AGS Awards Ceremony Client App - Feedback, bug reports, suggestions

[Snarky]

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/klZ30zh.png[/imgzoom]

Woohoo!

Yes! I did beat that son of a bitch of a bug in the end, and with only one mass crash the whole night (actually caused by an IRC settings problem, not a bug in the client), I feel pretty happy with the end result.

Now, feedback and suggestions!

Radiant reports a crash. I'm hoping for more details on that. Any other problems you experienced?

Clearly one big, noticeable thing was that the applause system didn't quite work as intended, with abrupt transitions, and that applause would often cut off the fanfare. Also, the sound of one person clapping was... odd. I actually anticipated these problems and wrote a bunch of code to try to stop it from happening, but it was very last-minute and, as you could tell, didn't really work. That's something I would definitely want to fix for next year.

If you have suggestions for other improvements or cool features, this is also the place to post them.

[Adeel]

Also, the sound of one person clapping was... odd.

That's quite blasphemous of you to call it odd! I really liked that fapping/butt spanking sound! Imagine fapping or spanking butts of the people in your vicinity on the marvellous occasion of your favourite game's win.

[arj0n]

Now, feedback and suggestions!
Radiant reports a crash. I'm hoping for more details on that. Any other problems you experienced?

I only encountered 1 crash, which happened before the actual ceremony was running.
I think Radiant reported that one already. I believe it is obsolete now anyway.
During the ceremony, no crashes or whatsoever, nice job!

Also:
I really liked the extra features as the program list. Nice job, Award Ceremony App Team

[Snarky]

I only encountered 1 crash, which happened before the actual ceremony was running.
I think Radiant reported that one already. I believe it is obsolete now anyway.

I don't know what gave you that idea. Any bugs you experienced with the final version are still current. It's too late to fix for this year, of course, but in case we ever want to use it again in the future, I should probably fix them now rather than wait till next year. It would be very helpful if you could send me the "game (timestamp).log" files so I can see more closely why the crash happens.

During the ceremony, no crashes or whatsoever, nice job!

Also:
I really liked the extra features as the program list. Nice job, Award Ceremony App Team

Great, thanks! Yeah, the program list is a feature I've wanted ever since SSH's offline ceremonies, because my short-term memory is terrible and I can never remember what's already been announced (also, the ceremony does go on for a bit, and I expect not everyone is paying attention 100% of the time). The implementation is pretty basic (I know some people didn't notice the difference between categories that had been announced and those that hadn't), but at least it's something. And last night it saved us from forgetting the best writing award.

Oh, and while I remember, there was a request for an option to include what people say during the "silent" portions in the chat window, and yes, I totally agree with that, since the text over people's heads is easy to miss. (It actually stays on for longer than before, but it still disappears quickly.)

[Dave Gilbert]

Lovely client and great fun! The only changes I would make to the client is a limit on avatar size. The troll avatars were cool, but freaking HUGE. Also, for some reason I couldn't get it running in a window above 640 x 480. In order to make it bigger, I had to go to full-screen mode.

Till next year!

[Kasander]

Nooooooo! Spare the trolls, I implore you!

Dave, trolls only grew in numbers when Troll Song tuned in. Before you arrived, there were only a couple of us trolls so the view was much clearer Also, congratulations!

My client on the other hand worked fine in full-screen after scaling to 2x the nearest neighbour (except that one crash obviously).

@Snarky, check out your PMs for my logs.

[Cassiebsg]

Just a quick idea I had... I thought it was quite fun to use the client when beta testing, sorry I didn't make it to the awards, but I thought it would be fun to use it for normal irc chat, just with a new BG, of course... maybe a lounge with some sofas and a bar... on a sunny beach... or something.

[[delete}]

My wholehearted thanks to you - Dualnames, Wyz and Snarky - for creating and directing (thank you, Bicilotti) such lovely awards ceremony!

[LimpingFish]

My wholehearted thanks to you - Dualnames, Wyz and Snarky - for creating and directing (thank you, Bicilotti) such lovely awards ceremony!

Seconded!

Now...complaints!

• It's very difficult to keep track of were your avatar is, due, I would think, to so many overlapping characters walking around. I'd like to see some sort of seated area, where avatars could park or "sit", to help alleviate this.
• On the subject of avatars, I'd also like to see the MC and award presenters represented by unique avatars. Multiple Indy sprites is very confusing!
• Perhaps implement a timed "cooldown" on chat input? I didn't notice if the "mute" command was in effect during the presenting of awards, or if it only works in IRC, but it might be a good idea to curb the haphazard nature of the onscreen text.

I can't think of anything else I would change.

[Snarky]

Thanks guys. I didn't realize how chaotic it felt to be in the audience. From up on stage, having such a packed crowd just looked great!

Lots of interesting ideas for how to alleviate it: limit on avatar size, more audience space, a seating area (not sure I fully understand this suggestion), some easier way to track yourself...

I worry that some of these suggestions would be quite a lot of work for only marginal improvement (like, if we get 40 people online instead of 30-some, that will consume any benefit), but since it seems to be a widespread concern I will definitely give it some thought. I did think about adding a second room, probably a balcony area, but I think the disadvantages of splitting people up into separate groups outweighs the advantages. And I do have to mention that there is already a feature to track yourself, or any other particular avatar: click on a name in the participant list (top-left drop-down), and they'll be marked with an arrow.

Also, for some reason I couldn't get it running in a window above 640 x 480. In order to make it bigger, I had to go to full-screen mode.

Not sure why that might be. I'm not doing anything unusual with the graphics, so it should be just like any other AGS game where you set 2x, 3x, etc. filters to make the window bigger (I assume your screen resolution is bigger than 1280x960). Someone else mentioned having this problem before or during the ceremony, so I tested it and it certainly worked on my machine. Could it simply be that the AGS 3.3 winsetup is a bit unfamiliar? (I think the other person eventually figured out he wasn't using winsetup correctly, but I can't imagine you'd have that problem.)

@Snarky, check out your PMs for my logs.

Thanks!

Just a quick idea I had... I thought it was quite fun to use the client when beta testing, sorry I didn't make it to the awards, but I thought it would be fun to use it for normal irc chat, just with a new BG, of course... maybe a lounge with some sofas and a bar... on a sunny beach... or something.

Sure. I'll open-source it when I have time to take out the not-for-release assets and clean up the documentation a bit (of course, Dualnames's code from last year is already available), and anyone is free to adapt it for everyday use. Though I personally suspect that without the novelty and custom content from the ceremony, it might get old relatively quickly, and people would find it easier to just use text chat.

On the subject of avatars, I'd also like to see the MC and award presenters represented by unique avatars. Multiple Indy sprites is very confusing!

Yes, I totally agree, and this was something I had hoped to address. But it's a tricky problem, because of the way the program works under the hood. The Indy's (Indies?) are people who are just on IRC text chat, not using the game client. So of course they haven't chosen an avatar, aren't clicking to walk around, or anything like that. The AGS client is creating a virtual character for them whenever they're on stage (whenever they've been granted special IRC channel privileges), and tells them to move to certain positions when particular events happen. Since it's all done without any user input, and because none of the logic is synched but is all done locally on each client, I don't want to introduce too much randomness (like picking a random avatar), which might easily have unpredictable effects or cause confusion (if some people are seeing bicilotti as Nelly and some as Oceanspirit Dennis, for example).

I had thought one solution might be for me (or whoever hosts the AGS side of the ceremony) to set the avatar for them, but first of all it's difficult to implement given the architecture of the system, and secondly, having experienced what it's like to actually run the multimedia in real-time, I think it would be too stressful.

A better solution (that occurs to me just now) might be to simply predefine unique avatars for certain screen names (bicilotti and other likely suspects), which should at least cut down on the confusion somewhat. You could also split it by IRC mode (so that hosts/+m(oderators) get a different default avatar than presenters/+v(oiced) participants, and so on). Or you could hash the nick into an avatar ID (though probably only from a subselection of the avatars). And IRC people could get a special command to override their avatar if they wanted to (something like "/me becomes benjordan"), though of course they wouldn't see it themselves... Hmm. Yes, it's possible.

I also want to improve their automated positioning so they're not all standing on top of each other, and so that they make better use of the podium. I did make a start towards this (basically refactoring the existing code into one self-contained module and adding a little bit to it), and would want to flesh it out and tune it more in future years.

So, yes, this is absolutely high on the todo list.

Perhaps implement a timed "cooldown" on chat input? I didn't notice if the "mute" command was in effect during the presenting of awards, or if it only works in IRC, but it might be a good idea to curb the haphazard nature of the onscreen text.

I don't quite understand what you're proposing. The way it works currently, during the "mute" sections (which appear to AGS participants as "*QUIET DOWN* *QUIET DOWN*" and end with "*APPLAUSE* *APPLAUSE* *APPLAUSE*"), anything people in the audience type is not added to the chat log, but only appears over their heads. (Therefore, it's not seen by IRC-only participants.) This allows official announcements (presenting the nominees and winners, and the acceptance speeches) to not be buried in other chatter. Do you mean you don't want it to be displayed at all? That's how it was in (IIRC) the first year of the online AGS ceremony, but it turned out to be quite frustrating to have to spend so much of the time not being able to speak. Maybe I'm missing your point.

This is really good input. Keep it coming!

[Ponch]

While it would be nice to have a larger mosh pit for the audience, being packed in there made it feel very vibrant. (It helped that it was easy to pick myself out of the crowd with my sexy, voluptuous cow costume ).

Also, the red carpet arrival was a wonderful surprise that put a smile on my face. When the game crashed and I had to log back in, arriving by limo a second time still made me smile. Nice work, whoever put that in there.

I second the notion that the presenters need different avatars. I had to use mouse hover to figure out who was who as the event went on.

Lastly, while the clap function didn't quite work as intended, I think it was a very cool idea and once it's implemented properly, it will really add a lot to the experience.

Nice work all around, guys.

[Andail]

Also, the red carpet arrival was a wonderful surprise that put a smile on my face. When the game crashed and I had to log back in, arriving by limo a second time still made me smile. Nice work, whoever put that in there.

Snarky put it there, but Daniel Thomas painted it, based on my line-art.

I think everything went perfectly; you could always nit-pick about floor space or whatever, or that not including lesbian imagery is somehow too "pc", but all in all this was as smooth as it gets.

[Monsieur OUXX]

the clap function didn't quite work as intended, but I think it was a very cool idea and once it's implemented properly, it will really add a lot to the experience.

I didn't join this year so I don't know if it has changed from last year, but I 've had this idea for some time: whenever someone uses the "clap" command, then there should be a count on server side (keeping track of the number of people clapping simultaneously). And depending on that number, there would be a different sound effect: From the sound effect of one person clapping to the sound effect of a crowd widly cheering and clapping like crazy. I'm pretty sure that would work and make the clapping way more immersive.

[Snarky]

Yes, that's what I (tried to) implement, but I didn't have time to properly test and bugfix it (or to find the best possible audio clips), so there were a few problems. Mostly that whenever the clap level changed, it would interrupt the clap-clip that was currently playing and start another one. This made for very abrupt transitions. The clapping would also sometimes interrupt other sounds that were playing, in particular the fanfare for the winner. I still think it made the clapping feel more dynamic, but it should work way better once I iron out those bugs.

So far, I'm pretty committed to these fixes for next year:
-Different avatars for IRC-only presenters (not all Indy) and better scripting of their movements (e.g. ceding the lectern to whoever is speaking)
-Fix the dynamic applause
-An option to view the audience chat in the chat history during "silent" sections. Possibly distinguish audience and on-stage dialogue by color
-Improve chat window text formatting for better readability
-Easier tracking of your own avatar. Possibly an auto-highlight, or at least on-by-default highlight

These are things I will look into:
-Ask Wyz to port/rewrite the IRC plugin/module so the client will run on Linux (and maybe MacOS?)
-Some way to reduce crowding in the audience. Proposals are welcome
-Restore Dualnames' auto-announcement system, where nominees and winners automatically get announced when the presenters say their names (disabled because I changed so much of how the announcements work)
-Avatar speech animations, possibly custom animations

[LimpingFish]

I don't quite understand what you're proposing. The way it works currently, during the "mute" sections (which appear to AGS participants as "*QUIET DOWN* *QUIET DOWN*" and end with "*APPLAUSE* *APPLAUSE* *APPLAUSE*"), anything people in the audience type is not added to the chat log, but only appears over their heads. (Therefore, it's not seen by IRC-only participants.) This allows official announcements (presenting the nominees and winners, and the acceptance speeches) to not be buried in other chatter. Do you mean you don't want it to be displayed at all? That's how it was in (IIRC) the first year of the online AGS ceremony, but it turned out to be quite frustrating to have to spend so much of the time not being able to speak. Maybe I'm missing your point.

Ah, so the mute command is still the same, and working as intended, but the dialog texts are (more or less) operating separately. Being less that useless at the technical side of things, I didn't realise this.

In that case, my suggestion was more about how often, and the speed at which, the dialog text appears (in some cases simultaneously and overlapping), and how that makes it difficult to both read it and identify who has said what. My idea about a "cooldown" was in reference to putting a limit on how frequently a person can "speak" - say, thirty seconds? - which might help lessen the confusion, and make people less likely to type whatever comes into their head at any given moment. Of course, this restriction could be lifted during the "applause" sections of the ceremony, but having in place during the presentations might help people focus more on what's happening on stage.

Being, as I said, technically useless, I'm not sure of the feasibility of such a system.

[Snarky]

I've finally got around to sorting out the credits, licensing, documentation, etc., so here's the source code and graphics pack for the AGS Awards client. Thanks (one final time) to all of you who contributed stuff, helped out and put up with my nagging!

I wasn't able to credit beta testers (I'd have to go through the logs to see who were there, and map from IRC nicks to AGS usernames...), but I am very grateful.

- Edit2: OK, the download is back up!