Primordia and why I've had enough of this AGS resolution bullshit

[Erkki]

Because of this:

For some reason I didn't notice the same problem with Resonance. I think it was actually 320x240 instead of 320x200? Or maybe I just didn't try it in windowed mode.

[Erkki]

Frankly, I don't even want to play this game now, although I'm sure it could be great otherwise.

[BigJKO]

That's one old school 4:3 monitor. But what's going on? What's making you mad? That the game stretches to fit your weird monitor? There must be some setting somewhere to give it black borders at the top and bottom!

[toblix]

What am I looking at? Windowed vs full-screen?

[Erkki]

ah, I knew I should have written "Windowed" and "Fullscreen" there.

And no, the AGS setup application does not let me select "NO STRETCHING MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?" as an option.

[Erkki]

That's one old school 4:3 monitor. But what's going on? What's making you mad? That the game stretches to fit your weird monitor? There must be some setting somewhere to give it black borders at the top and bottom!

So what that my monitor is old, the game should decide to ignore its aspect ratio? No other engine does that. And isn't it the same problem with modern widescreen monitors -- it will just be stretched differently, won't it? Don't know, haven't tried AGS games on widescreen.

[Erkki]

Ok, I found the setting! It is "Force Alternate Letterbox Resolution". For widescreen there is a similar setting. But still, a Steam user might not even think that there's a magic "winsetup.exe" in the app's folder that makes it normal. This is not an excusable default setting -- why not just detect the monitor's native aspect ratio. Someone might think that kind of stretched out look is what the artist intended and play through an entire game that way.

[BigJKO]

Oh no, no, just wanted to make sure that was your problem. It wasn't entirely clear! And I had to make fun of your monitor..

But yeah it's weird that it isn't automatically the right aspect. I mean, if the game is setting the screen's resolution to widescreen, then the monitor would just show it with borders, right? What resolution do you have picked in the AGS setup thingy?

EDIT: Glad you fixed it! Yeah, AGS is old in stuff like that. it should be in the game's settings dialog instead of in a separate .exe. I wish someone would just make a new engine for all the adventure game devs to use..

[toblix]

Yeah, it's weird that AGS games are still being sold for real money. I wonder how much work it would be to upgrade the engine and fix those weird, old things. Is it still being maintained, or is everyone just running an old, last stable build?

[BigJKO]

I think the guy behind it stopped updating it, but made it open-source. Dont know how much effort anyone else has put into the open-source code, though..

[toblix]

I don't know EXACTLY how Unity works, but couldn't someone make a Unity plug-in/framework/library/module that did what AGS does? I guess it's so popular at least in part because it caters uniquely well to common adventure game requirements like dialogue or inventory or something – SHIRLEY someone could recreate all that, either in Unity or some other system, or even as a stand-alone thing?

Kickstarter!

[BigJKO]

It's definitely possible. Unity's editor can be extended to do pretty much whatever you need (easy dialogue, inventory editing and stuff). Kickstart it, toblix. Go on! Do it!

[toblix]

Gimme a sec, working on the pitch video.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I've got your script ready:

"Hi! You don't know me, and I don't know you. But! Wouldn't it be nice if amateur adventure games looked less like this [iNSERT AGS GAME] and more like this [iNSERT OTHER GAME]? I think so, too. Send me some money and I'll start researching if an alternative is possible.

Your money will allow me to:

Look up things on Wikipedia

Ask about things on various forums

Try and coax programmers into making a better system for everyone to use for free

Stretch goals include:

Trips to Chicago

In return, I'll give you my heart-felt thanks."

[Erkki]

I remember someone saying Unity wasn't exactly perfect for doing 2D. Maybe it was Ben?

Anyway, the game is pretty good!

[Chris]

Yeah, it's weird that AGS games are still being sold for real money.

Cart Life is an AGS game and it's amazing!

[Luftmensch]

I don't know if it applies to AGS, but I changed my driver settings only to allow proportionate scaling.

Speaking of Cart Life, why the hell isn't there a Cart Life thread?

[toblix]

Cart Life is an AGS game and it's amazing!

Sure, lots of sweet AGS games are coming out (I think most Wadjet eye games are great, too.) The platform is just really outdated in some ways, and I think it's interesting that so many people are still using it – it probably means AGS has some really great features that you don't find elsewhere, and that deserve being ported into a more modern environment. Or maybe it's just the wonderful AGS community.

[BigJKO]

I remember someone saying Unity wasn't exactly perfect for doing 2D. Maybe it was Ben?

Anyway, the game is pretty good!

Unity is apparently pretty good at 2D, even though it isn't strictly built for it. Extend the editor with a couple of low-cost addons that are specifically for 2D and you're good to go. The Swindle is an example of a very 2D game made in Unity.

So, get started, toblix! Now!

EDIT: I wonder if some of the people using AGS for their games will maybe try out DoubleFine's adventure framework/tools thingy once they release it.

Also, I think it's wonderful that people are buying AGS games for real money. They're good games and should be valued as such regardless of how their made. But like Erkki, there must be a lot of people that are confused when they first load up Primordia and it looks all weird and stretched and have go mucking about in a winsetup.exe file.

[Tanukitsune]

I think there is (or was) a adventure game engine for flash, I don't remember the name of it, but the guy who does backgrounds for WadjetEye made a demo for a game he never finished it.

You should see the kind of games they make with AGS, I've played platform and RPG games made with that engine. But I think WadjetEye is kinda the only place where they sell AGS games, I think the only time I got AGS games for money that wasn't from WadjetEye was an exclusive indie bundle. It's the same way for RPGMaker games, they are a lot on sale, but they seem to be from only one or two companies.

I agree that it sucks that it's so limited with it's options, but didn't Chris Jones the guy who created the engine, get his "Project Fedora" funded? Who knows, he might make AGS II for this occasion?

Maybe it's just better for pixel art, because all the modern adventure games I know with good pixel art are AGS ones.

[BigJKO]

The Flash thing was called Lassie Engine or something like that.

Wait, Project Fedora.. Isn't that the Tex Murphy sequel? I'm very confused now. Is that the same Chris Jones that did AGS?

[Tanukitsune]

I'm not so sure if it's the same person anymore, this is even worse than the Ron/Dave Gilbert thing... I'm pretty sure there is a popular indie adventure developer called Jim Schafer just because of reasons. Or Ron Schafer Grossman Lowe Williams from Andromeda.

But yeah, it was called Lassie Engine and the game was Nearly Departed. It looks like there aren't many Lassie games, I could only find one complete game made with that engine.

[toblix]

I wouldn't do anything based on Flash at this point – even Adobe have started to accept it's a dying, and will probably live out the rest of its days mainly as a video player platform. I was going to suggest the DFA system, but then I thought «did they really say they would release the source code for it under a license that would permit others to sell games based on it?» and did some very quick research to determine that I had probably imagined all that. If they're in fact going to release their engine, hopefully that'll become the new standard for modern 2D point-and-click games, and a good ecosystem will grow around it, with great support and sweet tools that are easy to use. I could see myself contributing to something like that.

[BigJKO]

I think they definitely said they'd release a certain portion of it as open-source, so hopefully others would join in and contribute to it.

[brkl]

The Flash thing was called Lassie Engine or something like that.

Wait, Project Fedora.. Isn't that the Tex Murphy sequel? I'm very confused now. Is that the same Chris Jones that did AGS?

They're totally different people.