Adventure Forums - The Question is... Why do you use AGS?

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how free is free sound?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erwin_Br

I thought you knew a lot of people have asked for this and Tim is working on it?
--Erwin

All I know is the debate from a few months ago. My understanding/recollection (which may be faulty) is as follows: The existing Sludge engine has free sound as long as you don't charge any money. A few of us had expressed a strong interest in charging money. Tim emailed us (that is, we few) and said he had negotiated with a sound guy (I think a payment was involved), and the plan was that shareware games could charge money and still not pay anything for sound. This would be a great improvement on the current situation, but would not be completely free for all purposes.

I may have misunderstood, but that was how I heard it. So I kept on nagging Tim in the forums. I saw it as a narrowly closing window of opportunity to change the plan. However, to those who did not receive the famous email, it sounded like I was just nagging. So I promised not to go on any more.

If Tim is genuinely preparing a one hundred percent free-for-all-uses sound system I will be overjoyed. But I don't have any evidence that that is happening. Please prove me wrong!

Edit: I may sound impatient, but my experience with free Internet stuff is that most plans do not happen. Real life gets in the way. WHich is why I am deeply impressed by the recent changes in AGS. A bird in the hand is worth two (or ten thousand) in the bush.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tolworthy

All I know is the debate from a few months ago. My understanding/recollection (which may be faulty) is as follows: The existing Sludge engine has free sound as long as you don't charge any money. A few of us had expressed a strong interest in charging money. Tim emailed us (that is, we few) and said he had negotiated with a sound guy, and the plan was that shareware games could charge money and still not pay anything for sound. This would be a great improvement on the current situation, and would still make commercial sense for the sound guy. If he waived all rights to income ever, he may as well call his work freeware and be done with it.

That would suit the vast majority of Sludge users. However, my plan is not for a shareware game, but for a full blown commercial game to be distributed by an established commercial distributor. I may have misunderstood, but that was how I heard it. So I kept on nagging Tim in the forums. I saw it as a narrowly closing window of opportunity to change the plan. However, to those who did not receive the famous email, it sounded like I was just nagging. So I promised not to go on any more.

If Tim is genuinely preparing a one hundred percent free-for-all-uses sound system I will be overjoyed. But I don't have any evidence that that is happening. Please prove me wrong!

Ogg Vorbis.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kingzjester

Ogg Vorbis.

Tim is incorporating Ogg Vorbis into Sludge?

I'm just saying that Ogg would ease the whole sound-system-you-gotta-pay thing (and mind you, I only read a part of the conversation) since ogg is a free format.

I was just thinking of a good course of action, not breaking news, sorry...

The version of AGS you use if you want to sell your game utilises OGG sound, and completely removes MP3 support.

SLUDGE already supports OGG Vorbis. It's the damn 3rd party audio library thingy that's got this license.

Anyway, news from Tim regarding the errors on his site:

4 June 2004:
The website is finding its feet again after a decidedly shoddy transfer over to a new server. Apologies to anyone who's tried to use anything like the useful SLUDGE file listings or the forums or the serveys or the search recently... it'll all be coming back when I find the time to fix the stuff that was smashed when all the cardboard boxes were dropped all over the road. Or something. Also, apologies to anyone who's emailed me recently. I'm hoping to be able to check my email again soon.

--Erwin

While I'm not new to game making, I'm fairly new to "adventure" game making. So far, AGS seems like the best bet with support. The program is free, and that's a price you can't beat.

I'm working on a test game in AGS, and everytime I get stuck on a scripting question or problem, if I can't find the answer in the docs, a quick search in the forum saves me everytime. Even though AGS claims you don't need to script, it is recommended to use it even a little bit as to avoid a "cookie-cutter" feel to your game. I have yet to find a game creation tool that spits out genuinely unique games with no coding.

On a side note, I think software like AGS is great for people like me who want to work on improving storyline and playability rather than fuss with C++. My main project is a 3D game using Direct3D that's due out in October, but a great 2D adventure game needs to have a solid storyline, not a "on the edge" 3D engine.