Developers roundup: let's make our own unofficial game

[James Isaac]

My game will be open source... but it would be a lot easier for us to work together on the programming if you had MSN Messenger.

 

And since no one has given me any backgrounds, I have had to try somethign new, so don't blame me if the don't look good? What was I supposed to work with?

 

Um, I've been avoiding replying because I didn't like the style of the demo and didn't want to say it. But I know I gotta respond.

 

[Brushguy]

@ toenail1: I e-mailed you with the Mojo inbox, but maybe you didn't recieve it. If you have any ideas about the story of the game, post them here.

 

@ James Isaac: I don't have MSN Messenger. Sorry.

 

Also it seems that toenail1, Pork_Soda, James Isaac, myself, and tygerbug (despite the fact he hasn't posted in a while) are the only ones who have kept interest in this project, so why don't we compose our team of those five people?

[James Isaac]

That's basically what we are doing... but do you mean close the team so that no one else can join?

 

And, you probably do have Windows Messenger - it usually comes with Windows. See if you have it.

 

The SLUDGE demo might be a bit delayed due to slowness, but I'll tell you what I am doing with the backgrounds - I am using all the media given so far from S&M 2 - and I know that some of them have Sam and Max on them, so i am editing them out. Do you think this is a good idea for the demo?

[Canine_Shamus]

I just wanna see what'll happen next.

 

So, I'll PM you guys with my MSN e-mail, and you can add me to your MSN lists.

 

EDIT

Or, maybe not, the PM doesn't seem to work.

[Brushguy]

... but do you mean close the team so that no one else can join?

 

Yeah, until somebody else says, "I'd like to help," and does something decent for the game. Or is persistent and continues to reply and help us out. What I really meant was to knock everybody else off the credits list since they aren't posting anymore.

 

And, you probably do have Windows Messenger - it usually comes with Windows. See if you have it.

 

Hmm.....I'll figure it out and mail you.

 

but I'll tell you what I am doing with the backgrounds - I am using all the media given so far from S&M 2 - and I know that some of them have Sam and Max on them, so i am editing them out. Do you think this is a good idea for the demo?

 

Great idea. Ironically enough, I made a Sam and Max 2 demo for my PC using all the S&M2 media that got out, and I created a point-n-click system akin to what the real game's like (making a dropdown list with options) in Games Factory. I can't put it up here, because it's 17 MB. It even had the Jump, Jive, and Flail minigame in it...

 

This is really weird. First Day of the Alien, then a Sam and Max game using the media that was released...how do I keep doing the same games that James Isaac is doing?

 

Put up some screenshots please!

[toenail1]

brushguy, your idea was unique, but personally i dont like the whole delivering intestine dealy

 

it seems a little bit of a strange setup for them... i was hoping we would do osmething where they went to different road side attractions (like HTR), it seems like those places seem the most suited towards their personalities, plus they'll meet some colorful characters along the way

 

 

maybe we could combine my idea and yours (minus the intestines, replace it with something less-signifigant, like a rubber ducky)

 

 

or maybe a lost rubber ducky... which they scour the map looking for (i know, i know, its sorta a re-hash of HTR, but that suited them well)

 

edit: the rubber ducky would have some great importance, but in the end they find out its just a toy... or maybe the rubber ducky IS important, whichever one you want

[StonerDave&Max]

wow, sorry for the silence about scriptwriting, but could you just send it to my e-mail address, because i couldnt locate it. But i'd like to have a toatlly original storyline, because not to sound like i didnt like the game, but the quest to find a sasquatch wasnt my favorite idea, I wanted something like they have a situation in which T-shirts across Eastern U.S. have been mysteriously dissappering, and a special cameo apperance playing the role of a small villian in one small part, Synthetic Gerbil. Thats just one of my ideas, but i wanted to experiment with where they would go in the game, and this one was pretty good. if you get in touch with me, i could explain everything

 

And please dont say N E thing about this post if its just being pissy because of my old thread, or because im new to forums. Lets keep it friendly from now on.

 

Edit: Id like to have a trip outside of earth, if only for a small part of the game

[James Isaac]

I am not going to do it completely like SnM 2 though - I'll keep the interface like SnM1 (unless you want me to make it like that, which I could probably implement pretty easily)....

[James Isaac]

Sorry again for the delays, I have some homework and coursework to do.... but the demo should be done fairly soon.

[toenail1]

no, keep it like s&m1

 

 

and i stoners idea is like mine, where they go around the country solving a crime

 

but nobody from the forums (except maybe the people on the team *easter eggs*) should be in the game

[tygerbug]

So I don't post for two days and you think I've dropped off the face of the earth? \=)

 

 

Brushguy - don't sweat or freak out too much. You tried a style, it didn't work, and now we can tell much easier which style we really need to use. I could tell the style of backgrounds was designed for cheap 3d shooters - I said as much in my post. That is very different from an Adventure game.

 

I can't really take the original HTR sprites and make them look TOO much better. Maybe a little better, but not much. You should try another program for DVD grabbing. I could do some nice stuff if I had a DVD like yours, or just a lot of images from that DVD. There are lots of programs that can rip from DVDs.

 

Also, for posting large files, I should give you FTP access to one of my websites or something. I have endless amounts of space and this freewebs stuff is killing me.

 

James -- The cel-shaded 3d objects look good, the UFO in particular. The one background that was posted looks a little bit too Maniac Mansion (and I don't mean Day of the Tentacle)! ... meaning it looks too simple ... but with more detail in it I have no problem with this sort of style interacting with sprite characters.

 

I agree with Brushguy - Resolution should be 640 x 480.

 

I'd still like to see the game done in AGS only because I (and most people) don't know SLUDGE and could program in AGS very easily without further training and having to work in a very script-heavy language. Regardless, I'm excited to see James' demo.

[James Isaac]

Sorry, I made the demo more like Sam and Max 2. I have the blue list of things to do with the object like in Sam and Max 2. You can play it with that, and if you don't like it, I can really easily change it to old SnM1 style.

 

And also, I was trying to make a sam and max 2 font from teh stuff seen so far, but i don't know if that's possible...

 

Expect demo soon.

[James Isaac]

Screenshot:

 

[James Isaac]

Phew. Finally finished the demo... Uploading now. But i am uploading it to a Lycos page, so it will probably shut down soon.

 

And, I am uploading now, so as I write this message, the file isn't uploaded yet. Give it 15 minutes and it should be.

 

Once it is done, get it here.

 

And please read the readme, and take note of this in particular:

 

I made this really quickly in my free time to give you an idea of what SLUDGE can do. If there is something you don't like, please don't dismiss the whole game straight away. Just tell me what you don't like, and I can change it and release another build. This is in no way final.

[Krazy]

Thats pretty cool James I like it

[iceqb]

Really, really good. I really like it! SLUDGE seems to be a really good engine!

[toenail1]

demo doesnt work for me, i grabbed the new SLUDGE engine, and it wont run the game cuz its not a sludge file

 

and when i use the .exe it says it cna not play one of the music files

 

 

but the screenshot looks amazing

[StonerDave&Max]

It just redirects me to the website whenever i try, i signed up, i tried looking up sludge on it. Nothing comes up to allow me to download it. could i get some help please

[tygerbug]

I can't download the demo either .... could you email it to ggilchri@usc.edu?

 

 

However, the screenshot looks great. Somehow the use of Sam and Max 2 backgrounds works .... probably because they already look "Sam and Max!"

 

I'm excited to see the demo - when I can.

 

 

I think the font you're trying to use is a basic comic book lettering font. For that sort of fun, check out blambot.com - comic book lettering fonts of all stripes.

[tygerbug]

Okay, so I was finally able to download the file.

 

I have put it here:

 

http://www.ffrevolution.com/1samnmax/SnM2.zip

 

However, when I run the game, it crashes immediately, giving me the following error:

 

FATAL:

Currently in this sub: officeRoom

Calling: startMusic

Resource: music/office.mid

 

I can't understand a piece of music which I've been told to play!

 

Maybe it's stored in a format that your FMOD.DLL sound library doesn't know about... make sure you've got a recent version of FMOD.DLL by grabbing the latest SLUDGE engine from http://www.hungrysoftware.com/. Failing that, maybe the resource in question isn't a valid music format at all... in which case, contact the game's author and tell them what's happened.

 

--

 

 

There is no "music" directory, or a file called office.mid.

 

 

 

Like the clever bastard I am, I downloaded a random MIDI file, renamed it to office.mid and put it in a folder called music.

 

I still got the same error.

 

Yep.

[James Isaac]

OKOK. Maybe I included the wrong version of fmod .dll.

 

But there is not meant to be a folder called music. What happens is it bundles the whole thing together into one file called "Sam and Max Demo.slg", and then the engine runs that. But I wanted to make it easier for you, so I did the thing that you do when you sell a commercia game with it - renamed it to gamedata and gave an exe. Now, I'll try to fix that error and get another download.

 

(Oh yeah, and I obviously left it in developer mode and that's why you got the errors .

 

But don't worry. I'll have a fixed version very soon. And when I do, I'll e-mail it to tygerbug so he can upload it.

___________

Edit

 

Hmm. I'm trying to find what it wrong. It worked for Krazy, but I gave him the SLG file and let him download SLUDGE. But it worked for HT_Threepwood aswell.... so I'm not sure. Maybe you have an old/new version of fmod.dll in your system dlls.

 

This time, I'll just e-mail you the SLG file, and l'll let you get the engine yourselves from http://www.hungrysoftware.com...

 

___________

Edit 2

 

I e-mailed tygrbug some instructions that might get it to work. If it does, I'll give you the same instructions, and the correct file up for download.

 

This is what I e-mailed him:

 

Sorry about all the errors. i think everyone has the wrong version of fmod.dll. Could you please try the following:

 

1) Delete all files apart from gamedata and readme

2) Go to http://www.hungrysoftware.com and download the latest version of the engine.

3) Install the engine

4) Find the exe for the SLUDGE engine, copy it, and paste it in the same folder as gamedata.

5) Run the exe.

 

This should fix the problems. If it doesn't, I have something else to try.

 

Thanks,

James

 

I don't know if that will work. But it worked for Krazy, and he told me all he did was download the SLUDGE engine and it worked.

[James Isaac]

I seeked help on the HungrySoftware forums and got this reply

 

I don't have much experience with sound files, but is this the same bug that was discussed here a few months ago? If I remember right, it's not Sludge's fault, but the next version will fix it anyway.

 

The problem is that there are different versions of FMOD.DLL. Sludge is a righteous program, and places FMOD.DLL in the correct Windows folder. But some other evil, badly coded programs place a different version of FMOD.DLL in a different folder. This changes the registry. So next time you play a Sludge game, it uses the wrong FMOD.DLL and you get an error message or a crash.

 

I hope I got that right. If I didn't, or if this is not your problem, please ignore this message.

 

...

[Brushguy]

Wow! A lot can happen if I leave for a few days.

 

@ everybody: There seems to be some discussion about who contacts who and lots of "you can contact me here and here"s floating everywhere. Is it me who's supposed to e-mail everybody the information, or did you guys mean "you" as the rest of us? I don't have time to e-mail every person every two seconds, so try to post your stuff for the game here.

 

@ StonerDave&Max: You can be on the team if you want to, and I like your ideas, but maybe something more significant than T-shirts disappearing, because what would be the object of that to the villain?

 

Also, I wouldn't mind Sam and Max stumbling into the Geek's lab and finding a synthetic gerbil, before it starts to bite Max... Also, a definite part of the game will be in space.

 

@ tygerbug: Sorry about freaking out (I was just a bit insulted that you said that I wasn't an artist), and complaining about you not posting.

 

I'd still be happy to rip sprites from the show, but I need a screen capturing program that'll work on DVDs. But if you're downloading episodes, couldn't you watch 'em on your PC and grab shots from there? You just need AT ScreenThief (google for it, I don't remember where I got it) to grab desktop shots.

originally posted by tygerbug

Also, for posting large files, I should give you FTP access to one of my websites or something. I have endless amounts of space and this freewebs stuff is killing me.

Thanx for the offer for access to your website space. I'll e-mail you and we can figure it out. I don't like Freewebs either, but they give you 500MB bandwidth, even if it is slow, 40 MB per website, and they don't shut down sites used merely for storage.

 

@ toenail1: Like the rubber duck idea. I also like the idea that team members, along with nasty references to nasty forum members (see above) should be easter eggs in the game. Though, I don't want to drop the intestines idea completely. Guess I got attached to it. Sorry that you never recieved by e-mail, but I did send one via the Mojo inboxes....hmm...

 

We need to come onto some sort of agreement or compromise for the plot. How about after we get enough ideas, we muddle them together into a coherent plot, so everybody's ideas get in.

 

@ James Isaac: Screenshot looks great, but where's Max? The demo doesn't work for me either, but I'm looking forward to a fixed version.

 

Keep in mind that you won't be forced to do the programming for all of the game, since you're working on Day of the Alien already. I'd be willing to learn SLUDGE, but since it'll be my first game, I may need some help programming it.

 

Like the 3D cel-shades, but like tygerbug said, they're a bit too simple.

 

The interface should be something new and different. Maybe a touch of Sam and Max 1 and a touch of Sam and Max 2. This is something else we'll have to agree on before development gets underway.

 

Anyway, glad to see people have kept interest in this project.

[StonerDave&Max]

Thanks for allowing me, but with a little help, the idea could be good, but ive discarded that one n e way, because though it started out good, the further it went on while i was planning, it just didnt come together, and i had taken note there was no villian. It would be nice if we could all pile up a site somewhere for use. Anyway, i am working on a new storyline, and i hope its a little better, i just have to put some really good thought from beginning to end before i get exitied and post it.

[Krazy]

Look guys SNM2 is cancelled, I'm dissapointed too. Get over it, you don't have to go make your own just cause you're not gonna get a real one.

 

You seem to have a good team why can't you use it to make something original? You could really make a great original amature adventure game. But if you try to make a fangame it will end up seeming dry. and unoriginal.