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16

Technical forum / Re: What screen resolution to use, for a project completing circa 2010?

« on: April 29, 2009, 11:22:40 PM »

@Spellbreaker: That is true but i just said that commercial games still use 1024x768 .
I never said he should use this resolution. All i said was that i would stick to 4:3 aspect ratio (and this would be 800x600 in that case)

17

Technical forum / Re: What screen resolution to use, for a project completing circa 2010?

« on: April 29, 2009, 05:43:55 PM »

I think most commercial adventures still use 1024x768.
Also i would not go much higher at this moment because you have still to fill the screen with graphics and higher resolutions need higher details and textures, resulting in more work.

Also personaly i would stick to a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio and not go for some strange laptop resolution because most peolpe still play on their desktop pcs and most time these monitors have bigger problems with laptop resolutions then laptops with desktop resolutions.

18

Game design / Re: How to write a script for a adventure game?

« on: April 26, 2009, 10:57:34 PM »

Well i think everyone has a different approach. For example im more a "do what you want" or more anarchic development-person so i try to let the game develop itself naturaly.
The most time i have is just a beginning and an ending point i want to reach and all i do is try to find cool ideas and "interpolate" them into the story. My biggest problem the most time i have is the beginning. Most times i acummulate ideas for later story parts and do not find a nice beginning idea.

i just write the story like a novel from start to finish.
But at the moment i plan something not so linear, so all i do is just use a notebook with all my ideas.

19

Technical forum / Re: WME text/script questions (implementing text/ text analysis)

« on: April 26, 2009, 06:45:29 PM »

for your log system, that would be really easy.
simply create a text file and let WME write your strings into the text file. If you want to see you log ingame, just read the text file with WME and let them draw on your screen. It should not be very hard. The biggest problem will be scrolling the log but you can just use a modified version of WMEs save and load menu script.
for a text parser: There are books and papers out there how to write and design a text parser. Its not hard but requires some knowledge of programming but your biggest concern will be to have a parser that have enough power to answer your questions and here the real work starts.
You could research a little bit about chat bots and how they are organized. Maybe you also can find some free interpreter and hook it with wintermute per dll.
http://www.alicebot.org/aiml.html for example is famous for its good results and easy to learn chat database organization.

But personally i would stay away from something if its just a gimmick and not gameplay relevant. There is some reason why today no one uses chat-bots in games and game companies like Bethesta, BioWare and Obsidian still use more or less traditional dialog systems.

20

Technical forum / Re: FIRST PERSON ADVENTURE

« on: April 14, 2009, 02:07:33 PM »

I think he is not interested in an 3d FPS game like Deus Ex and more in a sequence how Snatcher did it.
The Shooting in there was very simple and it was just a picture where enemies popped up and you had to shoot them before their harm you.

Here a nice review of Snatcher with some of the shooting scenes in there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFDidaqofNw

By the way, Snatcher was one of the reasons why i wanted to create adventure games and maybe the biggest game that influenced me in the the last 5 years. Sad that most visual novels today are so extremely simplified in its gameplay....

21

Technical forum / Re: FIRST PERSON ADVENTURE

« on: April 14, 2009, 11:20:56 AM »

Yes, indeed. Wintermute can also be used for graphic novels, it is a little bit tricky but it is possible. I implemented a textbox and a character portrait in my game already, maybe the biggest obstacle
Something like this is easy to implement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojVvZh_qPS8

I would replace the code for the context menu (the take, talk, look menu) and on a click at an object i would trigger a custom window with its interaction list for this object.
Very easy to do but maybe a little bit time consuming to code.

22

Community bulletin board / Re: Would Wintermute be Better Than AGS? *screenshots*

« on: April 13, 2009, 04:21:44 PM »

First read the Step by Step Tutorial in the documentation, then you should visit the wintermute wiki for more information how scripts are organized.

23

Technical forum / Re: Can WME Games Work on PSP ?

« on: April 13, 2009, 01:16:33 PM »

I think a port could be possible but you have to port it on your own.
You can download the source code here:
http://forum.dead-code.org/index.php?topic=3455.0

Other then that, at the moment WME is windows only and it can only run in emulators on other systems.

24

Community bulletin board / Re: Would Wintermute be Better Than AGS? *screenshots*

« on: April 12, 2009, 10:18:24 PM »

hard to tell if WME is better then AGS, personally i simply like the workflow of the WME.
Like nuclear said, AGS can not use 3d actors on static backgrounds.
But i would say the main advantage is the editor, i personally hated AGS sprite management and background organisation. Wintermute uses a folder-like structure and follows a more modern development philosophy then AGS.
Also nearly all AGS engine limitations are not present in Wintermute. You can use an unlimited amount of rooms, dialogs, text strings, items etc.

I would say you can try Wintermute and if you don't like its design structure, you can finish your project in AGS since your artwork looks like it was designed with AGS in mind.

25

Game announcements / Re: Butterfly

« on: April 09, 2009, 12:32:24 PM »

Absolutly stunning visuals!
Cant wait to see it in motion!

Do you use 3d or 2d for your characters? the first and last picture have drawn characters while in the second picture it looks like they are 3d models.

26

Technical forum / Re: Shadow from 3DS light source?

« on: April 06, 2009, 02:57:04 PM »

Is a real time shadow this much important to your game design?
There are games out even today with no real time shadow. Even the Source Engine misses real time shadows.

I dont use 3d in WME so im not sure if it works but maybe you can fake the lightning with zones and a script that changes the light position for the actor. For example you walk into zone A and at touch you change the shadow direction of the actor. Thats how Valve works arround this limitation in the Source Engine (Left 4 Dead)

So maybe it works the same here with "SetLightPosition(X, Y, Z)"

27

Game design / Re: Gameplay Evolution

« on: April 05, 2009, 01:26:07 AM »

If it's in options the player won't be bothered going in and changing it unless it's really causing problems which in design terms is what you want. You want them to finish the game.

Well i see your point there but in the end you could end with something like Neverwinter Nights 2, akward controls but highly tweakable controls. That is why im somehow against a sepperate "fast travel"-game mode option. Personally i think its enough to give the player the possibility to use it. Its like in the old verbal-Scumm System. You can quick-select the verbs on your keyboard but you can also use the mouse.
About Runaway... well i didn't played the game much, but it was not the Gameplay, it simply did not hit my spot but i played it long enough to know about its design.


By the way, what are you guys thinking about multi-clicking on the same object before it activates? For example you have to look at the table three times befor you discover some paper on it. Funny enough, the gameplay of old japanese games where full of it like Hideo Kojimas famous Snatcher. For me personally its a "No go!" because of its frustration or you have to do it most objects in the game because the player cant know if it will behave differently if he clicks it a second or third time but like i sayed, most old japanese adventure games had it with a great extend and you knew you had to repeat the same options till the interaction repeated.

28

Bug reports / Re: Bugs concerning the switch statement

« on: April 04, 2009, 04:25:23 PM »

Indeed there is a work arround that also increases the readability of your code:
you can simply create every tree Node as a function.

For example:

Code: [Select]

on "abc"
{
   switch(something)
   {
      case 1:
      {
         NodeA();
         break;
      }
      case 2:
         NodeB();
         break;
      }
   }
}

function NodeA()
{
   switch(something)
   {
      case 1:
      {
         NodeC();
         break;
      }
      case 2:
         NodeD();
         break;
      }
   }
}

function NodeB()
{
   switch(something)
   {
      case 1:
      {
         NodeE();
         break;
      }
      case 2:
         NodeF();
         break;
      }
   }
}


29

Done / Re: 1920x1080 resolution, if it is at all Possible

« on: April 03, 2009, 11:23:54 AM »

1920x1080? Are you sure you need such a high resolution?
I think you would also disqualify 95% of all monitors out there. My monitor has a max resolution of 1280x960.
I only know one guy who has a computer monitor that is capable of more then 1600x1200 and he is a professional graphic designer....

maybe you can show us some example work (if the pictures are under NDA you could maybe create an unrelated piece of work in the same quality) so we could come up with some sort of solution.

30

Game announcements / Re: Asylum

« on: April 02, 2009, 11:36:59 AM »

Wow i love your art style, shaggy lines and very simple coloration like a pencil drawing. Exspecially the shaggy lines fit the insane location, a place where everything is out of place etc.
Only the colors could be a little bit darker. John Bolton would be something that comes to my mind (the comic artist, not the politican)
Please note i do not say you have to mimic his style but maybe he could be an source of inspiration.



Also maybe i can help you with your animation problem:
there are great sites out there with free *.bvh motion capturing animations like these two sites:
http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture
http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm

free to use and i think if one in your team can use a 3d application you could use the animations as some kind of rotoscoping technology.
I use them for my rendered 3d animations and the quality is simply stunning!