MAGS 2008-01: Prologue

Started by Klaus, Tue 01/01/2008 13:27:29

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Klaus

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers (a.k.a n00bies).

MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, you may get help for the competiton, but should try not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public.

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This month's guidelines are set by last month's winner OneDollar:

Topic: Prologue

Let's do something a little different this month. January is associated with beginnings so I want you to come up with a game that acts as an introduction/prologue chapter/opening sequence to what would be a much bigger game. The game can be as long or short as you want. You may want to concentrate on one or more of the following areas…

Plot â€" Will you be introducing an epic space saga, a cleverly written satire, an abstract artistic work?
Atmosphere â€" Use of music or specific graphical style
Characters â€" More than just another bitter private detective?
Puzzles â€" Demonstrating your puzzle making abilities, or new takes on existing ideas?
Innovation â€" How would your game stand out from the crowd?

Rules:
Your main aim is to make your audience want to keep on playing by the end of the game
You must include at least two puzzles
By the end of the game something significant must have happened that results in the events of the rest of the story.
By the end you should have established how the rest of the full game would play â€" how it would feel, what direction the plot is headed, what the player could expect to experience etc
There must be a beginning and an end of the game - so a dead end (like walking around with no new options) won't do it

The idea is really open this time; let's see what highly polished examples of your game creation abilities you can come up with!

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All games need to be in by January 26th.

Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.

Akatosh

Wow... that sounds pretty cool, and I do have an idea floating around in the back of my head that somehow never gets sketched out past the prologue.

Now, all I need to figure out is how not to draw cute.  :P

vertigoaddict

Quote from: Akatosh on Tue 01/01/2008 14:57:01
Now, all I need to figure out is how not to draw cute.  :P

draw free hand in MS paint or Photoshop.
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This idea looks very interesting, I would have loved to join in on the fun, but it seems my future is crowded with work and annoying bitches, an asshole and a jerk.

Needless to say, if the opertunity comes, I will attempt to create a Monthly Adventure Game Studio game, that is of course if my heart tells me to.

JuuL

I have to say that this is one of the most brilliant MAGS guidelines I've ever seen (I primarily think so because it's what I would have done if I had ever finished a MAGS game... and won :(). I do, however, have one questiona bout the rules:
Quote from: Klaus on Tue 01/01/2008 13:27:29
You must include at least two puzzles
How do you define what a puzzle is? - or rather how much it is. An example: In a typical 'Escape the Room' situation, the player character has do do a number of things in order to 1) get a key and 2) trick a guard to drinking some sleeping pills. Does all this count as one puzzle, or do the individual parts of the whole proces count as several puzzles?
It really would be nice to know how much work I'm required to do before starting to plan my game.

Klaus

Quote from: JuuL on Tue 01/01/2008 22:25:45
How do you define what a puzzle is? - or rather how much it is.
Even if you do not concentrate on the puzzle part the puzzles shouldn't be too easy.

Your example sounds like it's just two interactions that could also be done "by accident". So at first sight I'd count it as one puzzle. But of course it depends on how to get the key and how to get the sleeping pills and how you get them into a glass and how the guard can be tricked... So this could also end up in being much more than one puzzle... Just make it a little challenging and as said before: not too easy. Even if it is "just" a prologue there still should be some interesting gameplay.

Storygamer

This intrigues me a great deal.  I've had several ideas floating around in my head for a while now.  I may just take some time off from Sleight of Hand to do something for this contest.

OneDollar

Quote from: JuuL on Tue 01/01/2008 22:25:45
How do you define what a puzzle is? - or rather how much it is.
Yes, I'd say it's about how much thinking is required. So picking up a fishing rod and magnet aren't puzzles (debatable if one of them is hidden really well and 1 pixel big, but we want to steer clear of that), combining them isn't really a puzzle, but getting them, combining them and using them to obtain the shiny door key from the magpie's nest is.

lo_res_man

Game Prologue MAGS entry (space reservation)

"Priest of Heaven"
The priests of heaven, a religious group that worships the Infinite in space. to make money, they use their slow but reliable Light-sail ships to offer cheap transportation between planets. A young acolyte, on his first trip with a passenger. But there is  something strange about this one ,with his antique spacesuit, and diseases wiped out centuries ago. Who is this man? IS he a danger to your ship? Will you be able to safety navigate the debris field? Find out in the prologue for "Priest of Heaven".
†Å"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.†
The Restroom Wall

JuuL

Okay, for reasons that will be soon make sense (see  (4)) I will not be participating in this month's competition. I will however be back next month (see (3)). As I little service to other AGS fans, here's what I've learned during the last two years of regularily trying and completely failing to finish a MAGS game:
(1) Design the shortest possible game allowed by the rules (this one I realised after the first few months).
(2) Try not to say that you'll be making a game before you're relatively certain that you will actually have the time, ideas and commitment required to do so. It will feel less humiliating to give up, if nobody knows (I really haven't learned this yet, have I?).
(3) Never give up. There's always another month.
(4) Make something with simple graphics. It doesn't have to look great, it just has to work (that's the mistake I made this month).

Well, so much for trying to make a story of love and war in a post-apocalyptic dieselpunk version of Prague.

Is anybody actually finishing a game this month? This thread has been awfully silent.

OneDollar

I'm sorry to hear that JuuL. Personally it took me three attempts before I had a game finished. Poor Jim here

didn't make it past a couple of empty looking rooms and an awful excuse of a plot. The lesson I learned there was
(5) Don't significantly change your idea part-way through production
and to a certain extent what you already said about graphics.

My next attempt used hand drawn graphics, (which I found weren't really any faster than drawing on the computer), but I didn't get past the first room because I got stuck on coming up with the puzzles. I actually released that in demo form, but not surprisingly it didn't win. That lesson was
(6) Work out 99% of your story and puzzles before you even open AGS. If something's not going to work, there's no point spending time making it when you could have seen it and fixed it earlier

I'd also like to offer point (7) as
(7) It has to be an idea you're enthusiastic about. If you let one day slip without working on it, then another, then another suddenly you've invested several hours work into something you just can't finish in the time limit

I guess (8.) is
(8.) If you're not having fun doing it, why are you bothering?


No, forget that last point, MAGS needs some more entries!

Still, assuming someone actually enters and wins this month, there's always next month!

Akatosh

#10
Sorry, I'm getting struck by massive real life bitchiness and general burnout.  :P

In case nobody should enter, I can just crap something out, I guess, but it'd be... slightly underwhelming. And no Me Go ... this month, I'm getting too burned out on these.

FSi++

Quote from: OneDollar on Thu 24/01/2008 12:06:12
No, forget that last point, MAGS needs some more entries!

I'm working hard on mine; whether it will be released in time or not, I'm going to release it anyway, after all it's another RON game and RON just needs another game by me, doesn't it?

Also, it's escape-from-the-small-incarceration-chamber-game, so if I won't mess up with graphics I would finish it soon...

Layabout

Poor Jim here



Oh NO!!!! Not Speckled Jim!!!???
I am Jean-Pierre.

Klaus

#13
Okay now, time is up: 24 hours are left (see timestamp of this posting) then the voting will begin... if we face some entries here then.

Quote from: Akatosh on Thu 24/01/2008 16:10:46
In case nobody should enter, I can just crap something out
Oh no! Please don't do this! Remember: This is MAGS where M ist for Monthly - not Minutely or Micro. I really should add to the general rules that at that at least 2 weeks of work have to go into a MAGS game...  :P

There is always a list with fallback rules in case noone enters, so this is not a problem...

Quote from: JuuL on Thu 24/01/2008 10:28:42
(2) Try not to say that you'll be making a game before you're relatively certain that you will actually have the time, ideas and commitment required to do so. It will feel less humiliating to give up, if nobody knows (I really haven't learned this yet, have I?).
Also think of people that are looking forward to such an announced game. These wouldn't be too happy about a canceled project, too (what is not only a MAGS related issue).

Quote from: FSi on Fri 25/01/2008 09:15:24
I'm working hard on mine; whether it will be released in time or not, I'm going to release it anyway
That's how it should be! Always remember: This is just for fun. So even if you do not make it in time for MAGS you should not stop working on a game that you already started to work on. After all you already put a lot of effort into it (ideas, scribbles, maybe scripting and graphics, ...). Just finish it, so people can play it and you can get a feedback. Of course in that case you can not win the MAGS competition but there are other contests like the AGS Awards that you still can join. You can extend the original game idea, even take more time to brush up the graphics and all. A number of "famous" AGS games started that way...

Not to forget: If you want to join the competition think of the deadline  ;)

LeafThief

#14
Just finished. Beware - this is my first game. So be gracious ;D.

Hope you have fun - and that there aren't too many bugs.
http://www.mediafire.com/?aga9weiyyjo

I'll add screenshots shortly.
[Edit: Screenshots added]

FSi++

#15
Red Beard Saves RON: Prologue (beta)


(you don't have to play any previous RON game, so relax)

Jhon Steel is trapped in the dark incarceration chamber of Dr.DVS's mansion.
Evil Vitriol has found the Red Beard Dimension and slaughtered all its inhabitants. All but one, who was transported by his parents into our dimension. And, ironically, into the very same incarceration chamber.
These two must "collaborate" in a way to get out (and to stop the Evil Vitriol in a sequel).

Finished the beta of it. Tested once. Betatesters are welcome.

Download: Right click-Save as.

p.s. Yes, that's Jhon on the screenshot  8)

Klaus

Two entries... sounds good to me and here we go.
For voting please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

Red Beard Saves RON by FSi
Below Zero by Woodban

Please vote only once and be sure to have played all games before sending your voice! Good luck to all participants.

bicilotti

I've played the first entry and I'm impressed by the quality of the artwork... congrats
Woodban!

P.S.:
Quote from: Woodban on Thu 04/10/2007 19:17:46
I'm from Lower Austria[...]

Where exactly? I'm from north east Italy (Friuli), so we're more or less neighbours!

JuuL

Wow, these games look great!
I hadn't heard about 7-Zip before seeing FSi's '.7z' file, but I quickly found it. If anybody else has the same problem, here's the link for you: http://www.7-zip.org/

vertigoaddict

Darn I didn't complete my entry in time, well might as well keep it and develop it further as a short game.

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