Even though the other rpgs entered in the comp were of extremely crude quality or, at best, less than decent, I'm not sure what my chances are. It has excellent battle/magic/weapons/item/etc. systems and has it's share of puzzles and other good stuff from classic IF. If I relied on just that, however, I would do no better than anyone else. I KNOW my game is of better quality than most (probably all) of the games previously entered in the competition.
I've got a question for Computer Whizz. Would you mind testing my game (i can't release it due to the rules of the competition) later after I've completed a good part of it? I ask you, because as far as I know you're the only one I remember being here since quest 1.x or 2.0. Since I've been around almost as long as you, you're the only one I really "know" if you get my drift. If you don't want to try out the game I can find someone else.

Uhhh... that was my post. I guess I didn't login. >_<

Hey, if anyone else wants to playtest later, please say so. I only need 1 or 2.

Well gee-wizz!!! I'm so over-come with.... Cocky-ness!

Sure I'll test it out.

I also promise not to cheat and use your code .... But sure I'll try it out, see if I can get anything to go wrong.

As soon as I get the laptop (Oooo, January time I guess...) then I'll be making a simple 'classic' IF detective game... I have loads of spare time during work so I'll get onto that and my RPG engine then, I'll keep you in mind for a game tester.

to Alex: think you should disable guest posting. if you dont nkow how, goto the admin panel, and under forums, goto permissions, and then change all forums to 'Registered'.

We've not had any problems with guest posting. Also due to some problems with AOL, some AOL users can have trouble logging in to post messages.

no its just that if people are logged out and dont realise, and try to post, they'll know they are not logged in coz it will tell them they cant post.

Pretty easy to tell when you're logged out as new posts don't show in yellow, and when you go to post you get prompted for a Username. Two things to watch out for, and less annoying than preventing some people from posting entirely.

Actually Alex, if you're not logged in and try to post it DOESN'T give you the option to login. It just automatically posts as a guest. So when I login at my school I have to login four or five times a day (when i switch comps) and sometimes I forget.

its a cruel world for these procrastinators ay Alex? lol

Hey i'll test your game and swear not to cheat in any way shape or form and it might be good to get a kids/teens opinion and i really wanna se how good the game is.Oh yeah i'm making a game at the moment called HACKER where you have to bring down a multi-national company but get involved in gangwarfare and have to do loads of hacker stuff for them like hack banks e.t.c i just wondered weather you guys think it sounds any good.

Sure, if you do it properly. It needs to seem realistic. Good idea though.

i'll test 2...

I think that's enough playtesters lol. I guess I only need 2/3. So far I have (I think) CW, kingmorgoth99, and kewldude606. I only have 1 requirement: You've played enough IF that you know what's a good game.

well i've definatly played enough games i've downloaded every game of this site and everyother site i could find i hope this is good enough for ya.OH yeah what d'ya mean "done properly"?

By the way, i think people who download these games, look into the code, and basically cheat, or steal code is VERY lame, but i guess that's why u gotta buy pro. Still, just because its open source doesnt mean people should cheat or steal code.

Sorry about the 'done properly' post. I was referring to Ste's, I read it a while ago and didn't know it was an different game. My error, sorry

Ste wrote:By the way, i think people who download these games, look into the code, and basically cheat, or steal code is VERY lame, but i guess that's why u gotta buy pro. Still, just because its open source doesnt mean people should cheat or steal code.

If you mean stealing code in the sense of swiping someone's idea and using it in your own game and not giving them credit, then I agree. Those people ought to be lynched from the nearest tree. Twice.

But sometimes the best way to learn how to use something is to see how someone else has done it. And there's no better teacher than an unpassworded game they can open up and take a look at. Writing games is a frighteningly hard thing to do, no matter how easy the system, and I bet quite a few people are put off by the steep learning curve. If they can see how someone else has done it, and how easy it is, it gives them the encouragement they need to actually finish their game.

That is a good point of advice, and is very true. But it still irritating when you make a particularily hard puzzle and some user just looks in your code for the answer. That kinda ruins it, don't you think? Still, I wouldn't be programming much if it wasn't for other people's code.

Number 1 - I've played mostly the classic IF's (erm, about 3 for my acorn electron, about 3-5 for the old Atari STe and about 5 again for the PC). I liked stuff like unkuulian unventure (1 and 2 equally really). Erm, what was it, "#something# day" - where you're a student and you need to go around solving puzzles and whatever just to get into this room just across the hall from you.... This old game for the Electron (erm, a pretty good adventure IMO although I was too young to completely understand what it was all about - like 6 or 7 years old. Something like that). There's a couple I've played on the PC which were nice - using the TADS system, like this turtle game, very short, but NICE...

..... That's got me in the mood for some now - I'm gonna install some stuff now .

Number 2 - looking into code isn't TOO bad. But it's when you just cut & paste, maybe change a couple of parts, when it's bad.
....... honestly - I didn't steal some of my fathers' code to help me when I made these programs for the old Sinclair QL.... Just copying the code that I didn't really truely understand, honestly I didn't!

Anyway, the best way to go about something is to just go through the syntax experimenting. Changing this that and the other - and then combining this that and the other, to create what you want.... That's the way I go about things anyway.