Rinkuhero: I actually went and tried 110mb. I was planning use of free file hosts for my games, the 110mb site would just be a kind of HUB. Since I'm modifying a free template, I could always migrate it elsewhere eventually, if it becomes too restrictive. The biggest hurdle for me was to actually go ahead and launch the site, which I needed an idiot-proof process to help with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand 
It's funny how some people only believe in capitalism when it's to their advantage.
Scarcity of ressources=higher price, else you fall into the 'cartel' model, which is illegal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collusion

Cray: This level was'nt finished, and the flashlight is directly on the spot in the screenshot, so yeah, you might have a hard time finding it (besides, the block is rotated 90 degrees clockwise, its the equivalent of level 5). Don't worry, it won't be (too) hard, the block right now is falling at the humble speed of 2 pixels per cycle, probably will be slower for the beginning stages.  Seriously, the challenge of game balancing resides in the painting, mainly how many discernible elements there are. For example, it's really easy to find a face or a scarred arm, but to find a black zone with a few generic scratches...Look at this one, even though it's turned, there are not a lot of places in the painting with this kind of pale yellow line with a bump. And the second clue comes in the particular shape of the scratch.

I love modules. I used to have an Amiga; Shadow of the Beast still has one of the best game soundtrack to this day. There also was a song that came with our tracker, it was called 'poseidon'; I remember playing it and just imagining a game that would use it, vast landscapes in the raging sea.
I tried getting back into tracker a while ago, but, so many things to do, so little time. I think it is a great tool for people like me who compose without any real knowledge of annotation, and are more familiar with trial and error creation.

Thanks Renton, I will try that one. Google pages is now google site, and I have problems with my google accounts 

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, but I'm confident someone will move this to the proper forum if I erred.  I'm kind of a newbie at this, but I would like to start a website. I did have one a long time ago (hosted on Geocities) but it's been a while, and I'm really out of it. Would any of you guys know of a (preferably) free hosting service that is simple to use and stable? My current option is to mod a blogger type free account, but I'm somewhat underwhelmed by the tools they have. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Chentzilla: Yes, I'm really comfortable with gml now, I don't feel the restraints I had in my humble beginnings. Also, I'm a very 'visual' person; I tried learning blitz basic a while ago, but to me, the functions tab (even with a name on it) don't say anything. In game maker, I have my little objects with sprites I can recognize instantly, and I find it easier to navigate through.

Moi and Agj: Thanks to your comments, I changed the gameplay quite a bit(for the better).It was too hard to calibrate with the randomness of the anomalies, and it made no sense some times since you did'nt really know what you were looking for (sometimes mostle a blotch). Screenshots to be posted later in the day.

Edit: Here is a screenshot taken of a new wip painting. I'm also hard at work on the final GUI, really want this to be very sharp. You now see this shiny block descending down the screen, with the creature trudging towards your character. You need to click on the part of the painting that is represented in the block. The catch? Well, they go down faster and faster, they get rotated and coloured, augmenting difficulty as you progress through the levels. Each creature/level has a set number of hp/times you need to correctly get the answer. I was thinking of a mode where every mistake(which right now only results in a small waste of time)creates a block at the bottom, making the next fall even shorter.


This one was rotated by 90 degrees clockwise.


But I found it. I made it a bit easier by accepting finds that are touching the lamp's light(before it had to be a mouse click within the 32x32 square, which resulted in sometimes infuriating near-misses)

You lose!

obj_carnby.sprite_index=spr_carnby_fear
obj_carnby.image_index=0

I started integrating the various creatures. They actually play the role of a life counter, and if you want better scores, sometimes it's better to sacrifice one life to save time. I also have integrated the idle, worried, fearful and shooting sprites for the carnby object.  Could you find the anomaly in this picture(use the earlier image as a clean reference )

Azeo: Don't worry . I kind of refined my original idea with this thread. I think that

If two forces, on weak and one strong are confronted without an observer, the strong would claim justice on his side, and the weak would claim injustice; the observer could shrug and say that it's all relative, but then would'nt he only be warranting the acts of the strong?

really sums up my own philosophy.
 Not taking a side in a life situation involving a strong and a weak means taking the strong's side, since he does'nt need any help to overpower the weak- only helping the weak brings balance. But it is really hard to act to side with the weak, because it usually means bringing the trouble on ourselves, sometimes it means risking your life. So we most often walk away, and then rationalize our reaction by saying that what we turned away from is 'part of nature', or that 'there is no right or wrong'.
As long as we can have civil discussions about these points, and be open to change, there is hope for humanity.

For instance, if I were in a concentration camp I'd probably steal food from other innocent prisoners to survive, even if it means they starve and I don't (this was common in concentration camps, the stronger stole food from the weaker), but that doesn't mean I'd think those things are good to do.

Rinkuhero: The concentration camp is a good example of why objectivism is'nt taken seriously by philosophers; you're looking at the prisoners behavior, but what about those who put them there? So if I steal bread from the weak when imprisoned for my religious beliefs or ethnicity, my behavior is used later to reinforce a point in a theory about the lack of morality in nature, but it is never observed by the theorist that someone put me there for very anti-social reasons. The same logic could be applied to the dolphins killing the whale, where scientists believe it is due to turf wars for food, because of scarcity, created by man's over fishing, pollution, and climate change. But we still take the dolphin's gesture to put weight behind an argument that 'nature is cruel', which too often leads to a shrug and inaction in front of blatant injustice.
And I know that to define 'injustice' is to assume I have a 'superior' point of view, but that notion only exists if a third party, unconcerned by a distant situation can observe it. If two forces, on weak and one strong are confronted without an observer, the strong would claim justice on his side, and the weak would claim injustice; the observer could shrug and say that it's all relative, but then would'nt he only be warranting the acts of the strong?

Would you be able to hold this philosophy if you were part of the downthrodden? Would you still hold it if you were the defenseless kitten? That is the main problem I have with an objective philosophy, it is too often held by people in very comfortable, riskless situations. A perhaps more naive approach of 'do unto others' is applicable in any scenario.

Thanks to all for this thread, it was(I think)my first encounter with objectivism I guess. It prompted me to research it a bit, as I remembered reading about 'Atlas Shrugged' a while ago, and determining by the content that it probably was something that would only be resonating in educated rich white males who lead a comfortable life and can afford to position themselves as above the concerns and struggles of 'mainstream' society. I guess it could be studied as a valid theory, but I find some of its tenets are very hard to take seriously if you're born in a poor country and have to fight everyday to get somewhere in life.

Azeo: I think where Skofo missed the point, is that the news from cnn described a group of TEENAGERS kicking a kitten; children, I would be saddened, but not overly disgusted. Teenagers are a step away from adulthood, such a display of lack of empathy to me is a sign that someone did'nt properly educate them somewhere. Like in your newt story- explaining it to the trouble kid and have him participate in the proper way to treat the creature was probably the best thing you could do.

Also, in such an argument, you cannot extend the reasoning to everything. It's bad philosophy if I say 'kicking a kitten is wrong' and you answer 'you hypocrite, you think kicking a kitten is wrong but you would crush a bug without a thought', because you assume something about my reasoning that could be false. And you eventually derail a simple issue into an incredible debate about the futility of anything and the fact that morality is culturally relative; but in human society, progress is never made by saying 'let's not act on this premise because this is a cultural thing'.

Like if you went to another country, and saw something you felt was repulsive to your own ethics, you could just cross your arms and say, 'this is their culture, I should respect it'. But that would say a lot more about the frailty of your own morality than about theirs. It is not about the superiority of one's ethical view, because there is a difference between saying 'kicking kittens is wrong' and 'you have to make sure your kittens are vaccinated, and hugged every 5 minutes, and their sandbox cleaned every day'. So in the case of a culture clash,let's say a public stoning, you could just say 'stoning a woman to death is wrong', which would be common sense- again, I know some could come up with a 'that's a cultural point of view' logic, but I say it is the philosophy of the comfortable who never are confronted with these things; how would you feel if your sister/wife/girlfriend/mother was stoned to death for wearing shorts? Would you still hold to your 'it's their culture, everything is relative' line? I hope not.

The fact that you would'nt want to finish off the dear like your brother did is more about the way he had to do it. If he could have just put his hand of the dying beast and whispered him to oblivion, it would have been a peaceful, spiritual experience. But the gory finish with an ax, I don't think many people would walk away from this one unscarred.

Rinkuhero: Yes, they were stoning and drowning cats in the medieval era. They also believed you could buy your way into heaven and that if someone slaughtered his adversary in a dispute, it meant god was on his side...oh...I see your point...

Garthy: It makes sense;I tend to kill insects(mainly mosquitoes) out an instinctive response to their sting. I don't bother spiders or ants, or any other I can't identify, but I would try to get rid of termites or other nuisances to my house.
In reality, I don't think it should've grown to such a debate. There is no comparison between someone crushing an insect, and a bunch of teenagers ganging to kick a kitten. And there's no place in the world that would view that behavior as acceptable(except maybe for those darned gray aliens ).  It's fine to argue for arguments sake, but sometimes, you just can't play the devil's advocate without sounding like an emotionless pickle...
Plus...try to find a girlfriend that will allow you to stick to these principles, Skofo

Garthy: I remember not paying attention in a french class. The teacher saw me, and asked me to explain a particular grammar rule she was talking about. I told her I knew how to apply the rule, but I could'nt explain it; I just learned it instinctively while reading books(if I want to spell check when writting in french, I usually write the two versions of the word that make the most sense to me, then I chose the one that 'looks' better). She sent me to the board and started dictating; I wrote as fast as she spoke, without making any mistakes. She sent me back to my chair and left me alone.
The 'torturing defenseless animals' rule to me is the same. I can't explain it, it's just wrong. Even squishing harmless insects seems such a waste. I now try to observe them closely, and understand what they are doing and why.
As for the video, I think someone was filming, and knew perfectly well what was going to transpire. Maybe there's a bit of 'camcorder paralysis' involved, but I would'nt bet on it. Some people see pets as living entertainment at best. That's why they abandon them when they get bored with the responsibilities that come with them.

Derek: I often look back at childhood, and consider myself lucky to have been able to reach adulthood as a whole, with both eyes intact

Bravo, Toastie!

Seth: It's tragically funny that no one makes any kind of move to stop the kid from his obvious intent(throwing the cat in the pool); even not really seeming concerned that he is standing on the slippery side where he could really hurt himself.

Shrimp: I would'nt mind eating artificial meat, I already replaced most of my meat intake with cheap soy imitation. I rarely eat beef now, and most of these occasions I replaced it with bison(since the fact that I eat less has offset the cost). Chicken I like, but I don't like how it's treated- at least for the eggs you can buy it free range, not so for the meat.

Renton: The fact that you were born in that society, and developped an aversion to these traditions from a very different past, is a pretty reassuring one.  We got our first photos of planets beyond the solar system, maybe it's time to give the goat sacrifice a rest.   

Renton: But they eat the meat of the beast afterwards, so it's more of a ritual slaughter than sacrifice.
"According to the Quran, the meat is divided into three shares, one share for the poor, one share for the relatives and neighbors, and the last to keep to oneself."
 I thought you were referring to the sacrifices during some kinds of black masses where the animal is disposed of afterwards, not a meal.