Adventure Creator Q&A thread

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby kexter » Sat, 16Aug13 18:37

jilliangates77 wrote:Hm, how do I change that image? It says "configure an image editor."
The Actions->Edit Image menu option is not the thing you're looking for, try File->Open Image... instead.
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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby tlaero » Sat, 16Aug13 23:48

Kexter is right. Actions->Edit image means "bring this image up in your favorite image editor" (ie Photoshop). To do that, you have to tell it what your favorite image editor is, though.

File->Open Image... is the way to get started, but I use Tools->Show Image Viewer. That brings up a window that shows you the images in your images folder. It has two major buttons, "Get Current AC Image" and "Set Current AC Image." The former loads the image currently shown in the main AC window into the image viewer. The latter puts the image in the image viewer into the main AC window.

A couple things to note with this.
1) When Image Viewer is open, if you're in the main AC window, hitting "ctrl-i" is the equivalent of doing "Set Current AC Image."
2) When you set the image, the image viewer automatically jumps to the next one.
3) In the main AC window, hitting "ctrl-n" jumps to the page box (to change the page Name).
4) From there, tab takes you to the Top Text box.

Here's how I work.
Mortze gives me a bunch of images, which I put into the "images" folder.
I open AC2, open the current project, and open the last page I was working on. (Let's say that page was called "bar7")
I hit "Get Current AC Page" and the "Next Image" so that Image Viewer now shows the image for the next page.
I go to the "Page" box and change "bar7" to "bar8"
Then I hit "ctrl-i" to load the next image.
Then I hit tab and change the toptext
Then I hit tab again and change the says.
Then I hit "ctrl-s" to save the new page.
Then I hit "ctrl-n" and change it to "bar9"
Then "ctrl-i" to update the image. Etc.

This lets me write a ton of pages without ever touching the mouse. It's super efficient for me.

A couple more tricks.
If you want to look quickly at images in the image viewer, click on the "Next Image" button, then hit tab. Now you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to cycle through them.
Also, if you click the "unused" box it'll only show you images you haven't used yet. I use this to make sure I haven't forgotten any images and also to look at a new set of images Mortze has sent me.
When you're in the main AC window, "Alt-Left Arrow" and "Alt-Right Arrow" quickly jump to pages. If you're on bar7 and you want to go to bar6, Alt-left. Then Alt-right to go back to bar7.
In gameview, if you start to type the name of a page, it'll scroll to that page.

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby jilliangates77 » Mon, 16Oct10 02:06

Okay, I've got a screenshot of my "intro" page, and figured out how to get the images in there finally. Thanks for that.

However, I don't know what or where to edit to include a link to the next page (it's called intro01).

Also, similar to my download game, is there a way to edit where the "top text" appears so it instead appears as a layer on top of the image, rather than at the very top of the screen above the image? (added spoiler tag because image is large).
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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby tlaero » Tue, 16Oct11 01:30

Hey Jillian,

Do you want the link to the next page to be something you click on the picture or a text link below the picture?

You have full control of the html and css files, so you should be able to change where the toptext goes. You'd change continue.htm most likely, though you might be able to do it all with the css.

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby tlaero » Sat, 16Oct15 17:24

There are a lot of options, but a convention I've adopted in my games is that if the user clicks a text link below the picture, it's something he says and if he clicks a link in the picture its something he does.

So, in the picture you posted, if you want an option for the player to say, "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him" you'd go to the boxes near the bottom of the screen where the label is "Says:" (these are things you say). In the "link" box you'd write "intro1" (no quotes). You'd skip the "fcn" (function) box. And in the "text" box you'd write "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him." You could do quotes or not there, depending on the style you want to do. Because I'm fairly consistent in my games that these are things you say, I don't need quotes. But if you do it differently, quotes might make sense for you. In the "text" box quotes or not are just whether you want them to show up for the user.

On the other hand, if you want the user to look more closely at the grave, it would make sense to have a hit target on the grave with text along the lines of "Take a close look at the grave." To do that you want to use the boxes in "Current Area:" (just above "Says:") and you want to put a hit target on the picture. To do this, put the mouse on the upper left corner of the grave (on the picture) press the left mouse button, drag down and to the right, and let go of the mouse button when you've covered what you want. You should end up with a colored box covering part of the picture. Now if you left click and drag that box, you'll move it. If you right click and drag it, you'll resize it. If you just right click, you'll bring up a context menu.

Left click on the box you made to select it, then go down to the "link" box in "Current Area:" and type "intro1" (no quotes). You should see "intro1" appear in the box and it's color will likely change (boxes with different links have different colors so you can tell them apart). Again, skip fcn and go to the "text" box. Here you'd type "Take a closer look at the grave." though you almost definitely wouldn't do quotes, since that's not something said. Again, it should show up in the box on the image.

You can add more hit targets (maybe one for each character, etc). The important thing is to click on the box you want to add/change the link and text for. If you don't see the text in the box changing, you forgot to select it.

Sometimes I want to copy the text from one hit target box to another. To do that I click on one of the colored boxes, which puts the text in the "link" and "text" boxes, then I right click on the second box and say "Update All."

Also, if you want overlapping boxes, let me know and I'll explain about "Send to Front" and "Send to Back."

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby mkh » Sat, 16Oct22 01:35

Thank for a great program Tlaero.

I looked for a year or so after a game, that covered my requests, but found only games, that covered part of it. So I figure to make one myself. Only problems.....Drawings is bad, coding is even worse.
But thanks to your program, coding is now way better than drawings. So since I had written most of my intro, I figured to make it as a game with your program.
I only use 'area' and 'table entries' for now, no other fancy stuff like 'points' and 'bad endings'. They might come, but I fly low for now and when I crash, it should be easier to figure out why.

I really like 'Game View'. It great to see whatever text and link each page have.....or still need. I guess, it be first place I look, when I crash.
Your tutorials was great too, but you didn't mention, that it was in '_game' to change game title. I kinda found it by mistake later in tutorial.

There are 3 'table entries', but if I only use 1 or 2, how do I get them fill out page?
About 'area', is there a max limit in one page?
How many 'stats' can 'var gameVars' handle? I allready know, that it can handle 3 from tutorial, but I would need around 20, maybe more. Is that possible?

Thanks again for program and thanks for inspiration from DWE and RFJ. Last thank is to Mortze as well.
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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby tlaero » Sun, 16Oct23 01:56

Hey mkh. Cool that you're making your own game.

The table entry sizes are set by the css file. If you use the one from the tutorial, it should make them stretch when you have 1 or 2 to fill the space. If that's not working for you, let me know and I'll look into it.

As for areas per page, I'm trying to remember. I think there was a limit of 16 on AC1 and I upped it to 32 on AC2. It's also possible that I made it unlimited. I can't remember. From a gameplay standpoint, I suggest against having more than 10 or so, though. I suspect that having too many would be annoying for your players. In Life with Keeley, there was a place where I had 9 hit targets and people didn't like it. That said, if you need more areas than AC2 supports, let me know. I can increase the limit. The way to know if you've done too many is that you'd create them, save the page, navigate to another page, and then come back. If you come back and some of the areas are gone, it means you had too many.

As for variables, you're basically limited to the amount of space a browser can hold in cookies. How many that is will depend on what you store in them. Strings take up more space than numbers, etc. But 20 should be fine. Also, if you have a lot of "true or false" variables, I can show you how to pack them into less space. In my games, I pack all of the "event" variables ("did you buy the guitar book or not?") in a single variable.

If you want examples, DwE is currently in AC2 format. I've also converted RfJ into AC2 for the people doing the German and Spanish translations, but they don't seem to be making much progress, so I haven't seen a need to re-release it.

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby mkh » Sun, 16Oct23 23:22

Thanks for info.

By chance I found out that I needed gameDelim in _game file, so I looked after it in RFJ files and figured out what to type. So now is it centered, but it only fill bar completely, if text is more than 1 line.

About areas - My idea was to have a kind of "primary map", where plenty events (minigame) could be chosen from and when a particular event was completed, it could be done again or another could be chosen, if conditions still are valid.
That direct me to another question - In those events, I want to have a chance to miss an event! Let's say we're in a park and have 4 options :
1) Leave (100% success - no penalty)
2) Rest on a bench (100% success - use time or event attempts)
3) Buy and eat an icecream (100% success if you have enough money for it - use time or event attempt)
4) Go for sex (40% but might raise to 90% depending on reputation - use time or event attempt, also if failed)

About variables - I had in mind to make some RPG stats like Agility, Charisma, Dexterity, Intelligence and Stamina, each of them would have their own visible value, but they would also work together 2 or more and raise chance for success in events like "Go for sex".
I also want to raise relasionship to several NPC's, each with their own visible value and with some kind of permanent reward, when reaching a specific value (cheaper food, lower rent etc).

I looked though both RFJ and DWE file and I think, I can find some answers/ideas there, at least about variables.
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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby tlaero » Tue, 16Oct25 03:49

You can definitely do those things. It's just a matter of writing the JavaScript code. If you have any specific questions, ask away and we'll help you.

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby tlaero » Tue, 16Nov01 01:10

Hey mkh. I was in the AC2 code today and checked. You can have as many hit areas on the picture as you want. There was a limit in AC1, but I removed it when I wrote AC2.

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby Jack_Smythe » Wed, 16Nov02 18:39

Hi Tlaero!

I'm at the point where I am putting my story and pics together for the game and just started using your Adventure Creator 2 last night. I ran into a problem with picture display. I am NOT a coder at all.

My pics are all different shapes and sizes. AC2 is currently stretching them to fit the window. Is there an option I can click to make the picture auto-scale and display at original size within the window without having to use a picture editor to resize all the images?

If it involves code, I'd need a step by step instruction list to do it since I am clueless. :)

Thanks in advance!
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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby tlaero » Thu, 16Nov03 02:01

Sorry, Jack, but it's a very bad idea to have your pictures be different shapes and sizes. Even if AC2 allowed you to have different sizes, you wouldn't be able to scale them for people with different sized displays.

Your best bet is to pick a size and shape and convert your pictures to it. The way I'd do that is to make an image that is the correct size, and set it's background to black. Then paste the under-sized image into a different layer and center it however you want. Then save it as a jpg that joins the layers together. That way you'll have all of the image files the same size, and the image won't be stretched, but you'll have the ability to choose how the image lays out. And, since the background is black, it'll blend in with the black of the web page, so people won't see it. This is natural in photoshop, but if you don't have that, Paint.net (which is free) can do it too.

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby Jack_Smythe » Fri, 16Nov04 20:45

tlaero wrote:Sorry, Jack, but it's a very bad idea to have your pictures be different shapes and sizes. Even if AC2 allowed you to have different sizes, you wouldn't be able to scale them for people with different sized displays.

Your best bet is to pick a size and shape and convert your pictures to it. The way I'd do that is to make an image that is the correct size, and set it's background to black. Then paste the under-sized image into a different layer and center it however you want. Then save it as a jpg that joins the layers together. That way you'll have all of the image files the same size, and the image won't be stretched, but you'll have the ability to choose how the image lays out. And, since the background is black, it'll blend in with the black of the web page, so people won't see it. This is natural in photoshop, but if you don't have that, Paint.net (which is free) can do it too.

Tlaero



Thanks for the advice and I will have to do that. I was just hoping that AC2 would be able to auto-scale any pic size down to the 1000x500 parameters while keeping the aspect ratio. No worries though!

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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby always86 » Mon, 16Dec26 19:32

Just wondering what programme you use to write your scripts? Word? Final Draft? Or do your write straight in to AC2?

Would you be able to share a script page? Do you just copy text over? Etc
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Re: Adventure Creator Q&A thread

Postby tlaero » Tue, 16Dec27 00:58

All of the scripts that you change yourself are in game.js. You can look at the ones in the examples or in my recent games and short stories. You shouldn't manually change the other js files other than game.js, though.

I personally use Visual Studio when writing code, but I'm a professional programmer, so it's reasonable for me to have an expensive program like that (though, I believe there may be a free version). Visual Studio is overkill for the little bit of scripting in these games, but since I use it for all of my other coding, it's natural to use it here too. Any text editor (including notepad) would be fine for editing game.js.

For debugging, I use the debugger built in to my browser. With Edge, you get that when you hit F12. I'm sure it's similar in other browsers.

JavaScript is kind of a pain in that, if there's an error it just show you the error, it just refuses to load the page. The debugger can help you find the issue, but it's a good idea to make small changes and try them out frequently. That way, if things stop working, you have a small number of changes to investigate.

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