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31

Game design / Re:22 seconds...

« on: March 25, 2003, 08:33:34 PM »

Oooh, it's cool!

What did you use?

The first part seems like those dramatic films where there's a helicopter trying to get people out of a tall building or something... drama, triumph.

The second part is more like a conversation with an npc or something... but just an introduction. Someone or something specific comes into the scene. Maybe the whole thing is a royal or vip intro?

32

Feature requests, suggestions / Re:Looping rooms

« on: March 25, 2003, 07:01:14 AM »

So basically you have a small overlapping section of the room where if the actor moves left it loads the left view and if it moves right it loads the right view? And the actor is still in the same "place"?

33

General Discussion / Re:So, how much it's gonna cost?

« on: March 23, 2003, 06:07:31 AM »

AGS is also free only for NON-commercial use, I believe. It's been a while since I read the faq, though.

Still, that's a very good point. It's a lot of hassle to try to decide on something that's fair for everyone, so give the man some time to think. Or email him personally, which is what he suggested in the first place.

(And yes, there are some of us to whom $20 *US* is a lot of money.)

I think Mnemonic is right to look at licensing on a case-by-case basis. Rich people can afford a lot, poorer people can't, and often need those tools in order to achieve something worthwhile. So charge more to rich people.

Or he could just put a donation button on the site, if it's worded appropriately.

34

General Discussion / Re:So, how much it's gonna cost?

« on: March 22, 2003, 07:47:02 PM »

Well, I can't do even $20 right now, so how is $100 a reasonable price for every case? If you want to pay him that, talk to him, but don't tell me I should pay that.

It makes more sense for you to work out what your expenses are, what you're charging, and how many people are really likely to buy your game before even asking a question like that.

Not only that, you could always do a free demo to test the engine and the audience, which will give you some estimate of your figures. Since the demo is free, you don't have to pay anything for the engine.

Oh, and have some trust, geez.

35

General Discussion / Re:So, how much it's gonna cost?

« on: March 21, 2003, 11:52:25 PM »

I would rather he did decide on a case-by-case basis.

I haven't even discussed my game with Mnemonic yet, but I do trust he's making the engine just for the enjoyment of it, or he wouldn't have it available on a free basis even for non-commercial, not-for-profit use. From what I know so far, he is a reasonable and considerate person.

If you are making a series of adventure games that you plan to sell, then you might want to make a realistic projection of how many people are likely to buy your games, and work out what your costs will be, and *then* talk to Mnemonic. (That's why I haven't talked to him yet about payment, besides which the first parts of the game are free, and I won't know what the interest is for the paid parts until after the free ones are released.)

If you're just doing it for fun, then you're probably not going to be making much money anyway.

If you want a price, talk to Mnemonic, don't try to force him to say one price which won't work for all other cases, and which may ruin it for those of us who can't pay what you would consider reasonable.

36

General Discussion / Re:So, how much it's gonna cost?

« on: March 21, 2003, 05:55:18 PM »

Yeah, Mnemonic, you really need to change that phrase.

Guys - he said he'd be reasonable about it. Obviously if you were to make millions (or even thousands) off your game, he'd want something because you wouldn't even have a game if not for the engine. If you're very unlikely to make money off your game, even if you are selling it... well, you aren't going to have the money to pay him something big, right? But you have to discuss it with him on a case-by-case basis.

37

Game design / Re:New article about Adventure Game Puzzles

« on: March 20, 2003, 07:01:45 PM »

Thanks, Scarpia. I've got the main plot outline, but haven't yet solidly paid attention to puzzles and side quests. This is going to be really useful.

38

General Discussion / Re:Switching to WME

« on: March 18, 2003, 07:36:11 AM »

It sounds more like you are asking how to switch from 2D art to 3D art, than how to switch to WME.

WME is actually a 2D engine, just with advanced features that use a 3D graphics card. It can also load 3D characters, however, I think that feature is not really documented yet.

You could easily continue to do your art the way you are used to but take avantage of alpha transparency, vector-based walk-behinds, etc.

39

Technical forum / Re:Windows

« on: March 14, 2003, 11:38:56 PM »

Great! This will be a wonderful feature. Thanks, guys!

40

Game design / Re:My first mod music!

« on: March 06, 2003, 08:33:06 AM »

Hi, Jerrot.

I know a ton of people who love composing music for adventures, so if anyone needs composition, just ask. Even if I'm too busy to help you out, I can recommend others.

The bells/shaker could use some work too... if that's what you're referring to. The volume of everything needs work, really.

The idea of the format is really good, but the instrument handling really needs to be updated. I am getting totally frustrated with trying to get good sound out of this thing...
Hmm, maybe Mnemonic is right not to add mod support.

In FruityLoops, it is so much easier to use samples, and the new version has a plugin that handles soundfonts! Me happy!!!

I have to try it out, which means I'll probably be using Fruity for my game music... Which means it'll have to be audio in ogg format, rather than tracker notation in *.itz format. Which means I'll lose the ease of making long and interactive music.

But it will sound pro, and that's a good thing.
Ahhh, choices, choices.

41

Feature requests, suggestions / Re:Some feature suggestions

« on: March 03, 2003, 08:00:23 PM »

A 3D card merely makes the use of some great graphical effects possible. Think of WME as more of a hybrid engine than a 2D engine. It's not full real-time rendered 3D, but it has capabilities that expand on 2D in all the right places. Actually, it's more of a "2D+" engine.

I think Mnemonic is doing it just right.

The whole point of having more than one engine is that they do things differently. AGS might be better for your needs, but if so, ask Chris to add a few more gui things to the room-edit. *g*

42

Technical forum / Re:Importing Fonts

« on: March 03, 2003, 12:42:07 PM »

No ttf?

43

Feature requests, suggestions / Re:Some feature suggestions

« on: March 03, 2003, 12:37:37 PM »

People aren't rushing to buy the latest cutting edge anymore, I hope for the day when computer technology settles down a bit. But when 2.x gHz is available, a 400 mhz is getting a little *too* obsolete. I wouldn't want to go lower than that unless I was running linux.

About MOD / OGG files: C'mon people, value the fact that WME already has good audio format support, and instead just go searching for a (quote) nice MOD library without licensing problems if you really want Jan to implement it ;-P

I'm sure there's one at sourceforge somewhere... or listed in that FAQ somewhere... but I'm not a programmer and couldn't tell a GOOD library if it bit me.

No matter how long you think creating a game will take, it will take longer. A lot longer

Oy... you're telling me... my game was in the "brainstorming" phase for over a year... of course, I was homeless for about 6 months and decided to concentrate on my other projects, which didn't exactly help... But I said I would give people more assignments if they finished the ones they had... and I couldn't update the site so everything was by email, so the team thought the project had died even though I was definitely still working on the game, so they stopped working.

A couple of those people are interested in re-joining now. They had a whole EXTRA 6 months to get their assignments done, so too bad. Now that we're in pre-production, anyone who doesn't contribute actual work gets canned. Muahaha.

44

Feature requests, suggestions / Re:Some feature suggestions

« on: March 02, 2003, 11:51:29 PM »

From the help file in ModTracker:

IT: Impulse Tracker Music Modules

Like XM modules are an extension of MOD modules, IT is a superset of S3M. Impulse Tracker Modules represent a major improvement over the other ones. If you never used instruments with FastTracker, IT songs could be considered exactly as S3M songs. However, the major improvement, besides the fact that, like FastTracker II, it doesn't have the 64-rows limits in patterns, and can have comments in the song (No need to edit sample names anymore), is the support for volume/panning/pitch envelopes and especially NNAs. The New Note Action option means that when you play a new note, the old one doesn't have to be cut abruptly, but can fade in the background, for example. If you are just starting to write your own mod music, I recommend starting with S3M modules (Or IT modules with no instruments), and then get yourself used to the volume envelopes and NNA effects.

Also, the tracker and the player will open zipped mod files. That's saving it in winzip and renaming to have an extension of *.itz

When I zip my file it's 2.02 MB instead of 3.25... worth looking into.

There is a faq about mod music at http://www.modplug.com/modfaq/index.html
And more info throughout the site.

45

Game design / Re:My first mod music!

« on: March 02, 2003, 11:37:24 PM »

Thanks, guys.

Yes, the melody is very medieval and catchy, and will be worth further development in terms of sample quality and volume level. I'm trying to get some art done over the next month, but I'll post a more final version of this piece in a month or so.