Messages

It seems like you made good modifications to the module to suit your project. One can make a great module and yet it still might not work out of the box for every game and would require some modifications. But that's also the beauty of it, as anyone could take its initial state and tune it to their liking.

And thanks for all the info you provided! I'm sure anyone who visits here may make good use of it.

Hey @Gal Shemesh just wanted to let you know I'm using this module in the game I'm currently working on. Thanks for making it.

I'm very glad you find it useful. I really like how it turned out, and not only because it's mine. It sure adds a lot to the game. Enjoy!

Great! Thanks, it works. Only issue remains is the small symbols below the avatar. Previously they showed bigger and in multiple-lines due to the amount I have, but now they show in 1 row and too small to look/click on.

EDIT: found that when I view my profile settings the symbols show big and in multiple-rows, but if I go to the posts I made they appear in 1 row and too small, the same as shown in this thread.

Hi everyone,

I just updated my AGS profile and realized that the LinkedIn username link which can be added in the Forum Profile section is actually direct to AGS forum, instead of to LinkedIn.


I also just noticed that the symbols are suddenly showing too small. Checked in another browser as well.

We never bothered to add the download links, since they aren't really a feature of the site itself.  I've added them for you now though!

Thanks. I thought it's part of the testing that is worth mentioning, since it didn't work.

Cool! The new website looks very good! I like the new download section. Only wish to note that I just checked the download links and that currently all of them direct to a "404: Whoops! Page Not Found" page.

[Sierra AGI-style]

Hi everyone,

Following my update on Discord, I would like to share with you all that I've finished working on my Sierra AGI-style template, and that it's ready for everyone to use!

*** PLEASE NOTE ***
This template and its DEMO game were originally created on AGS Editor build 3.6.1.24 while newer releases may be in even newer build versions! (refer to the change log below). They will NOT work on previous version of the editor! If you ignore this warning and tried to use it in an older editor version than the build number mentioned above, it will make your AGS editor crash and lock itself in your operating system processes. This of course could be solved either by killing the process manually or by restarting your computer. You can install the current AGS editor build side-by-side with an older version on your system, only make sure that you don't install it on the same directory where the older version is installed. And most importantly, when the AGS setup ends, it will ask you if you wish to make it the default program to opening your AGS source files - make sure to NOT select that option, so you won't end up double clicking on your current projects and then opening and saving them in the newer build!

If you ever wanted to make an AGI-style game in AGS but didn't know how or where to start, this is the right template for you; all the initial setup to making an AGI-style game is already done in it, so you could focus on making your game and not worry about the logic behind the scenes, unless you want to modify something in the core logic of the template.

This AGI-style template includes some extra features which original AGI games didn't have. To name a few:

- A SCI interpreter mouse cursor (used for navigating the menus and more below)
- Label over hotspots.
- Left mouse button to walk around.
- Right mouse button on interaction areas for looking on them.
- Middle mouse button (or right mouse button when not on a hotspot) to open the inventory.
- Any click on an inventory item to examine it or not on an item to close the inventory.
- Modern Save / Restore / Restart / Quit dialogues.
- Dark mode GUI(s).

I also made a very short DEMO game which presents what you can make with this template. It consists of one room, a SCI-style character that I drew over a decade ago and never put into use, which I converted into AGI-style for this specific project, and a few things you can pick-up and do using the parser.

Source codes for both the template and its DEMO game are also provided for your reference, if you ever wish to learn how they were built.

While viewing the source code, you'd probably find that there's a better way to doing varies things that I coded. You're more than welcome to change the code to your liking, but please do not share/upload a modified version of this template, as I wish it to be consistent and accessible from one place; if you have suggestions for improvements, you're more than welcome to let me know and I'll consider adding them to a next release.

You may find it all on my Dropbox. I suggest to view the README file in the Templates directory there, and also the README file in the ZIP archives.

To install the template in AGS, download the 'Sierra AGI-style.agt' file and place it in the 'Templates' folder under your AGS installation directroy (by default it would be C:\Program Files (x86)\Adventure Game Studio x.x.x\Templates). You should then see the new template when selecting to create a new game.


If you're just learning AGS and/or make a non-commercial game, you are welcome to use the assets I created (you may find them in the 'Resources' folder in the 'Source' directory). However, if you create a commercial game, you are not allowed to use my assets but only the template itself to creating something original of yours.

If you have any feedback about this template, bug report and/or suggestions for improvement, feel free to reach me here or on the Discord channel. Though on Discord your messages could get burried after newer messages, so this forum page would be the best place. Here, others can mark your bug reports, suggestion, etc. with thumbs-up, so I could estimate the urgency for fixing or improving something you reported about.

DOWNLOAD LINK

Attached a few screenshots:









Changelog
=========
Version 1.4.0
Released: 31st July 2024
- Fixed clicking with the mouse on inventory items to looking on them.
- REMOVED: right mouse button on interaction areas for looking on them (see details below).
- REMOVED: bug message on launch in translation mode, as it no longer occurs since right-clicking to look on things has been commented out.
- Help menu (F1) was updated regarding the removed feature above.
- README file was updated regarding the removed feature above + added more info about creating new empty rooms.
     * I found that when you wish to have more than one hotspot / object by the same Description name in a given room, and wish to have different feedback when looking on them based on where the player stands, clicking on these interaction areas when the player is not in the proper position will trigger the look_rol messages instead, and the players won't know that they need to get closer to the interaction area before trying to look on it with the mouse, unless you code a message that tells them to get closer in such cases. To prevent this scenario and confusion, the right-click to look on interaction areas was commented out! You may uncomment the code if you wish to use this feature in the Global Script.

Version 1.3.0
Released: 24th July 2024
- Parser.ParseText(""); for preventing ROL from running were replaced with return; or break; when required.
- Added forgotten "you don't have it" feedback when looking on possible inv items that you don't have.
- Fix "You already took it" feedback when trying to re-pick an item.
- Fixed instructions in room comments and README for jumping to ROL bits from within room statements that doesn't meet anymore.
- Version within the template name was mistakenly typed 1.2.0 and was fixed to 1.3.0 on 31st July 2024.

Version 1.2.0
Released: 22nd July 2024
- Translation files support including Right-to-Left.
- English font spacing fix.
- New original Hebrew font.
- Hebrew synonym words added to the parser.
- All GUI(s) and menus were adjusted to accomodate the font spacing change.
- Max inventory items decreased from 28 to 26 due to font spacing change.
- Removed the Parser and Save built-in text boxes elements and replacing them with custom ones based on labels.
- Adding offset conversion from Unicode character input to ASCII for using the 256 characters WFN font (currently only for Hebrew; offsets for other languages could be easily added in the source code).
- Menus and sub-menus width now wraps the text based on text pixel width, and all menus adjust their position based on neighbor menu item width (mainly for translation purposes).
- Score label was broken down to 4 different labels, which now shift their position in relation to each other when score number increases.
- Varies script logic fixes.
- A new 16-color Aseprite palette for making room masks, this time in 8-bit.

Version 1.1.0
Released: 19th July 2024
- Upgraded to AGS Editor build 3.6.1.26.
- Fixed synonym mix between 'door' and 'breath'.
- Fixed F3 repeat string crash when equal to null.
- Removed F3 repeat string when equal to "".

Version 1.0.0
Released: 13th July 2024
Notes: Initial release of this template and of its DEMO game on AGS Editor build 3.6.1.24.

My final Sierra AGI-style template along with a demo game and source files are available on my Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yel9k909s4adua6hbr6hl/ADC3VxJ3cK3SnH6rZdOF-Cg?rlkey=1o0uvgb5m5q5dcc9pngqqngwg&dl=0

Attached a few screenshots:

Just wanted to say that I think it's great that you're opening all these "tickets," even if it turns out that some of them are not priorities to implement. Once you've used the engine for a while, you get used to its quirks, and it can make you blind to things that should be fixed.

Thanks Snarky. I really spent a lot of hours today going a week back on Discord to gather all the things that I raised there, both to help AGS and as CW wished that they'd be recorded somewhere. I didn't and still don't expect everything to be fixed/changed of course. I mainly did this so there would be a record about each one of them, so if others will search for other people who asked about these topics in the forum in the future they could get here and read the discussion.

I actually like that AGS has one built-in, without needing to use any external module. Unless it's a plugin that can be added to the game folder and appear in the project tree, like the FontEditor plugin which allows you to edit fonts directly in the editor; I wanted to have one years ago when I began with AGS but there was none, so you had to use SCI editing tools for that.

I honestly haven't digged too much into AGS 4.0 so I'm not sure what's going on there. But for example GUI(s) or scripts that you wish to export. I found that there's no way to say 'duplicate' a GUI if you have it all set up correctly and you want to make another one just the same and to tweak it, or maybe to use it in another game. So I export the GUI and then import it.

I question whether there is any actual need for engine support here.

Mainly to prevent any sub-pixel appearance when the sprites are shown one over the other, like a mouse cursor sprite on a room area. If you have the room that is shown in 2:2 aspect ratio in runtime, but on the other hand you use a mouse cursor which its sprite was imported as 2:2, this will cause sub-pixel appearance, as the pixels size of the room and the mouse are not the same. So pixels can show in between each other when you move the mouse cursor. See image below for an example of a 1:1 room and a 2:2 mouse cursor.

What you probably ask for, is a "quicker" way to get selected string. Like having a ListBox.SelectedItem property.

Correct, that what I meant. I may have used a very wrong and confusing description. Probably due to the amount of threads text I posted here one after another in the last couple of hours about issues and such.   -Fixed.

Cursor may be represented by a GUI or screen overlay, which are global objects.

Right, a GUI element for a mouse could be very handy. Though currently we cannot resize it like in AGS 4.0. So I guess that only a screen overlay will do.

Actually, I mostly managed to make my AGI-Style template in AGS using the recent knowledge I learned from CW, Snarky and others on Discrod.

An AGI game does run in 320x200 resolution but its room is actually only 160x168, where the width of it is then stretched in code to fill the 320 lines. Only its Help and Inventory panels are 320x400 in resolution (I know, odd), which get stretched to the 640 width. Very complex until I managed to put my hand on this knowledge when digging into Sierra's AGI games in AGI Studio and by running them on many emulators and also investigating their different port versions.

Anyway, not sure if you saw in the support chat on Discrod, but I shared some GIFs from it. It looks and behaves wonderful, including its Parser. Trying to attach a GIF link here that shows the GUI menu I just finished creating yesterday. It is pure GUI elements and use no sprites at all!

I really liked how the dimensions of the sub-menu box is dynamic and change upon selection. This way you can add / subtract items from the GUI menu in code, without needing to worry about re-editing sprites and then re-adjusting the layout.

So the only thing I can think of at this time is to having an object for presenting the mouse sprite in any of the rooms (since we can't have global objects), and then to have the mouse pointer without any sprite set to it and to just make the object follow the mouse X and Y position in the repeatedly_execute_always(). Though, now when I think of it, the object couldn't go with the mouse beyond the borders of the room... So no I guess.

I just found more info. It suddenly worked for me when I had only scripts opened in tabs, but then when I opened a tab of another section, like an inventory item, it got broken again. Now I closed all tabs and re-opened only scripts and it's still broken. So could it be a matter of tabs from different sections that are opened together?

You're right. Haven't thought about multiple listboxes scenario. So yeah, a focus on the last accessed listbox should be implemented for such a case first. Well, so only the 'OnItemClicked' name change for now I guess.

We all get to a point where we can't find outselves in our scripts. I was recently tought that we can use what is called a "#region [region name]" to define a certain part of our code, to end it with "#endregion", and then we could collapse all the section from our eyes using the plus icon next to it.

The issue is that the editor doesn't save these collapes items, and the moment you close the script tab and then re-open it, eveything is expanded again.

This is the same way if trying to collapse functions and other blocks of code that have the plus sign next to them.

The 'OnSelectionChange' event name doesn't describe its behavior correctly, as in general, a selection change event name describes a scenario where it should trigger an event the moment the selection is changed (using the arrow keys on the keyboard to navigating from one item to another from example). So this is quite misleading, as it actually triggered the moment you click and release the mouse button on a ceratin item. So the event works okay - it's just that its name is not accurate. Should be 'OnItemClicked'.

On the same time, I think that if there could be another property there for 'OnEnter' for example to selecting a list item using the keyboard could be a very nice add-on, as currently we have to doing so manually using the on_key event.