Messages

I have friend (in a stable relationship, lots of friends and social interactions) who drives a lot. Others listen to music or audio books in their car, he enjoys talking to a chat AI instead for fun.

A colleague learns German and is very self-conscious about speaking. She trained talking to an AI and got significantly better, even when talking to humans.

I don't think those cases are problematic (apart from the huge energy consumption that AI causes)

Just yesterday I read an article about people having something similar to romantic relationships with AI chatbots. Now this is in an area that could get unhealthy. The person that was interviewed compared it to being immersed with a book or movie, the question is how deep you dive into it emotionally.

Interesting topic, in any case.

I just realized that even the Screen7 homepage (Mark/m0ds was running this) is not anymore. I have no idea what he is currently up to.

(I hope a google drive link is okay. If not, let me know :,) )

I was able to download and run the game, so it's okay. Will play it in the next few days.

Better late than never, I finished the game (just came back from vacation).

I like the setting (I have a soft spot for historic Italian cities) and the investigation. The music is fantastic, especially that epic piece that plays before the grande finale. I just had the feeling that switching between pieces happens a bit too often, or in places a piece is just restarted from the beginning when this is not really needed.
The graphics were glaringly inconsistent, but I can live with that in a MAGS game.
What really bothers me is the dark blue font color that made way too hard for me to read the text of the main character. Also the exists were really hard to find (I almost didn't find Elena's house), also navigating between the other places was painful.

Well done for a MAGS entry! I would play another game in that style, if the text is more readable.

@Miez Did you hear from any other team members if they want to share their resources?

I started playing the game. I can look past the glaringly inconsistent graphic style, but the hard-to-find exits and hard-to-read texts of the main character make it hard for me to continue. It's a pity you can't get a map from the map seller and use it to jump from location to location...

The story is interesting and I like the investigation, but I'm a bit stuck.

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To enter the convent and search the tent to need a warrant. I don't know where the local investigator currently is or where I can get a warrant. Why can't I transform into a nun?

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Happy Birthday, @AGA !

This dosen't bode well for my play of this, but where is the gun in the first room?

I've created a thread in the hints & tips section and moved the post there: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/hints-tips/save-me-this-jazz-a-film-noir-detective-game-74588/

First of all, I want to say that all games hit the theme, each in their own way.

Vasile the Templar

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Wow, this game is huge! The demo alone is already almost one gig. How big is the full version going to be?
I like the graphics and the voice acting. However, the concept didn't work for me at all. It's not how learning a language works for me.
You should decide if you want to tell a story or teach a language. Reading the sentence first and then hearing it again was weird. Why not just have Romanian voice acting with English or Romanian subtitles?
The intro sequence and dialog was fun but the cooking was so boring, I just clicked through all the dialog and didn't listen to it.

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The Vasa Fasa

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I remember visiting the Vasa museum many many years ago. It is indeed an impressive ship and museum. However, this does not really show in the game. The room is very limited and most of the time I didn't know what I was doing. I shot the barrel just because and only later realized what I was supposed to do.
The graphics are nice and the animations really smooth.

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Three Lions

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A blast from the past. For someone living in England in 1996 this must be a trip down memory lane. I didn't, so I probably missed quite a few references. Fun nonetheless! The intro and outro with the music and the photos are a nice touch.
The graphics are nice and there is a surprisingly large number of locations to visit. Very classic adventure game puzzling.

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Tauno

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A deep and complex game. An unexpected protagonist from a person that does not drink alcohol at all, if I remember correctly.
The graphics are clean and consistent, there was a lot of effort put into sound effects.
There is a plethora of different puzzles, some involving quite some coding. I loved the one where you have to wait for the old lady to finish. The maze was actually quite clever, but I didn't get it myself, I needed a hint. Same applies for the beer can puzzle. The problem with the game is, that all the thoughts that went into it are somewhat hidden and not obvious (like the secret alcoholism stat, just way too subtle for me to get), so if I hadn't read your commentary, what remains is doors that are super annoying to open.

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I still have to ponder for which game to vote.

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I have not returned the cans. He says there are not enough of them. I still have one half-empty can in my inventory, but if I drink it it's too much and the game ends.

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I made my bed right at the beginning. I think I found the wallet but he just kept the coins from it. I got more money from the teens, IIRC, and spent some in the pharmacy and for the beer. I still have a few coins, but the cashier says it's not enough.

Btw, I enountered a bug: In the supermarket, my inventory was already full so I didn't see the beer I took from the shelf and was caught shoplifting. Only when I drank some of the half-empty cans the pack of beer showed up in the inventory. I think there should be arrows to navigate the inventory.

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I'm stuck at Tauno

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I was able to get beer and coffee with the hint above, but I don't have enough money to pay for the coffee. I don't have enough cans to return them.

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Interesting process, @Creamy , thanks for sharing!

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I restarted the game several times. I got the sphere sparkle once but never had the machine come out until I tried it with the order you provided. It seems to be quite fragile, but I'm sure you can fix it.

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Ok, I finally managed to finish the game

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I have to say, it is REALLY buggy. It's like the Apollo 13 startup sequence. You have to do things in the absolutely correct order or it won't work. Even after starting the machine and looking through the telescope, when clicking the red X nothing happened. Only after leaving the telescope and looking through it again, I saw the creature.
Most hotspots are missing a label.
Also there is the bug with the broken walking view (blue cup) and a telephone appears for every interaction.

I had no clue what was going on in the game. It was lacking a proper introduction (only read here in this thread afterwards that the PC's dad has died and you take care of what is left)
I also didn't understand the end.

The graphics are very good, I like the style, the color change in the end adds to the atmosphere. I hope you will have some time to work more on the game, because it seems to be very interesting.

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The lamp on top of the machine blinked once and I read all dialog options of the bookshelf. In which area of the sky is the hotspot supposed to be?

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I was able to activate the machine and get the dialog options but I don't see a new hotspot in the sky.

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Now to see if I can execute in time!

You mean finnish in time

I'm stuck

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I entered the code in the machine, moved the knob from one hole to another (for whatever reason) turned the wheel and switched the switch but nothing happens.
It took me quite some time to realize that there are more hotspots than the ones with mouse-over text, so I'm not sure if I missed a hotspot or something.

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Fun "special effect" on the walking view

I completely forgot to give short reviews for each game 

The Year of MAGS

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Interesting concept, but without save feature this is useless. I played two month but didn't get any points.

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The Expedition

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Nice graphics and good use of frames, but I hate dungeon crawlers and turn-based battle, so...

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The Twilight Zone - The Lost Episode

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I've never seen any episode of the Twilight Zone, so I can't say anything in this regard. I like how the frame topic is included not only literally with the TV set, but also figuratively in the story. The game could use a bit of polish here and there.

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I voted for

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The Twilight Zone - The Lost Episode

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