Messages

76

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: No-Shirt Developer(s)

« on: November 15, 2015, 12:06:11 PM »

In Paint.NET, how would I draw with a Color Scheme matching SCI Companion? Also... 320x200 is still the maximum drawable space, yes?

What do you mean matching SCI Companion? You can export a palette from SCI Companion if you want to use a specific palette in paint.NET. You would do this for the fixed colors for characters/view, usually. For pic backgrounds, just draw whatever, and SCI Companion will figure out the best palette colors to use for the "flexible" part of the palette range.

I was on the understanding that Sierra Games (Especially SCI0, which I'm trying to emulate), uses EGA, which has a limited range of colors (64, I think), but only 16 can be shown at a time, usually listed as 0 - 15. I'm not sure whether SCI Companion allows different palettes for different rooms or whether it's locked to one across the whole game. But really, I'm trying to emulate the color scheme and feel of a Sierra Game (As in, the image above being a good example of what I mean).

77

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: No-Shirt Developer(s)

« on: November 15, 2015, 11:46:33 AM »

<ignoreable rant> there is not, when it comes down to it, a single "Sierra style". Each game (not even each series) does its own thing. For example, I'mma limit myself to character art: back in AGI, most games had the same graphical style simply because there wasn't much room to play with. But even back in early SCI0, you had things like this scene in PQ2. All these characters are in the same style... except for Larry. It's actually a pretty good shot, highlighting the differences. And in SCI1, things did not get much better. </ignoreable rant>

Anyway, Paint.NET and Anvil Studio.

I kind of mean more the SCI-Style, in terms how each game as similar to each other in design, although not exact... They all had the same kind of feel, until much later into Late SCI1.1 / SCI2, when the art style began to change drastically from game to game. In Paint.NET, how would I draw with a Color Scheme matching SCI Companion? Also... 320x200 is still the maximum drawable space, yes?

78

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: No-Shirt Developer(s)

« on: November 15, 2015, 11:40:00 AM »

You realize that "Comfy Shirt Kawa" is just a stupid little joke reference to what I was actually looking for, right? It's a thread title nothing more

Yep, I know that... I basically want this to have as many references to the SCI Programming Community as possible. 

79

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / No-Shirt Developer(s)

« on: November 15, 2015, 10:57:19 AM »

As some of you might be able to tell... I'm quite new at SCI Programming. Not AGI or SCI as a whole, I've played most of the Self-Published Sierra Lineup (Not including ones made by external developers and published by Sierra). I've played with SCI Studio and SCI Companion before, years ago and I did even have an account on the forum... But I believe I deleted that to avoid embarrassment (All the questions I asked that were meaningless), and for a fresh start in the future (now).

"No-Shirt Developer(s)" (I haven't yet chose whether it'll be Developer, or Developers, thus the bracket there) will be my first game I'll be making with the help of SCI Companion... It's meant to be a homage to the style and feel of a Leisure Suit Larry game whilst being somewhat original as well... Full of jokes and meaningless side adventures that just add to the fun, and lots of ways to die. I'm hoping it'll actually be a finalized game, but yet, I'm only experienced in writing and scripting, so more important things like art or music are going to be difficult for me; Especially since EGA / VGA Art is something that needs to be learned from scratch. "No-Shirt Developer(s)" is also a vague reference to Kawa's "Comfy Shirt Kawa 4".

So... I'd love to have any suggestions for how I'd do art or music in Sierra Style, and more importantly without buying software to help me out. Also, I'd love offers of help, although as a Game Developer, I understand that I'll probably not get that kind of help until I have some kind of thing to show... Like a Game Design Document, or a rough prototype available.

80

SCI Development Tools / Re: INN - LSCIDump

« on: November 15, 2015, 02:54:33 AM »

It looks something like this now (see attached).

http://scicompanion.com

Some of the icons are a little rough-looking. Do you think over all that the blocky 8-bit icons look ok though? Maybe the icons should be modern hi-res ones, but the text should stay blocky? Or vice-versa?

For the slider bar images, I choose 3 screenshots each from combinations of VGA/EGA and Sierra/fanmade games (for a total of 12). Can anyone suggest better screenshots? Ideally I was looking for iconic scenes and, perhaps more importantly, scenes of predominantly one hue, as 3 adjacent scenes of mixed hues looks bad. I certainly failed in some cases.

Can anyone suggest title/subtitles for the sliderbar images that appear on top? I can't think of anything non-cheesy so I just put placeholder stuff in. But I was going for "create" copy for the fanmade screenshots and "nostalgia" copy for the sierra screenshots.


I hate wordpress.

[edit:] of course, IE is scaling the icons for some reason, ruining the blocky look. :-p

Okay... Critique time. See if you can get rid of the grey "Meta Area", the thing that has the "Log in", "Entries RSS", "Comments RSS" and "WordPress.org" links, because I feel that it ruins the feel a little, plus it's taking up unneeded and unnecessary space; The only real needed link is "Log In" and I think that could go onto the currently black footer (I'll explain shortly). Now with the black footer, if possible, make it white, and the text / social logos black... Then this is where the "Log In" Link fits in to the black footer, at the bottom of this post, I've wrote two sets of code if it allows you to edit HTML Code in it (One using JavaScript, the other pure HTML), else if not, just put "SCI Companion | Log In". Now the Spotlight Area at the top, the images are great, the text is great, but I feel the second image doesn't fit with the Sierra Style, that's the only problems I have with that. Finally, if possible... With the site as a whole, try and see if there's a way in HTML or the control panel that you can make the banner and the navigations fit into 100% width and 100% height of the browser window using CSS or some other trick, because I feel it'd look a lot more better if I didn't have to scroll down to actually see what the buttons do, and it'd make it much neater... Although text below is fine. Also maybe the footer should be sticky, so it stays at the bottom of the page when scrolling, so it's always seen. I hope you appreciate the time I've took to critique your site, and hopefully improve it.

Plain HTML:
(This version requires you to update it every year)

Code: [Select]

<a href="http://scicompanion.com/">SCI Companion</a>, &copy; 2007 - 2015; <a href="http://www.icefallgames.com/">Phil Fortier (Troflip)</a> | <a href="http://scicompanion.com/wp-login.php">Log In</a>
JavaScript:
(This version updates itself every year)

Code: [Select]

<script>function GetCopyright() { var StartYear = 2007; var MaxYear = 2050; var CurrentYear = new Date().getFullYear(); var CRSymbol = '&copy; '; var SSText = '; '; var Spacer = ' | '; var TSText = ' &ndash; '; var SciC = '<a href="http://scicompanion.com/">SCI Companion</a>'; var IceF = '<a href="http://www.icefallgames.com/">Phil Fortier (Troflip)</a>'; var LogI = '<a href="http://scicompanion.com/wp-login.php">Log In</a>'; if (StartYear == CurrentYear) { document.write(SciC + CRSmybol + StartYear + SSText + IceF + Spacer + LogI);} else if (StartYear !== CurrentYear && CurrentYear > StartYear && CurrentYear < MaxYear) { document.write(SciC + CRSmybol + StartYear + TSText + CurrentYear + SSText + IceF + Spacer + LogI); } GetCopyright(); }</script>

81

Everything-Else / Thank you, MusicallyInspired!

« on: November 14, 2015, 04:21:12 PM »

Thank you... For being the one that made the "SCI Development Tools" Sub-Board reach the current year within the post count. That Sub-Board will never again be parallel with the real year again. I hope you all enjoy the screenshot I took of the mega rare event, because something like this, on a forum like this... An event like this is one that is VERY RARE!!! 

82

SCI Development Tools / Re: INN - LSCIDump

« on: November 14, 2015, 12:57:08 PM »

I appreciate the offers of help, but I think in the end I'd like to do it.

I'm kind of going for something like this: http://cdn.wpdailythemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Enclosed.jpg
If you'd like to help, maybe suggest how I can integrate and "old school" feel with something like that?

I'd suggest by incorporating it into the background, and into the images used, such as the buttons and the spotlight bar (where the drink is in that image you linked). You can also incorporate the "old school" feel by making SCI Companion Website have a logo, and make it be old-school themed.

83

Forum Support and Suggestions / Re: Suggested New Boards

« on: November 14, 2015, 10:14:52 AM »

It already had so many subforums. Personally I dislike boards that I have to do a lot of scrolling just to see if there are any new posts. It is also low enough traffic that it doesn't really need sorted even more than it already is. And it was not that long ago that Cloudee redid the board. I just don't see any real benefit. But, in the end it is up to Cloudee.

I can see that... But the point I'm trying to make with this, is that things like discussions, wanting critique, or wanting to recruit others, are all difficult, because there's no real place to allow these things to happen. So, thus, it all ends up going into "The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff", and then it seems to become a mess, especially since making a game for AGI or SCI are two separate processes are are almost unattached from each other, and both require different types of people to do (As in, somebody who makes resources for an AGI Game can't necessarily make resources for a SCI Game), and for the poster this could mean unnecessarily pointing out whether said project is either an AGI or SCI Game unless something alike to my idea was used. I also still think that "The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff" is a poorly thought-out and worded sub-forum name... It's way too long!     

84

Forum Support and Suggestions / Suggested New Boards

« on: November 14, 2015, 04:53:42 AM »

After taking a long look at the current boards on SCIProgramming.com, I thought I'd give some suggestions for extra boards that could be added, which would expand the range of things that can be done. As right now, it seems as if some things are a bit confusing, such as, where to post certain things that do not really meet the criteria of the current board(s) that exist. Here are my ideas:

SCI Programming:
"The SCI Lounge" (For discussing SCI Titles and / or Projects, for getting suggestions on how you can improve your SCI Resource(s) (Such as art, music, scripts, writing, etc.) and / or SCI Game(s), and for finding people to join your SCI Project(s) in "Key Areas" (such as art design, music design, scripting, writing, etc.); Topics in The SCI Lounge are distinguishable by a tag in square brackets at the start of the subject in block capitals: [DISCUSSION], [CRITIQUE] or [RECRUITMENT]. (Such as [DISCUSSION] Phantasmagoria Hidden Files))

AGI Programming:
"The AGI Lounge" (For discussing AGI Titles and / or Projects, for getting suggestions on how you can improve your AGI Resource(s) (Such as art, music, scripts, writing, etc.) and / or AGI Game(s), and for finding people to join your AGI Project(s) in "Key Areas" (such as art design, music design, scripting, writing, etc.); Topics in The AGI Lounge are distinguishable by a tag in square brackets at the start of the subject in block capitals: [DISCUSSION], [CRITIQUE] or [RECRUITMENT]. (Such as [CRITIQUE] Kings Quest III-Style Sprites))

General and Everything-Else: (Suggested Changes)
"The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff" becomes "The Games Room" (This seems like a much better name, since topics that fit either "The SCI Lounge" or "The AGI Lounge" would probably be moved into them to allow them to be found easier.)
"Everything-Else" becomes "Everything Else" (Just because it bugs me!)

85

SCI Development Tools / Re: INN - LSCIDump

« on: November 14, 2015, 04:08:11 AM »

I wouldn't mind helping with the SCI Companion Website too... Looking at it, it's currently a wordpress thing and I don't think that's how it should look (I could whip up a great-looking website, whilst keeping it minimalistic, and clean).

Well I just registered it today and installed wordpress and haven't done anything else with it yet, lol. So that's why it looks like that .

I was just planning on it being a clean landing page with a handle of links: download, documentation, github, a link to here.

I'd still love to help with the website however I could, if you don't mind. If you do, I understand though.

86

SCI Development Tools / Re: INN - LSCIDump

« on: November 14, 2015, 03:23:04 AM »

On an unrelated note, I think I've deciphered how to save SCI2 views. Reading them is not problem (same format as SCI1.1 for the actual image data), but writing them in a way SCI expects was not easy - there's a whole bunch of data at the end of the view which is apparently very important. And I've just figured out what it is. SCI Companion won't have official SCI2 support, but it will be able to read everything (except for movies), and I've been able to save messages, text, and pics back to the resource packages. I assume scripts would work, but I haven't tried. And now, hopefully, views will work.

One thing that might be cool for a future idea, for when you get around to moving to a focus of working more on SCI2, is .RBT and .VMD Support, which are the two video formats used by Sierra for their FMV Games, such as Phantasmagoria. The RBT (Robot) Format has video and (sometimes) audio, but has a transparent background layer which used to overlay the video over an already existent background (presumably to save space and rendering time in-game), usually this transparent layer in SV.EXE is displayed as black, but I'd suggest a rarely used color, like vibrant green, vibrant blue, or vibrant pink. The VMD Format is purely video and audio, it seems as if it'd be a lot easier to implement a VMD Viewer into SCI Companion, than a RBT Viewer; On VAG's SCI Page (http://vagsoft.chat.ru/sci.html), there's a beta for a VMD Player that is "90% complete", could be interesting to just take a peek at that?

87

SCI Development Tools / Re: INN - LSCIDump

« on: November 14, 2015, 03:21:23 AM »

But for now, I suggest redoing your site when you have a final version of SCI Companion 3.x.x.x

No doubt. scicompanion.com is available!

edit: and now registered

I wouldn't mind helping with the SCI Companion Website too... Looking at it, it's currently a wordpress thing and I don't think that's how it should look (I could whip up a great-looking website, whilst keeping it minimalistic, and clean). Why would I do this for all of you? Honestly, because it helps me settle in to the community. I've been here before, years ago and I stayed a while, but I think I've forgotten my account name or I deleted it for a fresh start in the future (now). I want to help the SCI Community however I can... Eventually, that'll be with designing games... But for now, I have to help with what I'm good at.

88

SCI Development Tools / Re: INN - LSCIDump

« on: November 14, 2015, 03:11:53 AM »

SCI Community should get some kind of facelift as well. At the very least changing some of the example images from EGA resource editing to VGA resource editing would give it a fresh indication of what's now possible. SCI creation in general has had the reputation of being EGA only for a very long time.

I've been a hobbyist Web Designer for a couple of years, and would love the challenge of eventually working on a redesigned SCIProgramming Website. A facelift on the website, adding some features, making everything look more fancy, and slick, whilst still being easy to use, would be cool. Here are some of the things I've worked on (some coded straight from scratch, others using freely available templates that are then being edited to the extremes): http://toiletheadstudios.com/, http://melkshamskills.co.uk/ and http://sd.savedisneyshows.org/ (The last link is going to have a facelift itself soon).

89

SCI Development Tools / Re: INN - LSCIDump

« on: November 13, 2015, 02:18:06 PM »

Ok, it looks like the sound resources couldn't be opened just because the package file (resource.002) is missing. I was looking in the ARENA folder.

This time I tried the LL folder, and the sounds in there worked. SCI Companion was able to load and play most of them (4 out of 46 is listed as corrupted).

SCI Companion isn't able to export midi, so I extracted a snd resource, then loaded it as a single file in SV.exe, which is able to export to midi. Attached!

So you'll at least be able to get somewhere with the next release of SCI Companion.

Awesome. I look forward to seeing some form of LSCI Support for viewing / playing / reading resources in a future version of SCI Companion. Good luck on your future work on SCI Companion, I'm glad that you've finally came back to it and are breathing new life into a seemingly dying community... I'll give suggestions for features or improvements to SCI Companion whenever I have them in the appropriate places. But for now, I suggest redoing your site when you have a final version of SCI Companion 3.x.x.x

90

SCI Development Tools / Re: INN - LSCIDump

« on: November 13, 2015, 08:14:23 AM »

Omer has most of the variants of TSN/INN on his Google drive unless he has removed them.

Looking at Omer's OneDrive with previous INN Versions (https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=adf7c3cd5da3ba15&id=ADF7C3CD5DA3BA15%21212), they all seem to not work with SCI Companion, giving the same kind of problems / errors... I couldn't try TSN (The Sierra Network), because it apparently doesn't use .MAP Files). I tried them all with the Sierra Resource Viewer as well, and the only one to even be read was TSN, which was made back in 1990, and the only thing readable on that was a handful of .pat (Patch) files.