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So... we're getting closer to the "Make my game" button in AGS editor be a reality instead of a joke!

You know, when I first saw that button, I legit thought it was an actual button that would ACTUALLY make a game for you if you pressed it. Using a bunch of procedural generation and basic templates, that kind of stuff.

It took me several months before I finally relented and pressed it, because I had my pride and wanted to make my own game by myself. But my curiosity got the better of me, and I figured I could maybe steal some assets from it.
It took me over a year after that to actually understand the joke.

I can be so very stupid. 

I don't check the forum for ONE day, and I find out the entire forum went offline. 

Nice to hear (see?) that everything is working again though.

[2]

What grinds my gears...

When I leave work early so I can get to the bus shop and renew my bus pass before it closes for the day... get 2 buses to said bus shop instead of 1 bus straight home... only to find that the bus shop has closed early today with no indicarion why. 

On a related note, it grinds my gears when your bus just doesn't show up, with no indication as to why.
Did it show up ten minutes early and you simply missed it? Did it break down? Has the timetable been changed but nothing has been updated to show it?
Who knows. 
Whatever the case, you now have to wait a full hour for the next bus. 

Nr. 2698
There is a game that is similar to the High Seas Trader game?

There are loads of games like High Seas Trader.
Uncharted Waters, Pirates!, Sea Dogs, Port Royale.
(By the way, I absolutely adore Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons. It's a shame it's the last game in the franchise to be officially translated.)

I strongly recommend you make a proof of concept with some placeholder art, and then come back asking for an artist again. If you do that, chances are you'll intrigue someone with the concept, and you'll all be able to enjoy making the game. A prototype can go a very long way in pitching your game. 
But as it is now though, there's almost no chance of you finding an artist who's willing to help.

I've worked on enough projects with other people to know that the majority of them don't get past the planning phase. So if you can show that you can indeed make this, then there's a good chance that someone who's a fan of those types of games, will help you in making it.

Good evening friends, how are you?
I'm looking for a game graphic artist on a voluntary basis for my new realistic game. I already have a programmer and everything, I just need someone to do the graphics
I also have discord if anyone wants to talk to me there I'm always available: yoron#2972
I would love to receive suggestions thanks!

I hate to be "that guy" but you need to show more off if you want any kind of help.

You say you've already got a programmer and everything. What does "everything" entail? Do you literally have the entire game designed and programmed with placeholder graphics waiting to be replaced? If so, why haven't you shown any of it?

Or are you saying that you've got a programmer and an idea's guy along with a rough premise of what you're wanting? Because if that's the case, you'll be lucky to find an artist.

Making art is hard. If it was easy, you'd be doing it yourself. (But hey, you can still do it for yourself. And if you do, it's free.)
I learnt how to make my own art, because of the countless times I saw idea guys begging for an artist, and I didn't want to be one of those people.


TLDR:
If you want any hope of recruiting an artist, you're going to have to try way harder than simply asking for one with a single paragraph of text and nothing more.
Because let's face it, everyone, including artists, want to work on THEIR ideas.

Ooh, very pretty high contrast artwork. Kinda reminds me of the artstyle in some SNES games.
The plot sounds interesting too.

I'll be keeping my eye on this. 

Although he focuses on the machines used being digital (argues that the phenomenon of consciousness seems to be analog).

Maybe it's my lack of understanding of string theory, but I thought the entire universe was basically made up of whether or not something is there or isn't. And therefore you could just consider digital to be a simplified version of analog.

To be honest, considering how all organic life functions, including humans, with everything being a chemical reaction that is just reacting to something that was reacting (ad infinitum), couldn't it also be argued that nothing has intelligence as freewill is just an illusion?

That all being said, I have to wonder how a conversation about art generation has turned into a discussion about Laplace's Demon.

I'm playing the second game now and can't progress past outside the New York airport... What a newb!
This is one funny game, but a little tricky to get into... Any help much appreciated. Cheers

It's been a very long time since I last played it, so unfortunately I can't remember the solutions to any puzzles. But I do remember how I figured out the solutions.
I downloaded AGI Studio and opened the game files, and looked up what commands were acceptable in each room.
Specifically, you're looking for the "Said()" commands in the Logic category.
You can also look at the list of words the game will accept. There's lots of synonyms for the commands, but less than 150 commands in total. You really can't get a better hint for a Text Adventure game than the word list. 

Sorry I can't be more directly helpful though. Hopefully someone else can.
But I still hope this helps.


EDIT:
And I just realized that I've already said that once before on this thread three years ago. Oops. 

Welcome MikeTenebrae.

I think you'll really like AGS. It's pretty easy to learn.
I look forward to seeing what you make. 

The Sixth Sense?

Also in favour of 'torch', there is the issue that the invention and clever (or otherwise) naming of the Fleshlight, which has made the word 'flashlight' that much less attractive.

I was thinking the exact same thing, but I kept it to myself because I figured it might just be me and my perverted mind. 
I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[Autumn of Death: Black Friday II]

Autumn of Death: Black Friday II

For your consideration -

AGS Database link

Summary of the game:
Autumn of Death: Black Friday II is a commercial horror comedy game where you're being hunted by a killer scarecrow, and have to either escape or find a way to stop it. There are multiple endings, and you even get to play as a few different characters throughout the game.

It's a sequel to one of my previous games, Black Friday, although it plays a bit different to that game.


Trailer:

Possible Awards:
Best Game Created with AGS
Best Programming
Best Gameplay
Best Puzzles
Best Writing
Best Animation
Best Background Art
Best Character Art

[Question:]

Question: what would be the best naming to use as players can be from any country: a flashlight or a torch?

I call it a torch and calling it anything else but that is weird in my opinion. But if you want the best naming convention for players of any country, flashlight is probably the way to go.

There's a torch in my latest game, and it's even called such in the code. But I called it a flashlight in all of the dialog and the item description.

That being said, I don't think anyone has any problem with using one name over the other. I think most people know both and have accepted them as synonyms.

Well it's not quite Christmas yet, but I probably won't be online tomorrow. So Merry Christmas everyone. 

Oh no, me again. And believe me I've searched the forum already and couldn't find the solution. But maybe it already exists and I used wrong keywords. So forgive me.

I want to use x item on y item and then use both on an object or hotspot. I know how to combine inventory items but it doesn't make sense here. The action bar should read "Use X with Y with Z". X and Y are inventory items and Z is an object. I've seen it in some other games. I appreciate any help.

Usually what I do in these situations, is have the character automatically use X with Y when either X or Y is used with Z and both X and Y are in your inventory. And then throw in a hint about needing something when you try to use X or Y with Z when you don't have both X and Y.

Alternatively, you could just allow the temporarily combining of X and Y. You use X with Y and then you get XY (which would literally just be called X with Y) and then you use XY with Z. Perhaps even having the item automatically active, and removed from your inventory if you click on anything other than the correct solution.

But of course there is a third possible option if it fits with the puzzle. You could use either X or Y with Z, and then have the character point out that he'll need to add something else, and then if the player uses the other correct item, the puzzle is solved, otherwise it resets when you use the wrong item or walk away, possibly with the character saying something along the lines of "Ah, never mind then." to show that you were on the right path.

Original is when you steal from so many different sources, that it's impossible to identify a single one. The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, are all brilliant examples of this (especially since they're practically all the same story).

Homage is when you heavily reference something, even copy it to a point. But where it's clearly not only it's own thing, but is also clearly doing it out of a love of the thing that it's paying homage to rather than simply because it's popular. Good examples are most modern Slasher movies, everything High-Fantasy made after The Lord of the Rings, and anything Sci-Fi made after Star Wars and Star Trek.

Theft is when you take something and claim it as your own, making no notable changes. A good example in my opinion are all of those "Movie" movies that came out in the early 2000s, such as Epic Movie and Disaster Movie. (They got away with it because it came under parody, which is one of the few exceptions the law makes for theft. So it wasn't actually theft, and those were in fact terrible examples.)



Of course this explanation leaves lots of things unanswered. Such as taking inspiration from something, being a spiritual successor, how similar can you make something to something else, what do you have to change for it to not be classified as theft, among many other things.

I'm not lawyer, but I know a lot when it comes down to copyright law. So I can actually answer those questions to some extent if you wanted me to.

But rather than answer them, I think it's easier to show you two examples, and let you figure out why one was perfectly fine while the other was not:
Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times for the Nintendo DS
and
Motor Rock for PC

I think you can remap all the hotkeys. Or did I imagine that?

Yep, you can. You can even put in the interface.txt file from the older version to instantly get most of the old hotkeys back. You can also enable keyboard cursor functionality in the settings. But doing both doesn't work perfectly, since moving the cursor will also move the map, unless you use the numpad. And you can't navigate the menus with the keyboard at all. It's a bit weird to say that Dwarf Fortress now REQUIRES a mouse to play. 

Thankfully, it seems as though I'm not the only one with more than a few gripes with the newest version. A quick glance at the DF forums and the Steam forums, and it's obvious that both veterans and newbies alike are finding the interface incredibly clunky.

Enjoyed playing the game!  I kept getting killed so I got frustrated (but that's just me--I like an "easy" or "exploration only" mode when I play adventure games, haha.  But the atmosphere & graphics were nice--I feel like you can't go wrong when you're exploring a house, trying to figure out how to survive.

All in all, a lovely sequel.  I'm trying to find a playthrough online so I can see how it turns out! 

Thank you very much for playing my game. 
I don't think there's a playthrough online yet, but if you're struggling with the game, I don't mind providing a few hints.

And if you really want, I could always update the game to have an "exploration mode", so you don't have to worry about the Scarecrow. 
Although he is very easy to avoid once you know how.

the amount of grown adult people who think that the story of the song is that the kid's mom was really kissing Santa Claus is just astounding.

Wait... there are seriously people out there that don't realize it's the dad dressed as Santa Claus! 
Holy crap! I want to be that innocent and naive! 

But at least I'm still surviving Whamageddon, fingers crossed.

Same here. I've yet to hear it this December, thank goodness. But I know it's lurking just around the corner... especially since both of my parents absolutely adore that song. 

I'm planning on getting it myself, because honestly, I've played the game so much already that it's already paid for itself. 

But I'm going to get it on Itchio instead, because that way they get more of the money, and I get to avoid using Steam. 
It's a win-win in my book.



EDIT:
Bought it, played it, now playing the previous version.
Maybe it's just me, but the new UI, while definitely a huge improvement, is such a chore to use.
I instinctively pressed "D" to start mining, but instead the screen went slightly to the right.

I went from being a pro to a complete amateur. 
Seriously. It took me a good thirty minutes just to dig out a small hole and get my dwarfs to dump everything into a small pile in the middle of if. And for some reason, they wouldn't dump the stuff in the wagon. 
And for reference, I've been playing the game since just before Minecarts were added.

Well, here's hoping I manage to get used to it. Or at the very least, hopefully some modders put in all of the old keyboard shortcuts.
I'm sure it'll be a lot easier for newcomers to pick up though.