourButtonName)
         {              
            iLMclick++;
         }
         else
         {
            iLMclick = 0;
         }
         textboxName.Text = String.Format("%d", iLMclick);
                       

[Call me George]

I liked all of the entries.
Some of my thoughts:

Call me George- The quiz was fun, looking forwards to the rest of the game, hoping for the "Southparkian" vibe you mentioned earlier.

Abduction- Really liked the graphics, and the use of space in the puzzles. Gave me that "Goblins" feel with the no-text responses and jumping between areas in the same room. The puzzles were mostly logical, but I didn't understand the logic behind the people needs.

Spoiler

-Why do the princess need three people to go to the castle?
-Why do this guy needs a medallion, this guy needs a diamond and so on...

[close]

Next To Evil- The interesting backstory, the mysterious cloaked figure, the expressional portraits and the music set a really good atmosphere to the game and immediately had me immersed. The use of the "splitting" mechanism was also nice (and innovative), although it made the puzzles really easy because all the puzzles relied on that ability.

My vote goes to

Spoiler

Next To Evil

[close]

Jesus, that thing is insane

You know what else is insane?
The amount of money this guy made with just one day of sales!  :o :o

I'm missing an "Export" button for the audio files (in the new version, this obviously wasn't a problem in the old version).
As a workaround I took the files from the AudioCache folder, but I don't think that I can count on it for the long run.

Ok, here's what comes up for me (most of them were already mentioned, but oh well):

Fight club,
American beauty,
Memento,
The usual suspects,
Clockwork orange,
The princess bride,
Airplane,
The pink panther,
Dogma,
All of Will Ferrell movies,
Inception (just seen it the other day, brilliant!),
Good morning Vietnam,
Snatch,
and so many more (I see too many films)

I don't see in this code the segment that plays the mouseUp sound.
Did you link it in the designer somehow or is it in code?
If you linked it in the designer, then consider scripting it manually, then you will be able to control when to play the sound and when not to.

When it's in code, you can use a boolean to tell whether to play the sound. In the code you published, when showing the error message, put the boolean to false if the user pressed the mouse (and not used the escape key).
In the code that plays the sound, if the boolean is false then don't set the sound and set the boolean to true so that it will play the sound on the next time. It's a bit messy, but should work.

If you play, and then restart your computer and play a new game, do you need your achievements to stay?

If you don't, then your way should work fine (with the "manual" restart).

If you do, then you should save your acheivements to a file, and load them manually each time you start a game. You can search the manual for file handling functions, or use a module, there are a few here that handle files...

Exciting times are ahead...

And yes, LPR will be the main character.

Holy shit, that's not good at all! 
I've actually started working on a small OSD title of my own with LPR being the main character (OSD: A Ray of hope).
I hope it would not contradict yours...
But I guess in the worst case scenario, Ray too will split into two different universes.

You're a genious, OneDollar!
That was it, thanks.  
I wonder if AGS should do the same thing that media player does...

Cute game, and I enjoyed the additions made from the original.
Gotta love that cat puzzle...
Nice looking portraits as well, only the little girl actually looked to me like a full grown woman.

And Kiwi, the answer is:

Spoiler

Zero.

[close]

That's strange. It is normal MIDI tunes. Did you try changing the settings in the setup?

Yep, tried and still it didn't work. I also played some random midi files to make sure I can hear them, and I can.
Maybe you used some rare instruments that my midi mapper didn't like, that's the problem with midi, you can never know for sure...

Thanks for the reply, I'll have to look into it when I've got the time...

Trippin'!  
It was completely worth the replay, cool extra puzzles & backstory (I had to resort to the Hints and tips to work out the bulbs puzzle).
I was hoping for the fish to live, though I guess it was not meant to be. At least he got the respect he deserved now, though.
The music was equally brilliant..

Fun little game, and a really nice take on the original theme.  
Loved the graphics and the concept.
I didn't hear any music though, only sfx.  

I'm not even sure if I would add a hotspot to that left spear leaning against the entrance since the whole shack is filled with swords, helmets, shields and such. And I'm thinking that adding a hotspot just to have the character say he isn't going to pick up the spear will confuse some players into thinking they actually need it.

What do you guys think?

Hmmm, two comments about the spear:
1. When playing, I might look at the picture and think that the spear is important. If there was no hotspot to it (and largely due to traumas from past games) I might think that I am simply missing the pixel and run my mouse over it again and again and get frustrated (though on second thought, possibly not relevant to your game due to the Jolly Rover system).
2. If there is some puzzle in the game which can be solved using a spear, and I don't have a hotspot on it to explain why I can't take it, I would get very frustrated...

This looks pretty cool, I will probably add this to AGS Footballer.
Too bad I have neither joystick nor a gamepad, so no way to test this...

<Noobish question>
I'm guessing there's no way to plug in your PS2/Wii controllers to the computer and use them as gamepads, right?
</Noobish question>

If you're dealing with a comedy, then every hotspot is a potential joke, so the more the merrier (until you run out of jokes).
If not, then I agree with what been said about a laboratory having much more hotspot then a corridor, but I find 6-10 hotspots a reasonable average.
Another point of consideration is who is your target audience, the more casual gamers you want, the less hotspots you should put...

I'd say a combination of b, c & missing option d: "Depending on the choices the player makes".

Basically I will select a basic scenario randomly at start (Murderer + Motives + Alibis etc), and for each basic scenario there could be several branches according to the choices and/or the order of the things the player makes. Those branches would only affect the choices the other characters make, and would not change the base story.
For example, if you talk with the murderer and chooses to tell him that an eye witness said something to you, the murderer might decide to kill the eye witness because of that...