MAGS September: "Animals" (WINNER: Fitz)

Atelier · Sun 01/09/2013 19:44:02

This month's winner was Monty the Komodo Dragon by Fitz.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Topic: 'Animals'

This month's guidelines were set by Radiant:

The theme for September is Animals. In almost all games, the protagonist is a human who saves the day, but there are more creatures in the world than just humans! So the main character of the game has to be an animal (goat, goldfish, sparrow, bear, you name it). Please take to a real animal; not a fictional species or toy.
It should be relevant to the gameplay that the animal has different abilities than a human, but how you fill this in is up to you (e.g. having non-standard command buttons, or being unable to talk to humans, or you can't take certain actions for lack of opposable thumbs). There are no restricitions on genre.

Ending 30th September

__________________________________________________________________________________________

What is MAGS?

MAGS is a monthly competition for amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, or provide a kick-start into making adventure games. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favorite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

You may get help for the competition, although you must end up doing something yourself. You should however be warned that it proves difficult to organize a big team within thirty days. You are not allowed to use material already created before this competition. Your game must be completely new! Music and sound is an exception; you can use free material that is available to the public, if you wish. Modules and templates are also allowed.

Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualise your game following the month's criteria (see top). Second, create your game fueled only by coffee. Finally, post your game in this thread, including:

Ã¢Å"â€œ A working download link
Ã¢Å"â€œ The title of your game
Ã¢Å"â€œ A suitable in-game screenshot

At the end of the month, voting will begin, usually lasting for fifteen days. The winner chooses the next month's theme, and their name and game is immortalised in the MAGS Archive. For more information, please visit the Official MAGS website.

TGames · Sun 01/09/2013 20:44:59

I will enter this competition

DBoyWheeler · Sun 01/09/2013 21:04:41

Um, would anthro animals be allowed? Or is it strictly natural non-anthro animals?

Armageddon · Sun 01/09/2013 21:18:52

But humans are animals... I hope someone makes a game based on Animal Farm except you're watching it as a human so you can't understand what the animals are saying to each other, and then they eat their human.

jannar85 · Sun 01/09/2013 22:02:35

Let's hope I find the time to finish it this time... Starting now!

DBoyWheeler · Sun 01/09/2013 22:04:30

Either way you slice it, I'm in. Since it's just animals (unless anthro animals are allowed), I'll keep it simple--maybe three or four rooms at most. First I'll need to think of WHAT animal to make the protagonist.

TGames · Mon 02/09/2013 02:20:03

I finished the character for my game Sherlock Bones

I'll make sure to keep you guys updated

DBoyWheeler · Mon 02/09/2013 15:30:49

I've come up with an idea... even a pending title:

The Blackbird Strikes Back

The story (in a nutshell): Some human shot your mate and ruined your nest! Now you want to get even--by making this human's life miserable!
----
Once I have some sketches, I'll post more. Again, I'll try to keep the game simple.

Arcangel · Mon 02/09/2013 18:45:11

Umm thats allowed?
Not my Draw only example.
Humanoid form.

Or only real animal form....?

Radiant · Mon 02/09/2013 20:17:34

Frankly I haven't heard of the term "anthro" before, but the intent of the theme is to be about actual animals, not about humans with cat ears and a tail

Arcangel · Mon 02/09/2013 23:45:52

Umm I think I quit. $:-\$

Thx Radiant

dactylopus · Tue 03/09/2013 16:31:16

Quote from: Radiant on Mon 02/09/2013 20:17:34
Frankly I haven't heard of the term "anthro" before, but the intent of the theme is to be about actual animals, not about humans with cat ears and a tail

Anthro is short for Antrhopomorphic, which is when you attribute human qualities to something other than a human. I'm somewhat surprised you hadn't heard it, as anthro characters are quite popular today.

Either way, I agree that the theme is meant to be about animals, not fictional humanoid animals.

TGames · Wed 04/09/2013 03:53:57

dang it

Armageddon · Wed 04/09/2013 10:20:06

Quote from: TGames on Wed 04/09/2013 03:53:57
dang it

I think we should make it an exception, as long as the animal is still distinguishable. No furries...

Stupot · Wed 04/09/2013 11:26:37

There's a nice looking game called Shelter where you play a mother badger trying to keep her children protected.
Who, knows, it might provide some inspiration for MAGS :-)
http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/preview-thing-a-preview-of-shelter/2300-7740/

Ghost · Mon 09/09/2013 19:17:12

Quote from: Radiant on Mon 02/09/2013 20:17:34
Frankly I haven't heard of the term "anthro" before

Seriously? Then you've missed 63% of the whole interwebs! And 87% of DeviantArt!

Schizmo · Mon 09/09/2013 19:33:16

I've been watching this thread anonymously for a bit and I'm not seeing a whole lot of activity so far, I hope that it means everyone is really busy working on their games, but I'm worried that it means NO ONE is working on their games because everyone decided they didn't like the theme.

I discovered AGS last month and I was far too late to participate in the MAGS for August (I had an idea about a space ship drifting off its course towards a sun; which I think is great for HEAT) but I decided I would consider participating this month because small little projects always seem like a good way to throw yourself into a program head first. I learn best when I dive in.

UNFORTUNATELY due to circumstances completely outside of my control, I find myself painfully lacking in free time this month and I don't think I will actually have time to participate, which sucks because I was looking forward to it. But I thought I'd share what little I came up with in a few days so that people don't get discouraged by the theme.

My game was set to be about a dinosaur in captivity in some sort of science lab/jurassic park/secret complex. His goal was to escape. Nothing too complex about it, but I was hoping that dinosaurs might be an interesting take on the theme of Animals since they're extinct however they were very real at one time. The first puzzle was more about timing than anything, there is a man in a security room in the foreground overlooking the dinosaurs terrarium, casually reading the paper and not paying much attention to his job. The terrarium would span 3 simple screens, the leftmost screen being the security room and the rightmost screen being the edge of the terrarium where an electrified fence is currently active and preventing the dinosaurs escape from the first area. The goal would be to interact with the window while the man takes a sip of his coffee, attacking it and startling the man, causing him to spill his coffee on the console, which would begin to flash red and disable the fence in the next room. If the player could not figure out the timing and interact with the window when the man was holding his coffee (or if I could not figure out how to program a timing dependent puzzle) then interacting with the window 3 or 4 times would cause the coffee to tip over, solving the puzzle by default.

Don't judge the WIP screens too harshly, I had a rough sketch of the room and never got around to finishing the man or putting doors in. He doesn't even have a chair, but I assure you he is kicking back and living it up on his secret government paycheck. (also it looks like tinypic converted my images to jpgs which is why some of the edges are fuzzy, namely the word "danger")

I hadn't gotten much further than that concept when my life went crazy so that's all I have for now, but surely the dinosaur would not be able to hold any items due to the fact that it had tiny hands (T Rex perhaps?). I was thinking its abilities would have been PUSH BITE and ROAR but like I said I had in no way thought that far ahead.

I hope this encourages people to keep working and to think outside the box, and at some point I would like to work on this again if only to learn how to make a simple "escape the room" type game.

Retro Wolf · Mon 09/09/2013 19:54:44

@Schizmo: It's a shame you can't participate! I like your ideas, the spaceship game sounded cool. I'll be watching out for your first release!

Durinde · Mon 09/09/2013 21:55:40

I'm working on a pretty simple game where you are a beaver. I haven't touched AGS in a couple of years, so I'm spending most of my time just relearning how to do things. I'm just planning a couple of puzzles around gathering building material and attracting a mate. I've only managed to get a couple of hours to work on it so far due to real life commitments. All I managed to get done was drawing the character with some VERY basic animations and roughing out some puzzles on paper. I am the opposite of an artist so I've wasted a lot of time just trying to get a half-presentable beaver. Still a ton of stuff to do, but I'm hoping just by making this post I can motivate myself a little.

Anyway, it isn't pretty

I hope to have some time off this weekend to work at it in earnest.

Fitz · Tue 10/09/2013 18:22:09

Don't worry, Schizmo, everyone's probably working like busy little ants deep down underground -- only to launch a merciless attack, come September 30

Plus, it's still pretty early. I've finally conceived of some sort of a plot only yesterday, and all I have right now is one left/right walkable.

Speaking of which, meet Monty Lizard!

He's a Komodo dragon, living a happy family life (as evidenced by his cheerful smile). Said family will be the trigger for his eventful quest -- full of deadly threats, long journeys and clashes with the unyielding forces of nature.

OK, so it's not going to be THAT long

My scripting helper Sephiroth and I wanted to do something short and fun, 3-5 rooms, I guess. For the same reason, I chose this collage-esque style instead of hand-drawn art (I was inspired by a beautiful AGS game with graphics made from cut out paintings -- anyone remember the title?). I'm also thinking about adding some voice-over (some samples of me goofing off with my mic can be found in this thread). Not for the characters, no. Monty and his family are lizards -- and they're as reptilian as can be. Don't mind Monty's upright stance -- I'll have you know Komodo dragons are actually perfectly capable of standing on two hind legs.

ZapZap · Tue 10/09/2013 23:47:56

Quote from: Fitz on Tue 10/09/2013 18:22:09
everyone's probably working like busy little ants deep down underground

Actually I'm trying to make "the Ant and the GrassHopper" into a game xD, soon I'll post a pic and a thread in the Gip to attract musicians and betatesters... trying 160x100 this time!

ZapZap · Thu 12/09/2013 23:12:03

I need a musician!

DBoyWheeler · Fri 13/09/2013 02:53:12

So far so good on the project. I'm trying to work on mine. The plot is you are a blackbird (not to be confused with the one in the Quest for Glory series). A human has shot your mate and ruined your nest. Now you want payback, and you plan to do it by making his life miserable.

Since this is non-anthro animals, I probably won't have an inventory (where's the animal gonna store inventory anyway without clothes?). Again, since I'm still relatively new to using AGS, I'll keep the game simple. I not too long ago finished up the sprites of the blackbird, and right now working on the rooms. When I get a chance, I'll upload what I got so far.

ZapZap · Fri 13/09/2013 13:23:22

Ok I think we should determine how much non-anthro can the game be. Cause my ant will interact with many other animales in a non eat/be eaten way. I mean, is a fable, they'd be kind of humanized at some degree

Fitz · Fri 13/09/2013 13:50:29

I think/hope it should be ok as long as the character is still essentially an animal, living in some sort of a natural habitat, not wearing clothes and such. Because Monty here is a bit anthro -- but not quite.

No clothes = check. Lives out in the wild = check. He doesn't talk, either, and communicates with grunts, instead -- and will have a non-standard set of actions available: including hitting stuff, hissing, roaring, and also pooping and peeing. I'm also taking the animal theme to a curious extreme in background design

However, I'm still considering some simple, rather unorthodox combinations of objects forming primitive tools -- and some symbolic graphics (think hyeroglyphics/icons) as a means to communicating things more complex than "yes/no/that won't work". What do you guys think?

Radiant · Fri 13/09/2013 17:04:03

Quote from: Cleanic on Fri 13/09/2013 13:23:22
Ok I think we should determine how much non-anthro can the game be. Cause my ant will interact with many other animales in a non eat/be eaten way. I mean, is a fable, they'd be kind of humanized at some degree

Quote from: Fitz on Fri 13/09/2013 13:50:29
No clothes = check. Lives out in the wild = check. He doesn't talk, either, and communicates with grunts, instead -- and will have a non-standard set of actions available: including hitting stuff, hissing, roaring, and also pooping and peeing. I'm also taking the animal theme to a curious extreme in background design However, I'm still considering some simple, rather unorthodox combinations of objects forming primitive tools -- and some symbolic graphics (think hyeroglyphics/icons) as a means to communicating things more complex than "yes/no/that won't work". What do you guys think?

I think both are great examples and totally fine.

Atelier · Tue 17/09/2013 10:11:18

Just over halfway!

Fitz · Tue 17/09/2013 11:15:42

Damn, does the time fly or what?

I'm still busy working on the backgrounds, got two out of five -- but those were the hardest to make. Here's the first one.

I decided to take the animal theme to a bit of an extreme in background design, too: all the elements of the scenery are animal parts of the body, animal products -- or excretions

How's everyone else doing?

dactylopus · Tue 17/09/2013 11:37:19

Quote from: Fitz on Tue 17/09/2013 11:15:42
all the elements of the scenery are animal parts of the body, animal products -- or excretions

Gross, but it works.

Everything I've seen in here so far looks pretty good. Keep it up, guys! I'm looking forward to playing at least a few of these when the month is over!

kaput · Tue 17/09/2013 11:43:30

It's pretty damn experimental, Fitz, I'll give you that! The DaDa 'artists' would be proud of you.

On a side note, the job on the right looks like it's frowning.

Fitz · Tue 17/09/2013 12:05:34

Interesting fact: those are actually as ancient as the mountains/rocks they're supposed to represent -- they are dinosaur feces! Consistency (pun intended) was very important to me. I even gave the mountain range a name: the Scatskills

selmiak · Tue 17/09/2013 17:43:51

@fitz: That's the hairiest sky I've ever seen, but it sure looks good and unique.

Fitz · Tue 17/09/2013 17:49:28

It's definitely got a nice gradient that fits the scenery -- although I am considering changing it to pale-yellow-to-orange gradient taken from a picture of a urine sample. That way it would be more consistent with... well, certain other elements of similarly gross nature

Ghost · Tue 17/09/2013 22:05:50

I've got to ask: WHAT is the sun?
Apart from that I really love the concept; it's "make a world out of what's available" to the extreme

selmiak · Wed 18/09/2013 00:12:34

looks like a slice of ham to me...

Fitz · Wed 18/09/2013 08:20:26

Yup, that's exactly what it is

To make it even more fun, in each room the sun will be made of something else -- as will every repeating element of the scenery (like the ground or water). It's getting hard to come up with a consistent theme for each room -- and I've seen some WEIRD stuff while doing my research -- but that's what makes it fun and challenging!

Stupot · Wed 18/09/2013 14:05:50

How about a pond made of cat sick?

DBoyWheeler · Wed 18/09/2013 22:35:19

Well, thought I'd give you a preview of my MAGS.

Here is the protagonist, the blackbird who wishes to avenge his family by making the life of his human enemy miserable.

And here's the background of the starting room.

As stated in a previous thread, I'm gonna keep the game simple. There's no inventory items, but then, where's the animal gonna store inventory anyway? Also, I don't know how to make my own save/load function, but I plan to have it so nothing can kill you, and only three main "tasks", you wouldn't need to save/load anyway. I guess my philosophy for the game here is "simplicity counts". Since I'm on a time limit anyway, there ain't much room for fancy stuff.

Update: It's ready!
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49036.msg636468449

Saltwater Taffy · Thu 26/09/2013 21:20:39

I'm really hoping I'll be able to join in next month's MAGS. Hope the theme can some how be relevant to Halloween XD I miss trick or treating ;3; but i'm up for anything inspiring, really. I'm just gonna sit over here and wait patiently, don't mind me.

Atelier · Sat 28/09/2013 17:07:44

Three days remaining!

Fitz · Sat 28/09/2013 18:06:02

The thread's been kinda quiet lately -- but I can assure you I'm working harder than ever to make it. Still a lot of details to polish, but the gameplay looks solid at this point, and the game is playable from start to finish. I think/hope/pray I'll be done in 48 hours.

ZapZap · Sat 28/09/2013 22:24:22

Another MAGS project lost into my folders

Sorry. Will play the others as soon as you post'em

Sephiroth · Sun 29/09/2013 08:04:49

What the hell happened to your ant game? It looked pretty good and seemed to be almost completed...

ZapZap · Sun 29/09/2013 09:38:12

No.. not "almost completed" at all.. my bad. I may try to finish it in the following weeks.. or months

(I'm studying for a competitive examination and right now it's eating my time)

Adeel · Sun 29/09/2013 16:48:11

I've been watching this thread from the time 'twas started. I'm happy to see that DBoy has already released his game and Fitz is going to release his game soon. I were sorry to see Cleanic go. What about the others? What happened to T-Bones?

Fitz · Sun 29/09/2013 21:37:41

Didn't TGames give up on it when it turned out the idea didn't fit this month's topic as too anthro?

Me, I'm still working like crazy. It *looks like* I should/might pull it off on time, by tomorrow night -- but just in case, would an extra day or two be ok, Atelier? Just in case, though.

Sephiroth · Sun 29/09/2013 21:51:55

Cleanic:

I don't think TGames has given up, am I wrong? Also, jannar85 and Durinde announced they would try to make it, any news?

TGames · Mon 30/09/2013 00:29:54

I stopped because I got kind of confused about the rules

Fitz · Mon 30/09/2013 21:42:01

So as I suspected, despite my best efforts (a few very angry people will attest to the fact that I devoted my time almost exclusively to the game

), I'm still not quite there. I'm left with minor stuff, mostly, audio editing, minor animations and icon graphics. Right now I'm dead beat, need to sleep. So I'd be grateful for some more time

Saltwater Taffy · Mon 30/09/2013 22:06:39

Eagerly waiting for October MAGS o3o *dances*

Adeel · Tue 01/10/2013 04:54:18

Quote from: Saltwater Taffy on Mon 30/09/2013 22:06:39
Eagerly waiting for October MAGS o3o *dances*

I'm glad to hear that there is at least one person who's willing to participate in October MAGS (Oldschool_Wolf and I've set the theme for this month, you see)

.

Saltwater Taffy · Tue 01/10/2013 05:21:41

Quote from: Adeel S. Ahmed on Tue 01/10/2013 04:54:18
I'm glad to hear that there is at least one person who's willing to participate in October MAGS (Oldschool_Wolf and I've set the theme for this month, you see) .

Awesome! Can't wait

Armageddon · Tue 01/10/2013 07:10:29

If the theme is horror similar I might give it a try. A huge, strained, warped bridge, might.

Also if it doesn't start a week into October like most other MAGS do for some reason.

Atelier · Tue 01/10/2013 08:18:09

I am genuinely sorry for putting the competitions up late sometimes but just tell me straight, there's no need to be passive aggressive. October will be up later today!

Radiant · Tue 01/10/2013 08:55:49

Thank you Atelier. One of the participants for September requested an extension for a few days, please let us know if you are ok with that.

Atelier · Tue 01/10/2013 12:13:20

Sorry, I have only been able to get interwebs on my phone recently, I've had enrolment stuff all day every day. Yes, an extension is fine - new deadline is 3rd Oct please!

Armageddon · Tue 01/10/2013 12:35:41

Quote from: Atelier on Tue 01/10/2013 08:18:09
I am genuinely sorry for putting the competitions up late sometimes but just tell me straight, there's no need to be passive aggressive. October will be up later today!

I wasn't trying to be passive aggressive!

Sorry.

Adeel · Wed 02/10/2013 08:55:22

So, how is it going Fitz? I'm eager to play your game.

Fitz · Wed 02/10/2013 10:51:44

Putting some finishing touches as we speak

I hope to release it within the next 12 hours.

Saltwater Taffy · Wed 02/10/2013 13:50:04

Cool!

Adeel · Wed 02/10/2013 23:27:55

Quote from: Fitz on Wed 02/10/2013 10:51:44
Putting some finishing touches as we speak I hope to release it within the next 12 hours.

Your 12 hours are up, Fitz

. Where is your game?

Fitz · Thu 03/10/2013 00:42:32

Here it is, then: my entry to MAGS September: ANIMALS

Meet Monty the Komodo Dragon

No, he's not an actual dragon. He's just a lizard. A very, VERY big lizard. He's also a husband to a loving wife and a father to a lovable child. As a dutiful housekeeper, he is the one providing for his family. His ever hungry and glutonous family...

So, he sets out on an exciting, dangerous quest for food. He'll visit many places and face many, many dangers -- and some downright atrocities, too.

Yes, all in-game graphics are made using pictures of animals, animal parts, animal products -- and various excretions.

Also, Monty is voiced by yours truly. It's one thing to impersonate Matt Berry impersonating Gandalf -- conveying feelings through grunts exclusively is a whole other story!

Aaaanyway...

DOWNLOAD THE GAME

HERE!

Atelier · Thu 03/10/2013 21:09:27

Cool, voting time!

VOTE

The competition has now ended and voting is underway. Click on the game titles to download:

	The Blackbird Strikes Back! by DBoyWheeler
	Monty the Komodo Dragon by Fitz

Be sure to play all the entries before sending your voice! Good luck to all participants.

VOTE HERE

Note: let me know if there are any problems with the new voting system!

Radiant · Thu 03/10/2013 21:19:42

Well done both! Thank you for participating!

And, by no small coincidence, tomorrow is World Animal Day

Atelier · Fri 18/10/2013 21:09:26

Yo guys - voting's over!

Monty the Komodo Dragon by Fitz: 14 votes
The Blackbird Strikes Back! by DBoyWheeler: 1 vote

Congrats Fitz, a clear win!!

Adeel · Fri 18/10/2013 21:19:47

Congratulations, Fitz. A very well deserved win

! All the best for your future games.

DBoyWheeler · Fri 18/10/2013 22:17:38

Congrats, Fitz!

Adeel · Fri 18/10/2013 22:46:59

You did great for your first game, DBoy.

Have you considered entering for this month's contest? You wouldn't have to worry much about drawing.

Spoiler

Yes, a form of advertisement. Oh God, we need entries!

[close]

Sephiroth · Fri 18/10/2013 23:26:48

Congrats Fitz!
Also Congratulations for your first game DBoy!

Fitz · Sat 19/10/2013 08:16:11

Thanks everyone

And congrats to DBoy, too, for making his first game on such short notice -- on his own, no less! It's too bad Cleanic's ant game didn't get finished

I'm already looking for a theme for next month

I think I got one, and it should be fun -- but I'll take my time with it, and maybe something else will pop up. Plus, I need to go through the previous MAGS list to avoid repetition.

dactylopus · Sat 19/10/2013 13:14:54

Congratulations Fitz! What a creative entry. It was certainly an interesting experience.

Also, well done DBoyWheeler! Happy to see you participating and creating a game! I hope to see more from you in the future!