Colonel's Bequest Point and Click Remake Thread

[gargin]

For fun and practice with AGS I have been working on a 1:1 remake of Colonel's Bequest using the original graphics. Everything has been going pretty weell so far and I have not really had any major issues doing anything.
Recently however I set my sights on making the in-game clock that pops up. Scripting the clock really wasn't that hard at all and it appears to be working perfectly aside from one slight annoyance, the hands of the clock show up as greyed out as if the button was disabled. Currently the GUI is set to PopupModal, if I set it to Normal and it shows up when the game begins the hands show up normally (not greyed out) however the minute you change the visibility to false they go to the greyed out look.

I was just wondering if anyone has any idea what might be causing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Heres a description of how the clock works.
=================
Game calls a function in the global script to advance the time.

Clock Materializes

Clock Hands appear (In the original game they only appear after the clock is fully materialized and thats how I did it in this remake)

Function advances the hands from the current time to the new time.

Clock Hands dissapear

Clock Dematerializes


Here is a picture of the problem I am having.

[Erpy]

The general tab has a setting called: "When GUI's disabled" and it's probably set to "GUIs grey out" in your project. Try changing it.

[gargin]

Thanks Erpy, I tried what you said and it did solve the problem.
I don't know why they are getting disabled I even have it set in the function to enable them after making them visible but that didn't seem to solve the problem.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

Gargin if you finish a 1 to one remake like this it will make it more accessible for the general population that can't get a hold of these classics anymore. I sincerely wish you the best of luck in this endeavour if the end result could mean a resurgaance in the adventure gaming community.

[gargin]

Thanks for the support QFG Fan!

It is my hope that I can keep this moving and eventually finish it.  I am only one person so I can't say how long this will take but I am planning on releasing a 2nd floor demo in the near future to get some opinions on it.

Also if for some reason I can't finish the game than I plan on releasing my source materials so that someone can pick up where I left off or just check it over to learn something from it.

[Blackthorne519]

Cool, man.  Great project to work on... Keep us updated, and always ask questions.  There's a lot of folks around here with a lot of great knowledge, and they'll help - you just have to ask!

Bt

[Klytos]

Programming an old game is such an awesome way to learn AGS. Good choice of a game to work on. I look forward to seeing your stuff! Any questions, feel free to ask.

[gargin]

It's great to see how much support has been popping up for this project. I have renamed this thread as the original problem was solved and now it can be used for people interested in what I am doing or how I am doing it.

Recently I have been focusing primarily on the GUI's for the game and I just finished the copy protection one last night. I am waiting until after I release the second floor demo to do the intro because I want to get some opinions on how the characters talk.

I imagine the first question people will ask is "Why add the copy protection?" and there are three reasons why I did.
1: It seemed like a fun challenge.
2: The way the first screen and the second screen were integrated was  kinda cool and I want to keep the game as true to the original as possible.
3: If Sierra ever complained about me releasing the remake it would probably be better for me if the game had the copy protection capability.

I will likely make a way to skip past the copy protection but that will be
something I would probably leave up to others (unless sierra complained)

Anyways, just wanted to thank everyone for all the help and if you have any questions for me drop em here.

-Gargin-

[Quest For Glory Fan]

Basically if Sierra ever catches wind of your project you're going to get shut down, you're basically plagiarizing the game and making it free ware after all. The copy protection may have been fun to try and do for you personally but I don't think it would be smart to actually implement as most the pelpe that want to play your game are those that don't own a hard copy of it and wanted to experience it.

[gargin]

Well your probably right, I doubt the copy protection will do much good to keep Sierra from shutting me down but oh well. I contemplated trying to do something similar to what AGDI has done and ask Sierra for permission but I doubt they would give it since I am really not changing the game just remaking it as a P&C game. So for now I am just going to keep on trucking and in the future when I have more to show for it I can think about what to do with Sierra.

As for the copy protection, I will likely make a button or something that will allow you to just skip it. I don't want to remove it simply because its a part of the game and kinda neat.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

I completely agree with the direction you're taking here. Good luck man.

[gargin]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should do the inventory system in this remake? Currently I have been toying with the idea of keeping it text based like the original and simply updating it with mouse support rather than doing a traditional inventory box with pictures of the items.

What do you guys think? Is it better to update to the picture based inventory or would it be better to stick with what the original game had?

Here is an EXTREMELY basic version I have been playing with, this in no way represents the final product so please don't tell me it looks like crap cause I know lol






Also let me know how you feel about using this form of chat system, I want to make sure it does not detract from the feel of the game. See images below.

[greensenshi]

If you were going to keep the inventory entirely text based, how would you handle trying to, say, examine the rolling pin with the monocle?  Click the monocle and drag it over to the rolling pin?

[Quest For Glory Fan]

I think I would prefer picture inventory. There's likely a reason they stuck to it for almost all adventure games

[Blackthorne519]

I like the text and picture inventory.

And the conversation system looks cool!

Bt

[gargin]

Well one of the larger problems with doing a strict picture based inventory is the lack of item descriptions in the game so the picture inventory would just be a bunch of objects that you couldn't really "look" at. This would probably bother me if I was playing a game.

As for the text based inventory, I can think of a couple different ways one could handle combining items. One possibility would be if the player right-clicks on one of the items and a popup menu comes up where you can choose an item to use on it. Another possibility might be to have the pictures be a seperate GUI that comes up when you initiate a look on an item. Once both GUI's were up the player could drag another item on to the image to combine the two. These are just a couple of potential examples and that is part of the reason I posted this thread, because I am really looking forward to any input people can give.

Looking forward to hearing more comments!

Gargin

[Quest For Glory Fan]

there's a magnifying glass in his inventory screen right now which I assume is for examining.

[gargin]

Well actually the only reason there is a magnifying glass at the moment is because I started with the original inventory GUI as a base and simply never removed it, as of this moment it has no function.

[AsianMusicGuy]

How do you help with my website AND  make a game! you rock man

[Blackthorne519]

Hey Gargin.  Just checking in to see how this is going.  I'm very excited to play this.

Bt

[AsianMusicGuy]

Bt why digg up old topic you of all peole should know better

[Brainiac]

Bt why digg up old topic you of all peole should know better

Less than two months is hardly necromancy, AMG.  And if Bt were to do such a thing, it would likely be justified (or Erpy would ask him not to).

Anyways, it's a legit question.  An actual CB project is something to inquire about, after all.

[MusicallyInspired]

Bt why digg up old topic you of all peole should know better

It's not like he resurrected a 2 year old thread about something or other just to say it was awesome and not contribute anything. Learn some forum etiquette. He was genuinely asking how the project was coming along and rather than start a new thread, which would have just caused clutter, he replied in one it started in. No biggie.

[Blackthorne519]

Bt why digg up old topic you of all peole should know better

I didn't have to "digg" for it.  It was on the front page.

And I was merely checking in with Gargin, to see if he was still pursuing the project.  I'm quite interested in it, and I try to encourage those who earnestly pursue such projects.

I realize you're just trying to help, but you really need to learn when it's appropriate to chide someone for running afoul of netiquette.

Bt

[gargin]

Hey BT, things are still progressing. Currently I am about half way through scripting the introduction. Originally I was going to wait to do the intro until after I released a demo of some form but I came to the decision it would be better to get it done.
    Progress was unfortunately slowed down a bit because I was interviewing for new jobs. I have now accepted a position so my focus should be able to switch back to my projects and hopefully I can make some headway and maybe release a demo in the near future.

If for some reason I was to stop this project I would defiantely come on and admit my defeat like a man so please feel free to ask me questions or offer suggestions whenever you like!

-Gargin-