Henrik wrote : Lyd, I'm a huge fan of your work. For my own tastes, I think you, GoblinBoy and whomever it is who does the Ariane game are at the forefront of AIF/Adult adventure games. Please continue to favor us with your work. Please.
Thanks so much. I recall seeing you post on another forum, but wasn't aware you enjoyed my games to such an extent. I've seen goblinboy's name on another forum when I took a peek to see if they might be a fit for my games. I managed to get in a good deal of work on manor this weekend. Went from three paths to planning in fair amounts of detail for eight now. If this continues to progress well, an update shouldn't be too far in the future.
And since you asked for questions...I have some.
1. In the University Sim 2 Demo (I think I'm playing 0.8 which is the most current?) the furthest I can get towards dating Charlie is .....
(Spoiler space, since I'm not sure we have spoiler /tags here)
+++++++
+++++++
+++++++
(SPOILERS AHOY!) The furthest I can get is the "Visit Charlie 3" sequence at the dorm...three dates at the three locations (where all I can do is answer her questions correctly at "Talk About") and the Game Ender at the night club. Am I missing any other good endings with her?
University SIm2 is my favorite of my games. Player reactions however gives all the appearance that it's not one of the more popular types. 008 is the last updated version. I plan to make updates after finishing manor. But as a project for myself and of course my best friend, my biggest fan.
The dorm stage 3 is correct. Did you get to experience movie night? I haven't seen much posted about it, so not sure how many people get to that part. There's also: jogging, her exercise classes, and a rescue option if she disappears. I don't believe anyone has managed that one yet or they haven't posted if they did. Date locations and questions, check. I have in mind items for dates that will give temp hp boosts, increase stats, etc. There's the dating a teacher path and charlie also get's convinced she's a character from a tv show. The night club is an ending(his girl charlie), but will be expanded as well. Having emma datable should be fun to write and I look forward to getting her in some interesting situations. Did that answer your question properly?
Also, I'm just learning RAGS myself using the hit-or-miss system of "nope, that didn't work right, maybe this." How long does it take you to code your games in RAGS, and do you find it to be the best (I guess as opposed to Adrift or TAGS whatever version) for doing AIF with pictures?
Thanks in advance for any answers or guidance!
I've only tried rags for game writing, so not in a position to discuss the other engine merits. I would suggest that you make sure you really enjoy whatever game you are going to make as they are more work than they appear to be! But when you get the engine to work with you, it's kind of cool to see your ideas opening up before you in a game. Length wise will depend on what you would like to do with your game. I always seem to have the multi path variety, so I end up with a much longer project than if I had settled for a couple of endings. Plus it's a spare time project, so it tends to stretch over multiple months. So in sum from what I've seen with my games: write first and foremost for yourself. Be prepared for the business of game making. Ie players prefer to play games, not provide feedback on them. Also, some people will be less than kind if they do post. If they do provide basis for their points, try to be objective and see if making some changes will improve your game. If the changes aren't true to your idea, they aren't going to work for you. It's not a happy moment, but these individuals rarely can construct a valid argument so don't worry to much about them.
Try to start with small experiments in 2 or 3 rooms where you see if you can code things you would like to have in your game. Make it about learning, not about a game yet. The learning curve can be hard enough without trying to pull off an involved game to boot. But most of all, have fun with it.
(Oh also, the link to the final 2.1 version of your original RAGS dating sim is dead. Any chance of getting you to put that back up on a filehosting service in the near future?)
I guess like my games, I have a different take on the whole posting business. University Sim I look at as retired for now anyway. I still encourage fans to post suggestions to its' thread as I'm thinking of taking a look at it when I get a chance to see if an update seems a good idea. So I make a link available if requested in the hypno thread. But I do ask people not to share said link or create their own link or post to another forum. I gauge player interest by download and feedback. Using a different link reduced download count and posting to another forum means I won't see the feedback.